Today in Sports - Week Ahead, March 15 - March 21
March 15
1869 — The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first pro baseball team, is organized by George Ellard and Harry Wright.
1940 — Colorado, led by Bob Doll’s 15 points, beats Duquesne 51-40 for the NIT championship.
1958 — Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson scores a NCAA Midwest region-record 56 points in a 97-62 rout of Arkansas.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain is 1st to score 4,000 pts in an NBA season.
1985 — Larry Holmes scores a 10th-round knockout of David Bey in Las Vegas to retain the world heavyweight title.
1997 — North Carolina’s Dean Smith becomes the career victory leader when the Tar Heels beat Colorado 73-56. Smith, with 877 victories, passes Kentucky coaching legend Adolph Rupp.
2001 — The NCAA men’s basketball tournament opens with a series of close calls and upsets, with 15th-seeded Hampton beating second-seeded Iowa State 58-57 in the biggest surprise of the day.
2004 — Alexander Mogilny has three assists in Toronto’s 6-5 overtime victory at Buffalo, becoming the second Russian to reach the NHL’s 1,000-point plateau.
2008 — Georgia Southern sets an NCAA record for all Divisions, hitting 14 home runs in a 26-8 win over Columbia. In all, 12 different Eagles hit a home run.
2009 — Detroit beats Columbus 4-0 to become the first team in NHL history to top 100 points in nine straight seasons. The Stanley Cup champion Red Wings, the NHL leader with 101 points, break a tie with Montreal (1974-75 through 1981-82).
2012 — Syracuse avoids becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 when it rallies for a 72-65 victory over North Carolina-Asheville in the East Regional. The Bulldogs were up 34-30 at halftime — the seventh 16 seed to lead at the break.
2016 — Stephen Curry has 27 points, five rebounds and five assists on his 28th birthday, and the Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans 125-107 for their record 49th straight regular-season home victory. The Warriors (60-6), who are 31-0 at Oracle Arena this season, become the fastest team to 60 wins in NBA history.
2016 — Dallas Seavey wins his third straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and his fourth overall title in the last five years. Seavey completes the nearly 1,000-mile race in a record time of 8 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes, 16 seconds.
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March 16
1938 — Temple defeats Colorado 60-36 in the first National Invitation Tournament and the first major postseason basketball tournament.
1947 — Billy Taylor of the Detroit Red Wings sets an NHL record with seven assists in a 10-6 triumph over the Chicago Black Hawks.
1955 — NHL President Clarence Campbell suspends Maurice “Rocket” Richard for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs after striking linesman Cliff Thompson during a melee in a game against the Boston Bruins.
1961 — Montreal’s Bernie Geoffrion becomes the second player to score 50 goals in a season in a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maurice Richard was the first to do it, in 1945.
1971 — Goaltender Glenn Hall gets his 407th and final NHL victory as the St. Louis Blues post a 6-2 win against the visiting Montreal Canadiens.
1990 — Philip Hutcheson of David Lipscomb University hits a running 5-foot hook shot in the NAIA Tournament to become the all-time scoring champion of college basketball. The 6-foot-8 Hutcheson, who scored in double figures in every college game he played, breaks the record of 4,045 set in 1969-72 by Travis Grant of Kentucky State.
2005 — Norway’s Robert Sorlie wins his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in one of the closest races in years. Sorlie completes the 1,100-mile race across Alaska in nine days, 18 hours, 39 minutes and 31 seconds. He’s still in the winner’s circle when Ed Iten of Kotzebue crossed the line 34 minutes later.
2007 — Kobe Bryant scores 33 of his 65 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 116-111 win over Portland.
2008 — Denver sets NBA season highs for points in a half with 84 and points in a game with a 168-116 rout of the Seattle SuperSonics.
2010 — Lance Mackey wins the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to become the first musher in the event’s 38-year history to win four consecutive races.
2012 — Kyle O’Quinn has 26 points and 14 rebounds to help No. 15 seed Norfolk State stun second-seeded Missouri 86-84 in the West Regional of the men’s NCAA tournament. C.J. McCollum scores 30 points and Lehigh upsets Duke 75-70 in the South Regional to become the second No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 during a wild day in the NCAA tournament.
2013 — Mikaela Shiffrin delivers an astonishing second run to overtake Tina Maze and clinch the World Cup slalom title with an improbable come-from behind victory at Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The American teenager trailing Maze by a massive 1.17 seconds after the first leg, finishes ahead of the Slovenian in the second run to win the slalom title in her first full season on the circuit.
2013 — Ted Ligety caps his dominant season in giant slalom with a sixth World Cup win at Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The American skier joins Ingemar Stenmark as the only men in the 47-year World Cup history to get six GS victories in a season. Stenmark’s 10-race sweep in 1978-79 is the record.
2018 — Senior guard Jairus Lyles scores 28 points and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County pulls off the most shocking upset in NCAA Tournament history, defeating Virginia 75-54 to become the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in men’s basketball. Virginia enters the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed after going 31-2 this season, including 20-1 in ACC competition.
2020 - Major League Baseball suspends remainder of Spring Training and delays start of regular season in response to COVID-19 pandemic; return dependent on recommendations by Centers for Disease Control.
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March 17
1897 — Bob Fitzsimmons knocks out Jim Corbett in the 14th round to win the world heavyweight title in Carson City, Nev. It’s the first boxing match photographed by a motion picture camera.
1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Jene Roche in 80 seconds at the Royal Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, to retain the world heavyweight title.
