2001 at a glance

January February March

April May June

July August September

October November December

April

 April 1 -- Rasheed Wallace broke his NBA season record for technical fouls, receiving his 39th and 40th and getting ejected during the third quarter of Portland's 99-95 loss to Minnesota.

 April 1 -- Kenya's Sammy Kipketer ran the Carlsbad 5000 in 13 minutes, tying the world road race record the 19-year-old runner set in the same 5,000-meter event last year.

 April 2 -- Roger Clemens became the AL strikeout king, getting five to pass Walter Johnson as the Yankees beat Kansas City 7-3 in their season opener. Clemens fanned Joe Randa for his 3,509th career strikeout.

 April 2 -- Duke won its third national men's basketball championship -- and second in the Metrodome -- with an 82-72 victory over Arizona. Mike Dunleavy scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half to lead the Blue Devils.

 April 3 -- Jerry Stackhouse scored an NBA season-high 57 points in Detroit's 110-83 win over Chicago. Stackhouse went 21-for-36 from the field and 11-for-13 from the line.

 April 4 -- Hideo Nomo became the fourth pitcher in major league history to throw a no-hitter in both leagues in Boston's 3-0 victory over Baltimore. Nomo, who threw the first no-hitter in Colorado's Coors Field on Sept. 17, 1996 for Los Angeles, walked three and struck out 11 in the first no-hitter in the 10-year history of Camden Yards. Nomo joined Cy Young, Jim Bunning and Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers with no-hitters in both leagues.

 April 4 -- Carlos Delgado had three home runs and four RBIs to lead Toronto to an 11-8 victory over Tampa Bay.

 April 5 -- Wang Zhizhi became the first Chinese player to play in the NBA when he took the court for Dallas against Atlanta. He scored six points and grabbed three rebounds as the Mavericks beat the Hawks 108-94.

 April 6 -- Phoenix became the first team in NHL history to earn 90 points and not qualify for the postseason with its 5-2 win over Anaheim. The 1985-86 New Jersey Devils and the 1972-73 Detroit Red Wings had 86 points but missed the playoffs.

 April 6 -- The Milwaukee Brewers ushered in a new era when they opened palatial Miller Park -- and closed its retractable roof -- with a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

 April 7 -- Krys Kolanos scored at 4:43 of overtime as Boston College beat defending champion North Dakota 3-2 for the Eagles' second NCAA hockey championship and first in 52 years.

 April 7 -- Arizona State set an NCAA baseball record by scoring in its 350th consecutive game, a 5-1 loss at Southern California. The Sun Devils set the mark six years to the day they were last shut out -- also at USC. Arizona State broke a tie with Coastal Carolina, which set the record from 1983-1989.

 April 7 -- Pavel Bure, held pointless in the Florida's 3-0 win over the New York Rangers, broke the NHL record for percentage of a team's goals. Bure accounted for 29.5 percent of Florida's scores (59 of 200). Brett Hull held the mark when he scored 27.7 percent St. Louis' goals in 1990-91.

 April 8 -- Tiger Woods claimed the greatest feat in modern golf by winning the Masters, giving him a clean sweep of the four professional majors in a span of 294 days. Woods, with his winning score of 16-under 272, swept the majors with a combined score of 65-under par.

 April 8 -- Jaromir Jagr sat out the Pittsburgh Penguins' final regular-season game, and barely held on to win his fourth straight scoring title. Jagr finished with 52 goals and 69 assists for 121 points and his fifth Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer. Colorado's Joe Sakic, who had two goals and an assist in a win at Minnesota, was second with 118 points.

 April 8 -- Aramis Ramirez hit three home runs in his first three at-bats to help the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 9-3 victory over the Astros. Ramirez drove in a career-high six runs.

 April 8 -- Pedro Martinez had 16 strikeouts and allowed three hits in eight innings for his first win of the season, leading Boston to a 3-0 victory over Tampa Bay.

