This Day in Track & Field - February 3 (The 50th Anniversary of "The Day the Music Died"--see below)

Walt Murphy's News and Results Service

• 1962--Erasing any doubts surrounding his status as World Record holder (see Feb.2), John Uelses raised his pole vault best to 16-3/4 in Boston.
• 1973--In the midst of a memorable season at the Armory in New York that saw him break meet records in nine races ranging from 880-yards to 2-miles (he won 7 of the 9), Peter Gaughn (Nazareth,NY) won the mile at the Iona Inv. in 4:13.1. That stood as the Armory H.S. Record until a certain Alan Webb ran 3:59.86 in 2001
     
• 1989--Jackie Joyner Kerssee tied the World Record in the 55-meter hurdles twice at the Millrose Games in New York, running 7.37 in her heat and again in the final.   JJK's times stood as the American Record for 8 years. Mary Slaney suffered a rare Millrose loss, finishing 2nd(4:23.91) between two Romanians, Paula Ivan(4:23.72) and DOina Melinte
• 1998--Maurice Greene runs 6.39 in Madrid to break Andre Cason's 6-year old World Indoor Record for 60-meters by .02s. Greene would tie his record in 2001
• 2002--Ethiopia's Berhane Adere ran 8:29.15 for 3000-meters in Stuttgart to break Romania's Gaby Szabo's year-old World Record of 8:32.88.
• 2007--5 years to the day after compatriot Berhane Adere ran 8:29.15 on the same track in Stuttgart, Meseret ("Mezi") Defar smashed the World Record for 3000-meters with her winning time of 8:23.72--and barely won the race, as fellow Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu finished just a step behind in 8:23.74!. There was also a World Record set in the field, with Russia's Svetlana Feofanava vaulting 15-5   1/2(4.71m) to break Stacy Dragila's year-old mark of 15-5(4.70m). Feofanova would raise her record 4 more times during the 2002 season, topping out at 15-7(4.75m).

            Other events in history(http://www.historyorb.com/day/february/3);   
            

• 2008--Super Bowl XLII--NY Giants spoil New England's bid for perfect 19-0 season, 17-14.
                 http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/history

        

• 2002 Super Bowl XXXVI, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, New England Patriots beat St.
                    Louis Rams 20-17. http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/history

           

• 1990 Jockey Willie Shoemaker <http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016470.html> (58), retires after 40,350 horse races
           
• 1979 "YMCA" by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart. The song became a fixture
                  during lulls in the action at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
            
• 1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix <http://www.jimi-hendrix.com/>
           
• 1959   As Don McLean wrote in his classic song "American Pie", it was   "The Day the Music Died". Rock and Roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed when their plane crashed in a field in Iowa during a winter storm as they traveled to the next stop on their tour. Check out the following links for more details of that tragic day. http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm; http://www.officialbigbopper.com/story.htm; http://www.jeffosretromusic.com/buddy.html; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UYVEe30Te0(provides <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UYVEe30Te0%28provides>  links to many other YouTube videos); http://www.buddyhollyonline.com/; "Official" Ritchie Valens sites(there are two!): http://www.ritchievalens.org/home.html; http://www.ritchievalens.com/; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Bios: http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/buddy-holly; http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/ritchie-valens; Don McLean: http://www.don-mclean.com/americanpie.asp
           
• 1953 J. Fred Muggs, a chimp, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show
            
• 1876 Albert Spalding with $800 starts sporting goods co, manufacturing 1st official baseball,
                 tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football. The company's small pink ball would become
                 know as a "Spaldeen <http://www.spaldeen.com/> " to generations of kids playing stickball (and other games) on the
                 streets of NY City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaldeen
           More at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
               
•  The #1 song on this day in history--1890s to present:
             http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/02/0203.htm   (includes download links)