Today in Sports - Week Ahead, Feb. 28 - March 6
Feb. 28
1922 — In the first formal college conference basketball tournament, North Carolina beats Mercer 40-26 to win the Southern Intercollegiate Conference championship. The 13-team conference keeps standings in its’ second season.
1929 — The Chicago Black Hawks are shutout for an NHL-record eighth straight game. It’s not a total loss, as the Black Hawks hold the New York Rangers scoreless for a 0-0 tie.
1940 — College basketball is televised for the first time. Station W2XBS transmits a basketball doubleheader from New York’s Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh plays Fordham and New York University competes against Georgetown.
1957 — Johnny Longden becomes the first jockey in history to reach 5,000 victories. Longden, who started his career in 1927, coaxes Bente to a head victory over Flying Finish II in the fourth race at Santa Anita Park.
1960 — The United States hockey team scores six goals in the third period to beat Czechoslovakia 9-4 and win the gold medal in the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. is down 4-3 after two periods, but Roger Christian scores three times in the third. Roger’s brother, Bill Christian, assists on two of the three goals.
1971 — Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA Championship by beating Billy Casper by three strokes.
1981 — Houston’s Calvin Murphy makes the last of his 78 consecutive free throws, in a game against San Diego, setting what was then an NBA record.
1986 — Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth conditionally suspends Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds, Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets, Joaquin Andujar of the Oakland Athletics, Lonnie Smith of the Kansas City Royals, Enos Cabell of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeff Leonard of the San Francisco Giants and Dale Berra of the New York Yankees for one year for drug abuse. After conditions are met the suspensions are reduced.
1987 — Chick Hearn, broadcaster for the Los Angeles Lakers, calls his 2,000th consecutive game for the club, a streak spanning 22 years.
1993 — Winnipeg’s Teemu Selanne scores four goals and becomes the third rookie in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season. Selanne scores his 51st goal in the third period to help the Jets defeat the Minnesota North Stars 7-6 at Winnipeg Arena.
1999 — Venus and Serena Williams become the first sisters to win WTA Tour events on the same day. Venus wins the IGA SuperThrift Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City after Serena takes her first title on the WTA Tour at the Gaz de France Open.
2003 — In Val Di Fiemme, Italy, Johnny Spillane wins the Nordic combined sprint to become the first American to win a gold medal at the Nordic world championships.
2010 — Sidney Crosby scores the winning goal in overtime to give Canada a 3-2 victory over the United States in the final event of the Vancouver Olympics. The American silver is the 37th medal won by the United States at these games and the U.S. wins the medals race for the first time since 1932.
2020 - Court of Arbitration for Sport bans Chinese triple Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang from swimming for 8 years for breaking anti-doping rules.
_____
March 1
1919 — Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens sets a Stanley Cup Playoff record by scoring five goals in a 6-3 win against the visiting Ottawa Senators. The record is matched four times.
1934 — Primo Carnera retains his world heavyweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over Tommy Laughren in Miami.
1948 — Top-ranked NYU, the nation’s only unbeaten basketball team, is upset by Notre Dame 64-59 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. In a game with 17 lead changes, the Fighting Irish hold Dolph Schayes to nine points and Kevin O’Shea scores 18 for Notre Dame.
1955 — Allen Fieldhouse, home of the Kansas Jayhawks, hosts its first basketball game and the Jayhawks beat rival Kansas State 77-66.
1969 — Tuesdee Testa becomes the first female jockey to win a race at a major American Thoroughbred track when she rides Buz On to victory in the third race with at Santa Anita Park.
1973 — Robyn Smith becomes the first woman jockey to win a stakes race when she rides North Sea to victory in the Paumonok Handicap at Aqueduct Race Track in New York.
1981 — Calvin Murphy of the Houston Rockets misses a free throw in San Antonio, ending his NBA record consecutive free throw streak at 78.
1983 — Tamara McKinney becomes the first American woman skier to win the overall World Cup championship.
