American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

• College football national championship
  NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship
  A college football national championship in the highest level of collegiate play in the United States, currently the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , is a designation awarded annually by various third-party organizations to their selection of the best...
  
   – Princeton Tigers
  Princeton Tigers football
  The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision...
  
   and Yale Bulldogs
  Yale Bulldogs football
  The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Yale's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1872...
  
   (shared)

• Michigan Wolverines
  1881 Michigan Wolverines football team
  The 1881 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1881 college football season. While the University of Michigan had fielded "football" teams in 1879 and 1880, those teams played a game that was more in line with traditional rugby, and many consider the 1881...
  
   is the first "western" team to travel east and play against the established teams at Harvard Crimson
  Harvard Crimson football
  The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1873...
  
  , Yale Bulldogs
  Yale Bulldogs football
  The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . Yale's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing in the sport in 1872...
  
   and Princeton Tigers
  Princeton Tigers football
  The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision...
  
  .

Association football

• FA Cup final
  FA Cup Final
  The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...
  
   – Old Carthusians
  Old Carthusians F.C.
  Old Carthusians Football Club is an association football club whose players are former pupils of Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey, England...
  
   3–0 Old Etonians
  Old Etonians F.C.
  The Old Etonians Football Club is an English football club whose players are taken from previous attendees of Eton College, in Eton, Berkshire.-History:...
  
   at The Oval
  The Oval
  The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
  
   in the last final to be played between two southern amateur sides.
• Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers both change their venues to enclosed grounds where gate money can be charged, an increasing practice among clubs that are openly (or otherwise) professional.
• Preston North End is founded and plays from the start at Deepdale
  Deepdale
  Deepdale is a stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End F.C. and, up to 2010, England's National Football Museum. Preston North End are one of the founder members of the Football League.- History :...
  
  , which holds the world record for the length of time a venue has been in continuous use by one major league club.
• Burnley FC founded as Burnley Rovers RUFC which decides in May 1882 to switch codes. The Rovers suffix is dropped two years later and the club renamed as Burnley AFC.
• Newcastle United, which has a complicated early history, is founded as Stanley FC by a cricket club in the Byker area of Newcastle.

• Scottish Cup final – Queen's Park
  Queen's Park F.C.
  Queen's Park Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland. The club are currently the only amateur club in the Scottish League; their amateur status is reflected by their motto, Ludere Causa Ludendi – to play for the sake of playing.Queen's Park are the oldest...
  
   3–1 Dumbarton
  Dumbarton F.C.
  Dumbarton Football Club is Scotland's 4th oldest football club – founded in 1872, just after Queen's Park , Kilmarnock and Stranraer...
  
   at Hampden Park
  Hampden Park
  Hampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
  
   (replay after Dumbarton protests about the original match which Queen's Park has won 2–1)

• Foundation of FC Girondins de Bordeaux
  FC Girondins de Bordeaux
  Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux is a French association football club based in the city of Bordeaux. The club currently play in Ligue 1, the first division of French football, and won its last Ligue 1 title in the 2008–09 season....
  
  .

• Moyola Park F.C.
  Moyola Park F.C.
  Moyola Park Association Football Club is an intermediate, Northern Irish football club playing in IFA Championship 2. The club, founded in 1880, hails from Castledawson, near Magherafelt, County Londonderry, and plays its home matches at the Mill Meadow, which has an artificial "3G" surface...
  
   wins the inaugural Irish Cup final
  Irish Cup
  For the equivalent tournament in the Republic of Ireland, see FAI Cup.The Irish Cup is the national cup knock-out competition in Northern Irish football. Inaugurated in 1881, it is the fourth oldest national cup competition in the world...
  
  

• 12 March — Andrew Watson makes his Scotland
  Scotland national football team
  The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
  
   debut, becoming the world's first black international football
  Football (soccer)
  Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
  
   player

Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

• National League
  National League
  The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
  
   champions – Chicago White Stockings
  Chicago Cubs
  The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
  
  

• Detroit replaces Cincinnati leaving Cleveland and Providence the southerly cities on the National League
  National League
  The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
  
   circuit. Four others lie on the northerly rail line from stalwart Chicago to stalwart Boston: Detroit, Buffalo, Troy, and Worcester.
• In autumn, for the first time, all eight National League clubs prepare to continue next season.

Boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

• Paddy Ryan
  Paddy Ryan
  Paddy Ryan was an Irish American boxer, and became his sport's world's heavyweight champion from May 30, 1880 when he won the title from Joe Goss until losing his title to John L. Sullivan on February 7, 1882....
  
   takes part in a number of exhibition bouts but does not defend his Heavyweight Championship of America title.
• John L. Sullivan
  John L. Sullivan
  John Lawrence Sullivan , also known as the Boston Strong Boy, was recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing from February 7, 1881 to 1892, and is generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring rules...
  
   continues his rise to the championship with a series of knockout victories, none of them lasting longer than eight rounds.

