Oct. 29
1950 — Detroit’s Wally Triplett gains 294 yards in kickoff returns and ends up with 331 total yards as the Lions pound the Los Angeles Rams 65-24 on 41 third-quarter points.
1960 — Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight beating Tunney Hunsaker on points in 6 rounds in Louisville, Kentucky.
1961 — Oscar Robertson dishes out a franchise-record 22 assists during Cincinnati’s 139-132 win over visiting Syracuse. The “Big O” goes on to average a triple-double (30.8 ppg, 12.5 rpg and 11.4 apg) for the Royals during the 1961-62 season, becoming the first NBA player to average double figures in assists.
1969 — Tom Seaver wins NL CY Young.
1977 — Boston’s John Havlicek becomes the second player in NBA history to connect on 10,000 career field goals, reaching the milestone in a 103-98 loss at Cleveland.
1977 — Russell Erxleben of Texas kicks a 60-yard field goal in a 26-0 rout of Texas Tech for his third field goal of the season over 60 yards, an NCAA record.
1983 — Gil Fenerty rushes for 337 yards on a 18 carries and scores six touchdowns to lead Holy Cross to a 77-28 rout of Columbia.
1984 — Orlando Pizzolato wins the New York Marathon in 2:14:53 and Grete Waitz captures the women’s title in 2:29:30.
1987 — Thomas Hearns wins unprecedented 4th different weight boxing title.
1994 — Arnold Mickens rushes for more than 200 yards for the eighth consecutive game, breaking the NCAA Division I-AA single-season rushing record as Butler beats Evansville 49-14. Mickens’ 244 yards gives him a total of 2,111, surpassing the record of 2,016 set by Towson State’s Tony Vinson.
2005 — Top-ranked Southern California wins its 30th straight game, routing Washington State 55-13. The Trojans tie Texas for the 11th-longest winning streak in major college football history.
2006 — With a a 34-31 victory over Denver, Indianapolis is the first team to start 7-0 in consecutive seasons since the 1929-31 Green Bay Packers did it three straight times.
2011 — Joe Paterno breaks Eddie Robinson’s record for victories by a Division I coach with No. 409 in Penn State’s sloppy 10-7 win over Illinois.
2014 — Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants succeed where no team had in 3 1/2 decades, winning Game 7 on the road for their third World Series title in five years. Bumgarner comes out of the bullpen to pitch five scoreless innings on two days’ rest as the Giants held off the Kansas City Royals 3-2.
2017 — Russell Wilson hits Jimmy Graham for an 18-yard touchdown with 21 seconds left, his second TD catch of the fourth quarter, to lead Seattle over Houston 41-38. Wilson finishes 26 of 41 for a career-high 452 yards and four TDs. Deshaun Watson is nearly the equal of Wilson, throwing for 402 yards and four touchdowns and three interceptions.
2017 — Caroline Wozniacki wins the biggest title of her career when she beat Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the WTA Finals.
2017 — Justin Rose mounts the third-largest final-round comeback in PGA TOUR history to win the WGC-HSBC Champions. Rose starts the final round eight shots behind Dustin Johnson, who ties a record for losing the largest lead in the final round. The historic 5-under 67 round by Rose is keyed by a back-nine 31. Rose finishes at 14-under 274 and Johnson who finishes with a 77, ties for second with Henrik Stenson and Brooks Koepka, two strokes back.
2018 — Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors, breaks the NBA record for most 3-pointers in a game with 14 in a Warrior’s 149-124 over the Chicago Bulls. The record was previously held by Thompson’s teammate Stephen Curry.
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Oct. 30
1943 — Gus Bodnar of Toronto scores a goal 15 seconds into his first NHL game as the Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers 5-2.
1945 — Branch Rickey signs Jackie Robinson to the Montreal Royals.
1955 — Jim Patton of New York returns a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown as the Giants beat the Washington Redskins 35-7.
1966 — Jim Nance of the Boston Patriots rushes for 208 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders.
1971 — Eric Allen of Michigan State rushes for 350 yards in 43-10 rout of Purdue.
1974 — Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in the eighth round in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain the world heavyweight title in the “Rumble in the Jungle”.
1975 — John Bucyk of the Boston Bruins scores his 500th career goal in a 3-2 victory over St. Louis.
1977 — Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears rushes for 205 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-0 triumph over the Green Bay Packers.
1993 — Erin Whitten becomes the first woman goalie in professional hockey to be credited with a victory as Toledo beats Dayton 6-5 in the East Coast Hockey League.
1996 — The WNBA announces the eight cities that will compete in the WNBAs inaugural season. Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston and New York will play in the Eastern Conference and Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah will compete the Western Conference.
1997 — Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona announces his retirement from football on his 37th birthday.
1997 — Violet Palmer makes professional sports history by becoming the first woman to officiate an NBA game. There is little reaction by the crowd when her name is announced just before tip-off of the game between the Dallas Mavericks and Vancouver Grizzlies.
