Sports in February include the NBA and NHL seasons, Super Bowl, NBA All-Star game, college basketball tournaments, spring training for the MLB, NASCAR’s Daytona 500, Formula E, some PGA Tour Events and the Winter Olympics. Over the years, Feb. 22 has witnessed many notable moments and stories involving sporting legends. Here are some of them.
Unforgettable Games and Remarkable Records
Great moments in sports history from Feb. 22 included:
- 1893: In the first Iron Bowl, Auburn beat Alabama 32-22.
- 1933: Motor racer Malcolm Campbell set a world land speed record of 272.46 mph and he did it with his Blue Bird car.
- 1936: Figure skater Sonja Henie won her 10th straight women’s World Championship figure skating gold medal.
- 1958: Australian swimmer Jon Konrads set six world records in two days.
- 1959: In the first ever Daytona 500, Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp crossed the finish line side by side and Beauchamp was declared the unofficial winner. However the ruling was overturned three days later.
- 1962: Center Wilt Chamberlain set an NBA record with 34 free-throw attempts and he made 19 of them.
- 1972: Rookie Red Wing Henry Boucha scored in his first NHL Game.
- 1980: The Miracle on Ice happened. The United States beat the heavily favored Soviet Union 4-3 at Lake Placid. It was one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history.
- 1981: Brothers Anton & Peter Šťastný score an NHL rookie record eight points each in the Quebec Nordiques 11-7 win over the Washington Capitals.
- 1988: Speed skater Bonnie Blair skated a world record time of 39.10 seconds in the 500 meter distance.
- 1998: Petr Svoboda scored the lone goal of the game, as the Czech Republic beat Russia and won their first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal.
- 2008: Soccer player Marco van Basten signed a four-year contract with Ajax.
- 2014: At the age of 34, Mario Matt of Austria became the oldest champion in the Olympic alpine skiing event.
- 2014: Norway swept the medals in the women’s 30k cross country skiing at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
- 2015: In the 57th Daytona 500, Joey Logano won the event for the second time, as he took the lead with 10 laps to go.
- 2018: Short track speed skater Wu Dajing beat the men’s 500 meter world record twice, as he won the gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
- 2018: The United States Olympics women’s ice hockey team won the gold medal for the first time in 20 years, as they beat Canada 4-3 in a shootout.
- 2020: Cristiano Ronaldo played in his 1,000th game.
Three athletes who stood out on Feb. 22 were Sonja Henie, Jon Konrads, and Wilt Chamberlain.
Henie revolutionized the sport by introducing short skirts, white skates, and dance choreography. Konrads was known as a “Wonder Boy”, won gold in the 1,500m freestyle and two bronze medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Chamberlain was known as “Wilt the Stilt” or “The Big Dipper,” he won two NBA titles, four MVPs, and was a dominant force with the Philadelphia 76ers and Lakers.
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