AP-Sportlight-Week Ahead

Feb. 20

1887 — The International Association, the first minor league baseball association, is organized in Pittsburgh.

1951 — In the wake of the college point-shaving scandal, Long Island University drops basketball and all other intercollegiate sports. LIU revives basketball in 1957.

1971 — En route to a record 76-goal season, Boston’s Phil Esposito becomes the first player to score his 50th goal in February, but the Bruins lose to the Los Angeles Kings 5-4.

1972 — Larry Brown of the Denver Rockets set ABA records for assists in a game (23), half (18) and quarter (10) during a 146-123 win over the Pittsburgh Condors at Denver.

1974 — Gordie Howe, the NHL’s career scoring leader, comes out of retirement and signs a $1 million, four-year contract to play with the Houston Aeros of the WHA and his two sons, Mark and Marty.

1976 — Muhammad Ali beats Jean-Pierre Coopman with a fifth-round knockout at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Puerto Rico to defend his world heavyweight title.

1988 — In Calgary, Alberta, Brian Boitano of the United States wins the men’s Olympic figure skating gold medal on a technical merit tiebreaker and nearly flawless free skating performance.

1993 — Julio Cesar Chavez records a fifth-round TKO over Greg Haugen in a WBC super lightweight title bout before a record crowd of 130,000 at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium.

1998 — Tara Lipinski, 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating champion in history, jumping over fellow teen and U.S. teammate Michelle Kwan to take the gold. Lipinski, at 15 years, 8 months and 10 days, is two months younger than Sonja Henie was in her 1928 victory.

2000 — Defending Winston Cup champ Dale Jarrett wins his third Daytona 500 in eight years. Jarrett’s win matches Bobby Allison’s total, leaving him trailing only Cale Yarborough with four and Richard Petty with seven.

2006 — Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto snap the U.S. medals drought in the Olympic figure skating dance competition with a silver. Belbin and Agosto win the first dance medal for the United States since the bronze won by Colleen O’Connor and James Millns in 1976.

2009 — Lindsey Van of the United States nails a perfect second jump to become the first women’s ski jumping world champion. Women’s ski jumping debuts at this year’s Nordic skiing world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. Todd Lodwick wins the opening Nordic combined event to give the United States two golds in one day.

2011 — Kobe Bryant wins his record-tying fourth All-Star game MVP award in front of his hometown fans, scoring 37 points and propelling the West to a 148-143 victory over the East in the NBA All-Star game.

2016 — Lindsey Vonn clinches a record 20th World Cup crystal globe title and surpassing Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark. It’s Vonn’s record eighth downhill title — adding to four overall globes plus five in super-G and three in combined. Sweden’s Stenmark held the previous record of 19 globes established from 1975 to 1984.

2018 — South Korea wins the penalty-filled women’s 3,000-meter short-track relay final at the Pyeongchang Olympics. China and Canada are disqualified. Italy takes silver and the Netherlands earns bronze after being elevated to the podium after winning the B final in world-record time.


Feb. 21

1931 — In the first major league night game, the Chicago White Sox play the New York Giants in a 10-inning exhibition in Houston.

1952 — The Boston Celtics and the Fort Wayne Pistons tip off at midnight in a “Milkman’s Special” following an Ice Follies performance at Boston Garden. Bob Cousy of the Celtics scores 24 points before 2,368 fans in a 88-67 win.

1952 — Dick Button performs the first triple jump in a figure skating competition.

1953 — In college basketball’s longest game, Niagara beats Siena 88-81 in six overtimes.

1960 — Philadelphia Warriors rookie Wilt Chamberlain sets an NBA record with his fourth 50-point game of the season, scoring 58 in a 129-122 victory over the New York Knicks.

1970 — Bobby Hull scores two goals, including the 500th of his career, in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-2 win over the New York Rangers.

1970 — Pete Maravich of LSU scores 64 points in a 121-105 loss to Kentucky. Dan Issel scores 51 for the Wildcats.

