As the sports world remains at a virtual standstill due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, let’s take a look back to see what happened on April 7 in sports history.


1928 – Lester Patrick saves the day – Earlier this year, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game that saw both of the ‘Canes’ goaltenders – James Reimer and Petr Mrazek – get hurt and 42-year-old freelance Zamboni driver Dave Ayres enter the game as an emergency backup. Ayres stopped eight of the Leafs’ 10 shots en route to a 6-3 win. While Ayres made international headlines and went on a media tour (even appearing on Stephen Colbert), an even higher-stakes EBUG situation occurred in 1928 – during the Stanley Cup Final – and featured a different kind of team employee being called into action – a coach and general manager. In Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, New York Rangers goaltender Lorne Chabot took a shot directly to the eye and had to leave the game midway through the second period. Back then, NHL teams usually only carried a single goalie, so what normally happened if an additional goalie was required was any available one would be drafted in during an emergency. While in most cases, the opposing team would acquiesce to the substitution, Montreal Maroons coach Eddie Gerard would not. Gerard’s logic was simple – already down 1-0 in the series, the Rangers losing Chabot would sink them and the Cup would be Montreal’s. No way was he going to allow the Rangers a life preserver in using either of Ottawa Senators goalie Alec Connell or minor-league stopper Hugh McCormick, who both happened to be in the stands at the Forum that night. With Girard’s gamesmanship and not wanting to lose a key defenceman or forward for the game by putting them in goal, the 44-year-old Patrick donned the pads himself. The Rangers’ strategy, then, became clogging the neutral zone to limit the number of shots Patrick would face. Patrick would go on to stop 18 of 19 shots as the Rangers pulled out a 2-1 overtime win to knot the series at 1-1. Following the game, the Rangers were given permission to use New York Americans goaltender Joe Miller for the remainder of the series. The Blueshirts would claim their first ever Stanley Cup title in five games.
 
1963 – An Augusta legend is born – In 1962, 22-year-old Jack Nicklaus began to realize the vast potential he showed in winning back-to-back U.S. Amateur titles, a second-place finish at the 1960 U.S. Open as an amateur and the 1961 NCAA title at Ohio State. Two years after announcing his presence at the tournament, Nicklaus won the U.S. Open, defeating Arnold Palmer in a playoff at Oakmont. The following spring, Nicklaus’s legendary success at the Masters kicked off. Augusta got the best of Nicklaus in 1962 when he finished 15th and only shot a single round below par and the 1963 tournament looked to be starting in that same vein. The Golden Bear shot an opening-round 64 to sit five strokes behind co-leaders Mike Souchak and Bo Wininger. Nicklaus exploded on Day 2, shooting a bogey-free round of six-under to jump into second place and sit one shot back of Souchak. But Augusta can be an unforgiving mistress and it got the better of him again on Moving Day with Nicklaus posting another 74. Luckily for Nicklaus, he wasn’t the only person who struggled mightily that Saturday as even with being two-over on the day, Nicklaus would head into championship Sunday with a one-stroke lead over Ed Furgol. On Sunday, Nicklaus struggled through his front nine and by 12, he was two-over on the day. But key birdies on 13 and then on 16 meant that Nicklaus went into the final hole with a chance to claim the Green Jacket. On 18, Nicklaus’s short putt for par claimed him his first Masters and it made the 23-year-old the youngest ever golfer to wear the Green Jacket, a record he would hold until 1997 when 21-year-old Tiger Woods won his first tournament at Augusta. That win in 1963 for Nicklaus would be the first of a record six Masters titles for the Golden Bear whose last win at Augusta came in 1986.
 
