Today in Sports – Week Ahead, January 12 – January 18
Jan. 16
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scores 42 points and grabs 24 rebounds as he won MVP honors even though his East team lost to the West 150-130 in the NBA All-Star game. The West’s Bob Pettit pulls down an All-Star record 27 rebounds.
1972 — The Dallas Cowboys dominate the Miami Dolphins, setting a Super Bowl record of 252 yards rushing en route to a 24-3 victory.
1974 — Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mantle is elected in his first year of eligibility and Ford in his second year.
1988 — Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, the CBS NFL Today tout for 12 years, is fired for his racial comments during an interview the previous day with WRC-TV in Washington.
1993 — Kansas beats Louisville 98-77 for its 1,500th win in school history.
1993 — Michael Jordan scores 64 points, but Chicago is upended in overtime by visiting Orlando 128-124. The Magic are led by rookie center Shaquille O’Neal, who has 29 points and 24 rebounds.
2008 — Bob Knight becomes the first men’s Division I coach with 900 wins when Texas Tech beats No. 10 Texas A&M 68-53.
2011 — New York Jets stun the New England Patriots 28-21. The Patriots — who had the league’s best record during the regular season — suffer their third straight postseason loss. Mark Sanchez throws three touchdown passes, Tom Brady is sacked five times and the Jets advance to their second straight AFC championship game.
2015 — The NCAA restores 112 football wins it stripped from Penn State and Joe Paterno in the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation scandal and reinstates the venerated late coach as the winningest in major college football history. The NCAA announces the new settlement with the school weeks before a scheduled trial on the legality of the sanctions imposed in 2012.
2016 — Larry Fitzgerald sets up and scores the winning touchdown on the third play of overtime, taking a 5-yard pass from Carson Palmer that lifts Arizona past Green Bay 26-20 after Aaron Rodgers’ desperation 41-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Janis on the final play of regulation. Fitzgerald turns a short pass into a 75-yard gain on the first play of overtime to set up his 5-yard shovel pass reception for the winning score.
2019 — Golden State guard Stephen Curry first player in NBA history to hit 8+ three-point FGs in 3 consecutive games; goes 9-of- 17 three’s in Warriors’ 147-140 win over New Orleans; teams combine for NBA record 43 3-pointers.
2020 – Former Sacramento State softball player Alyssa Nakken becomes first woman to hold a coaching position on a MLB staff when named an assistant by the San Francisco Giants.
2022 — Unvaccinated World #1 tennis player Novak Đoković is deported by the Australian government on “health and good order” grounds, without playing in the Australian Open.
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Jan. 17
1961 — The Cincinnati Royals’ 22-year-old rookie sensation, Oscar Robertson, becomes the youngest player to receive NBA All-Star MVP honors. Robertson scores 23 points and hands out 14 assists in a 153-131 victory for the West at Syracuse.
1971 — The first Super Bowl under the NFL-AFL merger ends with Baltimore rookie Jim O’Brien kicking a 32-yard field goal for a 16-13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
1986 — Tim Witherspoon wins a majority decision over Tony Tubbs at the Omni in Atlanta to win the WBA heavyweight title.
1988 — The Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns for the second straight year in the AFC championship game. Defensive back Jeremiah Castille strips running back Earnest Byner at the Denver 3-yard line with 65 seconds left in the game to preserve a 38-33 victory.
1995 — The NFL Rams announce they’re leaving Southern California after 49 years and moving to St. Louis.
1996 — Detroit’s Steve Yzerman becomes the 22nd player in NHL history to score 500 goals as the Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2.
2003 — Joe Nieuwendyk scores his 500th career goal in New Jersey’s 2-1 victory over Carolina.
2004 — New Jersey’s Patrik Elias ties an NHL record by scoring his fourth overtime goal of the season in a 2-1 win over Washington.
2010 — Jeremy Abbott earns a trip to the Olympics by winning his second national men’s figuring skating title. Abbott’s wins in a landslide with a score of 263.66 points, 25 more than Evan Lysacek.