 April 9 -- Australia set a record for the most one-sided international win in FIFA history, beating Tonga 22-0 in an Oceania Group One qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup. John Aloisi scored six goals and Damian Mori added four as Australia broke the previous mark held by Kuwait when it beat Bhutan 20-0 in an Asian Cup qualifier last year.

 Apri 10 -- The Dodgers-Diamondbacks game concluded in one hour, 55 minutes, the fastest home game in Arizona history. The Diamondbacks' Curt Schilling earned his 16th career shutout and 66th complete game in a 2-0 victory. Schilling gave up two hits and struck out 10. Kevin Brown tossed a three-hitter and fanned eight for Los Angeles.

 April 11 -- Australia's soccer team set a world record for scoring and forward Archie Thompson had the most goals for one player in one game. The scorekeeper might have lost count during Australia's victory over American Samoa in a 2002 World Cup qualifying match. The score was either 31-0 or 32-0, and Thompson alone scored 13 or 14 goals. Thompson broke a 93-year-old FIFA record.

 April 11 -- In Johannesburg, South Africa, fans stampeded at Ellis Park Stadium during a soccer game, killing 43 people, including two children, and injuring more than 150 others. Witnesses said the stadium was overcrowded and erupted into chaos after the Orlando Pirates scored a goal against Kaizer Chiefs, a Premier League rival.

 Apri 11 -- Atlanta's Greg Maddux was almost flawless for seven innings, combining with a pair of relievers to pitch a one-hitter in a 2-0 win over the New York Mets. The Mets wound up with only one runner against Maddux, Mike Remlinger and John Rocker. Todd Zeile lined a single about a foot beyond second baseman Quilvio Veras' glove with one out in the second.

 April 12 -- NBA owners approved a package of four rules changes. Designed to improve the flow and pace of the game. The changes were: All existing illegal defense guidelines will be eliminated; A defensive 3-second rule will be established; Reduce from 10 seconds to 8 seconds the amount of time a team will have to advance the ball past midcourt; and redefine what constitutes a foul to allow for brief contact initiated by a defensive player if it does not impede the progress of a player with the ball.

 April 13 -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban passed the half-million dollar mark in fines this season when the NBA charged him $100,000 for making a derogatory gesture during a game earlier this week. Cuban was also suspended for one game. The fine was Cuban's seventh this season for a total of $505,000.

 April 14 -- Annika Sorenstam overcame a 10-shot deficit to add more lines in the record book. Sorenstam birdied four of the last nine holes and got help from Pat Hurst's back-nine collapse to win a record-tying fourth consecutive LPGA Tour title in a playoff. Not since Kathy Whitworth in 1969 has anyone captured that many consecutively scheduled events. Mickey Wright accomplished the feat in 1962 and '63. Sorenstam trailed Hurst by 10 shots entering the final round of The Office Depot and shot a 6-under 66, to tied at 6-under 210.

 April 14 -- The Vancouver Grizzlies blew a 19-point second-half lead and closed their home season with a 100-95 defeat to Houston. The loss left Vancouver with a lifetime home record of 66-220 (.300), the worst percentage among the 65 franchises in league history. At 101-359 overall, the Grizzlies also finished last in league history.

 April 14 -- The Cincinnati Reds set a modern National League record by scoring in their 175th consecutive game by shutting out the New York Mets 1-0.

 April 15 -- Todd Hollandsworth's third home run of the game, a three-run shot in the 10th inning off Arizona's Matt Mantei, lifted the Colorado Rockies to a 10-7 victory over the Diamondbacks. Hollandsworth, who had given Colorado a 7-5 lead with a two-run homer in the eighth, finished 3-for-5 with a career-high seven RBIs.

 Apri 16 -- Lee Bong-ju of South Korea won the 105th Boston Marathon, snapping a 10-year victory streak for Kenya. Catherine Ndereba won the women's race for the second consecutive year and made sure the Kenyans weren't shut out. Lee finished in 2:09:43 and Ndereba in 2:23:53.

