Sportlight: Week Ahead, Sept. 23-30

Sept. 27

1894 — Aqueduct Race Track opens its doors. The building is torn down in 1955 and the new Aqueduct reopens on Sept. 14, 1959.

1947 — Armed, then the world’s leading money-winning thoroughbred, meets 1946 Kentucky Derby winner Assault in the first $100,000 winner-take-all match race, held at Belmont Park. Armed earns an easy victory over Assault, who was not in peak racing condition.

1950 — Ezzard Charles wins a unanimous 15-round decision over Joe Louis at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.

1975 — Kansas quarterback Nolan Cromwell rushes for an NCAA record 294 yards in a 20-0 victory over Oregon State.

1992 — World champion Nigel Mansell sets a single-season victory record, leading from start to finish in the Portuguese Grand Prix for his ninth win of the Formula One season.

1998 — Mark McGwire gives baseball a new magic number, hitting two homers to reach No. 70 in the St. Louis Cardinals’ season finale against Montreal. It’s McGwire’s fifth homer in the season-ending, three-game series. McGwire’s 70th and final home run of the season was a line shot over the left-field wall on a first-pitch fastball from Carl Pavano in the seventh.

2000 — The Women’s British Open is elevated to major championship status on the LPGA Tour, replacing the du Maurier Classic. The other majors are the Nabisco Championship, the LPGA Championship and the U.S. Open.

2003 — B.J. Symons of Texas Tech throws for 661 yards — a school and Big 12 record — and six touchdowns, in the Red Raiders’ 49-45 win over Mississippi.

2009 — Japan’s Kimiko Date Krumm becomes the oldest winner of a WTA Tour tournament since Billie Jean King in 1983. Date Krumm, who turns 39 on Sept. 28, beats second-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 for the Korea Open title. King was 39 years, 7 months, 23 days when she won at Birmingham, England.

2009 — With rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford leading the way, Detroit ends a 19-game losing streak with a 19-14 victory over the Washington Redskins. The Lions had not won since Dec. 23, 2007, and their skid matched the second longest in NFL history.

2009 — New England beats Atlanta 26-10 for the 16th straight regular-season victory of the NFC. It’s the longest steak any team has posted against the opposite conference since the 1970 merger.

2014 — Watson Brown becomes the first head coach in NCAA history to lose 200 games when Tennessee Tech dropped a 50-7 decision to Northern Iowa. Amos Alonzo Stagg had held the record since 1946, going 314-199-35 in 57 seasons. Brown is 128-200-1 in 30 seasons as head coach.

2018 — Jared Goff passes for career highs of 465 yards and five touchdowns, winning a scintillating duel with his Minnesota counterpart Kirk Cousins and leading the unbeaten Los Angeles Rams to a 38-31 victory over the Vikings. Cousins passes for 422 yards and three touchdowns.

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Sept. 28

1920 — A Chicago grand jury indicts eight members of the Chicago White Sox on charges of fixing the 1919 World Series, known as the “Black Sox Scandal.” White Sox owner Charles Comiskey immediately suspends the eight players.

1940 — Bud Brennan, a spectator at Memorial Stadium, races out of the stands and attempts to tackle Michigan’s Tom Harmon at the 3-yard line. Harmon easily evades Brennan and completes an 86-yard touchdown run, his third return for a touchdown, in a 41-0 rout of California.

1941 — Ted Williams end the season with a .406 batting average.

1951 — Norm Van Brocklin of Los Angeles throws for an NFL-record 554 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Rams to a 54-14 rout of the New York Yankees. Elroy Hirsch catches four of the touchdown passes and finishes with 173 yards receiving and teammate Tom Fears has 162 yards receiving.

1964 — Australia beats the Unites States 3-2 to win the Davis Cup, the first time it’s played on clay courts.

1968 — The Atlanta Chiefs beat the San Diego Toros 3-0 to win the first NASL championship.

1969 — Minnesota’s Joe Kapp throws for 449 yards and ties an NFL record with seven touchdown passes to give the Vikings a 52-14 victory over the Baltimore Colts.

1976 — Muhammad Ali wins a unanimous 15-round decision over Ken Norton at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain his world heavyweight title.

1979 — Larry Holmes knocks out Earnie Shavers in the 11th round at Las Vegas to retain his WBC heavyweight title.

