9 January in Sports History

Celebrating the milestones in sports history made on January 9 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 - 32 - 12 - 33 - 13 - 99 - 8 - 15 - 5 - 25 - 22 - 10

Number 4 in your program for January 9 is early NBA player Dino Martin who on this day in 1947 beceame the first player to score 40 points while with the Providence Steamroller as they won a 91-68 win over Cleveland Rebels at Rhode Island Auditorium.

Jersey Number 32 belongs to Freshman Bevo Francis of the 1953 Rio Grande College basketball team, who scored 116 pts in a single basketball game! Bevo did the same feat again that season too. You can learn more about Bevo Francis on the Sports History Network's very own Basketball History 101 Podcast, Episode 44 with host Rick Loayza.

10 Jan 1953, Sat Montpelier Evening Argus (Montpelier, Vermont) Newspapers.com

January 9, 1954 - Bert Olmstead, Number 15 of the Montreal Canadiens, tied the NHL record of 8 points in a single game

Cincinnati Bearcats first year, varsity guard, the great Oscar Robertson wearing the Number 12, scored 56 point is a game while his opponent's entire team,Seton Hall, only scored 54 points on January 9, 1958.

January 9, 1972 - Led by future Lakers star Number 33, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks beat LA Lakers, 120-104, ending LA's consecutive win streak at 33, the longest winning streak in major league sports history

January 9, 1977 - Super Bowl XI, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: Oakland Raiders beat Minnesota Vikings, 32-14; MVP was Number 25, Fred Biletnikoff, Oakland, WR

Number 4 also represents the sweater number on one Bobby Orr that was retired by the Boston Bruins on January 9, 1979.

January 9, 1989 - Catcher Johnny Bench (Number 5) and Carl Yastrzemski (Number 8) were elected to become Baseball Hall of Fame inductees

January 9, 1990 - MLB legends Jim Palmer (Number 22) and Joe Morgan (Number 8) were selected to enter into the Baseball Hall of Fame

January 9, 1991 - Chicago Bulls, Number 23, Michael Jordan scores a game-high 40 points to lead the Bulls to a 107-99 win over Philadelphia at the Spectrum; reaches the 15,000 point mark of his career

January 9, 1998 - Hockey News Magazine selected Number 99, Wayne Gretzky as the best NHL player ever

January 9, 2000 - Miami Dolphin QB, Number 13, Dan Marino won his last career NFL game (20-17 vs Seattle)

January 9, 2012 - FIFA Ballon d'Or: Barcelona forward, Number 10, Lionel Messi wins award for a record 3rd consecutive year; Japanese midfielder Number 10, Homare Sawa wins women's award

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