AP-Sportlight-Week Ahead

Thu, Jan 28, 2021
By The Associated Press

Jan. 30

1926 - The major league rules committee mandates that pitchers must have access to a rosin bag.

1971 - UCLA starts its 88-game winning streak with a 74-61 win over UC Santa Barbara.

1983 - John Riggins rushes for a Super Bowl-record 166 yards on 38 carries to spark the Washington Redskins to a come-from-behind, 27-17 victory over the Miami Dolphins. For Riggins, the game's MVP, it's his fourth consecutive 100-yard rushing game during the playoffs, also a record.

1992 - Jockey Mike Smith wins six races in one day at Aqueduct Racetrack for the second time in the month. His first six-winner day at Aqueduct was on Jan. 13.

1994 - The Dallas Cowboys, behind MVP Emmitt Smith and safety James Washington, beats Buffalo 30-13 for their second straight NFL title while giving the Bills four straight Super Bowl losses.

1996 - Magic Johnson finishes with 19 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the Los Angeles Lakers' 128-118 victory over Golden State. It Johnson's first regular-season game back from a 4 1/2-season retirement.

1999 - Martina Hingis wins her fifth Grand Slam title and third-straight Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over France's Amelie Mauresmo.

2000 - The St. Louis Rams hold on to beat the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in the Super Bowl. Kurt Warner's 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1:54 left gives the Rams the lead. On the game's final play with six seconds left, Steve McNair's pass is caught by Kevin Dyson at the Rams 5. He scrambles for the end zone only to be stopped just one yard short by Mike Jones as Dyson's outstretched arm holds the ball near the goal line.

2001 - Daron Rahlves wins the super giant slalom, the first American to capture the event at the world championships.

2006 - Teemu Selanne scores two goals for his 1,000th career point in Anaheim's 4-3 overtime victory against Los Angeles.

2009 - Rafael Nadal holds off Fernando Verdasco in longest match in Australian Open history. Verdasco double-faults after saving two match points, and Nadal wins 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (1), 6-4 in the 5-hour, 14-minute semifinal between the Spanish left-handers.

2016 - Angelique Kerber upsets Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open title, ending the six-time champion's unbeaten streak in finals at Melbourne Park.

2018 - James Harden becomes the first player in NBA history to score 60 points as part of a triple-double and the short-handed Houston Rockets beat the Orlando Magic 114-107. Harden scores 18 points in the fourth quarter to eclipse the 57 points Calvin Murphy scored in 1978 to break Houston's single-game scoring record. Harden also has 10 rebounds and 11 assists.

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Jan. 31

1920 - Joe Malone of the Quebec Bulldogs scores an NHL record seven goals in a 10-6 victory over the Toronto St. Patricks.

1941 - Joe Louis knocks out Red Burman in the fifth round at Madison Square Garden to retain the world heavyweight title.

1950 - High school pitcher Paul Pettit signs with the Pirates for a record $100,000. To do so, Pittsburgh has to purchase his contract from a film producer who had signed Pettit to an exclusive contract as an athlete/actor.

1988 - The Washington Redskins score 35 points in the second quarter to overcome a 10-0 deficit and beat the Denver Broncos 42-10 in the Super Bowl. MVP Doug Williams passes for four touchdowns and a record 340 yards. Timmy Smith rushes for a record 204 yards.

1991 - Michael Adams of the Denver Nuggets scores a career-high 45 points, hands out 12 assists and grabs 11 rebounds in a 123-119 win over New Jersey. The 5-foot-11 guard becomes the shortest player in the NBA to get a triple-double.

1993 - The Dallas Cowboys win the Super Bowl, beating Buffalo 52-17 and giving the Bills their third straight loss in the title game, a league record.

1998 - Martina Hingis, 17, becomes the youngest player in the Open era to defend a Grand Slam title, capturing her second Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Conchita Martinez.

1999 - John Elway gets his second straight Super Bowl ring, weaving his magic for the final time during the Denver Broncos' 34-19 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

2004 - Justine Henin-Hardenne wins her third Grand Slam title and extends her dominance in major finals against countrywoman Kim Clijsters with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win in the Australian Open women's title match.

2006 - Kobe Bryant scores 40 points in Los Angeles' 130-97 win over New York. The NBA's leading scorer averages 43.4 points in 13 games in January, joining Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to average 40 or more points in a month more than once. Bryant also averaged 40.6 points in February 2003.

2009 - Serena Williams routs Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 to win the Australian Open - her 10th Grand Slam title - and return to the No. 1 ranking. It's the fourth Australian Open championship for Williams.

2009 - Bruce Smith and Rod Woodson are elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Senior nominee Bob Hayes and Randall McDaniel, Derrick Thomas and Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson are also elected.

2013 - Hannah Kearney, Heather McPhie and Eliza Outtrim complete an American sweep at a freestyle World Cup moguls event at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah. It's only the second sweep by U.S. women, with the other occurring Jan. 21, 2010, in Lake Placid, N.Y. Kearney won gold in 2010 as well, while McPhie took bronze behind Shannon Bahrke.

2015 - Serena Williams wins her 19th Grand Slam title and extendeds her decade-long domination of Maria Sharapova with a commanding 6-3, 7-6 (5) win.

2015 - Teen star Lydia Ko becomes the youngest golfer of either gender to reach No. 1 in the world ranking. The 17-year-old shares a second place finish at the LPGA Tour's season opener, where she finishes a shot behind Na Yeon Choi in the Coates Golf Championship.

2016 - Novak Djokovic maintains his perfect streak in six Australian Open finals with a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (3) victory that consigns Andy Murray to a fifth defeat in championship deciders at Melbourne Park. Djokovic equals Roy Emerson's long-standing record of six Australian Open titles.

