This Day in Sports History

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1975: San Antonio Spurs, then members of the ABA, defeat the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, 109-107 in the first basketball game ever played in the Louisiana Superdome.

1987: The birth of Raqibul Hasan, who bizarrely announced his retirement from international cricket in 2010, at the age of 22, presumably in a fit of pique after being excluded from the one-day and T20 squads, only to reverse his decision a week later – for which he was handed a three-month suspension. Hasan took the Under-19 route to the Bangladesh national side, and his 65 in Grenada in 2009 helped them win their first Test, against a second-string West Indies side.

1995: Dolphin’s Dan Marino breaks Tarkenton’s NFL career completions record.

1997: A couple of notable Test firsts on a frustrating day for South Africa in Rawalpindi. Ali Naqvi and Azhar Mahmood became the first pair of debutants to score centuries in the same innings, and Azhar added 151 for the last wicket with Mushtaq Ahmed, equalling the Test record set by Brian Hastings and Richard Collinge for New Zealand against Pakistan in Auckland in 1972-73.

1999: Los Angeles Lakers Co-Owner/Vice President Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the legendary point guard who directed the great Showtime Lakers of the 1980s, is the subject of ESPN’s SportsCentury series. Johnson was selected by a distinguished panel of 48 journalists, historians, observers and administrators as #17 on the list of the greatest North American athletes of the 20th Century.

2000: German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher wins Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka to clinch his 3rd, and 1st of 5 straight F1 World Drivers Championships.

2002: The NBA officially opens an office in Beijing, China.

2018: New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees becomes NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards; needs 201 yards to pass Peyton Manning’s record; gets 363 & 3 TD’s in Saints 43-19 win v Washington Redskins at the SuperDome.

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