DECEMBER 1 – On This Day

1653 An athlete from Croydon is reported to have run 20 miles from St Albans to London in less than 90 minutes
1912 Boston Braves MLB franchise owner James Gaffney buys the Allston Golf Club on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston with a plan to construct a ball park there; ground breaking for Braves Field starts on March 20, 1915
1923 Grey Cup, Varsity Stadium, Toronto: Queen’s University retains title with 54-0 win over Regina Rugby Club; biggest Grey Cup victory margin ever
1924 The Boston Bruins beat fellow expansion Montreal Maroons, 2-1 at Boston Arena; first NHL game to be played in the United States
1928 National League President John Heydler first to propose a baseball rule change calling for a 10th man, or ‘designated hitter’, to bat in place of the pitcher; ironically, the NL vote in favour of proposal, but the American League turn it down
1928 CFL Grey Cup, AAA Grounds, Hamilton: Hamilton Tigers win 3rd Cup with 30-0 shutout of Regina Roughriders
1930 NHL drops 20 minute slashing-about-the-head penalty
1936 2nd Heisman Trophy Award: Larry Kelley, Yale (E)
1940 Four sets of brothers play in one NHL game when Chicago Blackhawks beat NY Rangers, 4-1; Lynn & Muzz Patrick and Neil & Mac Colville (Rangers); Max & Doug Bentley and Bob & Bill Carse (Chicago)
1942 With WWII travel restrictions in mind, MLB owners decide to restrict travel to a 3-trip schedule rather than customary 4; Spring training in 1943 limited to locations north of Potomac or Ohio rivers and east of the Mississippi
1945 CFL Grey Cup, Varsity Stadium, Toronto: Toronto Argonauts win their 6th title with a 35-0 shutout of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
1949 MLB announces attendance for the season is 20.2 million, down from 20.9 in 1948; New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians each finish with over 2.2 million, but the St. Louis Browns fall to 270,000
1951 17th Heisman Trophy Award: Dick Kazmaier, Princeton (HB)
1951 Legendary Australian cricket fast bowler Ray Lindwall takes his 100th Test wicket when he bowls West Indian spinner Sonny Ramadhin in the 2nd Test in Sydney; Australia wins by 7 wickets
1953 Red Sox trade for slugger Jackie Jensen, sending pitcher Mickey McDermott and outfielder Tom Umphlett to Washington; Jensen averages 25 HRs a year for his 7 seasons in Boston; AL RBI leader x 3, and AL MVP in 1958
1954 NY Yankees and Baltimore Orioles complete largest trade in MLB history as 17 players, including Don Larsen, Gene Woodling, Bob Turley change teams; first phase of transaction began November 18 and concludes today after the MLB draft
1956 Algerian-born French long-distance runner Alain Mimoun wins the men’s marathon in 2:25:00.0 at the Melbourne Olympics; first time runners follow painted line
1956 21st Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 34-7 in Birmingham
1956 In front of 100,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a US Army baseball team beats an Australian all-star team, 11–5 in an Olympic exhibition game; Sergeant Vance Sutton belts a grand slam for Army
1956 US men’s 4 x 100m relay team of Thane Baker, Leamon King, Bobby Morrow & Ira Murchison sets world record 39.60s to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Morrow’s 3rd gold medal of the Games
1956 Australian women’s 4 x 100m relay team of Norma Croker, Betty Cuthbert, Fleur Mellor & Shirley Strickland de la Hunty run world record 44.65 to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Cuthbert’s 3rd gold of the Games
1956 American Mildred McDaniel jumps world record 1.76m to win the women’s high jump gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Briton Thelma Hopkins and Russian Mariya Pisareva dead-heat for silver (1.67m)
1956 Hungarian boxer László Papp wins his 3rd straight Olympic gold medal when he beats future Hall of Famer José Torres representing the US on points in the light-middleweight final at the Melbourne Olympics
1956 Legendary Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets world record 1:02.0 to win the women’s 100m freestyle at the Melbourne Olympics; first of Fraser’s 3 consecutive gold medals in the event
1956 Romanian canoeist Leon Rotman wins the men’s C-1,000m gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; claims the singles double after also winning the C-1 10,000m gold
1956 Gert Fredriksson of Sweden wins his 3rd consecutive K-1 1,000m canoeing gold medal by 2.5s from Igor Pissarov of the Soviet Union at the Melbourne Olympics; also wins K-1 10,000m gold
1962 27th Iron Bowl: Alabama beats Auburn 38-0 in Birmingham, their fourth straight shutout in the series
1962 Classifications in minor league baseball are overhauled; Eastern and South Atlantic leagues are promoted from Class-A to Class-AA; classes B, C and D are abolished with those leagues being promoted to Class-A
1963 Wendell Scott wins the Grand National Series Jacksonville 200 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, becoming the first black driver to win a race at NASCAR’s premier level
