We have all seen football players running the
wrong way on the field, and some announcer will refer to the
unfortunate player as Wrong Way Corrigan.
The original ‘Wrong Way’ was not a football player; he was Douglas
Corrigan, unemployed airplane mechanic. It was on a foggy day
in 1938, that Douglas left Floyd Bennett Field in New York, supposedly
headed for Los Angeles. He landed his monoplane
about 28 hours later in Ireland at Dublin’s
Baldonnel Field. He had originally been denied a flight plan to
Ireland and some think he did it on purpose, because he was of Irish
descent.
Corrigan made the 3,150-mile flight without benefit of a radio or
navigational equipment other than a compass. His explanation for the
monumental mistake was that he was following the wrong end of the
compass needle.
He was welcomed home as a hero with a ticker tape parade and known became Wrong Way Corrigan.