Jan. 27
1937 - Tris Speaker and Cy Young are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1969 - The Pittsburgh Steelers name Chuck Noll head coach. The 37-year-old Noll is the youngest head coach in NFL history at the time.
1970 - The Pittsburgh Steelers select Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw with first pick of the NFL Draft.
1973 - UCLA, led by Bill Walton, sets an NCAA record for consecutive victories with its 61st win, an 82-63 victory over Notre Dame. UCLA breaks the record of 60 set by San Francisco in 1956. Walton scores 16 points, grabs 15 rebounds and blocks 10 shots.
1982 - Geoff Houston of the Cleveland Cavaliers hands out 27 assists, two short of the NBA record and scores 24 points in a 110-106 victory over the Golden State Warriors.
1991 - The New York Giants survive the closest Super Bowl ever when Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field goal attempt with 8 seconds left in the game goes wide. The Giants win their second Super Bowl in five years, 20-19 over the Buffalo Bills.
1993 - American Chad Rowan is awarded the highest rank in sumo wrestling, the ancient Japanese sport, making him the first foreign “yokozuna.” The 6-foot-8, 455-pounder from Honolulu, becomes the 64th person to hold the top rank in the sport’s history.
1996 - The U.S. Golf Association elects Judy Bell as the first female president in its 101-year history.
2003 - Hermann Maier wins a World Cup super giant slalom in Kitzbuehel, Austria, a victory he ranks among his finest triumphs. The win comes 18 months after he almost loses his leg in a motorcycle crash.
2007 - Serena Williams wins her third Australian Open singles title, routing Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2. Unseeded and ranked 81st, Williams wins her eighth and most improbable Grand Slam. She is the second unseeded woman to win the Australian title in the Open era.
2008 - Novak Djokovic fends off unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the Australian Open final, earning his first Grand Slam title.
2008 - Eric Staal wins the most valuable player award in the NHL All-Star game, registering two goals and an assist in the East’s 8-7 win over the Western Conference. Staal helps set up Marc Savard’s winning goal with 20.9 seconds left.
2011 - Roger Federer, the 16-time Grand Slam winner, is knocked out of the Australian Open by Novak Djokovic in a semifinal match, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-4. Federer’s loss marks the first time since 2003 that he wouldn’t hold any of the four major titles.
2013 - Novak Djokovic beats Andy Murray 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 to become the first man in the Open era to win three consecutive Australian Open titles.
2013 - The NFC blew past the AFC 62-35 in the Pro Bowl. Minnesota tight end Kyle Rudolph is voted the game’s MVP with five catches for 122 yards and a touchdown.
2018 - Gun Runner, ridden by Florent Geroux, ends his career by taking the Pegasus World Cup, the richest thoroughbred race in the world. Gun Runner, named Horse of the Year two days earlier, easily beats West Coast by 2 1/2 lengths to win the $16 million race at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida.
2018 - Caroline Wozniacki captures her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, rebounding in the third set to beat top-seeded Simona Halep 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4.
___
Jan. 28
1901 - The American League is founded. The league plans for a 140-game schedule, set player rosters at 14 and recognizes the Players Protective Association, the players’ union.
1943 - Max Bentley of the Chicago Black Hawks has four goals and three assists in a 10-1 rout of the New York Rangers. Bentley scored all four goals and an assist in the third period. Max’s brother, Doug, has four assists in the third period.
1949 - Monte Irvin and Ford Smith are signed by the New York Giants. They are the first black players to sign with the club.
1984 - Wayne Gretzky’s record 51-game scoring streak is halted as the Angeles Kings post a 4-2 victory. Over the 51 games, Gretzky scored 61 goals and 92 assists.
1990 - The San Francisco 49ers beat the Denver Broncos 55-10 in the most lopsided Super Bowl. The 49ers are the first repeat NFL champion in a decade and tie the Pittsburgh Steelers with four Super Bowl wins.
1992 - Brett Hull becomes the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in 50 games more than once in a career when the St. Louis Blues tie the Los Angeles Kings 3-3.
1996 - The Dallas Cowboys become the first team to win three Super Bowls in four seasons with a 27-17 win over the Pittsburgh Streelers. Larry Brown, the first cornerback named the game’s MVP, records two interceptions in the second half.
2001 - Baltimore’s brazen defense backs up its bragging by beating the New York Giants 34-7 in the Super Bowl. The Ravens intercept Kerry Collins four times, the final pick returned 49 yards for a touchdown by Duane Starks.
2007 - Roger Federer captures his 10th Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set at the Australian Open, beating Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4. The last man to go through a major without dropping a set was Bjorn Borg at the 1980 French Open.
