March Dates In The Sports History Of Hartford And Tolland Counties

HARTFORD-TOLLAND COUNTIES, CT — This monthly series on Patch sites in Hartford and Tolland counties recalls historic dates, events and milestones which occurred in the region during that month.

Here is the March timeline, arranged by calendar date rather than chronologically by year:

March 1, 1963 - Ron Francis, who became arguably the greatest player in Hartford Whalers history and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007, was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

March 1, 1975 - After four years of domination by athletes from New Haven County, particularly North Haven, the Simsbury High School gymnastics team walked into the home gym of defending champion Jonathan Law and emerged with a state championship.

March 3, 1981 - The 71st edition of the World Figure Skating Championships kicked off at the Hartford Civic Center. The 6-day event featured medals being awarded in four categories. Gold medalists were Scott Hamilton of the United States (men's singles), Denise Biellmann of Switzerland (women's singles), Irina Vorobeva and Igor Lisovski of the Soviet Union (pairs) and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of the United Kingdom (ice dancing).

March 4, 1991 - In a transaction often called "the worst trade in NHL history," the Hartford Whalers sent captain Ron Francis, along with Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings, to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker.

March 5, 1992 - Pete Signore Jr. of North Haven set a world record for a single game of duckpin bowling, cranking out a 279 at the now-defunct T-Bowl Lanes on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington.

March 6, 1976 - After 16 years of running a single ice hockey state tournament dominated by teams from southern Connecticut, including 12 titles for Hamden, the CIAC split the field into two divisions beginning this season. That move paid off for South Windsor, which captured the initial Division II championship with a 7-0 pasting of East Haven in the finals at the New Haven Coliseum.

March 7, 1975 - Stafford won the first CIAC Class S championship in girls basketball at Windham High School by a 39-33 count over Woodstock Academy.

March 12, 1983 - In a thrilling afternoon of scholastic hockey at the now-defunct New Haven Coliseum, Enrico Fermi High School of Enfield defeated South Windsor 8-5 to win the Division II state title. Immediately afterward, Enfield High School, which had won the Division II crown a year earlier, went into double overtime before toppling Notre Dame-West Haven 5-4 for the Division I title. It marks the first and only time in Connecticut history that two public schools from the same town captured both championships.

March 14, 1936 - Bob McVey, a first-line forward on the gold medal-winning United States Olympic ice hockey team during the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Cal., was born in Hartford.

March 22, 1974 - Marcus Camby, the Connecticut Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year at Hartford Public High School and 1996 recipient of the John Wooden Award as the nation's top college basketball player while at UMass, was born in Hartford. Camby went on to play 17 seasons in the NBA.

March 23, 1924 - Simsbury High School captured the first CIAC state championship crown by any sports team from Hartford and Tolland counties, as the boys basketball team edged Branford 24-22 in the Class C-D title tilt at Fayerweather Gymnasium on the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown.

March 23, 1954 - Geno Auriemma, the guiding light behind all 11 UConn women's basketball national championships and a 2006 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, was born Luigi Auriemma in Italy.

March 24, 1981 - Ron Hainsey, a 17-year veteran of the National Hockey League who won the Stanley Cup as a member of the 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins, was born in Bolton.

March 27, 1937 - Manchester High School ended the seven-year domination by Hillhouse by winning the CIAC indoor track championship at Wesleyan University.

March 29, 1999 - The men's basketball team from UConn won its first NCAA championship, defeating Duke 77-74.