HARTFORD-TOLLAND COUNTIES, CT — This month-to-month collection on Patch websites in Hartford and Tolland counties remembers historic dates, occasions and milestones which occurred within the area throughout that month.
Right here is the April timeline, organized by calendar date moderately than chronologically by 12 months:
April 2, 1966 – Linebacker Invoice Romanowski, who gained 4 Tremendous Bowls and was a 2-time Professional Bowl choice, was born in Vernon.
April 2, 1995 – UConn gained its first nationwide championship in girls’s basketball, defeating Tennessee 70-64 within the title contest.
April 2, 1995 – The World Wrestling Federation carried out its yearly pay-per-view extravaganza, Wrestlemania XI, on the Hartford Civic Middle. Lately-retired New York Giants soccer star Lawrence Taylor competed in the primary occasion, pinning Bam Bam Bigelow.
April 3, 1993 – Jason Sofa gained his first event as a member of the Skilled Bowlers Affiliation Tour, capturing the Tums Traditional at Bradley Bowl in Windsor Locks. The left-hander was inducted into the PBA Corridor of Fame in 2012.
April 11, 1975 – The notorious “Brawl On the Mall” erupted on the Hartford Civic Middle throughout a World Hockey Affiliation playoff sport between the New England Whalers and Minnesota Preventing Saints. What started as a routine battle between the Whalers’ Brad Selwood and the Saints’ Curt Brackenbury shortly escalated right into a 32-minute alternate of punches involving each participant from each groups. A complete of 217 penalty minutes have been assessed by referee Alan Glaspell.
April 11, 1980 – “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers performed his closing NHL sport at age 52. The playoff sport towards the Montreal Canadiens resulted in a 4-3 time beyond regulation loss.
April 11, 2017 – The primary baseball sport was performed at Hartford’s new downtown stadium, Dunkin’ Donuts Park, however not by the Hartford Yard Goats. The College of Hartford defeated Quinnipiac 6-4 within the first contest, with the Yard Goats making their debut two days later in a 7-2 loss to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
April 12, 1986 – The fourth-seeded Hartford Whalers trounced the top-seeded Quebec Nordiques 9-4 on the Hartford Civic Middle to brush the Adams Division semifinal collection in three straight video games. It could be the one NHL playoff collection victory for the Whalers, who joined the NHL throughout the merger with the WHA in 1979 and stayed till departing for North Carolina in 1997.
April 13, 1997 – The Hartford Whalers performed their closing sport in Connecticut’s capital metropolis, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1. Captain Kevin Dineen scored the ultimate purpose in Whalers historical past; the franchise relocated to North Carolina the subsequent season.
April 17, 1982 – Pete Weber attained the primary victory of his illustrious PBA Tour profession by defeating Pete McCordic 210-199 within the title sport of the Larger Hartford Open at Bradley Bowl in Windsor Locks. The son of bowling legend Dick Weber was himself inducted into the PBA Corridor of Fame in 1998.
April 20, 1964 – Placekicker John Carney, a 2-time Professional Bowl choice and member of the Tremendous Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints, was born in Hartford.
April 20, 1988 – Nick Bonino, a standout hockey participant at Farmington Excessive Faculty and Avon Previous Farms Faculty who gained back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, was born in Newington.
