Reelin' in the Year

About three weeks ago, I received the 1977 World Almanac, and it has information I just might find myself using in future entries. Fishing records in that book are listed not only with the weight of the fish, but with the length and girth as well. In this list for this special post are some records set in 1974 that endured for a decade or two, as well as some new to this blog that lasted around three years. Here they are, in reverse order of weight.
 
Note that the freshwater records (June 1976) from the 1977 World Almanac came from Field & Stream magazine and that by 1984 the International Game Fish Association was the source for both fresh- and saltwater records (June 1983).
 
A warmouth weighing two pounds even, with a length of 12 inches and a girth of 12 1/2 inches, was caught in the fresh waters of Sylvania, Ga., on May 4 by Carlton Robbins. The catch was a record according to Field & Stream.
June 1983 record: 2 pounds 2 ounces, 5-19-73 (Robbins' fish apparently wasn't recognized by IGFA)
Jan. 1991 record: 2 pounds 7 ounces, 10-19-85
Current record: see above
 
A three-pound rock bass whose length was 13 1/2 inches and whose girth was 10 3/4 inches was landed Aug. 1 from the York River in Ontario, Canada, by Peter Gulgin.
1-1-08 record: tied with rock bass caught 6-19-98
Current record: see above
 
A silver redhorse with a weight of four pounds and two ounces, a fish 20 1/2 inches long and with a girth of 14 inches, was reeled in Oct. 4 out of the Gasconade River in Missouri, with C. Larry McKegney as the proud angler.
June 1983 record: 9 pounds 11 ounces, 5-22-82
Jan. 1991 record: 11 pounds 7 ounces, 5-29-85
Current record: see above
 
A tiger trout from the Deerskin River in Wisconsin weighed ten pounds and was found to be 27 inches in length and 16 3/4 inches in girth when brought to the scale May 23 by Charles J. Mattek.
June 1983 record: 20 pounds 13 ounces, 8-12-78
Current record: 27 pounds 6 ounces, 8-7-22
 
A 13-pound lake whitefish was caught July 14 from Great Bear Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories, one whose length was 32 1/4 inches and whose girth was 19 inches when certified as a record fish landed by Robert L. Stintsman.
June 1983 record: 13 pounds 5 ounces, 4-19-81
Jan. 1991 record: 14 pounds 6 ounces, 5-21-84
Current record: see above
 
A chum salmon was reeled in Aug. 19, and the record has it that the fish that swam in Alaska's Margarita Bay was 24 pounds 4 ounces, with a length of 40 1/2 inches and a girth of 22 7/8 inches. Richard Coleman caught it.
June 1983 record: 27 pounds 3 ounces, 6-11-77
Jan. 1991 record: 32 pounds even, 6-7-85
8-26-99 record: 35 pounds even, 7-11-95
Current record: see above
 
An Atlantic sailfish, weighing 128 pounds 1 ounce, was an IGFA saltwater record catch for 17 years. The sailfish, with a length of 8 feet 10 1/4 inches and a girth of 34 1/4 inches, posed a challenge March 27 to Harm Steyn, who was fishing in Luanda, Angola.
10-1-95 record: 135 pounds 5 ounces, caught 11-10-91
8-26-99 record: 141 pounds 1 ounce, caught 2-19-94
Current record: 142 pounds 6 ounces, caught 3-12-14
 
A 1,142-pound Atlantic blue marlin reeled in July 26 at Nags Head, N.C., stood for just over three years (if that) as an IGFA record fish. The huge saltwater monster was measured at a length of 13 feet 9 inches and a girth of 80 inches. Jack Herrington would see his name in the books.
June 1983 record: 1,282 pounds, 8-6-77
10-1-95 record: 1,402 pounds 2 ounces, 2-29-92
Current record: see above
 
Sources: The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1977, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1984, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1992, 1996 Information Please Sports Almanac, 2000 ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac, ESPN Sports Almanac 2009, IGFA.org

EDIT 12:09 p.m. EST: Among other things, the sailfish was not 34 feet 1/4 inch in girth!

Sports74 Gold: College Basketball '73-74

From stars being made to dynasties on the wane, here's the college scene and a little more of amateur hoops.

North Carolina State wins the NCAA tournament. En route to a 76-64 win against Marquette in the championship game, the Wolfpack defeats the powerhouse that is UCLA 80-77 in double overtime. N.C. State's record for the season is 30-1.

The Bruins' loss to the Wolfpack is one of four that season; the first, against Notre Dame Jan. 19, brings their 88-game winning streak to an end. The Fighting Irish, playing at home, overcome an 11-point deficit in the last 3:30 to win 71-70.

