November 11, 2011: College Basketball On an Aircraft Carrier

November 11, 2011: Two of college basketball's greatest programs face each other -- on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The USS Carl Vinson, named for the longtime Congressman from Georgia known as "the Father of the Two-Ocean Navy," was docked at the U.S. naval base in San Diego. Stands were erected on its deck, and 8,111 fans were in attendance, including President Barack Obama, who had been a high school basketball star, along with some of his family, including First Lady Michelle Obama, and her brother, Craig Robinson, then the head basketball coach at Oregon State. The proceeds benefited the Wounded Warrior Project, a veterans' organization.

The date was chosen because it was Veterans Day. The teams chosen were the University of North Carolina, already 5-time NCAA Champions and 18-time Final Four participants; and Michigan State University, 2-time National Champions and 8-time Final Four participants. The North Carolina Tar Heels were represented by their greatest player ever, Michael Jordan; the Michigan State Spartans, by theirs, Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

North Carolina won, 67-55. Harrison Barnes of North Carolina led all scorers with 17 points, and John Henson added 12. Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne led Michigan State with 10 points.

The Carrier Classic was renewed on November 9, 2012, aboard the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a doubleheader, first the Notre Dame and Ohio State women's teams, then the Ohio State and Marquette men's teams. Notre Dame won the opener, 57-51. But the Ohio State-Marquette game had to be canceled, due to condensation on the court. That wasn't an issue in the previous year's game in dry San Diego, despite being right on the water, but it was this time.

Two more Carrier Classics were scheduled. Also on November 9, on the USS Bataan in Jacksonville, Florida, between Georgetown and the University of Florida. This game got underway, but had to be stopped due to condensation. And on November 11, aboard the USS Midway in San Diego, a game was played to a conclusion, with Syracuse beating San Diego State, 62-49.

In June 2013, it was announced that the Carrier Classic would not be renewed. Finally, on November 11, 2022, another was held, named the Peraton Armed Forces Classic: Gonzaga beat Michigan State, 64-63, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego.

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November 11, 2011 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. The NBA team owners had locked out the players, so the season ended up not starting until Christmas Day. One college football game was played: The University of South Florida beat Syracuse, 37-17 at the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome) in Syracuse, New York.

There were 7 NHL games played that night:

* The New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Washington Capitals, 3-1 at the Prudential Center.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-1 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Dallas Stars, 3-1 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-0 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames, 4-1 at the United Center in Chicago.

* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

November 6, 1990: Michael Jordan Helps Jesse Helms Get Re-Elected

November 6, 1990: Jesse Helms is elected to a 4th term as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He did not deserve this, but he got it. There are several people to blame.

One of them is Michael Jordan.

Nike signed Jordan as an NBA rookie in 1984, thinking he would be the next NBA superstar. They were right: Despite an injury-plagued rookie season, his scoring and dunking made him the player ever kid who loved basketball wanted to be -- even though he went through his 1st 6 seasons without having reached the NBA Finals.

Although born in New York City -- on February 17, 1963, at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, where boxer Mike Tyson would be born 3 years later -- Jordan lived in Wilmington, North Carolina from age 5 until he began studying and playing at the University of North Carolina in 1981. Despite having maintained a home in Chicago since his rookie year, he has always considered North Carolina his home State.

He had helped the University of North Carolina win the National Championship as a freshman in 1982, but, with his head coach having instituted his passing-first "Four Corners" offense, it became a joke among NBA fans that the only man who could hold Michael Jordan to under 20 points was Dean Smith.

Although from conservative Kansas, Smith was a Democrat, who had helped integrate the athletic program at UNC. So was Harvey Gantt, who, in 1963, became the 1st black student at Clemson University in South Carolina. The 2nd was Lucinda Brawley, who became Gantt's wife. An architect, he was elected to the City Council in Charlotte in 1973, and Mayor in 1982 and 1986. In 1990, the Democrats nominated him to run for the U.S. Senate for North Carolina, against Jesse Helms.

He was born on October 18, 1921, in Monroe, outside Charlotte. Ironically, he got his start as a sportswriter, with the News & Observer, out of Raleigh. He moved into the news section, then became a newscaster for WRAL-Channel 5 in Raleigh. He did TV editorials, promoting white supremacy. He helped elect Willis Smith to the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, and later for Senator Richard Russell of Georgia. He was twice elected to the Raleigh City Council, then went back to WRAL, doing editorials with the same kind of noxious racism.

Like many Southern Democrats, he switched to the Republican Party over civil rights. He called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress." He was elected to the Senate in 1972, using the slogan, "Jesse: He's One of Us." He became a darling of the conservative movement, particularly the religious conservatives, opposing abortion, labor unions, environmental causes, food stamps and the Equal Rights Amendment; and was a staunch anti-Communist.

He stood by President Richard Nixon all the way, remaining his friend even after his 1974 resignation; and supported Governor Ronald Reagan's campaign against incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 Primaries, his support of Reagan in the North Carolina Primary vital in keeping that campaign going, keeping Reagan viable in 1980, when he won.

In 1984, the Democrats sensed that Helms was vulnerable in a run for a 3rd term. The other most popular politician in the State, James B. Hunt, limited to 2 consecutive terms as Governor, was nominated, and it was very close: Helms won 51.7 percent of the vote, to Hunt's 47.8, a margin of less than 87,000 votes. Had Reagan not overwhelmingly won re-election, Helms likely would have lost.

