1965: The Canadian Football League Players Association organizes. The organization’s first requests of the CFL are for official recognition, a pension plan, revision and standardization of the injury clause, and increased and uniform postseason salaries.
FOLLOW-THROUGH: In June 1966 the CFL recognized the CFLPA as the official vehicle through which players could negotiate as a collective group with management.
1966: Busch Memorial Stadium officially opens in St. Louis.
1979: The sale of the Houston Astros from Ford Motor Credit Co. to John McMullen for $19 million is approved. McMullen quickly makes a splash in Houston by signing free-agent pitcher Nolan Ryan to a four-year contract worth about $4.4 million, which makes Ryan the highest-paid athlete in history at the time. The public saw McMullen as a villain, however, when a contract dispute eventually led fan favorite Ryan to leave the club in 1988.
FOLLOW-THROUGH: In November 1992, Drayton McLane Jr. bought the team from McMullen for $115 million.
1997: The PGA Tour concludes its TV rights negotiations, aligning with three broadcast partners from 1999 until 2002. CBS gets 17 events a year, ABC 11 and NBC five. On the cable side, ESPN gets early round coverage of 19 events, USA Network gets 12 and the Golf Channel/Fox Sports Net gains early coverage of 11 events. Sources said the tour more than doubled its rights fees from $40 million to $100 million a year.
1998: U.S. District Judge John Martin rules that Pacific Trading Cards Inc. can continue to distribute cards featuring MLB players in uniform, without license, despite the objection of MLB owners. MLB Properties had sued Pacific, seeking to block distribution of the cards because they allegedly violated the club owners’ trademark rights.
FOLLOW-THROUGH: Later the same month, MLBP and Pacific Trading Cards reached an agreement in which 
Pacific received a one-year deal for 1998 that allowed the company to produce a line of English-language cards featuring players in uniform. As part of the deal, Pacific was to pay MLBP royalties on all products sold in 1998 and a penalty on the sale of cards produced before the settlement. In 2001, Pacific’s license was not renewed.
1998: Franklin County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court Judge John Bessey issues a directed verdict against Lamar Hunt in a contract dispute with the Columbus Blue Jackets without giving the case to a jury. Bessey ruled that Hunt wasn’t improperly forced out of the ownership group of the Blue Jackets, and that he committed a flagrant violation of the business contract by taking legal actions against former partners John McConnell and John Wolfe without consulting other members of the ownership group, Columbus Hockey Ltd. Hunt appealed but later dropped the case.
1999: Three companies — O.C. Tanner Co., Marker Ltd. and Questar Corp. — join longtime sponsor AT&T as the first companies to become Salt Lake Organizing Committee sponsors since the bid scandal of the previous year. The companies put up more than $30 million in cash, goods and services for the 2002 Olympics.
1999: MLS’ Columbus Crew draws rave reviews and an overflow crowd of 24,471 for the debut of its 22,485-seat soccer-specific stadium, Crew Stadium. NBBJ Design was the designer.
1999: Washington Sports & Entertainment Chairman Abe Pollin sells the Capitals and minority interests in the Wizards and MCI Center to a group headed by AOL President Ted Leonsis. The deal is valued at about $200 million.
