1973

1973 was the 102nd year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• Hugh Daniel provided funds for an endowed directorship of the Birmingham Museum of Art.
• The Alabama Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society was founded.
• The Alabama Symphony Orchestra took up residence in the new BJCC Concert Hall.
• The Birmingham Festival of Arts organized a Salute to France.
• The downtown section of Morris Avenue became the first site in Birmingham to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• The AEC Recycling Center opened downtown.
• William Christenberry toured Hale County with his mentor, Walker Evans.
• Child Mental Health Services (now Glenwood) was founded.
• William Hoover donated the property for Star Lake Park.
• April 19: The Lyric Theatre reopened as the Grand Bijou with a screening of "The Jazz Singer".
• May 27: A deadly tornado leveled Brent in Bibb County.
• July 13: Five crewmen were killed when a Birmingham Southern Railroad train derailed between Birmingport and Fairfield.
• The former St Clement's Church in Woodlawn absorbed St Bernadette Church and was renamed St John Bosco Catholic Church.
• November: Laura Knox founded the Alabama Dance Council.
• December: Christmas lighting was reduced due to the energy crisis.

Government

• September 26: The Birmingham Park & Recreation Board placed a ban on staging concerts at Rickwood Field due to complaints from nearby residents.
• The Alabama Army Ammunition Plant was declared excess property by the U.S. Army.
• The first implementation of what became the Birmingham Community Participation Program was tested by Operation New Birmingham in North Birmingham.
• The Birmingham Fire Department added paramedic services.
• The present Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority was established by the Alabama legislature.
• The Midfield Post Office was established.
• Bettye Fine Collins was appointed to the Birmingham Board of Zoning Adjustments.
• The Jefferson County Department of Health began enforcing the Clean Air Act.
• Liston Corcoran, Nina Miglionico, Arthur Shores and E. C. Overton won seats in the 1973 Birmingham City Council election. U. W. Clemon ran unsuccessfully.

Business

• September 22: Leo and Susie Headrick purchased Green Top Bar-B-Q.
• Dugan's opened in the Shepherd-Sloss Building at 2011 Highland Avenue.
• Frank P. Samford, Jr was named Chairman of Liberty National Life Insurance Company.
• The first franchised location of Golden Rule Bar-B-Q opened at 1571 Montgomery Highway in Hoover.
• Trilogy Leather opened in its present location in Edgewood.
• Richard Gilliam succeeded Paul Woolley as head football coach at Montevallo High School.
• Central Bancshares of the South offered new stock to enable statewide expansion.
• Ron Casey joined the reporting staff at the Birmingham News.
• Jimmy Graphos joined his brothers in the Sneaky Pete's chain of hot dog stands.
• Ted and Litsa Sarris opened Ted's Restaurant.
• Tom Jernigan founded Quick Marts.
• The Lyric Theatre was re-opened as the Grand Bijou, showing classic films.
• Billy and Mary Jo McMichael re-opened the Irondale Cafe after buying it from Bess Fortenberry.
• Angry Revolt head shops opened in Woodlawn and Midfield.
• J. Frank Knox's Knox Portrait Studio closed.
• The Alabama Business Hall of Fame was established.
• G. E. S. in West End closed.
• Wyatt Haskell and Bill Slaughter founded the Haskell Slaughter law firm.

Government

• 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Avenue North, 3rd and 4th Avenue South, and 17th, 18th Street North were converted from two-way to one-way traffic by the Alabama Department of Transportation under its TOPICS (Traffic Operations Program to Increase Capacity and Safety) program.

Education

• Samford University took over administration of the Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing from Baptist Medical Center.
• Bessemer State Technical Institute became a college.
• Wenonah High School was annexed into Birmingham City Schools from Jefferson County.
• May: Western-Olin High School was renamed for retiring principal Pierre Jackson.
• October 1: Wenonah Vocational and Trade School merged into Lawson State Junior College.

