Sept. 17
1897 — England’s Joe Lloyd beats Scotland’s Willie Anderson by one stroke to win the U.S. Open in Wheaton, Ill.
1917 — Honus Wagner, retires at 43, Pirates retire his #33.
1920 — The forerunner of the NFL, the American Professional Football Association, is founded in an automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio. Twelve teams pay a $100 fee to obtain a franchise.
1938 — Don Budge completes the Grand Slam with a four-set victory over Gene Mako in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships.
1947 — Jackie Robinson named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News.
1953 — Ernie Banks becomes Chicago Cubs 1st black player.
1954 — Rocky Marciano knocks out Ezzard Charles in the eighth round at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain his world heavyweight title.
1955 — In the first color telecast of a football game by NBC, No. 10 Georgia Tech defeats No. 9 Miami 14-6 in Atlanta. The winning score comes in the final minute when linebacker Jimmy Morris returns an interception 25 yards for a touchdown.
1961 — The Minnesota Vikings, the newest NFL franchise, beats the league’s oldest franchise, the Chicago Bears, 37-13 win in the season opener. Minnesota’s Fran Tarkenton, playing his first NFL game, comes off the bench to become the only quarterback to throw four touchdown passes in his first game.
1964 — Mickey Mantle gets career hits #1,999, #2,000, and #2,001 and his 450th home run in a 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
1966 — In his head coaching debut, coach Joe Paterno leads Penn State past Maryland 15-7.
1967 — Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts passes for 401 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-31 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
1977 — The U.S. wins the Ryder Cup 12½-7½ at Royal Lytham & St Annes England. It’s the last time that a Britain and Ireland team competes for the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup expands the GB&I to include golfers from all of continental Europe in 1979.
1984 — Reggie Jackson is the 13th player to hit 500 home runs.
1994 — UNLV receiver Randy Gatewood catches 23 passes for 363 yards and a touchdown in a 48-38 loss to Idaho.
2000 — Dan Marino’s #13 jersey is retired by the Miami Dolphins.
2002 — Suzy Whaley becomes the first woman to qualify for a PGA Tour event, earning an exemption to the 2003 Greater Hartford Open by winning a PGA Section Championship. Whaley is also is the first woman to win a Section Championship.
2004 — San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hits his 700th home run, joining Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755) as the only players to reach the milestone.
2016 — Cam Pedersen kicks a 37-yard field as time expired and North Dakota State of the FC, rallies to beat No. 13 Iowa 23-21 for its sixth straight win over an FBS opponent.
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Sept. 18
1899 — The Cincinnati Open begins. It is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States still played in its original city and is now known as the Cincinnati Masters & Women’s Open.
1938 — The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers 2-0. Left end Dick Plasman tackles Arnie Herber in the end zone in the fourth quarter for the win.
1946 — Joe Louis knocks out Tami Mauriello in the first round at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.
1960 — Goose Gonsoulin intercepts four passes to lead the Denver Broncos to a 27-21 win over the Buffalo Bills.
1965 — In his first collegiate game, quarterback Billy Stevens of Texas-El Paso gains 483 total yards in a 61-15 rout of North Texas State. Receiver Chuck Hughes has 349 of those yards.
1966 — Baltimore quarterback Johnny Unitas throws 4 touchdown passes in 38-23 win at Minnesota to surpass Y.A. Tittle as NFL’s career leader with 212; finishes career with 290 TD passes.
1967 — U.S. yacht Intrepid beats the Australian yacht Dame Pattie in four straight races to defend the America’s Cup.
1977 — U.S. yacht Courageous beats the challenger Australia in four straight races to defend the America’s Cup.
1982 — In a rare father-son matchup, coach Jack Elway leads San Jose State to its second consecutive upset of quarterback John Elway and Stanford 35-31 in Palo Alto, Calif. John Elway completes 24-of-36 passes for 382 yards and three touchdowns. Spartans quarterback Steve Clarkson, throws for 285 yards, three touchdowns and scores on a three-yard keeper for the win after a Cardinal fumble. Stanford reaches the Spartans’ 26-yard line, but Elway gets sacked on four consecutive plays to end the game.
1996 — Roger Clemens equals his own major league record, fanning 20 batters and pitching a four-hitter to lead Boston over the Detroit Tigers 4-0.
2003 — Atlanta clinches its 12th straight division title when second-place Florida is mathematically eliminated from the NL East race. The record title streak started in 1991, when the Braves won the NL West. They moved to the East Division in 1994 and trailed Montreal by six games when the strike stopped the season in August.
2005 — Green Bay’s Brett Favre joins Dan Marino and John Elway with 50,000 yards passing and also breaks Elway’s single-stadium NFL touchdown record of 180 with a 4-yard toss to Tony Fisher with 4 seconds left of a 26-24 loss to Cleveland at Lambeau Field.
