Dec. 13
1942 — The Washington Redskins win the NFL Championship with a 14-6 victory over the Chicago Bears.
1958 — Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings scores his 400th NHL goal in a 2-2 tie against the Montreal Canadiens.
1981 — John McEnroe and Roscoe Tanner lead the United States to a 3-1 victory over Argentina in the Davis Cup final.
1983 — Detroit beats Denver 186-184 in triple overtime in the highest-scoring game in NBA history. Isiah Thomas scores 47 and John Long adds 41 for the Pistons. Denver’s Kiki Vandeweghe had 51 points.
1992 — Manon Rheaume becomes the first woman to play in a regular-season professional game when she appears in the Atlanta Knights’ 4-1 loss to Salt Lake City in the International Hockey League.
1995 — Detroit’s Paul Coffey becomes the first NHL defenseman to reach 1,000 career assists, setting up Igor Larionov’s first-period goal in the Red Wings’ 3-1 victory over Chicago.
1997 — Michigan’s Charles Woodson is named the first predominantly defensive player to receive the Heisman Trophy in the 63 years of the award. Woodson and the Wolverines go on to defeat Washington State in the 1998 Rose Bowl, claiming a perfect 12-0 season and a share of the National Championship.
1998 — Gary Anderson kicks six field goals, setting the NFL record with 34 straight without a miss, in Minnesota’s 38-28 victory over Baltimore.
2003 — Mount Union breaks its own NCAA record by winning its 55th consecutive game, beating Bridgewater 66-0 in the NCAA Division III semifinals.
2004 — In Sestriere, Italy, World Cup leader Bode Miller wins a slalom to join Marc Girardelli as the only men to win races in all four disciplines in a season. Miller has won slalom, giant slalom, super-G and downhill races in a span of 16 days.
2007 — Major League Baseball’s Mitchell Report is released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in the 409-page document. The biggest name linked by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to illegal use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens.
2010 — Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre, 41, is sidelined by a throwing shoulder too damaged for even him to overcome. The injury ends of one of the greatest individual streaks in all of sports. Favre had made 297 consecutive starts over 19 seasons.
2014 — Marcus Mariota wins the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Oregon player to earn college football’s top individual honor. Mariota accounts for a Pac-12-record 53 touchdowns (38 passing, 14 rushing and one receiving) while directing the Ducks’ warp-speed spread offense, and leading Oregon to a spot in the first College Football Playoff.
2015 – Irishman Conor McGregor knocks out Brazilian Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to win his 1st featherweight title in Las Vegas.
2018 — Dirk Nowitzki takes the court for his record 21st NBA season with the Dallas Mavericks, surpassing Kobe Bryant’s 20 seasons with the LA Lakers.
2022 — Washington Capitals center Alex Ovechkin scores a hat trick in 7-3 away win over Chicago Blackhawks to join Wayne Gretzky & Gordie Howe as the only players in NHL history to score 800 goals.
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Dec. 14
1920 — Jack Dempsey knocks out Bill Brennan in the 12th round at Madison Square Garden to retain his world heavyweight title.
1933 — Howie Morenz becomes the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer in the Montreal Canadiens’ 2-0 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Morenz scores the 247th goal of his career to move ahead of Cy Denneny. The milestone comes at the Forum. Montreal’s Lorne Chabot gets the shutout and the a game is played without a penalty being called.
1947 — The Cleveland Browns beat the New York Yankees 14-3 in the second AAFC championship game. It’s the second straight year the two team meet in the title game, with Browns coming out on top again.
1965 — Rookie Rick Barry of the San Francisco Warriors scores 57 points in a 141-137 loss to the New York Knicks.
1975 — Los Angeles Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar grabs an NBA-record 29 defensive rebounds in a 110-100 victory over Detroit.
1982 — Marcel Dionne of the Los Angeles Kings scores his 500th goal in a 7-2 loss to the Washington Capitals. Dionne is the ninth player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
1985 — UCLA beats American University 1-0 in the eighth overtime period, in the longest soccer match held in the United States, to capture the NCAA soccer title.
1986 — Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins sets an NFL record with the seventh 400-yard game of his career as he passes for 403 yards and five touchdowns in a 37-31 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Marino hits Mark Duper with a 20-yard touchdown pass in overtime to win the game.
1991 — Desmond Howard, the nation’s second-leading scorer with 23 TDs, wins the Heisman Trophy by the second-biggest margin in history. The Michigan receiver beats runner-up Casey Weldon of Florida State by 1,574 points.
1995 — The first Division I-A overtime game takes place at the Las Vegas Bowl with Toledo beat Nevada 40-37.
1997 — The New York Jets equal the NFL mark for greatest turnaround in modern NFL history with their 31-0 victory over Tampa Bay. The Jets, 1-15 last season, post their ninth win of the season.
2002 — Marvin Harrison breaks Herman Moore’s 1995 mark of 123 catches. By making nine receptions in a 28-23 win at Cleveland, Harrison reaches 127 with two games remaining. He also gains 172 yards, giving Harrison 1,500 yards for the second straight season, the first player with consecutive 1,500-yard seasons.
2002 — Michael Jordan matches his career low with two points as the Washington Wizards beat the short-handed Toronto Raptors. The 39-year-old Jordan shoots 1-for-9 from the field, but has nine assists and eight rebounds as he matches his season high by playing 40 minutes.
2007 — Appalachian State, which kicked off the football season with the stunning upset of Michigan, ends the season with a historic victory. The Mountaineers are Division I-AA’s first three-peat national champion with a 49-21 win over Delaware.
2008 — Oakland becomes the first team to lose at least 11 games in six straight seasons after their 49-26 loss to New England. The Patriots’ 35 first-half points are the most scored against Oakland since the merger in 1970.
2008 — Pittsburgh holds another team under 300 yards in beating Baltimore 13-9. The Steelers tie the 1973 Los Angeles Rams for the longest streak — 14 games to start a season — since the NFL merger in 1970.
2021 — Steph Curry makes his 2,974th three-point shot to pass Ray Allen as the NBA’s greatest career 3-point shooter during Golden State Warriors’ 105-96 win over NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
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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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