Sept. 17
1920 - The forerunner of the NFL, the American Professional Football Association, is founded in an automobile showroom in Canton, Ohio. Twelve teams pay a $100 fee to obtain a franchise.
1938 - Don Budge completes the grand slam of tennis with a four-set victory over Gene Mako in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships.
1954 - Rocky Marciano knocks out Ezzard Charles in the eighth round at the Yankee Stadium in New York to retain his world heavyweight title.
1955 - In the first color telecast of a football game by NBC, No. 10 Georgia Tech posts a 14-6 win over No. 9 Miami in Atlanta. The Ramblin’ Wreck’s winning score comes in the final minute when linebacker Jimmy Morris returns an interception 25 yards for a touchdown.
1966 - In his head coaching debut, coach Joe Paterno leads Penn State past Maryland 15-7. The Nittany Lions hold on as Terrapins back up quarterback Phil Petry throws an incomplete pass on fourth down from the Penn State one-yard line in the fourth quarter.
1967 - Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts passes for 401 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-31 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
1988 - Colorado’s Alfred Williams leads the Buffaloes to a 24-21 win over No. 19 Iowa, in Iowa City. Williams gets seven tackles, four for losses including two sacks, a forced fumble, a recovery, a pass deflection and a blocked punt in the win. Williams’ forced fumble late in the fourth quarter ends the Hawkeyes late charge.
1988 - No. 10 Florida State upsets No. 3 Clemson 24-21 in Clemson, S.C. With the game tied at 21 with 1:31 to play, FSU coach Bobby Bowden calls for a fake punt from his own 21-yard line. Cornerback LeRoy Butler takes the fake 76 yards, setting up Richie Andrews’ game-winning 19-yard field goal with 32 seconds left.
1994 - UNLV wide receiver Randy Gatewood catches 23 passes for 363 yards and a touchdown in a 48-38 loss to Idaho.
2002 - Suzy Whaley becomes the first woman to qualify for a PGA Tour event, earning an exemption to the 2003 Greater Hartford Open by winning a PGA Section Championship. Whaley, also is the first woman to win a Section Championship.
2004 - San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hits the 700th home run of his career, joining Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755) as the only players to reach the milestone.
2006 - Paul Casey turns in a record-setting performance to win the World Match Play Championship. Casey completes a dominating week by winning the last five holes for a 10-and-8 victory over Shaun Micheel, the largest margin of the championship match in the 43-year history of this tournament.
2016 - Cam Pedersen kicks a 37-yard field as time expired and North Dakota State, of the FCS, rallies to beat No. 13 Iowa 23-21 for its sixth straight win over an FBS opponent. The loss is the fourth by a ranked FBS team to an FCS school. North Dakota State has won the last five FCS national titles.
2016 - Curtis Granderson hits a solo home run with two outs in the 12th inning after also connecting for a tying shot in the 11th, lifting the New York Mets to a 3-2 12-inning victory and into a tie for the NL wild-card lead.
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Sept. 18
1899 - A tennis tournament known as “The Cincinnati Open” begins. Today, it is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States still played in its original city and is now known as the Cincinnati Masters & Women’s Open.
1946 - Joe Louis knocks out Tami Mauriello in the first round at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.
1960 - Goose Gonsoulin intercepts four passes to lead the Denver Broncos to a 27-21 win over the Buffalo Bills.
1965 - In his first collegiate game, quarterback Billy Stevens of Texas-El Paso gains 483 total yards against North Texas State. Receiver Chuck Hughes has 349 of those yards.
1967 - U.S. yacht Intrepid beats the Australian yacht Dame Pattie in four straight races to defend the America’s Cup.
1977 - U.S. yacht Courageous beats the challenger Australia in four straight races to defend the America’s Cup.
1996 - Roger Clemens equals his own major league record, fanning 20 batters and pitching a four-hitter to lead Boston over the Detroit Tigers 4-0.
2003 - Atlanta clinches its 12th straight division title when second-place Florida is mathematically eliminated from the NL East race. The record title streak started in 1991, when the Braves won the NL West. They moved to the East Division in 1994 and trailed Montreal by six games when the strike stopped the season in August.
2004 - Maurice Drew of UCLA rushes for a school-record 322 yards and five touchdowns in the Bruins’ 37-31 victory over Washington. By halftime, he had 235 yards on 13 carries.
