4 February in Sports History

Here is what happened in Sports Jersey History on February 4 : We talk about the great goaltending of Grant Fuhr and Ray Durbin of Row One Brand stops by to to discuss two of his favorite number 40s. 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.

42 - 31 - 80 - 66 - 12 - 13 - 

February 4, 1952 - Legendary athlete Jackie Robinson who not only helped to break the color barriers in college football and Major League Baseball climbed over another hurdle. On this date, Number 42 became the first African -American to become an executive at a major Television station WNBC in New York.

February 4, 1979 - At the 29th annual NBA All-Star Game which was held at the Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, Michigan, the West Stars outlasted the East standouts by the tune of 134-129. The game's MVP was Number 33 of the Denver Nuggets shooting guard David Thompson.

February 4, 1986 - 38th NHL All-Star Game, Hartford Civic Center: Wales Conference beats Campbell Conference, 4-3 (OT); MVP was Goalie Grant Fuhr, Number 31 of the Edmonton Oilers. Fuhr got his professional start in the AJHL with the Sherwood Park Crusaders and then moved into the WHL’s Victoria Cougars according to EliteProspects.com.
He then made his NHL debut with Wayne Gretzsky and the Edmonton Oilers against the Winnipeg Jets on October 14, 1981. Fuhr became an integral piece of the Oilers dynasty in the 1980s, by almost becoming an impenetrable stone wall in front of the Edmonton goal for most of the next decade. Grant was part of the Edmonton squads that won four Stanley Cup Championships in five years and it wasn’t just the Great One scoring, but the defense of the Oilers net was a big part of the team’s success too. In ten seasons Fuhr had 11059 saves with the Oilers in 423 games played. His average of saving about 90% of shots fired on his never really waivered much throughout his stellar career. 
Everything was going pretty well for the young net minder. Then almost out of the blue in 1989 the future Hall of Fame goalie threatened to walk away from the game at 26-years of age, at the height of his talented run, thanks to an apparent dispute with Glen Sather and some really bad advice from his agent Ritch Winter. Much of this stemmed from Winter not getting along with Sather. Allegedly the two had a confrontation in which they engaged in a session of shoving each other while trying to work out a new deal for the Fuhr back in 1987. Perhaps the saving grace for Edmonton, who notoriously was known to underpay their top talent, was that Rich Winter was able to secure Fuhr a five-year contract with the Pepsi-Cola, that would’ve seen the future Hall of Famer has a Pepsi logo on each of his pads, starting in the upcoming 1989-90 season. The contract with Pepsi was quite a good salary supplement on paper for Fuhr. There was one problem though however with it, the NHL did not allow for individuals to have advertising on their persons. They want a standard uniform on every player on the team. This fueled the heat between Fuhr and the Oilers even further. He literally filed the retirement papers with the club, but Sather never filed them with the League offices. Eventually, things settled down in the dispute.
Rob Soria on the TheHockeyWriters.com article from July of 2021 wrote this: 

“After coming to the realization it was the NHL and not the Oilers who was prohibiting him from putting the deal with Pepsi into action, his stance softened. On August 24th, 1989, it was made official that Fuhr would be remaining with the Orange and Blue. Though his agent did him no favors with the approach he took, the fact this situation turned into the fiasco it did was on the player.”

After a couple more lukewarm seasons of contract dispute, suspension and injury, Fuhr was set to make his return in the crease in the 59th game of the 1990 season. It had been nearly two years since he was on the ice healthy. The goalie shed his normally colorful pads and wore mainly white ones to represent his clean new start. Apparently in the background he had been battling some demons and now after a year of mending he was ready to rekindle his hickey  career. His comeback game against the New Jersey Devils showed he was back as the Oiler won 4-0. He ended up regaining his status as the top goalie on the squad and convinced the league that he was indeed back to old form.
Furh departed the Oilers in 1991 and went on to play for Toronto, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Calgary, and St Louis before calling it a career after the 1999 season.
We salute Number 31 Grant Fuhr for overcoming his personal obstacles and giving to others inspiration and hope that may be in the same circumstance that they too can recover and thrive in life.

February 4, 1990 - NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 27-21; MVP: Jerry Gray, LA Rams, DB
1996 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 20-13; MVP was Number 80 of the 49ers Wide Receiver Jerry Rice.

February 4, 1997 - Pittsburgh Penguins Number 66 star Mario Lemieux became 7th NHL player reach the plateau of scoring 600 goals.

February 4, 2001 - NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: AFC beats NFC, 38-17. MVP was none other than Number 12 of the Oakland Raiders QB Rich Gannon.
 
2001 - Number 13 of the Boston Bruins, RW Bill Guerin was selected as the MVP of the 51st NHL All-Star Game played at the Pepsi Centre, Denver, CO. North America beats World, 14-12.
 
2007 Super Bowl XLI, Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Miami, FL: Indianapolis Colts eased by the Chicago Bears, 29-17. The game’s  MVP as Indianapolis, QB Peyton Manning, Number 18.
 
2018 Super Bowl LII took place at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Philadelphia Eagles surprised the New England Patriots, 41-33 to take home the Lombardi guided by the Philly Special play. The game’s MVP trophy was given to the recipient of that now famous pass play Philadelphia Quarterback Nick Foles, who wore Number 9 in the Big Game

Our Sports Jersey take of the day is by Ray Durbin of Row One Brand as he speaks of the comparisons of his two favorite Number 40's Crazy Legs Hirsch and Gale Sayers. Make sure to listen to the podcast above for that!

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 Jackie Robinson with the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs taken by the Kansas City Call newspaper