His reputation as "Senator No" increased, as he opposed everything the Democrats wanted, and even some things that less-conservative Republicans wanted. He would have to run for a 4th term in 1990 without the "coattails" of a popular Republican President -- George H.W. Bush was now in office, and wasn't especially popular as the Congressional campaign began -- and Democrats thought Gantt could beat him.

The North Carolina Republican Party mailed over 125,000 notices, almost exclusively to black voters, telling them that they were not eligible to vote, and warned that if they went to the polls they could be prosecuted for voter fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Helms campaign. A settlement was reached, and the activity was stopped.

With the polls neck and neck, Helms aired a late-running television commercial titled "Hands." It showed a white man's hands crumpling up a rejection notice. a voiceover says, "You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?"

The advertisement compared Helms to Gantt by saying that Gantt was "for racial quotas" and that Helms was against them. In particular, it accused Gantt of supporting "Ted Kennedy's racial quota law." Such a law did exist, and the Massachusetts Senator was hardly its only supporter. But, as a stand-in for everything conservatives hated about liberals, Ted was a convenience, even though he and Helms remained friendly in the Senate chamber.

Another Helms television commercial accused Gantt of running a "secret campaign" in homosexual communities and of being committed to "mandatory gay rights laws" including "requiring local schools to hire gay teachers." There was no such campaign.

Desperate to get rid of the Senator who had embraced his role as the biggest bigot in American politics, now that former Governor George Wallace of Alabama had repented somewhat in his later career, Democratic activists in North Carolina asked Michael Jordan to do a TV ad endorsing Gantt. Jordan's own mother asked him to do the ad. Jordan said, "Look, Mom, I’m not speaking out of pocket about someone I don’t know. But I will send a contribution to support him." And he did. But he didn't do the ad.

On November 6, Helms got 52.5 percent of the vote, to Gantt's 47.4, a winning margin of 106,000 votes. No stranger to sports and its lore, Helms paraphrased Casey at the Bat: "There's no joy in Mudville tonight. The mighty ultra-liberal establishment, and the liberal politicians and editors and commentators and columnists, have struck out."

The Democrats gained only 1 seat in the Senate, and 7 in the House. Among the new Senators were Democrat Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who eventually died in a plane crash while running for a 3rd term; and Republican Larry Craig of Idaho, whose career crashed and burned at an airport, through his own folly.

In 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the 1st black Democrat, and only the 2nd black person (after Republican Ed Brooke of Massachusetts in 1966), to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. In a widely publicized incident on July 22, 1993, she reported that Helms deliberately sought to offend her by whistling the Southern song "Dixie" as the two shared an elevator.

Also in 1992, Bill Clinton was elected President. On November 22, 1994, the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Helms said of his home State, "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard." He said Clinton was unpopular, and that he had not meant it as a threat. (For the record, although Clinton finished 2nd in North Carolina to Bush in a 3-way race with Ross Perot, it was by 71,000 votes, and he got more votes in the State than Helms had ever gotten to that point.)

In October 1993, Jordan stepped away from basketball, for reasons that are still debated. In March 1995, he returned. Chicago Tribune beat reporter Sam Smith, in his book The Second Coming, wrote about the attempt to get Jordan to endorse Gantt, who was getting read for a rematch with Helms in 1996. Smith wrote that Jordan said he wasn't into politics, didn't know the issues -- "And, as he later told a friend, 'Republicans buy shoes, too.'" This soon entered the public mind as, "Republicans buy sneakers, too."

People who opposed Helms were furious. They thought Jordan had sold out, putting Nike and what it paid him ahead of his own people. Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, "He took commerce over conscience." Football legend Jim Brown said, "Money has changed today's black athletes. Those who have the ability as African men to bring a change in a community that so desperately needs it are concentrating only on their own careers, some charities and how much money they can make." A joke developed: "Jordan stays at the Ritz, because he sold out to crackers."

Gantt himself didn't seem to mind, saying, "It's been blown way out of proportion. They make it sound almost as if had he endorsed my campaign, we would have won. We don't know that. I don't hold it against him."

In 1996, his comeback complete and his legend as an all-time great secured, Jordan hosted a fundraiser for Gantt at his Chicago steakhouse. It didn't work: Helms won 52.6 percent to Gantt's 45.9. Gantt has never run for office again.

Helms served out that 5th term in the Senate, and did not run again in 2002. He died on July 4, 2008, with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois the nominee-in-waiting, though not yet the official nominee, for President of the Democratic Party. Had Helms lived just 4 more months, he would have seen America elect a black President.

Helms died of vascular dementia: Heart trouble causing dysfunction of the brain, confounding those who doubted that he had either. When he announced in 2001 that his health had convinced him not to run for another term, Washington Post political columnist David S. Broder called him "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country." As we have since seen, Broder was grossly premature. Even as he died, newspeople pussyfooted around his hideous rhetoric, toward various groups that he perceived as enemies of God and America.

In 2008 and 2012, Jordan endorsed Obama. In 2016, responding to the Black Lives Matter movement, Jordan said, "I can no longer stay silent."

