MARCH 7 — THIS DATE IN HISTORY
■ 1951 — Ezzard Charles wins a unanimous 15-round decision over Jersey Joe Walcott to retain the world heavyweight title in Detroit.
■ 1954 — The Minneapolis Lakers and Milwaukee Hawks experiment with the baskets raised from 10 feet to 12 feet during an exhibition game. George Mikan and the Lakers win 65-63.
■ 1974 — New Orleans is granted an NBA franchise.
■ 1977 — Anthony Roberts of Oral Roberts scores 65 points in a 90-89 loss to Oregon in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
■ 1983 — Phil Mahre wins the Alpine World Cup championship for the third straight year to become the third person to win three consecutive titles.
■ 1987 — Thomas Hearns wins his third championship, the WBC light heavyweight
title, with a 10-round TKO of Dennis Andries.
■ 1996 — Magic Johnson becomes the second NBA player to reach 10,000 career assists, getting the milestone on the go-ahead basket in Los Angeles’ 10290 victory over Sacramento.
■ 2012 — Lionel Messi becomes the first player to score five goals in a Champions League soccer match, helping defending champion Barcelona crush Bayer Leverkusen 7-1 to advance to the quarterfinals with a 10-2 aggregate win.
■ 2012 — Kikkan Randall adds a World Cup crystal globe to her stash and carves out another slice of history for the U.S ski team. Randall is the first American in 30 years to win a cross country championship by clinching the overall sprint title. Randall’s 11th-place finish at a race in Norway secures the championship with one race
left in the season.
■ 2014 — The U.S. women’s soccer team’s two-year unbeaten streak ends at 43 games with a 1-0 loss to Sweden at the Algarve Cup in Albufiera, Portugal. The U.S. had been 36-0-7 since a 1-0 loss to Japan at the Algarve Cup on March 5, 2012.
■ 2015 — Kentucky (31-0) becomes the first men’s basketball team from a major conference to go undefeated in the regular season since Indiana in
1976. Wichita State of the Missouri Valley Conference went undefeated in the regular season in 2014.
■ 2016 — Stephen Curry scores 41 points and becomes the first player in NBA history to make 300 3-pointers in a season, and the Golden State Warriors set another record by holding off the Orlando Magic 119-113 for their 45th straight home victory.