1976 — New York’s Red Holzman becomes the second NBA coach, after Red Auerbach, to win 500 games with a 102-98 victory over New Orleans.

1992 — Kristi Yamaguchi wins America’s first Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating since 1976. Midori Ito of Japan takes the silver and Nancy Kerrigan of the United States wins bronze.

1996 — The Philadelphia 76ers have the worst NBA offensive performance in 41 years in their 66-57 loss to Miami. The 76ers tie the record for fewest points, set Feb. 27, 1955, by Milwaukee in a 62-57 loss to Boston during the first season of the 24-second clock.

2002 — In Salt Lake City, U.S. figure skater Sarah Hughes jumps from fourth to first to win the Olympic gold while teammate Michelle Kwan settles for bronze. The powerful U.S. women’s hockey team loses 3-2 in a gold-medal game to a Canadian team it had beaten eight consecutive times.

2003 — Michael Jordan becomes the first 40-year-old in NBA history to score 40 or more points, getting 43 in the Washington Wizards’ 89-86 win over the New Jersey Nets.

2014 — Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the youngest Olympic slalom gold medalist. The 18-year-old American is 0.53 seconds faster than Austria’s Marlies Schild.


Feb. 22

1936 — Figure skater Sonja Henie wins her 10th straight world championship.

1959 — Lee Petty, driving an Oldsmobile, wins the first Daytona 500.

1969 — Barbara Jo Rubin becomes the first female jockey to win a race at an American thoroughbred track when she rides Cohesian to a neck victory over Reely Beeg in the ninth race at Charles Town in West Virginia.

1975 — Madison Square Garden hosts its first women’s collegiate basketball game. In a rematch of the 1973 national championship game, defending national champion Immaculata beats Queens College 65-31, before a crowd of 11,969.

1980 — The United States Olympic hockey team stuns the Soviet Union with a 4-3 victory in the medal round of the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. Captain Mike Eruzione scores the game-winning goal midway through the final period.

1981 — Rookies Peter and Anton Stastny each score eight points as the Quebec Nordiques beat the Washington Capitals 11-7. Peter scores four goals and four assists and Aaron has three goals and five assists.

1988 — Hersey Hawkins scores 63 points as Bradley beats Detroit 122-107. Archie Tullos scores 49 points for the Titans.

1988 — Bonnie Blair wins America’s second gold medal at the Winter Olympics in world-record time, beating Christa Rothenburger of East Germany by .02 seconds in the 500-meter speed skating.

1990 — Lionel Simmons scores 27 points to move into fourth place of the NCAA Division I scoring list at 3,024 and becomes the fifth player to score 3,000 points as the Explorers beat Manhattan 100-60.

1993 — Glenn Anderson becomes the 36th NHL player with 1,000 points, picking up a goal and two assists to help the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Vancouver Canucks 8-1.

1998 — Bjorn Dahlie, the Norwegian cross-country skiing great, extends his Winter Olympics record by picking up his 12th medal, and record eighth gold, in the last race of Nagano — the 50-kilometer.

2006 — Tiger Woods wins the first nine holes — seven of them with birdies — to close out Stephen Ames as early as mathematically possible, 9 and 8, during the first round of the Match Play Championship.

2006 — Gene Bess becomes the first college basketball coach to win 1,000 games when Three Rivers Community College beat Forest Park 77-60.

2008 — Lindsey Vonn clinches the World Cup downhill title, becoming the first American woman to claim the crown since Picabo Street in 1996. Nadia Styger of Switzerland wins the race at Whistler, British Columbia with Vonn finishing 0.01 behind Styger.

2010 — Caltech ends its 310-game conference losing streak in men’s basketball beating Occidental College 46-45 in its season finale.

2013 — American teenager Sarah Hendrickson wins the women’s ski jumping title, defeating Sara Takanashi of Japan at the Nordic skiing world championships held in Val Di Fiemme, Italy. The 18-year-old Hendrickson becomes the second American to win the world championship after Lindsey Van won the inaugural event in 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic.

