This Day in Sports History: February 21
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…
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. 21 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. 21 included:
- 1953: The longest college basketball game happened as Niagara beat Siena 88-81.
- 1960: The Biathlon debuts at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics. Klas Lestander from Sweden becomes the first Olympic champion ahead of Finland's Antti Tyrvainen and Soviet Aleksandr Privalov.
- 1969: Ted Williams signed a 5-year contract to manage the Washington Senators.
- 1973: The Chicago Blackhawks played in their 262nd NHL game without being shutout.
- 1980: American speed skater Eric Heiden wins the 1500 meter in an Olympic record time of 1:55.44. He won gold in all five of the speed skating events at Lake Placid.
- 1980: Liechtenstein becomes the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion as Hanni Wenzel wins the women's giant slalom at the Lake Placid Winter Games.
- 1983: The San Diego Clippers began a 29-game road losing streak.
- 1985: National League baseball player Tim Raines is awarded a 1.2 million dollar salary by arbitration.
- 1992: Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States wins an Olympic gold medal in women's figure skating.
- 1993: The 43rd NBA All-Star Game was played at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The West defeated the East 135-132 in overtime with Utah legends John Stockton and Karl Malone were named co-MVPs.
- 2002: The Canadian world champion women's ice hockey team wins the first of four consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals with a 3-2 win over the United States at Salt Lake City.
- 2014: Canada takes the curling double at the Sochi Winter Olympics, beating Great Britain, 9-3 in the final.
- 2014: Park Seung-hi won the Olympic women's 1,000 meter short track speed skating gold medal in Sochi.
- 2016: In the 58th Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin wins the race and it was the closest finish in Daytona history. Hamlin won by just 0.01s from Martin Truex Jr.
- 2017: Alex Puccio completes the first female ascent of Nagual V13 (8B) at Hueco Tanks.
- 2018: Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first Americans in history to win a cross country gold medal.
- 2021: In the Australian Open Men's Tennis, Novak Djokovic of Serbia wins a record-extending 9th Australian title. Dokovic dominates Russian Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
Three athletes who stood out on Feb. 21 were Ted Williams, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Novak Djokovic.
Williams was nicknamed "The Splendid Splinter," was the last player to bat over .400 in a season (.406 in 1941) and finished with a .344 lifetime average. Yamaguchi is best known for winning the 1992 Olympic gold medal in ladies' singles, making her the first Asian American to win a Winter Olympic gold. Djokovic is the only player to achieve a triple Career Grand Slam and win all nine Masters 1000 events twice.
