Some of the most outstanding occurrences in sports history went down on the fields and courts across various pro sports leagues on December 7th. To begin, the largest comeback in NFL history took place and shocked fans from all over the world. In addition, multiple single-game NBA records were broken on this day in history. The events on 12/7 have proven to be extremely difficult if not impossible to replicate and make this day stand out as one full of iconic moments in the history of the game.

Jaime Segui & Ricky Eisenbart covered the MLB & NBA sections in this article.

Record NFL Comeback

Week 14, 1980#Saints jump out to a 35-7 over the #49ers by halftime pic.twitter.com/YwzJlRgfgj
— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) December 15, 2019

YEAR: 1980

SIGNIFICANCE: The 49ers stormed back after trailing 35-7 at the half to defeat the Saints 38-35 in OT

Coming into the game a winless 0-13, the New Orleans Saints’ 1980 season is commonly regarded as one of the most disastrous in NFL history. After going 7-9 then 8-8 the previous two seasons with a top-ten offense led by Archie Manning, the team imploded on HC Dick Nolan and he was fired after an 0-12 start. Limping into a matchup with Bill Walsh’s 49ers two weeks later on this date, the Saints’ only goal for the final three weeks was to avoid the first 0-16 season in NFL history (which they did the following week).

At 5-8, San Francisco was far from the dynasty they’d become and as a matter of fact, had only recently handed Joe Montana the keys to the offense for the rest of the season. Under interim HC Dick Stanfel, the “Ain’ts” came out with their hair on fire as Archie Manning tossed three TDs to jump out to a 35-7 halftime lead. Their lone score being a punt return TD from WR Freddy Solomon, San Francisco’s offense was completely shut down by the league’s 28th-ranked defense, but Walsh and Joe “Cool” never lost their composure.

Conceding that it just wasn’t the 9ers’ day, Walsh wiped the slate clean at halftime in hopes of simply building momentum for the next matchup against the 11-3 Falcons. Reverting back into their base offensive packages, San Fran finally found their footing and before they knew it, were in position to tie the game. On eight plays, Montana led the 49ers on a 78-yard march to tie it up with under 2:00 to play. After a Manning INT and an exchange of punts to begin OT, Ray Wersching’s 36-yard FG sealed the largest comeback in NFL history (until Bills-Oilers, 1993) as the legendary legacy of Joe Montana officially began.

On this day in 1980: The San Fransisco 49ers recorded the largst comeback in NFL history, erasing a 35-7 Halftime deficit to beat the New Orleans Saints in overtime on a Ray Wersching field goal 38-35. pic.twitter.com/piCsbi0Sax
— Forever Quarantined🏈 (@ForeverGridiron) December 7, 2019

No FTA Misses

https://twitter.com/Basketab_News/status/1203495297080602625?s=20

YEAR: 1982

SIGNIFICANCE: Utah Jazz set an NBA record for most FTM without a single miss by converting on all 39 of their free throws

Amidst a season in which the NBA’s league average of free throw percentage was a rather low 74%, on this date, the 1982-83 Utah Jazz challenged the status quo by connecting on 39-39 free throw attempts. This absurd statistic was substantially greater than the league average that year of 20.9 makes on 28.3 attempts but it came in a disappointing 137-121 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. The silver lining for Utah is that this set an NBA record for the best free throw percentage in a game and the most FT makes without a single miss as Adrian Dantley (12-12 FT) and Danny Schayes (14-14 FT) led the way.

MLB Legends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFKys0PgAFE

YEARS: 1937 & 1939

SIGNIFICANCE: Boston officially acquired Ted Williams & Lou Gehrig became the 1st HOF without being retired for a full year

83 years ago, the Boston Red Sox acquired a 19-year-old outfielder by the name of Ted Williams from the San Diego Padres, members of the Pacific Coast League. Williams was acquired in exchange for $35,000 and a couple of players. The Splendid Splinter not only became an all-time Red Sox player, but he is considered among the greatest hitters of all time, if not the best ever. The two-time Triple Crown winner is still the all-time On-base percentage leader with a staggering .482. Williams won two AL MVPs, but he should have double that amount of hardware, at least.

Two years later, former Yankees 1B Lou Gehrig became the first player ever to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in less than a year since retirement. Gehrig had retired on June 21st in 1939 due to him suffering from ALS, now known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease”. It took Gehrig just six months before putting his plaque up at Cooperstown. Earlier that year, the Yankees retired Gehrig’s No. 4 as the first of 15 numbers retired in Monument Park. That July 4th, Gehrig delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history, declaring that he considered himself the “luckiest man on the face of the earth”. Two years later, Gehrig passed away at 37.

Fastest NBA Greats

Pat Riley became the fastest coach to 300 career wins on this day in Lakers history.https://t.co/lWzej5quV1 pic.twitter.com/mo8PMSIbCd
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) December 8, 2017

YEAR: 1986 & 2012

SIGNIFICANCE: HC Pat Riley became the fastest to 300 wins AND Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to 30K points

The achievement which complements Pat Riley’s ever-expanding resume happened on this date in 1986 as he guided the 14-3 Los Angeles Lakers to a dominant 132-100 W over the Warriors. The L.A.-Golden State bout notched head coach Pat Riley’s 300th career win in his 416^th game, the fastest to ever reach that mark. To assist Riley in tackling this tremendous task were Laker legends Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who won four rings alongside Riley, including in that season 1986-87 season. Riley overtook Billy Cunningham’s previous record with the Philadelphia 76ers who took 430 games to reach the 300 win milestone.

On December 7th in 2012, the Los Angeles Lakers’ lethal scorer Kobe Bryant etched his name further into history, becoming the youngest player to reach 30,000 points at 34 years and 104 days old. The historical event occurred in the second quarter of a 103-87 victory over the New Orleans Hornets as the “Black Mamba” joined the elite company of only four other players to hit the 30,000-point plateau, and it was Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 35 years,179 days old that he had shattered. LeBron James (33 years, 24 days) has since surpassed Kobe in January, 2018 during his final year in Cleveland before lacing them up with the Lakers himself.

Iconic PG Duel

12/7/06 – The Phoenix #Suns defeated the NJ Nets 161-157 in double-overtime. Steve Nash nailed a #Shazam with 2.1 remaining to send the game to OT. Jason Kidd finished with 38p/14r/14a for the Nets while Steve Nash led Phoenix with 42p/6r/13a. Boris Diaw had 16p/14a. #TimeToRise pic.twitter.com/VXGj5oOVNz
— Arizona Sports History (@AZSportsHistory) December 7, 2018

YEAR: 2006

SIGNIFICANCE: HOF PGs Steve Nash and Jason Kidd battled it out in one of the highest-scoring games in NBA history

Back in 2006, the Phoenix Suns and New Jersey Nets played host to what was the highest-scoring game of the 21^st century on this date. The overall contest can be characterized as a shootout with each squad’s star players chipping in. The point guards, however, took center stage as the Suns’ 2x MVP Steve Nash recorded a career-high 42 points to top off a double-double, and the Nets’ Jason Kidd racked up a 38-point triple-double.

The battle between the two teams required a double dose of overtime with the Nash-led Phoenix Suns emerging victorious from the incessant downpour, 161-157. The legendary duel stands the test of time, still ranking as one of the top five highest-scoring games ever as both teams shot upwards of 52% from the field and left lasting memories on the NBA universe in one of the most exciting regular season games of the modern era.