1977 – OK Blue Jays, let’s play ball – Major League Baseball touched down in the province of Ontario for the first time in 1977 as the expansion Toronto Blue Jays took the field at Exhibition Stadium on the Lake Shore. Baseball almost arrived in the city the previous year – a deal had been reached for a Toronto group to purchase the San Francisco Giants to move them to Exhibition Stadium in 1976, but a court ruling quashed the bid and kept the team in the Bay Area. The city was then awarded an American League expansion team – to play in the East – for the class of 1977 alongside the Seattle Mariners. Called the “Blue Jays” after a “Name the team” contest (Perhaps the team’s majority owners, Labatt’s, had something to do with that name being selected), the team finally took the field on a snowy April afternoon in Toronto. Despite the stereotypically Canadian weather, 44,000 fans packed the stands to watch America’s Pastime as Roy Hartsfield’s Jays welcomed the Chicago White Sox. On the hill for the Jays was veteran righty Bill Singer, an expansion draft pick by the team from the Minnesota Twins. The Pale Hose countered with lefty Ken Brett. Singer got off to a bumpy start in the first, walking the first batter he faced in Ralph Garr. Garr would steal second and then advance to third on an error before coming home on a sac-fly. Richie Zisk took Singer deep to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead after the top half of the first. Doug Ault would give Jays fans something to cheer about in the bottom half of the frame. With two outs, Ault, a first baseman taken from the Texas Rangers in the expansion draft, took an 0-2 offering from Brett over the left-centre wall for the first home run in franchise history. Ault wasn’t finished for the day, either. Singer surrendered two more runs in the second on an Alan Bannister single and a Zisk double to make it 4-1 ChiSox. The Jays pulled one back in the bottom of the second through a Pedro Garcia single. In the third, Ault would play hero again with a two-run shot off of Brett to even the game at 4-4.  The next inning the Jays would take the lead and not turn back. In the eighth, Ault would drive home another for a four-RBI afternoon as the Jays took their first ever game by a score of 9-5. While the Opening Day win had Jays fans delirious with possibilities, the reality of being an expansion team would have them crashing back to earth in a hurry. The team would finish with just 54 wins – including only seven in July – and sit 45.5 games back of the division-winning New York Yankees.
 
1979 – Happy birthday, Adrian Beltre – In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, one of the finest infielders of a generation was born on Apr. 7, 1979. Nineteen years later, Adrian Beltre would make his debut in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers. A slick-fielding third baseman with power, Beltre would go on to spend 21 seasons in the Bigs with the Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. A career .286 hitter, Beltre won five Gold Gloves and was four times a Silver Slugger, including in 1998 when he led the National League in home runs with 48. Beltre notoriously did not like having his head touched, something that teammates would frequently attempt to get his goat over, often with great success. On July 30, 2017, Beltre ripped a double off of Baltimore Orioles pitcher Wade Miley for his 3,000th hit, becoming the 31st player to reach that feat and first Dominican-born player to do so. Retiring after the 2018 season, Beltre finished his career with 3,166 hits, 477 home runs, 1,732 runs batted in and an OPS of .819 in 2,933 games. His 2,759 games played at third are second-most in history behind only Brooks Robinson. Beltre is Hall of Fame-eligible in 2024 and will undoubtedly be on his way to Cooperstown.
 
2003 – March Madness goes Orange – The Syracuse Orange(men) were a perennial presence in the NCAA tournament, but winning the ultimate prize had proven elusive for Jim Boeheim’s team. In 1987, a Syracuse team led by future NBA stars Derrick Coleman and Rony Seikaly fell 74-73 to Bobby Knight’s Indiana in the title game. Nearly a decade later, the Orange would reach the final once again with a team featuring John Wallace, but a Kentucky team with the likes of Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer and Tony Delk would prove to be too much with the Wildcats winning the 1996 title by a score of 76-67. In 2003, the Orange would finally scale the mountain because that Syracuse team had something no team in the program’s history had before it – Carmelo Anthony. The 19-year-old freshman swingman out of Baltimore was the singular most talented player in Syracuse history, possessing a deft scoring touch and a blistering first step. Anthony, one of the most highly sought-after recruits in the country that year, lived up to the hype. In the regular season, Anthony averaged 22.2 points and 10.0 boards over 36.4 minutes a night in 35 games. The Orange headed into the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the East region in nearby Albany, NY. After wins over Manhattan and Oklahoma State, the Orange survived a scare from No. 6 Auburn in the Sweet Sixteen with a 79-78 win, getting 18 from Anthony. In the Elite Eight, Syracuse came up against the top seed in the region in Oklahoma team. Anthony had 20 and 10 as the Orange cruised to a 63-47 win to advance to the Final Four and a date with Texas. Once again, Anthony rose to the occasion with 33 points and 14 boards in a 95-84 win over T.J. Ford and the Longhorns. In their third championship game in 16 years, the Orange would meet Roy Williams’s Kansas featuring Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich. Anthony’s coming out party continued in the title game, scoring 20 points and adding 10 boards as the Orange pulled out an 81-78 victory to claim the program’s first ever championship. The game would mark a couple of lasts – Williams would leave the Jayhawks after 16 seasons to succeed Dean Smith at Chapel Hill. It would also be Anthony’s last collegiate game, declaring for the NBA Draft. Melo would go on to be taken with third overall selection by the Denver Nuggets in a star-studded 2003 first round that also saw the selections of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.