Today in Sports – Week Ahead, December 1 – 7

Dec. 5

1924 — Red Green of the Hamilton Tigers scores five goals in a 10-5 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

1971 — Willie Ellison of the Los Angeles Rams sets an NFL record with 247 yards rushing in a 45-28 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Teammate Travis Williams also returns a kickoff 105 yards for a touchdown.

1972 — Johnny Rodgers of Nebraska wins the Heisman Trophy beating out Oklahoma’s Gregg Pruitt and teammate Rich Glover. The all-purpose back gains 5,586 yards and scored 45 touchdowns in his collegiate career.

1974 — David Thompson scores an ACC-record 57 points to lead North Carolina State to a 144-88 rout of Buffalo State. Thompson surpasses the 56 points scored by South Carolina’s John Roche against Furman on Feb. 5, 1971.

1976 — O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills rushes for 203 yards and a touchdown in a 45-27 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

1981 — Southern California’s Marcus Allen, who set an NCAA record for yards rushing in a season with 2,342, wins the Heisman Trophy.

1987 — Tim Brown, wide receiver and kick returner from Notre Dame, is awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1992 — Second-ranked Alabama beats No. 15 Florida 28-21 in the first SEC championship game. Alabama’s Antonio Langham intercepts a Shane Matthews pass, returning it 27 yards for a touchdown with 3:16 left in the game.

1995 — Dan Marino completes 35 of 50 passes for 343 yards with two touchdowns and in leading Miami to a 21-20 comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons. It was his 52nd 300-yard game of his career, breaking the league record he had shared with Dan Fouts.

2004 — Peyton Manning of Indianapolis is 25-of-33 for 425 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in a 51-24 win over Tennessee. Manning notches his 13th straight multi-TD game, breaking the NFL record held by Dan Marino, Johnny Unitas, Don Meredith and Brett Favre.

2008 — Former NFL star O.J. Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery.

2012 — Kobe Bryant scores 29 points, making him the fifth player in NBA history to score 30,000, and the Los Angeles Lakers snap a two-game skid with a 103-87 victory over the New Orleans Hornets. The other players to score more than 30,000 are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.

2016 — Klay Thompson has 60 points, an NBA season high and the most by a Golden State player in more than 42 years, as the Warriors whip the Indiana Pacers 142-106. Thompson scores 40 by halftime in just 18-plus minutes. He had a career-best 60 points through three quarters and called it a night, sitting down with 1:22 left in the period.

2017 — Russia is banned from the next Winter Olympics in South Korea over state-sponsored doping.

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Dec. 6

1939 — Iowa’s Nile Kinnick wins the Heisman Trophy. The back passed for 638 yards and 11 touchdowns and rushed for 374 yards.

1961 — Syracuse running back Ernie Davis becomes the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy.

1984 — Martina Navratilova loses to Helena Sukova, ending the longest winning streak in history of women’s singles tennis — 74 matches dating to Jan. 15, 1984.

1986 — Miami’s Vinny Testaverde wins the Heisman Trophy in a runaway. The quarterback, who led the nation in passing efficiency, won the by 1,541 points over Temple running back Paul Palmer, the country’s top rusher.

1990 — The Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators receive approval to join the NHL in 1992-93.

1992 — Jerry Rice becomes the NFL’s career leader in touchdown receptions with his 101st scoring pass during the fourth quarter of the San Francisco 49ers’ 27-3 victory over Miami. Rice surpassed Steve Largent’s mark of 100.

1992 — Jim Courier rebounds from a slow start to beat Switzerland’s Jakob Hlasek in four sets as the United States recaptures the Davis Cup.

1998 — Denver with a 35-31 comeback win over Kansas City, becomes the third 13-0 team in NFL history. The Broncos join the 1934 Chicago Bears and 1972 Miami Dolphins.

2000 — Golden State’s Antawn Jamison and the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant each scored 51 points, including trading six straight scores in the final two minutes of overtime. It’s Jamison’s second 51-point performance in four days, and Bryant’s career high. But Jamison earns extra satisfaction as the Warriors prevail 125-122 over Los Angeles. It’s the first time in 38 years two players score 50 in the same game.

2003 — Army becomes the first team to finish 0-13 in major college history after a 34-6 loss to Navy.

2005 — Philadelphia wins the first scoreless NHL game that is decided by a shootout, beating Calgary 1-0. Philadelphia’s Antero Niittymaki stops 28 shots in regulation and overtime and all three during the shootout.

