TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1901 — National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues forms in the USA.

1906 — The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).

1913 — Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Braves tie record of only one run in a doubleheader, Philadelphia Phillies win first game 1-0, then a scoreless tie into 10th.

1918 — Due to the Great War, the 15th World Series begins a month early.

1922 — New York Yankees play final game at the Polo Grounds, after seven years.

1923 — Flyweights Gene LaRue and Kid Pancho knock out each other simultaneously.

1931 — John Thomson, Scottish soccer player, dies during a Celtic-Rangers match (born 1909).

1959 — Washington Senators’ Jim Lemon is seventh to get six RBIs in an inning (third).

1960 — Cassius Clay captures the Olympic light heavyweight gold medal.

1972 — Eleven Israeli athletes are slain at Munich Olympics, Germany.

1977 — Cleveland Indians stage first “I hate the Yankee Hanky Night.”

1988 — Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ Earl Winfield scores touchdowns on a 101-yard punt return, 100-yard kickoff return and a 58-yard pass reception.

1997 — The International Olympic Committee picks Athens, Greece to be the host city for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

On the darkest day in Olympic Games history, a gunman wears a hood over his face as he stands on the balcony of the building where a group of Palestinian gunmen were holding Israeli athletes hostage in the Munich Olympic Village. The 20-hour standoff ended in a botched rescue effort at the airport. In all, 11 Israeli athletes, five of the Palestinians and a German policeman died, 46 years ago today.