Dec. 15
1925 — The first NHL game is played at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Americans score first, but the Montreal Canadiens prevail 3-1, before 17,000 in attendance.
1929 — The Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 in their first game at Chicago Stadium. Vic Ripley scores twice in 35 seconds during the second period to the delight of the 14,212 fans in attendance.
1935 — Detroit Lions win NFL championship with a 26-7 win over the New York Giants.
1946 — Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants 24-14 at the Polo Grounds for the NFL championship. A record crowd of 58,326 attend the game. Sid Luckman’s 19-yard touchdown run in the fourth puts the Bears ahead 21-14. Before the game, New York’s star fulback Merles Hapes is declared ineligible by NFL commissioner Bert Bell for not reporting bribe attempt to throw the game. New York police phone taps produced coversations with gambler Alvin J. Paris and Hapes. The Bears were 10-point favorites.
1964 — San Francisco’s Wilt Chamberlain scores 58 points, including nine in overtime, to give the Warriors a 134-132 victory over the New York Knicks.
1970 — Glenn Hall of the St. Louis Blues becomes the second goaltender in NHL history to reach 400 victories. Hall makes 38 saves in a 2-1 win against the Minnesota North Stars. Hall joins Terry Sawchuk in the 400-win club.
1973 — Tennessee beats Temple 11-6 in the lowest scoring NCAA basketball game since 1938. With 11:44 left in the first half and Tennessee leading 7-5, Temple holds onto the ball without a shot. Tennessee doesn’t take a shot in the second half, but manages four free throws by John Snow.
1973 — Sandy Hawley becomes the first jockey in history to win 500 races in a single year, riding Charlie Jr. to victory in the third race at Laurel Race Course.
1974 — Oakland’s Jim “Catfish” Hunter is ruled a free agent by arbitrator Peter Seitz when A’s owner Charles O. Finley fails to live up to the terms of Hunter’s contract.
1984 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky has five goals and an assist to lead the Oilers to an 8-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues.
1995 — The Vancouver Grizzlies avoid tying the NBA record for consecutive losses in a season by snapping a 19-game losing streak with a 104-100 overtime victory over Portland.
2000 — Georgia Southern beats Montana 27-25 for a second-straight Division I-AA championship and its a record sixth championship.
2012 — Matt Scott throws two touchdown passes in the final 46 seconds and college bowl season starts with a wild one when Arizona rallies to beat Nevada 49-48 in the New Mexico Bowl. Arizona trails 45-28 entering the final quarter. The teams combine for 1,237 total yards, the second most of any bowl game.
2013 — Jamaal Charles ties a franchise record with five touchdowns in a game as the Kansas City Chiefs beat Oakland 56-31. The Chiefs become the fourth team ever to make the playoffs a year after losing at least 14 games.
2016 — In the biggest Division I women’s basketball rout ever, No. 3 Baylor overwhelms Winthrop 140-32. The 108-point margin of victory surpasses the 102 set by Grambling when it beat Jarvis Christian College 139-37 in 1986.
2017 — Mount Union wins its 13th Division III football national championship with a 12-0 victory over defending champion Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Purple Raiders (15-0) limit Mary Hardin-Baylor to 144 yards. The Crusaders (14-1) had not trailed all season and had their 29-game winning streak snapped.
2019 — Raiders play their final NFL game in Oakland conceding 17 unanswered 2nd half points to go down 20-16 to the Jacksonville Jaguars; team to play out of Las Vegas in 2020
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Dec. 16
1918 — Jack Dempsey knocks out Carl Morris in 14 seconds in a heavyweight bout in New Orleans.
1930 — Golfer Bobby Jones wins the first James E. Sullivan Award. The award is given to “the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.”
1940 — Joe Louis knocks out Al McCoy in the sixth round at the Boston Garden to retain the world heavyweight title.
1945 — The Cleveland Rams beat the Washington Redskins 15-14 for the NFL championship. The deciding play turns out to be a first-quarter automatic safety when the Redskins’ Sammy Baugh passes from his own end zone and the wind carries the ball into the goal post.
1967 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scores 68 points in a 143-123 victory over the Chicago Bulls.
1973 — O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills rushes for 200 yards in a 34-14 victory over the New York Jets and sets an NFL record with 2,003 yards rushing for the season. Simpson needed 61 yards to break Jim Brown’s NFL single season rushing record of 1,863 yards set in 1963.
