13 April in Sports History

Sports history is made every day of the year. We will preserve at least a small sampling from some great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore.

5 - 6 - 31 -15 - 24 - 9 - 6 - 1

April 13, 1926 - Walter Johnson,  at the ripe old age of 38, hurled his 7th career Opening Day shutout of an opponent. Johnson pitched his entire career, 1907 through 1927 with the Washington Senators franchise where he claimed two League MVP awards and three Triple Crowns, helped with the 1924 World Series and was a five time winner of having MLB's best ERA.

April 13, 1954 - Hank Aaron, wearing Number 5 played his first game as a member of the Milwaukee Braves

April 13, 1962 - St Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial, Number 6 sets another record as he scored the 1869th run in his career. This was tops on the National League.

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The website of NBA.com offers these nuggets of history for the day.

April 13, 1948 - The Baltimore Bullets, had the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, when they overcame a 21-point halftime deficit and defeated the host Philadelphia Warriors 66-63 in Game 2.

April 13, 1957 - The Boston Celtics claimed the first of their 16 championships as Number 15, Tom Heinsohn, a 6-7 rookie forward, scored 37 points and grabbed 23 rebounds to help Boston beat St. Louis 125-123 in double-overtime in Game 7.

April 13, 1975 - Larry McNeill wearing the Number 31 jersey for the KC-Omaha Kings shot 12-for-12 from the floor. The "Hawk" as he was known, in this performance of brilliance, set an NBA playoff record for most field goals without a miss, in a 102-95 win over Chicago in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

April 13, 2016 - Kobe Bryant, wearing Number 24 for the Lakers, retired in style, scoring 60 points in the Lakers’ 101-96 win over the Utah Jazz.

Here are a couple of items from the Vintage Hockey Jerseys website

April 13, 1937 - Back-up minor league goalie Earl Robertson (in his 4th NHL game) recorded the shutout, and Hall of Fame Center, Marty Barry scored the only goal in the third period as the Red Wings won 1-0 over the visiting Rangers, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

April 13, 1939 - It was a big day for a pair of future Hockey Hall of Fame inductees. Rookie Number 9, Roy Conacher scored twice and rookie goalie, Frank Brimsek recorded the first playoff shutout of his NHL career, as the Bruins beat the Maple Leafs 2-0 in in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, in Toronto.

April 13, 1944 - Number 6, Toe Blake scored the game winner at 9:12 of OT and added four assists, as Montreal beat Chicago 5-4 in Game 4 of the Finals to win the 1944 Stanley Cup, their first title in 13 years. The victory ended their longest period without a championship.

April 13, 1952 -  Legendary Number 9, Gordie Howe scored twice, and added an assist in the Red Wings' 3-0 win over Montreal, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Another eventual Hockey Hall of Fame member,  Goal tender Terry Sawchuk, wearing Number 1 recorded his 4th career playoff shutout to give Detroit a 3-0 lead in the series.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, NBA.com,the Vintage Hockey Jerseys website, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the Walter Johnson by Charles Conlon, 1910s.