2007 At A Glance
Jan. 1 — Darrent Williams, a 24-year-old cornerback with the Broncos, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver.
Jan. 1 — Bob Knight earned career victory No. 880 for the Division I men's record he shared with former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. His Texas Tech Red Raiders blew a 20-point lead but withstood a 3-point miss at the buzzer to beat New Mexico 70-68.
Jan. 1 — Boise State, after tying the game with seven seconds to go in regulation, stunned No. 7 Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime to win the Fiesta Bowl. The No. 9 Broncos won on Ian Johnson's 2-point conversion run after receiver Vinny Perretta threw a fourth-down touchdown pass to Derek Schouman.
Jan. 3 — No. 4 LSU helped give the Sugar Bowl an emphatic return to New Orleans with a 41-14 rout of No. 11 Notre Dame. The loss gave the Fighting Irish a record nine straight bowl losses, breaking a tie with South Carolina and West Virginia.
Jan. 3 — The WNBA's Charlotte Sting, one of the original eight franchises, folded three weeks after the Bobcats of the NBA gave up control of the team.
Jan. 4 — LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers ran away with The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player award. Tomlinson broke Shaun Alexander's league record for touchdowns by scoring 31 (28 rushing), rushed for a league-high 1,815 yards and had 56 receptions for 508 yards.
Jan. 6 — In the last race on the card at Aqueduct, 71-year-old jockey Frank Amonte, Sr. finished last aboard Eightyninecentsday in a failed bid to become the first rider over 70 to win a race. Amonte last won a race on Sept. 4, 2005, at the Northampton Fair in Massachusetts, one day before his 70th birthday.
Jan. 7 — Coach Phil Jackson got his 900th NBA victory as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated Dallas 101-98. Jackson became the fastest to reach 900, doing so in 1,264 games.
Jan. 8 — Second-ranked Florida dominated Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and No. 1 Ohio State for a 41-14 in the BCS National Championship Bowl. Chris Leak and Tim Tebow showed off coach Urban Meyer's twin quarterback system to perfection as the No. 2 Gators became the first Division I school to hold football and basketball titles at the same time.
Jan. 9 — Florida finished atop The Associated Press Top 25. Boise State, the only undefeated team at 13-0, received a first-place vote and finished fifth.
Jan. 9 — Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mark McGwire, whose 583 home runs ranked seventh on the career list, did not make it on his first ballot. He was picked by less than a quarter of voters, amid suspicion of using performance-enhancing drugs.
Jan. 9 — Boston rookie Phil Kessel, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer a month ago, returned to the Bruins lineup in a 5-2 loss to Ottawa.
Jan. 11 — David Beckham, the most recognized soccer player on the planet, announced a deal to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. Beckham's five-year contract had an estimated value of $250 million in salary and commercial endorsements.
Jan. 12 — Tadd Fujikawa, the pint-sized sophomore who turned 16 on Jan. 8, stole the show at the Sony Open. Fujikawa shot a 4-under 66, making him the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut on the PGA Tour.
Jan. 12 — NBA official Rodney Mott was suspended three games without pay for making an obscene gesture toward a fan and also using inappropriate language after the Trail Blazers' 93-90 loss to the Miami Heat on Jan. 7 in Portland.
Jan. 12 — Ray Allen scored a career-high 54 points, the second-most in franchise history, to lead Seattle to a 122-114 overtime win over Utah.
Jan. 13 — Los Angeles goalie Yutaka Fukufuji became the first Japanese player to play in the NHL, entering to start the third of the Kings' 6-5 loss to St. Louis. He faced five shots in relief of starter Barry Brust, and allowed one goal.
Jan. 14 — In Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Kildow captured the top two places in a World Cup super-combi and Resi Stiegler just missed making it an American sweep. The 1-2-4 finish was a first for American women in a World Cup event.
Jan. 15 — Gilbert Arenas made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a 51-point performance in Washington's 114-111 victory over Utah.
Jan. 17 — Pete Sampras was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and joined by Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Sven Davidson and Russ Adams.
Jan. 21 — Julia Mancuso finished second in a World Cup giant slalom event, for her fifth straight top-three finish. Mancuso's streak was the best by an American woman since 1983 when Tamara McKinney had four top-three finishes — including three wins — in five days.
Jan. 21 — Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship. Tony Dungy joined him when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title. For the first time in the big game's 41-year history, not one, but two black head coaches will be on the sidelines. The Bears beat the New Orleans Saints 39-14 and the Colts overcame a 21-3 deficit to beat the New England Patriots 38-34.
