Oct. 3
1942 — With a victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Whirlaway becomes the first horse to amass more than $500,000 in lifetime earnings.
1951 — Bobby Thomson hits a three-run homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers with one out in the bottom of the ninth to give the New York Giants a dramatic 5-4 playoff victory and the National League pennant.
1971 — Billie Jean King wins the Virginia Slims-Thunderbird tournament in Phoenix to become the first women tennis player to win $100,000 in one year.
1973 — The formation of the World Football League is announced.
1974 — Frank Robinson signs a $175,000-a-year player-manager contract with the Cleveland Indians, making him the first black manager in major league history.
1974 — Future Basketball Hall of Fame guard Jerry West (“Mr. Clutch”) retires after 14 NBA seasons with the LA Lakers; West has 25,192 career points; averages 29.1 ppg in 153 playoff games.
1976 — Future Baseball Hall of Fame right fielder Hank Aaron singles in his last MLB at-bat & drives in his 2,297th run as Milwaukee Brewers lose, 5-2 vs. Detroit Tigers.
1981 — Southern California’s Marcus Allen rushes for 223 yards against Oregon State, his fourth straight 200-plus rushing game.
1981 — After a year’s inactivity, American boxer Mike Weaver outpoints countryman James ‘Quick’ Tillis in 15 rounds in Chicago to retain his WBA heavyweight title.
1990 — George Brett, Kansas City Royals, become the first player in MLB history to win a batting title in three different decades.
1993 — The Toronto Blue Jays become the first team in American League history to have teammates finish 1-2-3 in the batting race. John Olerud leads the league with a .363 batting average, Paul Molitor finishes at .332 and Roberto Alomar at .326.
1995 — Former NFL running back, broadcaster and actor O.J. Simpson found not guilty of the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman in Los Angeles, California.
1997 — Sixty-nine-year-old Hall of Famer Gordie Howe skates the first shift with the Detroit Vipers in their International Hockey League opener, becoming the only professional in his sport to compete in six decades.
1998 — Ricky Williams rushes for a school-record 350 yards and five touchdowns to set NCAA records with 65 career rushing touchdowns and career points by a non-kicker (394) as Texas defeats Iowa State 54-33.
1999 — St Louis 1st baseman Mark McGwire hits his 65th homer of the season in a rain shortened 9-5 win over Cubs at Busch Stadium; wins 2nd straight HR title over Sammy Sosa, who hits his 63rd HR in same game.
2001 — San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds Is walked for the 171st time in 11-8 win at Houston; breaks Babe Ruth’s 1923 MLB single-season record for walks.
2004 — Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki finishes the season with a MLB record 262 single-season hits.
2004 — New England Patriots win their 18th consecutive NFL game, beating Buffalo Bills, 31-17 at Ralph Wilson Stadium; Tom Brady 17-for-30 for 298 yards & 2 TDs.
2009 — Aqib Talib has three interceptions in Tampa Bay’s 16-13 loss at Washington.
2010 — Angel McCoughtry scores 18 points as the United States wins gold at the women’s basketball world championship with an 89-69 victory over the Czech Republic.
2010 — Josh Scobee kicks a 59-yard field goal — the eighth-longest field goal in NFL history and longest in franchise history — as time expires to give Jacksonville a 31-28 victory over Indianapolis.
2012 — Star Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo scores his first Champions League hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 4-1 win against Ajax in Amsterdam.
2015 — Leonard Fournette highlights his third straight 200-yard game with a 75-yard touchdown run, and No. 9 LSU defeats Eastern Michigan 44-22. Fournette has 233 yards and three touchdowns to become the first player in the history of the Southeastern Conference to rush for 200-plus yards in three straight games.
2015 — Max Scherzer pitches his second no-hitter this season for Washington, striking out a team-record 17 and leading the Nationals over the NL East champion New York Mets 2-0 for a doubleheader sweep.
2021 — Tom Brady becomes the NFL’s all-time leader in career passing yardage eclipsing Drew Brees’ high of 80,358.
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Oct. 4
1895 — Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open. Rawlins beats Willie Dunn with 36-hole total of 173 at the Newport Golf Club in Newport, R.I.
1927 — John Longden rides the first official winner of his career, named Hugo K. Asher, in Salt Lake City.
1940 — Fritzie Zivic scores a 15-round decision over Henry Armstrong to win the world welterweight title in New York. Armstrong had 20 successful title defenses.
1964 — Mary Wills captures the LPGA championship with a two-stroke victory over Mickey Wright.
1964 — Kansas City’s Bobby Hunt ties an AFL record with four interceptions as the Chiefs post a 28-7 victory over the Houston Oilers.
1969 — Mississippi’s Archie Manning becomes the first player in college football history to throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in the same game as the Rebels fall short in a 33-32 loss at Alabama. Manning passes for 436 yards and two touchdowns while adding 104 yards rushing yards and three touchdowns.
1980 — Alabama’s 45-0 win over Kentucky at Legion Field gives coach Paul “Bear” Bryant his 300th career coaching victory.
1987 — The NFL continues the regular-season schedule with replacement players while the players’ association strikes. Average attendance is 16,947, down from 57,205 the first week and 59,824 the second week.
1991 — Edmonton Oilers trade captain Mark Messier (on the team for all 5 Stanley Cups) to the NY Rangers in exchange for Bernie Nicholls, Steven Rice & Louie DeBrusk; Messier leads Rangers to Cup 2 seasons later.
