The historical occasions from sports on September 9th treat fans to a plethora of accolades and achievements from known professional athletes. To begin, NFL HOF and icon Walter Payton cemented his own legacy as one of the greatest to ever touch the football. Additionally, Arizona’s Randy Johnson set a new MLB milestone, extending his own record. The milestones set by these athletes laid the groundwork for some of the best competitors in the game today.

Kaivan Tabatabai also contributed to this article.

Payton Becomes GOAT

YEAR: 1984

SIGNIFICANCE: Walter Payton reached 15,517 career yards from scrimmage, breaking Jim Brown’s all-time record

When thinking about the greatest to ever run the ball, few ever skip past Walter Payton. Playing for the Chicago Bears, the NFL legend scraped up the last few yards to take over Jim Brown’s all-time record in a victory over the Saints. Payton would retire with 16,726 yards from scrimmage, and would only be eclipsed by Dallas legend Emmitt Smith nearly two decades later, as the all-time rushing leader of the NFL. What Walter Payton did on the field over 30 years ago continues to influence the Zeke’s, C-Mac’s, and Saquon’s of today who regularly aim for 2,000 YScm/year.

5th Straight 300 SO Season

YEAR: 2002

SIGNIFICANCE: Randy Johnson reached 300 SO for the 5th straight season, extending his MLB record

Arizona Diamondbacks SP Randy Johnson reached the 300 strikeout mark for the fifth consecutive season, on this day in 2002. Johnson’s record of five successive seasons of 300 or more SO still stands to this day. Four of those five 300 SO (1998-2002) campaigns came as a member of the Diamondbacks, with ’98 spent between the Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros.

During those five years, Johnson recorded 1,746 punch outs; which ranks first in the major leagues in that span and is 496 more than second place Pedro Martinez. In addition, the Big Unit led the majors in strikeouts in all of those five seasons; with 329, 364, 347, 372, and 334, helping him win a whopping FOUR straight Cy Young awards in the National League after signing with Arizona. In total, Johnson had six 300 SO seasons, which is tied with Nolan Ryan for the most all-time.

Koufax Perfect Game

YEAR: 1965

SIGNIFICANCE: Sandy Koufax pitched his 4th career no-hitter, a perfect game vs. the Cubs

Back on September 9, 1965, Los Angeles Dodgers SP Sandy Koufax pitched his first and only perfect game in his career against the Chicago Cubs. That was Koufax’s fourth career no-hitter and extended his yearly streak of at least one no-hitter to four straight years (’62-’65). This perfect game also made him the all-time leader in no-hitters at the time, passing Cy Young, Larry Corcoran, and Bob Feller who are all tied at three. Koufax’s masterpiece saw the Dodgers beat the Cubs 1-0, with “The Left Arm of God” striking out 14 batters for the win.

Ryan Reaches 4,500 SO

9/9/87#Astros pitcher Nolan Ryan strikes out Mike Aldrete in the 7th inning to notch career punch out number 4,500. pic.twitter.com/VnzuXS3tRo
— ⚾ J. Daniel ⚾ (@JDaniel2033) September 9, 2019

YEAR: 1987

SIGNIFICANCE: Nolan Ryan became the very 1st in MLB history to record 4,500 career SO

On this day in 1987, Houston Astros SP Nolan Ryan became the first pitcher ever to reach the 4,500 career strikeout plateau. Ryan was already No.1 on the all-time strikeout list, but after an eight-inning, 16 punch out performance against the San Francisco Giants, he surpassed that milestone.

Currently, there have only been two other pitchers to surpass the 4,500 SO mark: Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. In ’87, Ryan was already 40 years old, but he still led majors in Ks and led the Senior Circuit in ERA. Surprisingly, he did not win the NL Cy Young, in fact he finished fifth, despite being arguably at least the second best pitcher in the league that year. The reason for his low showing in the vote was his 8-16 W-L record, which carries much less weight in the voting these days. The only voting that really mattered for Ryan was the vote to name him a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1999 (receiving the 2nd most votes ever at the time).

Jacobson 3 Triple Night

This date in baseball: September 9: 1922: Baby Doll Jacobson hit three triples and led the St. Louis Browns to a 1... http://bit.ly/cAOtJp
— MotorCityFan (@MotorCityFan) September 9, 2010

YEAR: 1922

SIGNIFICANCE: William “Baby Doll” Jacobson tied an MLB record by hitting 3 triples in a game

St. Louis Brown CF Baby Doll Jacobson had a record-tying game 98 years ago, when he recorded three triples in a 16-0 route of the Detroit Tigers. Jacobson hit fifth in the batting order and went 4-for-5 with three triples and a single, including four RBIs. Jacobson’s trifecta of three-baggers tied the record triples in the same game, which had been accomplished 10 times before in the Major Leagues. Since Jacobson’s 1922 performance, it has occurred 25 other times with the L.A. Dodgers RF Yasiel Puig (2014) being the most recent play to record three 3Bs in a single game.