October 30
1943 – Toronto’s Gus Bodnar scores 15 seconds into his first NHL game as the Maple Leafs defeat the New York Rangers 5-2 ).
(1945 – Branch Rickey signs Jackie Robinson to the Montreal Royals.
1955 – New York’s Jim Patton returns the kickoff for a touchdown as the Giants defeat the Washington Redskins 35-7.
1966 – Jim Nance of the Boston Patriots rushes for 208 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders.
1971 – Michigan State’s Eric Allen rushes for 350 yards in a 43-10 win over Purdue.
1974 – Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round in Kinshasa, Zaire, and regained the world heavyweight championship in the “Rumble in the Jungle”.
1975 – Boston Bruins’ John Bucyk scores his 500th career goal in a 3-2 win over St. Louis.
1977 – Chicago Bears’ Walter Payton rushes for 205 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-0 victory over the Green Bay Packers.
1993 — Erin Whitten becomes the first female goaltender in professional hockey when she defeats Dayton 6-5 in the East Coast Hockey League Toledo.
1996 – The WNBA announces the eight cities participating in the WNBA’s inaugural season. Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston and New York will compete in the Eastern Conference, while Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento and Utah will compete in the Western Conference.
1997 – Argentinian football star Diego Maradona announces his retirement on his 37th birthday.
1997 – Violet Palmer makes professional sports history when she becomes the first woman to officiate an NBA game. There was little reaction from the crowd when his name was announced before the game between the Dallas Mavericks and Vancouver Grizzlies.
1999 – Marques Tuiasosopo becomes the first college player to pass for 300 yards and run for 200 yards, setting a school record with 509 yards as Washington defeats Stanford 35-30. Tuiasosopo completed 19 of 32 passes for 302 yards and a touchdown and rushed 22 times for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
2001 – Michael Jordan misses the night’s biggest shot and commits two key turnovers in the final seconds of the Washington Wizards’ 93-91 loss to the New York Knicks, 3 1/2 years after Jordan retires ’s first regular season game.
2003 – 18-year-old LeBron James scores 25 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals in the first regular season game of his NBA career, but the Cleveland Cavaliers lose 106-92 to the Sacramento Kings .
2004 — Trainer Bobby Frankel finally breaks through in the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Ghostzapper’s victory in America’s richest race at Lone Star Park. Frankel had just two wins in 62 Breeders’ Cup starts before the $4 million Classic, but he had been the favorite to beat the past three years.
2004 — Dana College’s Tom Lensch sets a department college record by attempting 101 passes in a 60-35 loss to Hastings College . Rensch caught 56 passes for a school-record 507 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
2011 – The Baltimore Ravens beat Arizona 30-27, erasing a 24-3 deficit. This is the fifth time this season that a team has come back from trailing by at least 20 points to win. That’s the most in a single season in NFL history.
2016 — Derek Carr throws a 41-yard touchdown pass to Seth Roberts with 1:45 left in overtime for the Oakland Raiders Record-breaking victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-24. Carr threw for a franchise record 513 yards — 40 of 59 passes without an interception — and the Raiders eclipsed the NFL’s 200-yard penalty mark 23 times.
2019 — Baseball World Series: The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros 6-2 in Game 7 at Minute Maid Park in Houston to win their first championship in franchise history; MVP: Washington pitcher Stephen · Strasbourg.
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