1987 — The Boston Celtics becomes the first NBA franchise to post 2,000 victories when they beat the Detroit Pistons 112-102.
1988 — Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers becomes the NHL’s all-time assist leader, breaking the longtime mark of Gordie Howe. In his ninth season, Gretzky picked up assist No. 1,050 in a game against the Los Angeles Kings.
1991 — Pat Day becomes the sixth jockey in history to earn $100 million in purses when he rides Wild Sierra to a second-place finish in the first race at Oaklawn Park.
1996 — Atlanta’s Lenny Wilkens becomes the first NBA coach to reach 1,000 career victories as the Hawks beat Cleveland 74-68.
1997 - Puerto Rican boxer Héctor Camacho stops Sugar Ray Leonard in 5th round in Atlantic City, NJ to retain IBC middleweight title; only time Leonard’s is KO’ed and sends him into permanent retirement
2000 — With 26-year-old rookie Dean Barker at Black Magic’s helm, New Zealand sails into America’s Cup history, becoming the first country other than the United States to defend the oldest trophy in sports.
2001 — Jackie Stiles of Southwest Missouri State becomes the NCAA career scoring leader in women’s basketball, running her career total to 3,133 points with 30 in Southwest Missouri State’s 94-59 victory over Creighton.
2014 — Jaromir Jagr becomes the seventh player to score 700 NHL goals during New Jersey Devils’ 6-1 victory over the New York Islanders.
2015 — Kiley McKinnon and Mac Bohonnon give the United States its first ever World Cup title double in aerials skiing. McKinnon becomes the first U.S. woman to win the World Cup since Nikki Stone in 1998, while Bohonnon was the first American men’s winner since Jeret “Speedy” Peterson in 2005.
_____
March 2
1918 — Joe Malone is held scoreless in the Montreal Canadiens’ 5-3 season-ending loss to the Toronto Arenas, but finishes the first NHL season with a League-high 44 goals in 22 games. The 44 goals remains an NHL record that stands until 1944-45, when Maurice Richard scores 50 goals in 50 games.
1921 — Kentucky beats Georgia 20-19 in the Southern Intercollegiate men’s basketball championship game in Atlanta. The 14-team conference does not keep formal regular season standings. It’s college basketball’s first tournament.
1929 — The Chicago Black Hawks score a goal to snap their NHL record eight-game scoreless streak. Chicago scores twice to beat the Montreal Maroons 2-1.
1940 — Seabiscuit, ridden by Red Pollard, wins the Santa Anita Handicap in his final race. Beaten by a nose in both the 1937 and 1938 Santa Anita Handicaps, Seabiscuit beats Kayak II by 1 1-2 lengths to retire as the leading money-winning horse in the world.
1951 — In the first NBA All-Star Game, Ed Macauley of the Celtics scores 20 points to lead the East to a 111-94 victory at Boston Garden.
1951 — St. John’s Bob Zawoluk scores 65 points to lead the Redmen to a 105-61 rout of St. Peters. It’s the first time in its 43-year history that St. John’s scores over 100 points in a game.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain scores an NBA-record 100 points to lead the Philadelphia Warriors to a 169-147 triumph over the New York Knicks. Chamberlain scores 59 second-half points and 28 points from the free-throw line for records.
1966 — Chicago’s Bobby Hull becomes the first NHL player to have two 50-goal seasons when he scores a third-period goal in the Black Hawks’ 5-4 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
1969 — Boston’s Phil Esposito becomes the first NHL player to score 100 points in a season, scoring a goal in the Bruins’ 4-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
1991 — Chris Corchiani of North carolina State becomes first player in NCAA history to hand out 1,000 assists in a career. Corchiani, who has 12 assists in the game, gets the milestone with 1:16 left in the first half on a pass to Rodney Monroe. Wake Forest spoils the day with an 89-84 win.