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Feb. 1

1913 - Jim Thorpe, star of the 1912 Olympics, signs to play baseball with the New York Giants.

1914 - The Chicago White Sox and New York Giants play an exhibition game to promote baseball in Egypt. The game ends in a 3-3 tie.

1956 - Hayes Alan Jenkins leads the United States in a sweep of Olympic men's figure skating in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The silver goes to Ronald Robertson, and Jenkins' younger brother, David, wins the bronze.

1964 - Bobby Rousseau of the Montreal Canadiens scores five goals in a 9-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

1984 - New York's Bernard King scores 50 points for the Knicks at Dallas, equaling the 50 he scored the night before in San Antonio. He's the first player to score 50 points on consecutive nights since Wilt Chamberlain did it 20 years earlier.

1995 - Utah guard John Stockton becomes the NBA's career assist leader, setting up Karl Malone with 6:30 left in the first half of the Jazz's 129-88 victory over Denver. Stockton's 9,922nd assist moves him ahead of Magic Johnson.

2003 - Regina Jacobs becomes the first woman to break four minutes in the indoor 1,500 meters at the Boston Indoor Games. Jacobs finishes in 3:59.98 to break the world record of 4:00.27 set by Romanian Doina Melinte in 1990.

2004 - The New England Patriots win their second Super Bowl in three seasons after Adam Vinatieri kicks a field goal with 4 seconds left to lift his team to a 32-29 victory over the Carolina Panthers.

2006 - New York's Epiphanny Prince scores 113 points for Murry Bergtraum High School in a 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, breaking a girls' national prep record previously held by Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller.

2008 - Jockey Russell Baze is the first to win 10,000th races in North America when he leads Two Step Cat to victory in the third race at Golden Gate Fields.

2009 - Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh offense end a Super Bowl of incredible swings with a final-minute touchdown for a historic victory, 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals. Santonio Holmes makes a brilliant 6-yard catch deep in the right corner of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining, lifting the Steelers to a record-setting sixth Super Bowl win.

2010 - UConn is No. 1 in The Associated Press women's basketball poll for a record 37th straight week, surpassing Louisiana Tech (1980-82) for the longest run atop the Top 25.

2014 - Ray Guy becomes the first punter elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

2014 - Oregon Institute of Technology men's basketball coach Danny Miles becomes the second men's coach at a four-year program to reach 1,000 career wins with a 71-51 victory over Corban. The 68-year old Miles has spent his entire career at Oregon Tech, where he has won three NAIA Division II national championships (2004, 2008 and 2012) and recorded 10 seasons with 30 wins or more.

2015 - Tom Brady throws for four touchdowns and Malcolm Butler intercepts Russell Wilson's pass in the end zone with 20 seconds left, helping New England hold on to beat Seattle 28-24 for their fourth Super Bowl title.

2016 - For the first time in more than eight years, Duke is not in The Associated Press men's basketball Top 25. The Blue Devils (15-6) had lost four of five, including two home games. They had been in every men's poll since the preseason rankings of 2007-08.

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Feb. 2

1876 - The National League forms, consisting of teams in Philadelphia, Hartford, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis and New York.

1936 - Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson are the first members elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1954 - Bevo Francis of Rio Grande College scores 113 points in a 134-91 victory over Hillsdale. Francis, breaking his own record for small colleges (84) set two weeks earlier against Alliance College.

1962 - Using a fiberglass pole, John Uelses becomes the first man to vault more than 16 feet, indoors or out. Uelses, a Marine Corps corporal, clears 16� during the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1977 - Toronto's Ian Turnbull scores five goals to set an NHL record for defensemen, leading the Maple Leafs past the Detroit Red Wings 9-1.

1991 - New Hampshire's basketball team ends its 32-game losing streak at home with a 72-56 win over Holy Cross. The NCAA-record streak started on Feb. 9, 1988.

1994 - Lenny Wilkens gets his 900th NBA victory, and the Atlanta Hawks beat the Orlando Magic 118-99. Wilkens runs his regular-season mark to 900-760, trailing only Red Auerbach's 938 in NBA regular-season victories.

1999 - Austria's Hermann Maier and Norway's Lasse Kjus ski to an unprecedented tie in the super-G to mark the start of the world championships.

2001 - Stacy Dragila breaks her world indoor pole vault record by a half-inch with a 15-2 1/4 vault at the Millrose Games.

2003 - Atlanta Thrashers star Dany Heatley joins Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux by scoring a record-tying four goals in the NHL All-Star Game. His Eastern Conference team loses the first All-Star shootout 6-5.

2009 - Kobe Bryant breaks the current Madison Square Garden record with 61 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 126-117 victory over New York. Bryant, who hits all 20 of his free throws, tops the previous visitor record of 55 points held by Michael Jordan and the overall record of 60 by Bernard King.

2012 - Sam Gagner has four goals and four assists in the NHL's first eight-point game in 23 years, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 8-4.

2013 - California Institute of Technology's baseball team ends a 228-game losing streak with a 9-7 victory against Pacifica, the Beavers' first win in nearly 10 years. Caltech hadn't won since Feb. 15, 2003, 5-4 against Cal State-Monterey Bay.

2014 - The Seattle Seahawks win their first Super Bowl title, crushing the favored Denver Broncos 43-8. The Seahawks led 36-0 before Denver finally scored on the last play of the third quarter.

2014 - The Seattle Seahawks win their first Super Bowl title in overpowering fashion, punishing Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos 42-8 at the New Jersey Meadowlands.

2017 - Patrick Marleau scores his 500th career goal, Chris Tierney tallies twice and San Jose beat Vancouver 4-1. Marleau becomes the 45th NHL player to reach 500 goals, scoring in the first period on a power play.

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