Events in Sports History in March 1979

  • Mar 3 20th SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: Tennessee beats Kentucky, 75-69
  • Mar 3 26th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: North Carolina beats Duke, 71-63
  • Mar 7 Baseball exhibition season opens with semi-pro & amateur umpires

Baseball Hall of Fame

Mar 7 Warren Giles and Hack Wilson selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame

Sports History

Mar 9 MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn orders baseball to give equal access to female reporters

  • Mar 11 Randy Hold receives 67 min in penalties in a 60 min NHL hockey game

NHL Record

Mar 13 NHL New York Islanders Mike Bossy's 5th career hat trick

NHL Record

Mar 15 Isle's Bryan Trottier's 5th career hat trick

  • Mar 17 Ice Dance Championship at Vienna won by N Linichuk & G Karponosov USSR
  • Mar 17 Wales beats England, 27-3 at the National Stadium, Cardiff for its 2nd consecutive Five Nations Rugby Championship and record 21st outright title; record 4th straight Triple Crown
  • Mar 22 NHL votes to accept 4 WHA teams (Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers)

Boxing Title Fight

Mar 23 Larry Holmes TKOs Osvaldo Ocasio in 7 for heavyweight boxing title

Sports History

Mar 24 10 rebounds & 10 assists, as the Spartans cruise to a 101-67 by Penn Mich State's Earvin "Magic" Johnson registers triple-double 29 pts

Cricket History

Mar 24 1st appearance as Australian cricket captain for Kim Hughes

Sports History

Mar 25 Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova retains her WTA Tour Championship with a 6–3, 3–6, 6–2 win over American teenager Tracey Austin in NYC

PGA Players Championship

Mar 25 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass CC: Lanny Wadkins wins in windy conditions, 5 strokes ahead of runner-up Tom Watson

  • Mar 26 41st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Michigan State beats Indiana State, 75-64; marks start of rivalry between future Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Larry Bird; highest-rated game in history of televised college basketball
  • Mar 26 MLB San Diego Padres & San Francisco Giants announce plans to play exhibition series in Tokyo but Giant players reject it
  • Mar 29 Delhi beats Karnataka by 399 runs to win Cricket's Ranji Trophy
  • Mar 29 Last day of Test cricket for Pakistani cricketer Mushtaq Mohammad
  • Mar 31 133rd Grand National: Maurice Barnes victorious aboard Rubstic; first Scottish-trained horse to win the event
  • Mar 31 Montreal Canadiens beat visiting Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 to become just the 2nd team in NHL history to win 50 (or more) games for 4 straight years