2016 — Tennessee’s 31-year run in the Women’s Top 25 ends. The Lady Vols streak of 565 consecutive weeks in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll is over as Tennessee falls out of the Top 25. The streak started Feb. 17, 1985.

2018 — The U.S. women’s hockey team ends a 20-year gold medal drought by beating archrival Canada 3-2 in a shootout thriller at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Canada had won the last four Olympic gold medals.

2018 — Drexel overcomes a 34-point first-half deficit to set the men’s Division I record and beats Delaware 85-83. Delaware led 53-19 with 2:36 remaining in the first half and had a 56-29 lead at halftime.


Feb. 23

1938 — Joe Louis knocks out Nathan Mann in the third round to defend his world heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1960 — Figure skater Carol Heiss captures the first gold medal for the U.S. in the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics.

1968 — Wilt Chamberlain becomes first player to score 25,000 points in the NBA.

1980 — Eric Heiden wins his fifth gold medal and shatters the world record by six seconds in 10,000-meter speed skating at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

1983 — Mark Pavelich of the New York Rangers scores five goals in an 11-3 victory over the Hartford Whalers.

1985 — Indiana coach Bob Knight is ejected five minutes into the Hoosiers’ 72-63 loss to Purdue when he throws a chair across the court. Knight, after two fouls called on his team, is hit with his first technical. While Purdue was shooting the technical, Knight picks up a chair from the bench area and throws it across the court, earning his second technical.

1987 — Seattle’s Nate McMillan sets an NBA rookie record with 25 assists to lead the SuperSonics over the Los Angeles Clippers 124-112.

1991 — North Carolina becomes the first team in NCAA basketball history to win 1,500 games with a 73-57 victory over Clemson.

2000 — Boston’s Marty McSorley is suspended for the rest of the season (23 games) for hitting Vancouver’s Donald Brashear in the head with his stick on Feb. 21.

2001 — Jeremy Roenick records the ninth three-goal game of his career and becomes the third U.S.-born player to reach 400 career goals in leading Phoenix to a 7-3 win over Buffalo.

2002 — The Americans end nearly a half-century of Olympic frustration for the U.S. men’s bobsled team, driving to the silver and bronze medals in the four-man race.

2006 — Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa, the 2004 world champion, stuns favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women’s figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

2007 — Tiger Woods’ winning streak on the PGA Tour, which began in July, comes to a shocking end. Woods fails to notice a ball mark in the line of his 4-foot birdie putt that would have won his third-round match against Nick O’Hern. Woods misses, then loses in 20 holes when O’Hern saves par with a 12-foot putt at the Accenture Match Play Championship.

2010 — Dutch skater Sven Kramer loses the gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics when his coach Gerard Kemkers sends him the wrong way on a changeover during the 25 laps of the 10,000-meter speedskating race. Kramer had not lost a 10,000 in three years.

2012 — National League MVP Ryan Braun’s 50-game suspension is overturned by baseball arbitrator Shyam Das, the first time a baseball player successfully challenged a drug-related penalty in a grievance.

2013 — Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche makes history just by stepping into the UFC cage. Rousey wins the UFC’s first women’s bout, beating Carmouche on an armbar, her signature move, with 11 seconds left in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at UFC 157.

2014 — Canada defends its Olympic men’s hockey title with a 3-0 victory over Sweden. Canada becomes the only repeat Olympic champ in the NHL era and the first team to go unbeaten through the Olympic tournament since the Soviet Union in Sarajevo in 1984.

2014 — Russia, the host country of the Winter Olympics, finishes with 33 medals overall and 13 gold. It’s the first time Russia topped both medals tables since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The U.S. wins 28 total, including nine gold.

2014 — Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay athlete in the United States four major pro leagues, playing 10 scoreless minutes with two rebounds and five fouls in the New Jersey’s 108-102 victory of the Los Angeles Lakers.


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