Dec. 24

1950 — Cleveland’s Otto Graham throws four touchdown passes, despite icy footing in Municipal Stadium, and Lou Groza kicks a 16-yard field goal with 28 seconds left to give the Browns a 30-28 victory over the Los Angeles Rams and the NFL title in their first year in the league.

1961 — George Blanda’s 35-yard touchdown pass to Billy Cannon gives the Houston Oilers a 10-3 victory over the San Diego Chargers for their second AFL title.

1967 — New York’s Joe Namath becomes the first player to throw for 4,000 yards in a season. Namath passes for 343 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Jets to a 42-31 win at San Diego. Namath finishes the year with 4,007 yards.

1997 — In one of the biggest upsets in college basketball, Division II American-Puerto defeats the No. 12 Arkansas Razorbacks 64-59 in the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic.

2000 — Marshall Faulk breaks Emmitt Smith’s NFL record for touchdowns, scoring three times to give him 26 for the St. Louis Rams. Faulk’s three touchdowns and 220 yards fuels a 26-21 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

2003 — Steven Jackson ties a bowl game record with five touchdowns, and Oregon State’s defense overwhelms mistake-plagued New Mexico in a 55-14 win at the Las Vegas Bowl.

2006 — Colt Brennan sets the NCAA single-season record for touchdown passes at 58, throwing five in the second half to lead Hawaii to a 41-24 victory over Arizona State in the Hawaii Bowl. Brennan, 33-of-42 for 559 yards, breaks the previous mark of 54 set by Houston’s David Klingler in 1990.

2011 — David Akers kicks his way into the NFL record book and the San Francisco 49ers hold off Seattle for a 19-17 win. Akers makes four field goals to give him 42 this season, breaking the NFL mark of 40 set by Neil Rackers in 2005 with Arizona.

2014 — Western Kentucky holds on to defeat Central Michigan 49-48 in a wild inaugural Bahamas Bowl. Central Michigan trails 49-14 entering the fourth quarter before Cooper Rush engineers a comeback. He throws four touchdown passes in the final minutes, and the Chippewas get the ball back at their own 25 with one second remaining. Rush completes a pass to Jesse Kroll, and the ball is lateraled three times before Titus Davis dove into the pylon for a touchdown with no time remaining. CMU elects to go for two, only to have the pass drop incomplete.

2016 — With a 41-3 rout of the New York Jets, Bill Belichick earns his 200th regular-season victory in New England, making him the fifth coach in NFL history to reach the milestone with one team.

2016 — Cleveland survives a last-second field-goal attempt and gets its first victory after 14 losses by beating the San Diego Chargers 20-17. When San Diego’s Josh Lambo misses a 45-yard field-goal attempt as time expires, the Browns (1-14) win for the first time in 377 days.

Dec. 25

1956 — Corky Devlin of Fort Wayne goes 0-for-15 from the field against the Minneapolis Lakers to tie an NBA record.

1971 — Garo Yepremian’s 37-yard field goal at 7:40 of the second overtime gives the Miami Dolphins a 27-24 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the AFC playoffs. At 82:40, it’s the longest game in NFL history.

1984 — Bernard King of the New York Knicks scores 60 points in a 120-114 loss to the New Jersey Nets.

1995 — Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys scores his 25th touchdown of the season in a 37-13 win over Arizona, breaking the record for most TDs in a season. Smith passes John Riggins of Washington, who scored 24 in 1983.

1999 — Hawaii beats Oregon 23-17 in the Oahu Bowl to cap a remarkable turnaround for the Rainbow Warriors. Hawaii improves from 0-12 in 1998 to 9-4 — the greatest single-season improvement in NCAA history.

2002 — Katie Hnida becomes the first woman to play in a Division I football game when she attempts an extra point following a New Mexico touchdown in the Las Vegas Bowl. Hnida, a walk-on junior, has her kick blocked in the 27-13 loss to UCLA.

2008 — The Los Angeles Lakers beat Boston to end the Celtics’ franchise-record winning streak at 19 games. Kobe Bryant scores 27 points and grabs nine rebounds to lead Los Angeles in the 92-83 win. Lakers coach Phil Jackson reaches 1,000 victories. Jackson, the sixth coach to reach 1,000, has a career record of 1,000-423 with Chicago and the Lakers.

2008 — New Orleans guard Chris Paul has his NBA-record steals streak end at 108 games in the Hornets’ 88-68 loss to Orlando.

2012 — The Los Angeles Clippers extend their franchise-record winning streak to 14 games with a 112-100 win over the Denver Nuggets. The Clippers claim the NBA’s best record at 22-6 in the finale of a Christmas Day doubleheader at Staples Center. In the first game, Kobe Bryant scores 34 points in his NBA-record 15th Christmas Day game to lead the Lakers to a 100-94 win over the New York Knicks 100-94.

2016 — Ben Roethlisberger shakes off a pair of interceptions to throw two late touchdowns, including a 4-yard strike to Antonio Brown with 9 seconds remaining to lift the Steelers to a 31-27 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. The win is the 600th regular-season victory in franchise history. Roethlisberger also becomes the 10th player in NFL history to throw for at least 300 career touchdowns.

