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 as he returns a fumble for a touchdown to give Allegheny a 4-0 victory.
1920 — Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is hired as the first commissioner of baseball.
1950 — Gene Roberts of the New York Giants rushes for 218 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Cardinals.
1967 — Travis Williams of Green Bay returns two kickoffs for touchdowns against Cleveland as 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-setting 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 as the Miami Dolphins beat the New England Patriots 52-0.1980 — Denver Nuggets center Dan Issel hits a fourth quarter layup during a 118-111 loss at New Jersey to become the 12th man in pro basketball history to score 20,000 career points.
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.
2000 — Keenan McCardell and Jimmy Smith each surpass the 100-yard mark in the same game for the eighth time in their careers, an NFL record, in Jacksonville’s 28-21 loss to Seattle.
2006 — Devin Hester ties the NFL record for longest play by returning a missed field goal 108 yards in Chicago’s 38-20 victory over the New York Giants.
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. The Timberwolves rally from a 21-point, third-quarter deficit to stun the New York Knicks 112-103.
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 snaps 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, the daughter of 16-time Funny Car champion John Force, wraps up the title in the quarterfinals and goes on to win the event at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.