In 2017, in response to a nasty tweet that Donald Trump issued against Steph Curry of the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, LeBron James tweeted to Trump, "U bum." Apparently, despite also being signed to Nike, LeBron didn't give a damn whether Republicans bought sneakers, too. Asked about this, Jordan said, "I support L.J."

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November 6, 1990 was a Tuesday. In another notable election on this day, William Weld won a strange election for Governor of Massachusetts, over John Silber. I have a separate entry for that event. And German soccer star André Schürrle and Saturday Night Live performer Bowen Yang were born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 96-91 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Charlotte Hornets, 113-105 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic, 102-95 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 106-94 at the Miami Arena.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 98-96 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-108 at the Chicago Stadium. Jordan scored 33.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 145-135 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Kevin Smith scored 35 for the Rockets.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 130-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 125-123 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Sacramento Kings, 102-85 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 100-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Chicago Blackhawks and the Hartford Whalers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Calgary Flames, 6-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

October 15, 1925: Walter Johnson's Last Stand

October 15, 1925: A steady downpour yesterday and today has left the field at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh a muddy mess, as Game 7 of the World Series is scheduled to be played. The weather forecast suggested rain for the next 3 days for both cities involved, Pittsburgh and Washington, making the moving of Game 7 to Washington pointless, and Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was anxious to get it over with.

I've never seen film of this game. I don't even know if any survives, although YouTube has footage from earlier in the Series, and of the Game 7s of 1924 and 1926. Maybe the film crews didn't want to risk getting electrocuted in the rain. At any rate, all we have to go on for the inclement weather are news reports.

UPDATE: On August 8, 2025, as commemorations for the 100th Anniversary of this Series began, I saw a photograph of a rather dubious method of drying the infield: Dousing it with gasoline and setting it on fire.

This insane tactic actually happened. It wasn't the only time, either.

But it would have been just plain wrong to play if the rain were as bad as what Philadelphia and Tampa Bay faced when Game 5 of the 2008 Series was suspended. There was a 6-day delay due to rain in 1911, and there were 3-day delays in 1962 and 1975. It could have been done again.

It was a short day for Pirate starter Vic Aldridge: 3 walks and 2 hits‚ and he was out of there with just 1 out in the 1st. Walter Johnson, the winningest pitcher in American League history, who finally became a World Series hero the year before, took a 4-0 lead to the mound. In what became known as "Johnson's Last Stand," the Bucs clobbered the 38-year-old Big Train for 15 hits‚ good for 24 total bases. Max Carey's 4-for-5 gave him a Series-high batting average of .458.

The Senators made the most of 7 hits‚ scoring 7 runs‚ including shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh's home run‚ the 12th homer of the Series by both teams combined‚ then a Series record, despite Forbes Field and Washington's Griffith Stadium both having some of the most distant fences in the game. Johnson would have fared better but for 2 more errors by Peckinpaugh‚ his 7th and 8th‚ still the Series record for any position. The Senators made only 1 other error in the 7 games.

Ray Kremer picked up his 2nd win with a 4-inning relief effort‚ as the Pirates won, 9-7. This was the Pirates' 1st World Championship in 16 years, and only one player remains from that 1909 title with Honus Wagner: Charles "Babe" Adams, who had pitched and won 3 games in '09, and was riding out the string in '25. It would take until 2019 for another Washington team to get that close to a World Series win.

In the next day's New York Times, James Harrison wrote, "In a grave of mud was buried Walter Johnson's ambition to join the select panel of pitchers who have won three victories in one World Series. With mud shackling his ankles and water running down his neck, the grand old man of baseball succumbed to weariness, a sore leg, wretched support and the most miserable weather conditions that ever confronted a pitcher."

The last surviving member of the 1925 Pirates was shortstop Glenn Wright, who lived until 1984.

UPDATE: The Pirates have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1925 and 1927 National League Champions, including the 1925 World Series win, they have inducted 3rd baseman Harold "Pie" Traynor, center fielder Max Carey (who left after 1926), right fielders Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler and Paul Waner (who arrived in 1926), and Paul's brother, center fielder Lloyd Waner (who arrived in 1927).

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October 15, 1925 was a Thursday. There was 1 other score on this historic day, a college football rivalry: North Carolina beat North Carolina State, 17-0 at Riddick Field on the N.C. State campus in Raleigh.

June 14, 1953: The Atlantic Coast Conference Is Founded

June 14, 1953: The Atlantic Coast Conference is founded. Although it's had its moments in other sports, the ACC is best known for basketball, where it is often regarded as the best college league.

Like the Southeastern Conference, founded 20 years earlier, the ACC was made up of members of the Southern Conference. That league had banned postseason appearances in 1951, and most of its schools didn't like it.

So these 7 broke away, and formed their own league: Clemson University, in Clemson, South Carolina; Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina; the University of Maryland, in College Park; the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill; North Carolina State University, in Raleigh; the University of South Carolina, in Columbia; and Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, South Carolina. Six months later, on December 4, the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, was admitted as an 8th member.

The ACC first scheduled games against racially integrated teams, and then integrated their own schools and teams, years before the SEC did so. In 1960, the ACC implemented a minimum SAT score for incoming student-athletes of 750, the first conference to do so. This minimum was raised to 800 in 1964, but was ultimately struck down by a federal court in 1972.

