Today in Sports - Week Ahead, March 21 - 27
March 21
1893 — The first women’s collegiate basketball game is played at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In this game, each basket is worth 1 point and the freshman class defeats the sophomore class 5-4. The game takes place behind locked doors and men are prohibited from watching.
1941 — Joe Louis knocks out Abe Simon in the 13th round at Olympia Stadium in Detroit to retain the world heavyweight title.
1945 — George Mikan of DePaul scores 53 points in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament. Mikan matches Rhode Island in offensive output and his teammates add another 44 for a final score of 97-53.
1953 — Rookie Bob Cousy sets an NBA record with 50 points and leads the Boston Celtics to a 111-105 victory over the Syracuse Nationals in a quadruple overtime playoff game. Cousy scores 30 of his points from the foul line.
1959 — California edges West Virginia 71-70 for the NCAA basketball championship. Jerry West scores 28 points for West Virginia.
1959 — Oscar Robertson scores the first triple-double in the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four history, tallying 39 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in Cincinnati’s 98-85 win over Louisville in the third-place game.
1964 — UCLA caps a 30-0 season with a 98-83 victory over Duke in the NCAA basketball championship. UCLA is the third team to go undefeated and win the title. The victory gives coach John Wooden the first of his 10 NCAA Tournament championships.
1970 — Curtis Rowe scores 19 points and Sidney Wicks adds 17 points and grabs 18 rebounds to lead UCLA to an 80-69 victory over Jacksonville for its fourth consecutive NCAA basketball championship. Jacksonville ends the season with a scoring average of 100.4 points per game, the first team to average more than 100 points in a college basketball season.
1973 — Frank Mahovlich scores his 500th goal as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2.
1984 — Glenn Anderson of Edmonton scores his 50th goal of the season and helps the Oilers beat the Hartford Whalers 5-3. The Oilers become the first NHL team to have three 50-goal scorers in one season.
1985 — Arthur Ashe is nominated for the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
1985 — Washington’s Bobby Carpenter becomes the first U.S.-born player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season. He reaches the milestone in a 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at The Forum.
1990 — Brett Hull of St. Louis becomes the sixth player in NHL history to score 70 goals in a season with a goal in the Blues’ 8-6 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
1994 — Wayne Gretzky ties Gordie Howe’s NHL record of 801 goals.
1996 — Todd Eldredge becomes the first American in eight years to win the gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships.
2011 — Courtney Vandersloot has 29 points and 17 assists to help Gonzaga beat UCLA 89-75 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Vandersloot becomes the first player in Division I history — men or women — to record 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career.
2014 — Mercer pulls off the biggest upset in the men’s NCAA tournament by knocking off Duke 78-71 in the second round. The 14th-seeded and senior-laden Bears score 11 straight points during the late 20-5 run to clinch the biggest victory in school history.
2015 — Top-ranked Kentucky outworked eighth-seeded Cincinnati for a 64-51 victory to reach the Sweet 16 for the second straight season. The Wildcats improve to 36-0 — the best start to a season for any team.
2019 — Japanese baseball right fielder Ichiro Suzuki finishes his career with a record 4,367 base hits (NPB & MLB) as Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland A’s, 5-4 in Tokyo, Japan.
_____
March 22
1932 — The blue lines are eliminated with the center red line used to determine offsides in an experiment by the NHL. With both teams out of playoff contention, the league tries it in the New York Americans’ 8-6 victory over Boston.
1952 — The St. John’s Redmen avenge an earlier 41-point loss, beating top-ranked Kentucky 64-57 in the East Regional championship game of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament. St. John’s, led by Bob Zawoluk’s NCAA tournament record 32 points, advances to its first Final Four.
1953 — The United States beats host Chile, 49-36 to win the first FIBA World Championship for Women basketball tournament.
1958 — Vern Hatton and Johnny Cox combine for 54 points to give Kentucky an 84-72 victory over Seattle in the NCAA basketball championship.
