Sports Fact of the Day 3/2-3/8/2008

Mar. 2:
3/2/1980:
Spectacular Bid, Willie Shoemaker up, passes the $2 million mark in career earnings with an easy victory in the Santa Anita Handicap. Carrying top weight of 130 pounds, the Bid beats Flying Paster by 5 lengths and Beau's Eagle by 13. It's the 21st victory in 25 lifetime starts for last year's winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. For Shoemaker, it's his ninth victory in this event, an annual tradition affectionately referred to as "the Big Cap."

Birthdays:
Mel Ott b. 1909
Hopalong Cassady b. 1934
Ian Woosnam b. 1958
Terry Steinbach b. 1962
Ben Roethlisberger b. 1982


Mar. 3:
3/3/1990:
Five-time Golden Gloves champion and n1984 Olympic gold medalist Mark Breland retains hish WBA welterweight title by knocking out former WBC champion Lloyd Honeghan of Great Britain in the third round at Wembley Arena in London. Breland scores six knockdowns in the one-sided bout before the referee refuses to let Honeyghan continue. He'll surrender the belt in his next outing, when Aaron Davis scores a ninth-round knockout against him in Reno, Nevada. After that defeat, he'll move up to the middleweight ranks but never again take part in a title bout.

Birthdays:
Julius Boros b. 1920
Randy Gradishar b. 1952
Jackie Joyner-Kersee b. 1962
Herschel Walker b. 1962
Brian Leetch b. 1968

1985:
Bill Shoemaker won at Santa Anita aboard Lord at War and became the first jockey to surpass $100 million in career earnings.

"Few jockeys, if any, have ridden neater on a horse-hands back with a long hold, sitting ever so still. And few have had his ability to keep a horse out of trouble, to find the surest way home, to control him with the subtlest flick of the wrist and hands." -William Nack, June 2, 1980

Packers Fact:
While at Louisville, guard Jason Spitz earned a bachelors' degree in marketing.

Mar. 4:
3/4/1990:
Loyola Marymount All-American forward Hank Gathers collapses on the court during a West Coast Conference tournament game and dies two hours later of a heart disease called cardiomyopathy. Just last season, Gathers led the NCAA in scoring (32.7 ppg) and rebounding (13.7 rpg), becoming only the second player to do that after Xavier McDaniel of Wichita State. The tournament is called off and Loyola is declared the league champion by virtue of its regular-season record of 23-5 (13-1 in conference). The Lions will win three games in the NCAA tournament, including a remarkable 149-115 rout of defending national champion Michigan before bowing to UNLV, this year's eventual national champion.

Birthdays:
Knute Rockne b. 1888
Dazzy Vance b. 1891
Margaret Osborne duPont b. 1918
"Badger Bob" Johnson b. 1931
Kevin Johnson b. 1966

2000:
Karrie Webb won her fourth title in her fourth golf tournament of the year, defeating Annika Sorenstam in a playoff to claim an LPGA event in Hawaii.

"Webb is the hottest golfer in LPGA history. Hotter than Nancy Lopez was when she won five straight tournaments in her rookie season, 1978. Hotter than Kathy Whitworth was when she was the leading money winner eight times in the nine years from 1965 through '73... So strong is Webb's performance this year that the Justice Department is targeting her as a monopolistic enterprise." -John Garrity, April 3, 2000

Mar. 5:
3/5/1966:
Tom Workman scores 23 points, pulls down nine rebounds and hits the winning bucket in the final minute as Seattle upsets unbeaten Texas Western, 74-72. The Chieftains offset a 38-27 shortfall on the boards by shooting 59% from the field on their home court, the Seattle Center Coliseum. There are 19 lead changes in the game, but the Miners are unable to even the score after Workman's final basket. Texas Western will not lose again. They will go on to stun the basketball world by winning the NCAA championship, upsetting Kentucky in the tournament finals.

Birthdays:
Elmer Valo b. 1921
Scott Skiles b. 1964
Michael Irvin b. 1966
Paul Konerko b. 1976
Wally Szczerbiak b. 1977

1993:
Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, who had won three Super Bowl championships in 12 years, announced his retirement.

"Call it burnout, stress meltdown, stop-and-smell-the-roses syndrome or whatever you want, it snatched Gibbs and made him realize that there is more to life than 100-hour workweeks spent analyzing the proper deployment of the H-back." -Rick Telander, March 15, 1993

Packers Fact:
The Packers had seven picks in the first rounds of the 2006 draft. That equaled their most ever to that stage in a draft (1964).

Mar. 6:
3/6/1949:
Montreal goalie Bill Durnan posts his fourth consecutive shutout as the Canadiens blank the Bruins, 1-0, at Boston Garden. Durnan's skein of perfection will end in his next outing, at Chicago, but he'll compile a modern record of 309 minutes and 21 seconds without allowing a goal. His record will survive until the 200-304 season, when Brian Boucher of the Phoenix Coyotes posts five straight shutouts and 332 minutes and 1 second of scoreless goaltending.

Birthdays:
Cookie Rojas b. 1939
Willie Stargell b. 1940
Dick Fosbury b. 1947
Sleepy Floyd b. 1960
Shaquille O'Neal b. 1972

1998:
Julie Krone rode Squawter to victory and headed to the winner's circle for the 1,205th time in her horse racing career. Since winning her first race in 1981, Krone has won more races than any other woman jockey.

"She rode in this tight little ball that a horse hardly seemed to notice on its back, and she had hands that cabled a [soothing] message through the reins down to a horse's mouth, through its neck, to its heart." -Gary Smith, May 22, 1989

Mar. 7:
3/7/2004:
Craig Parry of Australia holes out for an eagle on the first hole of sudden death to defeat Scott Verplank and capture the Ford Championship on the lengthy Blue Monster course at Doral in Miami. Hitting a six-iron from 175 feet, Parry gets his eagle on the 18th hole, one of the toughest holes on the entire PGA Tour. It had yielded only 31 birdies to the field in four rounds of play before Parry launched his tournament-winning shot, earning the $900,000 first-prize check.

Birthdays:
Franco Harris b. 1950
Lynn Swann b. 1952
Joe Carter b. 1960
Ivan Lendl b. 1960
Jeff Kent b. 1968

1966:
Bob Seagren became the first athlete to pole vault 17 feet indoors when he cleared 17' 1/4" at the Amateur Athletic Union national track and field championships held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

"A wonderful bird is the pole vaulter. He is supreme among track and field athletes because in his one event he is the synthesis of them all, combinin-in relatively moderate supply-the speed of a sprinter with the strength of a javelin thrower and the spring and elasticity of a high jumper." -John Underwood, February 20, 1967

Packers Fact:

While a prep star at The Bolles High School in Jacksonville, Florida, guard Jason Spitz was a state champion weightlifter.

Mar. 8:
Evoking memories of his 1985 NCAA champion Villanova Wildcats in a pep talk to a modern-day team at the school, former head basketball coach Rollie Massimino emphasized: "Tradition never graduatees."

Birthdays:
Mendy Rudolph b. 1926
Dick Allen b. 1942
Jim mRice b. 1953
Buck Williams b. 1960
Jason Elam b. 1970

1958:
The late-charging thoroughbred race horse Silky Sullivan came from 40 lengths back to win the Santa Anita Derby.

"Instead of looping his field, he cut to the inside, zigzagged through the pack like a sure-footed halfback and won-going away- by 3-1/2 lengths. At the finish he was actually easing himself up, obviously satisfied that he had showed the field who was boss." -Whitney Tower, March 17, 1958