Cheeta the Chimp

Old timers who remember Tarzan from the movies will surely remember Cheeta the chimpanzee, who starred in the Tarzan films in the early 1930s. Cheeta died of kidney failure on Christmas Eve, according to the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbour, Florida where he lived. At 80, he was the oldest non-human primate alive, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. He outlived both Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan and owned him, and Maureen O’Sullivan, who played Jane.

Record Firsts

Everyone likes to show the top ten lists from the past year, but for something different, here are top ten sports firsts from days gone by.
• The first to swim 100 meters in under a minute: Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan), July 9, 1922
• The first sprinter to break 10 seconds in the 100m: Jim Hines, 9.9 seconds, at the 1968 AAU Championships
• The first high school student to break the four-minute mile: Jim Ryun, 3:58.3, in 1965, for Wichita East High School
• The first NBA player to reach 20,000 career points: Bob Pettit, 1964
• The first baseball player to reach 3,000 career hits: Cap Anson, 1897
• The first golfer to reach $1 million in career earnings: Jack Nicklaus, 1970, after taking second place in the Bing Crosby Pro-Am
• The first woman golfer to reach $1 million in career earnings: Kathy Whitworth, 1981, after taking third place in the U.S. Women's Open
• The first million-dollar gate for a fight: 1921, Georges Carpentier vs. Jack Dempsey
• The first Indianapolis 500 winner to average more than 100 miles per hour: Peter DePaolo, 101.27 mph in 1925, in a Duesenberg Special
• The first winning Super Bowl coach to wear headphones on the sidelines: Bill Walsh, San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XVI, 1982