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.
34 - 44 - 5 - 99 - 3 - 2 -21 - 13
April 8, 1963 - The Detroit Tigers claimed pitcher Denny McLain, who wore Number 34 for them taht season, off of waivers from the Chicago White Sox. What a great pick up it was as McLain went on the win Cy Young Award 1968, 69 and AL MVP 1968.
April 8, 1974 - Hank Aaron, Number 44 belted his MLB record breaking 715th Home Run to surpass Babe Ruth's long standing record for career base clearers. Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers was the pitcher he struck the memorable shot over the wall from.
April 8, 1980 - New York Islander Denis Potvin's (Number 5) two shorthanded goals tie NHL record versus the LA Kings and set NHL record of 2 shorthanded playoff goals in 1 period.
Here are a couple of items from the Vintage Hockey Jerseys website
April 8, 1981 - Number 99, Wayne Gretzky made history during a playoff game for the Edmonton Oilers at the Montreal Forum. He had five assists, helping his team secure a victory. This was a significant moment for the second-year NHL franchise.
April 8, 1993 - Another historic moment in hockey occurred when the Washington Capitals lost 4-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Despite the loss, Number 3, Sylvain Cote scored his 20th goal of the season for Washington, making the Capitals the first team in NHL history to have three defensemen score 20 goals in a single season. Al Iafrete scored 25 goals and Kevin Hatcher had the most with 34 goals.
The website of NBA.com offers these nuggets of history for the day.
April 8, 1978 - The Buffalo Braves played their final home game in Buffalo, losing to the Knicks 118-107. The franchise moved to San Diego and changed its name to Clippers. The Clippers have since moved to Los Angeles.
April 8, 1989 - Denver Nuggets star Alex English, Number 2 passed the 2,000-point mark milestone during the Nuggets’ 110-106 win over the Utah Jazz. With this accomplishment, English became the first player in NBA history to record eight straight seasons of 2,000 or more points.
April 8, 1996 - George McCloud, Number 21 of the Dallas Mavericks set a then single-season record for 3-point attempts when he attempted his 612th. He finished the season shooting 678 times from behind the arc. To put this into perspective is that this record was almost doubled by James Harden, Number 13 in 2018-19, when he attempted 1,023 3-pointers to set the latest mark.
April 8, 2017 - Damian Lillard, Number 0 of the Portland Trail Blazers scores 59 points in a 101-86 win over the Utah Jazz.
