WEBVTT - Accidental MVP 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.440 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.159 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.800 Coach Bible studied the crowd as his players emerged from 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.960 the locker room. A sea of students in maroon and 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.320 white erupted into wild applause. Their cheers could easily be 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.400 heard across the field. He chewed his lip and wiped 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.000 at his forehead with a damn towwel. It wasn't the 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.279 Texas sun or even the bright stadium lights that were 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.880 making him sweat. No, it was the Center College players, 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:06.280 more specifically their offensive line. The nineteen twenty two Dixie Classic, 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.440 what would become known as the Cotton Bowl college football game, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.880 was won for the books. Kentucky's Center College was undefeated. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.520 Texas A and M. Bible's team, Eh, not so much. 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.679 But what the team lacked in athletic prowess, they more 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.360 than made up for in enthusiasm. Coach Bible held his 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.959 breath while his players lined up on the field for 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.360 the kickoff. A referee blew the starting whistle, and two 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.600 dozen athletes rushed towards one another with all their might. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.760 At first, things seemed to be going Bible's way. A 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.280 and M received and returned the kickoff for forty five yards, 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.440 which brought the team an early advantage that they weren't 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.280 keen to lose. On the next play, A and M's 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:50.520 running back and team captain Heinee Weir silently communicated his 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.000 plan as an aside in reference to his name. I 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.440 feel like heine should have been a tight end rather 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:01.120 than a running back. No ifs ands or butts about it. Yeah, anyway. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.440 When the next whistle sounded, heine Weir dashed the thirty 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.080 yard line. Every eye in the crowd watched A and 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.120 M's quarterback throw the ball in a perfect arc that 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.440 headed straight for Weir's waiting arms and slipped through his fingers. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.760 Weir had been brutally tackled to the ground, and by 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.720 the look of him, he wouldn't be getting back up 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.360 anytime soon. From there, things fell apart fast. By halftime, 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.840 they were a sorry looking bunch. A and M's team 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.840 was down four defensive players, a punter, and their captain. 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.760 It would be enough to discourage any coach, and unfortunately 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.359 for Bible, it was also enough to force a forfeit. 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.280 You see, the rules of college football at that time 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.400 dictated that a team have a certain amount of reserve 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.440 players on the bench to substitute in case of an injury. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.920 Most of Bible's reserve players were already on the field, 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.920 and the injured athletes wouldn't be playing anytime soon. It 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.920 was the most important game of their season, and A 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.880 and M was staring down the threat of disqualification. Luckily, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.880 coach Bible was a man who believed desperate times called 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.600 for desperate measures, and so he turned to the stands. 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.400 In the press box, a student named e King Gil 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.280 was helping reporters identify players from the field when he 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.280 saw coach Bible waving him down. Gil, a sophomore basketball 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.680 player who was studying medicine, was very confused. He and 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.680 the coach were by no means close. In fact, Gil 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.360 had tried out for the team and been assigned to 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.520 the bench for a few weeks, and then he moved 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:32.840 on to basketball. A few weeks later, a sport that 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.040 he was much better suited for. So why, in the 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.680 middle of the biggest game of their season was Coach 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.000 Bible asking for him. We're in a bad spot, gil, 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.920 Bible explained, we have no one left. I need another player. 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.160 Gill looked toward the center college players, terrifying in strength 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.120 and already smiling victoriously. He didn't like where this was going. 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.760 Coach Bible went on to explain that the team was 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.760 all out of extra uniforms, as if that weren't enough, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.360 though locker rooms were closed until the end of the game. Instead, 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.640 Captain Weir was waiting under the stadium bleachers to give 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.680 Gil his sweaty, blood soaked uniform and take Gil's civilian 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.880 clothes until the end of the game. Coach Bible put 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.240 a hand on Gil's shoulder and looked him straight in 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.200 the eye. This is still your team, and right now 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.000 your team needs you. Pride flared in Gill's chest, and 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.480 he agreed. He emerged moments later to wild cheers from 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.520 the student section and a very appreciative football team. Gil 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.680 never did get called onto the field that day, though, 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.640 Instead he stood on the sideline ready to step in 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.239 at a moment's notice to play, to bleed and maybe 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.640 even lose for a team that he'd walked away from 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.000 weeks before. He was the last line of defense against 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:50.039 Center College and against Forfeit. Today, Texas A and M 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.080 celebrates Gill's legacy in their own special way. Nearly everyone 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.800 in the student section bears the number twelve on their 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.919 person in some form, be it a necklace, attack, temporary tattoo, 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.800 a baseball cap, or the more traditional jersey, and during 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.680 football season, the entire student section stands for the duration 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.800 of every game. The act sends a clear message at 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.200 Texas A and M. The bench doesn't end at the sidelines, 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:34.039 it starts in the front row. Some events in history 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.960 seem predetermined. One small event leads to another, snowballing until 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.600 major fallout occurs. It would take a genius to spot 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:44.880 all the small things that led to the big ones 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.680 and change the course of history before it happens. Zar 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.960 Nicholas the Second of Russia must have felt this acutely. 