Events in Sports History on September 20

  • 1876 Ottawa Football Club forms
  • 1902 Chicago White Sox pitcher Jimmy 'Nixey' Callahan no-hits Detroit Tigers, 3-0
  • 1907 Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Nick Maddox no-hits Brooklyn Superbas, 2-1 at Exposition Park, Pittsburgh
  • 1908 Chicago White Sox Frank Smith 2nd no-hitter, beats Philadelphia 1-0
  • 1911 Yanks set team record 12 errors in a double header

US Golf Open

1913 US Open Men's Golf, The Country Club: 20-year old amateur Francis Ouimet wins his only Open title in an 18-hole playoff, 5 strokes ahead of Britons Harry Vardon & Ted Ray

Baseball Record

1919 Legendary baseball slugger Babe Ruth ties Ned Williamson's MLB mark of 27 home runs with a 9th inning blast in Boston Red Sox 4-3 win against Chicago White Sox

PGA Championship

1919 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Engineers CC: Defending champion Jim Barnes defeats Fred McLeod, 6 & 5 in the final

Baseball Record

1922 St. Louis Cardinals future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby ends hitting streak of 33 games

  • 1924 Carl Mays is 1st pitcher to win 20 games seasons for 3 different teams
  • 1924 Cub's Grover Cleveland Alexander beats NY Giants to win 300th game

PGA Championship

1924 PGA Championship Men's Golf, French Lick CC: 1921 champion Walter Hagen beats Englishman Jim Barnes 2-up in the final

Sports History

1931 MLB's Lou Gehrig's 4 RBIs break his old RBI mark of 175 en route to 184

  • 1932 Chicago Cubs clinch the NL pennant
  • 1933 Pittsburgh Steelers (as Pirates) play 1st NFL game, lose 23-2

Boxing Title Fight

1939 Joe Louis puts Bob Pastor down 5 times before an 11th round KO at Briggs Stadium, Detroit in his 8th heavyweight boxing title defense

  • 1948 Mexican Baseball league disbanded
  • 1949 Top American tennis player Pancho Gonzales turns professional
  • 1951 MLB owners elect National League President Ford Frick as 3rd Baseball Commissioner for a 7-year term at a then massive $65,000 per annum

Sports History

1953 Cubs Ernie Banks hits his 1st major league HR

Sports History

1954 Roger Bannister awarded Britain's Silver Pears Trophy

Baseball Record

1955 Willie Mays (Giants) homers off Vern Law (Pirates) in both ends of DH

  • 1955 Willie Mays is 7th player to reach 50 HRs in a season

Sports History

1958 Baltimore Oriole knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm no-hits NY Yankees 1-0

Baseball Record

1961 Roger Maris hits home run # 59 & barely misses # 60 in game 154 of the season. Yanks clinch pennant #26

  • 1964 20th America's Cup yachting: Eric Ridder skippered Constellation beats English challenger Sovereign for a 4-0 American series sweep off Newport, RI

Baseball Record

1968 Mickey Mantle hits final career homer # 536

Davis Cup

1969 58th Davis Cup: American pair Bob Lutz & Stan Smith clinch final 8-6, 6-1, 11-9 over Ilie Năstase & Ion Țiriac of Romania in Cleveland, OH; ends 5-0

  • 1969 MLB Pittsburgh Pirate Bob Moose no-hits NY Mets, 4-0

Ryder Cup

1969 Ryder Cup Golf, Royal Birkdale GC: US, Great Britain tie, 16-16; great sporting gesture, America's Jack Nicklaus concedes missable 3-foot putt to Tony Jacklin at the 18th hole for the draw

  • 1973 Willie Mays announces retirement at end of 1973 season

Ryder Cup

1975 Ryder Cup Golf, Laurel Valley GC: US beats Great Britain & Ireland, 21-11; Arnold Palmer non-playing American captain; Bernard Hunt GB & I skipper

  • 1980 Bronze plaque dedicated to memory of catcher Thurman Munson unveiled at Yankee Stadium: Munson died in plane crash in 1979

Sports History

1980 George Brett goes 0-for-4 dropping his avg below .400 for good

  • 1980 Spectacular Bid runs in Belmont alone as 3 horses drop out
  • 1981 Ryder Cup Golf, Walton Heath GC: US wins 18½-9½; 6th and final Ryder Cup for Jack Nicklaus as a player; wins all 4 of his matches
  • 1983 3,112 turn out to see Pirates play NY Mets at Shea Stadium
  • 1984 Cubs break 2 million in home attendance for 1st time
  • 1985 Curtis Strong is convicted for selling cocaine to pro baseball players

NFL Record

1987 Chicago running back Walter Payton scores his NFL record 107th rushing touchdown in the Bears' 20-3 victory over Tampa Bay

Sports History

1987 French driver Alain Prost wins Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril; his record 28th Formula 1 victory

  • 1987 San Francisco wide receiver Dwight Clark's NFL record streak of 105 consecutive games with a reception ends in 49ers 27-26 victory in Cincinnati

Olympic Gold

1988 American diver Greg Louganis wins the 3m springboard gold medal at the Seoul Olympics after famously hitting his head on the board the previous day

Sports History

1988 Boston Red Sox Wade Boggs is 1st player to get 200 hits for 6 consecutive seasons

  • 1988 Detroit first baseman Darrell Evans hits home run #18 in Tigers' 4-3 loss to Cleveland Indians; Evans' 400th MLB career HR
  • 1995 Cincinnati Reds becomes 1st team to clinch NL Central
  • 1997 Yanks clinch 37th appearance in post season, 3rd consecutive

Federation Cup

1998 Federation Cup Women's Tennis, Geneva, Switzerland: Conchita Martínez & Arantxa Sánchez Vicario beat Martina Hingis & Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-0, 6-2 in doubles decider to clinch Spain's 5th title, 3-2

  • 1998 Solheim Cup Women's Golf, Muirfield Village: US retains Cup; beats Europe 16-12 for third consecutive victory
  • 2013 Alex Rodriquez sets new MLB record with 24 Grand Slam home runs for the New York Yankees
  • 2015 Solheim Cup Women's Golf, GC St. Leon-Rot: US regains Cup 14½ to 13½; Paula Creamer beats Sandra Gal 4 & 3 in deciding singles match
  • 2020 107th Tour de France: Slovenian Tadej Pogačar claims yellow jersey from countryman Primož Roglič; also wins mountains and U25 classifications; green jersey, Sam Bennett
  • 2020 US Open Men's Golf, Winged Foot CC: American Bryson DeChambeau claims his first career major title as the only player to score under par; wins by 6 strokes from Matthew Wolff
  • 2021 Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez hits his 46th home run to break Hall of Famer Johnny Bench's MLB record for most in a season by a catcher, in Royals 7-2 win in Cleveland

World Record

2022 Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge breaks his own world record for the marathon in 2 hours 1 minute 9 seconds in Berlin (previous record 2:01:39) [1]