Jan. 21 — Phoenix won its 13th straight, 131-102 over Minnesota, becoming the eighth team in NBA history to have two winning streaks of at least 13 games in a season. The Suns won a franchise-record 15 straight from Nov. 20 to Dec. 19.
Jan. 24 — Colorado's Joe Sakic had four assists to lead the Western Conference to a 12-9 victory in the NHL All-Star game. Daniel Briere, one of three starters from Eastern Conference-leading Buffalo, had a goal and four assists and was selected the MVP.
Jan. 26 — Mark Recchi scored two goals, including the 500th of his career, in Pittsburgh's 4-3 shootout win over Dallas.
Jan. 26 — Martin Brodeur made 28 saves, extending his NHL record for consecutive 30-win seasons to 11, and the New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0.
Jan. 26 — Jamal Crawford scored a career-high 52 points to lead New York to a 116-96 victory over Miami.
Jan. 27 — Serena Williams won her third Australian Open singles title, routing Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2. Unseeded and ranked 81st, Williams won for her eighth and most improbable Grand Slam. She became the second unseeded woman to win the Australian title in the Open era.
Jan. 27 — Kimmie Meissner won her first national title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Meissner's third-place finish in the free skate was enough to take the title after Emily Hughes fell on a triple flip. Evan Lysacek skated the performance of a lifetime, overwhelming three-time champion Johnny Weir and everybody else, to win the men's title.
Jan. 27 — Tirunesh Dibaba broke her own world record in the 5,000 meters at the Boston Indoor Games to claim a $25,000 bonus and family bragging rights over big sister Ejegayehu, who finished second. The younger Dibaba finished in 14:27.42 — 5 1/2 seconds less than she needed to set the world mark at the Reggie Lewis track two years ago.
Jan. 28 — Roger Federer captured his 10th Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set at the Australian Open, beating Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4. The last man to go through a major without dropping a set was Bjorn Borg at the 1980 French Open. Federer became the first man in the Open era to twice win three straight majors and tied Jack Crawford's 73-year-old record by reaching seven consecutive finals in majors.
Jan. 28 — Steve Nash scored 23 points as the Phoenix Suns extended their winning streak to 17 games — tied for the fifth longest in NBA history — by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-100.
Jan. 29 — Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness, ending an eight-month ordeal of a series of ailments.
Jan. 29 — Kevin Garnett almost single-handedly snapped the Phoenix Suns' 17-game winning streak, scoring 44 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in Minnesota's 121-112 victory.
Feb 2 — In Stuttgart, Germany, Meseret Defar set a women's world record in the indoor 3,000 meters in a race in which the top two runners broke the old mark by more than four seconds. The Ethiopian's time of 8:23.72 beat the old mark of 8:27.86 set by Liliya Shobukhova Schobukara of Russia on Feb. 17, 2006, in Moscow. Defar edged countrywoman Messelech Melkamu by 0.02.
Feb. 3 — Running back Thurman Thomas, offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, defensive back Roger Wehrli, wide receiver Michael Irvin were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Also voted in were the two nominees of the veterans' committee — tight end Charlie Sanders and guard Gene Hickerson.
Feb. 4 — Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts added a Super Bowl MVP award to his long list of achievements. The two-time NFL MVP was 25-of-38 for 247 yards and a touchdown pass as he rallied the Colts to a 29-17 victory in the South Florida rain. Tony Dungy became the first black coach to win the championship, beating good friend and protege Lovie Smith in a game that featured the first two black coaches in the Super Bowl.
Feb. 8 — Colorado's Karlis Skrastins broke Tim Horton's NHL record for durability by a defenseman when he played in his 487th consecutive regular-season game.
Feb. 9 — Kenya's Sammy Wanjiru reclaimed the world half-marathon record, posting a time of 58:53 at Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie ran 58:55 in Phoenix on Jan. 15, 2006, to break Wanjiru's then record of 59:16 set in 2005.
Feb. 10 — San Diego's Nate Kaeding kicked a 21-yard field goal as time expired to cap another strong drive led by MVP Carson Palmer in the AFC's 31-28 victory over the NFC in the Pro Bowl.
Feb. 10 — Jaromir Jagr had three assists to become the 12th player in NHL history to score 1,500 points and the New York Rangers beat Washington 5-2.
Feb. 10 — In Donetsk, Ukraine, Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own indoor mark in the women's pole vault, clearing 16 feet, 2 inches. Isinbayeva bettered her previous record of 16-1 1/4, set at this meet last year. It was her 20th world record.