In 1971, South Carolina left the ACC to become an independent, later joining the SEC. In 1979, former SEC member Georgia Institute of Technology, a.k.a. Georgia Tech, of Atlanta, joined for all sports except football, for which they joined in 1983. Florida State University, in Tallahassee, joined for all sports but football in 1991, and for football in 1992.

The ACC began raiding the Big East Conference early in the 21st Century: The University of Miami and Virginia Polytechnic Institute, a.k.a. Virginia Tech joined in 2004; Boston College of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, jumped in 2005; The University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, and Syracuse University, in New York, joined in 2013. Also in 2013, the University of Notre Dame, an independent, joined the ACC in all sports except football and hockey. (BC is the only ACC school with a hockey team.)

However, in 2012, Maryland announced it was leaving the ACC for the Big Ten Conference, effective 2014. Rutgers University, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, which would have seemed like a prime ACC target, left the Big East for the Big Ten on the same schedule.

And in 2023, effective with the 2024 Fall sports season, the ACC voted to admit 3 new members that are most definitely nowhere near the Atlantic Coast: The University of California, in Berkeley; their arch-rivals, Stanford University, of Palo Alto, California, also in the San Francisco Bay Area; and Southern Methodist University, a.k.a. SMU, of Dallas, Texas.

The major rivalries are intra-state: Virginia vs. Virginia Tech; The 3-way "neighborhood" rivalry of Duke, UNC and N.C. State; Clemson vs. South Carolina; and Miami vs. Florida. There are also notable interconference rivalries: Florida vs. Florida State, Florida vs. Miami, Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh vs. Penn State, Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia, and, no longer intraconference, Maryland vs. Virginia.

Although there has been some great football played in the ACC, particularly since the joining of Miami and Florida State, who both became national powers in the 1980s, the league is known for its basketball teams.

The ACC Tournament, usually held in the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the best conference tournament in the country. Duke vs. North Carolina is the basketball equivalent of football's Ohio State vs. Michigan or Alabama vs. Auburn. North Carolina have won 6 NCAA Tournaments, Duke 5, N.C. State 2; and 1 each by Syracuse, Maryland and Virginia. In women's hoops, South Carolina have won 2, and North Carolina and Maryland have each won 1. (UPDATE: In 2024, South Carolina won a 3rd.)

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June 14, 1953 was a Sunday. In that era, baseball teams tended to play doubleheaders on the Sunday:

* The New York Yankees swept the Cleveland Indians, 6-2 and 3-0. Johnny Sain started the opener, but the Yankees trailed Bob Lemon and the Tribe 2-0 going into the 7th inning. They scored 1 run in the 7th, 3 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to make a winning pitcher out of Bob Kuzava. Vic Raschi pitched a 3-hit shutout in the nightcap. Over the 2 games, Mickey Mantle went 2-for-9 with an RBI, and Yogi Berra went 2-for-9 with a home run and 6 RBIs.

* The New York Giants were swept by the St. Louis Cardinals, 1-0 and 9-4 at the Polo Grounds. Harvey Haddix pitched a 5-hit shutout in the 1st game, beating Sal Maglie. Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell won the 2nd game, beating Rubén Gómez. Stan Musial went 1-for-6 with 3 walks and an RBI. Willie Mays was unavailable to the Giants, still serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Ebbets Field. They were leading the 2nd game, 6-2 going into the top of the 9th, but Ralph Kiner hit a grand slam home run off Carl Erskine. The game was stopped after the 9th, tied 6-6, due to the curfew then in place: No inning may start after 7:00 PM on a Sunday. Jackie Robinson went 4-for-8 with a walk and 3 RBIs.

* A doubleheader was split at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 2-1. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 2nd game, 4-1.

* The Milwaukee Braves swept the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-3 and 8-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Buhl pitched a 2-hit shutout in the 2nd game.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-1 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox swept the Boston Red Sox, 6-0 and 1-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. In the 1st game, Billy Pierce allows only a double to Del Wilber, a single to Jimmy Piersall, and a walk to Dick Gernert. Sandy Consuegra gave up 8 hits in the 2nd game, but kept the shutout. Ted Williams was unavailable to the Red Sox, still serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War.

* The Philadelphia Athletics swept the St. Louis Browns, 4-1 and 3-1 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.

April 5, 1993: The Timeout That Chris Webber Didn't Have

April 5, 1993: The most famous timeout in the history of sports is one that didn't even exist. But then, officially, neither did the team that called it.

In 1989, the University of Michigan won college basketball's National Championship, under new head coach Steve Fisher. Two years later, the school had its greatest recruiting class ever. From Detroit came forward Chris Webber and guard Jalen Rose. From Chicago came forward Juwan Howard. From the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas came guard Jimmy King. And from Austin, Texas came forward Ray Jackson. (I thought they had a couple of players from Flint, Michigan, known as "The Flintstones." I had that confused with the Michigan State National Champions of 2000.)

Webber, Rose, Howard, King and Jackson became known as the Fab Five, and the question that was being asked wasn't if they would win a National Championship, but how many.

Such questions had been asked of professional would-be superstars, but this was the first time that ESPN had allowed such a thing to be a nationwide discussion in college sports.

In their freshman year, 1991-92, the Michigan Wolverines went 25-9, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Final Four, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. They reached the Final, and, with the 1st all-freshman starting five in the event's history, lost to Duke University, the defending National Champions, 71-51.

