Born in '74

This is a longer list of 30 people who (God willing) will all celebrate their 50th birthdays in 2024.

Walter Jones, four-time consensus All-Pro offensive tackle, Jan. 19 in Aliceville, Ala.

Magglio Ordonez, American League batting champion, Jan. 28 in Caracas, Venezuela.

Steve Nash, two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, Feb. 7 in Johannesburg.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, French Open and Australian Open winner, Feb. 18 in Sochi, U.S.S.R.

Bobby Abreu, two-time N.L. selection for the All-Star Game, March 11 in Aragua, Venezuela.

Michael Peca, two-time Selke Trophy winner, March 26 in Toronto.

Danny Way, skateboarding record holder for air and distance, April 15 in Portland, Ore.

Jennifer Rizzotti, AP women's basketball Player of the Year, May 15 in White Plains, N.Y.

Danny Wuerffel, Heisman Trophy winner, May 27 in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Hideki Matsui, Central League home run leader, June 12 in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.

Derek Jeter, New York Yankees career hits leader, June 26 in Pequannock, N.J.

Jose Roberto da Silva Jr. (Ze Roberto), FIFA World Cup All-Star, July 6 in Sao Paulo.

Maurice Greene, two-time Olympic sprinting gold medalist, July 23 in Kansas City, Kan.

Jonathan Ogden, four-time consensus All-Pro offensive tackle, July 31 in Washington, D.C.

Krisztine Egerszegi, five-time Olympic swimming gold medalist, Aug. 16 in Budapest, Hungary.

Jason Taylor, three-time consensus All-Pro linebacker, Sept. 1 in Pittsburgh.

Ben Wallace, two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Sept. 10 in Whitehall, Ala.

Hicham El Guerrouj, two-time Olympic running gold medalist, Sept. 14 in Berkane, Morocco.

Rasheed Wallace, four-time selection for the NBA All-Star Game, Sept. 17 in Philadelphia.

Sol Campbell, FIFA World Cup All-Star, Sept. 18 in London.

Rich Franklin, UFC middleweight champion, Oct. 5 in Cincinnati.

Shannon MacMillan, member of the U.S. women's soccer team, Oct. 7 in Syosset, N.Y.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., third-generation NASCAR driver, Oct. 10 in Concord, N.C.

Chris Pronger, Hart Trophy and Norris Trophy winner, Oct. 10 in Dryden, Ontario, Canada.

Paul Kariya, three-time all-NHL left winger, Oct. 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

R.A. Dickey, Cy Young Award winner in the National League, Oct. 29 in Nashville, Tenn.

Michael Vaughan, captain of his country's cricket team, Oct. 29 in Eccles, England.

Paul Scholes, scorer of 107 EPL goals for Manchester United, Nov. 16 in Salford, England.

Saku Koivu, three-time Olympian for his country's ice hockey team, Nov. 23 in Turku, Finland.

Karrie Webb, winner of seven major LPGA Tour events, Dec. 21 in Ayr, Australia.

Sports74 Gold: Miscellaneous

For the most part, this section is about North American sports. An international section is scheduled for July 26, the day the Olympic Games begin. May the new year be as happy it can be, considering what sort of year it's going to be.

Evel Knievel makes three appearances on Wide World of Sports. He successfully jumps eleven Mack trucks, then thirteen Mack trucks, but crashes trying to jump over the Snake River Canyon.

Speaking of Wide World of Sports, that program wins the Emmy in its category for '73-74 and will win in the Edited Program division of sports for '74-75.

Kyle Rote Jr. of the NASL's Dallas Tornado wins the second annual Superstars multi-sport competition on ABC television. This is the first year the obstacle course is used.

Jim McKay wins his fourth Emmy for Outstanding Host or Commentator, while Keith Jackson wins his third of five National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association awards for sportscaster of the year.

More than a quarter of a billion dollars is spent on televising sports, but ratings are down.

In college money matters, the NCAA will report that four-fifths of its schools lose money on sports in 1974.

Earl Anthony earns many bowling honors for the first time: winner at the PBA National Championship, winner at the Firestone Tournament of Champions, money leader, PBA Bowler of the Year, and BWA Bowler of the Year. One of the events he wins is the California version of the Home Box Office Open.

Larry Laub wins bowling's U.S. Open, and Paul Colwell wins the American Bowling Congress Masters tournament. Pat Costello wins the women's U.S. Open with two strikes in the last frame and the Professional Women's Bowlers Association championship with a tenth-frame turkey. The winner of the WIBC (Women's International Bowling Congress) Queens tourney is Judy Soutar.

