TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1876 Albert Spalding, with $800, starts sporting goods company, manufacturing first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball and football. 1894 First US steel sailing vessel, Dirigo, launched at Bath, Maine. 1942 Baseball owners agree to permit each club up to 14 night games in 1942. 1951 Largest purse to date in horse racing, $144,323, is won by Great Circle. 1956 Toni Sailor becomes first Olympic skier to sweep three alpine events 1972 11th Winter Olympic Games open in Sapporo, Japan, the first in Asia. 1979 Minnesota Twins trade Rod Carew to California for four players. 1980 Larry Holmes TKOs Lorenzo Holmes in six for heavyweight title. 1989 Baseball’s National League announces that New York Yankee broadcaster Bill White will become the first African American president of the league. 1990 Jockey Billy Shoemaker retires at 58 after 40,350 horse races. 1993 Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott suspended for one year for making racist comments. 1998 Florida Panther Dino Ciccarelli is ninth NHL player to score 600 career goals. 2002 Super Bowl XXXVI: New England Patriots beat St. Louis Rams, 20-17 at the Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans. MVP: Tom Brady, New England, QB. 2008 Super Bowl XLII: New York Giants beat New England Patriots, 17-14 at the University of Phoenix Stadium. MVP: Eli Manning, New York, QB. 2013 Super Bowl XLVII: Baltimore Ravens beat San Francisco 49ers, 34-31 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. MVP: Joe Flacco, Baltimore, QB.

Marge Schott, the controversial owner of the Cincinnati Reds for 15 years, who became infamous for racial slurs against African, Jewish and Japanese Americans, was banned from running the team for using the n-word before the start of an owners’...