Sports

• The Alabama Crimson Tide was named National Champion in the coaches poll after an 11-0 season, but before a loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
• Banks High School won a second consecutive 4A football championship under Coach Shorty White.
• Holy Family Cristo Rey High School won the 2A boy's basketball state championship.
• Marvin Warner joined with majority partner George Steinbrenner to purchase the New York Yankees.
• Bobby Allison finished third at the National 500 in Charlotte, North Carolina in a result marred by controversy over engine size.
• David Pearson won the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway following a 20-car crash.
• Steve Sloan became head coach and hired Watson Brown as an assistant at Vanderbilt University.
• Vida Blue won 20 games pitching for the Oakland Athletics.
• Otis Thornton appeared in 2 games for the Houston Astros.
• Doug Barfield was hired as offensive coordinator for the Auburn Tigers football team.
• Cliff Hare Stadium in Auburn was renamed to honor coach Shug Jordan.
• The Auburn Tigers finished the football season 6-6 with a Sun Bowl loss to Missouri.
• Alabama won the 1973 Iron Bowl 35-0
• John Hannah was signed by the New England Patriots.
• Gene Bartow coached the Memphis State Tigers basketball team to the NCAA Championship game.
• Willie Mays broke Stan Musial's record for most All-Star nominations in the same year he announced his retirement.
• Johnny Musso rushed 1,029 yards for the British Columbia Lions in the Canadian Football League.
• Lyman Bostock, Jr played a season with the Orlando Suns.
• Samford Bulldogs football began an 11-year period of dormancy.
• Robert Higginbotham began his two-year tenure as head football coach at Mountain Brook High School.

Individuals

• James Andrews joined the orthopedic practice of Jack Hughston in Columbus, Georgia.
• Tom Bradley retired from the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service.
• Cecil Coghlan returned to UAB as a visiting professor.
• Rick Dees began hosting a morning drive program on WSGN-AM.
• Paschal English left the U. S. Air Force as a Captain.
• Allen Farley began working for the Bessemer Police Department.
• Betty Gamble joined the Birmingham Police Department
• Joseph Giattina, Jr joined Giattina Fisher Aycock.
• John Harbert III chaired the Governor's Energy Advisory Committee.
• Ruby Kile took over the radio ministry of the Powderly Faith Deliverance Center.
• Timothy Leary was arrested on a plane headed to Kabul, Afghanistan.
• Ron McGuffie joined the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
• James Pittman became dean of the UAB School of Medicine.
• Mae Rosenberger became the first woman elected to the Board of Directors of the National Luggage Retailers Association.
• Amasa Smith succeeded George Mattison, Jr as president of The Club.
• Virginia Tyler retired from directing the Ensley Community House.
• William Hoole retired from the University of Alabama.

Births

Heather Whitestone

Jay Roberson

• January 5: Charles Buchanan, artist and magazine editor
• January 23: Julie Oliver Gentry, Real World cast member
• January 28: Jason Aaron, comic book writer
• February 14: Julio Vinas, manager of the Birmingham Barons
• February 24: Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1994
• March 2: Graham Boettcher, Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art
• April 6: Garrick McGee, head football coach for the UAB Blazers
• April 13: Jason Sumners, photographer and owner of Sumners Publishing Group
• April 26: Susannah Felts, writer
• May 25: Hugo Fat, artist
• June 1: Jay Roberson, Birmingham City Council
• August 10: Supreme, radio personality
• August 16: Craig Harris, Mayor of Kimberly
• August 19: Carlos Pino, jazz guitarist
• September 6: Merika Coleman-Evans, state legislator
• September: Matt Murphy, radio talk show host
• October 29: Vonetta Flowers, Olympian
• November 9: Brett Taft, baseball player
• November 26: John Zimmerman, Olympian, figure skater
• December 7: Terrell Owens, NFL wide receiver
• A. A. Bondy, singer / songwriter
• Sherman Collins, insurance executive and property manager
• George Cowgill, bar owner and writer
• Evens Estinfort, chef and restauranteur
• Mary Gunnerson, environmental inspector for the City of Birmingham
• Lisa Pack, Jefferson County administrative assistant
• William Parker, politician
• Samantha, Birmingham Zoo lion
• Patrick Sellers, Pastor of Cathedral of Faith Baptist Church
• Evelyn Teague, dentist

Awards

• Jane Rice was Miss Alabama 1973
• Alabama Sports Hall of Fame: John Cain, Jeff Coleman, Harry Gilmer, James Sewell, Dixie Walker, and Hoyt Winslett.
• Dot Booth and Judith Taylor Rogers won purchase awards from the Bluff Park Art Association
• Donald Beatty, named OX5 Aviation Pioneers "Man of the Year"

Graduations

• Jack Bulow completed his bachelor's degree at UAB.
• Bob Dickerson completed a bachelor's degree in business at Tuskegee Institute.
• David Frings graduated from Shades Valley High School.
• John Katopodis completed a Masters in Public Administration at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government
• Lori Livingston graduated from Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire.
• Primus Mack graduated from Hueytown High School
• Jim Neel completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Alabama.
• Eduardo Neiva completed studies at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in London.
• Edward Partridge completed a bachelor of science at the University of Alabama.
• Margaret Tutwiler completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Alabama.
• Jack Wood graduated from Auburn University.
• James Woodward earned an MBA at UAB.
• Richard Yeilding completed a bachelor's degree at Birmingham-Southern College.

