Feb. 25
1940 — The first telecast of an American hockey game is transmitted over station W2XBS in New York. The viewing audience watches the New York Rangers battle the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.
1957 — The United States Supreme Court rules that pro football, unlike professional baseball, is subject to the anti-trust laws of the United States. The court decides 6-3 that baseball is only anti-trust exempt pro sport.
1961 — Niagara ends St. Bonaventure’s 99-game winning streak at home with an 87-77 victory over the Bonnies.
1962 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scores 67 points, but New York’s Richie Guerin scores 50 to lead the Knicks to a 149-135 victory.
1964 — Cassius Clay wins the world heavyweight title when Sonny Liston is unable to answer the bell for the seventh round at Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Fla.
1977 — Pete Maravich of the New Orleans Jazz scores 68 points, the most by an NBA guard, in a 124-107 victory over the New York Knicks. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor had scored more points in an NBA game.
1987 — The Southern Methodist football team is suspended for the 1987 season after investigations reveal that players received $61,000 from a booster slush fund.
1994 — Oksana Baiul of Ukraine wins the figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and Nancy Kerrigan, who was whacked on the knee 2½ months earlier, wins the silver. Tonya Harding, later convicted of hindering prosecution in the Kerrigan attack, finishes eighth.
2001 — In the largest playoff in PGA Tour history, Rert Allenby wins the Nissan Open on the first extra hole against five other players. It’s Allenby’s third PGA Tour victory, all of them won in playoffs.
2010 — In Vancouver, British Columbia, the Canadian women defeat the United States 2-0 for their third straight Olympic hockey title. Americans Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane finish 1-2 in a Nordic combined race. They are the first American medalists in a sport that’s been part of the Winter Olympics since 1924.
2017 — Marit Bjoergen wins a record 15th world championship gold medal in cross-country skiing with victory in a 15-kilometer skiathlon. The 36-year-old Bjoergen has more gold medals than any other cross-country skier — male or female — in world championship history, having previously shared the record of 14 gold medals with retired Russian Yelena Valbe.
2017 — Kelsey Plum surpasses Jackie Stiles to become the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader with a career-best 57 points in the final regular season game of her career, leading No. 11 Washington past Utah 84-77. Plum passes Stiles’ mark of 3,393 points midway through the fourth quarter.
2018 — Kirill Kaprizov scores a power-play goal in overtime to lift the Russians to the gold medal in men’s hockey with a 4-3 win over Germany at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
2018 — Norway’s Marit Bjoergen closes out a remarkable Olympic career, winning the gold medal in the women’s 30-kilometer mass start at the Pyeongchang Games. The 37-year-old Bjoergen is the only Olympian to win five medals at these Games and finishes her career with 15 medals. She leaves as the most decorated athlete in Winter Olympic history.
Feb. 26
1935 — Babe Ruth is released by the New York Yankees and signed by the Boston Braves.
1938 — Glenn Cunningham sets a world indoor records in 1500-meter race at the AAU nationals at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Cunningham finishes in 3:48.4.
1947 — Brothers Doug and Max Bentley lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 9-7 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Doug Bentley scores four goals and sets up two more goals. Max Bentley scores three goals and assists on another goal.
1960 — Dave Jenkins of the United States wins the figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif.
1967 — Mario Andretti, better known for his accomplishments in open-wheel and USAC competition, wins the Daytona 500 pulling away from 1965 champion Fred Lorenzen in the closing laps. It’s Andretti’s his first and only NASCAR Grand National event. He is the only person born outside the United States to win the Daytona 500.
1968 — Thirty-two African nations agree to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.
1981 — The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars 5-1 in a game marred by fights. The teams set an NHL record with 84 penalties worth 392 minutes, and 12 players are ejected.
1987 — Michael Jordan scores 58 points, the most by a Chicago player in a regular-season game, to lead the Bulls over the New Jersey Nets 128-113. Jordan scores almost half his points from the free throw line, hitting 26 of 27.
1989 — Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux becomes the third NHL player to have 100 assists in a season, joining Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. Lemieux gets three assists and a goal in the Penguins’ 8-6 loss to the Hartford Whalers.
1994 — In Lillehammer, Norway, Vreni Schneider of Switzerland wins the slalom for the fifth medal of her career, the most of any woman in Alpine Olympic history.
2006 — Sweden beats Finland 3-2 to win the Olympic men’s hockey gold. Germany leaves Turin with the most overall medals with 29, 11 of them gold, while the Americans win 25 medals overall, including nine gold.
2007 — Roger Federer reaches a new milestone breaking Jimmy Connors’ 30-year-old mark with his 161st week at the top of the ATP rankings. Connors set his record from July 1974 to August 1977. The ATP rankings began on Aug. 23, 1973. Federer took the No. 1 spot on Feb. 2, 2004.
2012 — Pete Weber wins a record fifth U.S. Open bowling championship, throwing a strike on his final ball to beat Mike Fagan 215-214. Weber surpasses his father, Dick Weber, who won the tournament’s predecessor four times, as did Don Carter.
2012 — In Bansko, Bulgaria, Lindsey Vonn captures her fourth World Cup super-G race of the year and becomes the career leader in the discipline. By winning her 18th super G the American overtakes Austria’s Renate Goetschl for the record.
2018 — The U.S. Open changes to a two-hole aggregate playoff, the last of the four majors to do away with an 18-hole playoff.
