Events in Sport on August 31

Baseball Record

1950 Dodger Gil Hodges hits 4 HRs & a single in a game vs Braves

MLB First Baseman Gil Hodges — MLB First Baseman
Gil Hodges

1954 Cincinnati 1st baseman Ted Kluszewski hits 2 HRs in a 9-3 loss v Phillies; 1st Redleg to ever hit 40 MLB HRs, en route to season total 49
1959 48th Davis Cup: Australia beats USA in New York (3-2)
1960 US sweeps the medals in the shot put at the Rome Olympics; Bill Nieder wins gold with 19.68m ahead of countrymen Parry O'Brien and Dallas Long
1966 Referee Leo Horn whistles his last soccer match (Ajax-Bulgaria)
1968 68th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Bruce Fleisher
1968 Gary Sobers becomes the first cricketer to hit 6 sixes in one over
1970 59th Davis Cup: USA beats Germany in Cleveland (5-0)
1971 Adrienne Beames runs female world record marathon (2:46:30)
1972 Lasse Viren runs Olympic/world record 10,000m (27:38.4)
1972 Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut wins balance beam & floor exercise gold medals at the Munich Olympics; follows gold in the teams all-round
1972 American super swimmer Mark Spitz wraps up the Olympic butterfly double with a world record 54.27 in the 100m in Munich, having already won the 200m in world record time 2:00.70
1972 American 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of John Kinsella, Fred Tyler, Steve Genter & Mark Spitz swim a world record 7:35.78 to beat West Germany for the gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1972 Australian swimmer Gail Neall with a world record 5:02.97 wins the 400m individual medley gold medal at the Munich Olympics
1979 16 yr old Tracy Austin defeats 14 yr old Andrea Jaeger at US Open Tennis
1979 Phillies replaces manager Danny Ozark with Dallas Green
1980 80th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Hal Sutton
1981 Dirk Wellham scores 103 on Test Cricket debut, v England at Lord's
1984 Pinklon Thomas beats Tim Witherspoon in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1985 Angel Cordero becomes 3rd jockey to ride horses earning over $100 M
1987 Curtis Strange sets golf's earning for year record ($697,385)
1990 Ken Griffey Sr & Jr are 1st father & son to play on same team each goes 1 for 4 for Seattle Mariners
1991 Houston QB David Klingler sets NCAA record with 6 touchdown passes in the 2nd quarter as the Cougars clobbered Louisiana Tech 73-3
1993 Minnesota Twins beat Cleveland Indians 5-4 in 22 innings

Event of Interest

1994 Pentium computer beats world chess champ Garry Kasparov

Chess Grandmaster and Political Activist Garry Kasparov — Chess Grandmaster and Political Activist
Garry Kasparov

1997 Don Mattingly's #23 is retired by NY Yankees
1997 Scott Hoch wins Greater Milwaukee Golf Open with a 268
1997 Eddie George runs for 216 yards on 35 carries and scores a touchdown as the Oilers, playing their first NFL game in Tennessee, beat Oakland 24-21 in overtime at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis