Feb. 6
1943 — Montreal’s Ray Getliffe scores five goals to lead the Canadiens to an 8-3 triumph over the Boston Bruins.
1958 — Ted Williams signs a contract with the Boston Red Sox for $135,000, making him the highest paid player in major league history.
1967 — Muhammad Ali successfully defends his world heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ernest Terrell in the Houston Astrodome.
1970 — The NBA expands to 18 teams with the addition of franchises in Buffalo, Cleveland, Houston and Portland.
1981 — Wayne Gretzky scores three goals and three assists in a 10-4 Edmonton victory over the Winnipeg Jets, giving him 100 points in the season.
1985 — Seventeen-year-old Dianne Roffe becomes the first U.S. woman to win a gold medal in a World Alpine Ski Championship race, capturing the giant slalom in 2:18.53.
1988 — Chicago’s Michael Jordan wins the NBA Slam Dunk contest with a perfect score of 50 on his final dunk in front of a hometown crowd at Chicago Stadium.
1990 — Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues scores his 50th goal, making him and his Hall of Famer father, Bobby Hull, the only father-son combination in NHL history to reach that milestone.
1993 — Riddick Bowe easily wins his first defense of his WBA and IBF heavyweight boxing titles by beating Michael Dokes in the first round of their championship bout held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
2000 — Randy Moss sets records with nine catches for 212 yards, and Mike Alstott scores three touchdowns in the NFC’s 51-31 victory over the AFC, the highest-scoring Pro Bowl.
2000 — Pavel Bure records the 11th hat trick in All-Star history and goalie Olaf Kolzig plays a shutout third period as the World team routs North America 9-4 in the NHL’s 50th All-Star game.
2005 — The New England Patriots win their third Super Bowl in four years, 24-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s their ninth straight postseason victory, equaling Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers.
2011 — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady becomes the first unanimous choice for The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award. Brady gets all 50 votes since the AP began using a nationwide panel of media members who cover the league.
2011 — Aaron Rodgers throws three touchdown passes and Nick Collins returns an interception for another score, leading the Green Bay Packers to a 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.
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Feb. 7
1882 — John L. Sullivan wins the world heavyweight bare-knuckle title by beating Paddy Ryan in a nine-round bout in Mississippi City, Miss.
1942 — At the Millrose Games in New York, Dutch Warmerdam becomes the first man to clear 15 feet in the pole vault indoors. Warmerdam, the first to break the 15-foot mark outdoors in 1940, clears 15 feet 3/8 inch.
1949 — Joe DiMaggio signs his contract with the New York Yankees, making him the first baseball player to earn $100,000 per year.
1969 — Diana Crump becomes the first female jockey to race at a U.S. pari-mutuel track. She rode her first mount to 10th place in a field of 12 in Hialeah, Fla.
1970 — Pete Maravich scores 69 points, including 47 in the second half, to set a NCAA record, but LSU loses to Alabama 106-104.
1976 — Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs sets an NHL record for points in a game with six goals and four assists in an 11-4 victory over the Boston Bruins.
1990 — Lisa Leslie of Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif., scores 101 points in the first half against South Torrance High School. The final score is 102-24 as the coach of South Torrance decides not to bring his team out for the second half.
1995 — Joe Mullen becomes the first American-born player to reach 1,000 points in the NHL when he assists on two of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first three goals in a 7-3 victory over Florida.
2000 — With an astonishing comeback to win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Tiger Woods wins his sixth straight PGA Tour victory. Seven strokes behind with seven holes to play, Woods holes a 97-yard wedge for eagle on the 15th, and birdies two of the last three holes to win. Woods becomes the first player since Ben Hogan in 1948 to win six straight.
2010 — Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints rally to beat Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in the Super Bowl.
2013 — Tyler Griffey makes an uncontested layup at the buzzer off a baseline inbound pass and Illinois beats No. 1 Indiana 74-72, the fifth straight week the nation’s top-ranked team loses. The Hoosiers took over the top spot in The Associated Press’ Top 25 on Feb. 4. The run of No. 1 teams to lose has been Duke, Louisville, Duke again, Michigan and Indiana.
2015 — Philadelphia University coach Herb Magee becomes the second NCAA men’s basketball coach to win 1,000 games. Magee, who won 1,000 games over 48 seasons at the school, hits the milestone with the Rams’ 80-60 win over Post.
2016 — Von Miller forces two fumbles to set up Denver’s two touchdowns and the Broncos defense frustrates Cam Newton all game to carry Peyton Manning to his second Super Bowl title with a 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers.
2016 — Rachel Banham ties an NCAA women’s record with 60 points — with 10 coming in the first overtime and eight in the second — to lead Minnesota to a 112-106 win over Northwestern. Banham matches the 60 points put up by Cindy Brown of Long Beach State against San Jose State on Feb. 16, 1987.
2018 — St. John’s takes down another of the nation’s elite, and stuns No. 1 Villanova 79-75 for its second win over a top-five team in one week. St. John’s beat then-No. 4 Duke 81-77 at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 3, snapping an 11-game losing streak.
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Feb. 8
1936 — Jay Berwanger, University of Chicago halfback and Heisman Trophy winner, is the first player ever selected in the NFL Draft. The Philadelphia Eagles make the pick and eventually trade his rights to the Chicago Bears.
