Events in Sports History on February 17

  • 1818 Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents "draisine" (early bicycle)
  • 1882 Australian cricket opening bowlers Joey Palmer (7/68) and Edwin Evans (3/64) dismiss England for 133 in 2nd Test; first Test match played at Sydney Cricket Ground

NHL Record

1923 Ottawa left wing Cy Denneny passes Joe Malone as all-time NHL goal scoring leader; scores his 143rd career goal in Senators' 2-0 win over Montreal Canadiens

Sports History

1924 American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller sets 100m world freestyle record 57.4s at Miami, Florida

  • 1927 Toronto Maple Leafs, in the team's first game since changing name from "St. Patricks", beat the visiting New York Americans, 4-1 at the Mutual Street Arena
  • 1928 American brothers, Jennison and John Heaton fight out the top placings in the cresta (now known as skeleton) at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Jennison takes the gold by 1.0s
  • 1928 Johan Grøttumsbråten leads a Norwegian sweep of the medals in the 18k cross country at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; he also wins the Nordic combined gold the following day
  • 1939 Katwijk soccer team forms in the Netherlands

Boxing Title Fight

1941 In his 14th title defense Joe Louis KOs Gus Dorazio in the 2nd round at the Convention Center, Philadelphia to retain NYSAC heavyweight boxing crown

Sports History

1943 NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio enlists into the US army

Sports History

1951 Detroit right wing Gordie Howe scores his 100th career NHL goal and adds an assist in a 2-1 Red Wings' victory over the Canadiens, in Montreal, Quebec

  • 1952 Montreal Canadiens center Elmer Lach picks up his 354th career assist in a 3-2 loss at the NY Rangers to become NHL's all-time assists leader; passes Bill Cowley's mark
  • 1952 Trude Jochum-Beiser of Austria wins the downhill gold medal at the Oslo Winter Olympics; second career gold medal after taking out the combined event at St. Moritz (1948)
  • 1953 DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven (now PSV Eindhoven), Netherlands
  • 1955 American golfer Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257 (not broken until 2001)
  • 1955 Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J Westwood/Demmy GRB

Sports History

1955 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Tenley Albright US

  • 1956 Ice Dance Championship at Garmisch won by Pamela Weight/P Thomas GRB
  • 1963 Japanese runner Toru Terasawa runs a world record marathon (2:15:15.8) at the Beppu Marathon on the island of Kyushu, Japan
  • 1964 101st member elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, Chicago White Sox shortstop Luke Appling

Sports History

1965 US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute

  • 1968 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
  • 1968 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts opens
  • 1968 Norwegian cross country skier Ole Ellefsæter wins 50k event at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; 2nd gold medal of the Games (4 x 10k relay)
  • 1968 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
  • 1971 England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win
  • 1973 Rodney Redmond scores 107 on debut v Pakistan, his only Test Cricket

Daytona 500

1974 16th Daytona 500: Richard Petty first driver to win back-to-back titles at Daytona; his 5th Great American race

  • 1974 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt
  • 1976 NZ scores their 1st innings win in Test Cricket, v India

Sports History

1976 Richard Hadlee takes 7-23 New Zealand v India, his 1st match-winning spell

World Record

1979 American speed skater Eric Heiden equals world record 1000m (1:14.99)

Daytona 500

1980 22nd Daytona 500: Buddy Baker wins ahead of Bobby Allison and Neil Bonnett

  • 1980 Sapporo downhill silver medallist Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria goes one better with gold at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics
  • 1980 Swedish cross-country skier Thomas Wassberg earns first of 4 career Olympic gold medals in the 15k at Lake Placid; wins by 0.01s from Finland's Juha Mieto; closest margin of victory ever in Olympic cross-country skiing
  • 1982 Commencement of Sri Lanka's 1st Test Cricket match, v England
  • 1984 Biathletes Eirik Kvalfoss of Norway and West German Peter Angerer finish 2nd & 3rd respectively in the relay at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; both have complete sets of medals from biathlon events at the Games

Daytona 500

1985 27th Daytona 500: After taking pole at then-record speed of 205.114 mph Bill Elliott dominates race leading 136 of 200 laps