2011 — West Virginia of the Big East moves into the men’s poll for the first time this season to tie the record of nine teams from one conference in the Top 25. There were nine Big East teams ranked for one week in January 2009.
2011 — Fifth-ranked Pittsburgh scores the first 19 points only to lose the lead, then comes back behind Nasir Robinson’s 21 points to hand No. 3 Syracuse its first loss with a 74-66 victory.
2012 — LeBron James becomes youngest player in NBA history to record 20,000 career points during the Miami Heat’s 92-75 victory over Golden State; James, 28 years, 17 days, passes Kobe Bryant, 29 years, 122 days.
2014 — Five-time champion Serena Williams becomes the winningest woman at the Australian Open, notching career win No. 61 as she advanced to the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Daniela Hantuchova.
2016 — The Carolina Panthers builds a 31-0 halftime lead before barely holding off Seattle’s relentless comeback, beating the Seahawks 31-24 to advance to the NFC championship game.
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Jan. 18
1938 — Grover Cleveland Alexander is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. His 90 shutouts is second on the all-time list to Walter Johnson and his 16 shutouts in 1916 is still the major league record.
1958 — Canadian born Willie O’Ree becomes the NHL’s first black player for the Boston Bruins.
1972 — The Lakers’ Jerry West, hits a last second, 20-foot jumper to lead the West team to a 112-110 NBA All-Star victory over the East, as he garners the MVP award.
1973 — Orlando Cepeda becomes the first player signed specifically to be a designated hitter. He signs with the Boston Red Sox one week after the designated hitter rule is approved.
1976 — Pittsburgh wins the Super Bowl for the second straight year. Terry Bradshaw’s 64-yard touchdown pass to Lynn Swann and Glen Edwards’ interception on the last play of the game gives the Steelers a 21-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Swann, with four receptions for 161 yards, is the game’s MVP.
1992 — Brett Hull scores two goals with the help of linemate Wayne Gretzky to lead the Campbell Conference to a 10-6 victory over the Wales Conference in the NHL All-Star game.
1996 — Baseball owners break with more than a century of tradition by unanimously approving interleague play in 1997.2003 — Michelle Kwan wins her sixth straight title, and seventh overall, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Michael Weiss, despite splattering on his quad lutz, two-footing a quad toe and not doing a triple axel the entire competition, gets his third U.S. men’s title.
2004 — The New England Patriots earn their second trip to the Super Bowl in three seasons by defeating the Indianapolis Colts 24-14 in the AFC championship game. The Philadelphia Eagles fall one win short of the Super Bowl for the third straight year as the Carolina Panthers post a 14-3 win.
2005 — Earl Boykins breaks the NBA record for points in an overtime, scoring 15 of Denver’s 21 points in the extra period as the Nuggets beat the Seattle SuperSonics 116-110. The 5-foot-5 guard, the league’s smallest player, broke the record of 14 overtime points set by Butch Carter of Indiana against Boston on March 20, 1984.
2011 — Kim Clijsters starts her Australian Open run with a 6-0, 6-0 romp of three-time Grand Slam finalist and former No. 1-ranked player Dinara Safina. It’s the first time a woman who was once the top-ranked player in the world had ever lost by that score.
2014 — The NBA fines Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $100,000 for confronting referees and using inappropriate language toward them after the Mavericks blew a 17-point lead in the final 5 minutes of a 129-127 loss at the Los Angeles Clippers on Jan. 15.
2015 — Russell Wilson hits Jermaine Kearse for a 35-yard touchdown 3:19 into overtime to lift the Seattle Seahawks to an improbable 28-22 victory over Green Bay in the NFC championship game. Outplayed much of the game and plagued by five turnovers, the Seahawks trail 16-7 with 2:09 remaining.
2015 — Tom Brady throws for three touchdowns and LeGarrette Blount runs in three more to lead the New England Patriots into the Super Bowl with a 45-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
2016 — Duke, after dropping three of its last five games, fall out of The Associated Press women’s basketball poll after 312 straight weeks. The Blue Devils entered on Nov. 29, 1999. It’s the third longest streak in the history of the poll since the rankings began in 1976.
2017 – Baseball Hall of Fame adds Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez.
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