Anyone who knows Charlie Russo knows how big of a sports fan he is. A graduate of Benedictine Military Academy in Savannah, he is always there to support. He also became a huge Notre Dame sports fan through a relationship he created with former Notre Dame head football coach Gerry Faust. What Charlie never thought in a thousand lifetimes is how he’d be a part of history on the night Hank Aaron hit home run number 715 40 years ago this week. April 8th, 1974.
“I was there to video what I saw.” Charlie says. “I had this old little camera and still have all of the footage I shot.” The story he tells was walking around gathering shots of everything going on at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium. He made his way down to a special box of Mr. Aaron’s guests. One of them included Sammy Davis Junior. A friend of Hank Aaron’s. Mr. Davis has famously offered $25,000 to the person who caught Hank Aaron’s home run ball should he hit it that night. The plan was to give the ball to Aaron.
At the time of the home run, the stadium went crazy. Some of us have seen the video. People even ran on to the field to congratulate him as he rounded the bases. Sports fans know the scene all too well. “When everyone went on to the field.” Charlie says “I just started walking with the group from box seats where Aaron’s guests were.” The plan wasn’t to sneak on to the field, instead Charlie went with the flow and found himself on the field during one of the biggest night in sports history at the time.
“Sammy Davis Junior didn’t look to happy.” Charlie tells me. “I was video taping everything. But no audio.” “I asked him why he wasn’t more excited and he said ‘I just lost $25,000 dollars.'” I guess there is a big gap between offering $25,000 and actually having to do it. That was quite a bit of money back then. Clearly it is today as well.
They walks around the field, showering Mr. Aaron with love. Charlie found himself on the pitchers mound. “I grabbed the rosin bag and put it in my pocket.” That was certainly a piece of history.
He gut lucky in that some of the photos snapped that night captured him. He wasn’t looking to be photographed. It just happened. One of them sits on a frame on a shelf with other sports memoribilia at Russo’s Seafood in Savannah. He’d be glad to talk about it, fill in some blanks on the story if you ever pop in for a visit. Just ask for Charlie.
See you on TV,
Jesse