1990 — Warren Moon passes for a 527 yards — the second-greatest passing day in NFL history — as the Houston Oilers beat Kansas City 27-10.
2003 — New Orleans Saints receiver Joe Horn is fined $30,000 by the NFL for making a choreographed cell-phone call in the end zone to celebrate a touchdown during the Saints’ 45-7 rout of the New York Giants on Dec. 14.
2006 — Morten Andersen becomes the greatest scorer in NFL history. The 46-year-old Andersen breaks Gary Anderson’s career scoring record of 2,434 points with the second of four extra points in the Atlanta Falcons’ 38-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
2007 — Brett Favre passes for 227 yards in Green Bay’s 33-14 win over St. Louis, eclipsing Dan Marino to become the NFL career leader in yards passing. Favre, in his 17th season, finishes the game with 61,405 yards. Marino had 61,361 in 17 seasons.
2007 — Kikkan Randall becomes the first U.S. woman and second American to win a World Cup cross country race when she defeats world sprint champion Astrid Jacobsen of Norway in the final meters of a 1.2-kilometer freestyle race. Randall is the first American to win a World Cup cross country race since Bill Koch in 1983.
2010 — American Ryan Lochte sets the first individual swimming world record since high-tech bodysuits were banned, winning the 400-meter individual medley at the short-course world championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
2012 — Ryan Lochte wins two more races at the short-course world championships in Istanbul, finishing the event with six golds and one silver. The result matches his medal total from the last championships, in Dubai in 2010.
2013 — Justin Tucker makes six field goals, including a 61-yarder in the final minute, to give the Baltimore Ravens an 18-16 win over the Detroit Lions.
2014 — Nick Bjugstad scores the game-winning goal in the longest shootout in NHL history to lift the Florida Panthers over the Washington Capitals 2-1. Bjugstad’s goal comes in the 20th round of a shootout — on the 40th shot — and beats Braden Holtby on the right side.
2016 — James Harden gets his sixth triple-double of the season and the Houston Rockets make an NBA-record 24 3-pointers in a 122-100 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
2019 — Drew Brees breaks Peyton Manning’s NFL record (539) for career touchdown passes as New Orleans Saints rout Indianapolis Colts, 34-7; Brees 29 of 30 for 307 yards & 4 TDs for record 96.7% pass completion.
2020 – US Major League Baseball announces it is elevating the Negro Leagues to Major League status
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Dec. 17
1933 — The Chicago Bears win the first NFL championship with a 23-21 victory over the New York Giants. The Bears score the winning touchdown on a 36-yard play that starts with a short pass from Bronko Nagurski to Bill Hewitt, who then laterals to Bill Kerr for the score.
1944 — National Football League Championship, Polo Grounds, NYC: Green Bay Packers beat New York Giants, 14-7 for 6th and final league title under long-time coach Curly Lambeau.
1983 — In his 352nd NHL game, Wayne Gretzky scores a goal & 5 assists in 8-1 rout of Quebec Nordiques to record his 800th point and 500th assist; averages 2.27 points, 1.42 assists, 0.85 goals per game to start career.
1987 — Chicago’s Michael Jordan scores 52 points to lead the Bulls to a 111-100 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
1991 — The Cleveland Cavaliers turn a 20-point halftime lead over Miami into the most lopsided victory in NBA history, 148-80 over the Heat. The 68-point margin eclipses the mark of 63 set March 19, 1972, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 162-99.
1993 — Julio Cesar Chavez secures his place in boxing history, retaining his WBC super lightweight title with a fifth-round victory over Britain’s Andy Holligan. It’s the 27th time Chavez fought for a title without a loss since 1984, breaking Joe Louis’ mark of 26.
1993 — Virgil Hill becomes the most successful light heavyweight in boxing history, winning a record 15th title defense with a unanimous decision over Guy Waters of Australia. Hill, the WBA champion for five of the last six years, had been tied with Bob Foster, who held light heavyweight titles from 1968 to 1974.
2000 — Terrell Owens catches an NFL-record 20 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 17-0 victory over Chicago. Jeff Garcia completes 36 of 44 passes for 402 yards and two touchdowns for the 49ers.
2005 — John Ruiz loses the WBA heavyweight title, dropping a disputed majority decision to 7-foot Nikolay Valuev of Russia in Berlin. Valuev, the first Russian heavyweight champion, also becomes the tallest and heaviest (323 pounds) champion of all-time.