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.440 His entire reign was a series of unfortunate events that 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.640 led to his demise, and it began on his coronation 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.800 day with a free give way gone horribly wrong. In 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.559 eighteen ninety six, Nicholas inherited a Russia on the brink 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:10.640 of class warfare. For centuries, the country had failed to modernize. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.800 Along with the rest of Europe. Thirty eight percent of 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.320 the country still lived as serfs, indentured workers with no 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.000 more rights than an enslaved person. While Nicholas worked to 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.520 abolish serfdom, it was often seen as too little, too late. 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.360 The impoverished serfs flocked to the cities where the industrial 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.839 revolution awaited them. They met with terrible conditions, operating dangerous 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.920 machinery that often maimed or killed them. So that's one 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.400 historical movement that was already working against the czar. He 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:43.800 attempted to show the serfs a sign of goodwill by 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.400 presenting them with gifts at the festivities on his coronation day. 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:54.120 Tents were set up with small crates filled with pretzels, beer, bread, sausage, gingerbread, nuts, 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.400 and sweets. These gift packages also included an enameled cup 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.919 with the crown and coat of arms detailed on it. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.600 The tents were set up in a field that was 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.279 typically used for training exercises by the military. It was 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.600 filled with holes and ditches from these exercises. Furthermore, when 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.280 people started to line up for their gifts, it soon 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.040 became clear that there were far more people than expected. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.080 They had expected about two hundred thousand people. Instead, there 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.480 were half a million. Rumors rippled across the crowd that 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.600 the gifts had been poorly planned. There couldn't possibly be 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.720 enough for everyone in the crowd. People began to push 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.040 their way to the front, trying to make sure that 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.040 they got their gift. On top of that, there were 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.120 only eighteen hundred guards to try and corral half a 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.480 million people. This wasn't going to end well. There's actually 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.440 a science to how crowd crushes work. When that many 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.280 people begin pushing on one another, the force effectively combines 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.000 them into one large muscle that becomes impossible for anyone 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.440 to resist. The force of the crush sent thousands toppling 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.320 into the holes and ditches in the field. They fell 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.600 on top of one another, suffocating. Eventually, though, the crush 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.600 dissipated and most people were able to flee to safety, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.040 but somewhere between thirteen hundred and two thousand people were killed. 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.840 The onlooking French ambassador felt that poor planning and a 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.800 lack of medical facilities were to blame for the deaths. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.120 Nicholas arrived on the scene well after the bodies had 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.000 been cleared away, and to him it didn't seem like 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:27.160 such a big deal. Meanwhile, France and Russia had recently 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.200 joined in a new alliance, and Nicholas had to ensure 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.880 that the French knew that it was genuine. The French 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.800 had planned a massive ball for that evening to celebrate 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.280 his coronation. His brother in law and even a visiting 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.480 Chinese ambassador all commented that it was not a good 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.880 idea to attend after the tragedy, but Nicholas felt that 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.960 he had no choice unless he wanted to risk the alliance. 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:54.280 So that's a second historical movement that was working against him. 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:56.560 The sight of the Czar at the ball that night, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.600 smiling and dancing with all his rich friends in curiated 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:05.439 the public. The newspapers called him Bloody Nicholas. Author Leo Tolstoy, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.200 maybe the most renowned figure in Russian history, wrote a 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.080 short story about the horrors of the tragedy. Nicholas visited 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.320 the surviving victims in the hospital and donated money and 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.000 further gifts to each of the families of the victims, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.800 but further disorganization meant that it took weeks to sort 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.360 through all of the bodies and return them to their 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.760 loved ones, to the serfs. It was all very emblematic 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.679 of how little the nobles actually cared about them. By 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.800 nineteen oh three, the country's labor party grew into the 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:40.280 Bolshevik faction that would eventually rebel in nineteen seventeen, a 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.559 third and final movement that spelled doom for the czar. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.200 A year later, the Bolsheviks killed Nicholas and his entire family. 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.600 They say that hindsight is twenty twenty. Looking back, Nicholas 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:54.680 might have wished that he had planned that giveaway a 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.600 little better, or perhaps not gone to the party after 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.160 the tragedy, or maybe done more to stuf serfdom itself 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.560 and curb the exploitation of the Industrial Revolution. It's a 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.080 curious thing to imagine, but he might have been doomed 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.600 either way. Losing his alliance with the French or angering 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.160 the rest of the nobility by completely abolishing serfdom might 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.760 also have gotten him killed. Ultimately, he'll be remembered as 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.360 the indifferent monarch who barely noticed when thousands of peasants 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.080 died at his own party, the cups that were meant 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:29.280 as gifts became known as the Cups of Sorrows. Curiously, 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.080 many of those cups are still around today, and you 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.680 can buy one online for about a thousand dollars funds 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:39.800 that might buy you a lot of beer and pretzels. 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.880 I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.600 of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.240 in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.600 Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:58.679 more about the show and the people who make it 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.400 over at Grim and Slash Curiosities. You'll also find a 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.079 link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.520 in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.079 And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.400 joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.600 the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.840 sign up over at patreon dot com, Slash, Grimandmild, and 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.560 until next time, stay curious.