2005 - Green Bay’s Brett Favre joins Dan Marino and John Elway with 50,000 yards passing and also breaks Elway’s single-stadium NFL touchdown record of 180 with a 4-yard toss to Tony Fisher with 4 seconds left of a 26-24 loss to Cleveland at Lambeau Field.
2011 - At 16, Lexi Thompson becomes the youngest player to win an LPGA Tour event. The 16-year-old Floridian closes with a 2-under 70 to win by five strokes over Tiffany Joh at the Navistar LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala. Thompson shatters the age record for winning a multiple-round tournament held by Paula Creamer, who won in 2005 at 18.
2011 - Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton sets an NFL rookie record by throwing for 432 yards against the Green Bay Packers. Newton, who tied the record by throwing for 422 yards in last week’s loss at Arizona, completes 28 of 46 passes with one touchdown in the 30-23 loss to the Packers. Newton’s 854 yards passing is also the most yards for a player in his first two games.
2013 - American Jordan Burroughs earns another wrestling world title. Burroughs, a gold medalist at the 2012 Olympics, extends his undefeated streak to 65 matches with a 4-0 victory over Iran’s Ezzatollah Akbarizarinkolaei in the 163-pound category at the Laszlo Papp Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
2016 - In Gee Chun wins the Evian Championship with the lowest 72-hole score in major championship history, finishing at 21-under 263 for a four-stroke victory. The 22-year-old South Korean player breaks the overall major record of 20 under set by Henrik Stenson and Jason Day and the women’s mark of 19 under.
2016 - The Los Angeles Rams defeat the Seattle Seahawks 9-3, a game that marks the return of pro football to the nation’s second-largest market for the first time in nearly 22 years.
2016 - Detroit’s Anquan Boldin has a touchdown catch in the Lions’ 16-15 loss to Tennessee, to join Terrell Owens as the only players in NFL history to have at least 1,000 career receptions and a touchdown catch with four teams.
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Sept. 19
1948 - Pancho Gonzales, 20, wins the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association title with a three-set victory over Eric Sturgess.
1951 - Ford C. Frick, president of the National League, is elected baseball commissioner by the team owners.
1981 - Southern Cal’s Marcus Allen rushes for 274 yards and scores two touchdowns in a 21-0 triumph over Indiana.
1985 - Minnesota’s Tommy Kramer passes for 436 yards and three touchdowns in the Vikings’ 33-24 loss to the Chicago Bears.
1992 - Sergei Bubka raises the world record in the pole vault, his 32nd world record, clearing 20 feet, 1½ inches in the Toto International at Tokyo.
1993 - Nigel Mansell overpowers the field in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix to become the first rookie to win the Indy car PPG Cup championship.
1998 - Evander Holyfield wins a unanimous decision over Vaughn Bean to retain his IBF and WBA heavyweight titles before 41,357 at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.
2000 - In the Sydney Olympics, the Americans strand a staggering 20 baserunners in an 11-inning, 2-1 loss to Japan which ends their 112-game winning streak. It’s the first loss for the U.S. women softball the 1998 world championships.
2001 - Roger Clemens becomes the first pitcher in major league history to go 20-1, pitching the New York Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
2004 - Jerry Rice’s run of 274 straight games with a catch is ended in the Oakland Raiders’ 13-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. The last time Rice didn’t catch a pass was Dec. 1, 1985, at Washington.
2009 - Texas College of the NAIA is trounced 75-6 by Texas Southern, a week after losing 92-0 to Stephen F. Austin. The Steers fall to 0-4 and have been outscored 300-12.
2010 - Matt Schaub is 38 of 52 for a franchise-record 497 yards with three touchdowns in Houston’s 30-27 overtime win over Washington. Donovan McNabb of the Redskins is 28 of 38 for 426 yards. It’s the first time two quarterbacks throw for 400 yards in an NFL game since 1994.
2010 - New England’s Randy Moss becomes the fourth NFL player to reach 150 career touchdowns in a 28-14 loss to the New York Jets.
2015 - Greyson Lambert of Georgia throws for 330 yards, three touchdowns and sets an NCAA record by completing all but one of his 25 passes to lead the to a 52-20 victory over South Carolina. Lambert posts the highest percentage (96.0) in FBS history for a minimum of 20 completions, breaking the mark of 95.8 (23 of 24) shared by Tennessee’s Tee Martin and West Virginia’s Geno Smith.
2015 - Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma, sets a school record with 572 total yards, throws four TD passes and runs for two more scores in the Sooners’ 52-38 victory over Tulsa.
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