1939 — Villanova wins first game of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, defeating Brown 42-30 in Philadelphia. Ohio State beats Wake Forest 64-52 in the second game of the doubleheader.
1940 — For the first time in NHL history, one line — The Kraut Line of Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer — finish 1-2-3 in NHL scoring when the Boston Bruins score five goals in the third period to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 7-2.
1955 — Canadien fans riot in the streets of Montreal protesting NHL President Clarence Campbell’s suspension of Maurice “Rocket” Richard the previous day. The Canadiens forfeit the game to the Detroit after a smoke bomb goes off in the Forum and crowds spill into the streets, setting fires, smashing windows and looting.
1961 — Manhattan District Attorney Frank S. Hogan arrests two professional gamblers, Aaron Wagman and Joseph Hacken, and implicates Hank Gunter and Art Hicks of Seton Hall in a collegiate point shaving scandal.
1993 — Dallas snaps a 19-game losing streak with a 102-96 win over visiting Orlando. The Mavericks were one game away from tying the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers for the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history.
2001 — Connecticut cruises to a 101-29 win over Long Island University in the first round of the East Regional, the best defensive effort in the history of the women’s NCAA tournament. Connecticut’s 72-point victory also ties the second-biggest margin in tournament history.
2006 — Jermaine Wallace hits a fadeaway 3-pointer with a split-second left, and little Northwestern State pulls off a shocker with a furious rally, beating No. 3 seed Iowa 64-63 in the first round of the men’s NCAA tournament.
2012 — Lindsey Vonn sets a women’s record for the most World Cup points in a season after finishing eighth in a slalom won by Austria’s Michaela Kirchgasser at Schladming, Austria. Vonn reaches 1,980 points to beat the mark of 1,970 set by Janica Kostelic of Croatia in 2006.
2016 — Little Rock advances with an out-of-nowhere comeback that leads to an 85-83 double-overtime victory over Purdue in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
2018 — The UConn Huskies open their NCAA Women’s Tournament with a record-setting 140-52 rout of Saint Francis (Pa.). The tournament’s top seed sets a record for points in a tournament game and all-time NCAA records for points in a period (55 in the first) and a half (94 in the first).
2020 — French Open becomes first Grand Slam tennis tournament to be postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
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March 18
1945 — Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a season during a 4-2 triumph over the Boston Bruins in the final game of the season.
1950 — CCNY beats Bradley 69-61 for the NIT championship.
1953 — Don Schlundt scores 30 points to lead Indiana to a 69-68 victory over Kansas for the NCAA basketball championship.
1990 — Jeff Fryer’s 41 points leads Loyola Marymount to a 149-115 victory over defending national champion Michigan in the highest-scoring game in NCAA tournament history.
1993 — Santa Clara beats Arizona 64-61 to become the second 15th-seeded team to win a first-round game in the NCAA tournament.
1995 — Michael Jordan announces he is ending his 17 month NBA retirement.
2001 — Indiana’s Reggie Miller becomes the first player in NBA history to accumulate 2,000 3-pointers after hitting four in a 101-95 win over Sacramento.
2008 — The Houston Rockets’ 22-game winning streak comes to an end. Kevin Garnett scores 22 points and Paul Pierce adds 20 as the Celtics beat the Rockets 94-74, stopping Houston’s remarkable run.
2009 — New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur breaks Patrick Roy’s NHL record for career wins by a goaltender. Brodeur records his 552nd win in a 3-2 decision over the Chicago Blackhawks.
2013 — LeBron James and the Miami Heat escape Boston with their 23rd win in a row, the second longest win streak in NBA history. James scores 37 points and makes the go-ahead basket with 10.5 seconds left in Miami’s 105-103 victory.
2015 — Lindsey Vonn wins the World Cup downhill title for the seventh time, winning the last race in the discipline at the World Cup finals in Meribel, France.
2016 — Middle Tennessee State sends a big shock through the men’s NCAA Tournament, topping second-seeded Michigan State 90-81 in the first round. Middle Tennessee never trails the Spartans (29-6) in one of the biggest upsets since the tournament began seeding teams in 1985.
2016 — Thomas Walkup scores 33 points and 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin takes down West Virginia’s full-court pressure with some of its own in-your-face defense, pulling off a 70-56 first-round upset of the third-seeded Mountaineers in the NCAA Tournament.
2017 — Kalani Brown scores 21 points and top-seeded Baylor overwhelms much smaller Texas Southern 119-30, the most lopsided women’s NCAA Tournament game. The 89-point margin breaks the previous record 74-point win by Tennessee over North Carolina A&T (111-37) in 1994. Baylor’s 119 points are the most scored in regulation of a women’s NCAA Tournament game, surpassing the previous record 116.
2017 — Texas A&M pulls off the biggest comeback in women’s NCAA Tournament history, rallying from a 21-point deficit for a 63-61 victory over Penn to close out the first round of the NCAAs. The fifth-seeded Aggies finish the game on a 25-1 run to beat the 12th-seeded Quakers.
2018 — Tennessee loses for the first time at home in women’s NCAA Tournament history. Marie Gulich has 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead sixth-seed Oregon State to a 66-59 win. The third-seeded Lady Vols had been 57-0 at home, with most of those victories coming under late Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.
2019 — 40-year old Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki overtakes Wilt Chamberlain to go 6th with 31,424 points on the NBA scorers’ list; Mavs suffer 129-125 OT loss to New Orleans Pelicans.