History

This day in sports history: October 7

From Georgia Tech’s 222–0 win to a farewell shared by Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson, five October 7 moments with archival photographs and the numbers behind them.

By The Sporting Page Editorial StaffTSP Original
Barry Bonds follows through on a swing for the San Francisco Giants on August 25, 2006.
Barry Bonds follows through on a swing for the Giants on August 25, 2006. Archival photograph. · Credit: Kevin Rushforth / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

October 7

Five moments from the record books, with the photographs and numbers behind them.

1916   /   1984   /   1992   /   2001

October 7 connects an extraordinary college football score with a change in the NFL rushing record. It also marks Tampa Bay’s NHL debut and, in 2001, baseball milestones on the same date in San Francisco and San Diego. These five accounts keep each event in its own setting.

011916 · College football

Georgia Tech’s 222–0 afternoon

Georgia Tech, at left, lines up against Cumberland at Grant Field in 1916.
Georgia Tech, at left, and Cumberland at Grant Field in 1916. Georgia Tech Archives / Wikimedia Commons. Photographer unidentified; public-domain source record.

Georgia Tech beat Cumberland 222–0 at Grant Field in Atlanta on October 7, 1916. John Heisman’s team had scored 63 points by the end of the first quarter and led 126–0 at halftime. The result belongs to the early history of college football, before the game’s modern television audience and national championship structure.[1]

The familiar score has accumulated stories about why Heisman kept his team attacking. Later accounts connect it to his belief that Cumberland had used professional players in a baseball game against Tech. That explanation is a later historical account, and should be kept distinct from the documented football score.[1]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

The people behind the score

John Heisman standing on a football field
Georgia Tech coach John Heisman in an archival portrait. Georgia Tech Archives / Wikimedia Commons.
Everett Strupper in an archival football portrait
Everett Strupper, circa 1915–1917. College Football Hall of Fame / Wikimedia Commons.

A surviving object gives the game a history beyond the numbers. In 2014, Georgia Tech graduate Ryan Schneider bought the Cumberland game ball at auction and arranged its return to the school. Tech’s announcement described plans to display it in the athletic association museum, bringing an artifact of the 1916 game back to the institution that won it.[2]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

The scoreboard and the surviving ball

Scoreboard showing Georgia Tech 222 and Cumberland 0
The Georgia Tech–Cumberland scoreboard. Wikimedia Commons; photographer unidentified.
The game ball from Georgia Tech’s 222–0 win in a display case
The surviving game ball in its display case. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; photographer unidentified.
222Georgia Tech points
0Cumberland points
126–0Score at halftime
021984 · NFL

Sweetness passes Jim Brown

Walter Payton carrying the football against New Orleans
Payton on the day he passed Jim Brown. Chicago Bears; photographer unidentified.

Walter Payton became the NFL’s career rushing leader against the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field on October 7, 1984. Jim Brown’s mark was 12,312 yards. Early in the third quarter, Payton took a pitch to his left and gained six yards to move past it. The game stopped while his teammates and the crowd celebrated.[3]

The record came in Payton’s tenth NFL season. Chicago had selected him fourth overall in the 1975 draft, and his career was already marked by unusual durability: the Pro Football Hall of Fame records that he missed only one game in his first 12 seasons, during his rookie year.[3]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

October 7, 1984

Payton finished the Saints game with 154 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Bears won 20–7. He went on to win a Super Bowl with the 1985 team and retired after the 1987 season with 16,726 rushing yards. October 7 marked the change in the career record’s ownership; his remaining seasons extended the total.[3]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Record and recognition

Walter Payton runs with the ball against New Orleans in an archival photograph from October 7, 1984.
Walter Payton against New Orleans on October 7, 1984, in a photograph reproduced on a 1986 Jeno’s NFL card. Jeno’s / Wikimedia Commons. Archival card scan.
Brown and Payton.
Later in 1984. John Swart / AP.
6Yards on the record-breaking run
154Payton rushing yards that day
20–7Bears’ final score

Watch the Bears’ footage of the record run →

031992 · NHL

Four goals to introduce the Lightning

Chris Kontos holds four pucks while wearing a Tampa Bay Lightning jersey in an archival photograph.
Chris Kontos holds four pucks in an archival Lightning photograph. Getty Images / NHL.com.

The Tampa Bay Lightning opened their NHL history with a 7–3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at Expo Hall on October 7, 1992. Chris Kontos scored four of Tampa Bay’s goals against Ed Belfour, beginning with the first two goals in franchise history.[4]

Both opening goals came on the power play, at 4:43 and 5:41 of the first period. They were separated by 58 seconds. Anatoli Semenov, Ken Hodge and Marc Bergevin also scored before intermission, leaving the new club ahead 5–1 after its first NHL period.[5]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Building Tampa Bay’s first team

Phil Esposito.
Expansion draft, 1992. Getty Images / NHL.com.
Draft-day handshake.
Esposito and Hamrlik, 1992. B Winkler / Getty Images.

Kontos completed his hat trick at 11:33 of the second period, then added another power-play goal at 19:32. The Lightning led 7–2 going into the third. Joe Reekie finished with four assists, and Wendell Young was the winning goaltender. Chicago scored once more in the final period, but the debut belonged to Tampa Bay.[5]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Early Lightning

Joe Reekie.
Archival photograph. Mitchell Layton / Getty Images.
Brian Bradley facing off against a Winnipeg player
Brian Bradley at a faceoff in an archival Lightning photograph. NHLPA / The Hockey Writers.

Four goals in the first two periods

GOAL 1 · PERIOD 104:43Power play
GOAL 2 · PERIOD 105:41Power play
GOAL 3 · PERIOD 211:33Even strength
GOAL 4 · PERIOD 219:32Power play

Times show elapsed time in the period. Source: NHL official scoring record.

