26 August in Sports History

In this edition of the Sports Break, we cover the top events in sports history along with the players and athletes that were a part of them on August 26. Let me add that there are many Baltimore Orioles on our list tonight. As a bonus, we place the jersey number worn at the time with the athlete.

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.

4 - 23 - 15 - 23 - 26 - 32 - 9 - 33 - 16

August 26, 1912 - MLB pitcher Walter Johnson's 16-game winning streak ends

August 26, 1930 - Chicago Cub's Hack Wilson (who would eventually wear Number 4) hits his 44th HR, breaks Chuck Klein's NL record

August 26, 1938 - Montreal Maroons dropped from NHL. The franchise started up in the league during the 1924-25 season at the same time that the Boston Bruins were added to the fold. The Maroons shared the city with the Canadiens for almost a decade and a half. Their purpose was to be the team of the English speaking population of the City while the Canadiens appeased the French speaking contingent. The Maroons filled a void left when a 1917 fire burned down the arena of a prior club called the Montreal Wanderers. At first the Canadiens organization challenged the rise of the Maroons, but the NHL appeased them by handong over a good portion of the Maroon's $15,000 League entrance fee. During their 14-year existence, the Maroons qualified for the playoffs in all but three seasons, and won the Stanley Cup during the 1926 and 1935 seasons.  In 1935 they went undefeated in the postseason but the writing was on the wall due mainly to economic reasons incurred due to the Great Depression and the two teams in one city.

August 26, 1947 - Dodgers' Dan Bankhead, Number 23  who was MLB's first African-American pitcher, tagged a home run in his very first MLB at bat in 16-3 loss to Pittsburgh, at Ebbetts Field, Brooklyn, NYC

August 26, 1962 - Minnesota Twins Jack Kralick, Number 15 tossed a no-hitter against the Kansas City A's, for the 1-0 victory

August 26, 1966  - Baltimore Orioles Vic Roznovsky (Number 23) & Boog Powell (Number 26) are 4th to hit consecutive pinch HRs

August 26, 1967 - Minnesota's Dean Chance, Number 32 pitched a 2-1 no-hitter, & Twins sweep Cleveland

August 26, 1971 - MLB Baltimore Orioles' Don Buford, Number 9 struck out 5 times in a game

August 26, 1985 - Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray, Number 33 delivered in 9 RBIs in a game vs California Angels

August 26, 1990 - Bo Jackson, Number 16 of the KC Royals hit his 4th of 4 consecutive home runs

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

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the 1933 Goudey baseball card of Hank Wilf the Brooklyn Dodgers (cropped).