The year was 1976.

Gerald Ford was President.

The country was celebrating its Bicentennial.

January 11 – The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Soviet Red Army team at the Spectrum. When the Flyers Ed Van Impe knocked Soviet star Valeri Kharmalov senseless with a vicious body check – and no penalty was called – Red Army coach Konstantin Loktev pulled his team off the ice in protest.

That’s when Flyers boss Ed Snider told Loktev – no play, no pay.

The Soviets returned to the ice and finished the game – which the Flyers won 4-1.

January 18 – On the strength of a fourth-quarter safety, two Roy Gerela field goals, and a 64-yard TD pass from Terry Bradshaw to Lynn Swann, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

March 17 – Boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was arrested in New Jersey and charged with murder. Carter spent almost 20 years in prison after being wrong-fully convicted. Denzel Washington starred in the 1999 film The Hurricane dramatizing Carter’s plight.

March 20 – Billionaire heiress Patty Hearst was convicted of bank robbery in San Francisco. Hearst had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, brainwashed, and convinced to participate in illegal activities.

March 31 – In a landmark decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the comatose Karen Ann Quinlan could be disconnected from life support and allowed to die.

April 1 – The U.S. Government formed Conrail.

April 1 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple.

April 13 – The U.S. Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill.

April 25 – Rick Monday made the greatest play in baseball history.

The Chicago Cubs were starting a three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium, and Rick Monday was starting in center field for the Cubs.

Rick Monday was a local kid – born and raised in Santa Monica – and he was playing in front of dozens on friends and family members. When he was taking the field for the Dodgers half of the fourth inning, Rick Monday came face-to-face with a life-altering incident when two young men ran onto the field. This is how he later described the situation:

“In between the top and bottom of the fourth inning, I was just getting loose in the outfield, throwing the ball back and forth. Jose Cardenal was in left field and I was in center. I don’t know if I heard the crowd first or saw the guys first, but two people ran on the field. After a number of years of playing, when someone comes on the field, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Is it because they had too much to drink? Is it because they’re trying to win a bet? Is it because they don’t like you? Or do they have a message that they’re trying to present?

When these two guys ran on the field, something wasn’t right. And it wasn’t right from the standpoint that one of them had something cradled under his arm. It turned out to be an American flag. They came from the left-field corner, went past Cardenal to shallow left-center field.

That’s when I saw the flag. They unfurled it as if it was a picnic blanket. They knelt beside it, not to pay homage, but to harm it as one of the guys was pulling out of his pocket somewhere a big can of lighter fluid. He began to douse it.

What they were doing was wrong then, in 1976. In my mind, it’s wrong now, in 2006. It’s the way I was raised. My thoughts were reinforced with my six years in the Marine Corp Reserves. It was also reinforced by a lot of friends who lost their lives protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented.

So I started to run after them. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what was running through my mind except I was mad, I was angry, and it was wrong for a lot of reasons.

Then the wind blew the first match out. There was hardly ever any wind at Dodger Stadium. The second match was lit just as I got there. I did think that if I could bowl them over, they can’t do what they’re trying to do.

I saw them go and put the match down to the flag. It’s soaked in lighter fluid at this time. Well, they can’t light it if they don’t have it. So I just scooped it up.

My first thought was, ‘Is this on fire?’ Well, fortunately, it was not. I continue to run. One of the men threw the can of lighter fluid at me. We found out he was not a prospect. He did not have a good arm. Thank goodness.

Tommy Lasorda was in his last year as third-base coach before he took over for Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston. Tommy ran past me and called these guys every name in the longshoreman’s encyclopedia.”

And this is how Tommy Lasorda described it:

“A lot of people don’t know this, but he beat me to the flag.

I saw Rick start running over from center field to left. I didn’t know what it was, but as soon as I saw him start, I took off and I ran out there, and of course, by that time, Rick had picked up the flag and continued running. When I got there, I see these two guys and I told them, ‘Why don’t one of you guys take a swing at me?’

Because there were 50-something thousand people in the ballpark and I only wanted them to swing at me, so I could defend myself and do a job on them.”

Cable TV was in its infancy in 1976 and the Dodgers didn’t televise many home games. Fortunatley, someone recorded the incident on a super-8 camera.

In a spontanoeus dispaly of patriotism, the fans in Dodgers Stadium burst into “God Bless America” right after security escorted the troublemakers out of the stadium.

Barry Bowe is the author of Born to Be Wild, 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant, and 12 Best Eagles QBs.