Feb. 9
1912 — The U.S. Tennis Association amends the rules for the men’s singles championship play. The defending champion is required to play through the tournament instead of waiting for the tournament to produce a challenger.
1940 — Joe Louis beats Arturo Godoy with a split decision to defend his world heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.
1966 — The NHL doubles in size — from six to 12 teams — when the Owners-Governors award franchises to Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and St. Louis.
1986 — Detroit’s Isiah Thomas scores 30 points and hands out 10 assists to lead the East to a 139-132 win in the All-Star Game in Dallas.
1988 — Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores a record six points — three goals and three assists — to lead the Wales Conference to a 6-5 victory over the Campbell Conference in the NHL All-Star game.
1991 — Terry Norris knocks down Sugar Ray Leonard twice and beats him up over 12 rounds in Leonard’s Madison Square Garden debut and final fight. Norris wins a unanimous decision.
1992 — Magic Johnson, playing for the first time since announcing his retirement on Nov. 7, scores a game-high 25 points and hands out nine assists to lead the West to a 153-113 win over the East in the NBA All-Star Game at the Orlando Arena.
1997 — Glen Rice breaks two scoring records in an MVP performance and Michael Jordan has the first triple-double in NBA All-Star game history. The East rallies to beat the West 132-120. Rice, who finishes with 26 points, sets records with 20 in the third quarter and 24 in the second half.
2009 — Lindsey Vonn wins the downhill for her second gold at the World Championships in Val D’isere, France. Vonn becomes the second American woman to win two golds at a worlds. Andrea Mead Lawrence won the slalom and giant slalom at the 1952 Oslo Olympics, which doubled as the worlds.
2013 — Cameron Biedscheid scores on a layup with 1:19 left in the fifth overtime, and Eric Atkins and Pat Connaugton add free throws in the final 19 seconds as No. 25 Notre Dame overcomes an eight-point deficit in regulation to beat No. 11 Louisville 104-101. The Cardinals led 56-48 with 51 seconds left in regulation. It’s the sixth time in the last eight meetings that a game between the Fighting Irish and the Cardinals goes into overtime.
2014 — Missouri All-American defensive end Michael Sam comes out to the nation. In interviews with ESPN, The New York Times and Outsports, Sam says he came out to all his teammates and coaches at Missouri in August.
2015 — San Antonio rallies from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and gets an 18-foot baseline jumper from Marco Belinelli with 2.1 seconds left to give coach Greg Popovich 1,000 wins with a 95-93 victory at Indiana.
2018 – XXIII Olympic Winter Games open in PyeongChang, South Korea.
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Feb. 10
1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Jack Palmer in the fourth round to defend his world heavyweight title in London.
1949 — Joe Fulks of Philadelphia scores 63 points in a 108-87 win over Indianapolis to set an NBA scoring record which would last for nearly a decade.
1952 — The Baltimore Bullets play the 48-minute game without making a single substitution and beat the Fort Wayne Pistons 82-77.
1962 — Jim Beatty becomes the first American to break the 4-minute mile indoors with a 3:58.9 in Los Angeles.
1968 — Peggy Fleming wins the women’s Olympic figure skating gold medal in Grenoble, France.
1969 — LSU’s Pete Maravich scores 66 points in a 110-94 loss to Tulane.
1971 — Former first baseman Bill White becomes the first black announcer in major baseball league history, signing to join the New York Yankees WPIX broadcast team.
1972 — Guy Lafleur becomes the first rookie in the NHL’s modern era to have three hat tricks in a season. Lafleur scores three goals and adds an assist in the Canadiens’ 7-1 win against the Chicago Black Hawks.
1989 — K.C. Jones of the Boston Celtics and Lenny Wilkens of the Cleveland Cavaliers are elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Also elected is William “Pop” Gates, who played during the game’s barnstorming years in the 1930s and 1940s.
1991 — Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers, playing with a stress fracture in his left foot, becomes the NBA All-Star MVP with 17 points and 22 rebounds after leading the East to a 116-114 victory.
