Events in Sports History in February 1968

Lombardi Steps Down

Feb 1 Vince Lombardi steps down as NFL Green Bay Packers head coach in favor of longtime assistant Phil Bengtson; stays on as Packers' general manager for 1968

Eckert Replaces Kuhn as Commissioner

Feb 4 Bowie Kuhn replaces William Eckert as 5th commissioner of baseball

Feb 5 Skater Kees Verkerk wins olympic gold in the 1500m
Feb 6 X Winter Olympic Games opens in Grenoble, France
Feb 9 A rare 3-way tie for silver in the women's 500m speed skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; Soviet Lyudmila Titova wins from American trio of Jenny Fish, Mary Meyers and Dianne Holum
Feb 9 World champion Jean-Claude Killy of France wins the downhill at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; first of 3-event clean sweep of the alpine skiing events at the Games

Fleming Olympic Champion

Feb 10 American 2-time world champion Peggy Fleming comfortably wins Olympic women's figure skating gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Games

Feb 12 Dutch speed skater Ans Schut wins women's 3,000m event at Grenoble Winter Olympics; first 10 finishers beat previous Olympic record set in Squaw Valley (1960)
Feb 12 Frenchman Jean Claude-Killy follows his win in the downhill with victory in giant slalom at Grenoble Winter Olympics; clean sweeps 3 alpine skiing events with success in the slalom
Feb 13 After winning giant slalom in Innsbruck (1964) French skier Marielle Goitschel takes out the slalom gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Olympics
Feb 13 Swedish 10k cross country champion Toini Gustafsson wins her 2nd gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 5k event ahead of Soviet pair Galina Kulakova and Alvetina Kolchina
Feb 14 Norwegian 15k Olympic cross country champion Harald Grønningen wins his second gold medal of the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 4 x 10k relay
Feb 14 Soviet Union goes 1-2 in pairs figure skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; husband & wife team Oleg Protopopov and Liudmila Belousova edge teammates Tatiana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik
Feb 15 ABA basketball Anaheim Amigos Les Salvage scores 10 3-point baskets in game vs Denver Rockets
Feb 15 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
Feb 15 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
Feb 16 Italy completes the bobsleigh double at the Grenoble Winter Olympics with victory in the 4-man; Eugenio Monti and Luciano de Paolis double up for gold winning 2-man earlier
Feb 17 Frenchman Jean Claude-Killy completes a clean sweep of the alpine skiing events at the Grenoble Winter Olympics when he wins the slalom; also takes out the downhill and giant slalom
Feb 17 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts opens
Feb 17 Norwegian cross country skier Ole Ellefsæter wins 50k event at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; 2nd gold medal of the Games (4 x 10k relay)
Feb 17 Soviet Union wins its 3rd Olympic ice hockey gold medal in Grenoble; clinch title with final round, 5-0 win over Canada; Soviet LW Anatoli Firsov top scores with 16 points
Feb 18 After winning men's luge singles Olympic gold medal in Innsbruck (1964), Thomas Köhler of Germany teams with Klaus Bonsack to take out the doubles in Grenoble
Feb 18 X Winter Olympic Games close in Grenoble, France
Feb 21 Baseball announces a minimum annual salary of $10,000

NBA Record

Feb 23 Wilt Chamberlain becomes 1st NBAer to score 25,000 points

Feb 24 Gary Unger begins NHL consecutive game record of 914 games

Daytona 500

Feb 25 10th Daytona 500: Cale Yarborough driving for Wood Brothers Racing wins by less than a second from LeeRoy Yarbrough; grid set exclusively by qualifying times