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 December 12. As a bonus, we place the jersey number worn at the time with the athlete as well.
12 December in Sports History
Article: Sports History » Sports Jersey Memories » December » 12
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Daily Digits December 12
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.
38 - 32 - 31 - 10 - 13 - 40 - 12 - 13 - 9 - 6 - 1 - 7
December 12, 1936 - 1937 NFL Draft: Sam Francis, Number 38 from the University of Nebraska was the first pick by Philadelphia Eagles. The Huskers retired Sam's Number 38 jersey in his honor.
December 12, 1937 - 1938 NFL Draft: Corbett Davis, Number 32 from the University of Indiana first pick by the Cleveland Rams organization.
December 12, 1950 - 16th Heisman Trophy Award won by Ohio State halfback, Number 31, Vic Janowicz
December 12, 1961 - Ballon d'Or: Juventus' Argentine forward Omar Sívori (Number unknown) won the award for best football player in Europe ahead of Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (Number 10) and English forward Johnny Haynes (Number 10)
December 12, 1964 - Cleveland Browns' Number 13, Frank Ryan set a franchise record of 5 TD passes in a 52-20 playoff clinching win over the New York Giants
Browns Rip Giants 13 Dec 1964, Sun Green Bay Press-Gazette (Green Bay, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com
December 12, 1965 - Chicago halfback Number 40, Gale Sayers tied an NFL record for most touchdowns in a game with 6 in 61–20 victory over San Francisco 49ers at Wrigley Field
Sayers Gets 6 TDs 13 Dec 1965, Mon The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
December 12, 1976 - NFL QB, Number 12, Joe Namath played his last game as a New York Jet
December 12, 1987 - Oklahoma Sooners, Mookie Blaylock, Number 10 of sets NCAA record of 12 steals in a game against Centenary
December 12, 1992 - 58th Heisman Trophy Award won by Miami Hurricanes Quarterback, Number 13, Gino Torretta
December 12, 2002 - Ballon d'Or: Inter/Real Madrid forward Ronaldo, Number 9 was named best football player in Europe for a second time ahead of Real Madrid left back Number 6, Roberto Carlos and Bayern Munich goalkeeper, Number 1, Oliver Kahn
December 12, 2011 - 77th Heisman Trophy Award was won by Baylor Quarterback, Number 10, Robert Griffin III
December 12, 2016 - Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid forward Number 7, Cristiano Ronaldo claimed the award for the 4th time; record winning margin of 429 from Lionel Messi (Number 10)
Credits
A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, Newspapers.com, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.
Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Nebraska football player Sam Francis circa 1936
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Orville Mulligan: Sports Writer
We invite you to take a ride through 1920's sports history in the audio drama that takes the listener through the sounds and legendary events of the era through the eyes of a young newspaper journalist. You will feel like you were there!
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Hut! Hut! Hike! Book
Historian Timothy P. Brown has released another excellent book to help fill our football minds with knowledge. His latest is called Hut! Hut! Hike!: A History of Football Terminology.[/br]more information
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