Feb. 8
1936 — Jay Berwanger, University of Chicago halfback and Heisman Trophy winner, is the first player ever selected in the NFL Draft. The Philadelphia Eagles make the pick and eventually trade his rights to the Chicago Bears.
1950 — Man o’ War is selected the greatest horse of the half century by The Associated Press. Man o’ War, as a 2- and 3-year-old, is a winner in 20 of 21 races and holds five track records.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scores 59 points in a 136-120 victory over the New York Knicks and beats his own single-season scoring record of 3,033 by six points.
1964 — Billy Kidd and James Heuga win the first men’s Olympic Alpine skiing medals for the United States with a silver and bronze in the slalom.
1970 — Gordie Howe becomes the first NHL player to score 750 goals. Howe gets the milestone by beating Philadelphia Flyers goalie Bernie Parent 3:10 into the third period, but the Red Wings lose 5-3 at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.
1983 — Wayne Gretzky puts on a show, scoring four goals in the third period of the Campbell Conference’s 9-3 win against the Wales Conference in the NHL All-Star Game held at New York’s Nassau Coliseum. He breaks Ted Lindsay’s record of three goals in an All-Star Game, set in 1950.
1986 — Atlanta’s Spud Webb, at 5-foot-7, wins NBA Slam Dunk competition. Webb receives a perfect 50 from the judges in the last two rounds to shock defending dunk champion Dominique Wilkins and the crowd at Dallas’ Reunion Arena.
1987 — Seattle’s Tom Chambers, a last-minute replacement for the injured Ralph Sampson, scores a game-high 34 points to lead the West to a 154-149 overtime win over the East in the NBA All-Star Game before 34,275 at the Kingdome.
1997 — Scotty Bowman becomes the first NHL coach to win 1,000 games as Detroit beats Pittsburgh 6-5 on Brendan Shanahan’s overtime goal. Bowman, the coach of six Stanley Cup champion teams, is 1,000-452-255 in regular-season games and 162-101 in the playoffs.
1998 — Johanna Ikonen scores twice and Tiia Reima and Sari Krooks score a goal and an assist as Finland beats Sweden 6-0 in the first Olympic women’s ice hockey game.
2003 — Mario Lemieux becomes the 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career assists. He has four in Pittsburgh’ 5-2 victory in Boston.
2004 — Marc Bulger throws a Pro Bowl-record four TD passes, and Detroit’s Dre’ Bly returns an interception 32 yards for the go-ahead score with 4:50 to play during the NFC’s rally from an 18-point deficit in the final 13 minutes of a 55-52 victory over the AFC. It’s the highest-scoring Pro Bowl in history.
2014 — At the Sochi Games, Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen becomes the oldest Winter Olympic gold medalist at 40 and ties Bjoern Daehlie’s record for most medals (12) won at the Winter Games. Bjoerndalen wins the men’s 10-kilometer biathlon sprint, breaking the record held by Canadian skeleton racer Duff Gibson, who was 39 when he won gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics.
2016 — Breanna Stewart has 25 points and 10 rebounds as No. 1 UConn again proves who rules the women’s game, running past No. 2 South Carolina 66-54.
