This day in sports: Joe Louis retains the heavyweight title in 1941
Amid the cancellations of nearly every sporting event, there is some good news for local golfers. The L.A. City Department of Recreation and Parks has announced that the city’s 12 golf courses will remain open for play. Each course will implement a variety of safety measures to promote social distancing and sanitizing common areas. Golfers will be encouraged to leave flag sticks in the cups and to use debit/credit cards to pay for greens fees. And players will not be charged extra for renting a single cart.
Among the games postponed today involving local teams are the Lakers’ road contest against the Charlotte Hornets and the Kings’ home game against the Vancouver Canucks.
A look at athletes, coaches and others in the sports world who have tested positive of the coronavirus.
The Dodgers were to play the Chicago White Sox in an exhibition game in Phoenix. And in college baseball, USC and UCLA had Pac-12 games scheduled against Oregon and Washington State, respectively.
Here is a look at memorable games and outstanding sports performances on this date.
1941 — Joe Louis knocks out Abe Simon in the 13th round at Olympia Stadium in Detroit to retain the world heavyweight title. It is Louis’ 15th defense of his championship, witnessed by a crowd of 18,908. Known as the “Brown Bomber,” Louis knocks Simon down four times in the fight scheduled for 20 rounds. The purse totals $56,605.10.
1953 — Rookie Bob Cousy sets an NBA record with 50 points and leads the Boston Celtics to a 111-105 four-overtime playoff victory over the Syracuse Nationals . Cousy scores 30 points from the foul line, on 32 attempts.
1959 — California edges West Virginia 71-70 for the NCAA basketball championship at Freedom Hall in Louisville. Jerry West scores 28 points for West Virginia but misses a long-range jumper at the end of the game. The Mountaineers are coached by Fred Schaus. Darrall Imhoff is the center for Pete Newell’s Golden Bears. West, the tournament’s outstanding player, Imhoff, Schaus and Newell would move on to play and coach for the Lakers.
1959 — The “Big O” Oscar Robertson scores the first triple-double in the NCAA tournament’s Final Four history, tallying 39 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in Cincinnati’s 98-85 win over Louisville in the third-place game.
As the Olympics scheduled for Tokyo in July draw near, some athletes push to compete; others would rather wait.
1970 — Curtis Rowe scores 19 points and Sidney Wicks adds 17 points and 18 rebounds to lead UCLA to an 80-69 win over Jacksonville for its fourth straight NCAA basketball championship. Jacksonville ends the season with a scoring average of 100.4 points per game, the first team to average more than 100 points in a college basketball season. Steve Patterson also scores 17 points for the Bruins while Artis Gilmore leads the Dolphins with 19.
1984 — Glenn Anderson of Edmonton scores his 50th goal of the season and helps the Oilers beat the Hartford Whalers 5-3. The Oilers become the first NHL team to have three 50-goal scorers in one season. Wayne Gretzky’s records 87 and Jari Kurri 52.
1993 — Patty Sheehan wins her 30th tournament, shooting a three-under 70 for a five-stroke victory over Kris Tschetter and Dawn Coe-Jones in the Standard Register Ping in Phoenix. The win qualifies Sheehan for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
1996 — Todd Eldredge is the first American since Brian Boitano to win the gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships. Boitano had won the championship eight years earlier.
2010 — Teemu Selanne becomes the 18th player in NHL history to score 600 goals, reaching the milestone in the Ducks’ 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche. The only other European-born players in the 600-goal club are Finnish countryman Jari Kurri (601) and the Czech Republic’s Jaromir Jagr (646).
2011 — Courtney Vandersloot scores 29 points and adds 17 assists to help Gonzaga beat UCLA 89-75 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Vandersloot becomes the first player in Division I history — men or women — to record 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career.
Sources — Los Angeles Times, Associated Press
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