10 January 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 January 10 . As a bonus, we place the jersey number worn at the time with the athlete as well.

Sports history is made every day of the year. We will preserve at least a small sampling from at least 3 great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore.

4 - 9 - 44 - 10 - 24 - 16 - 87 - 11 - 3 - 53 - 33 - 99 - 9 - 11 - 6 - 8

Sweater Number 4 on today's docket in Newsy Lalonde in played for the Montreal Canadiens and on January 10, 1920 the hockey legend lit the lanterns six times against the Toronto St. Patricks. Lalonde six strikes were part of an NHL record setting 21 goals in a single game by one team for the Canadiens.

The Number 9 was worn on the sweater of Maurice Richard who on January 10, 1951 registered his 16th career hat trick, all the points in the game, as the Montreal Canadiens blanked the New york Rangers 3-0. The scoring that evening also lifted Richard into second place in All-Time scoring of the NHL at the time as his 274 lantern lighters took him just passed Howie Morenz.

January 10, 1953 - 3rd NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: National Conference beats American Conference, 27-7. The MVP of the game was DB Don Doll, Number 44, of the Detroit Lions.

January 10, 1965 - 15th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: Western Conference beats Eastern Conference, 34-14; MVPs: Number 10, Fran Tarkenton, Minnesota Vikings, QB; Terry Barr, Number 41 Detroit Lions, DB

January 10, 1967 - 17th NBA All-Star Game, Cow Palace, San Francisco, Ca: West beats East, 135-120; MVP: Number 24, Rick Barry, SF Warriors, SF

The digits of Number 16 and Number 87 are for the tandem of Joe Montana to Dwight Clark who on January 10, 1982 in the NFC Championship game, connected on a play that is forever known as "The Catch." The leaping grab in the back of the endzone by Clark with 58 seconds remaining pushed the San Francosco  49ers over the Dallas Cowboys 28-27, and a few weeks later the Noners won the Super Bowl.

January 10, 1984 - Luis Aparicio ( Number 11), Harmon Killebrew (Number 3), and Don Drysdale (Number 53) were all elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame

January 10, 1986 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Number 33 of the Los Angeles Lakers scores his 34,000th career point during 124-102 win over Indiana Pacers; only NBA player to reach the milestone at that time; remains all-time leader (38,387)

January 10, 1989 - LA Kings center Number 99, Wayne Gretzky became the NHL’s all-time leading scorer in combined regular season & playoff points; 4 assists in 5-4 home win over Edmonton brings his total to 2,011, 1 more than Number 9, Gordie Howe

January 10, 1996 - Boston guard Number 11, Dana Barros drained a 3-point field goal in his 89th straight game, during the Celtics' 113-104 win over Sacramento Kings; NBA record streak ends in next game when he goes 0 from 9

January 10, 1998 - Vancouver Canucks veteran center Number 11, Mark Messier became the 6th player in NHL history to record 1,000 assists in a 2-2 tie against the Florida Panthers at General Motors Place

January 10, 2003 - NBA announces Charlotte, N.C. is awarded an NBA expansion franchise to be known as the Charlotte Bobcats and start play in 2004-05; eventually changes to the Charlotte Hornets for the 2014-15 season

January 10, 2011 - FIFA Ballon d'Or: Barcelona forward Number 10, Lionel Messi won his 2nd straight award from teammates Andrés Iniesta ( Number 8) and Xavi (Number 6); Brazilian forward Number 10, Marta wins women's award for 5th consecutive year

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