Summer Olympics Kick Off In Montreal, Canada

On July 17, 1976, the XXI (21) running of the Summer Olympics took place in Montreal, Canada. This also marked the first time the Olympics had been held in Canada, and up until the late 1980’s it was the only time the Olympics were held in Canada before the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

The Soviet Union captures the most medals in the 1976 Olympics, including the most Gold medals 49, nine over East Germany, the most Silver medals, 41, six over the United States and most Bronze medals with 35, 10 over East Germany and the United States.

Canada who hosted the Olympics did not compete at the highest level during the Olympics, being the 27^th ranked Nation as far as medal count went. Canada only accumulated 11 medals, five silver medals and six bronze medals.

If West Germany and East Germany had combined forces, as they would in future Olympic games, they would held the most medals by four, as East Germany accumulated 90 medals ranking them third in medal count, and West Germany accumulated 39 medals, ranking them fourth in medal count.

The United States took home the second most Olympic medals with 94.

Although 92 nations participated in the 1976 Olympic Games, 28 countries including South Africa who had been banned from the Olympics in 1964 due to apartheid policies.

The Olympics ended up being a financial disaster for Montreal, as the city faced debts up until six years ago. The Quebec provincial government took over construction when it became evident in 1975 that work had fallen far behind schedule; work was still under way just weeks before the opening date, and the tower was not built. Mayor Jean Drapeau had confidently predicted in 1970 that "the Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby", but the debt racked up to a billion dollars that the Quebec government mandated the city pay in full.

With Montreal's own Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup the following year, Canada hosting an Olympics has been seen as a good omen to the NHL team in the host city the following year. A year after Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics, their Flames won the Stanley Cup. The Vancouver Canucks hoped to continue this in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, a year after Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics. However, they ended up losing to the Boston Bruins.

NBA Approves Move Of Vancouver Grizzlies To Memphis

On July 3, 2001, NBA owners approve the Vancouver Grizzlies to move to Memphis, Tennessee -- just six years after the Grizzlies joined the NBA as an expansion team.

Attendance for Grizzlies games had been tepid from the start, and with a roster as bad as it gets, the Grizz saw what little fans they had spurn the team completely.

The NBA's experiment in Vancouver, which many considered the best city in all of North America, was an immense failure that many people still look back on. With the move, the Toronto Raptors became the sole NBA team in Canada.

There were several reasons, besides the financial aspect, why the team was forced to migrate to Memphis. For some, the blame rested on the decision to give Bryant "Big Country" Reeves a $65 million contract.

Not only was Reeves not a star, he was perpetually injured and wound up collecting the final years of his contract from the comfort of his sofa.

However, many people blamed the fate of the Grizzlies on Steve Francis, who the Grizzlies had drafted in 1999 with the No. 2 pick. Francis refused to play in Canada and was forced to be dealt to the Houston Rockets two months later. Francis went on to become a star in Houston and deprived the Grizzlies from having a player the could market and build around.


In Memphis, the Grizzlies spent several seasons playing at the Memphis Pyramid before a new stadium was constructed.

Even though they were now in the smallest market in the league, the team experienced a modest improvement in attendance -- mainly because they were now in a city where basketball was a big deal.

Vancouver showed the NBA that you can't just put a team anywhere; the city has to clamor for one in order for it to work.

Wayne Gretzky Sets NHL Record

On March 23, 1994, NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scored his record-breaking 802nd career NHL goal.  Gretzky surpassed his childhood hero Gordie Howe, whose record stood for almost 15 years.

The iconic photo from Wayne Gretzky's 802nd goal.

In the second period of a game against the Vancouver Canucks, Gretzky received a cross-ice feed from Marty McSorley and buried it into a yawning cage for the record-breaking goal.  “The Great One” would record an additional 92 goals in his career, finishing with a total of 894 regular season goals.  At the time of his retirement many considered this record to be untouchable.

Gretzky’s 20-year NHL career between the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers would see him play in 1,487 regular season games, scoring 894 goals, 1,963 assists for 2,857 points. He would score 204 power play goals, and 73 shootout goals, 91 of those were game winning goals.

