Jan. 9
1942 — Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer with four seconds left in the first round at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.
1977 — Oakland wins their first NFL Championship and the Minnesota Vikings drop their fourth Super Bowl as the Raiders post a 32-14 triumph.
1988 — Anthony Carter catches 10 passes for an NFL postseason-record 227 yards to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a 36-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers and advanced to the NFC title game.
1991 — Dean Smith collects his 700th career coaching victory as North Carolina routs Maryland 105-73. Smith is the sixth Division I basketball coach to reach the 700-win plateau and does so in the shortest time.
1996 — The Toronto Raptors set an NBA record by not making a single free throw in a 92-91 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. The expansion Raptors shoots 0-for-3 from the foul line.
2004 — Brian Boucher of Phoenix posts his fifth consecutive shutout in a 2-0 win over Minnesota. He stops 21 shots and passes Bill Durnan’s NHL mark of 309:21, early in the third period.
2006 — Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 45 points against Indiana, making him the first player since Wilt Chamberlain — in November of 1964 — to score at least that many in four straight games.
2007 — Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire, whose 583 home runs ranked seventh on the career list, does not make it on his first ballot.
2008 — Golf Channel suspends anchor Kelly Tilghman for two weeks for saying a week earlier that young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should “lynch him in a back alley.”
2010 — Peyton Manning becomes the first player to win The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player honors four times.
2010 — Detroit’s Ben Gordon scores 20 points, including the 10 millionth point in NBA history, in a 104-04 loss to Philadelphia.
2012 — Jeremy Shelley kicks five field goals and Trent Richardson breaks a 34-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter as No. 2 Alabama beats No. 1 LSU 21-0 — the first shutout in BCS title game history.
2013 — No one is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. For the second time in four decades, baseball writers fail to give any player the 75 percent required for induction to Cooperstown. Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, appears on 68.2 percent of the 569 ballots, the highest total but 39 votes shy.
2016 — Quarterback Carson Wentz, out since mid-October with a broke wrist, returns to lead North Dakota State to an unprecedented fifth straight FCS championship with a 37-10 victory over top seed Jacksonville State.
2016 — Chris Boswell kicks a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining as the Steelers somehow pull out an 18-16 victory over Cincinnati in the AFC wild-card game. Pittsburgh moves into field goal position after a pair of 15-yard penalties on the Bengals, one on linebacker Vontaze Burfict and another on Adam Jones after Burfict hits defenseless Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown.
2017 — College Football National Championship, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa: #2 Clemson beats #1 Alabama, 35-31.
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Jan. 10
1972 — The longest winning streak in major professional sports — 33 games — ends when the Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 120-104 behind 39 points by Milwaukee’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
1980 — Goaltender Jim Stewart, in his first and only game with the Boston Bruins, yields three goals in the first four minutes and five in the first period. He’s replaced and never plays in the NHL again.
1982 — Joe Montana’s third touchdown pass of the game, a 6-yarder to Dwight Clark, with 51 seconds remaining, lifts the San Francisco 49ers to 28-27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC title game.
1986 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers scores his 34,000th career point during 124-102 win over Indiana Pacers; only NBA player to reach the milestone at that time; remains all-time leader (38,387).
1989 — LA Kings center Wayne Gretzky becomes NHL’s all-time leading scorer in combined regular season & playoff points; 4 assists in 5-4 home win over Edmonton brings his total to 2,011, 1 more than Gordie Howe.
1998 — Michelle Kwan receives eight perfect 6.0s out of nine marks for artistry in the free skate to win her second U.S. Figure Skating Championship in three years.
2002 — Todd Eldredge wins his sixth U.S. Figure Skating Championships title. After skipping two seasons of competition, Eldredge edges defending champion Tim Goebel.
2004 — Michelle Kwan wins her seventh straight title and eighth overall at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Only one of the sport’s greats, Maribel Vinson, has more U.S. championships, with nine.
2006 — Bruce Sutter is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the fourth reliever and first pitcher elected with no career starts.
2008 — Alex Ovechkin signs a $124 million, 13-year contract extension with the Washington Capitals, the NHL’s first $100 million deal.
2009 — Arizona, the lone NFC team not to make it to a conference championship game since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, gets to host its’ first NFC championship game after a 33-13 win at Carolina.
2010 — Karlos Dansby’s 17-yard fumble return for a touchdown in overtime gives the Arizona Cardinals a 51-45 victory over the Green Bay Packers in the highest-scoring playoff game in NFL history.
2011 — Top-ranked Auburn beats No. 2 Oregon 22-19 in the BCS title game. Wes Byrum’s 19-yard field goal with no time left — his sixth career game-winning field goal — caps a 14-0 season.