  • 1985 Dutch speed skater Hein Vergeer becomes World Allround champion

Sports History

1985 Panamanian jockey Laffit Pincay Jr is third to ride 6,000 winners; wins aboard Doria's Delight in the 5th race at Santa Anita Park

Sports History

1987 New York Yankees Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration ($1,975,000 per year)

Sports History

1989 Former baseball player and manager Leo Durocher injured in a car crash

  • 1991 33rd Daytona 500: Ernie Irvan, driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports coasts to win after challengers crash on finals laps

Sports History

1991 US male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge

  • 1993 Hartford right wing Pat Verbeek scores his 300th career NHL goal and adds his 300th career assist in a 5-3 Whalers' home loss to the Buffalo Sabres

Sports History

1995 Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due to baseball strike

  • 1996 1st full ODI for the Netherlands, v NZ, cricket World Cup Nolan Clarke makes ODI debut for Netherlands at age 47

Sports History

1996 Garry Kasparov defeats chess-playing computer Deep Blue 4-2

  • 1998 USA Women's Ice Hockey Team beats Canada and wins the first Olympic Gold medal
  • 2002 44th Daytona 500: Ward Burton's win first for Dodge since Richard Petty's victory in the 1974 race
  • 2008 50th Daytona 500: Ryan Newman wins shootout going into the final turn from Tony Stewart, and the Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle

NBA All-Star Game

2008 57th NBA All-Star Game, New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, LA: East beats West, 134-128; MVP: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, F

  • 2012 Approximately 70 ancient Olympic artifacts are stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Greece

Sports History

2012 Thierry Henry returns to Red Bulls from his loan at Arsenal

  • 2013 62nd NBA All-Star Game, Toyota Centre, Houston, TX: West beats East, 143-138; MVP: Chris Paul, LA Clippers, G
  • 2013 Jess Cameron with 75 and Elise Perry 3-27 lead Australia to 114 run win over West Indies in the Women's Cricket World Cup Final in Bombay, India
  • 2014 American pair Meryl Davis and Charlie White win the first Olympic gold medal for the US in ice dance at the Sochi Winter Games
  • 2014 Belarus takes the aerials double at the Sochi Winter Olympics when Anton Kushnir wins the men's event; Alla Tsuper claims the women's section
  • 2014 Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva wins her 3rd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics in the mass start; also wins individual and pursuit gold

Sports History

2016 Nike ends endorsement deal with Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao after he made TV comments gay people are "worse than animals."

  • 2018 10k freestyle cross country champion Ragnhild Haga and 30k classical winner Marit Bjørgen win their 2nd Olympic gold medal in Pyeongchang as part of Norway's 4 x 5k relay team
  • 2018 Britain's Lizzy Yarnold wins her 2nd consecutive Olympic women's skeleton gold medal in Pyeongchang; also wins event in Sochi (2014)
  • 2018 Czech skier Ester Ledecká wins super-G gold medal at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; later wins parallel giant slalom snowboarding to be first female to win gold in different sports at a single Games

Olympic Gold

2018 Japanese defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu retains his Olympic men's figure skating title by winning the gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; first wins gold at Sochi (2014)

  • 2018 Polish ski jumper Kamil Stoch retains his Olympic individual large hill title (Sochi 2014) with gold in Pyeongchang; beats normal hill winner Andreas Wellinger of Germany by 3.4m
  • 2018 Russian biathlete Anastasiya Kuzmina wins her 3rd career Olympic gold medal in women's 12.5k mass start in Pyeongchang; 7.5k sprint champion in Vancouver (2010) and Sochi (2014)

Daytona 500

2019 61st Daytona 500: Joe Gibbs Racing goes 1-2-3; Denny Hamlin holds off reigning Cup Series champion Joey Logano and teammate Kyle Busch to win his 2nd Great American Race

NBA All-Star Game

2019 NBA All-Star Game, Spectrum Centre, Charlotte, NC: Team LeBron beats Team Giannis, 178-164; MVP: Kevin Durant GS Warriors, F

  • 2020 62nd Daytona 500: Denny Hamlin wins second straight title by 0.014 seconds over Ryan Blaney on the second restart in overtime; his third Daytona victory

Laureus Awards

2020 Laureus World Sports Awards, Berlin, Germany: Sportsman: Lewis Hamilton & Lionel Messi; Sportswoman: Simone Biles; Team: South Africa National Rugby Union team