LATE ADDITION, 1-3-24, 6:01 p.m.: Jim Godman sets a record for ABC tournaments with a score of 2,184 for all events. His averages will be: 223.98 in 27 events 1974-76, 219.44 in 36 events 1974-77, and 218.33 in 45 events 1973-77.

Bobby Fischer, eight-time U.S. chess champion (1958-1966), continues his reign as world champion that started in 1972. Fischer briefly gives up the championship in June due to a difference of opinion in how his title defense match should go. In November, he plays against Anatoly Karpov to remain champion. In '75, Karpov will be awarded the title on account of Fischer not showing up. However, Fischer makes chess popular enough for a book called How to Beat Bobby Fischer, published in 1974.

Winston is the first commercial sponsor of a beach volleyball tournament, paying $1,500 to back an event in San Diego.

Peter Gulgin catches a three-pound rock bass in Ontario's York River on Aug. 1. The record catch for that type of fish will be tied in 1998.

Other fishing records, set in 1974 but broken in the nineties: a 12 pound 9 ounce pink salmon, caught by Steven A. Lee on Aug. 17 in Alaska's Morse & Kenai rivers, and a 128 pound 1 ounce Atlantic sailfish caught by Harm Steyn on March 27 in Luanda, Angola.

Tommy Martin, with a total of 33 pounds and 7 ounces, wins the BASS Masters Classic.

In angling, Steve Rajeff of San Francisco dominates at the North American and world casting championships.

In rodeo, Tommy Ferguson of Miami, Okla., begins a six-year string of All-Around Champion Cowboy titles. In particular, he does well in steer wrestling and calf roping.

Eleven-year-old Curt Yarborough of Elk Grove, Calif., wins the All-American Soap Box Derby; Bret Yarborough had done so the year before, when he was 11.

The Women's Sports Foundation is established.

In power boat racing (a sport found in the 1975 AP Sports Almanac as "unlimited hydroplane racing"), George Henley drives Pay 'N Pak to the APBA Gold Cup, and he will do so again in '75.

Also in boating, Art Norris, a young vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, wins the national offshore inboard with Slap Shot.

In yachting, Scaramouche -- owned by Chuck Kirsch of Sturgis, Mich. -- is the winner of the race from Newport to Bermuda.

Johns Hopkins University wins its first of many NCAA lacrosse championships.

In box lacrosse, the NLL's Philadelphia Wings are the champs of the indoor game. Paul Suggate of the Maryland Arrows scores 115 goals and makes 124 assists in the regular season.

The Wisconsin Badgers win the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Varsity Eights for the second of three times in a row. They cover 2,000 meters in 6 minutes and 33 seconds.

The USC Trojans, with national stars John Naber and Steve Furniss on the team, snap Indiana's six-year streak as NCAA swimming champions.

The Oklahoma Sooners are the collegiate wrestling champions, with Michigan as runners-up.

Larry Kokos, 14, is the boys' champion at the national marbles tournament, while Susan Regan, 13, is the girls' champion. Each Pittsburgher defeats an opponent from Cumberland, Md., in the final. Larry wins a best-of-five overall series against Susan.

Best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show is Ch. Gretchenhof Columbia River, Dr. Richard P. Smith's German short-haired pointer.

In the second running of the Iditarod sled dog race, the winner is Carl Huntington, who travels 1,049 miles in barely over 20 days 15 hours. No one else reaches the goal within three weeks of starting the race.

Finishing second at the World & National junior boys' horseshoe pitching tournament is one Walter Ray Williams of Eureka, Calif. The Modified IV winner at the World Series of Snowmobiling is a Canadian named Jacques Villeneuve.

In archery, Douglas J. Brouthers of Sharonville, Ohio, wins the national amateur championship and then the world championship, the latter competition being held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.

The Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Conn., dominate the national women's fast-pitch softball tournament and win it for the fourth consecutive time.

Danny Seemiller of Pittsburgh defeats three of Japan's best table tennis players in one day at Grand Rapids, Mich., a feat likened to Carl Hubbell's 1934 All-Star Game performance.

Fred Lewis of Cleveland is the U.S. Open winner in both four-wall and three-wall handball, having also won four-wall in 1972, while Steve Sandler of Brooklyn becomes a seven-time AAU one-wall champion.

In hunting, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposes bans on lead shotgun ammo. The government agency says too many waterfowl are killed by eating pellets, but hunters say steel isn't as effective and is in fact bad for barrels.

Twenty-seven million fishermen pay $128 million for state licenses.

Tim Horton, longtime defenseman in the NHL, dies Feb. 21.

John Henry Lewis, former light-heavyweight boxing champion, dies April 14.

Dizzy Dean, Hall of Fame pitcher, dies July 17.

Don McCafferty, then-active Detroit Lions head coach, dies July 28.

James J. Braddock, former heavyweight boxing champion, dies Nov. 29.

English rugby fans and members of the Bury St. Edmunds Rugby Club are among those killed on a March 3 flight from Paris to London that crashes right after takeoff. With 346 deaths, it is for three years the crash with the most deaths ever.

On New Year's Day, there'll be a big list of 1974 births. The next full installment goes from Dr. J to a couple of T's – technical fouls, that is. The NBA and ABA will be brought together Jan. 19.

Step Into Christmas

 At about the 2:15 mark, he creates a little publicity for a soccer team.

Merry Christmas, reader(s). Expect a hodgepodge of sports Friday and something special Sunday or Monday. Also expect Showaddywaddy a year from now, maybe.

Sports74 Gold: Hockey

In the aftermath of a recent event, this section does not get the introduction that had been planned. The point of it was that there's more to hockey in the 1970s than the roughness for which that time in the game's history is remembered.

The Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup in six games against the Boston Bruins. Coach Fred Shero wins the very first Jack Adams Award for his part in bringing this NHL team to the top. Led by team captain Bobby Clarke, the Flyers are the first of the six expansion teams of '67 to win the Cup; eventually, four more of them will.

The Flyers' penalty minute total is by far the most in the NHL: 1,756. Bob Kelly, who scored a goal every 16 games or so in that first Cup-winning season, is credited with winning 14 of his 15 fights. Dave Schultz gets nine minutes for a single incident during a semifinal game when he beat up Brad Park of the home New York Rangers.

Schultz leads the NHL in penalty minutes with a record 348. He'll break that record by accumulating 472 minutes next season.

In the WHA, the Houston Aeros sweep the Chicago Cougars in the Avco Cup final. One of the men driving them to this victory is Gordie Howe, who joined the Aeros along with sons Mark Howe and Marty Howe at the beginning of the season. Gordie, 46 years old by the end of the season, wins the MVP award, adding 31 goals and 69 assists to his huge career totals. Mark is the Rookie of the Year.

The Flyers' Bernie Parent wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs and is one of two goalies to win the Vezina Trophy this year. His record of 47 wins is one that may never be equaled, his mark of 12 shutouts is one reached only six times before in a season of 70 games or longer, and his 1.89 goals-against average is a league best.

With 68 goals and 77 assists, the Bruins' Phil Esposito wins the Art Ross Trophy for the fifth time in a row and the sixth time overall. This is the fifth of six times in a row that he leads the league in goals. The 68-goal mark will remain the second-highest for an NHL season (second to his own personal best) until Mike Bossy does one better in '78-79 and many others eclipse it thereafter.

Phil also wins the Hart Trophy (league MVP as voted by the writers) and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy (MVP as voted by the players). He now has 466 goals and 577 assists for his career.

Tony Esposito, goalie for the Chicago Black Hawks (and Phil's younger brother), gets 10 shutouts and a 2.03 GAA, both runners-up to Parent's marks but far better than the third-best. His performance earns him a share of the Vezina Trophy as the Black Hawks and Flyers each allow exactly 164 goals in 78 games. Incidentally, Chicago is the team Boston beats in the semifinals.

Bobby Orr of the Bruins wins the Norris Trophy (best defenseman) for the seventh of eight times. He leads the league in assists with 90.

The Calder Trophy for best rookie goes to Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders, who has 54 points and 175 penalty minutes.

Another great who makes his Islanders debut this season is Al Arbour, head coach for this season and 12 more to follow.

The first team All-Stars are Parent, Orr, Phil Esposito, Park, Buffalo Sabres left wing Rick Martin, and Bruins right wing Ken Hodge.

The Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play goes for a second time to Bruins captain Johnny Bucyk, who gets only eight penalty minutes in 76 games. This is his second season wearing the C for Boston, the first being 1966-67.

Martin achieves four of the league's 66 hat tricks, all in wins for his Sabres.

In 13 penalty shot situations, five players score, but the only one of those five whose team goes on to win is Juha Widing, whose Los Angeles Kings defeat the Atlanta Flames.

Gerry Cheevers of the Cleveland Crusaders has a WHA-leading four shutouts. He had a league-best five the previous season.

