TSN.ca's Canada 150: Iconic moments in other sports

In honour of Canada's 150th birthday, TSN.ca looks at the iconic moments in Canadian sports history.

Here's a look at memorable times from other sports:

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1869 (date unknown) – A Montreal dentist by the name of William George Beers publishes a book called Lacrosse: The National Game of Canada, explaining the rules of lacrosse, which he helped establish in the preceding years. It was Beers who helped devise the length of the field, size of the goal and material of the ball among other aspects of the modern game. In 1876, Beers organized an exhibition game in England with Queen Victoria present as a spectator.

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April 19, 1907 – Nineteen-year-old Tom Longboat from the Six Nations Reserve in Brantford, Ontario became the first ever runner of Native descent to capture the Boston Marathon. The following year at the 1908 Summer Olympics, Longboat was a favourite in the marathon, but found himself in a group of runners who collapsed and did not finish the race. When a rerun of the race was held later that year at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Longboat was victorious.

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December 1908 – Hanover, Ontario’s Tommy Burns fights Jack Johnson in Sydney, Australia becoming the first boxing world champion to break the colour barrier and fight a black opponent. Johnson would go on to beat Burns in a 14-round fight that was ended when it was broken up by police.

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August 7, 1954 – Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes in Oxford, England on May 6 at 3:59.4. Only weeks later, Aussie John Landy bested that number with a 3:58.0-mile run in Turku, Finland. The two men would go head to head that summer in Vancouver at the one-mile final of the Commonwealth Games in what was being called “The Mile of the Century.” Bannister would come out victorious, pulling away from Landy at the end of the last bend to win the race by about five yards. Astonishingly, though, both men broke the four-minute barrier in the race with times of 3:58.8 and 3:59.6, respectively.

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September 9, 1954 – 17-year-old Marilyn Bell becomes the first person to swim across Lake Ontario from Youngstown, New York to Toronto in 20 hours and 59 minutes. Bell would win the Lou Marsh Trophy in recognition of the achievement that December. She would go on to become the youngest person to swim across the English Channel the following year. Bell retired from swimming in 1956.

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May 2, 1964 – Driven by Bill Hartack and trained by Horatio Luro, Northern Dancer – out of Oshawa, Ontario’s Windfield Farms – claimed the Kentucky Derby, becoming the first ever Canadian-raised horse to do so. Later that month, the Stallion went on to win the second jewel in the Triple Crown, finishing first at the Preakness. There would be no Triple Crown for Northern Dancer, though, as it finished a distant third in June’s Belmont Stakes.

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March 29, 1966 – George Chuvalo becomes the first person to go 12 rounds with heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali without being knocked down at Maple Leaf Gardens. Ali would call Chuvalo the “toughest guy I ever fought.” Ali won the fight handily by a scorecard decision. In his 93 professional fights, Chuvalo would never be knocked down.

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September 9, 1967 – The Oshawa Green Gaels defeated the New Westminster Salmonbellies in the Minto Cup for their fourth straight title. Gaylord Powless, a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve near Brantford, Ontario, is named series MVP. It would be Powless’s final Minto Cup as he turned pro a year later and joined the Detroit Olympics of the National Lacrosse Association. In his rookie year, Powless led the league with 63 goals. Injuries forced Powless to retire from the sport in 1977 at the age of 30.

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May 22, 1982 – Rick Hansen wraps up the Man in Motion World Tour in Vancouver after 26 months and over 40,000 kilometres spent on the road in 34 countries and four continents. After its conclusion, Hansen had raised $27 million in spinal cord research.

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July 5, 1986 – After a fifth-place finish the first stage of the 1986 Tour de France that encompasses the 52.8-mile stretch between Nanterre to Sceaux, Vancouver’s Alex Steida earned the yellow jersey as the overall race leader. In doing so, Stieda became the first North American to wear the jersey in the race’s 73-year history.