2008 — Southern California beats UCLA 28-7 to win its record seventh straight Pac-10 championship. The Trojans (11-1) also have won 11 or more games in seven straight seasons — another record.

2009 — Switzerland’s Carlo Janka wins the giant slalom to become the first man in more than 2 1/2 years with three consecutive World Cup victories. Janka won the super combined event two days earlier and the downhill yesterday.

2009 — Drew Brees is 35 for 49 for 419 yards with two touchdowns and one interception as New Orleans stays undefeated with a 33-30 overtime win at Washington. New Orleans and Indianapolis both improve to 12-0, marking the first time in NFL history that two teams are unbeaten this late in the season.

2009 — Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre sets an NFL record by playing in his 283rd consecutive game, a 30-17 loss to Arizona. The 40-year-old Favre breaks the record of 282 held by longtime Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall.

2013 — Jennifer O’Neill scores a career-high 43 points, including the go-ahead basket in the fourth overtime, and No. 5 Kentucky beats No. 9 Baylor 133-130 in the highest-scoring Division I women’s game in history. The previous high for a Division I women’s game was 252 points in SMU’s 127-125 win over TCU, also in four overtimes, on Jan. 25, 1997.

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Dec. 7

1973 — Jerry West of Los Angeles sets an NBA record with 10 steals in the Lakers’ 115-111 loss to the Seattle Supersonics.

1985 — Auburn tailback Bo Jackson beats Iowa quarterback Chuck Long by 45 points in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy, the closest vote in the 51-year history of the trophy.

1991 — AJ Kitt becomes the first American in seven years to win a men’s World Cup race, taking the first downhill of the season In Val D’Isere, France.

2002 — St. John’s (Minn.) coach John Gagliardi wins his 400th game with a 21-14 victory over Linfield in the Division III quarterfinals. Gagliardi is the second coach to reach the 400 mark, eight victories behind Eddie Robinson.

2003 — The computer rankings have Oklahoma as the country’s top team while the human poll voters pick USC. Despite getting walloped by Kansas State 35-7, No. 3 Oklahoma takes its 12-1 record to the Sugar Bowl against No. 2 LSU, which won the Southeastern Conference championship by beating Georgia 34-13.

2006 — Willie Parker breaks Pittsburgh’s single-game rushing record with 223 yards as the Steelers rough up the Cleveland Browns 27-7. Parker, the first player in Steelers history to have two 200-yard games in a season, betters John “Frenchy” Fuqua’s record of 218 yards against Philadelphia in 1970.

2008 — The Arizona Cardinals clinch their first division title in 33 years by beating the woeful St. Louis Rams 34-10. The Cardinals, long the league’s doormat franchise with just one winning season in the past 24 years, earn their first playoff berth since 1998 and first divisional title since they won the NFC East in 1975.

2013 — Aurelien Collin scores the equalizer in the second half of the MLS Cup, then drives home the deciding penalty kick to give Sporting Kansas City a dramatic victory over Real Salt Lake and its first league title since 2000. With the score 1-1 through regulation and 30 minutes of overtime, the teams engage in the longest penalty-kick shootout in championship history — one that both sides had chances to win before Collin’s shot and Jimmy Nielsen’s save left Sporting KC with the 7-6 victory.

2014 — The first College Football Playoff expands the national championship race and produces a final four with major star power. Nick Saban’s No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Urban Meyer’s No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes at the Sugar Bowl. Marcus Mariota and second-seeded Oregon vs. Jameis Winston, last season’s Heisman Trophy winner, and defending national champion Florida State at the Rose Bowl.

2014 — Robbie Keane scores on a breakaway in the 111th minute, and Landon Donovan wins his record sixth MLS title in the LA Galaxy’s 2-1 victory over the New England Revolution in the MLS Cup.

2016 — Napheesa Collier scores 20 points, Gabby Williams has 19 points, 12 rebounds and six assists and No. 1 Connecticut beats No. 2 Notre Dame 72-61 for its 83rd straight victory. UConn’s last loss was 88-86 in overtime to Stanford on Nov. 17, 2014.

2017 — Larry Nassar, a former elite sports doctor whose sexual assault cases that rocked Michigan State University and the group that trains U.S. Olympic gymnasts, is sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for possessing thousands of images of child pornography. Nassar, 54, will also be sentenced for 10 state counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in January. In November, he pled guilty to using his hands to molest girls at his campus office, his home and at a gymnastics club near Lansing, Michigan.

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