14 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.

32 - 4 - 15 - 30 - 24 - 11 - 33 - 53 - 1

April 14, 1917 - Chicago White Sox pitcher Ed Cicotte no-hits the St Louis Browns in an 11-0 romp.

April 14, 1955 - Number 32,  Elston Howard became the first African-American to play for theNew York Yankees. The 26-year-old catcher/outfielder hit a single with an RBI in 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox in his debut.

April 14, 1964 - Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, Number 32 threw a game without allowing a walk in 4-0 Opening Day win over St. Louis Cardinals. The future Baseball Hall of Fame accomplished the feat 8 other times in his storied career.

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

April 14, 1928 - The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Maroons 2-1 in Game Five of the Finals, to become the 1928 Stanley Cup Champions. It was the first appearance by the Rangers in the Finals and was their first victory of the Stanley Cup in only their second season. 

April 14, 1931 - Goalie George Hainsworth posted his sixth career playoff shutout to defeat the Chicago Black Hawks 2-0 as the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup successfully defending their 1930 Cup win.

April 14, 1955 - the Detroit Red Wings beat Montreal 3-1 in game 7, to become the 1955 Stanley Cup Champions with Number 15, Alex Delvecchio scoring two goals.

April 14, 1960 - Number 4, Jean Beliveau scored a pair of goals in a 4-0 win over the Maple Leafs in game 4 of the finals as the Canadiens swept the series to become the only team to win five straight Stanley Cups. Number 30, Jacques Plante recorded his 10th career playoff shutout.

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

April 14, 1975 - In Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, Golden State defeated Seattle 123-96. Led by Number 24, Rick Barry’s then playoff record eight steals, the Warriors set an NBA playoff record with a total of 22 steals for the game.

April 14, 1976 - Number 33, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers won the fourth of his record six NBA MVP awards, after averaging 27.7 ppg and league-leading totals of 16.9 rpg and 4.12 bpg.

April 14, 1985 - Mark Eaton, Number 53 of the UtahJazz finished the 1984-85 season with 456 blocked shots for an average of 5.56 bpg, both NBA records.

April 14, 1994 - Seattle became the second NBA team to have 10 different players score in double figures, during a 150-101 win over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers, as Number 11, Detlef Schrempf led the scoring parade for the Sonics with 21 points. Seattle also had 10 double-figure scorers in a 135-104 win over Portland on March 30, 1980, with Gus Williams, Number 1 notching a team-high 23 points. Phoenix joined the group on November 23, 1994 during a 140-109 triumph over the visiting LA Clippers, as rookie Number 11, Wesley Person’s 19 points led 10 double-figure scorers for the Suns.

We have placed some product links on this page for some items that we think you may be interested in. If you purchase by clicking on them, we will get a commission to use to help with operating costs.

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 New York Yankees catcher Elston Howard looks at the call of umpire Jocko Conlan during the top of the 5th inning of Game 2 of the 1961 World Series, played October 5, 1961 at Yankee Stadium. Cincinnati Reds second baseman Elio Chacon slides into home safely on a passed ball, as teammate Vada Pinson and Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry look on. The run put the Reds up 3-2, and they ultimately would win their only game of the series 6-2., taken by an unknown.