YAHOO SPORTS – Here is the 2024 Year in Review for sports.

January

Hail to the Victors (Jan. 8): Michigan crushed Washington, 34-13, to win its first national championship since 1997 and become the fifth team in FBS history to finish 15-0, joining 2022 Georgia, 2019 LSU, 2018 Clemson and 1897 Penn.

More headlines: Jan. 10: Nick Saban retired from Alabama, Pete Carroll was fired by the Seahawks, and early the next morning Bill Belichick parted ways with the Patriots as three memorable tenures ended in one fell swoop.

Jan. 28: Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open for his first Grand Slam title, kicking off a dominant year that saw him win eight more tournaments (including the U.S. Open, ATP Finals and Davis Cup) and ascend to world No. 1.

Plus: Joel Embiid (Jan. 22) and Luka Dončić (Jan. 26) became the ninth and 10th NBA players to score 70 points in a game.

February

Back-to-back (Feb. 11): The Chiefs walked off the 49ers, 25-22 (OT), to win their second straight Super Bowl, becoming the NFL’s first back-to-back champion since the Patriots in the early 2000s and cementing their place as one of the league’s greatest dynasties. * More headlines: Feb. 12: After 27 years with Nike, Tiger Woods unveiled his new “Sun Day Red” apparel and footwear brand in partnership with TaylorMade.

Feb. 28: The Lakers beat the Clippers in their 98th and final meeting as co-tenants of Crypto. com Arena, a home they’d shared since 1999. The Clippers moved into the Intuit Dome this season.

Plus: Caitlin Clark broke the Division I women’s scoring record with a signature logo three (Feb. 15; MLB’s new uniforms, see-through pants and all, became the talk of spring training (Feb. 22).

*Three titles in five years: The Chiefs joined the 1970s Steelers, 1990s Cowboys, 2000s Patriots and 2010s Patriots as the only teams to win three Super Bowls in a five-year span.

March

Caitlin passes Pete (March 3): Two weeks after breaking the women’s scoring record, Caitlin Clark (3,951 points) passed Pete Maravich (3,667) as the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader, dropping 35 points the final regular-season game of her collegiate career.

More headlines: March 10: Scottie Scheffler won at Bay Hill for his first victory of the year, kicking off the best PGA Tour season since prime Tiger Woods.

March 20: News broke that Shohei Ohtani’s longtime friend and interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had stolen $16 million from him to cover his own gambling debts. Mizuhara has since pleaded guilty and faces up to 33 years in prison.

Plus: LeBron James inaugurated the 40K points club (March 2); the KC Current opened the first venue ever built for a women’s pro sports team (March 16).

April 38-0 (April 7): South Carolina beat Iowa, 87-75, to become the 10th undefeated national champion (38-0) in women’s college basketball history. The game averaged 18.7 million viewers and peaked at 24 million, making it the most-watched women’s basketball game ever.

More headlines: April 8: UConn* beat Purdue, 75-60, to become the first back-to-back men’s basketball national champion since Florida in 2006-07.

Plus: Scottie Scheffler joined Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win the Masters and Players in the same year (April 14); Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye went 1-2-3 in the 2024 NFL Draft (April 25), which saw six QBs go in the first round for the first time since 1983.

*Huskies own the 21st century: This was UConn’s fifth men’s basketball championship since 2000. No other school has more than three this century (Duke and UNC).

May

Four-peat (May 19): Manchester City clinched their fourth consecutive Premier League title, becoming the first club in the 124-year history of English football to win four straight top-flight titles.

More headlines: May 4: Mystik Dan, an 18-1 longshot, edged both Sierra Leone and Forever Young by a nose to win the 150th Kentucky Derby in arguably the closest finish ever.

May 23: The House-NCAA antitrust lawsuit reached a historic settlement to pay $2.8 billion in damages to former athletes and create a landmark revenue- sharing system.

Plus: Victor Wembanyama was named the sixth unanimous ROY in NBA history (May 6); Paul Skenes threw 17 pitches of 100+ mph in his MLB debut (May 11); the Pac-12 held its final championship game before effectively disbanding (May 25).

June

18 rings (June 17): The Celtics beat the Mavericks in five games to win their record 18th NBA championship, and first since 2008.

More headlines: June 1: Real Madrid beat Dortmund, 2-0, for their record 15th Champions League title, and a day later signed all-world striker Kylian Mbappé. The rich get richer.

June 24: The Panthers won their first Stanley Cup, beating the Oilers* in Game 7 to avoid a historic collapse after Edmonton had fought back from a 3-0 series deficit.

Plus: Oklahoma completed the first four-peat in Women’s College World Series history (June 6); Bryson DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open after Rory McIlroy missed two short putts on the final three holes (June 16).

