Century Sports Series

The Sports Century: 1882-1982

Sports Century Timeline

The Sports Century: 1882-1982

Century Sports Timeline

• Jan 1, 1882 – Formation of the first U.S. professional sports league, the American Association (baseball)
• Feb 7, 1882 – Last bare knuckle champion named when John L Sullivan knocks out Paddy Ryan in Mississippi, USA
• 1883 – The National, American, and Northwestern Leagues limit competition in the Tripartite Agreement, marking the birth Organized National Baseball
• Jun 2, 1883 – First night baseball under lights, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
• 1884 – First World Series - Providence (NL) defeats New York Mets (AA), 3 games to none
• Aug 29, 1885 - Boxing's first heavyweight title fight with 3-ounce gloves and 3-minute rounds is fought between John L Sullivan and Dominick McCaffrey
• 1886 – The Hockey Association founded in England to codify the rules of field hockey
• Jan 1, 1886 - First Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, California, USA.
• 1886 - The first year that the women's US National Tennis Championships was held (the precursor to the US Open)
• 1886 - The game of softball is invented by George Hancock in Chicago, Illinois
• May 12, 1888 - Crouching start for running race first used by Charles Sherrill of Yale
• Jul 8, 1888 - John L Sullivan wins by knockout in 75 rounds in last sanctioned bare-knuckle bout
• 1891 - First French Open held (1891)
• 1891 – Canadian athlete James Naismith, at a YMCA college in Springfield, Massachusetts, invents basketball as an indoor winter game
• May 22, 1893 – Montréal Athletic Association beats Ottawa Generals 2-1, in first Stanley Cup hockey game
• Feb 9, 1895 - Volleyball is invented by W G Morgan in Massachusetts, USA at the same YMCA college that originated basketball
• Apr 26, 1895 – The first U.S. Open Tennis Championship held in Philadelphia
• Apr 6, 1896 – First modern Olympic games begin in Athens, Greece, as the Games of the I Olympiad are staged; 60,000 spectators welcome 280 athletes from 13 nations to the international competition of 43 events; James Connolly of the USA wins first Olympic gold medal in modern history
• Apr 19, 1897 – John J. McDermott of New York wins the first Boston Marathon (15 runners, 24.5 miles) with a time of 2:55:10
• 1899 – Sewanee Tigers of the SEC post 12-0 record, outscoring opponents 322-10, including a ten-day, 2,500-mile train trip, where they played five games in six days, posting five shutout wins over Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU, and Ole Miss
• 1900 – The first modern Olympic Games with womens' sporting events, in Paris
• Aug 10, 1900 – First Davis Cup Tennis Tournament (held in Massachusetts); US beats England
• Jan, 10 1902 – First National Bowling Championship held (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
• Jan, 9 1903 – Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchase American League's Baltimore franchise for $18,000 and move it to New York City, New York where it becomes the New York Highlanders and then Yankees
• Jul 4, 1903 – First Tour de France cycling event
• Jan 28, 1904 – First college sports letters: Seniors who played on University of Chicago's football team are awarded blankets with letter "C" on them
• Nov 4, 1904 – First stadium built specifically for football (Harvard Stadium) opens
• Sep 5, 1906 – The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin)
• Dec 7, 1907 – Eugene Corri becomes first referee in a boxing ring
• Dec 5, 1908 – First football uniform numerals used (University of Pittsburgh)
• Jul 16, 1909 – American League's longest scoreless game played, Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers tie 0-0 in 18 innings
• Aug 19, 1909 – First race at the Indianapolis 500 Speedway in Indiana, USA
• Dec 4, 1909 – First Canadian Football League Grey Cup: University of Toronto defeats Toronto Parkdale, 26-6
• Sep 22, 1911 – Cy Young, at age 44, wins his 511th and final baseball game