1991 — Del Ballard Jr. throws the most famous gutter ball in PBA Tour history in the finals of the Fair Lanes Open. Ballard, needing seven pins on his last roll to beat Pete Weber, gets none as his ball falls into the gutter. Weber wins 213-207, claiming the $30,000 first prize, while Ballard takes $15,500.
2011 — Pittsburgh overcomes a slow start to clinch at least a share of the Big East regular-season championship with a 66-50 win over South Florida. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon sets an NCAA Division I record for most victories in the first eight seasons of a career with 214 — one more than Everett Case had at North Carolina State and Roy Williams had at Kansas in their first eight years.
2012 — Major League Baseball expands its playoff format to 10 teams, adding a second wild-card in each league. The decision establishes a one-game, wild-card round in each league between the teams with the best records who are not division winners.
2018 — Kristina Vogel of Germany wins a record-tying 11th women’s world cycling title when she takes the individual sprint at the track world championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Vogel ties Anna Meares’ record for most women’s world titles.
2019 - 37-year-old Swiss 20-time Grand Slam tennis champion Roger Federer beats Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 to win his 100th ATP Tour title at the Dubai Championships.
2024 — LeBron James becomes first player in NBA history to score 40,000 regular-season points as his L.A. Lakers slip to a 124-114 defeat to Denver Nuggets in Los Angeles.
_____
March 3
1920 — The Montreal Canadiens set an NHL record for most goals in a game with a 16-3 rout of the Quebec Bulldogs.
1951 — Temple’s Bill Mlkvy scores an NCAA-record 73 points in a 99-69 rout over Wilkes.
1966 — Buckpasser, ridden by Bill Shoemaker, wins the Flamingo Stakes by a nose. The colt is such a prohibitive favorite among the field of nine the race is declared a non-wagering contest. The race is known as “The Chicken Flamingo.”
1968 — Montreal’s Jean Beliveau becomes the second NHL player to score 1,000 career points with a goal in a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.
1984 — Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, is elected commissioner of baseball by major league team owners.
1985 — Bill Shoemaker becomes the first jockey to win $100 million in career purses after riding Lord at War to victory at the Santa Anita Handicap in Arcadia, Calif.
1985 — Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics scores a team-record 56 points, making 22 of 28 shots in a 138-129 home victory over Detroit.
1987 — Mike Tyson adds the WBA heavyweight crown to his WBC heavyweight crown with a unanimous 12-round decision over James “Bonecrusher” Smith in Las Vegas.
2000 — Edward Fryatt ties a PGA Tour record with eight consecutive birdies in the second round of the Doral-Ryder Open. Fuzzy Zoeller did it in the 1976 Quad Cities Open, and Bob Goalby in the 1961 St. Petersburg Open.
2001 — A bloodied John Ruiz becomes the first Hispanic heavyweight champion by knocking down Evander Holyfield in the 11th round and earning a unanimous decision for the WBA title.
2012 — Wladimir Klitschko stops France’s Jean-Marc Mormeck in the fourth round to retain the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles. Klitschko is credited with the 50th KO of his career as he improves to 57-3.
2012 — No. 2 Syracuse beats No. 19 Louisville 58-49 to tie the Big East record for victories. The Orange (30-1, 17-1) match Connecticut’s 17 conference wins in 1995-96 and finishes the regular season with 30 wins for the first time in Jim Boeheim’s 36 years as coach.
2014 — LeBron James scores a career-high 61 points, breaking Glen Rice’s franchise record, and the Miami Heat defeat the Charlotte Bobcats 124-107.
2017 — Kyrie Irving scores 43 points, LeBron James has 38 and the Cleveland Cavaliers set the NBA regular-season record with 25 3-pointers in holding off the Atlanta Hawks 135-130.
2018 — Deontay Wilder survives a pummeling from Luis Ortiz, then knocks out the challenger in the 10th round to retain his WBC heavyweight title.
2024 — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark becomes the NCAA Division I all-time career scoring leader, surpassing Pete Maravich’s career total of 3,667. Her 35 points in win over visiting Ohio State brings her total to 3,685 and counting
_____