Today in Sports History -- Jan. 26 By The Associated Press 1913 — Jim Thorpe gives up his track medals from the 1912 Olympics because he played as a professional. He had been paid $25 for playing in a semipro baseball game. 1951 — Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 1955 — Joe DiMaggio is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 1960 — Pete Rozelle is chosen as commissioner of the NFL. 1985 — Edmontons Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in the 49th game of the season, a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. 1986 — The Chicago Bears win their first NFL championship since 1963 by setting a Super Bowl-record for points in defeating the New England Patriots 46-10. 1991 — Houston guard Vernon Maxwell joins Wilt Chamberlain, David Thompson and George Gervin as the only NBA players to score 30 points or more in a quarter. Maxwell scores 30 of his career-high 51 points in the fourth period to help Houston beat Cleveland 103-97. 1992 — The Washington Redskins win their third Super Bowl in 10 years, beating the Buffalo Bills 37-24, putting the game away with 24 straight points after a scoreless first quarter. 1996 — Three years after she won her last Grand Slam title on the same Center Court, Monica Seles wins her fourth Australian Open crown. Seles beats Germanys Anke Huber 6-4, 6-1 to claim her ninth major championship. 1997 — The Green Bay Packers, behind big plays, beat the New England Patriots 35-21 in the Super Bowl. Brett Favre finds Andre Rison for a 54-yard touchdown on the Packers second offensive play, then throws an 81-yard TD pass to Antonio Freeman in the second quarter. Desmond Howard, the first special teams MVP, scores on a 99-yard kickoff return to put away the Patriots. 2002 — Jennifer Capriati produces the greatest comeback in a Grand Slam final in successfully defending her Australian Open title. Capriati saved four match points before veating Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2. 2005 — South Africas Ryk Neethling breaks his own short-course world record in the 100-meter medley, finishing in 52.01 seconds at a World Cup meet in Moscow. Neethling shaves a tenth of a second off his previous record of 52.11 set on Jan. 22. 2006 — Detroits Brendan Shanahan scores his 100th career game-winning goal for a 2-1 victory over Vancouver. Hes fourth all-time behind Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Brett Hull. 2007 — Mark Recchi scores two goals, including the 500th of his career, in Pittsburghs 4-3 shootout win over Dallas. 2007 — Martin Brodeur makes 28 saves, extending his NHL record for consecutive 30-win seasons to 11, as the New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0. 2007 — Jamal Crawford scores a career-high 52 points to lead New York to a 116-96 victory over Miami. 2008 — Maria Sharapova wins the Australian Open, beating Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3 for her third Grand Slam singles title. Sharapova wins the title without dropping a set, including wins over three of the top four ranked players. 2008 — Mirai Nagasu becomes the second-youngest woman to win the title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The 4-foot-11 14-year-old falls on her opening jump, a double axel, but lands six triple jumps, three in combination, in her program. 2009 — Alex Ovechkin seals the Eastern Conferences 12-11 victory in the NHL All-Star game with a goal in the third round of the shootout. Alex Kovalev, of host Montreal, earns MVP honors with a pair of breakaway goals and then another in the shootout. 2010 — The New York Knicks rebound from a lopsided beating by administering one in a 132-105 win over Minnesota. The Knicks are the third team in NBA history to win by 20 or more the game after losing by 50. The Knicks were dealt the worst home loss in franchise history when Dallas beat them 128-78 on Jan. 24. 2013 — Victoria Azarenka wins her second consecutive Australian Open title, beating Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Mike and Bob Bryan become the most decorated doubles team in Grand Slam history by winning their 13th major title, beating Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling 6-3, 6-4 in 53 minutes. 2013 — Ashley Wagner became the first woman since Michelle Kwan in 2005 to win back-to-back titles in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Earlier, Olympic silver medalists and 2011 world champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White win their fifth straight dance title, matching a U.S. record. 2013 — San Joses Patrick Marleau becomes the second player in NHL history to open a season with four straight multigoal games, striking twice on the power play in the first period of a 4-0 win over Colorado. 2014 — Stan Wawrinka holds off an injured Rafael Nadal to win his first Grand Slam title with a 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory in the Australian Open final. 2014 — DeMarco Murray catches a 20-yard pass for a touchdown and Mike Tolbert plunges into the end zone for a 2-point conversion with less than a minute left to give Jerry Rices team a 22-21 win over Deion Sanders team in the first schoolyard-style Pro Bowl.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:54:09 +0000
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