Today in sports history – 24 March

As sport grinds to a halt all over the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve decided to have a daily look back at those “simpler” times, when there was triumph, drama and disappointment on various fields and arenas.

This is today in sport history…

1975

Muhammed Ali returns for his first competitive bout since the previous year’s “Rumble in the Jungle”, where he memorably beat George Foreman in Kinshasa. “The Greatest” battled a 35-year-old Chuck Wepner in Ohio, who was expected to be hammered by his illustrious opponent.

As it turned out, Ali didn’t prepare particularly intensely for the fight, allowing Wepner some respite. Wepner actually managed to knock down Ali in the ninth round, but that only seemed to shake Ali out of complacency as he proceeded to dominate. Wepner was eventually knocked out in the 15th round, the first time he suffered such a fate in the ring.

Ali later said Wepner was “dirty and fought like a woman”.

1984

Tasked with travelling to Sharjah for a four-team ODI tournament, England make the bizarre decision to hand the captaincy to Norman Gifford, who replaces the rested David Gower. Gifford, a fine left-arm spinner, had played 15 Tests before, but this call-up came at the age of 44!

He reminded all of his value with a fine haul of 4/23 in a defeat to Pakistan though England lost both their matches. Gifford remains the oldest ODI captain in history.

2002

New Zealander Craig Perks emerges as a 1000-1 outsider to claim a sensational victory at the PGA Championship at TPC Sawgrass, considered the “fifth major” of the golfing calendar. He had stayed in contention throughout, but no-one could predict how his final round would go.

Perks delivered a round littered with inconsistency – his card would eventually have seven bogeys written on it. His last, at the 15th, put him one behind Trinidad & Tobago’s Stephen Ames. Then the unthinkable happened.

Aggressively pursuing the green at the 16th, Perks landed in the rough, close to the water. It left him with a 21-foot chip, which he holed for a superb eagle. He then sunk an excellent 28-foot birdie putt on the 17th to put him one ahead. The climax seemed too much for Perks initially, who first had to chip back onto the fairway with his second shot and then overcooked his approach.

He was back in the rough and had to chip in again to avoid a bogey and a potential play-off with Ames. For the second time in three holes, he found the cup … and celebrated his only win on the PGA Tour. At least it was a biggie…

2018

A tough and thrilling third Test between the Proteas and Australia at Newlands explodes for all the wrong reasons on the third day. With South Africa determinedly building on a 56-run lead, television cameras catch visiting opener Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball with an unknown object. Soon after, he puts a yellow object in his trousers.

Nothing is made of the incident on the field, but at the day’s post-play media engagements, Aussie captain Steve Smith admits they had engaged in ball-tampering. Bancroft says the yellow object was sticky tape that he tried to hastily hide after “panicking” when he saw he was on TV.

The fallout is immense as Smith and his vice-captain David Warner are banned from professional cricket for a year and Bancroft nine months. The Proteas consequently strolled to a 3-1 series win.