ON THIS DATE
1942 — The Washington Redskins win the NFL championship with a 14-6 victory over the Chicago Bears.
1958 — Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings scores his 400th NHL goal in a 2-2 tie against the Montreal Canadiens.
1981 — John McEnroe and Roscoe Tanner lead the United States to a 3-1 victory over Argentina in the Davis Cup final.
1983 — Detroit beats Denver 186-184 in triple overtime in the highest-scoring game in NBA history. Isiah Thomas scores 47 and John Long adds 41 for the Pistons. Denver’s Kiki Vandeweghe had 51 points.
1992 — Manon Rheaume becomes the first woman to play in a regular-season professional game when she appears in the Atlanta Knights’ 4-1 loss to Salt Lake City in the International Hockey League.
1995 — Detroit’s Paul Coffey becomes the first NHL defenseman to reach 1,000 career assists, setting up Igor Larionov’s first-period goal in the Red Wings’ 3-1 victory over Chicago.
1997 — Michigan’s Charles Woodson is named the first predominantly defensive player to receive the Heisman Trophy in the 63 years of the award. Woodson and the Wolverines go on to defeat Washington State in the 1998 Rose Bowl, claiming a perfect 12-0 season and a share of the national championship.
1998 — Gary Anderson kicks six field goals, setting the NFL record with 34 straight without a miss, in Minnesota’s 38-28 victory over Baltimore.
2003 — Mount Union breaks its own NCAA record by winning its 55th consecutive football game.
2004 — In Sestriere, Italy, World Cup leader Bode Miller wins a slalom to join Marc Girardelli as the only men to win races in all four disciplines in a season. Miller has won slalom, giant slalom, super-G and downhill races in a span of 16 days.
2007 — Major League Baseball’s Mitchell Report is released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in the 409-page document. The biggest name linked by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to illegal use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens.
2010 — Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre, 41, is sidelined by a throwing shoulder too damaged for even him to overcome. The injury ends of one of the greatest individual streaks in all of sports. Favre had made 297 consecutive starts over 19 seasons.
2014 — Marcus Mariota wins the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Oregon player to earn college football’s top individual honor. Mariota accounts for a Pac-12-record 53 touchdowns (38 passing, 14 rushing and one receiving).
2018 — Dirk Nowitzki takes the court for his record 21st NBA season with the Dallas Mavericks, surpassing Kobe Bryant’s 20 seasons with the Lakers. 2022 — Washington Capitals center Alex Ovechkin scores a hat trick in 7-3 away win over the Chicago Blackhawks to join Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe as the only players in NHL history to score 800 goals.