It was a bad way to end a really good season, but everything up to that point -- including beating arch-rival (in football, anyway) Ohio State in the Reginal Final, and a very good University of Cincinnati team in the National Semifinal -- had been very encouraging. Few people expected them to go all the way the 1st year, but getting that close raised the expectations even higher.

In 1992-93, they got back to the Final with a 31-4 record and the Number 3 pre-Tournament ranking, taking the floor at the Superdome in New Orleans against the University of North Carolina. Coached by Dean Smith, the Tar Heels came in at 33-4 and ranked Number 4, so this was going to be a battle. Furthermore, Smith had won his previous National Championship in 1982, on the same floor, against Georgetown University, when, with Carolina leading by one point as the clock ticked down, a Georgetown player made a key mistake to seal the Carolina victory.

And the game was tight the whole way. With 46 seconds left, Jackson hit a jumper to close the Wolverines to within 72-69. At this point, Michigan called its last timeout.

Carolina blew the inbounds pass, giving Michigan the ball. But Rose missed a would-be tying 3-pointer. Webber got the rebound, and made it 72-71 with 36 seconds left. Carolina's Pat Sullivan was fouled, and made his 1st of 2 free throws, to make it 73-71 Carolina.

He missed the 2nd, and Webber got the rebound. He traveled -- and the officials didn't see it. He got surrounded by sky blue jerseys, and, nervous, he called timeout -- a timeout the Wolverines didn't have. This gave the Heels 2 free throws and the subsequent possession.

Donald Williams made both free throws, to make it 75-71 Carolina. With 8 seconds left, Williams was fouled, and his shots made the final score North Carolina 77, Michigan 71.

For the 3rd time, North Carolina had won the NCAA Tournament. For the 2nd time, it was under Smith's leadership. (The 1st time was in 1957, under Frank McGuire.) For the 2nd time, it was because of a mistake that wasn't as big as people made it out to be, since, in each case, Carolina were already ahead at the time. And both games were at the Superdome. And the locations of the mistakes in question were within a few feet of each other.

In spite of this, Webber took the brunt of the criticism. It wasn't fair. In hindsight, Coach Fisher probably should have reminded his players in their last timeout that it was their last timeout, and that none were left. But he didn't, and Webber operated on instinct.

Still, the Fab Five had 2 more years of eligibility left. Except they didn't use it. Here's what happened to the Five after the '93 Final:

* Webber declared for the NBA Draft, and the Orlando Magic selected him as the 1st pick. Imagine a team with, all at the same time, a young Shaquille O'Neal, a young Scott Skiles, a young Dennis Scott, and a young Chris Webber. You'll have to imagine it: The Magic immediately traded Webber to the Golden State Warriors for Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway, but, partly due to Hardaway's injuries and Shaq's skedaddling to Los Angeles after only 4 seasons, only got 1 NBA Finals berth out of it.

And the Warriors only had Webber for 1 year. Despite his winning Rookie of the Year, they traded him to the Washington Bullets, who traded him to the Sacramento Kings. Twice, he got the Kings to the Western Conference Finals; twice, the Kings were robbed by the referees in favor of Shaq and the Lakers. Webber made 5 All-Star Games, and has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

* Rose played 1 more year for Michigan, and bounced around the league for 13 seasons, making the 2000 NBA Finals with the Indiana Pacers, losing to Shaq and the Lakers. It could have been Rose's Pacers (actually, Reggie Miller's Pacers with Rose) against Webber's Kings, but it was not to be. Rose is now a basketball analyst for ESPN.

* Howard also played 1 more year for Michigan, and, for a time, was a teammate of Webber on the Bullets. Both were still with them when they changed their name to the Washington Wizards in 1997. Howard played 19 seasons, including 1 All-Star season, and closed his career in 2012 and 2013, winning NBA Championships with the Miami Heat of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. 

* King played all 4 years for Michigan, and in 1995 became an original member of the Toronto Raptors. He also played in 1997 with the Denver Nuggets, and played several seasons in the minor leagues, including 2 seasons in Venezuela. He became a high school coach in the Detroit area.

* Jackson played all 4 years for Michigan, and is the only one of the Fab Five who never played in the NBA. He played in the minor leagues, and in the pro leagues of France, Argentina and Venezuela (though not as a teammate of King). He now runs a moving company in his native Austin.

There were 2 weird postscripts to the Fab Five. In 2002, Webber was charged with lying to a grand jury, as part of a larger investigation into Ed Martin, a Michigan booster. As it turned out, Martin had been giving money to Webber since the 8th grade. Not only did Michigan have to forfeit its Final Four appearances -- meaning that, officially, his college basketball career, the Fab Five, the Final Four trips, and the timeout gaffe itself, never existed -- but even his high school, Detroit Country Day School, had to forfeit the 3 State Championships he led them to.

This one may be even weirder. In 1999, the new NBC drama The West Wing showed a pickup basketball game near the White House. On one side was President Jed Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) and 4 Secret Service Agents. Talk about a good defense. On the other side were some of the President's staff, led by White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), wearing a City College of New York (CCNY) sweatshirt.

The President's team is losing, so he makes a substitution. It's a ringer, a man newly hired by the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Toby thinks he looks familiar, and the new player admits he played basketball for Duke. Toby yells out, "Duke? This guy was in the Final Four!" Ironically, he was played by Juwan Howard, who had played against Duke in the Final Four, for Michigan, and lost in the 1992 Final.