1959 — Montreal Canadiens forward Dickie Moore sets an NHL record for most points in a season with 96. He scores a goal and an assist in a 4-2 win at New York.
1969 — Lew Alcindor scores 37 points to lead UCLA to the NCAA men’s basketball title with a 97-72 win over Purdue. Alcindor is chosen as MVP for the third straight year.
1969 — West Chester State beats Western Carolina 65-39 to win the first women’s collegiate national championship. The game is played using the six-player format.
1986 — Trevor Berbick wins a unanimous 15-round decision over Pinklon Thomas in Las Vegas for the WBC heavyweight title.
1994 — The NFL announces the addition of the 2-point conversion, the league’s first scoring change in 75 seasons.
1997 — Tara Lipinski’s jumps, the cleanest and the surest in women’s figure skating, lift the 14-year-old into history as the youngest women’s world champion.
2000 — Pat Verbeek of the Detroit Red Wings scores twice in a 2-2 tie with Calgary to become the 28th player in NHL history with 500 career goals.
2007 — Kobe Bryant becomes the fourth player in NBA history to score at least 50 points in three straight games. Bryant scores 60 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 121-119 win over Memphis. Bryant joins Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.
2008 — The first of two assists Colorado captain Joe Sakic has in a 7-5 loss to Edmonton are the 1,000th of his career. He is the 11th player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
2011 — The NFL owners vote to make all scoring plays subject to review by the replay official and referee.
2013 — Florida Gulf Coast, a school so new it wasn’t eligible for the NCAA men’s tournament until last year, upsets second-seeded Georgetown 78-68 in the second round of the South Regional. The Eagles used a 21-2 second-half run to pull away from the Hoyas and hold on in the final minute to become the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2.
2015 — Oklahoma advances in the NCAA Tournament with a 72-66 victory over Dayton. Sooners coach Lon Kruger becomes the second coach to take four schools to the round of 16.
_____
March 23
1939 — Long Island University finishes the season undefeated after a 44-32 victory over Loyola of Chicago in the NIT championship.
1944 — Maurice Richard, playing in his second Stanley Cup Playoff game, scores five goals in a 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup semifinals. Toe Blake has five assists.
1948 — Kentucky, behind Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, defeats Baylor 58-42 for the NCAA basketball championship.
1956 — Bill Russell leads San Francisco to an 83-71 victory over Iowa in the NCAA basketball championship.
1957 — North Carolina defeats Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in triple-overtime to win the NCAA men’s championship. The Tar Heels win 54-53 to finish the season with a 32-0 record.
1968 — Lew Alcindor scores 34 points to carry UCLA to a 78-55 win over North Carolina in the NCAA basketball championship.
1974 — N.C. State ends UCLA’s streak of seven national championships with an 80-77 victory in double overtime of the NCAA tournament semifinals. David Thompson leads the Wolfpack with 28 points and 10 rebounds while teammate Tom Burleson scores 20 and pulls down 14 rebounds.
1991 — London beats Frankfurt 24-11 in the first World League of American Football game.
1994 — Wayne Gretzky scores his 802nd goal, passing Gordie Howe as the top goal scorer in NHL history. The Los Angeles Kings center scores in the second period for his 62nd NHL record.
1996 — Michelle Kwan caps a nearly perfect season by winning the women’s title at figure skating’s world championships for the United States’ first singles sweep since 1986.
2002 — Brendan Shanahan of the Red Wings scores his 500th career goal, breaking a scoreless tie at 7:48 of the third period. Detroit beats Colorado 2-0.
2002 — Iowa State’s Cael Sanderson becomes the first undefeated four-time NCAA wrestling champion at the NCAA championships. Sanderson beats Lehigh’s Jon Trenge 12-4 to win at 197 pounds and finish his career with a 159-0 record.
2007 — Kobe Bryant becomes the second NBA player to score at least 50 points in four straight games when he has 50 in the Lakers’ 111-105 win at New Orleans. Only Wilt Chamberlain has more, scoring at least 50 points in seven consecutive games during the 1961-62 season.
