• August 31 down the years

Death of a boxing legend

Rocky Marciano © Getty Images

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1969
Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash in Iowa. Born Rocco Marchegiano in Massachusetts in 1923, he was the only world heavyweight boxing champion to remain undefeated throughout his professional career. Comparing him with Muhammad Ali, as so many liked to do, was pointless. Marciano had a fighting weight of 13½ stone, two stone less than Ali at his lightest. The film both boxers took part in, which ended with Marciano winning by a late knockout, was equally daft. And Rocky never fought a single top fighter who was at his peak. He ended Joe Louis's career in 1951, but the former champ was a 37-year-old shell by then. Marciano took the world title from a 38-year-old (September 23 1952) and retained it against Archie Moore, who was even older (September 21 1955). His other wins as champion were against another veteran ex-champion in Ezzard Charles, and two white punchbags, including a blown-up British light-heavyweight (May 16 1955). But, weird as it sounds, none of this matters very much. There was simply no doubt about the Rock's stature. No-one ever took a punch better or came back more furiously. No-one ever trained so long or hard for even a routine fight. No-one threw so many damaging punches in a fight (what he did to the blood vessels in Roland LaStarza's arms doesn't bear repeating). A messianic figure for Italian Americans, he was a legend in all of boxing. The greatest cruiserweight of all time.

1972
It was all happening at the Olympic Games in Munich.

On the athletics track, top Finn Lasse Virén won the 10,000 metres in a world record time - despite falling over! On the 12th lap, with no interference from anyone, he suddenly tripped and hit the track, bringing down Tunisia's Mohammed Gammoudi, the reigning Olympic 5000-metre champion. Gammoudi dropped out soon afterwards, but Virén was on his feet almost immediately and back with the pack within 250 yards. Before long, he'd overtaken the early leader, Britain's David Bedford, then began his run for home with 600 to go. His time of 27 minutes 38.4 seconds brought him home well clear of Belgium's Emiel Puttemans, who finished just outside the old world record. It was the first of Virén's four Olympic gold medals, the start of his unique double double (July 30, 1976).

But the big news story in track and field involved two runners who didn't run. While America's three 100-metre entrants were waiting to travel to Munich's Olympic stadium for their quarter-finals, they killed time by watching TV - which was showing the start of a sprint race. What was this, asked the three Yanks, a re-run of the first round? No, they were told, it's live. Realising to their horror that they were watching events they should have been competing in, the three sprinters were driven at top speed to the stadium. But it was too late for two of them. Although Robert Taylor arrived just in time to qualify for the next round, Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson didn't even get to their marks. Their coach had been using a timetable that was 18 months old! There was talk afterwards of Hart and Robinson being deprived of gold and silver. They were joint world record holders, after all, having clocked 9.9 seconds at the US Olympic trials. But those marks were hand-timed, and they never ran that fast with electric timing. Also, Taylor had looked the most impressive of the three here in Munich - and he finished a yard behind Valery Borzov in the final. Taylor and Hart took gold in the relay, but Robinson never won an Olympic medal.

But for most spectators this was memorable as the day Olga Korbut starting winning gold medals. The day before, this tiny 17-year-old Soviet gymnast had become the darling of the crowds and media for her elfin performances - and her failure on the asymmetric bars. In with a chance of winning the all-round Olympic title, she slipped and stumbled and missed moves, leaving her in televised tears and out of the medals. Today she made amends in the individual apparatus competitions, taking silver on those pesky bars and gold on the balance beam and floor, where she coquetted her way to international stardom.

1881
The first day in the first US tennis championships. A British player went on to reach the final - but William Glyn lost to Dick Sears in three easy sets, the first 6-0. Sears won the first seven Championships, beating seven different opponents in the final, none of them out of the top drawer. Two other players also won the title seven times, including the great Bill Tilden (born 10 February 1893), but no-one has ever managed eight.

1961
One of the great displays of long-distance putting under pressure. At the US PGA, Don January led Jerry Barber by four shots with only three holes to play. Then everything went haywire. January dropped two shots while Barber sank three huge putts, including two for birdies. He holed from 20 feet at the 16th and 40 feet to save par at the 18th, then surpassed himself at the last. Needing a birdie for a share of the lead, in near darkness, he made it from 60 feet, to January's gutshot disbelief. The play-off today was almost as close, Barber winning by a single stroke: 67 to 68. At 45 years old and 5' 4, Barber was one of the oldest and smallest golfers to win a Major.

1978
The start of the great Coe-Ovett rivalry ended in a win for someone else. Their performances in the qualifying rounds made them runaway favourites for the 800 metres at these European Championships. The only question was whether Coe could set a fast enough pace to burn off Ovett's sprint finish. He certainly tried to. In today's final, he ran the first lap in a bonkers 49.32 seconds, about ten yards faster than he ideally wanted. Ovett, in superb form at the time, overtook him in the finishing straight and seemed set for gold - when suddenly an unknown young East German came steaming up on his outside. The hefty figure of Olaf Beyer running faster than anyone had suspected. Beyer finished in 1 minute 43.84, a Championship record that still stands, while Ovett won his second silver medal in the event. His time of 1:44.09 broke Coe's very recent British record, with Coe himself winning a distant bronze. Three days later, Ovett was an impressive winner of the 1500 metres with Beyer back in 9th.

1955
Ed Moses was born Edwin Moses in Ohio and grew into the greatest 400-metre hurdler of all time. He was still a novice at the event when he won his first Olympic gold medal (July 25 1976), but even then his long legs were allowing him to take only 13 strides between hurdles, a massive advantage. He clocked 47.63 seconds in that Olympic final, and if he set only three other world records, it was because they were good ones. His 47.02 in 1983 is still the second-fastest of all time, beaten only by an eyebrow-raising run at the 1992 Olympics (August 6). He would have retained his Olympic title by a country mile if the USA hadn't boycotted the Moscow games, regained it easily in 1984 (August 5), and managed bronze in 1988 when he was 33. He won an incredible 122 races in a row and gold at the first two World Championships: with his shoelace undone in 1983 (!) and by the thickness of his vest in 1987.

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