Events in Sports History on February 15

  • 1905 1st thoroughbred horse race meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas
  • 1916 NY Yankees buy Frank "Home Run" Baker from the Athletics for $37,500
  • 1921 Arthur Mailey completes 9-121 v England, Australian Test Cricket rec
  • 1930 Wenona Mustangs beat Toluca Wildcats in Illinois Basketball Tournament in 10 overtimes, 26-22
  • 1931 Spring training site of NY Yankees in St Petersburg is renamed Miller Huggins Field in honor of the team's late manager
  • 1932 American brothers Hubert and Curtis Stevens beat the 8-nation field to win the 2-man bobsleigh gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics

Olympic Gold

1932 As a member of gold medal winning US 4-man bobsleigh team at Lake Placid, Eddie Eagan (boxing gold Antwerp 1920) becomes only Olympian to win gold medals at both summer & winter Games in different sports

  • 1932 Australia beat South Africa in cricket by an innings in 5 hrs 53 min playing time
  • 1932 III Winter Olympic Games close at Lake Placid, New York
  • 1936 Great Britain’s 0-0 tie with the US is enough to clinch their first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; breaks Canada’s 4 straight Games golden streak

Olympic Gold

1936 Sonja Henie of Norway becomes the most successful Olympic figure skater ever by winning her 3rd consecutive gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; beats Cecilia College of Great Britain by 6.4 points

  • 1952 Giant slalom event for men debuts at the Winter Olympics at Oslo Games; Stein Erikson of Norway wins gold ahead of Austrians Christian Pravda and Toni Spiß
  • 1958 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by June Markham/Courtney Jones GRB
  • 1961 Australia beat West Indies 2-1 in one of best Test Cricket series ever

Sports History

1963 1st US female world figure skating champ (Tenley Albright)

College Basketball

1964 Bill Bradley scores 51 points for Princeton

  • 1966 Kees Verkerk becomes world champion all-round skater
  • 1968 ABA basketball Anaheim Amigos Les Salvage scores 10 3-point baskets in game vs Denver Rockets
  • 1968 Biathlon 4 x 7.5k relay debuts at the Grenoble Winter Olympics with the Soviet Union taking the gold medal ahead of Norway and Sweden
  • 1968 Fred Anton Maier of Norway skates a world record 7:22.4 in winning the 5,000m at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; Dutch 1,500m champion Kees Verkerk is just 0.8s behind for silver

World Skating Champion

1970 Ard Schenk becomes world champion all-round skater

  • 1972 Newly-formed NHL franchise New York Islanders hire Bill Torrey as their first General Manager
  • 1973 Friendsville Academy (Tenn) ends 138-game basketball losing streak

Daytona 500

1976 18th Daytona 500: David Pearson makes contact with Richard Petty just yards from finish line into a wall and to infield; Petty stalls whilst Pearson restarts to win

  • 1976 XII Winter Olympic Games close in Innsbruck, Austria
  • 1978 England all out 64 for 1st loss to NZ in cricket (Geoffrey Boycott captain)

Olympic Gold

1980 American speed skater Eric Heiden wins 500m in Olympic record 38.03s; first of record 5 gold medal sweep of events at Lake Placid, New York

  • 1980 East German speed skater Karin Enke wins first of 3 career Olympic gold medals with victory in the 500m at Lake Placid Winter; wins 1,000m & 1,500m in Sarajevo (1984)

NHL Record

1980 NHL Oilers Wayne Gretzky assists on NHL-record-tying 7 goals, in 8-2 victory over Washington at Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton

  • 1980 Soviet cross-country skier Raisa Smetanina claims her 3rd of 4 career Olympic gold medals in 5k event at Lake Placid; also wins 10k and relay gold (Innsbruck 1976) and relay (Albertville 1992)
  • 1981 23rd Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins record 7th title at Daytona, beating Bobby Allison to the line by 3.5 seconds
  • 1982 Dan Issel (NBA-Nuggets), begins streak of 63 consecutive free throw
  • 1984 An East German sweep of the medals in the women's 3,000m speed skating at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; Andrea Schöne takes gold ahead of teammates Karin Enke and Gabi Zange

