On July 17, 1994 (32 years ago) American singer and actress Whitney Houston delivered one of the most memorable musical performances in history at the FIFA World Cup 94' closing ceremony held at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California.
Houston opened the show with her 1987 hit "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" after she was escorted onto the pitch and to the stage by Brazilian soccer legend Pelẹ́
Her unparalleled vocal performance left world cup fans stunned as she nailed every note!
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| Coventry promoted to Premier League© X (Formerly Twitter) |
Coventry secured promotion to the Premier League on Friday as the Championship leaders' 1-1 draw against Blackburn ended their 25-year exile from the top-flight. Frank Lampard's side needed a point from their trip to Ewood Park to be certain of automatic promotion. They did it the hard way, trailing to Ryoya Morishita's deflected 54th-minute strike before Bobby Thomas headed the priceless equaliser in the 84th minute. Having led the Championship table for much of the season, the Sky Blues have wrapped up their return to English football's elite with three games to spare.
"It was an incredible moment. This is what it's about," a tearful Lampard said in an emotional post-match interview.
"Coming here and getting a point at this stage isn't easy. We had to see it out and we didn't know whether to attack again.
"Doing this after 25 years? Wow! Wow!"
Backed by 7,500 raucous fans crammed into the Darwen End, Coventry were below their best for long periods of a nervous display.
But their performance will quickly be forgotten, replaced by life-long memories of the promotion party that followed Thomas' glancing header from Victor Torp's free-kick.
Supporters wept tears of joy when the final whistle announced their ascent to the Premier League.
"Amazing, amazing. I couldn't believe it when it went in," Thomas said. "It's been a hell of a season. I feel like we deserve it."
Now Lampard's men can set their sights on winning the Championship title, with second-placed Ipswich 11 points behind with five matches to play.
"This is a serious, serious football club. I grew up with them as a top flight club but I didn't realise," Lampard said.
"To go and get promotion automatically as a non-parachute team with three games to go. These boys have managed to achieve something special and unique."
Fittingly, Coventry's previous promotion to the top-flight in 1967 was also sealed at Blackburn when Rovers drew with Bolton.
That was the start of a 34-year spell in the top tier before relegation in 2001 sparked a steep decline.
Coventry plunged into the fourth tier for one season in 2017-18 and were even forced to play their home games in Northampton and Birmingham for three seasons due to a bitter legal battle between the club and their stadium's owners.
The 1987 FA Cup winners' rise back to prominence was initially piloted by Mark Robins, whose second spell in charge brought promotion from League Two and League One.
Losing the 2023 Championship play-off final against Luton stalled Coventry's momentum and eventually led to Robins' dismissal in 2024.
Hiring former England star Lampard as Robins' replacement proved an inspired move as he revived his career following sackings by Chelsea and Everton.
Lampard led Coventry away from the relegation zone in his first season before losing to Sunderland in the play-off semi-finals.
Fuelled by the pain of that near-miss, Coventry embarked on a relentless march to promotion.
A 7-1 demolition of QPR and a 5-3 win at Lampard's former club Derby in August established Coventry as the Championship's dominant force.
Jack Rudoni's assured presence in midfield, complemented by the goals of Haji Wright, Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante, kept Coventry top of the pile as the promotion dream came true.
The Sky Blues' success has also reinvigorated the midlands city, according to Coventry's Lord Mayor Rachel Lancaster.
"It's huge for Coventry football club and the fans, but for Coventry itself as a city, this has been massive," she said.
Coventry owner Doug King added: "The fans have been starved of it for a long time and you can feel it.
"Twenty-five years is a huge amount of time. If you don't bounce back you feel like it's never going to happen.
"Getting out of this league is very difficult but we did it. We got the whole city together. I'm super proud of everybody."
- Agence-France Presse
Formula 1 in the 1980s was terrifyingly dangerous - but getting killed by an animal would have taken things to a whole new level.
Thankfully for McLaren’s Stefan Johansson, he avoided that fate, but only by a couple of feet.
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| Johansson was a huge character in F1, but almost met his maker in the form of a dee |
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| His car and the deer were destroyed in an Austrian cloisonCredit: Reddit |
The Swede was staging his best season in F1 in 1987 against some of the very best to ever do it - Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell to name just three.
Yet his biggest adversary turned out to be a deer in the Austrian hills.
With teammate and title leader Nelson Piquet coming off two straight wins, Johansson needed to get back in the groove at the Spielberg track, but faced an almighty early setback.
During Friday practice, a deer ran out on him and the amount of damage was staggering.
Johansson’s McLaren’s front end was ripped off, and he was lucky to come away with just a broken rib.
Speaking later with his car strewn to bits in the pitlane, he explained: “I came over the brow and didn’t even see it until it was like three metres away from me and I hit it head on.
“It wiped the whole front of the car off, and then I went on and off the road and destroyed the car completely.”
The commentator said he was happy to be alive - unlike the deer - and Johansson confirmed as much when he later reflected on the incident.
“It was very small, thank God,” he said. “Even so, another couple of feet to the left...
