AP Sportlight

Tue, Jan 26, 2021
By The Associated Press

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.

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