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.
1975 — The New Orleans Jazz get their first road win in franchise history, ending a 28 game road losing streak. The Jazz beat the Hawks in Atlanta 106-102 to improve their record to 7-44.
1987 — Nancy Lopez assures herself a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame by winning the $200,000 Sarasota Classic. The victory is Lopez’s 35th, which automatically qualifies her.
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.
1996 — Charles Barkley becomes the 22nd NBA player to reach 20,000 points, scoring 30 in the Phoenix Suns’ 107-102 victory over New Jersey.
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.
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.
2009 — Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald catches five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns and 44-year-old John Carney kicks two fourth-quarter field goals as the NFC rallies to a 30-21 victory over the AFC in the Pro Bowl.
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.
2014 — Memphis sets an NBA record with only one free throw attempt while winning on the road with a 79-76 victory over Atlanta. Memphis’ single free throw attempt is the record low since the shot-clock era was introduced in 1954-55.
2014 — Wichita State beats Northern Iowa 82-73 to become the first men’s team to open 25-0 since Derrick Rose helped Memphis win its first 26 games in 2007-08.
