This date in sports history: Dec. 20

1921 — Baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis casts the deciding vote to return to best-of-seven World Series from the best-of-nine format. The American League votes to return to best-of-seven World Series, and National League votes for the best-of-nine format. The a best-of-nine series was used in 1903 and 1919-21.

1966 — The NBA grants a franchise to Seattle, expanding the league to 11 teams for the 1967-68 season.

1973 — Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 1,000th point, getting an assist in a 2-2 tie with the Buffalo Sabres.

1980 — NBC experiments by not providing commentators for the national broadcast of the game between New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. The Jets win 24-17.

1981 — Winnipeg’s Doug Smail scores a goal 5 seconds into the game to set a NHL record for fastest goal from the start of a game. The Jets beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-4.

1983 — Montreal’s Guy Lafleur scores his 500th goal as the Canadiens beat the New Jersey Devils, 6-0. Lafleur scores the milestone goal at 8 minutes, 34 seconds of the third, beating Glenn Resch with a rising 30-footer.

1985 — North Carolina sets an NCAA record with 18 blocked shots in an 87-55 rout of Stanford.

1998 — Green Bay’s Brett Favre becomes the first NFL player to throw for more than 30 touchdowns in five different seasons. Favre connects three times with Antonio Freeman in the first half of a 30-22 win over Tennessee to break a tie with Dan Marino.

2003 — St. John’s provides a perfect ending for coach John Gagliardi’s record-breaking season, snapping Mount Union’s NCAA-record 55-game winning streak with a 24-6 victory in the Division III championship game.

2005 — Kobe Bryant scores a career-high 62 points and the Los Angeles Lakers beat Dallas, 112-90. Bryant scores a franchise-record 30 points in the third quarter and sits out the fourth after outscoring the Mavericks 62-61 over the three quarters.

2006 — Bode Miller wins the super-giant slalom in Hinterstoder, Austria, 90 minutes after Lindsey Kildow and Julia Mancuso finish 1-2 in a downhill at Val d’Isere, France. Those successes give the U.S. team five wins and an unprecedented nine podium results over six days. It’s the most impressive streak for the American team since 1983.

2009 — Ben Roethlisberger completes 29 of 46 passes with three TDs and 503 yards, becoming the first Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback to throw for 500 yards in a game during a 37-36 win over Green Bay. He hits rookie Mike Wallace for a 19-yard touchdown on the final play.

2009 — Cleveland’s Jerome Harrison scores his third touchdown with 44 seconds left for the winning points and rushes for a team-record 286 yards in a 41-34 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Joshua Cribbs of the Browns has two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

2014 — No. 1 Kentucky scores the game’s first 24 points in an 83-44 victory over UCLA. The Wildcats lead 41-7 at halftime. It is the lowest point total in a half for UCLA and the fewest by a Kentucky opponent since December 1943.

2015 — New England improves to 12-2 with a 33-16 win over Tennessee and becomes the second team in NFL history with at least 12 regular-season wins in six consecutive seasons.

2017 — Fletcher Magee scores 27 points to help Wofford stun No. 5 North Carolina, 79-75, snapping the reigning national champion’s 23-game home winning streak.