The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Winter Olympics

  • This week in sports history

    This week in sports history

    April 18, 1966 – Bill Russell becomes the first African American head coach in NBA history for the Boston Celtics. The hall-of-famer played 13 seasons for the Celtics, and won 11 championships in that time. Russell is one of seven basketball players in history to win an NCAA Championship, an NBA Championship and an Olympic gold medal.

    April 20, 1986 – Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan set an NBA playoff record with an incredible 63 points. Jordan broke the mark that was previously held by Elgin Baylor who scored 61 points in the 1962 NBA Finals.

    April 22, 1954 – The NBA introduced the 24-second shot clock to speed up the game. The number was devised when Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone divided the seconds in a 48-minute game by the the average amount of shots by both teams (120) from games played from the previous three seasons. The game was dull and played at a snail’s pace, with one team opening up a lead and freezing the ball until time ran out. The only thing the trailing team could do was foul. Thus the games became rough, ragged and free-throw shooting contests.

    “The adoption of the clock was the most important event in the NBA,” NBA President Maurice Podoloff said.

    Legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach called it the single most important rule change in the last 50 years.

    April 23, 2000 – American snowboarder Chloe Kim is born in Torrance, California. Kim won gold in dominating fashion for the United States in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea at the age of 17.

  • This week in sports history

    This week in sports history

    Feb. 22, 1980 – Team USA hockey beats the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics 4-3. The game is referred to as the Miracle on Ice, because of the huge upset by the American underdogs. They went on to beat Finland in the gold medal round 4-2.

    Feb. 24, 1977 – Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mayweather has a record of 50-0 with 27 knockouts, and is arguably the best of all time.

    Feb. 25, 1964 – Cassius Clay TKOs Sonny Liston in round seven for his first world heavyweight championship title. Clay later converted to Islam and changed his name from Clay, which he called his slave name, to Muhammad Ali. Ali further antagonized the white establishment by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.

    Feb. 27, 1992 – Eldrick “Tiger” Woods becomes the youngest golfer in over 35 years to join the Professional Golfers’ Association tour. Woods would go on to win 14 major championships, second only to the legendary Jack Nicklaus.

  • Weekly Olympics recap

    Weekly Olympics recap

    The United States is showing the world it no longer dominates at every sport. Sitting at sixth in total medals, the U.S. has missed the podium on account of little mistakes and terrible luck.

    U.S. alpine skier Lindsey Vonn fell once and that took away a chance at a medal. Downhill specialist Steven Nyman missed the Olympics with a knee injury and freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy suffered thumb and hip injuries.

    The U.S. women’s hockey team has at least clinched a silver medal with a 5-0 semifinal win over Finland. They will go for gold on Feb. 22, and by that time it may feel like the weight of the American performance will ride on their shoulders.

    Norway continues to lead on the medal table, but Canada is closing in after 11 days of competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

    Norway took gold in the men’s team large hill ski jumping on Feb. 19. This marked their second ski jumping gold medal of these Winter Games. Germany finished second for silver.

    The U.S. did pick up a pair of bronze medals with American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani in ice dancing and then with Brita Sigourney in the women’s halfpipe ski final.