19 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.

20 - 33 - 38 - 65 - 66 - 21 - 35 - 4 - 6 - 13 - 2 - 21 - 7

April 19, 1938 - At the legendary venue of the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, the Phillies infielder, Heinie Mueller, Number 20 and Brooklyn Dodger outfielder, Ernie Koy, Number 33 both home hit home runs in their first MLB at bats.

April 1, 1944 - The 1944 NFL Draft commenced as Angelo Bertelli, the Heisman Trophy winner from University of Notre Dame first pick by Boston Yanks. Bertelli was known to have worn Number 65 as a member of the AAFC's Los Angeles Dons and Number 66 as a member of the Chicago Rockets.

April 19, 1986 - Oakland Athletics pitcher Number 38, Jose Rijo sets a club record with 16 strikeouts in eight innings as Oakland beats the Seattle Mariners, 7 – 2. The two clubs combine for 30 strikeouts overall, setting the modern major league record for a nine-inning game. Courtesy of This Day in Baseball.

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

April 19, 1986 - Atlanta hawks guard Number 4, Spud Webb set an NBA rookie record for assists in a playoff game with 18, as the Hawks defeated Detroit 137-125 at the Omni in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first round series.

April 19, 1988 - The Philadelphia 76ers honored Julius Erving prior to a home game against the Bucks, retiring his Number 6 uniform and unveiling a larger-than-life Dr. J statue.

April 19, 1991 - Atlanta’s Number 2, Moses Malone set an NBA record for playing in the most consecutive games without fouling out in the Hawks’ 126-120 loss to Detroit at the Omni. It was Malone’s 1,046th straight game without a disqualification, breaking Number 13, Wilt Chamberlain’s mark.

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.

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

April 19, 1962 - Leafs' defender Number 7, Tim Horton set a Stanley Cup playoff record as the Toronto Maple Leafs 8-4 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks in game five of the finals at Maple Leaf Gardens. Horton assisted on three of Toronto's goals, giving him 15 points, the most ever for a defensemen in one playoff year. Also in the game Chicago's Stan Mikita, Number 21 picked up two assists to set two new playoff records; his 21 points broke Gordie Howe's record of 20 set in 1955 and his 15 assists also set a new record.

April 19, 1970 - Number 7, Phil Esposito scored a hat trick against his brother Tony Esposito, Number 35 in the crease for the Black Hawks as the Bruins won 6-3 at Chicago, in game one of the Stanley Cup semi finals.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, This Day in Baseball, 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 Image cropped from a black and white photo of professional baseball player Ernie Koy originally posted by the Associated Press.