At the NHL All-Star Game in Chicago, the West Division wins 6-4. Garry Unger of the St. Louis Blues is the MVP. Frank Mahovlich plays in his fifteenth consecutive All-Star Game, and it will be his last before he joins the WHA.

The WHA All-Star Game is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. The East wins 8-4, and the MVP is Mike Walton of the local Minnesota Fighting Saints. Walton leads the league in scoring for the season with 57 goals and 60 assists, which means he earns the W.D. "Bill" Hunter Trophy. His goals total also paces the WHA.

Sabres defenseman Tim Horton, who had helped the Toronto Maple Leafs to four Stanley Cup championships in the sixties, dies in a single-car crash Feb. 21 at the age of 44. The car in question was his signing bonus for joining Buffalo prior to the season, and the drive there from Toronto after a game against the Leafs the night before -- a 4-2 Sabres loss in which he was among the three stars -- is cut short in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. His funeral on the 25th attracts a huge crowd, aided by the fact that no NHL games are scheduled that day.

Montreal Canadiens captain Henri Richard reaches 1,000 points Dec. 10, 1973, in a game against the Sabres.

After an All-NHL First Team, GAA-leading, Vezina-winning, Stanley Cup-winning '72-73, Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden does not play this season. Because he feels his team is being too tight, he is working as a law clerk in Toronto for a weekly salary of $134 Canadian.

Dryden also provides color commentary for local coverage of the WHA's Toronto Toros, who have just moved from Ottawa. They draw 4,291 fans a game to Varsity Arena.

In late November 1973, the struggling New York Golden Blades become the Jersey Knights, going from Madison Square Garden to the much smaller Cherry Hill Arena. One of the team's players, Andre Lacroix, a former Flyer now playing on the other side of the Delaware River, leads the WHA in assists with 111.

Among the 1974 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees is Dickie Moore, one of the stars of the '50s Canadiens. Also among them is Soviet coach Anatoly Tarasov, the first Soviet in the Hall.

This is Borje Salming's first season in the NHL. This Swedish defenseman, who is making his debut with the Maple Leafs, will establish that a European can indeed make it in this league. Also entering the NHL are future Hall of Famers Bob Gainey, Lanny McDonald, and Denis Potvin.

Charles Finley, owner of baseball's Oakland A's, no longer owns the NHL's California Golden Seals after the season, when the league buys the Seals back.

Alex Delvecchio (24 years in the NHL), Dean Prentice (22), and Gump Worsley (21) all retire. Gordie Howe's record of 25 seasons in the NHL is safe, and his 26th will be '79-80.

In the American Hockey League, the Hershey Bears, a Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate, are the champions. Twenty-year-old Rick Middleton of the runner-up Providence Reds (a Rangers farm club) is named the AHL's rookie of the year. In eight years' time, he will score 51 goals for the Bruins. The MVP of the AHL is 38-year-old Art Stratton of the Rochester Americans, a former NHL player.

In the Central Hockey League, the Dallas Black Hawks (a Chicago affiliate) are the champions. The Central League MVP is 25-year-old Chico Resch of the Fort Worth Wings. The Islanders call the netminder up during the season. The CHL rookie of the year, 28-year-old Claire Alexander of the Oklahoma City Blazers, has played his first full season of pro hockey after being a senior amateur for six years, and in '74-75, he will make his NHL debut with the Blazers' parent club, the Maple Leafs.

Herb Brooks wins his first NCAA title as Minnesota coach. Brad Shelstad, the Gophers' goalie, is Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

The Soviet Union wins its thirteenth IIHF championship. This is the Soviets' second of three in a row immediately following Czechoslovakia snapping the Russians' long streak in '72. Vladislav Tretyak is named best goaltender of the tournament for the first of four times, and this season he also wins his first of five MVP awards for the top Soviet league.

In junior hockey, the Regina Pats of the WCHL win the Memorial Cup by defeating the Quebec Remparts (QMJHL) 7-4. The other participants are the OHA's St. Catharines Black Hawks.

Future Hall of Famers in the Western Canada Hockey League: Bernie Federko is starting a three-year run with the Saskatoon Blades, and Doug Wilson is making his juniors debut for the Winnipeg Clubs.

Thirteen-year-old Wayne Gretzky is already recognized as the next big thing in hockey, and he's getting some media coverage, including an appearance on CBC radio's This Country in the Morning March 25. He says he doesn't see himself making a million dollars someday.

As we draw closer to the golden jubilee, expect a sporting jamboree. Chess, bowling, lacrosse, fishing, and motorcycle jumps are some of the topics in the next entry, to be posted Dec. 29.