What Happened in Sports: September 26, 2022

2016: A day after Jose Fernandez’s tragic death, the Miami Marlins all wore his jersey and Dee Gordon hit an iconic HR to lead off the game 

2012: The NFL and NFL Referees Association reached an agreement to officially end to the NFL referee lockout and replace the “replacement officials”

1981: Houston Astros SP Nolan Ryan set an MLB record by throwing his 5th career no-hitter, surpassing Sandy Koufax‘s mark of 4. Ryan ended his career with 7 no-hitters which still stands as the MLB record

1973: A year after retiring from the Lakers and the NBA, future HOF C Wilt Chamberlain signed with the ABA’s San Diego Conquistadors as a player-coach in a comeback attempt that never led to a game being played

1967: After a falling out with Cleveland ownership, founder and namesake Paul Brown was granted an AFL expansion franchise in Cincinnati, Ohio (Bengals)

1962: Los Angeles Dodgers SS Maury Wills became the 1st player to record 100 Stolen Bases during a season in MLB history 

1961: New York Yankees OF Roger Maris tied Babe Ruth’s single-season HR record from 1927 with his 60th HR. Maris would break Ruth’s record less than a week later and held the top spot in MLB history until the famous 1998 HR chase

1954: Philadelphia Athletics defeated the New York Yankees 8-6 in what would be their final game in Philadelphia, as the franchise moved to Kansas City the following season. Yankees C Yogi Berra played his only career game at 3B and OF Mickey Mantle played SS

1920: The very 1st APFA (later re-named to NFL) game took place at Rock Island’s Douglas Park as a crowd of 800 watched the Independents defeat the St. Paul Ideals 48-0