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March 27, 1988 – While the 1988 World Figure Skating Championships came as advertised with “The Battle of the Brians,” an innovation in the sport happened off the podium. Though the United States’ Brian Boitano claimed gold with Belleville and Ontario’s Brian Orser took silver, it was 21-year-old Kurt Browning of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta who made the biggest impact. During the free skate portion, Browning became the first skater to land a quadruple jump in competition during the free skate. Browning would go on to finish sixth in Budapest, but he’d capture gold in the next three straight worlds.

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January 22, 1992 – Two juggernauts met in Super Bowl XXVI as the AFC champion Buffalo Bills (13-3) met the NFC champions, the Washington Redskins (14-2) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Washington jumped out to a massive 24-0 lead and the Bills couldn’t recover, with quarterback Jim Kelly harried at every turn by the Washington defence. Calgary-born Washington pivot Mark Rypien was named Super Bowl MVP on 18-for-33 passing for 292 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the first Canadian to win the honour after the Redskins triumphed, 37-24.

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May 28, 1995 – At the 79^th running of the Indianapolis 500, a first ever Canadian winner appeared to be on the cards, but it wasn’t Jacques Villeneuve. Toronto’s Scott Goodyear led the race for 42 laps, but passed the pace car during a caution on lap 190, earning a penalty. Though Goodyear refused to serve the penalty, believing that the light was green at the time, officials stopped scoring Goodyear by lap 195, making the 24-year-old Villeneuve the leader and the eventual winner.

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October 26, 1997 – With a third place finish at the European Grand Prix in Jerez, Spain, Jacques Villeneuve, driving for Williams, won the 1997 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship, becoming the first Canadian driver to do so. It was Villeneuve’s second season on the circuit, one in which he won seven races. With his 1995 CART title, his 1995 Indy 500 win and the 1997 WDC, Villeneuve became only the third driver to accomplish the feat, following Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti.

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May 4, 2001 – At UFC 31 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Toronto’s Carlos Newton submitted Pat Militech with a bulldog choke in the third round to capture the Ultimate Fighting Championship Welterweight Title to become the first Canadian to hold UFC gold. Newton would go on to lose the title in his first defence in November of that year, knocked out by Matt Hughes. Newton retired from the sport in 2010, compiling a 16-14 career record, including a 3-4 mark in UFC.

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June 7, 2003 – Montreal’s Arturo Gatti defeats Micky Ward in a 10-round unanimous decision to win the rubber match of their epic light welterweight trilogy in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Gatti was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Brazil on July 11, 2009. To this day, while determined to be violent, his actual cause of death remains unknown.

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March 4, 2006 – Toronto’s John Tavares – uncle of the hockey player of the same name – surpasses Gary Gait for the most points in National Lacrosse League history with 1,092 on an assist in the Buffalo Bandits’ 11-8 loss to the Minnesota Swarm. Upon his retirement from the game in 2015 after 24 seasons, all with the Bandits, Tavares had been a three-time NLL MVP and the first man to score 500 goals and 500 assists. His 1,949 points remain a league record.

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July 22, 2006 – In London, Ontario, Canada defeats the United States 15-10 in the final of the World Lacrosse Championships, breaking the US’s streak of six straight titles. The win was Canada’s first title in 28 years and it was the US’s first loss at the worlds since 1978. Canada reasserted itself as the dominant force in its national sport.

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April 8, 2008 – In front of deafening hometown crowd at a sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal, Georges St-Pierre recaptured the Ultimate Fighting Championship Welterweight Title from Matt Serra with a second-round TKO (knees) at UFC 83. The event was the group’s first ever show in Canada. St-Pierre would go on to defend his title nine more times successfully before stepping away from the sport in 2013. GSP is expected to return to the UFC in late 2017 or 2018 to meet the winner of the upcoming Ty Woodley/Demian Maia welterweight title fight.

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May 24, 2009 – The Windsor Spitfires, led by the likes of Taylor Hall, Adam Henrique and Ryan Ellis, defeat the Kelowna Rocket to capture the Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Quebec. It’s the Spitfires’ first ever Memorial Cup as Windsor became the first team ever to win the title after having lost their first two games of the tournament. The Spitfires would repeat as champions the following year in Brandon, Manitoba.