November 25th brings a day full of massive individual accolades achieved by some of the greatest athletes of all-time. Half a century ago, one of the best to ever tote the rock recorded a single-game rushing record with over 270 yards on the ground. More recently, NFL veteran Phillip Rivers set a league-wide completion record. More achievements garnered on 11/25 set it aside as a day to remember in the history of pro sports.

Jaime Segui & Alex Raphael covered the MLB & NBA sections in this article.

Another Rush Record

YEAR: 1976

SIGNIFICANCE: OJ Simpson rushed for a NFL single-game record 273 yards on Thanksgiving to break his own record

Long before OJ Simpson’s name reached nation-wide notoriety in the mid-1990’s, he was a Heisman-winning top draft selection in 1969 — the third and final joint AFL/NFL Draft. After some injuries and tough sledding through his first three seasons (1,927 yards in 35 games), OJ finally cracked 1,000 yards in 1972, and then became the very first 2,000-yard rusher in NFL history the following year — during which he first broke the single-game record with a 250-yard rushing day.

On this day in 1976, amid a horrible 2-12 season in Buffalo, the “Juice” ran loose on Thanksgiving Day despite a two-score loss to the Lions. On only 29 carries, Simpson broke numerous NFL records with his 273-yard game, including his own single-game rushing record. In that game, he became the first in NFL history to record five 200-yard rushing games over his career and also broke 1,000 yards for the fifth consecutive season — another first in NFL history. The following season would be his last in Buffalo, however, as OJ missed half the season and would ultimately return home to play for the San Francisco 49ers in 1978 and ’79.

Thanksgiving 1976#Lions #Bills @TheRealOJ32 has a career day.
He sets a couple records in this game, rushes for over 200 yards for the 5th time in his career, and breaks his single game rushing record going 29-273-2#Bills would lose the game 27-14#ThanksgivingThread pic.twitter.com/RQcrwQzH2E
— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) November 26, 2019

Consecutive CMPs

YEAR: 2018

SIGNIFICANCE: Philip Rivers broke the NFL single-game records for consecutive CMPs (25) & CMP percentage (96.6%)

In 2018, Philip Rivers and the Chargers were on a roll in their second season since moving to Los Angeles. Though his yardage numbers were down, his completion percentage finished up over 68% (from 62.6%) while more of those completions reached the end zone more often than the previous year (32 TDs to 28). On this day, the 7-3 Chargers welcomed the 2-8 Cardinals to the interim StubHub Center and Rivers completely dissected them in the 45-10 victory.

Without an incompletion through the first three quarters, Rivers tied Ryan Tannehill’s NFL record of 25 consecutive completed passes — which the latter compiled over two games in 2015. His 25 consecutive completions to begin a game, however, shattered the previous record of 22 that was held by Mark Brunnell (Sept. 2006) and David Carr (Nov. 2006). Finishing the game 28-of-29 with 259 yards and three TDs, Rivers broke another single-game NFL record with a 96.55% completion rate (92.3%), previously held by Kurt Warner (2009).

1st Reliever MVP

YEAR: 1981

SIGNIFICANCE: Rollie Fingers became the very 1st reliever to ever win AL MVP

On this day in 1981, Milwaukee Brewers CP Rollie Fingers became the second reliever (Jim Konstanty in 1950) to win an MVP (and the first to do so in the AL. Fingers had already been named AL Cy Young earlier that fall after leading the majors with 28 saves, while also sporting a ridiculous 1.04 ERA and a 333 ERA+ in 78 innings pitched.

The 34-year-old was in his first season with the Brewers, a team that finished first in the AL but lost to the Yankees in the Division Series. Since ’81, there have only been two relievers to win MVP: Willie Hernandez in 1984 and Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Four years after winning the AL MVP, Fingers was released by the Brewers and decided to retire after being cut.

Playoffs?!

YEARS: 1941 & 2001

SIGNIFICANCE: Lou Boudreau became the youngest MLB MGR in the 1900s AND Jim Mora went on his famous postgame rant

In 2001, the Indianapolis Colts were struggling to string wins together and came into a November 25th matchup with the 7-2 49ers at 4-5 with an outside chance of making a run at the postseason. Fresh off a 10-6 season in which he led the league in TD passes (33), fourth-year QB Peyton Manning’s turnover issues returned as he would barely miss the league-lead in INTs (23 to Trent Green’s 24) while losing ten games. San Francisco came into the RCA Dome and forced four INTs of their own — along with a fumble — and stomped the Colts 41-20 despite being out-gained across the board on offense.

