This week in sport has seen some incredible moments down the years, including Wilt Chamberlain’s 4,000 point season, the Holyfield Lewis fight controversy and Torvill and Dean’s world title
Feeling down about your team’s recent form? Then take a break and join me on a nostalgic trip to the past to discover if things were any rosier then.
This week was a big week in sport for boxing with controversy marring a match up between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield’s bout in Madison Square Gardens 26 years ago. And another fight in 1985 saw Tim Witherspoon walk away with the title in a match he wasn’t even supposed to be in.
Meanwhile British skating icons Torvill and Dean set themselves up for 1984 Olympic glory by taking the world title the year before, and basket ball legend Wilt Chamberlain couldn’t stop scoring.
Wilt Chamberlain scores 4,000 points in a season
In this week in 1962 legendary basketball player Wilt Chamberlain totted up 4,000 in a single season, the first time it had ever been managed. Helping him get to the total earlier this month in the same year he scored 100 points in a 169-147 win over the Knicks, on March 2.
The NBA Hall of Famer is one of the most illustrious players to have graced the court, holding over 70 NBA records to his name. His stardom also came at the collegiate level, dominating while at Kansas. The 7ft 1in Chamberlain was the first “unstoppable” player the sport had ever seen, winning four MVP awards and earning 13 all-stars.
Holyfield-Lewis fight controversy
A draw never goes down well in boxing, especially when most people could see there was one clear winner. But when Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis tried to unify a few heavyweight titles, at Madison Square Gardens in 1999, that’s exactly what happened.
After controlling the lion’s share of the bout, Lewis held his arm up in victory, believing it was job done. However, the judges had other ideas, with one scoring 115-113 in favour of Lewis, and another the same score in favour of Holyfield. While Britain’s Larry O’Connell for scored it a draw. Boos greeted the announcement of the decision, created the impression of Lewis being the home fighter. The two boxers had another go in November, and this time Lewis won unanimously.
Tim Witherspoon wins True Vindication
The 1984 fight between for the vacant WBC heavyweight title, saw the world number one ranked boxer, Greg Page, against Tim Witherspoon, It was billed as True Vindication. Page was meant to fight the winner of a match up between Larry Holmes and challenger Tim Witherspoon.
But after Holmes narrowly defeated Witherspoon by split decision, he decided to take a more lucrative bout. Leaving Witherspoon to take the title shot. The two fighters fought a relatively close but lacklustre fight leading to crowd to boo the lack of action, though Witherspoon served as the aggressor. And Witherspoon did just enough to earn a majority decision victory. One judge scored the fight a draw at 114–114 while the two other judges scored the fight at 117–111.
Torvill and Dean win Gold
In 1983 this week, legendary British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the title with an unprecedented set of perfect marks at the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, Finland. The pair went onto take the gold medal in the XIV Olympic Winter Games the following year, with every judge giving them a perfect score of 6.0 for artistic impression. They also received three 6.0’s and six 5.9’s for the technical merit of their program, which they performed to an interpretation of Ravel’s Bolero.
Football over the decades
This week 40 years ago things were looking much rosier for Southampton, who were sitting pretty in fourth place in the former top flight, Division One, after 29 (of 42 matches). Topping the table were Everton, in second were Tottenham, followed by Manchester United, and the aforementioned Saints. Meanwhile propping up things were Stoke City.
Going back 30 years Blackburn Rovers were flying highest in the Premier League with Manchester United, Newcastle United and Liverpool chasing them respectively. And 20 years ago Chelsea were looking dominant in the Mourinho era, leading Manchester United by 11 points. They were followed by Arsenal and Everton, in their high-flying first Moyes managed era.