• Dec 7, 1911 – National Hockey Association forms with teams in New Westminister, Vancouver, and Victoria
• Apr 26, 1912 – First homerun hit at Fenway Park (Hugh Bradley, Boston Red Sox)
• Oct 18, 1912 – Jim Thorpe wins 2 Olympic Gold Medals in 1912 Olympics (decathlon and pentathlon) later relinqueshed because of status as professional player
• Jul 12, 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut, pitching for the Boston Red Sox
• Jan 17, 1916 – First PGA Championship: Jim Barnes at Siwanoy Country Club, Bronxville, New York; Professional Golfer Association (PGA) forms
• Apr 1, 1916 – First US national women's swimming championships held
• Jun 26, 1916 – Cleveland Indians experiment with numbers on their baseball jerseys (one game)
• Nov 22, 1917 – National Hockey League (NHL) is founded with Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, and Quebec Bulldogs
• Jan 3, 1920 – New York Yankees purchase Babe Ruth from Boston Red Sox for $125,000
• Sep 17, 1920 – American Professional Football Association (APFA) founded in Canton, Ohio, becomes NFL in 1922
• Sep 28, 1920 - Eight Chicago White Sox players are indicted for throwing 1919 World Series
• Oct 17, 1920 - Decatur Staleys play first APFA(NFL) game, win 7-0
• Nov 28, 1920 - WTAW of College Station, Texas, broadcasts first football play-by-play
• Oct 4, 1922 - The entire World Series of Baseball is broadcast over radio for the first time over WJZ New York City and WGY Schenectady
• Feb 3, 1923 – The New York Yankees introduce their first official mascot, "The Yankees' Bear."
• Jan 5 - Feb 4, 1924 - The first Olympic Winter Games are held in Chamonix, France
• Feb 25, 1924 - Marie Boyd scores 156 points in Maryland High School basketball game
• Oct 18, 1924 – Harold "Red" Grange scores Four Touchdowns Against Michigan, earning the nickname "The Galloping Ghost."
• Nov 16, 1924 – Cleveland Bulldogs lose to Frankford Yellowjackets, ends 31-game undefeated streak (NFL and major-league football record)
• May 1, 1926 – Satchel Paige makes pitching debut in US Negro Southern League
• Jan 1, 1927 – First US coast-to-coast network radio broadcast of football's Rose Bowl is made. Graham McNamee provides the play-by-play on NBC Radio
• Jan 3, 1927 – Harlem Globetrotters play first basketball game (Hinckley, Illinois)
• Mar 11, 1927 – First golden gloves tournament
• Jul 19, 1927 – Ty Cobb gets his 4,000th Major League Baseball hit
• Jul 12, 1928 – First televised tennis match
• Aug 11, 1929 – Babe Ruth becomes first in Major League Baseball to hit 500 homeruns
• Nov 28, 1929 – Ernie Nevers scores all 40 points for Chicago Cardinals versus Chicago Bears
• Jul 30, 1930 – Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2 for FIFA soccer's first World Cup in Montevideo
• Mar 22, 1934 – First Masters golf championship begins in Augusta, Georgia, USA
• Sep 25, 1934 – Lou Gehrig plays in his 1500th consecutive Major League Baseball game
• Jan 1, 1935 – First Sugar Bowl and first Orange Bowl
• May 30, 1935 – Babe Ruth's final Major League Baseball game, goes hitless for Boston Braves against Philadelphia Phillies; Ruth played 22 seasons, winning ten World Series tournaments, and scoring 714 home runs
• Jan 29, 1936 – U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson, and Walter Johnson
• Dec 9, 1935 – First Heisman Trophy Award: Jay Berwanger, University of Chicago
• Aug 1-16, 1936 - The Games of the XI Olympiad are held in Berlin, Germany; first Olympic games to be televised; American Jesse Owens wins 4 Gold Medals
• Jun 21, 1937 - The BBC televises coverage of the Wimbledon tennis Championships for the first time
• Mar 27, 1939 - First NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: University of Oregon beats Ohio State 46-33
• May 2, 1939 - Lou Gehrig ends 2,130 consecutive game streak; his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis revealed on Jun 21, "Luckiest Man" speech on July 3
• Jun 1, 1939 - First televised heavyweight boxing match, featuring Max Baer vs Lou Nova