1992 — Bonnie Blair becomes the first woman to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal in 500-meter speed skating and the first American woman in any sport to win gold medals in consecutive Olympics.
1998 — Picabo Street, Alpine skiing’s comeback kid, overcomes a mistake about midway through her run and charges to an Olympic gold by one-hundredth of a second in the women’s super-G — the games’ first Alpine medal after three days of snow-related postponements.
2003 — Detroit’s Brett Hull becomes the sixth NHL player to score 700 regular-season goals. Hull beats San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov with a wrist shot in a 5-4 win over the Sharks.
2007 — Jaromir Jagr has three assists in the New York Rangers’ 5-2 win over Washington and becomes the 12th player in NHL history to score 1,500 points.
2017 — Golden State’s Draymond Green becomes the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double with fewer than 10 points scored. Green had 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals and 4 points in a 122-107 win over Memphis. Green also had five blocks, which made him the first player to record 10 steals and five blocks in a game since steals and blocks were first tracked in 1973-74.
2018 — Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla wins the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Games and Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjoergen takes silver in the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon to become the most decorated female Winter Olympian ever. Bjoergen captures her 11th career medal, breaking a three-way tie with Russian Raisa Smetanina and Italian Stefania Belmondo.
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Feb. 11
1878 — The Boston Bicycle Club, the first bicycle club in the United States, is formed.
1949 — Willie Pep becomes the first boxer in the history of the 126-pound class to regain a lost championship with a 15-round unanimous decision over Sandy Saddler at Madison Square Garden.
1950 — Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings scores three goals for his first NHL hat trick. Howe also has two assists in the 9-4 victory over the Boston Bruins.
1952 — Philadelphia’s Paul Arizin scores 26 points to win MVP honors and lead the East team to a 108-91 win over the West in the second NBA All-Star game. George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers leads the way for the West with 26 points and 15 rebounds.
1970 — The Atlanta Hawks score 97 points, the most ever scored in the second half of an NBA game, en route to a 155-131 win at San Diego.
1971 — Montreal’s Jean Beliveau scores his 500th goal in the Canadiens’ 6-2 victory over the Minnesota North Stars.
1982 — Houston Rockets center Moses Malone grabs an NBA-record 21 offensive rebounds in a 117-100 win over Seattle.
1982 — For the first time in NHL history, referee Kerry Fraser awards penalty shots in the same period. Vancouver’s Thomas Gradin and Ivan Hlinka each score against Red Wings goalie Gilles Gilbert in the third period of a 4-4 tie at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.
1988 — Wayne Gretzky gets his NHL-record ninth 100-point season. Gretzky scores a goal and has two assists in the Edmonton Oilers’ 7-2 victory at Vancouver to give him 101 points, He passes Marcel Dionne, who had eight seasons.
1990 — Mike Tyson loses for the first time when James “Buster” Douglas knocks him out in the 10th round and captures the heavyweight championship in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
1992 — Anfissa Reztsova wins the women’s 7.5-kilometer biathlon event to become the first woman to get gold medals in two different Winter Olympic sports. She skied the final 5-kilometer leg on the Soviet Union’s winning 20K cross-country relay team in the 1988 Olympics.
1995 — For the first time an NBA team to has two of its players sweep the All-Star Saturday competition. Harold Miner wins the Slam Dunk and Glen Rice captures the Long Distance Shootout for the Miami Heat.
2000 — Boston’s Ray Bourque becomes the second defenseman, and ninth player, in NHL history to reach 1,500 points. Bourque he scores a goal for the Bruins in a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers.
2007 — Anja Paerson captures the downhill, becoming the first skier to win gold medals in all five disciplines at the world championships. Paerson, who also won the super-G and combined titles earlier in the week, won gold medals in the giant slalom at the last two worlds and one in the slalom in 2001.
2017 — Ajee’ Wilson breaks the American record in the women’s indoor 800 meters to win the event for the fourth straight year in the NYRR Millrose Games. Wilson finishes in 1:58.27 at The Armory to break the mark of 1:58.71 set by Nicole Teter in 2002.
