Nov. 12
1892 — William “Pudge” Heffelfinger becomes the first pro football player by getting $500 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Heffelfinger doesn’t disappoint his bosses, returning a fumble for a touchdown to give Allegheny a 4-0 victory.
1920 — Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is hired as baseball’s first commissioner.
1931 — Maple Leaf Gardens opens in Toronto, with the Chicago Black Hawks winning 2-1 before 13,233 fans.
1967 — Travis Williams of Green Bay returns two kickoffs for touchdowns against Cleveland, and the Packers beat the Browns 55-7. The Packers score 45 points in the first half, 35 in the opening quarter.
1972 — Richard Petty wins a record fourth NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National championship after finishing third in the Texas 500.
1972 — Don Shula becomes the first NFL coach to win 100 regular-season games in 10 seasons when the Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots 52-0.
1994 — Prairie View loses 52-7 to Jackson State, breaking an NCAA Division I-AA record with 45 straight losses. Columbia lost 44 straight from 1983-88.
1995 — Miami’s Dan Marino breaks Fran Tarkenton’s NFL career record of 47,003 yards passing with a 9-yard pass to Irving Fryar during the Dolphins’ 34-17 loss to the New England Patriots.
2006 — Indianapolis edges Buffalo 17-16 to become the first team to have consecutive 9-0 records.
2007 — Top-ranked Roger Federer loses consecutive matches for the first time in 4 1/2 years, falling to No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 4-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5 at the Masters Cup.
2010 — Minnesota’s Kevin Love grabs a franchise-record 31 rebounds and scores 31 points, the NBA’s first 30-30 game in 28 years. Love grabs 15 rebounds in the third quarter alone, and the Timberwolves rally from a 21-point, third-quarter deficit to stun the New York Knicks 112-103. Moses Malone was the last player to have a 30-30 game — 32 points, 38 rebounds for Houston against Seattle in 1982.
2013 — Keith Dawson tips in a miss with less than six seconds left to give No. 2 Michigan State a 78-74 victory over top-ranked Kentucky. It’s the earliest meeting of 1 vs. 2 in AP poll history and the first since 2008.
2016 — Anthony Moeglin throws a 24-yard touchdown pass to William Woods with 39 seconds left to lift John Carroll to a 31-28 win over Mount Union. The loss ends the Purple Raiders’ NCAA-record 112-game regular-season winning streak. The Division III powerhouse hadn’t lost since Oct. 22, 2005.
2017 — Brittany Force becomes the NHRA’s first female Top Fuel season champion since Shirley Muldowney in 1982 in the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals. Force is the daughter of 16-time Funny Car champion John Force.
2019 — Former Houston Astros MLB pitcher Mike Fiers reveals the team secretly “stole signs” via camera from visiting teams.
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