2006 — LaDainian Tomlinson breaks Paul Hornung’s 46-year-old NFL single-season scoring record on a 15-yard run in the first quarter of San Diego’s game against Kansas City. The touchdown run gives him 180 points, breaking Hornung’s record of 176 set with the Green Bay Packers in 1960.
2006 — Gilbert Arenas sets a franchise record with 60 points, 16 of them in overtime, to lead Washington to a 147-141 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
2013 — Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scores 21 points on a career-high seven 3-pointers and No. 1 Connecticut beat second-ranked Duke 83-61. Breanna Stewart has 24 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies as coach Geno Auriemma earns his 850th career win.
2016 — Donnel Pumphrey breaks the NCAA career rushing record in his college finale, running for 115 yards and a touchdown in San Diego State’s 34-10 victory over Houston in the Las Vegas Bowl. Pumphrey passes former Wisconsin star Ron Dayne’s mark of 6,397 yards on a 15-yard run early in the fourth quarter and wraps up his sensational career in his Nevada hometown with 6,405 yards. Pumphrey’s senior total of 2,133 yards rushing ranks in the top 10 for a FBS player.
2016 — Malik Monk scores a Kentucky freshman record 47 points and hits the go-ahead 3-pointer with 16.7 seconds left to lead the sixth-ranked Wildcats past No. 7 North Carolina 103-100 in a thrilling showdown of traditional powers.
2022 — Minnesota Vikings recover from 33-0 down at halftime to beat Indianapolis Colts, 39-36 in overtime at US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN; biggest comeback in NFL history.
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Dec. 18
1930 — Adolph Rupp coaches his first game at Kentucky, a 67-19 win over Georgetown College in Kentucky. Rupp retires in 1972 after winning 879 games and four national titles.
1949 — The Philadelphia Eagles win the NFL championship with a 14-0 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
1954 — Montreal’s Maurice Richard becomes the first player in NHL history to score 400 goals during the Canadiens’ 4-2 road victory against the Chicago Black Hawks.
1961 — Olympic track star Wilma Rudolph wins The Associated Press’ female athlete of year award for the second consecutive year.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain of the San Francisco Warriors scores 61 points in a 130-110 over the St. Louis Hawks.
1964 — Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals scores 56 points, including 18 in the final quarter, in a 111-107 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
1976 — Oakland quarterback Kenny Stabler scores with 14 seconds left to give the Raiders a 24-21 comeback victory over the New England Patriots in the in the AFC divisional playoffs.
1983 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky scores his 100th point of the season the Edmonton Oilers’ 34th game, a 7-5 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Gretzky scores two goals and has two assists to get to 100 points faster than any player in NHL history. He finishes the season with 205 points.
1995 — Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers records the fifth-highest yardage total by a receiver in NFL history with 289 yards, and catches three touchdown passes in a 37-30 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
1997 — Germany’s Katja Seizinger wins her sixth straight race to tie former French star Jean-Claude Killy’s World Cup record for consecutive victories.
2005 — Indianapolis, which won its first 13 games, the fourth team in NFL history to do so, loses 26-17 at home to San Diego.
2006 — Tenth-ranked Arizona State beats Texas Tech 61-45 when the second outdoor game in women’s college basketball history is called on account of rain with 4:18 to play at Chase Field, home of baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.
2007 — Edmonton sets an NHL record by competing in its fourth straight shootout, but loses to Dallas 2-1. The Oilers, who had won the first three, lose for the second time in their 12 shootout appearances.
2008 — Steve Asmussen is the first North American trainer to win 600 Thoroughbred races in a single year as Storm Trust captures the fifth race at Delta Downs.
2011 — The Green Bay Packers’ 19-game winning streak, second-longest in NFL history, is snapped with a 19-14 loss at Kansas City.
2011 — Brittney Griner scores 12 of her 25 points in the closing run that pushes the top-ranked Baylor Lady Bears past No. 2 UConn 66-61.
2016 — New England defeats Denver 16-3 to clinch the AFC East and earn a first-round bye. It marks the eighth consecutive division title for the Patriots, the longest streak in NFL history, breaking a tie with the 1973-79 Los Angeles Rams (seven). New England is the only team in NFL history to win 13 division titles in a 14-year span.
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