042001 · MLB

Bonds closes the season at 73

Bonds follows through on his 73rd home run
Bonds watches home run No. 73 on October 7, 2001. Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle.

Barry Bonds hit his 73rd home run of the season on October 7, 2001, the final day of the regular season. The solo homer came off Dodgers pitcher Dennis Springer in the first inning at Pacific Bell Park. It supplied the final number for a record Bonds had already broken two days earlier.[6]

Mark McGwire had set the previous single-season mark with 70 home runs in 1998. Bonds tied that total on October 4, hit Nos. 71 and 72 on October 5, and finished with 73 on October 7. The distinction matters: this anniversary marks his last homer of the season, while October 5 marks the day he first passed McGwire.[7]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

The record weekend

Bonds swings against the Dodgers on October 7, 2001
Another view of the swing that produced No. 73. Frederic Larson / The Chronicle.
Bonds follows through on his 72nd home run
Two days earlier: home run No. 72 against Los Angeles. Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle.

The home-run total was part of a season in which Bonds also drew 177 walks and slugged .863. San Francisco missed the playoffs, so the Dodgers game closed his season without a postseason appearance. His final home run left the single-season mark three above McGwire’s.[6]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

The season and the ball

Barry Bonds runs toward first base after his 525th career home run at Pacific Bell Park on June 5, 2001.
Fans celebrate Barry Bonds’ 525th career home run at Pacific Bell Park on June 5, 2001, earlier in his 73-homer season. Jonathan Schilling / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0.
Patrick Hayashi holding the baseball from Bonds’ 73rd home run
Patrick Hayashi with Bonds’ 73rd home run ball. Archival photograph published in 2002. Frederic Larson / The Chronicle.

Where the record stood

Mark McGwire · 199870
Barry Bonds · 200173

Bars begin at zero and share a 73-home-run scale. Source: Baseball History’s season account.

Watch Bonds’ 73rd home run →

052001 · MLB

Rickey’s milestone, Tony’s farewell

Tony Gwynn, left, and Rickey Henderson embrace while wearing San Diego Padres uniforms in an archival photograph.
Tony Gwynn, left, and Rickey Henderson embrace in an archival Padres photograph. MLB.com.

Rickey Henderson collected his 3,000th major-league hit in Tony Gwynn’s final game on October 7, 2001. At Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Henderson doubled on Colorado starter John Thomson’s first pitch in the bottom of the first inning. The game paused for a brief ceremony.[8]

Henderson had offered to sit out so the afternoon could belong to Gwynn. SABR’s account preserves Gwynn’s later recollection that he insisted Henderson play.[8]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

October 7, 2001, in San Diego

Qualcomm Stadium scoreboard congratulating Rickey Henderson on 3,000 hits
Qualcomm Stadium celebrates Henderson’s 3,000th hit on October 7, 2001. Greg Eichelberger / Flickr.
Tony Gwynn reaching toward fans at the ballpark
Gwynn reaches toward fans on the evening of his final game. Paul Body and San Diego Padres collection / San Diego Magazine.

An injured right knee kept Gwynn out of the starting lineup. With one out in the ninth, Bruce Bochy sent him up as a pinch hitter. Gwynn grounded out to shortstop Juan Uribe in his final major-league plate appearance. Colorado won 14–5 before a crowd of 60,103.[8]

Gwynn’s 20-year career ended with 3,141 hits and a .338 batting average.[8] The National Baseball Hall of Fame records that he spent all 20 seasons with San Diego.[9] Henderson became the 25th player to reach 3,000 hits, sharing that milestone day with the last appearance of Mr. Padre.[8]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Mr. Padre’s career

Tony Gwynn standing with a bat in a Padres uniform
Gwynn in a Padres publicity portrait, circa 1990s. Paul Body and San Diego Padres collection / San Diego Magazine.
Tony Gwynn’s bat displayed as a historical artifact
A bat from Gwynn’s 1998 World Series appearance. Paul Body and San Diego Padres collection / San Diego Magazine.
3,000Henderson’s career hits at the milestone
3,141Gwynn’s final career hits
60,103Attendance at Qualcomm Stadium

Sources and notes

  1. HISTORY.com Editors, Georgia Tech–Cumberland account. Score, venue and first-half scoring; motive is identified as a later historical explanation.
  2. Georgia Tech Athletics, 2014 announcement of the Cumberland game ball’s return. Confirms date, coach, score and the artifact’s acquisition.
  3. Pete Fierle, Pro Football Hall of Fame, “Bittersweet”; Chicago Bears’ record-run account and the archival card record. Payton’s career, third-quarter run and game totals.
  4. NHL.com, October 7 history. Establishes Tampa Bay’s debut and Kontos’ four-goal performance.
  5. NHL official game record, Chicago at Tampa Bay, October 7, 1992, game 1992020009. Score, period totals, goal times, strengths, assists and winning goaltender.
  6. Baseball History, “Barry Bonds Finishes at 73.” Final homer, pitcher, inning, season statistics and playoff context.
  7. MLB, Barry Bonds’ official 2001 game log. Late-season home-run dates and totals.
  8. Frederick C. Bush, SABR Games Project, October 7, 2001. Game reconstruction and Gwynn’s later recollection.
  9. National Baseball Hall of Fame, Tony Gwynn player record. Career statistics and 20 seasons with San Diego.

The cover shows Barry Bonds on August 25, 2006. The chapter includes photographs of his 2001 season and 73rd home run. Cover: Kevin Rushforth / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0. The original photographs have not been altered; site cards may crop them to fit. Captions identify archival images and their source dates where established.

Explore more researched sporting moments in The Sporting Page’s History department.