Today in Sports - Week Ahead, May 19 - 25

May 23

1876 — Joe Borden of Boston pitches the first no-hitter in NL history.

1884 — Knight of Ellersie, ridden by S. Fischer, wins the two-horse Preakness Stakes by two lengths over Welcher.

1901 — The Cleveland Indians score nine runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Washington Senators 14-13.

1922 — Future World Heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney suffers his only professional defeat in 15-round unanimous points decision against Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden, N.Y.

1935 — The first major league night game, scheduled for Cincinnati, is postponed because of rain.

1936 — Rushaway, ridden by John Longden, wins his second derby in as many days, taking the 1 1/4-mile Latonia Derby at Latonia in Covington, Ky. Rushaway had won the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby, run at Aurora, Ill., the previous day.

1941 — In his 20th World Heavyweight Boxing title defense Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in round 1 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1953 — Native Dancer, ridden by Eric Guerin, avenges the loss in the Kentucky Derby by edging Jamie K. by a neck to win the Preakness Stakes.

1962 — Joe Pepitone 2nd NY Yankee to hit 2 HRs in 1 inning (Joe DiMaggio).

1964 — Dale Greig runs female marathon world record (3:27:45).

1968 — AC Milan of Italy win 8th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Hamburger SV of West Germany 2-0 in Rotterdam.

1976 — Boston center Dave Cowens dominates the opener of the NBA Finals against Phoenix with a 25-point, 21-rebound performance and the Celtics defeat the Suns, 98-87.

1981 — Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benítez (22) becomes the youngest 3-division world champion in history by knocking out WBC World Super Welterweight champion Maurice Hope in 12 rounds in Las Vegas.

1991 — Paul Dougherty scores two goals and adds two assists to help the San Diego Sockers win their fourth consecutive Major Indoor Soccer League championship with an 8-6 victory over the Cleveland Crunch.

1997 — In the first all-freshman singles final in NCAA history, Stanford’s Lilia Osterloh beats Florida’s M.C. White 6-1, 6-1 to win the women’s singles tennis championship.

2001 — 9th UEFA Champions League Final: Bayern Munich beats Valencia (1-1, 5-4 on penalties) at Milan.

2002 — Los Angeles Dodgers’ slugger Shawn Green becomes the 14th man in major league history to homer four times in a game and sets a big league record with 19 total bases. He is 6-for-6, scoring six times with seven RBIs in a 16-3 win at Milwaukee.

2005 — Anastasia Myskina is the first defending champion at the French Open to be eliminated in the opening round, losing to Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.

2007 — UEFA Champions League Final, Athens: Filippo Inzaghi scores twice as AC Milan beats Liverpool, 2-1 for 7th title.

2009 — Alabama sophomore Kelsi Dunne becomes the first player to throw back-to-back no-hitters in NCAA postseason play. Dunne holds Jacksonville State hitless for the second straight day in a 9-0 softball victory. The two no-hitters tie the NCAA postseason record. It’s Dunne’s fourth of the season and a school-record six for her career.

2013 — Patrick Roy is named head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, his former team where he won two Stanley Cups.

2018 — NFL owners approve new NFL national anthem policy whereby players required to stand if they choose to be on the field for pre-game presentations.

2021 — Phil Mickelson wins the 2021 PGA Championship by two strokes to become the oldest major winner (50) in PGA history.

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May 24

1905 — Harry Payne Whitney’s Tanya becomes the second filly to win the Belmont Stakes. Ruthless was the first filly to win the Belmont, in 1867. Whitney would also win the Kentucky Derby with a filly, Regret, in 1915.

1926 — Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi sets world 3000m record (8:25.4) in Berlin, Germany.

1935 — In the first major league night game, the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 before 25,000 fans in Cincinnati.

1936 — Tony Lazzeri of the New York Yankees drives in 11 runs with a triple and three home runs — two of them grand slams — in a 25-2 rout of the Philadelphia A’s.

1967 — The AFL grants a franchise to the Cincinnati Bengals.

1976 — Muhammad Ali TKOs Richard Dunn in 5 for heavyweight boxing title in Munich.

1980 — Bobby Nystrom’s overtime goal gives the New York Islanders a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 for their first Stanley Cup title.

1981 — The Indianapolis 500 ends in controversy when Mario Andretti, who finished second to Bobby Unser, is declared the winner because Unser broke a rule during a slowdown period near the end of the race. The decision is later reversed, giving Unser credit for the victory, but he is fined $40,000.

1986 — The Montreal Canadiens win their 23rd Stanley Cup, beating the Calgary Flames 4-3 in five games.

1987 — Indianapolis 500: 47 year-old, now part-time driver Al Unser Sr. wins his record-tying 4th Indy title in a huge upset.

1987 — LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: American Jane Geddes wins by 1 stroke ahead of runner-up American Betsy King.

1988 — The fourth game of the Stanley Cup finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins is postponed with the score tied 3-3 and 3:23 left in the second period when a power failure hits Boston Garden.

1989 — 33rd European Cup: Milan beats Steaua Bucuresti 4-0 at Barcelona.

1990 — The Edmonton Oilers win their fifth Stanley Cup in seven seasons by beating the Bruins 4-1 in Game 5. Goalie Bill Ranford, who limited Boston to eight goals in the series, wins the Conn Smythe Trophy for most valuable player in the playoffs.

1992 — Al Unser Jr. wins the closest finish at the Indianapolis 500, beating Scott Goodyear by 43-thousandths of a second, barely half a car length. Lyn St. James, the second woman to race at Indy, finishes 11th.

