13 January in Sports History

Celebrating the milestones in sports history made on January 13 throughout history, by remembering the athletes and the jersey numbers that they wore.

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.

99- 44 - 70 - 13 - 32 - 76 - 86 - 16 - 39 - 22 - 20 - 21 - 9 - 23 - 14 - 7 - 10

January 13, 1953 - 3rd NBA All-Star Game, Allen County Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana: West beats East, 79-75; MVP: Number 99, George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers, C

January 13, 1957 - 7th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: Western Conference beats Eastern Conference, 19-10; MVPs: Number 44, the kicker of the Baltimore Colts, Bert Rechichar and Defensive tackle Ernie Stautner, Number 70 of the Pittsburgh Steelers

January 13, 1962 - Wilt Chamberlain in his number 13 for the Philadelphia Warriors set an NBA record at the time scoring 73 points in a contest against the Chicago Packers for a 135-117 win. This game high point total still ranks third in the NBA record books!

January 13, 1963 - Number 32 Jim Brown, who played for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, earned the offensive MVP honors in the NFL Pro Bowl game on this day as the Eastern Squad downed their Western counterparts 30-20 at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

Eugene Big Daddy Lipscomb Number 76 of the Pittsburgh Steelers was the defensive MVP for the same Pro Bowl game in 1963.

January 13, 1963 - 2nd AFL All Star Game, Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California: Western Division beats Eastern Division, 21-14. The game MVPs were Dallas Texans, RB, Number 32,  Curtis McClinton & LA Chargers, DE Earl Faison, who wore Number 86

January 13, 1965 - 15th NBA All-Star Game, St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, Mo: East beats West, 124-123; MVP: selected was Cincinnati Royals, F, Number 16, Jerry Lucas

January 13, 1974 - Super Bowl VIII, Rice Stadium, Houston, TX: Miami Dolphins beat Minnesota Vikings, 24-7; MVP:  Number 39 of the Miami Dolphins, Running back Larry Csonka.

January 13, 1981 - New York Islander's Number 22,  Mike Bossy's 15th career hat trick-4 goals

January 13, 1982 -  Baseball legends Hank Aaron (Number 44) and Frank Robinson (Number 20) were both elected to Hall of Fame

January 13, 1985 - Playing in his 436th career game, Edmonton center Number 99, Wayne Gretzky scores his 400th career NHL goal and adds 2 assists in a 5-4 Oilers' win over the Sabres in Buffalo

January 13, 2001 - Atlanta Hawks retire Dominique Wilkins' Number 21 in pre-game ceremonies at Philips Arena; joins Bob Pettit (Number 9) and Lou Hudson (Number 23) as the only Hawks to have their numbers retired

January 13, 2008 - Orlando Magic knocked down a then NBA-record 23 3-pointers in 37 attempts (62.2%). Number 14, Jameer Nelson goes 5-for-5 from beyond the arc as Magic beat the Sacramento Kings, 139-107

January 13, 2014 - FIFA Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid & Portugal forward Number 7, Cristiano Ronaldo ends Number 10, Lionel Messi's domination of award; FFC Frankfurt goalkeeper Number 1,  Nadine Angerer takes women's award

January 13, 2019 - Lionel Messi scored for FC Barcelona in 3-0 win over Eibar, his 400th goal in La Liga; becomes first player to reach mark in just one of Europe's top 5 leagues; Cristiano Ronaldo had 409 in Spain, England & Italy

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