1950 — Man o’ War is selected the greatest horse of the half century by The Associated Press. Man o’ War, as a 2- and 3-year-old, is a winner in 20 of 21 races and holds five track records.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scores 59 points in a 136-120 victory over the New York Knicks and beats his own single-season scoring record of 3,033 by six points.
1964 — Billy Kidd and James Heuga win the first men’s Olympic Alpine skiing medals for the United States with a silver and bronze in the slalom.
1970 — Gordie Howe becomes the first NHL player to score 750 goals. Howe gets the milestone by beating Philadelphia Flyers goalie Bernie Parent 3:10 into the third period, but the Red Wings lose 5-3 at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.
1983 — Wayne Gretzky puts on a show, scoring four goals in the third period of the Campbell Conference’s 9-3 win against the Wales Conference in the NHL All-Star Game held at New York’s Nassau Coliseum. He breaks Ted Lindsay’s record of three goals in an All-Star Game, set in 1950.
1986 — Atlanta’s Spud Webb, at 5-foot-7, wins NBA Slam Dunk competition. Webb receives a perfect 50 from the judges in the last two rounds to shock defending dunk champion Dominique Wilkins and the crowd at Dallas’ Reunion Arena.
1987 — Seattle’s Tom Chambers, a last-minute replacement for the injured Ralph Sampson, scores a game-high 34 points to lead the West to a 154-149 overtime win over the East in the NBA All-Star Game before 34,275 at the Kingdome.
1997 — Scotty Bowman becomes the first NHL coach to win 1,000 games as Detroit beats Pittsburgh 6-5 on Brendan Shanahan’s overtime goal. Bowman, the coach of six Stanley Cup champion teams, is 1,000-452-255 in regular-season games and 162-101 in the playoffs.
1998 — Johanna Ikonen scores twice and Tiia Reima and Sari Krooks score a goal and an assist as Finland beats Sweden 6-0 in the first Olympic women’s ice hockey game.
2003 — Mario Lemieux becomes the 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career assists. He has four in Pittsburgh’ 5-2 victory in Boston.
2004 — Marc Bulger throws a Pro Bowl-record four TD passes, and Detroit’s Dre’ Bly returns an interception 32 yards for the go-ahead score with 4:50 to play during the NFC’s rally from an 18-point deficit in the final 13 minutes of a 55-52 victory over the AFC. It’s the highest-scoring Pro Bowl in history.
2014 — At the Sochi Games, Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen becomes the oldest Winter Olympic gold medalist at 40 and ties Bjoern Daehlie’s record for most medals (12) won at the Winter Games. Bjoerndalen wins the men’s 10-kilometer biathlon sprint, breaking the record held by Canadian skeleton racer Duff Gibson, who was 39 when he won gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics.
2016 — Breanna Stewart has 25 points and 10 rebounds as No. 1 UConn again proves who rules the women’s game, running past No. 2 South Carolina 66-54.
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Feb. 9
1912 — The U.S. Tennis Association amends the rules for the men’s singles championship play. The defending champion is required to play through the tournament instead of waiting for the tournament to produce a challenger.
1940 — Joe Louis beats Arturo Godoy with a split decision to defend his world heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.
1966 — The NHL doubles in size — from six to 12 teams — when the Owners-Governors award franchises to Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and St. Louis.
1986 — Detroit’s Isiah Thomas scores 30 points and hands out 10 assists to lead the East to a 139-132 win in the All-Star Game in Dallas.
1988 — Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores a record six points — three goals and three assists — to lead the Wales Conference to a 6-5 victory over the Campbell Conference in the NHL All-Star game.
1991 — Terry Norris knocks down Sugar Ray Leonard twice and beats him up over 12 rounds in Leonard’s Madison Square Garden debut and final fight. Norris wins a unanimous decision.
1992 — Magic Johnson, playing for the first time since announcing his retirement on Nov. 7, scores a game-high 25 points and hands out nine assists to lead the West to a 153-113 win over the East in the NBA All-Star Game at the Orlando Arena.
1997 — Glen Rice breaks two scoring records in an MVP performance and Michael Jordan has the first triple-double in NBA All-Star game history. The East rallies to beat the West 132-120. Rice, who finishes with 26 points, sets records with 20 in the third quarter and 24 in the second half.
2003 — Kevin Garnett, the MVP, scores nine of his 37 points in the second overtime as the West beat the East 155-145 in the first double overtime game in NBA All-Star history.
2009 — Lindsey Vonn wins the downhill for her second gold at the World Championships in Val D’isere, France. Vonn becomes the second American woman to win two golds at a worlds. Andrea Mead Lawrence won the slalom and giant slalom at the 1952 Oslo Olympics, which doubled as the worlds.
2011 — The Cleveland Cavaliers’ losing streak reaches 26, matching the 1976-77 NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ record for consecutive incompetence with a 103-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
2014 — Missouri All-American defensive end Michael Sam comes out to the nation. In interviews with ESPN, The New York Times and Outsports, Sam says he came out to all his teammates and coaches at Missouri in August.
2015 — San Antonio rallies from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and gets an 18-foot baseline jumper from Marco Belinelli with 2.1 seconds left to give coach Greg Popovich 1,000 wins with a 95-93 victory at Indiana.
2015 — Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scores 23 points and Breanna Stewart adds 22 to help No. 2 UConn beat top-ranked South Carolina 87-62. This is the 54th meeting between the top two women’s teams in the nation, and the 20th time that the Huskies are involved in that matchup. They are 17-3 in those games.
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