25 of the biggest sports moments from April

March Madness often ends, oddly enough, in April. Most of the tournament happens in its titular month, but the final game is an April occasion. We could have gone with many title games here, but we’ve decided to showcase Villanova’s win over Georgetown in 1985. The Wildcats won an exciting game, 66-64, but most notably they were an eight seed, making this a huge upset. Villanova’s team is still the lowest-seeded winner ever.

Abdul-Jabbar is an all-time great, as his six MVPs and 19 All-Star Games can attest to. On April 5 1984, Kareem broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record for most points in a career. He’d play for another five seasons, and he still has the points record.

Everybody loved when David Ayres stepped in for the Carolina Hurricanes as an emergency backup goalie and got the win as a 42-year-old earlier this season. Well then you should really enjoy the story of Patrick’s time in net as well. Patrick had played professionally as a defenseman, but by 1928 he was the Rangers coach and GM. He was also 44 years old. During the Stanley Cup Final, the Rangers saw goalie Lorne Chabot suffer an eye injury, and back then teams didn’t have backups. Rules at the time said the opposing team had to OK who stepped into net, and that ended up being Patrick. He made 18 saves on 19 shots to help the Rangers win Game 2 en route to winning the Cup.

The concept of the save had been around for a while, and the save as we know it was invented by Jerome Holtzman in 1960. It wasn’t until 1969 that the stat became official, though. On Opening Day of that year Bill Singer pitched three shutout innings, relieving Don Drysdale for the Dodgers and getting the first-ever official MLB save.

Aaron started the 1974 season closing in on Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career homers. He tied the record on April 4, and on April 8 Aaron went deep off Al Downing. Aaron became the home run king, a record he held onto until Barry Bonds broke it. That didn’t happen in April, though, and not everybody is as happy about that as they are about Hammerin’ Hank.

It seems quaint now, but when it opened in 1965 the Astrodome in Houston was a huge deal. As the first multi-purpose domed stadium, it was dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world.” The first game there, an exhibition between the Astros and the Yankees, took place in April 9. It was a sellout, naturally, and the Astros got the win. The ‘Stros called it home until 1999.

Jerry Reuss was supposed to be the Opening Day starter for the Dodgers in 1980. However, he got injured, and so L.A. turned to a rookie pitcher by the name of Fernando Valenzuela. The young Mexican pitcher got a complete game shutout win, and the first seeds of Fernandomania were planted. Valenzuela ended up starting the year 8-0 with five shutouts and a 0.50 ERA en route to winning Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young.

For years, Mickelson had the “best golfer without a major” to his name. That’s not a moniker anybody wants, even if it is somewhat flattering. Then, finally, 13 years into his career Phil finally got it done. In 2004, he edged out Ernie Els to win the Masters, his first of three green jackets.

There was talk that the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. This was at the height of the Cold War, and there was a lot of concern about the Soviet Union’s involvement in Afghanistan. In April, with the Olympics still on the horizon, the United States Olympic Committee officially endorsed a boycott of Moscow. Eventually, the U.S. did indeed skip the Olympics, with another 65 countries joining them.

Elder had a decent enough career, winning four PGA events. However, as an African American golfer, he did more than merely participate in events. In 1975, Elder earned an invitation to the Masters. He was the first black golfer to do so, and it would be another 15 years until Augusta would have a black member (why is the tournament there again?). Jack Nicklaus won the tournament, his fifth win, and Elder didn’t make the cut. Only one of them made important history, though.

After all, without Elder, what might have become of Tiger Woods? Tiger has won five green jackets in his career, but none has been more memorable than his 1997 win. Only 21, Woods set two records that day. His score of 18 under par and his 12-stroke victory are both all-time performances.

Here’s some fresh news for the list. After all, it was only 2019 when Popovich picked up his 1,413th win as an NBA head coach. On April 13 of that year he passed Lenny Wilkens and has only added to the total since then. On top of that, coach Pop has done it all while with the Spurs, making it even more impressive.

These days, the Stanley Cup isn't hoisted until June (and maybe even later this season!). In the early days of the NHL, though, the Cup was usually rewarded in April. The Montreal Canadiens of the late 1950s were the biggest juggernaut the NHL has ever seen. After sweeping through the playoffs in the 1959-60 season, the Habs found themselves winning it all for the fifth year in a row. They remain the only franchise to do that.

