January 1, 2014: The NHL's Biggest Crowd

January 1, 2014, 10 years ago: The NHL Winter Classic is held at Michigan Stadium, on the campus of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, 37 miles west of downtown Detroit.

In 2001, Michigan had visited Michigan State in East Lansing for an outdoor hockey game at MSU's Spartan Stadium. The game was known as "The Cold War," and attracted 74,544 fans, a record for a hockey game anywhere. It ended in a 3-3 tie.

In 2010, the Wolverines returned the favor, and invited the Spartans to play at game at Michigan Stadium. "The Big Chill at the Big House" was a 5-0 Wolverine win, in front of 104,173 fans, a new worldwide hockey record.

That gave the Detroit Red Wings the idea of hosting a regular-season NHL game at Michigan Stadium. With the Winter Classic having been established for the 2007-08 season, the precedent had been set. It was announced that the 2013 Winter Classic would be played in Ann Arbor.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were selected as the opponent. This would be the 1st time a Canadian team had been selected to play in the Winter Classic, home or away. Although the Chicago Blackhawks are the Wings' traditional arch-rivals, the Leafs are a bit closer, 231 miles to 284. (Actually, the closest team to the Wings is now the Columbus Blue Jackets, 200 miles even. But they're one of the newest NHL teams, while the Wings, the Hawks and the Leafs are all part of the "Original Six.")

But before the 2012-13 season could begin, the NHL's team owners locked the players out. Since the NHL's players union, like the NFL's but unlike MLB's and the NBA's, is very weak, there wasn't much that could be done. The game was canceled on November 2, 2012. After the was lockout settled, the game was rescheduled on April 7, 2013 for January 1, 2014.

The Wings wore their traditional home red, combining an early version of their Winged Wheel logo with their original uniforms as the 1926-27 Detroit Cougars. The Leafs, despite being the visitors, were permitted to wear their traditional home blue, with a jersey inspired by their 1930s uniforms, but with the Leaf logo being specifically the 1st one they had used, in the 1927-28 season. (From 1917 to 1919, they were the Toronto Arenas. From 1919 to 1927, they were the Toronto St. Patricks, and wore green.)

There was no scoring in the 1st period. In the 2nd period, Daniel Alfredsson, the longtime Ottawa Senator defenseman, and no friend of the Leafs, scored to put Detroit on the board. But with 37 seconds left in the period, James van Riemsdyk, from Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, evened it up.

Tyler Bozak put Toronto up 2-1 early in the 3rd. With 5:32 left in regulation, the tying goal was scored by Justin Abdelkader. He was a Michigan native, from Muskegon, and was Jordanian Arab on his father's side and Polish on his mother's, fulfilling 2 of the Detroit area's biggest ethnic groups. With the Wings in 2008, he became the 1st player of Middle Eastern descent to have his name put on the Stanley Cup.

There was no scoring in the overtime, and the game went to a shootout. Alfredsson shot first, and missed. van Riemsdyk went first for the Leafs, but Jimmy Howard stopped him. Pavel Datsyuk scored for the Wings, and Joffrey Lupul tied it for the Leafs. Jonathan Bernier stopped a shot by Tomas Tatar, and then Tyler Bozak scored to win it for the Leafs. Despite Detroit outshooting 43-26, the game went into the books as a 3-2 Toronto win.

Tyler Bozak

Attendance was claimed at 105,491. That would have been an all-time hockey record. However, University of Michigan officials claimed that the actual paid attendance was less than the 104,173 for "The Big Chill at the Big House." Regardless, it's still an NHL record.

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January 1, 2014 was a Wednesday. There was 1 other game played in the NHL that day: The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Washington Wizards, 87-78 at what's now the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers, 95-82 at what's now the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 124-112 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 114-102 at what's now the Ball Arena in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Charlotte Hornets, 112-85 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Blake Griffin scored 31 points to lead all players on the day.

In the New Year's Day college football bowl games:

* Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California: Number 4 Michigan State beat Number 5 Stanford, 24-20. 

* Fiesta Bowl, at what's now State Farm Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, California: Number 15 Central Florida 52, Number 6 Baylor 42.

* Gator Bowl, at what's now TIAA Bank Stadium in Jacksonville: Unranked Nebraska beat Number 23 Georgia, 24-19.

* Capital One Bowl, at what's now Camping World Stadium in Orlando: Number 8 South Carolina beat Number 19 Wisconsin, 34-24.

* Outback Bowl, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa: Number 14 Louisiana State (LSU) beat unranked Iowa, 21-14.

* Heart of Dallas Bowl, played at the Cotton Bowl stadium, now that the Cotton Bowl Classic had been moved to the Cowboys' stadium in Arlington: North Texas beat Nevada-Las Vegas, 36-14.

The Sugar Bowl was played on January 2, the Cotton Bowl on January 3, and the BCS National Championship Game on January 6, at the Rose Bowl. Number 1 Florida State beat Number 2 Auburn, 34-31.

Also on January 1, Arsenal beat Welsh team Cardiff City, 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.