In 2019, Howard was named head coach of Michigan. He guided them to a Big Ten Conference regular-season Championship and the NCAA Elite Eight in 2021, and the Sweet Sixteen in 2022.

*

April 5, 1993 was a Monday. The NBA chose not to schedule any games for the day, so as not to conflict with the NCAA Final. The NHL scheduled 1: The New York Rangers lost to the Hartford Whalers, 5-4 at Madison Square Garden. The Broadway Blueshirts blew 2-1 and 4-2 leads, and former New Jersey Devil star Pat Verbeek scored the winning goal with 2:17 to go.

Football was out of season. For baseball, it was Opening Day, and 9 games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It would be the last Opening Day at that stadium, where the Indians had played part-time since 1932 and full-time since 1947. A pregame tribute was held for pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews, who were killed in a boating accident during Spring Training.

Wade Boggs, Paul O'Neill, Spike Owen and Jimmy Key made their Yankee debuts. Key started and went 8 innings for the win. Boggs had a 2-run single. O'Neill went 2-for-5. Owen went 3-for-5. Danny Tartabull, Matt Nokes and Pat Kelly hit home runs.

* The New York Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-0 at Shea Stadium. After decades as one of the leaders in attendance among minor-league baseball teams, Denver finally got its own MLB team in the expansion of 1991, and this was their 1st game.

Their 1st starting pitcher was David Nied. Their 1st batter was 2nd baseman Eric Young, who grew up as a Met fan in nearby New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, and had played baseball and football at Rutgers University. Four days later, he hit a home run to help win the 1st Rockies home game. His son Eric Young Jr. would play for both the Mets and the Yankees.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. President Bill Clinton threw out the ceremonial first ball.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. (It's now named Hard Rock Stadium.) Miami also got a team in the '91 expansion, debuting on this day. Yankee icon Joe DiMaggio, who lived in the Miami area, threw out the ceremonial first ball. Charlie Hough, a 45-year-old knuckleballer from nearby Hialeah, Florida, who had 202 career wins at that point, 47 of them for the Dodgers, started for the Marlins, and went 6 innings to beat his former team. The Marlins' 1st batter was center fielder Scott Pose, and Tim Wallach of the Dodgers hit the 1st major league home run in Miami. I have a separate entry for this event.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Greg Maddux, a Cub the season before, took a shutout into the 9th inning against his former team.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. Later in the season, the ballpark's name was changed to Kauffman Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. 

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-4 at the Oakland Coliseum.

April 4, 2005: Roy Williams Builds On Dean Smith's Carolina Legacy

April 4, 2005: The University of North Carolina wins the National Championship, defeating the University of Illinois 75-70 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis -- "March Madness" nicknamed "Arch Madness."

Illinois, coached by Bruce Weber, and led by current Nets star Deron Williams, had come into the Final at 37-1, having lost only their pretty much meaningless regular-season finale, 65-64 away to Ohio State. And, since St. Louis is across the Mississippi River from the southern part of their State, they sort of had home-court advantage.

But North Carolina had Sean May, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants. Roy Williams, a former assistant to Dean Smith, and a former coach at Kansas, getting them to a National Championship Game, led them to a 32-4 record going in. Their losses had been to Santa Clara in Oakland in an early-season tournament, away to a Wake Forest team then ranked Number 4, away to a Duke team then ranked Number 7, and to Georgia Tech in the Semifinal of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

The Tar Heels were too strong for the Fighting Illini. They jumped out to a 40-27 halftime lead, and hung on to win, 75-70. May scored 26 points, Felton 17, McCants 14. Luther Head led the Illini with 21 points.

It was the 4th NCAA Championship for the Tar Heels, their 5th title overall, and their 1st since Smith's retirement. Williams had his 1st title, and added titles in 2009 and 2017, giving Carolina 6 NCAA Tournament wins. (They'd won it in 1957 under Frank McGuire, and in 1982 and 1993 under Smith. They have also been retroactively credited with the title in 1924, under Norman Shepard, before the era of national tournaments.)

Sean May was the son of Scott May, who won a National Championship with Indiana in 1976. The Mays are 1 of 4 father-son pairs to both win National Championships, along with Marques and Kris Johnson, Henry and Mike Bibby, and Derek and Lamar Smith.

The Edward Jones Dome has been renamed The Dome at America's Center.

*

April 4, 2005 was a Monday, as NCAA Tournament Final nights usually are.

