Valentine's Day Sports Moments

February 14 is well-known around the world for celebrating Valentine's Day. It is a time where we have the one day designated to express our love in our own ways for those you care deeply about. Valentine's Day has seen its share of sports moments that you took to heart or it was broken in some cases.

1887: Then-Chicago White Stockings(now the Chicago Cubs) player Mike Kelly was sold to the Boston Beaneaters(now the Atlanta Braves) for what was then a record $10,000. Kelly did not heart Albert Spalding, who sold him to Boston. But he became "King" Kelly in Boston, although he was told he would earn $5,000 for the next season. But Boston management told him he was to make $2,000. He was able to agree to terms for Boston to use his picture and name for $3,000 to make up the difference. This made him the first to get a licensing agreement in baseball history. Major League Baseball did "heart" Kelly enough to induct him into the Hall of Fame in 1945.

1896: The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada had one team win the Stanley Cup every year until Valentine's Day in 1896. The Winnipeg Victorias of the Manitoba Hockey League defeated Montreal of the AHAC 2-0 at Victoria Rink in Montreal. Telegraph wires were also used to describe the play-by-play during the final match. The AHAC didn't "heart" Winnipeg for making history by having a team from another league win their Stanley Cup.

1951: In the sports version of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, two boxers faced off against each other for sixth time at Chicago Stadium. "Sugar" Ray Robinson won the middleweight title after a 13th round technical knockout of Jake LaMotta. Robinson dominated the bout as LaMotta had suffered his first legitimate loss by knockout in 95 professional fights. Robinson won five of the six fights between them after they had first fought in 1942. LaMotta retired in 1954 and Robinson boxed until 1965. This fight as well as some of the others were used in the popular boxing movie Raging Bull.

1966: It's no secret that Wilt Chamberlain did "heart" a lot of women in his life, but was no doubt an iconic figure in basketball as well as all of sports. The Philadelphia 76ers easily beat the Detroit Pistons 149-123 with Chamberlain scoring 41 points in the win on that Valentine's Day. In the game, Chamberlain passed Bob Pettit to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer. This record would stand for 18 years until Kareem Abdul-Jabbar passed him on the list in 1984.

1975: The American Basketball Association(ABA) was alive and well in 1975 as one of the most thrilling and highest scoring games took place between the San Diego Conquistadors and New Jersey Nets. San Diego won the game in four overtimes 176-166. In the game, Julius Erving, the player most associated with the ABA, set a league record shooting 25-for-46 from the field scoring a career-high 63 points. No one will ever "heart" a loss on Valentine's Day, but the legend of Julius Erving wasn't to blame for the Nets losing that game.

1986: We all know Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA all-time scoring leader, but he passed Elvin Hayes for another record on Valentine's Day. Abdul-Jabbar became the league's all-time leader in minutes played with 50,000 as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks 141-117. He would end playing 57,446 minutes in his career.

1988: The Daytona 500 was the location for a record day on Valentine's Day. Although many fans didn't "heart" Richard Petty's car crash which resulted in his car rolling over multiple times as well as crashing into Brett Bodine's car. In a "heart-filled" finish, Bobby Allison beat his son Davey to become the oldest person to win the Daytona 500 at age 50. It was also the first time a father and son finished 1-2 in the most popular race in NASCAR. Bobby Allison would end up retiring following a near fatal crash later that year. Sadly, Davey died in a helicopter crash in 1993.

1995: After spending his entire career with the Portland Trail Blazers, Clyde Drexler is traded to a new team as he becomes a member of the Houston Rockets. Drexler was traded for Otis Thorpe, a 1995 first round pick, and Marcelo Nicola. Houston fans did "heart" Drexler for helping the Rockets win their second consecutive NBA Championship. As for the Blazers, they traded the 1995 pick acquired for Drexler to Detriot as they took Randolph Childress 19th overall. Ironically, Childress ended up in Portland later on, but it wasn't a "heartful" tenure as his career was cut short due to an ACL and conflicts with coach P.J. Carlesimo.

Sources: NBA.com, prosportstransactions.com, basketball-reference.com, todayinbaseballhistory.com, racing-reference.com, boxrec.com, wikipedia.com