1999 — Marques Tuiasosopo becomes the first college player to pass for 300 yards and run for 200, racking up a school-record 509 yards as Washington rallied to beat Stanford 35-30. Tuiasosopo completes 19-of-32 passes for 302 yards and a touchdown and rushes 22 times for 207 yards and two TDs.
2001 — Michael Jordan misses his biggest shot of the night and commits two crucial late turnovers in the Washington Wizards’ 93-91 loss to the New York Knicks, Jordan’s first regular-season game after a 3 1/2-year retirement.
2003 — In the first regular-season game of his NBA career, 18-year-old LeBron James has 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals, but the Cleveland Cavaliers lose 106-92 to the Sacramento Kings.
2004 — Trainer Bobby Frankel finally breaks through in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with Ghostzapper blazing to victory in America’s richest race held at Lone Star Park. Frankel, who had just two wins with 62 Breeders’ Cup starters before the $4 million Classic, had saddled the beaten favorite the past three years.
2004 — Dana College’s Tom Lensch sets an all-division college record by attempting 101 passes in a 60-35 loss to Hastings College. Lensch completes 56 passes for a school-record 507 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
2011 — The Baltimore Ravens erase a 24-3 deficit to defeat Arizona 30-27. It marks the fifth time this season a team trailed by at least 20 points and came back to win. That is the most in a single season in NFL history.
2016 — Derek Carr throws a 41-yard touchdown pass to Seth Roberts with 1:45 remaining in overtime, capping a record-breaking day for the Oakland Raiders in a 30-24 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carr throws for a franchise-record 513 yards — completing 40 of 59 passes without an interception — and the Raiders overcome an NFL-record 23 penalties for 200 yards.
2019 — Baseball World Series: Washington Nationals beat Houston Astros, 6-2 in Game 7 at Minute Maid Park, Houston to win first title in franchise history; MVP: Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg.
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Oct. 31
1948 — Sammy Baugh of Washington passes for 446 yards and four touchdowns and Dan Sandifer has four interceptions including two for touchdowns as the Redskins beat the Boston Yanks 56-21.
1950 — Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols becomes the first African-American to play in an NBA game. Washington loses 78-70 on the road to the Rochester Royals.
1964 — Kelso, running in what is billed as his final race in New York, wins his fifth consecutive Jockey Club Gold Cup, surpassing Round Table as the all-time money-winning thoroughbred. Kelso runs the 2-mile distance in 3:19 1/5, breaking the world record he set as a 3-year-old, four years earlier, by 1/5 of a second.
1969 — Lenny Wilkens, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, gets his first coaching victory as the Seattle SuperSonics beats Cincinnati Royals 129-121.
1972 — Gaylord Perry wins the AL Cy Young Award.
1981 — Florida State freshman Greg Allen rushes for 322 yards in a 56-31 victory over Western Carolina.
1987 — Eric Dickerson, the NFL’s single-season rushing champion, signs a three-year contract with the Indianapolis Colts to complete a three-way trade that nets the Los Angeles Rams two running backs and six top draft choices over the next two years. The third part of the deal sends linebacker Cornelius Bennett to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for three of the draft picks that went to the Rams.
1987 — Jockey Chris Antley becomes the first rider to win nine races in a single day. He has four winners in six mounts at Aqueduct and five winners from eight tries during The Meadowlands’ evening program.
1988 — The first Monday Night NFL game was played in Indianapolis; Colts beat the Broncos 55-23.
1998 — Tee Martin of Tennessee, sets NCAA records with 23 straight completions and 24 over two games in the No. 3 Volunteers’ 49-14 victory over South Carolina. Martin is 23-for-24, with a record completion percentage of 95.8, for 315 yards and four touchdowns.
1999 — Tim Couch completes a desperation 56-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Johnson with no time on the clock to give the expansion Cleveland Browns their first victory, a 21-16 win over New Orleans.
2004 — The New England Patriots lose for the first time in more than a year, falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-20. The Patriots had won 21 straight games, including the playoffs, and a league-record 18 in a row in the regular season.
2006 — Miami’s season-opening 108-66 loss to Chicago is the worst loss in NBA history for a defending champion on opening night. 2008 — The North Carolina Tar Heels are No. 1 in The Associated Press’ preseason Top 25, the first unanimous No. 1 since the preseason poll began in 1981-82.
2012 — Jamal Crawford scores 29 points in 30 minutes in his first official game with his new team, and the Los Angeles Clippers convert 21 turnovers into 29 points in a 101-92 victory that extends the Memphis Grizzlies’ NBA-record streak of opening-night losses to 12. The Grizzlies are 0-12 on opening night since the franchise shifted from Vancouver to Memphis in 2001.
2015 — Triple Crown champion American Pharoah wins the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic by 6 1/2 lengths in his final race before retirement.
2020 — Endland beats Italy 34-5 in Rome to win the 29th Six-Nations Rugby Championship.
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