Football was out of season. No NBA games were played. And the NHL season had been canceled. But it was Opening Day in Major League Baseball, and these games were played:

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. In the bottom of the 9th inning, Austin Kearns led off with a single, Adam Dunn hit a home run to tie the game, and Joe Randa hit another to win it. Dunn had also homered earlier, off Pedro Martínez. Carlos Beltrán, José Reyes and Cliff Floyd each had 3 hits for the Mets, to no avail.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Nationals, 8-4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This was the 1st game for the Nationals, after 36 seasons as the Montreal Expos. Brad Wilkerson was their 1st batter, and he singled off Jon Lieber for their 1st hit. Terrmel Sledge hit their 1st home run. Kenny Lofton hit a home run for the Phillies.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-0 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Rodrigo López pitches 6 shutout innings, outpitching Barry Zito, but allows 7 hits, and it takes 3 more pitchers to finish an 8-hit shutout.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Despite Comerica being a pitcher's park, Dmitri Young goes 4-for-4 with 3 home runs and 5 RBIs. He finishes the season with 21 homers and 72 RBIs. But illness and substance abuse curtailed his career, and he retired after the 2008 season, with just 171 home runs. He got clean, and became an advocate for his fellow diabetes patients and recovering addicts.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 1-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Mark Buehrle pitches 8 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and Shingo Takatsu pitches a perfect 9th. Jake Westbrook goes the distance to take a tough loss, the only run coming on an error in the bottom of the 7th inning.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres, 12-10 at Coors Field in Denver. Clint Barmes went 4-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Aaron Miles went 5-for-6 with an RBI. For the Padres, Xavier Nady went 2-for-4, both his hits were home runs, and he had 4 RBIs.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 16-6 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Derrek Lee went 4-for-6 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Aramis Ramírez went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Richie Sexson went 2-for-3, both hits being home runs, and had 5 RBIs.

* The New York Yankees opened the night before, on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball -- of course, in a showcase game against their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, beating them, 9-2, hardly a revenge for what had happened the preceding October.

* Everybody else debuted the next day, April 5: The Florida Marlins beating Atlanta Braves, 9-0 at Dolphins Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida; St. Louis Cardinals beat the beat the Houston Astros, 7-3 in a Playoff rematch at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston; the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim; and the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at SBC Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

March 23, 1957: North Carolina vs. Kansas In Triple Overtime

March 23, 1957: The past met the future in the Final of NCAA Tournament basketball, at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium. The past won this battle -- but the future would be back.

The University of North Carolina came into the game undefeated, 31-0, and ranked Number 1 in the country. Head coach Frank McGuire was from New York City, and played at St. John's University before coaching there, leading them to what would later be called the Final Four in 1952.

He built his Carolina team around players from in and around New York. Lennie Rosenbluth was Jewish and from The Bronx. Danny Lotz was Jewish, and from Northport, Long Island. Most of the others were Irish Catholics like McGuire: Bob Cunningham from Manhattan, Pete Brennan and Joe Quigg from Brooklyn, Bob Young from Queens, and his best player, Tommy Kearns from Bergenfield, New Jersey. There were only 3 North Carolinians on the Tar Heels' roster: Ken Rosemond from Hillsborough, Roy Searcy from Draper, and Gehrmann Holland from Beaufort.

The University of Kansas had won the National Championship in 1952 and reached the Final again in 1953. Their legendary coach, Forrest "Phog" Allen -- who had coached Dean Smith, who would eventually succeed McGuire at UNC -- had retired, and in 1955, Allen Field House opened. In 1956-57, Dick Harp took them to a 24-2 record, and the nation's Number 2 ranking. Their only 2 losses, each by just 2 points, were to Iowa State and Oklahoma State, coached by the legendary Henry Iba.

The reason the Jayhawks were this good was Wilton Norman Chamberlain, a 20-year-old sophomore from Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia. He stood 7-foot-1-and-1/16th inch, and weighed 275 pounds. He excelled, as you might guess, in the high jump for Kansas' track team. But in basketball, he was revolutionary. The lane was widened to make it harder for him to operate inside, and it failed.

Forty years later, when the NBA celebrated its 50th Anniversary by naming its 50 Greatest Players, there was a gathering of 47 of them -- 1 was dead, 1 was ill, and the other just didn't show up -- and Michael Jordan, who had played at North Carolina, was telling everyone that he was the greatest player ever. Sure, it's easy, when no one calls traveling on you.

Chamberlain called him out on this: "Michael, my man, when you played, they changed the rules to make it easier for you. When I played, they changed the rules to make it harder for me, and it didn't work."

No one had scored like Wilt. No one had rebounded like Wilt. No one had blocked like Wilt. Kansas' game was simple: Get the ball to Wilt. And, in 24 out of 26 games, it worked. As a result, the sports books made Kansas a 3-point favorite.

McGuire had what sounds like a crazy strategy: Have Kearns, only 5-foot-10, guard Chamberlain. At first, it worked well, as the Tar Heels jumped out to a 19-7 lead. But the Jayhawks came back, and at the half, Carolina's lead was down to 29-22. Kansas took the lead, and the game went back and forth to the end. It went to overtime, and to a 2nd overtime. In the closing seconds of the 3rd overtime, Quigg made 2 free throws to give Carolina a 54-53 win, and the National Championship.

For the Tar Heels: Rosenbluth scored 20, Brennan and Kearns 11 each, Quigg 10, Young 2, and Cunningham and Lotz played without scoring. For the Jayhawks: Chamberlain 23, Gene Elstun and Maurice King 11 each, John Parker 4, Lew Johnson and Ron Loneski 2 each, and Bob Billings played without scoring.

Brennan played 1 season in the NBA, for the New York Knicks. Kearns played 1, for the Syracuse Nationals. Rosenbluth played 2, for the Philadelphia Warriors. That was it.

Kansas went 18-5 in 1957-58, and did not make the NCAA Tournament. Chamberlain forewent his senior year, and played the 1958-59 season with the Harlem Globetrotters, making more money that season than any NBA player did.