 April 16 -- Rulon Gardner, whose victory in Greco-Roman wrestling was a highlight of the Sydney Olympics, won the James E. Sullivan Award. Gardner won the Olympic gold medal by defeating Aleksandr Kareline in the final, the Russian's first loss in 13 years.

 April 17 -- Barry Bonds became the 17th major leaguer to hit 500 home runs. Bonds' two-run, eighth-inning drive off Terry Adams went into San Francisco Bay to lead the Giants over the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2.

 April 20 -- Carlos Delgado of the Blue Jays hit three homers for the second time this season, as Toronto beat the Kansas City Royals 12-4.

 April 21 -- The Atlanta Falcons selected Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick with the first pick in the NFL draft.

 April 21 -- Former NFL backup Tommy Maddox threw for two touchdown passes, and Jose Cortez, a roofer from Oregon, kicked four field goals as the Los Angeles Xtreme beat the San Francisco Demons 38-6 in the first XFL championship game. The "Million Dollar Game" drew a crowd of 24,153 to the 90,000-seat Los Angeles Coliseum.

 April 21 -- Hasim Rahman flattened Lennox Lewis with a stunning right hand near the end of the fifth round to capture the WBC and IBF heavyweight titles in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history in Brakpan, South Africa.

 April 22 -- Colorado's Pedro Astacio tied a major league record by hitting four batters in a 2-1 win over Arizona. He allowed just one hit and a run before leaving in the ninth inning.

 April 24 -- Two-time Olympic champion Halil Mutlu of Turkey pressed a world-record 369.6 pounds at the European Weightlifting Championships in Trencin, Slovakia. It was the 19th world mark for Mutlu, whose total lift was 665 1/2 pounds.

 April 25 -- Rickey Henderson of the Padres set the major league walks record with his 2,063rd base on balls in San Diego's 5-3 loss to Philadelphia.

 April 27 -- Stacy Dragila broke her own world outdoor pole vault record, clearing 15 feet, 5 inches in the Idaho State University Springfest. Dragila broke the mark of 15-2 1/4 she set last July in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif.

 April 27 -- Charlotte's Jamal Mashburn set an NBA playoff record by converting all 25 of his free throws during the three-game sweep of Miami. Mashburn was 10-for-10 in Charlotte's 94-79 victory. The previous record for a three-game series was 18-for-18 by Denver's Kiki Vandeweghe against Phoenix in the first round in 1982.

 April 28 -- John Stockton had his first triple double in 171 career playoff games with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in Utah's 94-91 loss to Dallas.

 April 28 -- Colorado's Patrick Roy set an NHL record with his 16th career playoff shutout, making 20 saves in a 2-0 win over Los Angeles. Roy, already the NHL's winningest goalie for his career and in the playoffs, had been tied for most playoff shutouts with Clint Benedict of Ottawa and the Montreal Maroons (1919-28).

 April 28 -- Geoff Jenkins of the Brewers hit three home runs and drove in six runs during Milwaukee's 8-4 victory over the Montreal Expos.

 April 28 -- The Seattle Mariners won their ninth straight and set a major league mark with 20 April victories, beating the Chicago White Sox 8-5. The Mariners are just the 11th team to start 20-4, and broke the previous record of 19 April wins, set by the 1996 Atlanta Braves.

 April 29 -- Rosie Jones birdied the first playoff hole in the Kathy Ireland Championship to beat South Korea's Mi Hyun Kim and become the first American to win this year on the LPGA Tour. Jones, who birdied the final hole of regulation to force the playoff, ended a streak of 10 straight tour wins by international players, the longest stretch without an American winner in LPGA history.

 April 29 -- Geoff Jenkins homered twice, tying a major league record with five homers in two games to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 10-0 win over the Montreal Expos. Jenkins is the 22nd player to hit five in two games and the first NL player to do it in 10 years.

 April 29 -- CART drivers refused to compete at Texas Motor Speedway over safety issues, saying G forces almost twice as high as normal were causing vision and hearing problems. Series officials said there wasn't enough time to make changes and postponed the inaugural Firestone Firehawk 600 just before its scheduled start.