Dec. 26

1908 — Jack Johnson becomes the first black man to win the world heavyweight boxing title, with a 14th-round knockout of Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

1917 — Toronto’s Harry Cameron becomes the first defenseman to score four goals in a game as the Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 7-5.

1943 — Sid Luckman throws five touchdown passes to lead the Chicago Bears to a 41-21 victory over the Washington Redskins for the NFL championship.

1946 — The United States wins the Davis Cup with a 5-0 sweep of Australia, the worst defeat for a defending champion.

1954 — Otto Graham scores three touchdowns and passes for three more to lead the Cleveland Browns to a 56-10 rout of the Detroit Lions for the NFL title.

1955 — The Cleveland Browns intercept six passes, one of which is returned 65 yards for a touchdown by Don Paul, in a 38-14 victory over the Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship.

1960 — The Philadelphia Eagles come from behind twice on a 35-yard pass to Tommy McDonald from Norm Van Brocklin and a 5-yard run by Ted Dean to beat the Green Bay Packers 17-13 for the NFL title.

1964 — Wray Carlton and Jack Kemp each score touchdowns and Pete Gogolak kicks two field goals to give the Buffalo Bills a 20-7 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the AFL championship.

1965 — The Buffalo Bills win their second straight AFL championship with a 27-0 victory over the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers are able to get inside Buffalo’s 25-yard line only once.

1986 — Center Doug Jarvis of the Hartford Whalers plays his 915th consecutive game, setting an NHL record.

1999 — Mike Vanderjagt’s 21-yard field goal with four seconds left gives the Indianapolis Colts a 29-28 win over the Cleveland Browns. Indianapolis, which went 3-13 in 1998, makes NFL history by winning 10 more games than they did the previous season.

2001 — Colorado’s Patrick Roy becomes the first NHL goalie to win 500 games as he records his seventh shutout of the season, a 2-0 win over Dallas.

2004 — Peyton Manning breaks Dan Marino’s single-season touchdown pass record when he throws his 48th and 49th of the season, rallying Indianapolis from a 31-16 fourth-quarter deficit to win 34-31 in overtime over San Diego.

2007 — Chris Summers kicks a 40-yard field goal as time expired in the Motor City Bowl, lifting Purdue to a 51-48 win over Central Michigan. The 99 points ties the second-highest total in a bowl game that ended in regulation, trailing only the 2003 Insight Bowl, where California beat Virginia Tech 52-49.

2011 — Drew Brees sets the NFL record for yards passing in a season, breaking a mark that Dan Marino had held since 1984, and the New Orleans Saints clinch the NFC South title with a 45-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. Brees throws for 307 yards and four touchdown passes, the last a 9-yard strike to Darren Sproles that set the record with 2:51 to go. It was Brees’ final pass of the game and it gave him 5,087 yards passing, to break the record by three yards.

Dec. 27

1953 — The Detroit Lions edge the Cleveland Browns 17-16 for the NFL championship. Doak Walker’s extra point, following a 33-yard scoring pass, is the difference.

1959 — The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 31-16 in the NFL championship. Three field goals by Pat Summerall give the Giants a 9-7 lead after three periods, but Baltimore’s defensive backfield makes three interceptions that result in scores.

1964 — The Cleveland Browns break out after a scoreless first half with 17 points in the third quarter and go on to beat the Baltimore Colts 27-0 for the NFL title.

1974 — Ohio State junior running back Archie Griffin wins the Heisman Trophy.

1987 — Steve Largent of the Seattle Seahawks becomes the NFL’s all-time reception leader in the Seahawks’ 41-20 loss to Kansas City. Largent’s six catches gives him 752, surpassing the 750 by San Diego’s Charlie Joiner. Gayle Sierens announcing the game for NBC becomes the first female play-by-play announcer in NFL history.

1999 — Joe Sakic scores his 1,000th career point on a second-period assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.

2000 — Mario Lemieux makes a remarkable comeback after 3½ years of retirement, scoring a goal and assisting on two others — one on his first pass on his first shift, no less — as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-0.

2005 — Rudy Carpenter passes for 467 yards and four touchdowns as Arizona State holds off Rutgers for a wild 45-40 victory in the Insight Bowl. The teams combine for 1,210 yards, a record for any bowl game.

2008 — Pat White, the most prolific running quarterback in college football history, has the best passing game of his career to lead West Virginia to a 31-30 victory over North Carolina in the Meineke Bowl. The senior is voted MVP of a bowl for the third straight year and finishes 4-0 in postseason games, the first quarterback to do so.

2010 — Niklas Kronwall scores the game-winner with 1:18 remaining in overtime and Chris Osgood stops a season-high 46 shots in the Detroit Red Wings’ 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche to become the 10th goalie in NHL history to reach 400 wins.

2015 — Carolina’s bid for an undefeated season ends when Julio Jones’ dramatic 70-yard touchdown reception powered the Atlanta Falcons to a 20-13 victory over Cam Newton and the 14-1 Panthers.

2015 — Kansas City beat Cleveland 17-13 for its ninth consecutive victory and clinches a playoff spot when Pittsburgh loses to Baltimore. The Chiefs and 1986 Jets are the only teams in NFL history with a nine-game win streak and five-game losing streak in the same season.

___

MORE