2011 — At 16, Lexi Thompson becomes the youngest player to win an LPGA Tour event. The 16-year-old Floridian closes with a 2-under 70 to win by five strokes over Tiffany Joh at the Navistar LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala. Thompson shatters the age record for winning a multiple-round tournament held by Paula Creamer, who won in 2005 at 18.
2011 — Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton sets an NFL rookie record by throwing for 432 yards against the Green Bay Packers. Newton, who tied the record by throwing for 422 yards in last week’s loss at Arizona, completes 28 of 46 passes with one touchdown in the 30-23 loss to the Packers. Newton’s 854 yards passing is also the most yards for a player in his first two games.
2013 — American Jordan Burroughs earns another wrestling world title. Burroughs, a gold medalist at the 2012 Olympics, extends his undefeated streak to 65 matches with a 4-0 victory over Iran’s Ezzatollah Akbarizarinkolaei in the 163-pound category at the Laszlo Papp Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
2016 — Detroit’s Anquan Boldin has a touchdown catch in the Lions’ 16-15 loss to Tennessee, to join Terrell Owens as the only players in NFL history to have at least 1,000 career receptions and a touchdown catch with four teams.
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Sept. 19
1925 — Bill Tilden wins his sixth straight U.S. Open tennis championship with a five-set victory over Bill Johnston. Tilden wins 4-6, 11-9, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. It’s the fourth consecutive year that Tilden beats Johnston in the final.
1942 — Alsab, runner-up in the 1942 Kentucky Derby, beats 3-10 favorite Whirlaway, the 1941 Triple Crown champion, by a nose in a $25,000 match race at Narragansett Park. Alsab and Whirlaway meet twice more in 1942, with Whirlaway winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct.3, and Alsab taking the New York Handicap on Oct. 10.
1948 — Pancho Gonzales, 20, wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association title with a 6-2, 6-3, 14-12 victory over Eric Sturgess.
1951 — Ford C. Frick, president of the National League, is elected baseball commissioner by the team owners.
1985 — Minnesota’s Tommy Kramer passes for 436 yards and three touchdowns in the Vikings’ 33-24 loss to the Chicago Bears.
1988 — U.S. Olympic diver Greg Louganis hits his head on diving board at the Seoul Olympics. Louganis hits the board on his ninth dive. He has four temporary stitches put in the top of his head so that he could come back and perform his last two dives. Less than 30 minutes later, he completes a reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 3 1/2 twists and, in the final round, a reverse 3 1/2 somersault in tuck position to secure his place in the medal round.
1992 — Sergei Bubka raises the world record in the pole vault, his 32nd world record, clearing 20 feet, 1½ inches in the Toto International at Tokyo.
1992 — Barry Bonds joins Willie Mays, Howard Johnson & Ron Gant as having (2) 30-HR/30-steal MLB seasons.
1993 — Nigel Mansell overpowers the field in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix to become the first rookie to win the Indy car PPG Cup championship.
2000 — In the Sydney Olympics, the U.S. softball team strands a staggering 20 baserunners in an 11-inning, 2-1 loss to Japan, which ends a 112-game winning streak. It’s the first loss for the Americans since the 1998 world championships.
2000 — Ken Griffey Jr. pinch-hits his 400th home run becoming the first major league player to reach the mark as a pinch-hitter.
2001 — Roger Clemens becomes the first pitcher in major league history to go 20-1, pitching the New York Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
2004 — Jerry Rice’s run of 274 straight games with a catch is ended in the Oakland Raiders’ 13-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. The last time Rice didn’t catch a pass was Dec. 1, 1985, at Washington.
2008 — Greg Maddox pitches his 5,000th career inning against the San Francisco Giants.
2009 — Texas College of the NAIA is trounced 75-6 by Texas Southern, a week after losing 92-0 to Stephen F. Austin. The Steers fall to 0-4 and have been outscored 300-12.
2010 — Matt Schaub is 38 of 52 for a franchise-record 497 yards with three touchdowns in Houston’s 30-27 overtime win over Washington. Donovan McNabb of the Redskins is 28 of 38 for 426 yards. It’s the first time two quarterbacks throw for 400 yards in an NFL game since 1994.
2015 — Greyson Lambert of Georgia throws for 330 yards, three touchdowns and sets an NCAA record by completing all but one of his 25 passes to lead the to a 52-20 victory over South Carolina. Lambert posts the highest percentage (96.0) in FBS history for a minimum of 20 completions, breaking the mark of 95.8 (23 of 24) shared by Tennessee’s Tee Martin and West Virginia’s Geno Smith.
2015 — Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma, sets a school record with 572 total yards, throws four TD passes and runs for two more scores in the Sooners’ 52-38 victory over Tulsa.
2017 — A new MLB record for the most home runs in a season as number 5,694 is hit by Alex Gordon of the Kansas City Royals.
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