The next two are on consecutive nights: Feb. 15 against Oregon and Feb. 16 against Oregon State. The Bruins hadn't practiced on a Sunday before, but there's a first time for everything, and that time is Feb. 17.

Bill Walton wins three of the five outstanding player awards he had swept in '72 and '73 (namely: UPI, U.S. Basketball Writers' Association, and the Naismith Award). At the end of his time at UCLA, his total is 1,370 rebounds. He has 398 in '73-74 and averages 19.3 points per game, but those marks aren't as high as the ones for his sophomore and junior years.

Instead of giving Walton the outstanding player award for a third time, the AP and the Helms Foundation both choose David Thompson of N.C. State. Thompson averages 26.0 points per game this season with 245 rebounds (7.9 per game). He is also the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, with a .514 field goal percentage, a .786 free throw percentage, 17 rebounds, and 49 points in two games. Walton and Thompson tie for the Helms Foundation award according to the '91 Information Please Sports Almanac; Sports-Reference.com says Thompson alone won it.

In fact, Thompson is the runner-up for the AAU's prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, covering all sports.

The consensus All-America team is as follows: Walton, Thompson, Keith Wilkes (later Jamaal Wilkes) of UCLA, John Shumate of Notre Dame, Marvin Barnes of Providence.

Who is the Coach of the Year? UPI says Digger Phelps of Notre Dame, the USBWA and the AP say Norm Sloan of N.C. State, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches says Al McGuire of Marquette. In '75, all of those awards will go to Indiana's Bobby Knight.

Indiana, despite being good enough to be ranked No. 9 in the AP poll, does not make the NCAA tournament, but the Hoosiers do win the end-of-season Collegiate Commissioners' Association tournament, narrowly defeating Tennessee and Toledo before dominating USC in the finals.

Larry Fogle of independent, 14-12 Canisius leads the NCAA with 33.4 points per game, or, by another set of standards, it's William Averitt of 8-18 West Coast Athletic Conference member Pepperdine with 33.9.

Barnes has 597 rebounds in 32 games, the top NCAA mark for that category. He had 571 in 30 games the year before, but finished second on the leaderboard.

The per-game rebound leader, for the second time in a row, is Kermit Washington of American, a 16-10 Middle Atlantic Conference team. His average was 19.8 last season and an even 20.0 this season.

Al Fleming of Arizona finishes the season with a .667 field-goal percentage, tying Kent Martens of Abilene Christian in 1972 and Lew Alcindor of UCLA in 1967, the former two having attempted exactly 204 field goals each and the latter having gone 346-for-519.

Lute Olson, future Iowa and Arizona coach, coaches this year at Long Beach State after a year at Long Beach City College. He takes over for Jerry Tarkanian, who will begin the first of many years at UNLV next season.

Speaking of Long Beach State, the 49ers' home winning streak ends at 75 sometime in '74. Their 94-84 loss to San Francisco ends a run that began in 1968. Another home-court winning streak begins this calendar year: the UNLV Rebels' 72 times defending their home.

Duke leads by eight with 17 seconds left in the March 2 game against hated rival UNC, a much mightier team against which the Blue Devils have put up a fight. The Tar Heels rally back, culminating in a long shot by Mitch Kupchak. Duke goes on to lose in overtime, having fallen apart. Pete Kramer's free throw in the fourth period would have been the difference.

Purdue wins the NIT with a 97-81 win over Utah in the final. The Utes' Mike Sojourner is the tournament MVP.

Morgan State wins the College Division (later known as Division II) title.

Alcorn State, a future NCAA Division I school, loses the NAIA final to West Georgia.

Lloyd Free, later to be known as World B. Free, is an NAIA All-American. The Guilford guard also makes second team AP Little All-America.

This is the first year that freshmen are eligible for varsity teams.

In the school's last year before the shuttering of its doors, Englewood Cliffs College (N.J.) sets a record Jan. 20, losing to Essex County Community College by 143 points. The victorious Wolverines also set a record with their 210 points, with the official scorecard and game ball going to the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Immaculata University wins the AIAW title for the third year in a row in the third edition of the women's tournament.

OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE GAME

Moses Malone leads Petersburg High to a second consecutive state championship in Virginia high school basketball. His 896 points in 25 games (for an average of 35.8) is a single-season total-points record that will stand for 19 years. Malone's career scoring average of 27.2 remains one of the best in state history.

The Soviet Union wins the FIBA championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Yugoslavia finishes second in this tournament, which is the last of the quadrennial world championships with a round-robin to decide the champion instead of a single final game.

From the A's to the whys, division races to drunken rabble, fastballs in California to baring it all in Chicago, stars at play to disputes over pay, it's a deep dive into the American League, coming March 1.

[EDIT 5/2/2024 1:55-1:56 p.m. EDT: It's not "the" UPI. Is it?]