THUNDER BAY – For many people, the news that John Lennon had been gunned down outside his New York apartment building on December 8th 1980, came from an unlikely source. ABC Monday Night Football commentator Howard Cosell.
At around 10:50PM EST on December 8th 1980, as John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were returning to their New York apartment in the Dakota, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:00PM EST.
“Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which in duty bound, we have to take,” said Cosell, the Monday Night Football commentator.
John Lennon has grown in statute over the years. His song Imagine has taken on new and increasing popular status as an anthem for world peace.
John Lennon was one of the original members of the British rock group The Beatles. Just before his assassination, Lennon had released a new solo album Double Fantasy and was seen by many to be on the musical comeback trail.
Today, thirty-five years later all we can do is to imagine what might have happened had Lennon not been murdered.