1964 After just 3 seasons in MLB the Houston Colt .45s change name of the team to Astros; owners say move signals a step into the future for the franchise and the city of Houston
1966 Ecuadorian national baseball team defends its title with a 4-3 win over Brazil in the South American Championship; last win for next 50 years; Eloy Guerrero drives in Ramón Sotomayor with the winning run
1967 Pacific Northwest Sports, Inc. is awarded one of the 2 American League baseball expansion franchises; new team named the Seattle Pilots
1973 38th Iron Bowl: Alabama beats Auburn 35-0 in Birmingham
1974 American Jacqueline Hansen runs female world record marathon 2:43:54.5 in Culver City, California
1974 South Africa is awarded the Davis Cup tennis title after India refuses to travel to South Africa for the final in protest of the South African government’s apartheid policies
1979 44th Iron Bowl: Alabama beats Auburn 25-18 in Birmingham
1980 46th Heisman Trophy Award: George Rogers, South Carolina (RB)
1984 50th Heisman Trophy Award: Doug Flutie, Boston College (QB)
1984 American boxer Greg Page KOs home town favourite Gerrie Coetzee in 8th round to win WBA heavyweight title in Sun City, South Africa
1984 49th Iron Bowl: Alabama beats Auburn 17-15 in Birmingham
1988 NBC bids a record $401 million to capture television broadcasting rights for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games
1989 Romanian 5-time Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Nadia Comăneci arrives in NYC requesting political asylum to the United States; granted
1990 56th Heisman Trophy Award: Ty Detmer, Brigham Young (QB)
1990 55th Iron Bowl: Alabama beats Auburn 16-7 in Birmingham
1993 St Louis Blues’ Bob Berry coaches his 800th career NHL game, a 4-2 loss to the Maple Leafs in Toronto; also coached LA Kings, Montreal Canadiens & Pittsburgh Penguins
1996 Davis Cup Tennis, Malmo, Sweden: Arnaud Boetsch beats Sweden’s Nicklas Kulti in closest deciding match in Cup history 7-6, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6, 10-8 to give France 3-2 victory
1996 South African cricket all-rounder Lance Klusener takes 8-64 on debut in Proteas’ 329 run 2nd Test win v India in Kolkata
1996 Flamboyant Australian rugby union winger David Campese ends his 15-year, 101 Test career at Cardiff Arms Park in Wales; Wallabies beat Wales, 28-19; Campese scores record 64 career tries
1997 Golden State Warriors NBA guard Latrell Sprewell assaults head coach P.J. Carlesimo; suspended for 10 games
1997 In their 81st season, Montreal Canadiens become first team in history to play 5,000 NHL games; host the Penguins but lose, 1-0; franchise record 2,625-1,603-772 with .620 winning percentage
2001 Nicaraguan baseball team wins the Central American Games; Ramon Padilla ends 15 year stint with the national team with 2 homers in the 9-0 finale against Guatemala
2002 Davis Cup Tennis, Paris: Mikhail Youzhny beats Paul-Henri Mathieu 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 to give Russia 3-2 win over France; only time in event history that a 2-set deficit turned around in a live 5th rubber of a Final
2006 Canadian jockey Russell Baze becomes North American horse racing’s all-time win leader when Butterfly Belle wins 4th race at Bay Meadows, San Mateo, California; 9,531 victories passes record of Laffit Pincay Jr
2007 16th SEC Championship Game: #5 LSU beats #14 Tennessee, 21-14
2007 3rd ACC Championship Game: #6 Virginia Tech beats #12 Boston College, 30-16
2007 12th Big 12 Championship Game: #9 Oklahoma beats #1 Missouri, 38-17
2007 Davis Cup Tennis, Portland, Oregan: Bob and Mike Bryan team to give US an unassailable 3-0 lead (ends 4-1) over Russia; beat Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev 7-6, 6-4, 6-2; 32nd US title
2012 Ukrainian Anna Ushenina beats Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria, 3½-2½ in 2 rapid tie breaks to win the World Women’s Chess Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
2012 21st SEC Championship Game: #2 Alabama beats #3 Georgia, 32-28
2012 8th ACC Championship Game: #13 Florida State beats Georgia Tech, 21-15
2012 FC Barcelona with 13 wins and a draw sets new La Liga start to Spanish football season record; Lionel Messi scores twice in 5-1 win over Athletic Bilbao; pass Real Madrid’s 1991-92 season mark
2014 Utility Claudio Liverziani becomes first 3-time MVP in the Italian Baseball League; 291/.444/.472 season, with 30 HRs and 20 RBI in 38 games for Fortitudo Bologna
2015 In the largest deal ever for a MLB pitcher, Boston Red Sox land one of the biggest catches of the off-season, signing free agent David Price for 7 years and $217 million
2015 After finishing the season with the largest payroll in MLB history at $298.3 million, the Los Angeles Dodgers are assigned the largest luxury tax bill ever, $43.7 million
2018 British boxer Tyson Fury dominates much of the fight but survives 2 knockdowns to force a split decision draw with defending WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder at the Staples Center, Los Angeles

(Visited 120 times, 1 visits today)

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *