April 7
1940 — Jimmy Demaret wins the Masters with a four-stroke triumph over Lloyd Mangrum. Mangrum shoots an opening round 64, a course record by two strokes, which stands for 46 years. Demaret parred the first 14 holes, added a two-putt birdie at the 15th, then parred the final three holes to sew up his victory. Mangrum could do no better than 74 and finishes second.
1946 — Herman Keiser edges Ben Hogan by one stroke to win the Masters.
1951 — Ben Hogan wins the Masters by two strokes over Robert Riegel.
1956 — Joe Graboski scores 29 points and Paul Arizin 26 as the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Fort Wayne Pistons 99-88 to win the NBA championship in five games.
1963 — Jack Nicklaus, at 23, becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters, beating Tony Lema by a stroke.
1985 — New Jersey’s Herschel Walker rushes for a USFL-record 233 yards in leading the Generals to a 31-25 victory over the Houston Gamblers.
1996 — Dave Andreychuk scores a goal for his 1,000th career point as the New Jersey Devils post a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers.
1998 — Al MacInnis has a goal and an assist in St. Louis’ 5-3 loss at Detroit to become the sixth defenseman in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points.
2003 — Syracuse wins the NCAA tournament with an 81-78 victory over Kansas. Freshman Carmelo Anthony, fighting off a bad back, finishes with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Gerry McNamara hits six 3-pointers in the first half and finishes with 18 points.
2007 — Vince Carter and Jason Kidd are the first teammates with triple-doubles in the same game since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in 1989. Carter matches his season high with 46 points, adds a career-best 16 rebounds and 10 assists. Kidd ties a career high with 16 rebounds, equals his season high with 18 assists and adds a late free throw for 10 points to lead New Jersey to a 120-114 overtime win over Washington.
2008 — Mario Chalmers hits a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation to push the game into overtime, and Kansas grinds it out from there for a 75-68 victory over Memphis in the men’s NCAA basketball title game.
2009 — Tina Charles scores 25 points and grabs 19 rebounds as Connecticut routs Louisville 76-54 to capture sixth women’s basketball title. UConn (39-0) wins every one of its 39 games by double digits, a first in college basketball.
2010 — Don Nelson sets the NBA career record for victories by a coach in the Golden State Warriors’ 116-107 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nelson with 1,333 wins, surpasses Lenny Wilkens to move atop the list.
2013 — Inbee Park doubles her lead to six strokes on the opening hole of the final round and runs away with the Kraft Nabisco Championship for her second major title.
2014 — Shabazz Napier scores 22 points and Connecticut wins its second NCAA men’s title in four years, beating the Kentucky freshmen 60-54 in the championship game. Kentucky, with five freshmen starters, never led in the championship game. The Wildcats missed 11 of 24 free throws, while the Huskies were perfect on 10 tries.
2015 — UConn’s women’s basketball team beats Notre Dame 63-53 for their 10th NCAA championship. Coach Geno Auriemma ties UCLA’s John Wooden for the most titles in college basketball.
2016 — Ernie Els, winner of four major titles, makes Masters history. He opens with a 10 on the Par 4 first hole. After his first two shots, Els seven-putts from 2 feet. His sextuple bogey is the worst score on the first hole at the Masters, beating the old mark by two strokes.
2016 — Golden State becomes the second team to win 70 games in a season by beating the San Antonio Spurs 112-101. The Warriors (70-9) bounce back from their second loss in three home games two nights earlier against Minnesota and join the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls as the only teams to win 70 games. This is the first regular-season meeting in NBA history between two teams that enter with at least 65 victories apiece.
April 8
1935 — Gene Sarazen gets a double eagle on the 15th hole to erase Craig Wood’s three-stroke lead, and goes on to win the Masters.
1943 — The Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins 2-0 to win the Stanley Cup with a four-game sweep.
1956 — Jack Burke, Jr. comes back from eight strokes behind to beat Ken Venturi by one and win the Masters.
1971 — The first legal off-track betting (OTB) system in the United States opens in New York City.
1974 — In the home opener in Atlanta, Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s career record by hitting his 715th home run, connecting off Al Downing of Los Angeles in the fourth inning.
1975 — Frank Robinson, the first black manager in the majors, debuts as player-manager for the Cleveland Indians. Robinson hits a home run in his first at-bat — as a designated hitter — to help beat the New York Yankees 5-3.
1989 — Alex English scores 26 points to become the first player in NBA history to score 2,000 points in eight straight seasons, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Utah Jazz 110-106.
1990 — Nick Faldo becomes the second player to win consecutive Masters, beating Ray Floyd on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Faldo joins Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winner.
2001 — Tiger Woods claims the greatest feat in modern golf by winning the Masters, giving him a clean sweep of the four professional majors in a span of 294 days. Woods, with his winning score of 16-under 272, sweeps the majors with a combined score of 65-under.
2007 — Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby finishes with 120 points to become the youngest player to win the Art Ross Trophy. Crosby, 19, betters the mark set by Wayne Gretzky, who was 20 years and three months old when he recorded 164 points for his first Art Ross in 1980-81. Crosby had 36 goals and 84 assists.
2007 — Zach Johnson hits three clutch birdies on the back nine of Augusta National, to close with a 69 for a two-shot victory over Tiger Woods at the Masters.
2008 — Candace Parker, playing with an injured left shoulder, scores 17 points and grabs nine rebounds to help Tennessee capture its eighth women’s NCAA championship with a 64-48 victory over Stanford.
2012 — Bubba Watson saves par from the pine straw and wins the Masters on the second hole of a playoff over Louis Oosthuizen. Trapped among the trees 155 yards from the hole and not able to see the green, the left-hander hits a huge hook and lands the ball safely on the 10th green. He two-putts for par to capture his first major.
2013 — Luke Hancock makes all five of his 3-pointers and leads Louisville to its first NCAA men’s basketball championship since 1986 with a 82-76 victory over Michigan. Coach Rick Pitino adds this title to the one he won at Kentucky in 1996 and became the first coach to win a championship at two schools.
2014 — Breanna Stewart scores 21 points and Stefanie Dolson adds 17 points and 16 rebounds to help UConn beat Notre Dame 79-58, giving coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies a record ninth women’s national championship. Auriemma passes Pat Summitt for the most titles all-time and caps off the school’s fifth undefeated season in unprecedented fashion. The game is the first title matchup between two unbeatens in the history of college basketball.
April 9
1946 — The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins 6-3 to win the Stanley Cup in five games.
1947 — Leo Durocher, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is suspended for one year by Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler for “conduct detrimental to baseball.” Durocher is linked to gambling interests.
1950 — Jimmy Demaret wins his third Masters, by two strokes over Jim Ferrier.
1962 — Arnold Palmer wins a three-way playoff, beating Gary Player and Dow Finsterwald in the Masters.
1978 — Gary Player shoots a final-round 64 to win his third Masters, edging Hubert Green, Rod Funseth and defending champion Tom Watson by a shot.
1978 — Denver’s David Thompson, battling San Antonio’s George Gervin for the NBA season scoring title, scores 73 points against the Detroit Pistons. It’s the third-highest output ever in an NBA game. Gervin, not to be outdone, later scores 63 against the New Orleans Jazz. It’s just enough to give Gervin the scoring crown, 27.22 points per game to Thompson’s 27.15, the tightest one-two finish ever.
1989 — Britain’s Nick Faldo makes a 25-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Masters. Runner-up Scott Hoch missed a 2-foot putt for par on the first hole of the playoff that would have given him the title.
1993 — The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 10-4 for their 16th straight win to break the NHL record of 15 held by the New York Islanders.
2000 — Fiji native Vijay Singh meets every challenge to win the Masters, closing with a 3-under 69 for a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.
2001 — Australia sets a record for the most one-sided international win in FIFA history, beating Tonga 22-0 in an Oceania Group One qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup.
2005 — The United States beats Canada 3-1 in a penalty shootout after a scoreless regulation and 20-minute overtime to win the Women’s World Hockey Championship. The win ends the defending champions’ run of eight straight titles.
2008 — Colorado captain Joe Sakic scores his NHL-record eighth career playoff overtime goal in a 3-2 win over Minnesota in the opener of the Rockies’ first-round series.
2011 — Kyle Schmidt scores 3:22 into overtime to lift Minnesota Duluth to a 3-2 victory over Michigan in the NCAA men’s ice hockey championship game, the first national title for the Bulldogs.
2016 — Manny Pacquiao returns from the biggest loss of his career with a bang, knocking down Timothy Bradley twice on his way to a unanimous 12-round decision in their welterweight showdown in Las Vegas.
2016 — Drake Caggiula scores twice in the third period and Brock Boeser has a goal and three assists to help North Dakota win its eighth NCAA hockey championship, 5-1 over top-seeded Quinnipiac.
2017 — Sergio Garcia overcomes a two-shot deficit with six holes to play and beats Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff at the Masters for his first major after nearly two decades of heartache.
2017 — Russell Westbrook breaks Oscar Robertson’s 56-year-old record with his 42nd triple-double of the season, then he breaks the Denver Nuggets’ hearts with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a 106-105 victory.
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