Feb. 11 — The Boston Celtics lost their franchise-record 18th straight game. Ricky Davis' jumper from the corner with 0.2 seconds remaining lifted the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 109-107 victory.
Feb. 11 — Anja Paerson captured the downhill, becoming the first skier to win gold medals in all five disciplines at the world championships. Paerson also won the super-G and combined titles earlier in the week. The Swede won the gold in the giant slalom at the last two worlds and one in the slalom in 2001.
Feb. 12 — Duke, saddled by its first four-game losing skid in 11 years, fell out of The Associated Press poll for the first time since the end of the 1995-96 season. The Blue Devils had been in the media poll for 200 straight weeks — the second longest streak behind UCLA. The Bruins' run lasted 221 weeks, from the 1966-67 preseason poll to Jan. 8, 1980.
Feb. 14 — The Boston Celtics ended their franchise-record losing streak at 18 games, getting 32 points from Paul Pierce and 21 from Gerald Green to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 117-97.
Feb. 15 — Joe Sakic scored twice, including his 600th career goal, and added three assists and Milan Hejduk had three goals to lead Colorado to a 7-5 win at Calgary.
Feb. 17 — Miami's Jason Kapono tied a record with 24 points to beat stars Gilbert Arenas and Dirk Nowitzki in the 3-Point Shootout. Boston's Gerald Green capped All-Star Saturday with an acrobatic leap over a table to win the Slam Dunk contest.
Feb. 17 — Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia set a world record for the indoor 2,000 meters with a time of 4:49.99 at the Norwich Union Grand Prix, beating a 9-year-old mark of Haile Gebrselassie. Gebrselassie set the mark of 4:52.86 in February 1998 at the same National Indoor Arena.
Feb. 17 — Michael Phelps broke his own mark in the 200-meter butterfly at the Missouri Grand Prix with a time of 1:53.71, nine hundredths of a second faster than his record-setting time from August 2006. He beat the second-place finisher by nearly six seconds.
Feb. 18 — Kevin Harvick nosed out Mark Martin in a frantic wreck-filled finish to win the Daytona 500. With less than a mile to go in the Daytona 500, Kyle Busch's car was spinning. Clint Bowyer's was upside down and on fire. Five other cars bumped and banged, careening into one another in a smoke-filled mass of twisted metal.
Feb. 18 — Kobe Bryant scored 31 points, earning his second All-Star game MVP, and the West routed the East, 153-132 in the NBA All-Star game.
Feb. 18 — Austria won the team competition title and finished with the most medals at the world alpine skiing championships in Are, Sweden. Austria ended with three gold, three silver and three bronze medals. Sweden had three gold — all from Anja Paerson — two silver and two bronze medals.
Feb. 22 — In Chester, W.Va., Tommy Morrison, the former WBO heavyweight champion, stopped John Castle in the second round in his return to the ring 11 years after testing positive for the virus that causes AIDS.
Feb. 22 — Dallas beat Miami 112-100 for its 10th straight victory. The Mavericks, having won 31 of 33, became just the fourth team in NBA history to have three winning streaks of at least 10 games.
Feb. 23 — Tiger Woods' winning streak on the PGA Tour, which began in July, came to a shocking end. Tiger Woods failed to notice a ball mark in the line of his 4-foot birdie putt that would have won his third-round match against Nick O'Hern. Tiger Woods missed, then lost in 20 holes when O'Hern saved par with a 12-foot putt at the Accenture Match Play Championship.
Feb. 24 — Damien Nash, 24, Denver Broncos running back collapsed and died after a charity basketball game in suburban St. Louis.
Feb. 25 — Colorado's Karlis Skrastins had his NHL-record consecutive games streak among defensemen snapped at 495 when he sat out against Anaheim because of a knee injury.
Feb. 26 — Roger Federer reached a new milestone breaking Jimmy Connors' 30-year-old mark with his 161st week at the top of the ATP rankings. Connors set his record from July 1974 to August 1977. The ATP rankings began on Aug. 23, 1973. Federer took the No. 1 spot on Feb. 2, 2004.
Feb. 26 — Dallas became the first team in NBA history with three winning streaks of at least 12 games in a season by beating the Atlanta Hawks 110-87. The Mavericks' 12th consecutive victory gave them two 12-game winning streaks and one of 13 games.
Feb. 26 — Shaquille O'Neal went over the 25,000-point mark for his career midway through the first quarter of Miami's 99-93 loss to New York. O'Neal became the seventh to player reach 25,000 points and 10,000 rebounds.
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