This day in FOX Sports Arizona history
On Sept. 7, 1996, FOX Sports Arizona hit the airwaves with our first telecast -- a Pac-10 football showdown between Washington and Arizona State. Check back with us daily as we recount some of the top sports moments in Arizona during our 20 years of serving the state's sports fans.
The Yankees tie the World Series at 2 games apiece with a dramatic Halloween night comeback under a full moon. Curt Schilling held New York to one run and three hits through seven innings before giving way to closer Byung-Hyun Kim.
Erubiel Durazo and Matt Williams drove in runs during a 2-run eighth, giving the D-backs a 3-1 lead in the game and putting them within reach of a 3-1 advantage in the series. But Tino Martinez, hitless in the Series to this point, belted a two-out, two-run homer to tie the game at 3, setting the stage for Derek Jeter's walk-off blast in the bottom of the 10th, just after the clock had struck midnight -- earning Jeter the newly minted title of Mr. November.
Bob Brenly is hired as Diamondbacks manager after spending the previous three seasons in the team's broadcast booth. ''He's the first one to say that he doesn't have all the answers,'' managing general partner Jerry Colangelo said, ''and I find that refreshing. There needs to be a little more fun in this room. That's something we were missing last season.''
Keith Tkachuk scores his 300th career goal as the Coyotes defeat the Stars 4-2 in Dallas to extend their unbeaten streak to seven games (5-0-2).
Bob Brenly was hired as D-backs manager on Oct. 30, 2000.
As the World Series shifts to New York, the Yankees record their first victory, beating the D-backs 2-1 behind the pitching of Roger Clemens and Mariano Rivera. But the game might best be remembered for President George W. Bush taking the mound wearing a bullet-proof vest and firing a perfect honorary first pitch.
The D-backs managed only three hits and struck out 13 times, but they tied the game at 1 in the fourth inning on two walks, a single and a sacrifice fly by Matt Williams. The Yankees retaliated with the go-ahead run with two outs in the sixth inning when Scott Brosius singled off Mike Morgan. The final nine D-backs batters went down in order.
True freshman Willie Tuitama, making his first career start,. completes 13 of 22 passes for 335 yards to lead Arizona, which came into the game with a 1-6 record to a 29-27 victory at Oregon State. Matt Moore passed for 436 yards for the Beavers but turned it over seven times -- six interceptions and a fumble.
Ilya Bryzgalov posts his third shutout of the opening month of the season -- a 1-0 victory over the Blues in St. Louis.
Shane Doan scores the 100th power-play goal of his career, Kyle Chipchura registers a "Gordie Howe hat trick" and Mike Smith makes 41 saves in a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at Jobing.com Arena.
Arizona State piled up 742 yards, one short of the school record, but was done in by numerous defensive breakdowns and suffered a 61-55 loss to Oregon in triple-overtime at Sun Devil Stadium.
Mike Bercovici passes for 398 yards and five touchdowns and accounted for a sixth TD with an 18-yard run, but his heroics ended when he was intercepted in the end zone by Arrion Springs in the third overtime session.
Willie Tuitama
Arizona State suffers a heart-breaking 56-55 loss to seventh-ranked Oregon at Sun Devil Stadium in double overtime. Oregon got the win when the Sun Devils were unsuccessful on a fake two-point conversion.
The Ducks never led in regulation but scored two touchdowns in the final 3:21 -- the last with 27 second to play -- to force overtime. Joey Harrington had 434 yards and six touchdown passes for the Ducks, while Jeff Krohn had 432 yards and five TD passes for ASU.
The Diamondbacks take a 2-0 lead on the Yankees as Randy Johnson tosses a 3-hit shutout and strikes out 11 to lead Arizona to a 4-0 victory in his first World Series appearance. The real star of the day, however, was Ray Charles, with his heart-melting rendition of "America, The Beautiful" for a nation still recovering from the shock and tragedy of 9/11.
Ilya Bryzgalov of the Coyotes defends against the Blues on Oct. 29, 2009.
The Diamondbacks open the World Series with a 9-1 victory over the Yankees at a sold-out Bank One Ballpark. Curt Schilling allowed 3 hits over 7 innings for the win. Craig Counsell homered in the first to get the night off to a raucous start, Luis Gonzalez also homered during a four-run third, and the D-backs put the game away with four more runs in the fourth inning.
Dmitri Nance ran for three touchdowns as seventh-ranked ASU improved to 8-0 under first-year coach Dennis Erickson with a 31-20 victory over 18th-ranked California in front of more than 71,000 at Sun Devil Stadium. The Sun Devils came on strong after spotting Cal a 13-0 first-quarter lead.
Willie Tuitama throws for 510 yards and 5 touchdowns to lead Arizona to a 48-41 victory at Washington, ending a three-game losing streak for the Wildcats. Tuitama's yardage total stood as a school record until being topped by freshman Anu Solomon in 2014.
Matt Scott passed for 369 yards and ran for another 100 and Austin Hill had 10 receptions for 259 yards to lead Arizona to a 39-36 upset of 10th-ranked USC in Tucson. The Wildcats forced five turnovers to withstand a 493-yard passing effort -- 345 to Marqise Lee -- by USC's Matt Barkley.
