Today’s highlights in sports history:
In 2018, LeBron James lost 110-102 to the Golden State Warriors, but still passed Michael Jordan’s record of 109 for most games with 30 or more points in NBA playoff history.
On this date:
1919 – Man O’War wins his first race at Belmont Park in a straight five-furlong race. The 3-5 favorite wins by six lengths, covering the distance in 59 seconds.
1924 – Cyril Walker wins the U.S. Open by three strokes over Bobby Jones.
1936 – Granville, ridden by James Stout, wins the Belmont Stakes by a neck over Mr. Bones. Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Bold Venture sits out the race.
1946 – The National Basketball Association was founded at the Commodore Hotel in New York.
1966 – The NFL and AFL announce their merger.
1969 – Joe Namath resigns from the NFL after being told by football commissioner Pete Rozelle to sell his bar stock.
1976 — 30th NBA Championship: The Boston Celtics defeat the Phoenix Suns, 4 games to 2.
1981 – Samming, ridden by George Martins, wins the Belmont Stakes, ending Pleasant Colony’s Triple Crown dreams.
1987 – Bet Twice, ridden by Craig Perret, wins the Belmont Stakes by 14 lengths to deny Alysheba the Triple Crown, with Alysheba finishing a distant fourth.
1987 – Eight days shy of her 18th birthday, West Germany’s Steffi Graf became the youngest ever French Open women’s singles champion, defeating Martina Navratilova 6-4, 4-6, 8-6.
1992 – New York Mets first baseman Eddie Murray beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 15–1, to record his 1,510th career RBI, passing Mickey Mantle as MLB’s all-time RBI leader among switch hitters.
1998 – Victory Gallop beats Real Quiet at the finish line in the Belmont Stakes, missing out on the Triple Crown.
1999 – Andre Agassi comes from behind to win the French Open, becoming just the fifth player to complete a career Grand Slam. After losing the first two sets, Agassi rallied to beat Andrei Medvedev 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Agassi went on to win Wimbledon in 1992, the U.S. Open in 1994 and the Australian Open in 1995.
1999 – Julie Inkster wins the U.S. Women’s Open with a score of 16-under 272, the lowest 72-hole score in the championship’s 54-year history.
2007 – The Anaheim Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators 6-2 to win the Stanley Cup after a five-game series.
2007 – Trevor Hoffman becomes the first major leaguer to record 500 career saves, clinching the San Diego Padres’ 5–2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
2010 – Rafael Nadal beat Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to win his fifth French Open title and avenge his only loss at Roland Garros. Nadal improved to 38-1 at Roland Garros, with his only loss to Soderling coming in the fourth round a year earlier.
2011 – During the Bowl Championship Series, the Southern California Trojans were stripped of their 2004 title, and the season ended without a BCS champion. BCS officials stripped the championship after the Trojans received severe sanctions from the NCAA last year for rules violations they committed during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
2015 – American Pharoah wins the Belmont Stakes by 5.5 lengths, becoming the first horse in 37 years to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Victor Espinoza, the bay colt became the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown and the first to do so since Affirmed in 1978.
2015 – Serena Williams overcame a mid-match slump and a third-set deficit to beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-2 to win her third French Open title and her 20th major singles title.
2015 – Tiger Woods set a new record with a career-best score of 85 at The Memorial at Muirfield Village, a course where he has won eight times. Woods finished the first nine holes of the third round with consecutive double bogeys and a quadruple bogey at eight.
2015 — UEFA Champions League Final, Berlin: FC Barcelona beat Juventus 3-1 to win their fifth title and their second treble (Spanish La Liga and Cup champions).
2023 – In a surprising development, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf League agree to combine to create their own for-profit entity run by the PGA Tour and funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