2015 — North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz runs 5 yards for the winning touchdown about a minute after Tre Roberson’s 58-yard run puts Illinois State ahead, and the Bison became the first team to win four straight FCS championships with a thrilling 29-27 victory.
2015 — Tom Brady sets a career record for postseason touchdown passes, leading New England back from two 14-point deficits for a 35-31 victory over Baltimore. Brady breaks Joe Montana’s record with 46 postseason TD passes and the Patriots reaches their fourth straight AFC championship game.
2016 — Blair Walsh’s 27-yard field goal try into the frigid wind for Minnesota hooks left with 22 seconds remaining, handing the Seattle Seahawks a 10-9 victory over the Vikings in their wild-card round playoff game in below-zero weather.
2016 — Alex Ovechkin scores his 500th and 501st goals to become the 43rd NHL player to reach the milestone, and the Washington Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators 7-1.
2022 — College Football, National Championship, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana: #3 Georgia beats #1 Alabama, 33-18.
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Jan. 11
1970 — The AFL wins its second straight Super Bowl as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 behind Len Dawson’s superb quarterbacking and Jan Stenerud’s three field goals.
1973 — The American League adopts the designated hitter rule.
1981 — Jim Plunkett completes 14 of 18 passes for 261 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Oakland Raiders to 34-27 victory over the San Diego Chargers for the AFC title. The Raiders are the first AFC wild-card team to advance to the Super Bowl.
1984 — The Denver Nuggets beats the San Antonio Spurs 163-155 in the highest-scoring regulation NBA game.
1987 — Denver’s John Elway leads the Broncos to a 23-20 overtime victory over the Cleveland Browns to win the AFC Championship. Elway caps a 15-play, 98-yard march with a 5-yard TD pass to Mark Jackson to tie the game with 37 seconds remaining. Rich Karlis kicks a 33-yard field goal in overtime to give Denver the win.
1992 — Kristi Yamaguchi, runner-up the previous three years, wins her first title in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Christopher Bowman, the 1989 U.S. champion, wins the men’s title.
1998 — Lleyton Hewitt, an Australian high school student ranked 550th, wins the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championship to become the lowest-ranked player to win an ATP Tour event.
2004 — Detroit allows 100 points for the first time this season, but the Pistons were still able to outlast Dallas 115-102. Detroit has its NBA-record streak of not allowing 100 points snapped at 38 games, including 36 this season.
2009 — Philadelphia, led by Donovan McNabb, eliminates the New York Giants 23-11 to reach the NFC title game for the fifth time in eight seasons. This is the first game in NFL history to finish 23-11.
2011 — Toronto beats San Jose 4-2 to give Maple Leafs’ coach Ron Wilson his 600th career win. Wilson becomes the seventh coach to reach the 600-win milestone.
2014 — LeGarrette Blount rushes for 166 yards and four touchdown as the New England beats Indianapolis 43-22 to advance to their third consecutive AFC championship game. Blount joins Ricky Watters, who had five touchdowns for San Francisco on Jan. 15, 1994, as the only players with four or more in a playoff game.
2014 — Gracie Gold wins her first U.S. figure skating title and 15-year-old Polina Edmunds finishes second. Charlie White and Meryl Davis win a record sixth straight U.S. ice dance title — one more than American ice dance pioneers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.
2014 — Alex Rodriguez is dealt the most severe punishment in the history of baseball’s drug agreement when arbitrator Fredric Horowitz rules the New York Yankees third baseman is suspended for the entire 2014 season as a result of a drug investigation by Major League Baseball. The decision cuts the suspension issued Aug. 5, 2013 by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig from 211 games.
2015 — Roger Federer beats the up-and-coming Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-4 to register his 1,000th career match and win the Brisbane International. Federer is the third player to win 1,000 times on the men’s professional tour’ joining Jimmy Connors (1,253) and Ivan Lendl (1,071).
2015 — Green Bay rallies from an eight-point deficit behind Aaron Rodgers, who throws two second-half touchdowns to beat Dallas 26-21 in an NFC divisional-round playoff. The Packers are helped by a video challenge with 4:06 remaining. Dez Bryant’s leaping catch at the Packers 1 on fourth-and-2 is reversed by referee Gene Steratore after Green Bay challenges. Instead of first-and-goal for Dallas, the ball goes to the Packers.
2016 — No. 2 Alabama wins its fourth national title in the last seven seasons, outlasting the dynamic play of Deshaun Watson and No. 1 Clemson in a 45-40 victory in the College Football Playoff championship game.
2021 — College Football, National Championship, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida: #1 Alabama beats #3 Ohio State, 52-24.
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