1943 — Gus Bodnar of Toronto scores a goal 15 seconds into his first NHL game as the Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers 5-2.
1955 — Jim Patton of New York returns a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown as the Giants beat the Washington Redskins 35-7.
1966 — Jim Nance of the Boston Patriots rushes for 208 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders.
1971 — Eric Allen of Michigan State rushes for 350 yards in 43-10 rout of Purdue.
1974 — Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in the eighth round in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain the world heavyweight title.
1975 — John Bucyk of the Boston Bruins scores his 500th career goal in a 3-2 victory over St. Louis.
1993 — Erin Whitten becomes the first woman goalie in professional hockey to be credited with a victory as Toledo beats Dayton 6-5 in the East Coast Hockey League.
1997 — Violet Palmer makes professional sports history by becoming the first woman to officiate an NBA game. There is little reaction by the crowd when her name is announced just before tip-off of the game between the Dallas Mavericks and Vancouver Grizzlies.
1999 — Marques Tuiasosopo becomes the first player to pass for 300 yards and run for 200, racking up a school-record 509 yards as Washington rallied to beat Stanford 35-30. Tuiasosopo completes 19-of-32 passes for 302 yards and a touchdown and rushes 22 times for 207 yards and two TDs.
2003 — In the first regular-season game of his NBA career, 18-year-old LeBron James has 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals, but the Cleveland Cavaliers lose 106-92 to Sacramento Kings.
2004 — Jamario Thomas of North Texas has his NCAA freshman record-tying fourth 200-yard rushing game with 218 and sets the NCAA record for most yards by a freshman in his first seven games with 1,215 as the Mean Green beat Louisiana-Monroe 45-30.
2004 — Dana College’s Tom Lensch sets an all-division college record by attempting 101 passes in a 60-35 loss to Hastings College. Lensch completes 56 passes for a school-record 507 yards with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
2010 — Roy Helu Jr. rushes for touchdowns of 66, 73 and 53 yards and finishes with a school-record 307 yards and No. 14 Nebraska knocks No. 7 Missouri from the ranks of the unbeatens with a 31-17 victory.
2011 — Rory McIlroy wins $2 million in the Shanghai Masters, beating Anthony Kim with a par on the first hole of a playoff. McIlroy holes a 2-foot putt for the victory after Kim misses a 3-footer, to capture the richest prize in golf.
2011 — Petra Kvitova wins her first WTA Championships title, beating Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 for a victory.
2013 — David Ortiz and Boston Red Sox romp to team’s 3rd World Series crown in 10 seasons, thumping October ace Michael Wacha and the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 in Game 6. Ortiz has a Ruthian World Series, batting .688 (11 for 16) with 2 homers, 6 RBIs and 8 walks for .760 on-base percentage in 25 plate appearances.
OCTOBER 31
1948 — Sammy Baugh of Washington passes for 446 yards and four touchdowns and Dan Sandifer has four interceptions including two for touchdowns as the Redskins beat the Boston Yanks 56-21.
1964 — Kelso, running in what is billed as his final race in New York, wins his fifth consecutive Jockey Club Gold Cup, surpassing Round Table as the all-time money-winning thoroughbred. Kelso runs the 2-mile distance in 3:19 1/5, breaking the world record he set as a 3-year-old, four years earlier, by 1/5 of a second.
1981 — Purdue’s Scott Campbell passes for 516 yards, but Art Schlichter passes for 336 yards and three touchdowns to lead Ohio State to a 45-33 victory.
1981 — Florida State freshman Greg Allen rushes for 322 yards in a 56-31 win over Western Carolina.
1987 — Jockey Chris Antley becomes the 1st rider to win 9 races in a single day. He has 4 winners in 6 mounts at Aqueduct and 5 winners from 8 tries during The Meadowlands’ evening program.
1993 — Emmitt Smith powers for a team-record 237 yards, including a 62-yard touchdown run, as the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 23-10. His total tied the sixth highest in NFL history.
1998 — Tee Martin of Tennessee, sets NCAA records with 23 straight completions and 24 over two games in the No. 3 Volunteers’ 49-14 victory over South Carolina. Martin is 23-for-24, with a record completion percentage of 95.8, for 315 yards and four touchdowns.
1999 — Tim Couch completes a desperation 56-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Johnson with no time on the clock to give the expansion Cleveland Browns their first win, 21-16 over New Orleans.
2003 — Trainer Bobby Frankel sets a North American single-season earnings record when Golden Rahy wins the $48,000 feature race at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting. The winner’s share raises Frankel’s earnings for the year to $17,854,877. The previous record of $17,842,358 was set by D. Wayne Lukas in 1988.
2004 — The New England Patriots lose for the first time in more than a year, falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-20. The Patriots had won 21 straight games, including the playoffs, and a league-record 18 in a row in the regular season.
2006 — Miami’s season-opening 108-66 loss to Chicago is the worst loss in NBA history for a defending champion on opening night. The previous low was the Lakers’ 132-117 defeat by Golden State on Oct. 29, 1982.
2008 — The North Carolina Tar Heels are No. 1 in The Associated Press’ preseason Top 25, the first unanimous No. 1 since the preseason poll began in 1981-82.
2009 — Terrell Hudgins of Elon sets an FCS (formerly I-AA) record with his 24th 100 yard receiving game, surpassing NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, who set the previous mark from 1981-84 at Mississippi Valley State. Hudgins has 11 catches for 153 yards and three touchdowns as Elon beats Wofford 34-6.
2010 — Kim Clijsters beats top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki to win the season-ending WTA Championships. The 27-year-old Belgian wins in three sets, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to capture her third WTA Championships title.
