14 January in Sports History

Celebrating the milestones in sports history made on January 14 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.

4 - 14 - 22 - 60 - 88 - 32 - 74 - 12 - 13 - 10 - 26 - 27 - 53

January 14, 1927 - Hap Day who wore the sweater with a Number 4 on it for the Toronto Maple Leafs scores the first hat trick in franchise history against the New York Rangers.

January 14, 1940 - Number 14, Green Packers End Don Hutson scored the lone touchdown in the 1940 NFL pro Bowl as the Packers defeated the All-Star team made up of the other 9 NFL clubs 16-7. With 38 ticks remaining in the 1st half, in a punting situation, Cecil Isbell fired a strike from his own goal line to a racing Hutson who scored on the 92 yard suprise passing play.

January 14, 1943 - Montreal Canadiens' left wing, Alex Smart became the first NHL rookie to score a hat trick in his first NHL game, a 5-1 win at home over the Chicago Black Hawks

January 14, 1946 - Frank Boley Dancewicz was the top pick in the NFL Draft by the Boston Yanks. Boley, who played Quarterback for Notre Dame ended up wearing the Number 22 jersey for the Yanks.

January 14, 1951 - 1st NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: American Conference beats National Conference, 28-27; The game MVP was Cleveland Browns, QB, Number 60, Otto Graham. This would be the final season that quarterbacks from the merged AAFC would be allowed to wear their old number in the NFL. The Browns signal caller would wear Number 14 for the balance of his career.

January 14, 1961 - Chicago Bears former player, Willard Dewveall became the first NFL player to join AFL. Dewveall wore Number 88 with both the Bears and his new team the Houston Oiler.

January 14, 1962 - 12th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: Western Conference beats Eastern Conference, 31-30; MVPs: Number 32, Jim Brown, the Cleveland Browns, RB for the offense and on defense the top player selected was Green Bay Packers, DT, Number 74, Henry Jordan.

January 14, 1964 - 14th NBA All-Star Game, Boston Garden: East beats West, 111-107; MVP selected was a Point Guard, Number 14 of the Cincinnati Royals, Oscar Robertson.

January 14, 1968 - Super Bowl II, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Green Bay Packers beat Oakland Raiders, 33-14; MVP: Bart Starr, Number 12, Green Bay, QB

January 14, 1969 - 19th NBA All-Star Game, Baltimore Civic Centre: East beats West, 123-112; MVP was Cincinnati Royals, PG, Number 14, Oscar Robertson

January 14, 1973 - Super Bowl VII, LA Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: Miami Dolphins beat Washington Redskins, 14-7; MVP: Miami, Safety, Number 13, Jake Scott. It is interesting that the Dolphins had a Number 13 become a Super Bowl MVP and it was not Dan Marino.

January 14, 1975 - 25th NBA All-Star Game, Arizona Vets Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, Az: East beats West, 108-102; MVP: NY Knicks, PG, Number 10, Walt Frazier

January 14, 1987 - Catfish Hunter (Number 27) and Billy Williams (Number 26) were elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

January 14, 1993 - Utah Jazz center Number 53, Mark Eaton blocks 2 shots in a 96-89 win over Seattle SuperSonics; becomes only 2nd player in NBA history (along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to record 3,000 career blocks

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