Sports History on 15th of May

May 15, 1926 – The NHL officially granted a second franchise to the city of New York, and that team was named the New York Rangers; the first team, which started play in the previous year, was the New York Americans. Also, the NHL announced that the cities of Chicago and Detroit would be awarded NHL teams to start play in November, provided their rinks were finished, making 10 teams in the NHL.

Born May 15, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan, was Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame player and Coach Don Nelson. Nelson is second all-time in regular season wins of any coach in NBA history, with 1,335 as Gregg Popovich surpassed him in 2022. He coached the Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Knicks, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Golden State Warriors. After an All-American career at the University of Iowa, Nelson played professionally with the Chicago Zephyrs, the Los Angeles Lakers before he moved on to win five NBA championships playing with the Boston Celtics, with his number 19 retired by the franchise in 1978.

Sports history is made every day of the year. We will preserve at least a small sampling from some great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore. May 15, 1912 - Detroit Tigers star slugger Ty Cobb,  let's an obnoxious fan get to him and the player leaped the rail...

Born May, 15, 1953, in Glen Dale, West Virginia, was George Brett. Brett is a Baseball Hall of Fame Third Baseman, who also tended the positions of First Baseman, Left Fielder, Right Fielder, and Shortstop in his MLB career, wearing the number 5 on the Kansas City Royals from 1975-93, for 19 seasons as he batted 0.305 for his career, had an On Base percentage of 0.487, with 317 career Home Runs, and 1 Gold Glove Awarded Seasons. George Brett is one of the Top Baseball Jersey Number 5s in History. 

Born May 15, 1967, in Detroit, Michigan, was Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher John Smoltz. John played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1988 to 2009, with all except the last year with the Atlanta Braves. (He played with both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox in 2009) An eight-time All-Star, Smoltz was part of a celebrated trio of starting pitchers, along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who propelled Atlanta to perennial pennant contention in the 1990s, highlighted by a championship in the 1995 World Series. Smoltz was versatile and amazing in the MLB becoming only the second pitcher in history (joining Dennis Eckersley) to record both a 20-win season and a 50-save season. He is the only pitcher in Major League history to record both 200 wins and 150 saves.

Born May 15, 1914, in Brandon, Manitoba, was Hockey Hall of Fame Goaltender, Turk Broda. Broda played his entire NHL career for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was the first goaltender to reach 300 wins. He was named as one of the top 100 NHL players in history in a 2017 poll.