This day in history: Spokane City Council’s nighttime meetings were a hit. John Stockton’s grandpa considered pro football offer

From 1975: The Spokane City Council’s nighttime meeting experiment proved a success, so the council voted unanimously to continue nighttime sessions at least until Nov. 4, 1975.

Council meetings had previously been held Mondays at 3:30 p.m., with 2 p.m. briefing sessions also open to the public. A citizens group had argued that afternoon meetings made it difficult for working people to attend.

The council had agreed to try nighttime sessions during the summer, and attendance indeed improved. More attendees, however, raised the possibility of a new problem – interminable “question-answer sessions” with the public lasting well into the night.

Mayor David Rodgers said that such sessions had sometimes stretched far too long.

“One man appeared 26 times, another 15 times – always the same people, speaking on God knows what,” Rodgers said. “Essentially, we would be providing a soap box so we could sit here like seven owls.”

The leader of the citizens group proposed that the problem be solved by specifying that question-answer sessions be limited to one hour at the most, and limited to matters pertaining to city business.

From 1925: Houston Stockton, former star halfback for Gonzaga University, received offers to play with the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets, “one of the leading professional football teams of the East.”

Stockton said he was undecided about whether to accept the offer, but several of his friends assured the Spokane Chronicle that Stockton would join the team.

Houston Stockton would not be the only Stockton from Spokane to attain sports stardom. Houston was the grandfather of John Stockton, NBA superstar.