Today in sports history, September 8

Sept. 8

Today in sports history

Today is Sept. 8. On this date in:

1888: The Football League began play in England with 12 founding clubs, establishing the world’s first professional association-football league.

1939: Cleveland Indians ace Bob Feller became the youngest pitcher in modern major league history to reach 20 victories in a season at age 20 years, 10 months and 5 days.

1957: Althea Gibson defeated Louise Brough to become the first Black player to win the U.S. National Championships, now known as the U.S. Open.

1960: Wilma Rudolph won her third gold medal of the Rome Olympics, anchoring the United States to victory in the women’s 4×100-meter relay.

1960: Jack Yerman, Earl Young, Glenn Davis and Otis Davis won the Olympic men’s 4×400-meter relay for the United States in a world-record 3 minutes, 2.2 seconds at the Rome Games.

1965: Kansas City Athletics shortstop Bert Campaneris became the first major leaguer to play all nine positions in one game, accomplishing the feat in a 5-3, 13-inning loss to the California Angels.

1974: Jimmy Connors completed a three-major season by overwhelming Ken Rosewall 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 in one of the most lopsided men’s finals in U.S. Open history.

1985: Cincinnati Reds player-manager Pete Rose collected his 4,191st career hit, tying Ty Cobb’s officially recognized major league record with a single off the Chicago Cubs’ Reggie Patterson.

1998: St. Louis’ Mark McGwire hit his 62nd home run of the season, surpassing Roger Maris’ 37-year-old major league record as the Cardinals defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-3.

2001: Venus Williams defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 to win her second consecutive U.S. Open in the first Grand Slam singles final between sisters since 1884.

2002: Pete Sampras defeated Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to win his fifth U.S. Open and a then-record 14th major singles championship in what became the final match of his career.

2007: Alex Rodriguez hit his 50th and 51st home runs of the season as the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals.

2008: Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray to win his fifth consecutive U.S. Open men’s singles championship, extending one of tennis’ most dominant Grand Slam runs.

2011: The NFL and ESPN announced an eight-year, $15.2 billion agreement that kept “Monday Night Football” on the network through the 2021 season.

2013: Tulsa Shock guard Riquna Williams scored 51 points against San Antonio, setting the WNBA single-game scoring record at the time.

2018: Naomi Osaka defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 to win the U.S. Open and became the first Japanese player to capture a Grand Slam singles championship.

2019: Rafael Nadal defeated Daniil Medvedev in a five-set U.S. Open final to capture his 19th Grand Slam singles title.

2024: Jannik Sinner defeated Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 to win his second major championship and became the first Italian man to capture the U.S. Open singles title.

— USA TODAY Network

This story was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of information gathering, review, editing and publishing. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in sports history, September 8