1969 – Joe Namath famously guarantees at a banquet that his underdog New York Jets will defeat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. In one of the biggest upsets in sports history, the Jets go on to top the Colts, 16-7.
1921 – At the very first meeting of what was to be the National Football League, Chicago Bears owner and coach George Halas takes to the podium and guarantees that the league will teeter on the verge of insolvency over the next decade, due to greater interest in the college game.
1964 – After a concert at the Cavern in Liverpool, John Lennon tells the crowd, “Within two years, we’ll be bigger than Jesus. You can take that to the bank.”
1982 – In an interview with People magazine, Diff’rent Strokes star Conrad Baines admits he foresees half of the Drummond family either dead or in jail within fifteen years.
1862 – Abraham Lincoln mistakenly predicts the invention of “flying carriages” by 1865, which were to be used in combat by the North. Later that day, Lincoln accurately guaranteed his own assassination, although he guessed the wrong Booth brother.
1973 – Director George Lucas tells an entertainment magazine that he foresees a day when he will produce the most financially successful and popular film series in history, and then proceed to ruin the films’ legacy until everybody hates them and him.
1996 – At halftime of Super Bowl XXX, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Neil O’Donnell guarantees to his teammates that he will lead the other team, the Dallas Cowboys, to victory.
1966 – Actor Bill Bixby brashly and correctly guarantees to his girlfriend that he will hold leading roles in three major television series.
2002 – Television psychic John Edward accurately guarantees that his rival’s TV series, Beyond with James Van Praagh, will be canceled before the end of the season. To this day it remains Edward’s only correct premonition.
1932 – Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees predicts two home runs to a dying child, calls his own shot in the World Series, anticipates making more money than the President, and warns teammate Lou Gehrig that “somehow, some way, that games-played streak of yours is gonna end—and I’ll dance on your grave.” ab