Wayne Gretzky on the Los Angeles Kings in 1994.

Gretzky would make the playoffs in all but four seasons, as he played in 208 games, scoring 122 goals, 260 assists for 382 points.

Gretzky would be a star in International play as well, earning three Gold medals (1984, 1987, 1991) and one Silver (1981) in Canada Cup play. He would earn a Bronze in both 1978 World Junior Championship and the 1982 World Championships, as well Silver in the 1996 World Cup. Gretzky would also play for team Canada in the 1998 Winter Olympics, but would not medal.

Gretzky would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 22, 1999, becoming the tenth player to bypass the three-year waiting period. The Hall of Fame announced he would be the last player to do so. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2000.

In addition, Gretzky's jersey number 99 was retired league-wide at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game. Gretzky's jersey number 99 is only the second number ever to be retired league-wide by a major North American sports league, the other being Jackie Robinson's number 42, which was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997.

After his playing career ended Gretzky would go on to coach in the NHL with the Phoenix Coyotes. He would coach them for four years, never making the playoffs and only once posting more wins than losses in regulation, 2007-2008 season the Coyotes were 38-37-7.

Montreal Canadiens Debut Molson Centre

On March 17, 1996, the Montreal Canadiens played the first game in their new area, the Molson Centre. The Canadiens hosted the New York Rangers and beat them by a score of 4-2.

The Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

The arena was named after Molson, Inc a brewing company that owned the team at the time of the arena opening. However, when Molson decided to sell the team they also sold the naming rights to the stadium,

Canadian Telecommunications Company, Bell Canada would buy the team, and purchase the naming rights to the stadium. The Bell Centre still has the largest seating capacity for any NHL stadium with 21,407 seats.

The Bell Centre is known throughout the league for having some of the loudest and largest crowds on hand for any given game.

World Baseball Classic Debuts

On March, 3, 2006, that the inaugural World Baseball Classic held its first ever games.  Two games were played on that day with South Korea beating Chinese Taipei 2-0 and Japan hammering China 18-2.  Both games were played in the Tokyo Dome.

The tournament featured teams from all over the world playing in venues all across the globe.  All continents of the world were represented at this competition except for Antarctica, and games were held in North America, Asia and Central America.  Japan would capture the first World Baseball Classic by beating Cuba 10-6 in the Championship game.  Daisuke Matsuzaka, the starting pitcher for the Japanese team, was named the tournament’s MVP.

Although interest and attendance was not as high as tournament directors had hoped, the inaugural World Baseball Classic was still deemed a success. A second Classic was held in 2009 and a third tournament was held in 2013 with the finals being played at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Team Canada Wins Gold

On Feb. 24, 2002, that the Canadian men’s ice hockey team won a gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Team Canada beat Team USA by a score of 5-2 in the finals to capture their first Olympic gold medal in men’s ice hockey in 50 years.

Team Canada, poses with their flag and Gold Medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Assistant captain Joe Sakic was named the tournament MVP, finishing third in scoring with 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists).  Sakic did his best work in the finals, burying two goals and setting up another two for a total of four points.  “Burnaby Joe” scored the eventual game-winner to break a 2-2 tie with a laser of a wrist shot, which beat Mike Richter late in the second period.

They would score two more from there and listen to the Canadian fans in attendance sing “O Canada” as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Once again Team Canada won the Gold Medal in this years Winter Olympics, taking down Sweden at the 2014 Sochi games. While the Americans fell to Finland in the Bronze Medal game after falling to Team Canada in the semi-finals.

The United States has the most medals of any team in men’s Olympic Hockey play with 22, but the Canadians and Swedish are tied in second with 21 medals. 

 

However, the Canadians have the most Gold medals of any team in Olympic history with nine, seven more than both Sweden and the United States. 

 

The United States has the most Silver medals with eight, four more than Canada who is second with four. Sweden has the most Bronze medals in Olympic competition with four, tied with Czechoslovakia.

NBA Trade Deadline; Sochi Olympics; Spring Training Podcast

Scratch Hit Sports creator Stephen Langsam talk about the NBA All-Star Weekend with former co-host of the Sporting Hangover, Ryan Hilton, and dive in head first to talk about what we did and did not like about the All-Star Weekend, and what we thought about the trades made at the trade deadline.

