David Denman

David was born on a beautiful sunny July afternoon in Newport Beach, California. It was a Wednesday to be exact. A detail his mother mentioned often when recounting his birth. It took her three Wednesdays before he finally decided to come into this world. She claimed he was a stubborn baby, but when he arrived he had a full head of hair and enough fat to survive the winter that was to come. He would later characterize it as “being prepared”.

That January was a big month in sports... George Steinbrenner had bought the NY Yankees for $10 million dollars; The Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins 14–7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, to complete the NFL's first Perfect Season in front of 90,182 fans; George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship, but possibly more important was Howard Cosell’s legendary commentary from the first round "DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!" …which David would repeat endlessly for no particular reason. Later that year the New York Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, 102–93 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to win their second NBA title and that would mark their last. The Lakers would go on to win 10 more championships and bring their franchise total to 16. All of which David would proudly mention at any given moment... Usually after yelling “DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!” Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in a televised Battle of the Sexes tennis match, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3, at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, later that year she would also be crowned Wimbledon Champion. The Oakland Athletics won baseball's World Series, defeating the New York Mets 4 games to 3, while the Dodgers would end their NL regular season in second place behind the Reds. Secretariat would become the first racehorse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown and set race records in all three events of the Series—the Kentucky Derby (1:59.4), the Preakness Stakes (1:53) and the Belmont Stakes (2:24) - records that still stand today.

A few other less interesting things occurred that year… the Vietnam war ended; Roe v. Wade was overturned; Nixon declared “I’m not a crook”; The first handheld cellular phone call was made in NYC; The World Trade Center, Sears Tower, London Bridge and Sydney Opera House all opened their doors; Led Zeppelin broke the Beatles record for concert attendance with 56,800 at Tampa Stadium; And Elvis Presley performed to over one billion people in over 40 countries live via satellite with his concert “Aloha from Hawaii”. Elvis did not finish his concert by yelling “DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!” but he should have… the year was 1973.