The Diamondbacks won the NL pennant with a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the NLCS -- reaching the World Series in their fourth season as a franchise, faster than any team in major-league history.
Randy Johnson pitched seven innings to pick up his second win in the series, Byung-Hyun Kim recorded his second save with two scoreless innings of relief, and Erubiel Durazo provided the game-winning hit with a two-run pinch-hit home run off Tom Glavine with two outs in the fifth .
MVP honors went to Craig Counsell, who hit .381 in the series with five runs and four RBI.
Mike Smith becomes the 11th goaltender in NHL history to score a goal, firing in an empty netter at 19:59 of the third period to clinch a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in Glendale.
FOX Sports Arizona telecasts its first Coyotes game, a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The game featured a Jeff Finley goal for the Coyotes and a scrap between the Coyotes' Kris King and Dan Kordic.
Teppo Numminen plays in his 951st career game for the Coyotes, breaking Thomas Steen's franchise record, in a 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars. Numminen would go on to play 1,098 games for the franchise, a record that stood until Shane Doan broke it in 2011.
Steve Berthiaume and former D-backs manager Bob Brenly are announced as the new TV broadcast team for Diamondbacks' telecasts on FOX Sports Arizona.
Shane Doan reaches the 900-point plateau for his NHL career with a goal and two assists in the Coyotes' 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins.
Randy Johnson strikes out 11 and throws a 3-hit shutout as the Diamondbacks beat the Braves 2-0 in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. Johnson outdueled the Braves' Greg Maddux to end a personal 7-game postseason losing streak.
Trivia time: Craig Counsell had two hits and scored both runs -- on a Reggie Sanders single in the first and a Luis Gonzalez single in the fifth.
The Diamondbacks win the decisive fifth game in the NL Division Series 2-1 over the St. Louis Cardinals as Curt Schilling tosses his second complete game in the series and Tony Womack's two-out, ninth-inning single scored Danny Bautista for the walk-off victory.
The game-winning hit was redemption for Womack. He had failed to get the bunt down on a suicide squeeze with one out, and pinch-runner Midre Cummings got hung up between third base and home for the inning's second out.
Trivia time: Matt Williams led off the ninth with a double and was replaced on the bases by Cummings. Williams had been 0 for 15 in the series before coming through in the ninth.
Jay Feely kicked a team-record 61-yard field goal with 1:09 to play to pull the Cardinals into a 16-16 tie with the Buffalo Bills but then missed a 38-yarder that would have won the game with 3 seconds left, hitting the left upright. Fittingly enough, the overtime session came down to a field goal: a 25-yarder by Rian Lindell that gave the Bills a 19-16 win.
"You go from on-top-of-the-world to feeling to about as low as you can feel when you have an opportunity and you don't come through, regardless of how it happened," Feely said.
The Diamondbacks introduce Chip Hale as the team’s seventh manager.
Fredrik Sjostrom scores his first and only career hat trick -- one on the power play, one even strength, one short-handed -- as the Coyotes defeat the Predators 6-3 in Nashville.
Kris King scores the first goal at America West Arena as the Coyotes win their first home game on Arizona ice, 4-1 over the San Jose Sharks. Shane Doan, Mike Gartner and Craig Janney also score for the home team.
Larry Fitzgerald caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Josh McCown with 8:19 left in the game against the San Francisco 49ers for the first of what is now 103 NFL touchdowns. The touchdown gave the Cardinals a 28-12 lead, but the 49ers rallied for two touchdowns and a pair of successful two-point conversions to force overtime, then won the game on a Todd Peterson field goal.
The Phoenix Mercury defeat the Indiana Fever to clinch the WNBA Championship for the second time in three years.
Max Domi becomes the first player in Coyotes' history to score a goal and an assist in his NHL debut while helping the Coyotes to a 4-1 season-opening win over the Los Angeles Kings. Mike Smith also contributed in a large way with 40 saves.
The Coyotes beat visiting Minnesota 2-1 to give Wayne Gretzky his first coaching victory on a night when Bobby Hull's No. 9 was entered into the team's Ring of Honor. Ladislav Nagy's penalty-shot goal evened the score at 1, and Shane Doan knocked in the game-winner in the third period.
Teppo Numminen played 1,098 games for the Jets/Coyotes franchise, more than any player other than Shane Doan.
Mike Gartner scores the first goal and first hat trick in Coyotes' history as Phoenix defeats the Bruins 5-2 in Boston for the first win for the Arizona franchise. Nikolai Khabibulin was the winning goaltender.
Steve Berthiaume and Bob Brenly.
Shane Doan celebrates after scoring his 900th career point.
Jay Feely reacts after kicking a 61-yard field goal.
Fredrik Sjostrom
Bobby Hull drops the ceremonial first puck on the day he was inducted into the Coyotes' Ring of Honor. Taking the face-off for the Coyotes is his son, Brett Hull.
Mike Gartner
Radim Vrbata salutes the crowd after scoring a hat trick in the Coyotes 4-1 win over the New York Rangers on the opening night of the 2013 season.