After that we talk about the Sochi Olympics and finish up with some spring training talk with the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants.

LINK: SCRATCH HIT SPORTS PODCAST

USA Hockey Team Thrashes Nagano

On Feb. 19, 1998, that the United States Men’s Olympic hockey team was found responsible of thrashing their hotel rooms at the Olympic Athletes Village in Nagano.  The damage to the room was done just a few hours after the team was ousted from the tournament by the Czech Republic by a 4-1 score.

A few members of Team USA hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

Although the vandalism was minor (broken chairs, dented walls and doors, emptied fire extinguishers) it was a senseless and childish act by the sore loser Americans.  None of the players ever came forward and confessed and therefore no one was ever punished, however, Chris Chelios the captain of the team did write a check for $3000 out of his own pocket to cover the damages.

The 1988 Olympics also saw the Fifty-seven nations and 1,423 athletes participated in the Games, with five countries making their debut in the Winter Olympics. Super-G made its Olympic debut, while curling, freestyle skiing, short track speed skating and disabled skiing were demonstration sports. Speed skating was held in an indoor rink for the first time and the Games were extended to 16 days.

The other sports involved with the Olympic Games were Apline Skiing, Biathalon, Bobsleigh, Cross-country skiing, Figure Skating, Luge, Nordic Combined and Ski jumping.

As at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the only previous Games hosted in Canada, the host country failed to produce any gold medals.

The Soviet Union won the most medals of any country with 29 total, including the most Gold medals with 11, nine Silver medals and nine Bronze medals.

The East Germans won the second most amount of medals, with 25 total, including nine Gold medals, the most Silver medals of any country with 10 and six Bronze medals.

Switzerland rounded out the top three countries with medals earning 15 total, tallying five of each Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

The United States tied for eighth most medals with six, earning two Gold medals, one Silver medal and three Bronze medals.

Matti Nykänen won all three ski jumping events. Yvonne van Gennip won three gold medals in speed skating, setting two world records. Alberto Tomba won two gold medals in alpine skiing.

Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards and the Jamaica national bobsled team entered with little experience but gathered massive media attention, resulting in qualification rules for later Games.

“Cool Runnings” the movie starring John Candy was about the 1988 Jamaican bobsled team.

Lake Placid Winter Olympics Kick Off

On Feb. 14, 1980, the thirteenth Winter Olympic games, a multi-sport event which was celebrated from Feb. 13 through Feb. 24 in Lake Placid, New York. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932. 

The only other candidate city to bid for the Games was Vancouver-Garibaldi, British Columbia, Canada; which withdrew before the final vote.

The mascots of the Games were "Roni" and "Ronny", two raccoons. The mask-like rings on a raccoon's face recall the goggles and hats worn by many athletes in winter sports.

The sports were played at the Olympic Center (later renamed Herb Brooks Arena), Whiteface Mountain, Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run, the Olympic Ski Jumps, the Cascade Cross Country Ski Center, and the Lake Placid High School Speed Skating Oval.

The East Germans won the most medals with 23 total including nine Gold medals, seven Silver medals and seven Bronze medals.

The Soviet Union had one less medal than East Germany with 22, but had the most Gold medals with 10. They also had earned six Silver medals and six Bronze medals.

The United States finished third in total medal count with 12, earning six Gold medals, four Silver medals and two Bronze medals.

The most notable highlight of the Games involved the United States men's ice hockey team. The team was composed mostly of collegiate players and was not predicted to advance beyond group play.

They won the gold medal, defeating the heavily favored Soviet team and Finland in the medal round. The United States team's 4–3 win over the Soviet team, which came into the 1980 Games having won four consecutive Olympic gold medals, became known as the "Miracle on Ice" in the U.S. press.

The win captured the hearts of Americans during a time of Cold War tensions, even though it was the win against Finland that captured the gold medal. A film about the event, called Miracle, was released in 2004.

Other notable highlights included

Lake Placid 1980 marked the first use of artificial snow in Olympic competition.