After the “disgraceful” loss, Jim Mora had to let off some steam in the postgame presser and delivered one of the most memorable coaching rants in NFL history. Beginning by overtly blaming the offense’s five TOs, he then speculated about the team’s four pick-6s on the season being a potential NFL record. He was wrong, but Manning would tie the record (6 — Rudy Bukich) by the end of the year, when Mora was fired for vouching to retain then-DC Vic Fangio. After complaining about the offense for a few minutes, Mora was asked about the team’s shrinking postseason odds, to which he replied with the classic “Playoffs?!” line seen above (1:02).

In addition to Mora’s iconic “Playofs!?” post-game comments, another legendary coaching moment occurred on this day 79 years ago when Cleveland Indians SS Lou Boudreau was named player-manager. Boudreau became the youngest MLB manager since Jim McCormick all the way back in 1879. Boudreau made his managerial debut in his age-24 season and would be at the helm until 1950, his age-32 campaign.

During those nine years as the Indians player-manager, Boudreau had six seasons over .500 and won the 1948 World Series, Cleveland’s most recent championship. As a player, he was still phenomenal despite the stress that must’ve come from taking the reins of the team. Boudreau was a .304/.389/.804 hitter during that span, including a Batting Title in 1944 and the MVP in 1948. In 1970, Boudreau was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

#OTD in 1941, Lou Boudreau is named @Indians manager at the age of 24. https://t.co/rem5byUJG1 pic.twitter.com/cUc8YptRSv
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) November 25, 2016

2019 Historic Day

#PlayerOfTheDay Lamar Jackson continued his MVP campaign with a 5 Pass TD performance on MNF. He is the 1st player in NFL history to have 3,000+ Pass Yds and 1,500+ Rush Yds in his 1st 2 seasons and the only player w/ 4 Pass TD & 50+ Rush Yds in consecutive GP https://t.co/DgRxY9TlYa
— Pro Sports Outlook (@PSO_Sports) November 26, 2019

YEAR: 2019

SIGNIFICANCE: Lamar Jackson set multiple NFL records AND a full NBA slate gave way to a wild, historic night

Just a year ago today, sports fans were treated to a dramatic Monday NBA slate and a dominant MNF performance from Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. Baltimore came into a matchup with the reigning NFC Champions at 8-2 with a grip on the top seed in the AFC, due in large part to the play of second-year QB Lamar Jackson. In the 45-6 shellacking of the Rams, Jackson not only threw five TD passes while completing 75% of his 20 attempts (only 169 yards), but also made NFL history in the process.

Reaching 3,000 PASS YDS and 1,500 RUSH YDS already in his short career during this game, Jackson became the very first player in NFL history to reach such marks within his first two seasons. Only his 18th career start in the regular season, Lamar reached the unprecedented milestone in just over a full season as starter and would continue setting dual-threat QB records en route to a 14-2 record and a historic MVP Award.

A flurry of edge-of-the-seat antics filled this day a year ago in the NBA as Spencer Dinwiddie capped off a 23-point outing with a game-winning fadeaway jump shot on Cleveland (108-106) to extend Brooklyn’s win streak to four as he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Furthermore, the steady handed-sniper Buddy Hield was firing on all cylinders as he set a new Kings 3-point franchise record with 11 made 3s, despite a crushing loss to Boston, following Sacramento’s missed game-winner in a tightly contested battle.

Meanwhile, the soon to be back-to-back MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo erupted for one of his two 50-point games that season in the Bucks’ eighth straight win as enforcer Brook Lopez swatted away Donovan Mitchell’s game-tying shot attempt in Utah’s final possession. To solidify this evening as one of the most wild nights of the year, the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from down 10 points with three minutes to go against the Warriors by shutting them out on an irreversible 13-0 run to close out the contest, led by their MVP Chris Paul, who shined in the final quarter of play.