2 February in Sports History

Here is what happened in Sports Jersey History on February: The forming of the a Major League in baseball, tying one of the Great One's records and Pistol Pete hits a milestone. Listen in to learn more about sports history along with me from the uniforms and jerseys the players wore. 

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- 18 -19 - 7 - 44 - 89 -15

February 2, 1876 - Baseball's National League forms at the Grand Central Hotel, NYC with teams in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia and St Louis.

February 2, 1943 - The Chicago Cubs return to original uniform after experimenting with a vest.

February 2, 1954 - Rio Grande College's star hoops player Bevo Francis, who wore Number 32, scored 113 pts in basketball game against Hillsdale. if the name soaunds familiar, it is as we talkied about ole Bevo puutting up 116 points last week on another opponent.

February 2, 1959 Vince Lombardi signed a memorable 5 year contract to coach NFL Green Bay Packers. Lombardi had the Packers in contention for an NFL titel in all but one of his seasons at the helm.

February 2, 1964 -  Pitchers Red Faber (Number 18 & 19 of the White Sox), Burleigh Grimes (who once wore 16, 18, 20, 21, 23 & 37 with various clubs),  Tim Keefe (played before numbers with various clubs) , Leftfielder Heinie Manush (who once wore 2,3, 7, 14, 26 & 36 with various clubs), SS John M. Ward , & Miller Huggins (both played before numbers with various clubs) all were elected to enter in to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

February 2, 1967 - Formation of American Basketball Association is announced. The A. B. A. was a former competitive league to the NBA, merged with the NBA in 1976 and then dissolved when four of its members joined into the National Basketball Association in 1979.

February 2, 1969 - Stan Coveleski (played before numbers with various clubs) and Waite Hoyt (who wore Numbers 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, 28, 34 & 48 with various clubs) are voted into baseball Hall of Fame

February 2, 1970 - Pete Maravich who wore Number 7 and 44 in his career became the first player to score 3,000 points in his colllegiate career of basketball 

February 2, 1976 - Roger Connor, Fred Lindstrom and umpire Cal Hubbard elected to Baseball Hall of Fame. Hubbard is also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a gridiron player.

February 2, 1987 - Kansas City Royal pitcher Dennis Leonard who was a 20 game winner three times in his career, retired from playing the game.

February 2, 1997 - Scotty Bowman becomes first coach in NHL history to win 1,000 games

February 2, 2012 - Edmonton Oilers skater Number 89,  Sam Gagner becomes the first player to scores eight points in one gameas he and his Oilers against teammates doubled up the Chicago Blackhawks 8-4. The four assists and four goals matched a record set by three greats: Wayne Gretzsky, Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri.

February 2, 2014 - Super Bowl XLVIII played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey had the Seattle Seahawks beat Denver Broncos, 42-8. The game's MVP was Seattle linebacker Malcolm Smith, who wore Number 53 for the Hawks.

February 2, 2020  - Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida - Super Bowl LIV saw a team that had not been in the big game in a half century!  The Kansas City Chiefs captured the NFL title with a victory over the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20. The young gun Number 15 Patrick Mahomes quarterback of the Chiefs grabbed the MVP honors ! Mahomes threw 2 picks but also had a couple of TD tosses as he passed for 286 yards and ran another score in with his legs per the Pro Football Reference.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, taken by an unknown of the 1876 Hartford Dark Blues baseball team:

• Top row, L-R: Tommy Bond, Candy Cummings
• Middle row, L-R: Tom Carey, Everett Mills, Bob Ferguson, Bill Harbridge, Tom York
• Bottom row, L-R: Dick Higham, Jack Burdock, Jack Remsen, Doug Allison

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