Chess Controversy

1985 World chess championship match abandoned with Anatoly Karpov 25 leading Garry Kasparov 23

  • 1986 44,180 largest NBA crowd to date-Philadelphia at Detroit

Disqualified for Kneeling

1987 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler is disqualified from Andy Williams Open for kneeling on a towel to make a shot

Daytona 500

1987 29th Daytona 500: Bill Elliott leads for 104 of 200 laps including the last 3; had won pole with record speed of 210.364 mph

  • 1987 Nikolai Guljajev becomes world champion skater

Senior PGA Championship

1987 Senior PGA Championship, PGA National GC: Chi-Chi Rodríguez wins his second and final Champions Tour major title by 1 stroke from Dale Douglass

  • 1990 Baseball owners lock out players
  • 1991 Troy State sets NCAA Div II record with 103 points in 2nd half routing DeVry Institute 187-117
  • 1994 Tom Barrasso becomes winningest US born goalie in NHL history, as the Pittsburgh Penguins win, 5-3 over visiting Winnipeg; passes record of 252 career wins set by Frank Brimsek

Sports History

1996 American boxer Tommy Morrison announces he has contracted HIV, a diagnosis he later claimed to be false

NFL Record

1996 NFL coaching maestro Bill Belichick is fired by Cleveland, finishing his Browns coaching career with a record of 36-44

Daytona 500

1998 40th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt's only Daytona win in his 20th start; snaps a 59-race winless streak

ESPY Awards

1999 7th ESPY Awards: Mark McGwire, Chamique Holdsclaw win

  • 1999 Wayne Gretzky records 5 assists in NY Rangers' 7-4 win over the Predators; takes a 1,000 point lead over Gordie Howe in all time NHL scoring lead; Gretzky's only appearance in Nashville

NHL History

2000 Martin Brodeur becomes first goaltender in NHL history to get credit for a "game winning" goal as New Jersey wins, 4-2 over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers

  • 2004 46th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins exactly 6 years to the day after his father Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his first and only Daytona 500 in 1998

NBA All-Star Game

2004 53rd NBA All-Star Game, Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA: West beats East, 136-132; MVP: Shaquille O'Neal, LA Lakers, C

  • 2009 51st Daytona 500: Matt Kenseth wins shortened race; called off with 48 laps to go after a severe rainstorm hits the track

58th NBA All-Star Game

2009 58th NBA All-Star Game, US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ: West beats East, 146-119; MVPs: Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers, F; Shaquille O'Neal, LA Lakers, C

  • 2014 Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch wins his 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics in the men's large hill event; also wins normal hill gold
  • 2014 World champion Aleksandr Tretyakov of Russia wins the men's skeleton gold medal at his home Sochi Winter Olympics
  • 2015 64th NBA All-Star Game, Madison Square Garden, NYC: West beats East, 163-158; MVP: Russell Westbrook, OKC Thunder, G
  • 2018 Denver's Serbian center Nikola Jokić records fastest triple double in NBA history (14 minutes, 33 seconds) in the Nuggets' 134-123 win at Milwaukee; Jokić finishes with 30 points, 17 assists, 15 rebounds
  • 2018 Frenchman Pierre Vaultier retains his Olympic snowboard cross title (Sochi 2014) with a gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Games
  • 2018 German figure skaters Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot set new ISU best free skating score of 159.31 on their way to pairs gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
  • 2018 German women's luge singles champion Natalie Geisenberger and men's doubles winners Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt earn their 2nd Olympic gold medals in Pyeongchang in the team relay event
  • 2018 IBU Female Rookie of the Year, Hanna Öberg of Sweden wins 15k individual biathlon gold medal with 4 clean shootings at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; first victory and podium of her career
  • 2018 Sochi (2014) Olympic slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the US wins the giant slalom at the Pyeongchang Winter Games; also takes combined silver
  • 2018 Vancouver (2010) Olympic super-G champion Aksul Lund Svindal of Sweden wins the downhill gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Games
  • 2022 In the only podium sweep of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Germany takes all 3 medals in the 2-man bobsleigh; Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis win gold
  • 2023 Joel Embiid scores his 10,000th career point in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers
  • 2024 Caitlin Clark becomes the NCAA Division I women's career scoring leader in a game for Iowa against Michigan, scoring a career-high 49 points