• Aug 21, 1939 - The first Major League Baseball game is telecast (W2XBS New York), a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field

• Feb 25, 1940 - First televised (W2XBS, New York City) hockey game (New York Rangers versus Montreal Canadiens)
• Feb 28, 1940 - First televised basketball game (college game at New York City's Madison Square Garden-University of Pittsburgh beats Fordham University, 50-37)
• Apr 16, 1940 – First televised baseball game, WGN-TV, (Chicago White Sox versus Chicago Cubs exhibition)
• May 1, 1940 – The 1940 Olympics are cancelled
• Dec 8, 1940 - First NFL championship on national radio; Chicago Bears beat Washington Redskins 73-0
• Dec 21, 1941 – Ray McLean makes last ever NFL drop kick for an extra point
• May 28, 1946 – First night game at Yankee Stadium (Washington Senators 2, New York Yankees 1)
• Apr 1947 – Philadelphia Warriors defeat Chicago Stags 4 games to 1 to win first Basketball Association of America (NBA) Championship
• Apr 1, 1948 – The first televised World Series game
• Apr 15, 1947 – Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, first black player in modern major league baseball
• Nov 18, 1950 – Lowest NBA score in history, Fort Wayne Pistons defeat Minneapolis Lakers 19-18
• Dec 3, 1950 – Cleveland Browns become last NFL team with no pass plays in game (beat Philadelphia Eagles 13-7); Horace Gillom sets club record with 12 punts
• Jan 6, 1951 – Indianapolis beats Rochester 75-73 in NBA-record six overtimes
• Jan 29, 1951 – US Major League Baseball signs six year All-Star pact for TV-radio rights for US$6 million
• Feb 25, 1951 – First Pan American Games open (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Mar 23, 1951 – Bill Mikvy (Temple) scores NCAA basketball record 73 points
• Jul 14, 1951 – First color telecast of a sporting event (CBS, horse race); Citation becomes first horse to win $1,000,000 in races
• Dec 23, 1951 – First coast-to-coast televised football game (Dumont paid $75,000); Los Angeles Rams beat Cleveland Browns 24-17 in NFL championship game
• Sep 23, 1952 – First US closed circuit pay-TV telecast of a sports event: the Rocky Marciano versus Jersey Joe Walcott fight, in 49 theaters in 31 cities; Rocky Marciano knocks out the heavyweight champion in the 13th round
• Oct 11, 1952 – First ever hockey telecast in Canada, as CBFT Television in Montreal carries the Montreal Canadiens versus Detroit Red Wings game, in French
• 1953 – Jockey Willie Shoemaker shatters record, riding 485 winners in a year
• Mar, 15 1953 – National League approves Boston Braves' move to Milwaukee (first relocation since 1903)
• Mar 21, 1953 – NBA record 106 fouls and 12 players foul out (Boston Celtics - Syracuse Nationals)
• May 30, 1953 – First Major League Baseball TV network baseball game: ABC debuts Game of the Week on Saturday afternoons. Cleveland Indians 7, Chicago White Sox 2
• Sep 4, 1953 – New York Yankees become first MLB team to win five consecutive championships
• Nov 9, 1953 – US Supreme Court rules Major League Baseball exempt from anti-trust laws
• May 6, 1954 – Roger Bannister of Great Britain becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes (3:59.04)
• Nov 13, 1954 – Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators
• Apr 27, 1956 – Heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing
• Oct 8, 1956 – Don Larsen, New York Yankees, pitches only perfect World Series game, versus Brooklyn Dodgers (World Series #53)
• Nov 17, 1956 – Fullback Jim Brown, Syracuse, scores 43 points (NCAA record) versus Colgate
• Apr 1, 1957 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 52 points in his first collegiate basketball game
• Apr 12, 1957 – Jim Spalding sets a 2088-pin nine-game bowling record
• Sep 24, 1957 – Brooklyn Dodgers play last game at Ebbets Field, defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0; announce move to Los Angeles on Oct 8
• Sep 29, 1957 – New York Giants play and lose their last game at Polo Grounds, defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1, after having voted to move to San Francisco 40 days prior
