How long ago was that? Here’s a look at notable headlines from the Dayton Daily News the last time the Bengals won a playoff game.
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The Great Miami River at its highest level in 27 years
In Cincinnati, the Ohio River reached an 11-year high when it crested Thursday at 57 feet, 5 feet above flood stage. Floodgates were closed in time to protect Riverfront Stadium before the playoff game.
Heavy rains also flooded the floor at UD Arena, where crews removed the $50,000 hardwood basketball floor. They frantically tried to dry the arena before a nationally televised game with DePaul on Jan. 3.
The game happened, and UD lost 81-73.
UD graduate Dan Patrick, the ESPN broadcaster best known for SportsCenter at that time, was at the game doing play-by-play for the ESPN broadcast.
“I always stop at Milano’s” when in town, he told the DDN reporter at the game.
Coming closure of the Dayton Arcade
Multiple stories and letters to the editor in the Dayton Daily News covered the coming closure of the Dayton Arcade.
Danis Properties Co. acquired the Arcade and said it would close Jan. 31.
A DDN columnist visited the Arcade Square to talk to people about what would be lost.
He wrote of John Grady, who six mornings a week, no matter the weather, rode an RTA bus the 30 blocks from his Dayton home to Arcade Square.
”I usually get here between 6:30 and 7 and spend the next couple of hours drinking coffee, shooting the bull, watching the pretty ladies pass by,” he said.
News about possible baseball stadium coming to Dayton
Dayton City Commissioner Tony Capizzi said on Jan. 7 for a front-page story that he planned to announce within the next several weeks whether he would pursue a new tax for the estimated $12 million needed to construct a baseball stadium.
Later, that would become a reality when the downtown stadium and Dayton Dragons baseball team reinvigorated downtown beginning in 2000.
New innovation at Hara Arena home show: Gutter guards
Among the new exhibits at The 1991 Premier Home Improvement Farm and Garden Show at Hara Arena was a gutter cover. ABC Seamless of Dayton, which sold them, set up an 8-by-12 doll house in its display area and shot water across its roof to show the effects.
Old Frigidaire plant destroyed by fire
From the community column by Dale Huffman on Jan. 7:
“Do you remember the old Frigidaire assembly plant along North Keowee Street at Ottawa Street across the river from downtown? Thousands of Dayton-area residents paid the rent by working at the site for many years. Well, much of the complex was destroyed in a spectacular fire last Monday. The building had been vacant for about a year, and firefighters say the blaze probably was started accidentally by a homeless person trying to escape the cold.”
Dayton Dynamo blown out
The long-ago indoor soccer team lost 18-4 to the Illinois Thunder on Jan. 6 to finish one of the worst road trips in franchise history.
Bus driver leads 7 from burning bus in Dayton
Mildred Turner was celebrated as a hero after evacuating her seven mentally disabled passengers from the bus on Jan. 4 after it burst into flames.
Turner, a driver for the Montgomery County Board of Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, was driving along Hazelton Avenue about 2:30 p.m. when she smelled smoke and pulled over to the roadside.
She saw flames under the dashboard and led the young adults off the bus in less than two minutes.
Nutter Center shows announced
INXS announced plans for a Nutter Center concert early in the year. Other shows coming to the Nutter Center early in 1991 included The Beach Boys, Paul Simon, Poison and Warrant. Tickets for the INXS were $20.75.
First baby of 1991 born at St. Elizabeth Medical Center
Keshia Toni Nichole Clark was born at 3:35 a.m. on Jan. 1 to Tina Jackson and Jack Clark.
Jackson said there was another woman who appeared ready to give birth at St. Elizabeth at the same time, which gave rise to speculation among the nurses.
”Everybody was joking that we were in a race,” she said. “I won.”
Downtown clothing store in danger of closing
Walkers was a men’s and women’s clothing store that operated since the 1920s at 135 N. Main St. In the first week of January, its district manager said it would likely not renew its lease at the end of the month.
The downtown store was founded in 1927 by two brothers, Carl and Fred Walker. The company later opened stores in other Ohio cities.
Local service members in Operation Desert Shield
The Dayton Daily News published its latest list of addresses Miami Valley service personnel serving in Operation Desert Shield on Jan. 6 encouraging people in the community to write to them.
Stump’s Markets sold
Dayton’s six Stump’s Markets were sold early in 1991, giving the chain a new owner for the second time in two months. The first Stump’s store opened at West Third Street and Infirmary Road in the 1920s.
2 area restaurants given 4 stars
Both l’Auberge and the King Cole retained their four-star ratings in the 1991 Mobil Travel Guides, which were announced on Jan. 8. They were the only four-star restaurants in the state, though Cincinnati has the five-star Maisonette.
l’Auberge was located at 4120 Far Hills Ave. and closed in 2012, and King Cole was in Kettering Tower in downtown Dayton until its closure in 1998.
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