TODAY IN HISTORY
1944— Maurice Richard has five goals and three assists to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 9-1 rout of the Detroit Red Wings.
1952— DoakWalker’s 67-yard third-quarter touchdown run leads the Detroit Lions to a 17-7 victory over the Cleveland Browns for the NFL championship.
1958— The Baltimore Colts beat the New
York Giants 23-17 in overtime to win the NFL championship at Yankee Stadium. Quarterback Johnny Unitas takes the Colts 80 yards in 13 plays, the last a 1-yard carry by Alan Ameche at 8:15 of sudden-death overtime. Regulation ends 17-17when Baltimore’s Steve Myhra kicks a 20-yard field goalwith 20 seconds left. Played before a national television audience, this game is believed to have made the NFL a challenger to baseball as the national pastime.
1968— Arthur Ashe leads the U.S. to its first Davis Cup title since 1963 with a 4-1 victory over Australia.
1975— The Dallas Cowboys beat the Minnesota Viking 17-14 on Roger Staubach’s desperate 50-yard pass to DrewPearson in the final minute of an NFC divisional playoff game. Staubach connectswith Pearson down the right sidelinewith 24 seconds remaining after the Cowboys had second-and-10 with no timeouts left. Staubach later says he got knocked down on the play, closed his eyes and said a Hail Mary. The term “Hail Mary” is born. 1988— Division II Alaska-Anchorage, behind Michael Johnson’s 20 points, pulls the biggest surprise of the college basketball season by stunning No. 2 Michigan 70-66 in the opening round of the Utah Classic.
2003— Jamal Lewis becomes the fifth player in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in a season. He gains 114 yards on 27 carries in Baltimore’s 13-10 overtime victory against Pittsburgh, finishing the year with 2,066 yards for the second most in NFL history.
2003— San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson rushes for a career-high 243 yards and two touchdowns in a 21-14 win over Oakland. 2003— Kansas City’s Priest Holmes sets an NFL record with his 27th touchdown of the season when he scores twice in a 31-3 victory over Chicago.
2008— The NewEngland Patriots become the NFL’s first team with an 11-5 record to miss the playoffs since Denver in 1985 and the first since the NFL expanded to six playoff teams per conference in 1990.