Cyprus made their Olympic debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The People's Republic of China and Costa Rica both made their Winter Olympic debut. The Republic of China had boycotted the Games over the IOC's recognition of the PRC as "China", and its request for the Republic of China to compete as "Chinese Taipei".

Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark won both the giant slalom and the slalom.

Hanni Wenzel won the women's giant slalom and slalom, making Liechtenstein the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion.

Ulrich Wehling of East Germany and Irina Rodnina of the USSR won their respective events for the third time.

Aleksandr Tikhonov of the USSR earned his fourth straight gold medal.

Nikolay Zimyatov of the USSR earned three gold medals in cross-country skiing.

Eric Heiden of the United States won 5 gold medals in speedskating (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m), setting 4 Olympic records and 1 world record (10,000m) in the process. Heiden was the first to win 5 individual gold medals at one Winter Games.

Robin Cousins won gold for Great Britain in the men's singles figure skating.

The closing ceremonies were held indoors at the Herb Brooks Arena.

In possibly the most dramatic duel of the games, Sweden's Thomas Wassberg edged Finland's Juha Mieto in the 15 km cross-country skiing by 0.01 seconds, the closest margin of victory ever in Olympic cross-country skiing. This led the International Ski Federation (ISF) to time all events to the nearest 1/10 second in the future.

This years' Winter Olympics in Sochi are kicking off and currently the United States is trailing only Norway in medal count with 12 to their Norwegians 14. It also marked only the third time in Olympic history that the United States swept the podium in a single discipline with three Americans atop the podium on Men's skiiing slopestyle.

Nagano Olympics Open

On Feb. 7, 1998, the Opening Ceremonies for the 18 Winter Olympic games open at Nagano, Japan.

Seventy-two nations and 2,176 participants, 1,389 men and 757 women, contested in seven sports and 72 events at 15 venues.

The Games saw the introduction of women's ice hockey, curling and snowboarding. National Hockey League players were allowed to participate in the men's ice hockey again.

The ’98 games are most remembered for Bjorn Dæhlie’s performance. He won three gold medals in cross-country skiing, making him the most-winning Winter Olympic competitor ever, becoming the first winter Olympics athlete to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.

Alpine skier Hermann Maier survived a fall in the downhill and went on to win gold in the super-G and giant slalom.

The Netherlands won five of the ten speed skating events, including two each by Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer. Canada beat Denmark in the women's curling final, securing the latter their first Winter Olympic medal ever.

Women's ice hockey was contested at the Olympic games for the first time ever, and the United States beat the Canadians 3–1 for the gold medal. United States went undefeated in the women's tournament. The Czech Republic defeated Russia by a score of 1–0 for the men's gold medal, while Finland won both the men's and women's bronze medals for ice hockey.

Cross-country skier Bjorn Dæhlie’s of Norway won three gold medals in Nordic skiing to become the first winter Olympian to earn eight career gold medals and twelve total medals.

Curling returned as an official sport, after having been demoted to a demonstration event after the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924

Snowboarding debuted as an official sport.

Players from the NHL were able to compete in men's ice hockey due to a three-week suspension of the NHL season.

Tara Lipinski, 15, narrowly beat Michelle Kwan in women's figure skating to become the youngest champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Alpine skier Hermann Maier (Austria) survived a fall in the downhill and went on to gold in the super-g and giant slalom.

Speed skaters Gianni Romme and Marianne Timmer won two gold medals each for the Netherlands; 5 out of 10 titles in speed skating went to the Netherlands.

Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati (Canada) won the gold medal, after initially being disqualified for testing positive for marijuana.

Azerbaijan, Kenya, the Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela made their first appearance at the Olympic Winter Games.

Denmark won their first winter Olympic medal (and only one to date) when they won a silver medal in the women's curling event.

Australia won their first individual Winter Olympic medal when Zali Steggall won bronze in the women's slalom.

Germany won the most medals and the most gold medals in the Olympics with 29 total, 12 Gold medals, nine silver medals and eight bronze medals.

Norway finished second in total medal count and Gold medals, with 25 medals, 10 Gold, 10 Silver and five bronze.

Russia finished third in total medals and Gold medals, with 18 total, nine Gold, six Silver and three Bronzes.