1991 — The San Jose Sharks surrender 52 shots and lose 4-3 to the Vancouver Canucks in their first NHL regular-season game.
1998 — Atlanta scores three touchdowns in a 48-second span of the third quarter — the quickest trio of TDs since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 — and routs Carolina 51-23.
2001 — SF Giants slugger Barry Bonds hits his 70th home run in 10-2 win v Houston; ties Mark McGwire for the most MLB home runs in a single season.
2003 — B.J. Symons of Texas Tech tosses a Big 12-record eight touchdown passes and tops 500 yards passing for the third straight game when the Red Raiders beat Texas A&M 59-28.
2010 — The Europeans reclaim the Ryder Cup winning 14½-13½. The Americans rally from a three-point deficit to tie the score, but Graeme McDowell beats Hunter Mahan in the final singles match.
2012 — The NHL cancels the first two weeks of the regular season, the second time games had been lost because of a lockout in seven years. Unable to work out how to split $3 billion in hockey-related revenues with the players’ association, the NHL wipes out 82 games from Oct. 11-24.
2014 — Jared Goff throws for 527 yards and five touchdowns as California holds on to beat Washington State 60-59. WSU quarterback Connor Halliday breaks the NCAA passing record with 734 yards and six touchdowns for Washington State and sets the NCAA passing yardage record for all levels, breaking the mark of 716 set by David Klingler of Houston in 1990.
2015 — Drew Brees hits C.J. Spiller with a short pass that the running back turns into an 80-yard touchdown — the 400th of the Saints quarterback’s career — on the second play of overtime, and New Orleans won for the first time this season, 26-20 over the Dallas Cowboys.
2015 — Adam Vinatieri makes a 27-yard field goal in overtime to lift Indianapolis to a 16-13 victory over Jacksonville. Vinatieri converts all three field-goal attempts and one PAT to become the first player in NFL history to score at least 1,000 points with two different teams.
2017 — Sylvia Fowles scores 17 points and breaks her own WNBA Finals record by grabbing 20 rebounds to lead the Minnesota Lynx to their fourth championship in seven years with an 85-76 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in Game 5.
2018 — Tom Brady becomes the 3rd NFL quarterback to record 500 career touchdown passes.
2022 — NY Yankees slugger Aaron Judge breaks Roger Maris’s A.L. single season HR record when he slams his 62nd homer in a 3-2 loss against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
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Oct. 5
1900 — Britain’s Harry Vardon wins the U.S. Open golf title, beating J.H. Taylor with a 313 total at the Chicago Golf Club.
1985 — Eddie Robinson becomes college football’s winningest coach as Grambling beats Prairie View A&M 27-7. It’s Robinson’s 324th career victory, one more than Paul “Bear” Bryant had before he retired from Alabama after the 1982 season.
1991 — Fresno State ties an NCAA record for most points in a quarter, with 49 in the second period as it pounds New Mexico 94-17. Fresno State’s Derek Mahoney ties an NCAA record with 13 extra points.
1994 — The NBA shortens the 3-point distance to a uniform 22 feet.
1996 — Byron Hanspard rushes for 287 yards, his fifth straight 200-yard game this season, to lead Texas Tech to a 45-24 win over Baylor.
2001 — Barry Bonds sets a new mark for home runs in a single season, hitting Nos. 71 and 72, but San Francisco is eliminated from the playoffs with an 11-10 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
2001 — The Mariners win their 115th game of the year to become the winningest team in American League history, passing the record the Yankees set three years earlier.
2004 — 7-time All-Star and 6-time NBA Champion forward Scottie Pippen announces his retirement from the NBA and the Chicago Bulls.
2005 — Daniel Alfredsson scores twice in the final 6 minutes of regulation and once during the first shootout in NHL history, leading Ottawa to a 3-2 win over Toronto.
2006 — Brendan Shanahan of the New York Rangers becomes the 15th player with 600 goals in the NHL when he scores twice in a 5-2 win over Washington.
2008 — Peyton Manning turns a colossal collapse by the Houston Texans into a stunning victory for the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts score 21 points in a late span of 2:10 — two touchdowns thanks to fumbles by Sage Rosenfels — then intercepts Rosenfels’ last-ditch comeback attempt for a 31-27 win.
2013 — Eighth-ranked Florida State stays undefeated in Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 63-0 victory over No. 25 Maryland. Maryland matches the largest losing margin by a ranked team. UCLA beat No. 11 Texas 66-3, on Sept. 13, 1997.
2013 — Marcus Mariota throws five touchdown passes and runs for two scores as No. 2 Oregon routs Colorado 57-16. The Ducks reach the 50-point plateau for a school record fifth straight time. Oregon have scored at least 55 points in all of its games under first-year coach Mark Helfrich.
2014 — Brian Hoyer’s 6-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin with 1:09 left rallies the Cleveland Browns from a 25-point deficit to beat the Tennessee Titans 29-28. It’s the largest comeback in league history by a road team.
2014 — Denver’s Peyton Manning was 31 of 47 for a career-high 479 yards with four TDs, including the 500th of his career, along with two interceptions to help the Broncos beat Arizona 41-20.
2015 — San Jose Sharks forward Raffi Torres is hit with the longest suspension in NHL history when the league banned him for the first 41 games of the season for an illegal check to the head of Anaheim’s Jakob Silfverberg during an Oct. 3 preseason game.
2017 — Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, Wayne Simmonds and Brandon Saad each record a hat trick in his team’s season opener. It’s the first time four different players score at least three goals in his season opener in 100 years, since the NHL’s first two games back in 1917.
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