26 January in Sports History

Celebrating the milestones in sports history made on January 26 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 4 great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore.

3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 25 - 84 - 99 - 95 - 11 - 13 - 33 - 44 - 23 - 66 - 22 - 81 - 34 - 9 - 56 - 87 - 8 - 24 - 93

January 26, 1921 - Corb Denneny, Number 6, of the Toronto St. Patricks scored 6 goals in a home game against the Hamilton Tigers, that the Toronto squad won 10-3.

January 26, 1951 - Legendary players Mel Ott (long time Number 4) and Jimmie Foxx (long time Number 3) elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

January 26, 1956 - Hank Greenberg (long time Number 5) and Joe Cronin (long time Number 4) are elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

January 26, 1960 - Oakland Raiders enter the American Football League

January 26, 1960 - Prep hardcourt sensation, Danny Heater, Number 25 scored 135 points in a high school basketball game in Burnsville West Virginia.

It was a National Scholastic hoops record! Heater played for Burnsville High as they dropped Widen HS in a lopsided 173-43 victory. Danny was 53 of 70 from the floor, 29 of 41 free throw attempts and remember this is over 25 years before there was a three point shot in high school hoops. Though the scoring is what is most remembered, Heater also hauled down 32 rebounds and had 7 assists in the game. Prior to the contest against Widen Danny averaged 27 points per game. The previous record of 120 points was set in the 1950s but the 6'-0" senior was fed the ball from teammates when they saw he had the hot hand. The 135 is the second highest in basketball at all levels, as Jack Taylor of NCAA Division III's Grinnell College scored 138 points years later in 2012. Some may say it was horrible for the coach to have run that score up, but the Burnsville Coach Jack Stalnaker lamented later he did it because he knew Heater's father was an unemployed coal miner and the family had recently lost everything they owned in a house fire. Heater was a deserving kid according to Stalnaker, a humble yougman and great student who had a chance to escape financial plight. The colleges had no awareness of this young player and that the scoring would give the young man a spotlight in the national media and a scholarship to college, if which without Danny would not be able to go to school.  Stalnaker told each man on the team of his plan to feed Danny the ball to get the recognition he deserved and badly needed, and all fully agreed, except Danny. The first 2-1/2 muntes of the game, Danny would pass the ball away to teammates rather than shoot, and the Burnsville Blaze trailed by 6. However after a wise timeout was taken where Danny saw how much it meant to the team for him to score, the reluctance fade and history was made.  Heater was never offered a scholarship to school but a retired state senator , after hearing his story paid his tution & housing to attend the University of Richmond. Heater joined the Spider basketball team but left a week later due to being homesick. Heater has been embarassed all his life about making the other team look so poorly. He eventually married and moved to Washington DC where he worked for Delta Airline for over 30 years. Another ironic twist of the story is that his parents attended all of his high school basketball games save one, this 135 point scoring spree due to his father being ill with the flu and his mother staying home to care for her husband.

31 Jan 1960, Sun Sunday News (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

January 26, 1976 - NFL Pro Bowl, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans: NFC beats AFC, 23-20; MVP was Houston Oilers, WR, Number 84,  Billy White Shoes Johnson.

January 26, 1985 - The "Great One," Wayne Gretzsky tallied his 50th goal of the season in just the 49th game he played in. Gretzsky wore Number 99 for the Edmonton Oilers

January 26, 1986 - Number 95 , Richard Dent became one of the rare defensive players to become the Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl XX as his ChicagoBears dropped the New England Patriots in the big game, 46-10

January 26, 1991 - Houston Rockets guard, Number 11, Vernon Maxwell becomes 5th player in NBA history to score 30 points in a quarter in Rockets' 103-97 home win over Cleveland; joins Wilt Chamberlain (Number 13), David Thompson (Number 33), George Gervin (Number 44) andMichael Jordan (Number 23)

January 26, 1991 - Jan Stenerud, Number 3 became the first true placekicker to make NFL Hall of Fame

January 26, 1992 - Super Bowl XXVI, Metrodome, Minneapolis, MI: Washington Redskins beat Buffalo Bills, 37-24; MVP chosn was Washington, QB, Number 11, Mark Rypien,

January 26, 1995 - With a record 6,254,427 ballots cast by fans in NBA All-Star Voting, Detroit Pistons young star, Number 33, Grant Hill becomes the first rookie to lead all NBA players in All-Star votes received, earning #1 on 1,289,585 ballots

January 26, 1997 - Pittsburgh Penguins, Center, Number 66, Mario Lemieux ties NHL record with 4 goals in the 3rd period as Pittsburgh wins, 5-2 at Montreal; 39th career hat trick and 13th 4-goal game, tying NHL record shared by Wayne Gretzky (Number 99) and Mike Bossy (Number 22)

January 26, 1997 - Super Bowl XXXI, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA: Green Bay Packers beat New England Patriots, 35-21; MVP: Number 81, Desmond Howard, Green Bay KR

January 26, 2003 - Super Bowl XXXVII, Qualc:omm Stadium, San Diego, CA: Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat Oakland Raiders, 48-21; MVP selected was Tampa Bay, S, Number 34, Dexter Jackson,

January 26, 2014 - NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: Team Rice beats Team Sanders, 22-21; MVPs were Philadelphia, QB, Number 9, Nick Foles and KC Chiefs, LB, Number 56, Derrick Johnson

January 26, 2019 - 64th NHL All Star Games, SAP Centre, San Jose, CA: Metropolitan All Stars win four-team, 3-on-3 tournament. The game's MVP chosen was Pittsburgh Penguins, C, Number 87, Sidney Crosby,

January 26, 2020 - We lost the great Kobe Bryant on this day when a helicopter that he hired to transport he, his daughter and some friends crashed in foggy conditions into a mountain near Calabasas, California. Bryant famously wore Number 8 and Number 24 during his time in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers retired both numbers in his honor.

January 26, 2020 - NFL Pro Bowl, Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida: AFC beats NFC, 38-33; MVP's: Lamar Jackson (Number 8), QB (Baltimore Ravens), Calais Campbell (Number 93), DE (Jacksonville Jaguars)

Here is what happened in Sports History on January 26 using the uniform numbers that the players wore to help tell the story.

Just like you we are fans of sports history and legendary athletes. The posts generally take a lot of time and research to put together, so it’s a fair bit of workand we love to do it! In order to bring you the quality info and make ends meet we make commissions from qualifying purchases in ads and links you may see on this page. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. Just keeping it real and thanking you for your continued support! 

Just like you we are fans of sports history and legendary athletes. The posts generally take a lot of time and research to put together, so it’s a fair bit of workand we love to do it! In order to bring you the quality info and make ends meet we make commissions from qualifying purchases in ads and links you may see on this page. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. Just keeping it real and thanking you for your continued support! 

A Very Special thanks to Tim Brulia of the Gridiron-Uniform- Database & for the information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com