Events in Sports History in March 1971

Cricket Debut

Mar 6 Test Cricket debut of Indian cricket great Sunil Gavaskar versus West Indies at Port-of-Spain; 125 Tests, 10,122 runs @ 51.12; 34 Test centuries

Sinatra Snaps the Fight of the Century

Mar 8 Joe Frazier ends Muhammad Ali's 31-fight winning streak at Madison Square Garden, NYC; retains heavyweight boxing title by unanimous points decision over 15 rounds in the "Fight of the Century"

Sinatra is the focus of attention as he prepares to take his ringside shots and, right, the controversial Life magazine cover picture that the singer took

Mar 8 Milwaukee Bucks win their 20th straight NBA game (team record)
Mar 13 18th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: South Carolina beats North Carolina, 52-51
Mar 13 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Margaret Court wins her 10th Australian singles title; beats fellow Australian Evonne Goolagong 2-6, 7-6, 7-5

Australian Men's Tennis Open

Mar 14 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Ken Rosewall of Australia beats American defending champion Arthur Ashe 6-1, 7-5, 6-3; first man to win an Open era Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set

Tennis Player and Eight-Time Major Champion Ken Rosewall

Mar 19 Philadelphia 76ers outscore Cincinnati Royals 90-80 in 2nd half enroute to a 147-127 victory
Mar 20 Boston Bruins win 13th straight NHL game
Mar 21 Indian cricket great Sunil Gavaskar scores first of his 34 Test Cricket centuries; 116 in drawn 3rd Test at Georgetown, Guyana
Mar 25 NFL football team Boston Patriots become New England Patriots as they relocate to Foxboro. Massachusetts
Mar 27 33rd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Villanova, 68-62; UCLA's 5th consecutive title; Villanova later disqualified, ineligible player Howard Porter
Mar 27 Wales clinches its 17th Five Nations Rugby Championship, 6th Grand Slam and 12th Triple Crown with a 9-5 win over France at Stade Colombes, Paris