2018 — The top-ranked UConn women’s team completes an undefeated regular season for the 10th time in program history with an 82-53 win over No. 20 South Florida. The Huskies (29-0, 16-0 American) are 98-0 in games against American Athletic Conference opponents. They are 86-0 in the regular season and have won all four conference tournaments.
Feb. 27
1918 — The first neutral site game in NHL history is held in Quebec City. Frank Nighbor scores twice in the first period to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
1955 — Boston beats Milwaukee 62-57 at Providence, R.I. in a game which set records for fewest points scored by one team, and by both teams, since the introduction of the 24-second clock.
1959 — The Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers 173-139 as seven NBA records fall. The Celtics set records for most points (179), most points in a half (90), most points in a quarter (52) and most field goals (72). Boston’s Tom Heinsohn leads all scorers with 43 points and Bob Cousy adds 31 while setting an NBA record with 28 assists.
1966 — Richard Petty wins the rain-shortened Daytona 500 by more than a lap at a speed of 160.927 mph. Petty holds the lead for the last 212 miles of the scheduled 500-mile event, which is called five miles from the finish. Cale Yarborough finishes second.
1977 — Stan Mikita of the Chicago Black Hawks scores his 500th goal in a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
1982 — Florida apprentice Mary Russ becomes the first female jockey to win a Grade I stakes in North America when she captures the Widener Handicap aboard Lord Darnley at Hialeah (Fla.) Park.
1992 — Prairie View sets an NCAA Division I record for most defeats in a season with a 112-79 loss to Mississippi Valley State in the first round of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament. Prairie View’s 0-28 mark breaks the record of 27 losses shared by four teams.
1994 — Sweden wins its first hockey gold medal, defeating Canada 3-2 in the first shootout for a championship at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Canada is 1:49 away from its first championship in 42 years when Magnus Svensson’s power-play goal ties it at 2. Paul Kariya’s shot is stopped by Sweden’s Tommy Salo after Peter Forsberg puts Sweden ahead on his team’s seventh shot.
1998 — Indiana’s 124-59 victory over Portland marks the first time in the NBA’s 51-year history that one team scores more than twice as many points as the other.
2005 — David Toms delivers the most dominant performance in the seven-year history of the Match Play Championship, winning eight out of nine holes to put away Chris DiMarco with the largest margin of victory in the 36-hole final. The score 6 and 5, could have been much worse as Toms was 9 up at one point.
2006 — Effa Manley is the first woman elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. The former Newark Eagles co-owner is among 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues chosen by a special committee.
2010 — Steven Holcomb drives USA-1 to the Olympic gold medal in four-man bobsledding, ending a 62-year drought for the Americans in the event. Holcomb’s four-run time was 3:24.46, with Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz pushing for him.
2015 — Travis Kvapil’s NASCAR Sprint Cup car is stolen early in the day from a hotel parking lot, forcing him to withdraw from a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team didn’t have a backup car in Atlanta, so it’s forced to drop out when the stolen machine couldn’t be located in time for NASCAR’s mandatory inspection.
Feb. 28
1922 — In the first formal college conference basketball tournament, North Carolina beats Mercer 40-26 to win the Southern Intercollegiate Conference championship. The 13-team conference keeps standings in its’ second season.
1929 — The Chicago Black Hawks are shutout for an NHL-record eighth straight game. It’s not a total loss, as the Black Hawks hold the New York Rangers scoreless for a 0-0 tie.
1940 — College basketball is televised for the first time. Station W2XBS transmits a basketball doubleheader from New York’s Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh plays Fordham and New York University competes against Georgetown.
1957 — Johnny Longden becomes the first jockey in history to reach 5,000 victories. Longden, who started his career in 1927, coaxes Bente to a head victory over Flying Finish II in the fourth race at Santa Anita Park.
1960 — The United States hockey team scores six goals in the third period to beat Czechoslovakia 9-4 and win the gold medal in the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. is down 4-3 after two periods, but Roger Christian scores three times in the third. Roger’s brother, Bill Christian, assists on two of the three goals.
1971 — Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA Championship by beating Billy Casper by three strokes.
1981 — Houston’s Calvin Murphy makes the last of his 78 consecutive free throws, in a game against San Diego, setting what was then an NBA record.
1986 — Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth conditionally suspends Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds, Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets, Joaquin Andujar of the Oakland Athletics, Lonnie Smith of the Kansas City Royals, Enos Cabell of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeff Leonard of the San Francisco Giants and Dale Berra of the New York Yankees for one year for drug abuse. After conditions are met the suspensions are reduced.
1987 — Chick Hearn, broadcaster for the Los Angeles Lakers, calls his 2,000th consecutive game for the club, a streak spanning 22 years.
1993 — Winnipeg’s Teemu Selanne scores four goals and becomes the third rookie in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season. Selanne scores his 51st goal in the third period to help the Jets defeat the Minnesota North Stars 7-6 at Winnipeg Arena.
1999 — Venus and Serena Williams become the first sisters to win WTA Tour events on the same day. Venus wins the IGA SuperThrift Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City after Serena takes her first title on the WTA Tour at the Gaz de France Open.
2003 — In Val Di Fiemme, Italy, Johnny Spillane wins the Nordic combined sprint to become the first American to win a gold medal at the Nordic world championships.
2010 — Sidney Crosby scores the winning goal in overtime to give Canada a 3-2 victory over the United States in the final event of the Vancouver Olympics. The American silver is the 37th medal won by the United States at these games and the U.S. wins the medals race for the first time since 1932.
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