This Day in Sports History

Aug. 3

1852 — The first intercollegiate rowing race is held on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., where Harvard beats Yale by four lengths on the 2-mile course.

1949 — The National Basketball Association is formed by the merger of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA). Maurice Podoloff, head of the BAA since its inception, is elected head of the new league. Six NBL teams join the ten BAA teams, plus an expansion team in Indianapolis, to form the NBA.

1955 — Scott Frost, driven by Joe O’Brien, wins the Hambletonian at Good Time Park in Goshen, N.Y. He goes on to become the first trotting Triple Crown winner.

1985 — France’s Lutin D’Isigny becomes the first trotter to sweep the International Trot and Challenge Cup in consecutive years with a 3:03.1 time in the 1½-mile test.

1990 — The Professional Golfers Association Tour announces it will not hold tournaments at golf clubs that have all-white memberships or show any other signs of discrimination.

1996 — Andre Agassi, the Dream Team and the U.S. women’s 400-meter relay team win Olympic gold medals, while the American men’s 400 relay settles for silver. With Carl Lewis idled by a coach’s decision and Leroy Burrell injured, the men’s 400 team is shocked by Canada — the first time the U.S. lost the event at the Olympics.

1997 — Colleen Walker wins the du Maurier Classic by two strokes over Liselotte Neumann. Her 65 is one stroke off the best final round recorded in an LPGA major, a 9-under 64 by JoAnne Carner in the 1978 du Maurier.