1985 — Tight end Brian Foster of Rhode Island catches 18 passes for 327 yards to set an NCAA record in a 32-27 loss Brown.

1996 — Troy Davis of Iowa State rushes for 378 yards, the third highest total in major-college history, to lead the Cyclones past Missouri 45-31.

1997 — Wendy Ward records the lowest total in relation to par in the 47-year history of the LPGA tour for her first victory. Ward’s 23-under 265 gives her a two-shot victory in the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic. Ward, who made just one bogey all week, closes with 13 consecutive pars to match Kelly Robbins’ LPGA record for the lowest 72-hole total.

2000 — Tampa Bay forward Gordie Dwyer is suspended for 23 games by the NHL for manhandling two officials in attempts to fight opponents during an exhibition game on Sept. 19 against Washington.

2008 — Brett Favre throws a career-high and Jets-record six touchdown passes, three to Laveranues Coles, and New York takes advantage of mistakes by Arizona in a big second quarter of a 56-35 victory. Kurt Warner completes 40 of 57 passes for 472 yards and two TDs for Arizona.

2012 — Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds throws the season’s seventh no-hitter, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0. The seven no-hitters match the modern record (since 1900) for one season, tying 1990 and 1991.

2017 — Sam Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson, shoots a 12-under 59 in the first round of the Web.com Tour Championship. Saunders closes with six straight birdies at Atlantic Beach Country Club for the seventh sub-60 round in Web.com Tour history. Stephan Jaeger set the tour record of 58 last year in the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae in Hayward, California. Saunders has 13 birdies and a bogey.

2020 — Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup for the second time with a 4-2 series win over the Dallas Stars in Edmonton, Alberta.

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Sept. 29

1923 — Gene Sarazen beats Walter Hagen 1 up to capture the PGA championship.

1941 — Joe Louis knocks out Lou Nova in the sixth round at the Polo Grounds in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.

1954 — Willie Mays makes his over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’ long drive to center field and pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes homers off Bob Lemon in the 10th inning to lead the New York Giants to a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series.

1974 — Dr. Norbert Sander Jr. wins the New York City Marathon in 2:26:30 and Kathy Switzer capture the women’s division in 3:07:29.

1977 — Muhammad Ali wins a unanimous 15-round decision over Earnie Shavers at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain his world heavyweight title.

1984 — Mike Prindle of Western Michigan sets an NCAA record by kicking seven field goals in a 42-7 rout over Marshall.

1985 — Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon is sacked 12 times in a 17-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys to tie an NFL record.

1991 — Pat Bradley wins the MBS LPGA Classic by one shot over Michelle Estill for her 30th career victory, qualifying her for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

1995 — The NHL and NHL Players Association strike a deal to allow league players to participate in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

2000 — At the Sydney Olympics, the U.S. men’s basketball team escapes the humiliation of playing for a bronze medal with an 85-83 victory over Lithuania in the semifinals. It’s the closest victory and biggest scare for a U.S. Olympic team since NBA players started competing in 1992.

2002 — After losing to Iowa State, Nebraska drops out of the Associated Press Top 25 football poll after being ranked for 348 consecutive weeks. The last time Nebraska was missing from the poll was Oct. 5, 1981.

2002 — Seattle’s Shaun Alexander scores an NFL-record five touchdowns in the first half of a 48-23 rout of Minnesota. He finishes with 139 yards rushing and 92 receiving and one TD short of the league mark of six in a game.

2004 — Major League Baseball announces the Montreal Expos will move to Washington to begin play at RFK Stadium in the 2005 season.

2012 — Geno Smith throws for 656 yards and ties a Big 12 record with eight touchdown passes to lead No. 9 West Virginia to a 70-63 win over No. 25 Baylor. Smith outduels Baylor’s Nick Florence, who has a standout game of his own with 581 yards and five TDs. Baylor’s Terrance Williams sets a Big 12 record with 314 yards receiving. The old mark was set minutes earlier by West Virginia’s Stedman Bailey, who had 303 yards and five TDs.

2015 — NCAA bans the SMU men’s basketball team from the postseason and suspends coach Larry Brown for nine games, saying he lied to investigators and ignored a case of academic fraud by a player.

2018 — Seventeen-year-old Hailie Deegan uses a bump-and-run on her teammate to become the first female winner of a NASCAR K&N West Series race. Her last-lap shove of Cole Rouse at Meridian Speedway in Idaho gives her the victory.