Two NHL teams have ever won 62 games in a season: the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning and the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings. However, the Lightning did it in the era of 3-on-3 overtime and shootout wins. Back in the day when the Wings won 62 games, setting a new NHL record, there were still ties. Every game didn’t end with a winner. Of course, the Cup is the name of the game, and the Wings were eliminated in the conference finals by the Colorado Avalanche, birthing one of the best NHL rivalries ever.

You know Jackie Robinson’s story by this point. He’s a true sports, and civil rights, icon. Well it all began on April 15, 1947, in Brooklyn. Robinson took the field for the Dodgers, walking and scoring a run. More importantly, he broke baseball’s color barrier.

A lot of these have been big events and momentous occasions. How about a game that was just awesome? The Golden State Warriors were the NBA’s juggernauts heading into the 2018-19 playoffs. They were the one seed, the Clippers were the eight seed, and it was assumed L.A. would get swept. It seems like a Game 2 win was a lock for the Dubs, given that they were up by 31 points in the third quarter at home. Instead, the Clippers staged a comeback for the ages, managing a 135-131 win. Sure, Golden State took the series, but the Clippers were still the story.

Speaking of comebacks, you could be forgiven for writing the Phillies off on April 17, 1976, when they fell behind 12-1 to the Cubs. However, they had other ideas. Mike Schmidt led the way, hitting four homers, something only 18 players have ever done. Philadelphia ended up winning, 18-16, in 10 innings.

Anytime a team comes back in a best-of-seven series after falling behind three games to none, it’s monumental. It’s only happened a few times across MLB, the NBA and the NHL combined. To do that in a championship series, though, is truly special. In 1942, such an event had never happened before. There was no reason for the Red Wings to believe the Maple Leafs were going to have any chance to win the series. Instead, Toronto won four games in a row, capping it off with a 3-1 win in Game 7.

If you went to see the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings play on April 18, 1981, we hope you were ready for the long haul. The game was tied 2-2 after nine and went to extra innings. A lot of extra innings. The Sox and Wings played 32 innings that day…and solved nothing. The game was still tied when it was called at four in the morning. They would start the game back up in June and played one more inning. It remains the longest professional baseball game ever.

The NFL Draft happens in April every year. We wanted one entry to highlight the huge annual event. What better year than 1998? The Indianapolis Colts took Peyton Manning first overall. The San Diego Chargers took Ryan Leaf second overall. Two franchises were changed that day, one for the better and one for the worse.

Since baseball’s Opening Day used to happen in April, it was the time for new stadiums to debut. On the same day in 1912, two iconic stadiums made their debuts. In Boston, there was Fenway Park, which still stands, though greatly updated and fixed up. Meanwhile, at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, the Tigers played their first game at Navin Field. It would become known as Tiger Stadium until the team moved before the 2000 season.

Danica Patrick made a lot of waves simply by being a female driver in the world of professional auto racing. She wasn’t the first, but she was a rarity. However, she did get to make history on April 20, 2008. Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 that day, becoming the first woman to win an Indy car race.

A lot of times boxers hold on for too long. That certainly wasn’t the case for Marciano. In 1956, when he was only 32, Marciano decided to retire. He was 49-0 and still the heavyweight champion, and that was a time when being the heavyweight champ meant something. Marciano considered a comeback but never stepped in the ring, making him the only champ to ever retire undefeated.

Ryan was a beast on the mound in a career than spanned from 1966 until 1993. He just loved to pitch, and he certainly knew how to rack up strikeouts with his big fastball. Ryan became the all-time leader in strikeouts in April of 1983 when he passed Walter Johnson. At the time, he had 3,510 strikeouts. He would retire with 5,714, which is still the record.

Ryan had a ton of strikeouts in his career, but he never had 20 in a game. To be fair, he did have 19 once. However, in 1986 no pitcher had ever had 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game (Tom Chaney had 21 strikeouts in 1962 when he pitched 16 innings). Clemens changed that on April 29 of that year. Taking the mound against the Mariners, Clemens racked up 20 K's for the Red Sox. Only four times in MLB history has a pitcher done that. Oh, and Clemens did it twice.