1995 — Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley becomes the sixth pitcher to record 300 saves, in a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

1995 — 3rd UEFA Champions League Final: Ajax beats Milan 1-0 at Vienna.

1998 — Indianapolis 500: American ex-Formula One driver Eddie Cheever Jr finishes 3 seconds ahead of 1996 winner Buddy Lazier; first Indy fully sanctioned by the IRL.

2000 — 8th UEFA Champions League Final: Real Madrid beats Valencia 3-0 at Saint-Denis.

2001 — John Lieber of the Chicago Cubs tosses a 79-pitch, one-hit shutout in a 3-0 blanking of the Reds. It’s the first shutout of the Reds in an NL-record 208 games.

2009 — Brazil’s Helio Castroneves becomes the ninth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 three times. Castroneves pulls away over the final laps to beat Dan Wheldon of England and Danica Patrick, who eclipsed her fourth-place finish as a rookie in 2005 by crossing the strip of bricks in third.

2009 — Manchester United wins 1-0 at Hull City Stadium to win English Premier League title for 3rd consecutive season, for a second time; equals Liverpool’s record of 18 league titles.

2010 — Lukas Lacko of Slovakia beats American Michael Yani in a 71-game match that ties for the most in the French Open since tiebreakers were instituted in 1973. Lacko wins 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 12-10 in a first-round match that takes two days to complete.

2014 — UEFA Champions League Final, Lisbon: Real Madrid beats cross town rivals Atlético Madrid, 4-1 after extra time; scores locked at 1-1 in regulation; Los Blancos record 10th title.

2015 — Senior PGA Championship, French Lick Resort: Defending champion Colin Montgomerie of Scotland wins by 4 strokes from Mexican Esteban Toledo.

2017 — Manchester United defeated Ajax, 2-0, to win the 2017 UEFA League.

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May 25

1935 — Babe Ruth hits his last 3 home runs in Pittsburgh, Boston Braves still lose the game 11–7 to the Pirates.

1935 — Legendary American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks 4 world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan; remembered as “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport”.

1948 — Ben Hogan wins the PGA championship, beating Mike Turnesa in the final round, 7 and 6.

1951 — NY Giant Willie Mays 1st major league game (goes 0 for 5).

1965 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston a minute into the first round in the controversial rematch for Ali’s heavyweight title. Listed as the fastest knockout in a heavyweight title bout, Liston goes down on a short right-hand punch.

1967 — European Cup Final, Estádio Nacional, Lisbon: Glasgow Celtic beats Internazionale, 2-1; first British team to win the Cup.

1972 — Heavyweight Joe Frazier KOs Ron Stander.

1975 — The Golden State Warriors become the third team to sweep the NBA finals, beating the Washington Bullets 96-95 on Butch Beard’s foul shot with 9 seconds remaining.

1977 — 21st European Cup: Liverpool beats Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 at Rome.

1978 — The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 6 for their third straight Stanley Cup.

1980 — Johnny Rutherford wins his third Indianapolis 500 in seven years and becomes the first driver to win twice from the pole position.

1983 — 27th European Cup: Hamburg beats Juventus 1-0 at Athens.

1986 — KC Royal George Brett gets his 2,000th hit.

1987 — Herve Filion becomes the first harness racing driver to win 10,000 races. Filion reaches the milestone driving Commander Bond to victory in the third race at Yonkers Raceway.

1988 — 32nd European Cup: PSV Eindhoven beats Benfica (0-0, 6-5 on penalties) at Stuttgart.

1989 — Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Calgary Flames beat Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 to win series 4 games to 2; Flames’ first SC title.

1991 — The Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Mario Lemieux, win the Stanley Cup for the first time with an 8-0 rout of the Minnesota North Stars.

1998 — Princeton punctuates its claim as one of college lacrosse’s great programs by beating Maryland 15-5 for its third straight NCAA Division I title and fifth in seven years.

2002 — Boston sets an NBA record, overcoming a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 94-90 win over New Jersey. The Celtics outscore the Nets 41-16 in the quarter.

2003 — Juli Inkster shoots a 10-under 62 — tying the lowest final-round score by a winner in LPGA Tour history — to beat Lorie Kane by four strokes in the LPGA Corning Classic.

2005 — 13th UEFA Champions League Final: Liverpool beats Milan (3-3, 3-2 on penalties).

2007 — Bjarne Riis is the first Tour de France winner to admit using performance-enhancing drugs to win the sport’s premier race, further eroding cycling’s credibility after a series of doping confessions. His admission means the top three finishers in the 1996 Tour are linked to doping — with two admitting to cheating.

2008 — Seven crashes and spinouts mar the first Indianapolis 500 since the two warring open-wheel series (CART and IRL) came together under the IndyCar banner. Scott Dixon stays ahead of the trouble to win the race.

2008 — Senior PGA Championship, Oak Hill CC: Jay Haas wins his second title in the event by 1 stroke from Germany’s Bernhard Langer.

2009 — Syracuse rallies from a three-goal deficit in the final 3:37 of regulation to beat Cornell 10-9 and win its second straight and unprecedented 11th NCAA lacrosse title.

2013 — UEFA Champions League Final, London: Arjen Robben scores twice as Bayern Munich beats Borussia Dortmund, 2-1 in first all-German final.

2014 — Senior PGA Championship, GC at Shore Harbor: Colin Montgomerie of Scotland wins first of 3 Champions Tour majors by 4 strokes from Tom Watson.

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