2011 - Oklahoma State shuts out Northern Colorado 44-0 to become the second Division I wrestling program in NCAA history to reach 1,000 wins in dual matches. Oklahoma State, winner of an NCAA record 34 team national championships, joins Iowa State as the only programs with at least 1,000 wins.
2011 - Deresse Mekonnen wins the Wanamaker Mile, becoming the first person other than Bernard Lagat to win the Millrose Game’s marquee event since 2004.
2012 - Towson ends its NCAA record 41-game losing streak with a 66-61 victory over North Carolina Wilmington. The victory is the first career win at Towson for coach Pat Skerry and the Tigers’ first win since a win at La Salle on Dec. 29, 2010.
2014 - Calling the NCAA a dictatorship, Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter and the United Steelworkers announce plans to form the first labor union for college athletes. Colter details the College Athletes Players Association at a news conference in Chicago, flanked by leaders of Steelworkers union that agree to pay legal bills for the effort.
2017 - Serena Williams wins her record 23rd Grand Slam singles title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over her older sister Venus in the Australian Open final.
2017 - Arrogate beats California Chrome again, winning the $12 million Pegasus World Cup in his rival’s last race before retirement.
2018 - Roger Federer becomes the first man to win 20 Grand Slam tennis singles titles, defeating Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 to capture his record-tying sixth Australian Open championship.
Jan. 29
1950 - In an Associated Press poll of sports writers and broadcasters, Jack Dempsey is voted the greatest fighter of the past 50 years. Dempsey received 251 votes to 104 for Joe Louis.
1963 - Eleven players and six officials are elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Bronco Nagurski, Sammy Baugh, Dutch Clark, Johnny McNally, Ernie Nevers, Mel Hein, Pete Henry, Cal Hubbard and Don Hutson are the players. The six officials are Bert Bell, Joe Carr, George Halas, Curly Lambeau, Tim Mara and George Preston.
1971 - Hal Greer of Philadelphia becomes the sixth player in NBA history to score 20,000 points as the 76ers lose to Milwaukee 142-118.
1980 - Norm Nixon plays a then NBA record 64 minutes for Los Angeles as the Lakers drop a 154-153 four-overtime decision to Cleveland.
1984 - The East outlasts the West 154-145 in overtime in the All-Star Game in Denver. MVP Isiah Thomas scores all 21 of his points after halftime and adds 15 assists as the East overcomes a 14-point halftime deficit and Magic Johnson’s record 22 assists.
1985 - Edmonton’s Jari Kurri scores his 100th point in the 39th game of the season with a goal in a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.
1985 - Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders scores his 1,000th point with a goal in a 4-4 tie with the Minnesota North Stars.
1988 - Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson breaks his own world indoor best in the 50-yard dash at the Toronto Sun Challenge. Johnson’s time of 5.15 seconds erases his previous mark of 5.20 seconds, set two weeks earlier.
1988 - The Detroit Pistons draw an NBA regular season record crowd of 61,983 fans to the Pontiac Silverdome, and the fans go home happy after watching the Pistons down the Boston Celtics 125-108.
1994 - Julio Cesar Chavez suffers his first loss in 91 fights when Frankie Randall knocks him down in the 11th round and wins the WBC super lightweight championship on a split decision.
1995 - San Francisco’s Steve Young throws a record six touchdown passes, and the 49ers became the first team to win five Super Bowls with a 49-26 rout of the San Diego Chargers.
1997 - Brian Himmler rolls two perfect games to take the lead after the first two rounds of qualifying at the PBA’s Columbia 300 Open.
2000 - Utah’s Karl Malone becomes the third player in NBA history to score 30,000 points when he makes a layup with 8:53 left in the third quarter of a 96-94 loss to Minnesota.
2010 - Bernard Lagat wins his eighth Wanamaker Mile at 103rd Millrose Games in New York. Lagat, who finishes in 3:56.34, had shared the record with Irish great Eamonn Coghlan.
2012 - Lydia Ko becomes the youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event by winning the Bing Lee/Samsung Women’s NSW Open on the ALPG Tour. She is 14 and 8 months, one year younger than the previous youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa.
2012 - Novak Djokovic outlasts Rafael Nadal to defend his Australian Open title in the longest ever Grand Slam final and becomes the fifth man to win three straight majors in the Open Era. Djokovic completes a 5-hour, 53-minute 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 victory over Nadal at 1:37 a.m.
2017 - Roger Federer wins his 18th major title by beating Rafael Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to capture the Australian Open.
___
END
Please read our comment policy before commenting.