Eligible to be selected by an NBA team for 1959-60, he was a territorial pick for the Warriors, and singlehandedly rewrote the league's record book. In 1961-62, he averaged 50.4 points per game, including a 100-point game against the Knicks; and 25.7 rebounds, including a 55-rebound game against Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics (who won the game, anyway). The Warriors' coach that season? Frank McGuire. 

*

March 23, 1957 was a Saturday. Actress Amanda Plummer was born on this day. She was the daughter of actors Christopher Plummer and Tammy Grimes.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Boston Celtics beat the Syracuse Nationals, 120-105 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

And in English soccer, Arsenal, having fallen from their heights of earlier in the decade, held Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers, then one of the top teams in the country, to a 0-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.

January 18, 1986: North Carolina's "Dean Dome" Opens

January 18, 1986: The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center opens on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the new home of UNC's basketball team, coached by Smith.

The night before the 1st game, a black-tie dinner was held in the building, to honor the University's Arts and Sciences Foundation. At the dinner, Chancellor Christopher C. Fordham III announced the building was to be named for Smith, because, "We are a better university and a better State because he is one of us."

In fact, Smith, a native of Kansas, where he had played at the University of Kansas under the great coach Forrest "Phog" Allen, for whom that school's famed Fieldhouse is named, didn't want his name on the arena. But he was told that it would increase fundraising, for all aspects of the University, not just the basketball program or the athletic department, and he relented.

In the 1st game, played before a sellout crowd of 21,444, and a national audience watching on CBS, the Tar Heels came in at 17-0 and ranked Number 1 in the country, to face their nearby arch-rivals, Duke, 16-0 and ranked Number 3. UNC won, 95-92.

UNC's unbeaten run ended at 21-0 on January 30, away to Virginia. They collapsed down the stretch, losing 3 of their last 4 games, including the finale, away to Duke. They crashed out of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in the 1st round, losing to Maryland; and were eliminated in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen by Louisville. It was Duke that went on to win the ACC and its Tournament, and make the Final Four, that season, before losing the Final, also to Louisville.

UNC began playing basketball in 1911, at Bynum Gymnasium, and remained there through 1923. William Preston Bynum, a Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, donated the funding for it, in memory of his grandson, a UNC student who had died of typhoid. It opened in 1904. While there, they won the Southern Conference Tournament in 1922, and its regular-season title in 1923. The building is now named Bynum Hall, and maintains an administrative purpose, including offices for the Dean of Graduate Studies and the university counsel.

In 1924, UNC basketball moved into the Indoor Athletic Court, a venue nicknamed the Tin Can. The 1923-24 Tar Heels went 26-0, and, in the days before there was an NCAA Tournament (founded in 1939) or an NIT (founded in 1938), were recognized as National Champions. They also won the Southern Conference regular-season and Tournament titles 6 times each while playing there. After serving as a dormitory, the Tin Can was demolished in 1977, and Fetzer Hall, a more modern sports venue, was built on the site.

The Tin Can (left) and Fetzer Hall

From 1939 to 1965, UNC played at Woollen Gymnasium, named for Graduate Manager of Athletics Charles T. Woollen. While playing there, they won 8 regular-season conference titles -- the Southern Conference until 1953, the Atlantic Coast Conference thereafter -- won 3 Conference Tournaments, and reached what would now be called the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in 1957, winning the National Championship under head coach Frank McGuire. Smith took over from McGuire in 1961. Woollen Gym is now home to UNC's Exercise and Sports Science Department.

From 1965 to 1986. UNC played at Carmichael Auditorium, now named the William Donald Carmichael Jr. Arena. It was named for a popular former school vice-president. While playing there, they won the ACC's regular season 13 times and its Tournament 9 times, made 7 Final Fours, and won the 1982 National Championship, all under Smith. It is still home to UNC's women's basketball, volleyball, women's gymnastics and wrestling teams.

Since moving into the Dean Dome, UNC have won the ACC regular season 14 times, and the Tournament 8 times. They've reached the Final Four 11 times, and won the National Championship 4 times: 1993 under Smith, who retired in 1997; and in 2005, 2009 and 2017 under Roy Williams, a former assistant of Smith's who coached from 2003 to 2021. In 2018, the playing surface at the Dean Smith Center was named the Roy Williams Court.

UPDATE: UNC made the Final Four again in 2022, and won the ACC regular-season Championship in 2024. Overall, this gives them 43 regular-season Conference Championships, 27 Conference Tournament wins, 20 Final Fours, and 7 National Championships.

*

January 18, 1986 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its Conference Championships and Super Bowl XX, which the Chicago Bears would win over the New England Patriots. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Houston Rockets, 104-95 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Denver Nuggets, 124-113 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Alex English scored 36 in defeat. Mike Gminski led the Nets with 23.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 125-122 in overtime at The Omni in Atlanta. Larry Bird scored 41 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers, 108-95 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Utah Jazz, 131-97 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 98-96 in overtime at the original ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 112-87 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Islanders, 3-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-2 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Detroit Red Wings, 7-4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Los Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 4-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the New Jersey Devils, the Boston Bruins, the Chicago Black Hawks, the Buffalo Sabres and the Winnipeg Jets were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, Arsenal, the North London team I would one day support, went to the Midlands, and played Leicester City to a 2-2 draw, at Filbert Street in Leicester.