“I had no time to react. None. The signal from my brain to brake didn’t even reach my foot it happened that quickly. I was doing 170mph over a brow and the deer’s just sat in the middle of the road.
“It tore off the left-front suspension – there were four gaping holes where the pick-up points had been – and that corner carried back and sliced off the sidepod and rear suspension. The whole left side was pretty much gone.
“It was morning and the grass was moist. In those conditions you accelerate when you leave the track.
"But there was quite a long run-off and so I had plenty of time to think about it. I prefer accidents when you spin and – boof! – you’re in the wall.”
Giving a brief thought to the other party, he added: “Apparently it had been walking around for a while. So it was a mystery why the session hadn’t been stopped.”
Deer are nothing new at the now called Red Bull Ring, but what happened after certainly was.
Johansson got straight back out in McLaren’s third car explaining: “Being strapped in the car was almost like being in a cast and that helped a bit, too.”
However, two more crashes followed on Friday retiring ten more cars, and Johansson was one of them, much to the fury of team boss Ron Dennis.
Yet his team managed to source some spare parts and get him back out the next day where he was even fastest at one point in the wet during qualifying.
Sunday saw a botched start and then a mechanic fail to tighten up his wheel, sending Johansson to the back of the grid, and as he put it: “The whole weekend was a disaster.”
Yet he would go on to stage one of his best F1 drives, climbing up to seventh with the fastest lap despite having a broken rib and car.
Even with a very impressive 12 podiums and 88 career points to his name, his Austria heroics showed a driver who certainly wasn’t out of place on a grid full of Hall of Fame talents.
Yet in the ‘80s such a feat was nothing new, as the Swede finished: “That’s just what you do: get back in it and get back on it. If you start thinking about it, doubting, it’s probably time to stop.”
- Connor Andrews
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| © XPBimages |
Gordon Murray, one of the key architects of the iconic McLaren MP4/4 of 1988, has revealed a diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer.
Murray, 79, was given his chance as an F1 technical director by Bernie Ecclestone at Brabham in the 1970s, designing the infamous BT46B - also known as the Fan Car - before it was promptly banned.
Murray's cars won the 1981 and 1983 drivers' titles for Nelson Piquet, before Ron Dennis enticed him to McLaren for 1987.
At the team, Murray was instrumental in designing the MP4/4, which won 15 out of 16 races and handed Ayrton Senna his first title, before Murray-designed cars swept the next three seasons of titles - two for Senna and one for Alain Prost. He stepped back from F1 involvement in the mid-1990s.
He was also the designer of the famous McLaren F1 road car, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, South African Murray revealed that in 2024, he had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer which starts in the glands.
The Oesophageal cancer was caught early, with Murray undergoing chemotherapy and then a new type of surgery.
His heart rate ballooned to 180bpm at times during the chemotherapy, with his heart being stopped to reset it, with the cancer being removed in "PlayStation" surgery in July 2024.
"The surgeon sits on the other side of the room with a PlayStation, basically, and you are lying there and everything is done with robots," Murray told Telegraph Sport.
Murray left the ICU within six days of surgery, but has been getting used to being fed via a tube.
- Jake Nichol
The 91-year-old former coach calls his last game Sunday after 35 seasons behind the mic, including 18 NBA Finals.
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| Brown has been with ESPN since 2004. / Justin Ford-Imagn Images |
Hubie Brown received tributes from across the NBA community as the former coach and longtime broadcaster headed into retirement after spending more than half a century in pro basketball.
The 91-year-old Brown called his final game Sunday as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 135-127. He was awarded the game ball after the final horn sounded.
“I have so many things to be thankful for, but my family and I can never thank everyone enough,” Brown said at the end of the telecast. “We just want to send them the love that I’ve seen today right back with a big hug. It was a fantastic ride.”
Players from both teams approached him before the game to shake his hand. He received a standing ovation during the opening timeout as a video honoring him aired on the Fiserv Forum scoreboard. Brown responded by blowing kisses to the crowd and mouthing “Thank you.”
Brown indicated he almost cried as that video aired.
He considered it fitting that he was in Milwaukee for his final game as a broadcaster. His first NBA coaching job was as an assistant with the Bucks on Larry Costello’s staff, a two-season stint that began in 1972.
“When I came here to the Milwaukee Bucks and Larry Costello, I received a master’s degree and a doctorate’s degree in basketball in two years,” Brown said at the start of Sunday’s telecast.
That launched an illustrious career on the bench and behind a microphone.
Brown coached 15 seasons with the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels (1974-76) and NBA’s Atlanta Hawks (1976-81), New York Knicks (1982-87) and Memphis Grizzlies (2002-05). He won an ABA title with Kentucky in 1975 and was voted the NBA Coach of the Year in 1978 and 2004.
He spent 35 years as a national TV and radio analyst, covering 18 NBA Finals. Brown was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.
“I’m sure he’s seen so much growth and so much change not only in the game of basketball but in the league,” Bucks guard Damian Lillard said after the game. “It’s come so far in a lot of ways, and I think that obviously you’re going to have the commissioners and you’re going to have players come along, but I think it’s the people who love on the game and love the league and the contributions that come from people like Hubie Brown is what has allowed it to become what it is, is what makes it special.”
