TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1882 — Last bare knuckle champion John L. Sullivan knocks out Paddy Ryan in Mississippi. 1884 — Canadian Rugby Football Union forms.
1949 — Joe DiMaggio is the first US$100,000-per-year baseball player (New York Yankees).
1958 — The Brooklyn Dodgers officially become the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc.
1959 — Dorothy Rigney sells Chicago White Sox to Bill Veeck for a reported US$27 million.
1970 — LSU’s “Pistol” Pete Marovich scores 69 points in a losing cause.
1970 — U.S. female figure skating championship won by Janet Lynn. 1975 — NBA’s New Orleans Jazz ends a 28-game road losing streak. 1976 — Toronto Maple Leafs’ Darryl Sittler sets an NHL record with 10 points in a game, including six goals.
1982 — Joanne Carner wins LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic.
1985 — New Jersey Devils’
Don Lever becomes 57th
NHL player to score 300 goals. 1986 — U.S. female figure skating championship is won by Debi Thomas.
1987 — U.S. male figure skating championship is won by Brian Boitano.
1987 — For only the second time, a Major League Baseball player is forced to take a pay cut due to salary arbitration.
L.A. Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser signs for US$800,000, which is a 20 per cent reduction. 1991 — Bob Knight, Larry O’Brien, Tiny Archibald, Dave Cowens, Harry Gallatin and Larry Fleisher are elected to NBA Hall of Fame. 1998 — The XVIII Olympic Winter Games open in Nagano, Japan. 2005 — The Detroit Tigers sign right-fielder Magglio Ordonez for five years and US$75 million. 2006 — Venezuela’s Caracas Lions win their first Caribbean Series championship since 1989, defeating the Dominican Republic’s Licey Tigers.
2010 — The New Orleans Saints defeat the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, in the NFL’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, claiming their first NFL title.
2010 — The NFL’s Super Bowl is watched by more than
106 million people in the U.S., surpassing the 1983 finale of MASH to become the most-watched program in U.S. television history, according to the Neilsen Company.