Valentine's Day is the time of the year when couples express love for each other in various ways. It's the season of love and there's no room for grudges or confrontations to take place on this day. Sport doesn't take a break for it. It carries on as usual.
V'day has brought out various famous events to take place in various sports. Some have been miracles while others have turned into massacres and nightmares.
In the 1980-81 NBA season, the Milwaukee Bucks won a basketball game on a Sunday night but may have lost two players. For the Bucks, the loss of the players probably meant more than the 98-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Milwaukee went into the game without starting guard, Brian Winters, who was out with a groin injury and during the game, the club lost center, Bob Lanier and forward, Junior Bridgeman to knee injuries. "I'm concerned about Bob Lanier's knee," Coach Don Nelson said. The 6-foot-10 center, who has a long history of knee ailments and had knee surgery this summer, played only 16 minutes.
The win upped the Bucks' record to 6-2, good for first in the Central Division, but the team had struggled all season due to, in part, the contract holdout of star, Marques Johnson. The Bucks led 33-27 after one period, when Lanier had 8 points but the Cavs came back to tie it at 53-53 at the half as Mike Mitchell hit 13 points in the quarter.
The Cavs led going into the final quarter and were ahead 82-74 before the Bucks came back, with Sidney Moncrief scoring 12 of his game-high 28 points in the final period. That included six points in the 14-2 spurt the Bucks had that gave them an 88-84 lead they never lost.
"Our defense turned it around," said Nelson. "They made some turnovers and we converted them. Before that it was just a struggle. We were just lucky to scratch that one out." Cleveland coach Don Delaney said his team is still trying to put the pieces together.
"The Bucks have played together longer, it's a matter of timing," he said. 'We haven't all been together long enough and it takes a while to become solid. That's our problem."
James Silas had 21 points and James Edwards 19 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for the Cavs while Kenny Carr had 17 and Mitchell 16. Delaney said the loss of Johnson hurts the Bucks chances of repeating as Central Division champions and that he has not written off his own team, even though it is last in the standings.
"You hate to lose a Marques Johnson. It's hard to replace him but they're 6-2 and I'll take that,' he said. 'But if Marques stays out it, (the title race) is going to be a battle. The Bucks won't roll over anybody, it will be a struggle."
It was a struggle for the Bucks even in the final minutes as the Cavaliers pulled to within two points at 97-95 with with 1:02 to play on a jumper by Bobby Wilkerson.
The Bucks got the ball with 23 seconds left when Mickey Johnson grabbed an errant pass from Bill Laimbeer and when Moncrief tried to score, he was fouled. He made one of two shots with seven seconds left but the game was sitll not over.
With one second left, Cleveland's Roger Phegley was fouled just outside the three point line by Johnson. He made one of two shots.
The 1980–81 NBA season was a pivotal year for the Milwaukee Bucks, marked by a 60-22 record, their first 60-win season without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. While often highlighted for their dominant play, the "Valentine's Day Recovery" refers to the team's ability to bounce back from losses during that high-stakes era, with the team rarely losing more than two games consecutively.
The team finished first in the Central Division and second in the Eastern Conference. Marques Johnson led the team in scoring, with significant contributions from Sidney Moncrief, Bob Lanier and Quinn Buckner.
Led by Don Nelson, who, at the time, was building a team known for excellent balance and strong defensive play. The 60-Win Milestone: This season was the fourth time in franchise history they reached 60 wins and they didn't reach this mark again until 2019.
Memorable Highlights: The team set a franchise record with 11 straight road wins early in the season and boasted a defense that held opponents to low scores, with Sidney Moncrief frequently outscoring opponents by a significant margin.
Jake LaMotta was Sugar Ray Robinson's bloody Valentine 75 years ago in a savage world middleweight title fight.
"I fought Sugar Ray so often I almost got diabetes," Jake LaMotta has often joked and the most painful of those six fights was at Chicago Stadium on St. Valentine's Day in 1951. It is one of the most famous fights in boxing history and LaMotta is still alive today to tell the tale.
The pair's most famous fight ended when Robinson stopped LaMotta in a punishing 13th round to win the undisputed world middleweight title. LaMotta has retold his version of events over and over,but the punchlines have never gone flat.
