March 21, 2003: A buzzer-beating 3-point shot by Drew Nicholas gives Maryland’s defending national champions a 75-73 win over North Carolina-Wilmington in the first round of the South Regional of the NCAA basketball tournament. The Terps will advance to the Sweet 16 before losing.
March 19, 1977: For the sixth consecutive season, Jerry Phipps of the Community College of Baltimore is named Maryland (AA Division) Junior College Basketball Coach of the Year. Phipps’ team won 21 in a row en route to a 30-4 finish.
March 18, 1964: For his second straight exhibition outing, Orioles rookie Wally Bunker pitches three perfect innings in a 3-1 loss to the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers; earlier, he stymied the American League champion New York Yankees. Bunker will go 19-5 for Baltimore in 1964.
March 20, 1953: The Bullets lose, 90-81, to the New York Knicks at the Coliseum and are swept in the best-of-three NBA Eastern Division semifinals. It’s the 17th straight win for New York over Baltimore, which gets 21 points from Jim Baechtold.
March 21, 1947: Boys’ Latin routs Sparrows Point, 32-1, in its lacrosse opener. The Lakers are led by Don Hahn (eight goals), who’ll become a two-time All-American at Princeton and a National Lacrosse Hall of Famer.
March 18, 1933: The Western Maryland boxing team places second, behind Syracuse, in the 10th annual Eastern Intercollegiate tournament. The Green Terrors’ Bernard Kaplan wins at 175 pounds; he’ll go on to play in the NFL before becoming a pro wrestler.
March 21, 1928: Spike Webb, coach of Navy’s intercollegiate boxing champs, is named coach of the American team for the Summer Games in Amsterdam. The United States (two silver medals, one bronze) places sixth.
March 22, 1896: At the Orioles’ spring training site in Macon, Ga., manager Ned Hanlon of the National League champs spends Sunday morning learning to ride a bicycle under the tutelage of catcher Wilbert Robinson. Hanlon “declares he is becoming an expert,” The Sun reports, though Robinson “thinks his pupil could perhaps ride 100 yards without falling if he got a good start.”
Birthday
March 20, 1871: Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity, Hall of Fame pitcher who won 28 games in 1899 for the Orioles’ NL team and 26 more in 1901 for Baltimore’s AL club. He died in 1929.