Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 12, according to the Tribune’s archives.
Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.
Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
- High temperature: 97 degrees (1995)
- Low temperature: 53 degrees (1999)
- Precipitation: 6.16 inches (1957)
- Snowfall: Trace (2017)
Even before the trouble between games occurred on Disco Demolition Night, Comiskey Park was having a tough time accommodating the overflow crowd on July 12, 1979. (Ed Wagner Jr./Chicago Tribune)
1979: What was supposed to be a doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers at Comiskey Park turned into a debacle. The Sox lost the first game 4-1 but never got to the nightcap.
Up to 50,000 people — admitted for just 98 cents and a disco record — showed up for a promotion in which radio personality Steve Dahl took to the field between games to blast thousands of dance-themed discs into oblivion.
Disco Demolition Night was the brainchild of WLUP’s Steve Dahl, who had been fired from radio station WDAI-FM when the station switched to an all-disco format. Dahl had staged previous anti-disco rallies, but nothing compared to the stunt at Comiskey Park. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
Nancy Faust, the White Sox’s organist for 41 seasons, remembers: “I was playing ‘Disco Sucks’ along with people chanting it until it turned unruly. I was to play ‘Do You Think I’m Disco’ for Steve Dahl and he just started singing it without the intro or anything. So then I just fell into place with him. I remember Bill (Veeck) pleading with the fans and how pathetic that was.
“I realized this was kind of serious when I remember looking across the field and seeing flames in the stands. So I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is serious.’ But, I mean, I don’t think I realized the full impact until I watched the videos more recently of it.”
Shortly after the detonation, Dahl’s fans flooded the field. Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan was one of them.
Chicago police disperse a crowd in center field of the White Sox ballpark after hundreds of disco records were blown up between games of a doubleheader between the Sox and the Detroit Tigers on July 12, 1979. Some 7,000 fans of a 50,000-fan crowd jammed the field during an anti-Disco promotion sponsored by a local radio station. The second game had to be called when umpires ruled the field unfit for play. (Fred Jewell/AP)
“It was crazy running around on a Major League Baseball field, sliding into the bases and standing on the pitcher’s mound,” he said. “I grew up going to games at old Comiskey and never dreamed I’d ever be on the field.
“Some guy pretended he was an umpire at home plate, calling people safe and out as they slid home one after another. Everyone just looked at each other like, ‘Can you believe this is happening?’
The evening got off to a bad start when 15,000 too many fans showed up at Comiskey Park and were unable to buy tickets on July 12, 1979. Police beefed up their patrol outside the park to 100 but chaos reigned inside as fans roamed the field at will, carrying anti-disco placards and chanting. (Ed Wagner Jr./Chicago Tribune)
“Most of us were just running around, but someone managed to drag a batting cage out from center field and lit it on fire. People were jumping over the fire, which was fairly big. It’s amazing no one got burned.
Disco Demolition at 40: 2 views of an explosive promotion that caught fire at Comiskey Park in 1979
“Harry Caray and the owner, Bill Veeck, got on the public address system and tried to coax us to go back to our seats, and I seem to recall them trying to get everyone to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’ But nothing was going to work.
“It wasn’t the kind of crowd that would take orders from Harry Caray.
“It was actually starting to die out when all of a sudden dozens of cops came in on horseback, making a gauntlet and marching out toward the outfield. I was well aware of the ’68 convention riot, so that’s when I decided to get off the field.
The scoreboard message at Comiskey Park goes unheeded as thousands of spectators engulf the field during an anti-disco demonstration that caused the second game of a doubleheader to be called off. Detroit won the opener 4-1. (Hank George/UPI)
“I did grab a chunk of turf before I left. I’ve apologized profusely to Roger Bossard, the Sodfather, for that ever since. We completely tore apart his field, which caused the forfeiture of the second game.”
Ninety minutes, 39 arrests for disorderly conduct and a half-dozen injuries later, the second game was called off. It was ruled a forfeit by the American League on Friday the 13th.
Sox owner Bill Veeck didn’t agree with the ruling, which was the first forfeit in the league in five years.
“This was a regrettable incident, but not sufficient grounds for forfeit,” he told reporters. “But we won’t go out of business because of it. It seems to me a Chicago paper ran a headline sayin’ Dewey defeated Truman some years ago. Did they go out of business?”
On July 13, 1979, workmen replace sod at Comiskey Park that was damaged by the previous day’s Disco Demolition promotion. They also had to clear the field of debris — broken disco records — and repair the infield. (Carl Hugare/Chicago Tribune)
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