2017 — Henrik Lundqvist makes 32 saves for his 400th career win and the New York Rangers beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2.
2018 — In Pyeongchang, South Korea, David Gleirscher is a surprise winner giving Austria its first gold in men’s luge in 50 years. Chris Mazdzer, who’s season hit rock-bottom less than a month ago, makes history for the U.S., giving the Americans their first men’s singles medal by finishing second in 3:10.728.
2018 – Dutchman Sven Kramer becomes only male speed skater to win same Olympic event 3 times, claiming gold in the 5,000m at Pyongchang; first man to win total 8 Olympic medals in the sport.
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Feb. 12
1937 — Cleveland is granted an NFL franchise. The Rams play in Cleveland for nine years before moving to Los Angeles. After the 1994 season, the Rams move to St. Louis.
1947 — Boston’s Bill Cowley becomes the NHL all-time scoring leader when he scores a goal and an assist for the Bruins in a 10-1 win over the New York Rangers. Cowley’s 529 points is one more than Syd Howe, who retired one year earlier.
1958 — Boston’s Bill Russell scores 18 points and grabs 41 rebounds to lead the Celtics to a 119-101 victory over the Syracuse Nationals.
1968 — Jean-Claude Killy of France wins the men’s giant slalom in the Winter Olympics at Grenoble, his second gold medal en route to the Alpine triple crown.
1972 — The Soviet Union ice hockey team wins the gold medal with a 5-2 victory over Czechoslovakia at the Winter Olympics. The United States is awarded the silver because it had beaten and tied Czechoslovakia.
1982 — Wayne Gretzky scores 153rd point of season, breaking NHL record.
1985 — Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux becomes the first rookie to be named most valuable player at the NHL All-Star game. The 19-year-old center scores two goals, including the game-winner, and has an assist to lead the Wales Conference to a 6-4 win over the Campbell Conference.
1989 — The largest crowd (44,735) in NBA All-Star Game history turns out at the Houston Astrodome to watch the West beat the East 143-134. Utah’s Karl Malone win MVP honors after scoring a team-high 28 points.
1993 — The San Jose Sharks tie an NHL record by losing 17 straight games, the latest a 6-0 defeat by the Edmonton Oilers.
1994 — Loy Allen Jr. becomes the first Winston Cup rookie to win a pole in the Daytona 500. Allen is .031 seconds quicker than six-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.
1995 — Sacramento’s Mitch Richmond scores a game-high 22 points and wins MVP honors in leading the West to a 139-112 triumph over the East in the NBA All-Star Game at America West Arena in Phoenix.
1997 — Morocco’s Hicham el Guerrouj breaks indoor track’s oldest record, winning the mile in 3 minutes, 48.45 at the Flanders meet held in Ghent, Belgium. Ireland’s Eamonn Coghlan ran 3:49.78 in 1983 in New York.
2005 — Allen Iverson scores 60 points, a career high, to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 112-99 victory over the Orlando Magic.
2007 — Duke, saddled by its first four-game losing skid in 11 years, falls out of The Associated Press men’s poll for the first time since the end of the 1995-96 season. The Blue Devils had been in the media poll for 200 straight weeks — the second longest streak behind UCLA’s record 221 weeks.
2014 — Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland tie for gold in the Olympic women’s downhill. Both speed down the Rosa Khutor course in 1:41.57 seconds for the first gold-medal tie in Olympic alpine skiing history.
2018 — Virginia is ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s basketball poll for first time since 1982, when Terry Holland was the coach and Ralph Sampson was the Cavaliers’ star player.
2018 – Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst becomes first Winter Olympian to win an individual gold medal in 4 straight Games with victory in the 1,500m at Pyeongchang; first speed skater to win 10 Olympic medals.
2023 — Super Bowl LVII, State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona: Kansas City Chiefs beat Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35; MVP: Patrick Mahomes, KC, QB.
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