"If the referee had held up another 30 more seconds, Sugar Ray would have collapsed from hitting me," said LaMotta.
They fought six times over nine years and it pitched contrasting styles against each other: LaMotta, known as the Bronx Bull, was a rugged brawler while Robinson was a slick boxing genius based in Harlem.
In their second fight in 1943, Robinson lost on points for his first defeat following 40 professional wins. Robinson got revenge just 21 days later and in 1946, was crowned world welterweight champion.
But it was at middleweight that they met for the sixth and final time. LaMotta's world middleweight title, which he won from Frenchman, Marcel Cerdan, in June 1949, was on the line and he was still the only man to have beaten Robinson.
When they met to sign contracts for the fight, Robinson tried to psyche out his rival by drinking a glass of blood drained from a beef steak. It didn't spook LaMotta, who was his aggressive self on fight night but he did struggle to make the weight for his third defence. He was six pounds over the limit the day before.
Knowing this, Robinson's strategy was to make the champion work in the early rounds and then took advantage as he tired. Robinson played the part of the matador to LaMotta's Bronx Bull; but after eight rounds two of the judges had LaMotta ahead.
LaMotta then faded as Robinson's stinging, accurate blows began to back him up. Robinson assumed control with his classical boxing skills and threw a dazzling array of punches from all angles in the 11th round.
It wasn't all Robinson in the 11th and earlier in the round LaMotta troubled the challenger with a barrage of blows on the ropes. However, by the end of the 11th Robinson was well in command of the fight.
LaMotta continued to take a beating in the 12th and finished the savage round wincing in agony from unforgiving blows to his ribs. With LaMotta offering nothing in reply, Robinson mercilessly unloaded a furious assault in the 13th.
LaMotta was a hard man in the ring with astonishing powers of absorbing punishment and told Robinson in between being hit: "You can't put me down." LaMotta was still on his feet when the referee stopped the fight in the 13th round following a thudding right and series of uppercuts that jolted his head in all directions.
Robinson landed at will in the 13th and it was a massacre that was sickening at the end. "He's the toughest guy I ever fought, I never knew anyone who was more aggressive and rough as he," Robinson said years later.
The fight was named The St. Valentine's Day Massacre after the 1929 shootout involving gangster, Al Capone, because of the bloody beating LaMotta took in the latter rounds of the fight. It was the last time they met in the ring and while more big fights lay ahead for Robinson, this was the last big bout for LaMotta who retired three years later.
LaMotta won 83 of 106 paid bouts, was world middleweight champion between 1949 and 1951 and made two defences. Robinson finally retired in 1965 after five reigns as world middleweight champion and one as welterweight champion (1946-1950), finishing his career on 173 wins, 19 losses and six draws with 108 knockouts.
Robinson won their six-fight series 5-1 but LaMotta has out-lived his old rival by more than two decades. Robinson, who died in 1989, is remembered as being the best pound-for-pound boxer in history and while LaMotta's own career didn't reach the same giddying heights as His Sugarness, he has had a remarkable life, part of which was portrayed in the 1980 film, Raging Bull, starring Robert De Niro and in 2012 - aged 90 - he married for the seventh time to Denise Baker, who was almost 30 years his junior.
In 1896, it wasn't a day to spark celebrations in South Africa. They were bowled out for 30 by England in Port Elizabeth, their lowest score in Tests and the third-lowest by anyone. The deadly George Lohmann did the damage: having found his range with 7 for 38 in the first innings. He took a remarkable 8 for 7 here. Fittingly, he rounded off the match - which was over inside two days and 200 (five-ball) overs - with a hat-trick.
Another St. Valentine's Day massacre took place in 1931. West Indies went down in two days to Australia in the fourth Test, in Melbourne, bowled out for 99 and 107, with Bert Ironmonger taking 11 wickets. There was also a luscious 152 from Don Bradman to add to the 223 he made in the previous Test.
It's a real shame that love can't be shared by all on this day in sports. There's always going to be heartbreaks. Happiness can't be shared among athletes and teams. It's only suitable for one side. Sports seems to promote the opposite of the purpose of the day. It sends the message that happiness is only possible for some but not all.