17 January in Sports History

Celebrating the milestones in sports history made on January 17 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 3 great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore.

 11 - -9 - 60 - 19 - 76  - 14 - 24 - 21 - 54 - 47 - 44 - 33 - 23 - 8

January 17, 1934 - Number 11, Carl Hubbell the New York Giants pitcher was awarded with an $18,000 contract, enormous at the time, shortly after winning the National League Most Valauble Player award for the 1933 season.

January 17, 1952 - At the 1952 NFL Draft: QB University of Vanderbilt, Number 9, Bill Wade was the number one overall pick by Los Angeles Rams

January 17, 1954 - 4th NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: Eastern Conference beats Western Conference, 20-9; MVP selected was Philadelphia Eagles, LB, Number 60, Chuck Bednarik.

January 17, 1960 - 10th NFL Pro Bowl, LA Memorial Coliseum: Western Conference beats Eastern Conference, 38-21; MVPs were on offense Number 19, Johnny Unitas, the QB of the Baltimore Coltswhile on defense was his Colts teammate DL, Number 76, Eugene Lipscomb

18 Jan 1961, Wed The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com

January 17, 1961 - Oscar Robertson scored 23 points and registered 14 assists in the NBA All-Star game to become the youngest talent ever to win the game's MVP award. Oscar wore Number 14 as a member of the Cincinnati Royals

January 17, 1970 - Willie Mays was named by the Sporting News as the Player of the 1960s decade. The legendary baseball star wore Number 24 during the extent of the decade with the San Francisco Giants.

January 17, 1970 - 9th AFL All Star Game, Astrodome, Houston: Western Division beats Eastern Division, 26-3; MVP: selected was LA Chargers, QB , Number 21, John Hadl.

January 17, 1971 - Super Bowl V, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Baltimore Colts beat Dallas Cowboys, 16-13; MVP was Dallas, LB, Number 54, Chuck Howley

January 17, 1977 - NFL Pro Bowl, Seattle Kingdome: AFC beats NFC, 24-14; MVP selected was none other than Pittsburgh Steelers, CB, Number 47, Mel Blount,

January 17, 1988 - AFC Championship, Mile High Stadium, Denver: Denver Broncos beat Cleveland Browns, 38-33; features infamous "The Fumble", Browns' Number 44, Earnest Byner at Denver 3-yard line with 1:12 remaining

January 17, 1994 - Patrick Ewing, Number 33, became the first New York Knicks player to reach the 15,000-point mark in his NBA career; scores a game-high 34 points in the Knicks' 106-94 win over visiting Minnesota

January 17, 1996 - Detroit center Number 19, Steve Yzerman scores his 500th career NHL goal as the Red Wings beat Colorado, 3-2 at Joe Louis Arena and joins Number 9, Gordie Howe as the only players to score 500 goals for Detroit

January 17, 2012 - Miami's Number 23, LeBron James became the youngest player in NBA history to record 20,000 career points during the Miami Heat's 92-75 victory over Golden State; James, 28 years, 17 days, passes Number 8, Kobe Bryant, 29 years, 122 days

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: Newspapers.com, On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com