Canada finished fourth overall in total medal count with 15, six Gold, five silver and four bronze.

The United States finished fifth in total medal count with 13 and tied for fourth in Gold medals with Canada, six. The United States also finished with three silver medals and four bronze medals.

Host country Japan finished seventh overall in total medal count with 10 medals, and tied for six with five Gold medals. Japan finished with only one Silver and four Bronze medals.

The United States were the leading nation in athletes appearing in the Olympic games with 186. The next closest was Japan with 156.

Eleven countries; Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Cyprus, India, Iran, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela only had one athlete compete in the games.

Fourteen countries; the Bahamas, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Gambia, Guam, Guinea-Bissau, Laos, Lebanon, Kuwait, Netherlands Antilles and Tajikistan all registered to take part in the games but did not send a team.

The 2014 Winter Games, the 22nd running of the Winter Olympics kicked off at Sochi in Russia last night with men’s figure skating. The games will continue through last February with most coverage coming on NBC.

Gretzky Scores 50

On Dec. 30, 1981, Edmonton Oilers center Wayne Gretzky scored his 50th goal of the season in just his 39th game.  Gretzky broke the record of 50 goals in 50 games that was held by both Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy.

Wayne Gretzky entered game #39 with 45 goals and needed to score five to get to 50 before the new year.  With already four goals to his name, Gretzky buried an empty netter for his fifth goal of the game to reach 50 in the Oilers 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.  Gretzky went on to break Phil Esposito’s record of 76 goals in a season when he recorded his 77th in February.  “The Great One” finished the year with 92 goals, a record which still stands today.

Scoring in the National Hockey League is way down when compared to the numbers being put up in the 1980’s.  With that being said, Gretzky’s record of 50 goals in 39 games figures to be safe for a very long time.

Gretzky would finish his career as the all-time leading scorer in NHL history with 894 goals, 1,963 assists for 2,857 points in the regular season.

Gretzky would also excel in the playoffs, in his 20 seasons in the NHL, Gretzky made the playoffs 16 times with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kinds, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers. He would score 122 goals, 260 assists for 382 points in just 208 playoff games.

Gretzky would also excel in the International format for his home country of Canada. In 63 games split between World Junior Championships, Canada Cup, World Championships, Rendez-vous ’87, the World Cup and the Winter Olympics in 1998, Gretzky would score 34 goals, 69 assists for a total of 103 points in 63 games.

After his playing career was over Gretzky went on to coach the Phoenix Coyotes from 2005-2009. While he was outstanding as a player he was not that as a coach, missing the playoffs every year, posting his best record in 2008 when he coached the team to a 38-37-7 record, finishing fourth in the Pacific Division with 83 points.

Gretzky at the time of his retirement, Gretzky held or shared a remarkable 61 records, which in itself is a record.  Wayne holds many of the significant offensive records for the regular season, playoffs and the All-Star Game.  Gretzky also represented Canada on several different occasions in International play, including the Winter Olympics, World Championships, World Cup and Canada Cup.

One year after his retirement, at the 2000 All-Star Game, the National Hockey League announced that Wayne Gretzky’s famous no. 99 would be retired league wide.  Gretzky became only the second man in professional North American sports to have his number permanently retired, with Jackie Robinson’s no. 42 being the first by Major League Baseball.

Fox Ends Marathon Of Hope

On Sep. 1, 1980, Terry Fox ended his Marathon of Hope. Fox was forced to cut his run short due to his health problems.

Terry Fox embarked on a cross-country run of Canada, despite having his right leg amputated a few years earlier after he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. 

Fox’s main objective for his journey was to raise money for cancer research, but also to raise awareness for those unfamiliar with the disease.

After 143 days and 5,373 kilometres, Terry ended his quest as his cancer had spread throughout his body, which ultimately led to his death. 

Although he was gone, Fox’s determination and courage is carried on through The Annual Terry Fox Run.

The first annual Terry Fox Run was held in 1981 and has since grown into a worldwide phenomenon. 

Every year millions of participants in over 60 countries get involved for the largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. 

To date, over $500 million has been raised from the Terry Fox Run.