Deaths

Bull Connor

• January 3: Christopher Chenery, engineer and founder of Southern Natural Gas Company
• February : Stanleigh Malotte, organist at the Alabama Theatre
• March 10: Bull Connor, former Birmingham City Commissioner
• July: Newman Waters, Sr, theater executive and real estate developer
• August 17: Paul Williams, former Temptations singer
• Troy Ingram, Klan leader and bomb maker
• Frank Samford, Sr, insurance executive
• Mervyn Sterne, investment banker and philanthropist

See also: List of Birmingham homicides in 1973

Works

Books

• Plastic Tears, book of poems by Charles Ghigna
• Thirteen Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey by Kathryn Tucker Windham
• Wildflowers of Alabama and Adjoining States by Blanche Dean and Joab Thomas

Buildings

Vulcan Life building

• Avondale United Methodist Church Family Recreation Center
• Birmingham Green on 20th Street North
• Birmingham Municipal Airport terminal building
• BJCC Concert Hall
• Center Point Fire Station No. 2
• Denman Hall at UAB
• Don Drennen Motor Company
• First United Methodist Church, sanctuary renovations
• Inverness Country Club golf course
• Kahler Plaza Hotel (now Doubletree Hotel Birmingham)
• Lloyd Noland Hospital expansion
• Pleasant Grove Public Library
• Mervyn H. Sterne Library at UAB
• Nabers, Morrow & Sinnige building, renovations
• Unity of Birmingham church building on Highland Avenue
• Vulcan Life building on Valley Avenue

Films and TV

• Producer Gail Patrick tried unsuccessfully to launch a "New Perry Mason" program.
• George Lindsey provided voice work for Disney's animated Robin Hood
• Bill Bolen took over as morning anchor on WBMG 42.

Music

• The band Hotel was formed.
• Space is the Place, album by Sun Ra
• Concert for the Comet Kohoutek, album by Sun Ra
• Eddie Kendricks album by Eddie Kendricks. The single "Keep on Truckin'" reached #1 on the pop charts.
• LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams began playing music together.

Context

1973 was the year that the Miami Dolphins completed a perfect NFL season with a win over the Redskins in Super Bowl VII. Ferdinand Marcos became President of the Philippines. Richard Nixon began his second term as President. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of abortion rights in Roe v. Wade. George Foreman won the heavyweight championship from Joe Frazier. The Vietnam War ended. Comet Kahoutek was discovered. The first cellular phone call was completed. The World Trade Center twin towers opened, soon followed by Chicago's Sears Tower. Federal Express was launched. Secretariat won the Triple Crown. Skylabs 1-4 were launched. The automatic teller machine was patented. The Watergate Scandal broke. An energy crisis was triggered by an Arab oil embargo. Gerald Ford succeeded Spiro Agnew as Vice-President. The Buffalo Bills' O. J. Simpson rushed for 2,000 yards. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho shared the Nobel Peace Price.

Notable 1973 births include those of singer Sean Paul, boxer Oscar de la Hoya, gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya, quarterback Steve McNair, actress Tori Spelling, models Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks, actor Neil Patrick Harris, baseball players Nomar Garciaparra and Ichiro Suzuki, comedian Dave Chappelle, rapper Nas, animator Seth McFarlane, tennis player Monica Seles, and cyclist Jan Ullrich.

Deaths in 1973 included those of musicians Kid Ory, Gene Krupa, Bobby Darin, Jim Croce and Gram Parsons, actors Edward G. Robinson and Bruce Lee, writers Pearl Buck and J. R. R. Tolkein, artist Pablo Picasso, actress Veronica Lake, and poets Pablo Neruda and W. H. Auden.

Notable works of 1973 include William Friedkin's fim The Exorcist, Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow, Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon. Other box office hits included The Sting, American Graffiti, Papillon, The Way We Were and Magnum Force. Hit singles included "Angie" by the Rolling Stones and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'round the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando and Dawn. The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter.

1970s

<< 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 >>

Births - Deaths - Establishments - Events - Works