Mike Breen, the play-by-play broadcaster for Sunday’s game, called it the “ultimate honor” to have Brown as a colleague. Breen spoke for other play-by-play broadcasters who worked alongside Brown by saying “you’ve been like a father to many of us, our NBA father.”
“Could we pause, as I have a tear here,” Brown replied.
ABC started its Sunday telecast by showing footage of Brown’s very first NBA broadcast, a 1981 game airing on USA Network. NBC’s Mike Tirico, Brown’s former broadcast partner, joined the telecast remotely to pay his respects late in the first quarter.
During breaks in the telecast, ABC showed highlights from Brown’s coaching and broadcasting career along with testimonials from various NBA figures.
“You brought so much passion to every telecast,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said during one of those breaks. “You took great joy in teaching the finer points of basketball.”
Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse presented Brown with a tiny replica of the Liberty Bell in the green room before the game. Bucks assistants wore a T-shirt with the message “Thank You Hubie” and a heart during pregame warmups.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers said before the game that Brown remains one of the former coaches he often seeks out for advice.
“He was one of my first calls all the time and still is when things are rough or I’m trying to figure out something to me that’s complicated,” Rivers said.
Rivers said he often sought Brown’s counsel in those situations because he figured there wasn’t any kind of situation that the longtime coach and broadcaster hadn’t encountered at some point in over a half-century in professional basketball.
Bucks veteran center Brook Lopez made sure to talk to Brown before the game and say how much the former coach and broadcaster had meant to the NBA.
“That was one of my real first, real cool ‘welcome to the league’ experiences, was having him call one of my games and to see him in person, get to meet him, hearing he was a fan of me and my game, appreciated my game,” Lopez said. “He’s always had good tips for me. He’s still coaching, even though he’s commentating. It’s in his DNA and in his blood, trying to help players get better.”
As the Bucks prepared for Sunday’s game, Rivers asked the youngest players on the roster what they knew about Brown. When they weren’t aware of Brown’s accomplishments, Rivers got Lopez to offer a primer.
“He gave a very impressive history run on Hubie and even knew the reason his last game was in Milwaukee is because this is where it all started, with him and Larry Costello,” Rivers said.
Brown said that’s what made it so appropriate to finish his career in Milwaukee.
“For me to end it here is very meaningful because I learned so much here,” Brown said.
- Nba.com Staff
Mike Tyson faces a race against time to prove his fitness ahead of a huge comeback fight against Jake Paul, with the legendary boxer required to pass two more health tests ahead of the bout.
'Iron Mike' was the undisputed world heavyweight champion between 1987 and 1990 and terrified opponents with his incredible punching power.
The Brooklyn-born fighter ended his career with a record of 50 wins, including 44 by way of knockout, and six losses, including his disqualification against Evander Holyfield in 1997 for biting his compatriot in the third round.
He is due to make a long-awaited return to the professional boxing fray in his fight against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Arlington, Texas, on Friday, having last taken part in a sanctioned bout in June 2005 against Kevin McBride.
But the event could now be in jeopardy after it emerged that Tyson still has to pass a brain test (EEG) and a heart test (EKG) this week in a safety precaution agreed to months ago, Boxing Kingdom reports.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation mandated the tests ahead of the bout, which pits boxers with a 31-year age gap.
Indeed, when Paul was born, Tyson had already won 45 fights and won and regained two heavyweight belts.
The fight was originally supposed to take place in July but a stomach alcer flare-up while on a plane meant that the 58-year-old was advised to delay the contest.
At the time, Tyson said: 'I asked the doctor, "Am I going to die?"
'I lost 25 pounds in 11 days. Couldn't eat. Only liquids. Every time I went to the bathroom, it smelled like tar.
'All my coordination, stamina, everything was hectic getting back. I was peaked already. I could have fought him that day. Now, I got to start from scratch. I had, like, eight blood transfusions. The doctor said I lost half my blood. I almost died.'
Earlier this month, it was revealed that these claims were being investigated by officials from Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation - who are overseeing the event.
However, it's expected the Texas Licensing Regulators will not assess Tyson again until the day before the fight takes place.
Therefore, there is a high risk that the bout could be cancelled just 24 hours before Iron Mike is set to step back into the ring.
The result of the assessment could see the fight be downgraded from a professional one to an exhibition or even cancelled.
However, Tyson is confident the bout will go ahead as planned and insists he is ready to dismantle Paul despite suffering a medical emergency earlier this year.
Tyson has given marijuana up while training to fight Paul because it is on the list of banned substances used by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
The fighter, who became the youngest heavyweight title-holder at 20 years and four months in 1986, has struggled with a series of health issues in recent years.
Despite showing his enduring class in an exhbition bout against Roy Jones Jr in 2020, Tyson has persistently battled with chronic knee and back problems.
Two years ago, he had a severe sciatica episode which left him in a wheelchair and then using a cane.
- SAM LAWLEY
Fantastic photo by Steve Line from the 1987 British Open final. Jahangir Khan on his way to his sixth straight title against Jansher Khan (in his first final).