July

Summer of Soccer (July 14): Spain won their record fourth European Championship (breaking a tie with Germany) and Argentina won their record 16th Copa América (breaking a tie with Uruguay) within hours of each other, bringing an end to the Summer of Soccer.

More headlines: July 14: Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, becoming the sixth man* in the Open Era to win the “Channel Slam.”

July 21: Tadej Pogačar won his third Tour de France in dominant fashion, becoming the eighth cyclist (and first since 1998) to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year.

Plus: The Summer Olympics opened in Paris (July 26).

August

Gold medal in sportsmanship (Aug. 5): In the lasting image of an all-time great Olympics, Americans Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowed down to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade after she beat them out for gold in floor exercise.

More headlines: Aug. 4: Noah Lyles* won gold in the closest 100meter final ever, beating Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson (9.789) by five one thousandths of a second, which is less time than it takes to blink.

Aug. 10: Stephen Curry went nuclear in the final minutes of Team USA’s gold medal winning victory over France with a three-point explosion that I promise you won’t regret re-watching.

Plus: Katie Ledecky won her fourth straight 800m freestyle gold (Aug. 3); Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off homer to become the sixth member of the 40-40 club (Aug. 23).

*Ending the drought: Lyles is the first American to earn the title of “World’s Fastest Man” since Justin Gatlin in 2004.

September

50-50 (Sept. 19): Shohei Ohtani achieved MLB’s first 50-homer, 50-steal season with perhaps the greatest offensive performance* ever: 6-for-6 with 3 home runs, 2 doubles, 2 steals, 10 RBIs and 4 runs scored.

More headlines: Sept. 26: After 57 seasons and four World Series titles, the Athletics played their final game in Oakland. They’ll spend the next three years in Sacramento before moving to Las Vegas in 2028.

Sept. 27: The White Sox lost their 121st game, breaking the record set by the 1962 Mets (40-120) for most losses in an MLB season.

Plus: The Eagles beat the Packers in the first NFL game in Brazil (Sept. 6); A’ja Wilson broke the WNBA’s single season scoring record (Sept. 11); the Commanders and Bengals played the first NFL game without a punt or turnover since 1940 (Sept. 23).

*Wild stat: Ohtani is the only player to have a game with 10+ RBI, a game with (Continued from Page 7) 6+ hits, a game with 5+ extra-base hits, a game with 3+ home runs and a game with 2+ steals over an entire career… And he did it all in a single game. To inaugurate the 50-50 club.

October

L.A. over NY (Oct. 30): The Dodgers* beat the Yankees in five games to win their eighth World Series, matching their rival Giants for fifth-most alltime behind the Yankees (27), Cardinals (11), Red Sox (9) and Athletics (9).

More headlines: Oct. 20: The Liberty beat the Lynx in a winner-takeall Game 5, finally capturing their first WNBA championship in their sixth trip to the Finals.

Oct. 28: The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL all played on the same day during the 31st Sports Equinox in history, and the only one in 2024.

Plus: Inter Miami broke the record for most points in an MLS season (Oct. 21); Jayden Daniels completed a walk-off Hail Mary to beat the Bears in the “Maryland Miracle” (Oct. 27); LeBron and Bronny James shared the court in Cleveland (Oct. 30).

November

Gracias, Rafa (Nov. 19): Rafael Nadal’s otherworldly career* came to an end with one final match at the Davis Cup. “The titles, numbers, they’re there,” Rafa said during his farewell speech. “The way I’d like to be remembered more is like a good person from a small village in Mallorca.” More headlines: Nov. 20: UConn’s Geno Auriemma became the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, earning his 1,217th victory to pass Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, who retired in April.

Nov. 23: The Orlando Pride beat the Washington Spirit, 1-0, to win their first NWSL championship and cap the best season in league history.

Plus: The Jets won 15 of their first 16 games, the best start in NHL history (Nov. 12); the Cavaliers started the season 15-0, tied for the second-best start in NBA history (Nov. 17).

*The King of Clay: Nadal’s career is full of wild stats, but this one might be the craziest: He played in 19 French Opens and won 14 of them, going 112-4 at Roland Garros.

December

$765 million (Dec. 8): After one season in the Bronx, Juan Soto joined the crosstown Mets after signing the richest contract in sports history: 15 years, $765 million.

More headlines: Dec. 7: The LA Galaxy beat the New York Red Bulls, 2-1, for their record sixth MLS Cup title, and their first since 2014.

Dec. 11: Six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick agreed to become the head coach at North Carolina, where his father spent three years as an assistant coach from 195355.

Plus: McLaren won its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 (Dec. 8); Travis Hunter edged out Ashton Jeanty to win the Heisman Trophy (Dec. 14); Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker converted the NFL’s first fair- catch free kick since 1976 (Dec. 19).