2010 — The NFL changes its overtime rules for playoff games to give both teams an opportunity to get the ball.
2014 — Quardell Young drives the length of the court for a go-ahead layup with 0.9 seconds left and Wisconsin-Whitewater holds off Williams to win the NCAA Division III men’s championship 75-73. The Warhawks (29-4), whose football team took the national championship in December, win the basketball championship for the second time in three years and fourth time in four trips to the final.
2016 — Guard Russ Smith of the Delaware 87ers scores an NBA D-League-record 65 points in a 140-129 loss to the Canton Charge.
2022 — After 114 consecutive weeks as world #1 female tennis player, 25 year old Australian Ash Barty makes unexpected retirement announcement.
2023 — Harry Kane overtakes Wayne Rooney’s record to become England’s all-time greatest goalscorer in 2-1 victory over Italy with his 54th goal.
_____
March 24
1936 — Detroit’s Mud Bruneteau ends the longest game in NHL history with a goal after 116 minutes and 30 seconds (six overtimes) to edge the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the semifinals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
1941 — Long Island University wins the NIT championship with a 56-42 victory over Ohio.
1945 — NYU battles back from a ten-point deficit with two minutes to go to send the NCAA Tournament national semifinal game into overtime. NYU wins 70-65. At the time, a team got one free throw when fouled near end of game, but could elect instead to inbound the ball. Ohio State is fouled three times, opts to shoot the foul shot and misses each time.
1956 — San Francisco’s Bill Russell has 26 points and 27 rebounds to lead the Dons to an 83-71 win over Iowa and their second-straight national title and 55th consecutive victory, then an NCAA record.
1962 — Paul Hogue scores 22 points and grabs 19 rebounds and Tom Thacker adds 21 to lead Cincinnati to a 71-59 victory over Ohio State for its second NCAA basketball championship.
1970 — Jerry West of the Los Angeles Lakers wins his only NBA scoring title, accumulating 2,309 points in 74 games for a 31.2 ppg. average.
1973 — Kansas City-Omaha’s Nate “Tiny” Archibald becomes the first player in NBA history to lead the NBA in both scoring (34.0 ppg.) and assists (11.4 apg.) in the same season.
1975 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Chuck Wepner in the 15th round to retain the world heavyweight title in Cleveland.
1975 — Princeton becomes the first Ivy League school to win the NIT title with an 80-69 win over Providence.
1979 — Indiana State, led by Larry Bird, advances to the NCAA Championship game by squeezing past DePaul 76-74. Bird has 35 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists.
1980 — Louisville beats UCLA 59-54 to win the NCAA basketball title.
1992 — Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux becomes the 36th player in NHL history with 1,000 points, getting an assist in the second period of the Penguins’ 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
1994 — Kansas State’s Askia Jones scores 62 points in 28 minutes in a 115-77 victory over Fresno State in the NIT quarterfinals. Jones shoots 18-for-25 from the floor, including 14-of-18 on three-pointers, and 12-for-16 from the line.
2013 — Florida Gulf Coast goes from shocking the men’s college basketball world to downright impressing it. The Eagles beat San Diego State 81-71 to become the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
2017 — Devin Booker scores 70 points, becoming the sixth different player in NBA history to reach that total, but the Boston Celtics get 34 points from Isaiah Thomas and outlast the Phoenix Suns 130-120.
2018 — Nathan Chen completes six quadruple jumps in the free program to become the first U.S. winner of the men’s world figure skating title since 2009.
2018 — Loyola Chicago romps to a 78-62 victory over Kansas State to cap off a stunning run through the bracket-busting South Regional. The Ramblers (32-5) match the lowest-seeded team ever to reach the Final Four, joining LSU (1986), George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011). The South is the first regional in tournament history to have the top four seeds — including overall No. 1 Virginia — knocked out on the opening weekend.
_____