Today in Sports – Wayne Gretzky plays his final game of NHL career
April 18
1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Jewey Smith in the fifth round in Paris to retain the world heavyweight title.
1942 — Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 for a 4-3 series win.
1946 — Jackie Robinson debuts as 2nd baseman for the Montreal Royals.
1959 — The Montreal Canadiens win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup with a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fifth game.
1962 — Boston’s Bill Russell scores 30 points and grabs 40 rebounds to lead the Celtics to a 110-107 overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers and their fourth consecutive NBA title. Russell’s 40-rebound effort matches his NBA Finals record set on March 29, 1960.
1966 — Bill Russell is named the coach of the Boston Celtics to become the first African American head coach of an NBA team.
1967 — Rick Barry scores 55 points as the San Francisco Warriors beat Philadelphia, 130-124, in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
1984 — Joan Benoit runs world record female marathon.
1986 — Washington ends the game on a 18-0 run in the last 3 minutes, 49 seconds and wins it on a banked Dudley Bradley 3-pointer at the horn. The 76ers had a seemingly safe 94-77 lead, but do not score in the 3:39 in the opening game of the first-round of the NBA playoffs.
1987 — Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt hits his 500th home run with two outs in the ninth to rally the Phillies to an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium.
1988 — Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya battles past Juma Ikangaa of Tanzania in the final 100 yards to win the Boston Marathon by 1 second, the closest ever.
1991 — John Stockton breaks his own NBA single-season assist record as the Utah Jazz rout the Seattle SuperSonics 130-103. Stockton’s 11 assists give him 1,136 for the season, two more than the record he set last season.
1993 — PGA Seniors’ Championship Men’s Golf, PGA National GC: American Tom Wargo pars second playoff hole to beat Bruce Crampton of Australia and take his first and only major title.
1995 — Quarterback Joe Montana announces his retirement from football.
1998 — NFL Draft: Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning first pick by Indianapolis Colts.
1999 — Wayne Gretzky ends his NHL career at Madison Square Garden with an assist, setting up a second-period goal as his New York Rangers fall to Pittsburgh 2-1 in overtime. Before the game, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announces the league is retiring No. 99 in honor of “The Great One.”
2001 — A.C. Green plays in his 1,192th consecutive game, which remains the NBA record. His streak began on November 19, 1986.
2005 — Defending champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya becomes the first woman to win a fourth Boston Marathon and Ethiopia’s Hailu Negussie wins the men’s race to break the Kenyan stranglehold on the world’s oldest annual marathon.
2007 — Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faces the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Buehrle walks Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth, then promptly picks him off first base.
2008 — NBA owners give approval of a potential Seattle SuperSonics’ relocation to Oklahoma City in a 28–2 vote by the Board of Governors.
2017 — Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo becomes first player to score 100 goals in the Champions League.
2017 — The NCAA awards coveted men’s basketball tournament games and other events to North Carolina, effectively ending a boycott that helped force the state to repeal parts of a law that limited protections for LGBT people. The governing body announced decisions for events through 2022, two weeks after the NCAA said it had “reluctantly” agreed to consider North Carolina again for hosting duties.
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