• May 15, 1958 – 100th anniversary of first college baseball game, between Amherst and Williams; Teams re-enact the original contest
• Feb 25, 1961 – Bobby Hull scores record 54 goals in a season
• Sept 30, 1961 – Roger Maris Breaks Babe Ruth's Single-Season Home Run Record
• Mar 2, 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain's 100-Point Game vs New York Knicks
• Jan 29, 1963 - The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are Jim Thorpe, Red Grange and George Halas
• Jul 24, 1963 - Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson to retain heavyweight championship
• Feb 24, 1964 - Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior defeats world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout before a crowd of 8,300 at the Convention Hall arena in Miami Beach, Florida, changes name to Muhammad Ali the following day
• Dec 12, 1965 – Gale Sayers scores 6 Touchdowns in one Game
• Apr 8, 1966 - At the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, USA, the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers play baseball's first game on synthetic grass. The Monsanto chemical company provided the experimental playing surface of nylon grass, dubbed Astro Turf
• Jun 8, 1966 – NFL and AFL announce plans to become NFC and AFC in 1970
• Jan 4, 1967 – Introduction of "The Philly Phanatic" mascot for the Philadelphia Phillies
• Jan 15, 1967 - At the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first-ever world championship game (later called the Super Bowl) of American football. A crowd of 61,946 people is on hand. For their win, each member of the Packers collect $15,000: this is the largest single-game share in the history of team sports
• May 10, 1967 - Hank Aaron makes his only inside the park homerun
• Oct 4, 1967 – St Louis Cardinals vs Boston Red Sox is first World Series since 1948 not to feature New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, or Los Angeles Dodgers (World Series #64)
• Dec 31, 1967 – Coldest NFL game, -13 degrees F, dubbed the Ice Bowl. Green Bay Packers beat Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in NFL championship game
• Apr 15, 1968 – The Houston Astros defeat the New York Mets in 24 innings (6 hours, 6 minutes), 1-0, making it the longest scoreless game in Major League Baseball history
• Dec 9, 1968 – LSU's Pete Maravich sets NCAA record, scoring 69 points against Alabama
• March 8, 1971 – Frazier wins unanimous decision, beating Ali in the "Fight of the Century"
• May 21, 1972 – The first Olympic gold medal awarded in women's golf
• Jun 9, 1973 – Secretariat wins Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown
• Jul 7, 1973 – First all-US women's Wimbeldon, Billie Jean King beats Chris Evert
• Jan 14, 1974 – World Football League founded
• Apr 8, 1974 – Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record of 714 homers
• Apr 27, 1976 – Mascots, Etc. Opens for business
• Jun 18, 1976 – NBA and ABA agree to merge
• Feb 25, 1977 – New Orleans' Pete Maravich sets NBA record for a guard with 68 points
• Feb 18, 1978 - First Iron Man Triathlon (swim, bike ride, marathon) held, Kona, Hawaii
• Jun 25, 1978 – Argentina defeats the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time to win the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Jan 9, 1979 – High-school basketball player Daryl Moreau makes 126th consecutive free throw
• Jan 28, 1980 – The first televised game of the NFL season in 3D, Wrigley Field
• Apr 24, 1981 – Bill Shoemaker wins his 8000th race, 2000 more than any other jockey
• Mar 25, 1982 – Wayne Gretzky becomes first NHL player to score 200 points in a season
• May 13, 1982 – Chicago Cubs win their 8,000th baseball game (beat Houston Astros)
• Oct 13, 1982 – International Olympic Committee restores two gold medals from 1912 Olympics to Jim Thorpe
• Dec 27, 1982 – The Century Sports Series design line is commissioned by Mascots, Etc. to commorate the centenial of a few area varsity programs