Dec. 12
1937 — Rookie Sammy Baugh throws second-half touchdown passes of 55, 78 and 33 yards to overcome a 14-7 Chicago lead and give the Washington Redskins a 28-21 victory over the Chicago Bears for the NFL championship.
1953 — Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the NHL’s all-time leading scorer with a goal and two assists in a 7-2 victory against the New York Rangers. Richard finishes the game with 611 points, one more than injured linemate Elmer Lach, who has held the record since February 1952.
1965 — Chicago’s Gale Sayers scores six touchdowns with 336 combined yards to lead the Bears to a 61-20 rout of the San Francisco 49ers. The six TDs give Sayers an NFL-record 21 for the season. Sayers’ first touchdown is a reception, the next four rushing and the final, an 85-yard punt return.
1968 — Arthur Ashe becomes 1st black person be ranked #1 in tennis.
1971 — Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks scores his 1,000th point with an assist in the first period of a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota North Stars.
1977 — NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien fined Kermit Washington $10,000 and suspends the Los Angeles Lakers forward for at least 60 days (26 games) for punching Houston’s Rudy Tomjanovich during a game on Dec. 9. The suspension is the longest ever in NBA history and the fine is the maximum permissible under league rules.
1986 — James “Bonecrusher” Smith knocks out Tim Witherspoon in the first round to win the WBA heavyweight title in New York.
1987 — Guard Mookie Blaylock leads Oklahoma to an NCAA-record 33 steals with 13 in a 152-84 victory over Centenary.
1990 — Connecticut uses a stifling press and quickness to jump to a 32-0 lead en route to an 85-32 victory over New Hampshire. New Hampshire plays 11 minutes and 48 seconds before scoring its first point.
2015 — Keenan Reynolds ends his Navy career with a clean sweep against Army. Reynolds rushes for two touchdowns and throws for another score to lead the No. 21 Midshipmen to their 14th straight win over the Black Knights, 21-17. Reynolds is the first quarterback over the 116-game series to go 4-0.
2015 — The Golden State Warriors’ NBA-record start ends at 24 wins when the Milwaukee Bucks beat them 108-95.
2016 — Tom Brady connects with Chris Hogan for a 79-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to help the New England Patriots overcome a sloppy second half and claim a 30-23 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Brady throws for 406 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the fourth NFL quarterback with at least 450 career touchdown passes. He also throws just his second interception of the season.
2021 – Dutchman Max Verstappen wins Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship
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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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