Events in Sports History in March 1997

Sports History

Mar 1 Canadian Elvis Stojko hits the first quad-triple combination jump in the history of figure-skating competition to win the Championship Series final in Hamilton, Ontario

Sports History

Mar 1 Puerto Rican boxer Héctor Camacho stops Sugar Ray Leonard in 5th round in Atlantic City, NJ to retain IBC middleweight title; only time Leonard's is KO'ed and sends him into permanent retirement

Mar 2 Australians Greg Blewett (214) and Steve Waugh (160) bat for the entire 3rd day of the 1st cricket Test against South Africa in Johannesburg; set up Australian innings and 196 run victory
Mar 2 Michael Andretti wins at Homestead in a Swift chassis, marking the first Champ Car victory in an American-built chassis since 1983; first-ever Champ Car start for the Swift

Baseball Hall of Fame

Mar 5 Tommy Lasorda, Nellie Fox and Willie Wells inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball Pitcher and Manager Tommy Lasorda

Mar 7 Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome & Stockholm are finalists for 2004 Olympics site
Mar 9 38th SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: Kentucky beats Georgia, 95-68
Mar 9 44th ACC Men's Basketball Tournament: #5 North Carolina beats NC State, 64-54
Mar 11 San Francisco Giant J T Snow suffers a fractured eye socket when hit by a pitch
Mar 14 Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson wins 67th James E Sullivan Award
Mar 15 France beats Scotland, 47-20 at Parc des Princes, Paris to claim an 11th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship and 5th Triple Crown; fly-half Christophe Lamaison lands 6 penalties and 3 conversions
Mar 15 Pitts Penguins' Joe Mullen, is 1st American to score 500 NHL goals
Mar 16 NJ Devils' Dave Andreychuk is 26th NHL to score 500 goals
Mar 19 Major League Baseball announces 5 year/$50M deal with Pepsi
Mar 21 Ice Dance Championship in Lausanne, Switzerland won by Oksana Grishuk & Evgeny Platov (Rus)
Mar 22 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Lausanne won by Tara Lipinski (USA)
Mar 25 Indians trade Lofton & Embree to Braves for Grissom & Justice
Mar 26 NHL announces Anaheim Mighty Ducks & Vancouver Canucks to open 1998 season in Japan
Mar 29 1st game at Turner Field Atlanta, Braves beats Yanks 2-0 (exhibition)
Mar 30 16th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Tennessee beats Old Dominion, 68-59; Volunteers 5th national title

Golf Major

Mar 30 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: 41-year old Betsy King wins her 3rd title in this event, 2 strokes ahead of Kris Tschetter and Amy Fruhwirth; last of her 6 major titles

PGA Players Championship

Mar 30 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Steve Elkington of Australia leads wire-to-wire to win his 2nd PC title, a record 7 strokes ahead of runner-up Scott Hoch.

Mar 31 59th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Arizona beats Kentucky, 84-79 (OT); Wildcats' first title in first title game

Cricket Debut

Mar 31 West Indies cricketers win 3rd Test at Bridgetown, Barbados by 38 runs after setting India a modest 120 run target; tourists dismissed for 81 in Brian Lara's debut as Windies' captain