Monday, January 2, 1922. Soviet Communists Document Their Murderous Regime, Well Wishers Visit the White House, First Black Quarterback At The Rose Bowl, Ronnie the Bren Girl Born.

The Communist government of Russia (it was not yet the Soviet Union), published data that 1,766,118 people had been executed since the October Revolution.

This in the charming "real" Communist regime of Vladimir Lenin, not Stalin.

Added to that, of course, would be starvation victims and casualties of the Civil War.

In the United States, the President received well-wishers.

This was a longstanding tradition. The White House received official visitors but then also received whoever lined up to greet the President, emphasizing that the country was a republic.

The fact that this is now unthinkable speaks very poorly of us and how things have developed.

The participating included many notables, as for example Prince and Princess Rabesco, about whom I know nothing.

Admiral Balfour was one of the visitors that  year.

And officials of the US Government were expected to put in an appearance.

The 1922 Rose Bowl was played at Tournament Park, the last one to be played at that location.  UC Berkeley played Washington & Jefferson College in a game that had no scores and ended in a tie, the only one to have ever ended with no score and in a tie.

Charlie West was the quarterback for Washington & Jefferson, the first black quarterback to play in the came.

Football was mostly a college sport at that time, and it interestingly integrated well in advance of baseball.  West, in fact, was signed to play professional football in 1924, but decided to go to Harvard Medical School instead, and he became a physician. 

He was also an Olympic quality athlete, but injuries precluded his participating in the 1924 Olympics in the track and field category.

The Dixie Classic was played on the same day.

Why on a Monday? 

Well, January 1 was on a Sunday, which was very seriously observed. 

The fact that we don't observe it as much, and in that fashion, also speaks poorly of us today.

Veronica Foster, Canada's' answer to Rosie the Riveter in the form of Ronnie the Bren Girl, was born.  After the war, she'd go on to be a professional singer.