ON THIS DATE
1967 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Zora Folley in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden to retain his world heavyweight title.
1969 — Lew Alcindor leads UCLA to the NCAA basketball title with a 97-72 win over Purdue, and is chosen as MVP for the third straight year.
1994 — The NFL announces the addition of the 2-point conversion, the league’s first scoring change in 75 seasons.
1997 — Tara Lipinski’s jumps, the cleanest and the surest in women’s figure skating, lift the 14-year-old into history as the youngest women’s world champion ever.
2000 — Pat Verbeek of the Detroit Red Wings scores twice in a 2-2 tie with Calgary to become the 28th player in NHL history with 500 career goals.
2004 — Los Angeles’ Luc Robitaille becomes the highest-scoring left wing in NHL history, picking up an assist in a 2-1 loss to Edmonton for his 1,370th career point.
2005 — Amare Stoudemire with 40 points and 13 rebounds helps Phoenix beat Atlanta 105-94 as the Suns become the ninth NBA team to win 50 games following a 50-loss season.
2007 — Kobe Bryant becomes the fourth player in NBA history to score at least 50 points in three straight games. Bryant scores 60 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 121-119 win over Memphis. Bryant joins Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.
2008 — Detroit reaches 50 wins for the third straight season by defeating Columbus 4-1. No NHL franchise has done that since Montreal did it four years in a row from 1975-79.
2008 — The first of two assists Colorado captain Joe Sakic has in a 7-5 loss to Edmonton are the 1,000th of his career. He is the 11th player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
2011 — The NFL owners vote to make all scoring plays subject to review by the replay official and referee.
2013— Florida Gulf Coast, a school so new it wasn’t eligible for the NCAA men’s tournament until last year, upsets second-seeded Georgetown 78-68 in the second round of the South Regional. The Eagles used a 21-2 second-half run to pull away from the Hoyas and hold on in the final minute to become the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2.