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

• Lancashire CCC wins its first outright title. At the end of the season, an English team led by Alfred Shaw
  Alfred Shaw
  Alfred Shaw was an eminent Victorian cricketer and rugby footballer, who bowled the first ball in Test cricket and was the first to take five wickets in a Test innings . He who organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888...
  
   goes to Australia for the 1881–82 Test series.

• Champion County – Lancashire
• Most runs – A N Hornby 1534 @ 40.36 (HS 188)
• Most wickets – Ted Peate
  Ted Peate
  Edmund Peate was an English professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England.-Overview:...
  
   173 @ 12.68 (BB 8–30)

• Most runs – Tom Horan
  Tom Horan
  Thomas Patrick Horan was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia, and later became an esteemed cricket journalist under the pen name "Felix". The first of only two Irish-born players to play Test cricket for Australia, Horan was the leading batsman in the colony of Victoria...
  
   318 @ 35.33 (HS 113)
• Most wickets – Edwin Evans
  Edwin Evans
  Edwin Evans was an Australian cricketer who played in six Tests between 1881 and 1886.Born in Emu Plains, New South Wales and educated at Newington College , Evans was an off spinner with an ability to consistently land the ball wherever he wanted to and had some success in Australian first-class...
  
   32 @ 11.25 (BB 5–34)

Golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

• British Open
  The Open Championship
  The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
  
   – Bob Ferguson
  Bob Ferguson (golfer)
  Robert Ferguson , was a Scottish golfer who won a hat-trick of titles at The Open Championship in 1880, 1881 and 1882. He was especially noted for his putting. He is one of only four men who have won The Open three years in a row...
  
  

Gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

• 23 July — the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique
  Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
  The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique or International Federation of Gymnastics is the governing body of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881 in Liège, Belgium, making it the oldest international sport organisation...
  
  , the world's oldest international sport federation, is founded.

Horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

• Grand National
  Grand National
  The Grand National is a world-famous National Hunt horse race which is held annually at Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool, England. It is a handicap chase run over a distance of four miles and 856 yards , with horses jumping thirty fences over two circuits of Aintree's National Course...
  
   – Woodbrook
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Thebais
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Peregrine
• Epsom Derby
  Epsom Derby
  The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
  
   – Iroquois
  Iroquois (horse)
  Iroquois , was the first American-bred Thoroughbred race horse to win the prestigious Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Epsom, Surrey, England. He then went on to win the St...
  
  
• Epsom Oaks
  Epsom Oaks
  The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in early June....
  
   – Thebais
• St. Leger Stakes
  St. Leger Stakes
  The St. Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a distance of 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in September.Established in 1776, the St. Leger...
  
   – Iroquois
  Iroquois (horse)
  Iroquois , was the first American-bred Thoroughbred race horse to win the prestigious Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Epsom, Surrey, England. He then went on to win the St...
  
  

• Melbourne Cup
  Melbourne Cup
  The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
  
   – Zulu

• Queen's Plate
  Queen's Plate
  The Queen's Plate is Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race. It is run at a distance of 1¼ miles for 3-year-old thoroughbred horses foaled in Canada. The race takes place each summer in June or July at Woodbine Racetrack, Etobicoke , Ontario...
  
   – Vice Chancellor

• Irish Grand National
  Irish Grand National
  The Irish Grand National is a National Hunt chase in Ireland which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Fairyhouse over a distance of about 3 miles and 5 furlongs , and during its running there are twenty-four fences to be jumped...
  
   – Antoinette
• Irish Derby Stakes
  Irish Derby Stakes
  The Irish Derby is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 1 mile and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in late June or early July.It is Ireland's equivalent of the Epsom Derby,...
  
   – Master Ned

• Kentucky Derby
  Kentucky Derby
  The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
  
   – Hindoo
  Hindoo (horse)
  Hindoo was an outstanding American Thoroughbred race horse who won 30 of his 35 starts, including the Kentucky Derby, the Travers Stakes and the Clark Handicap. He later sired the Preakness Stakes winner Buddhist and the Belmont Stakes winner and Leading sire in North America, Hanover.He was a bay...
  
  
• Preakness Stakes
  Preakness Stakes
  The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...
  
   – Saunterer
• Belmont Stakes
  Belmont Stakes
  The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...
  
   – Saunterer

Rowing

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

• 8 April — Oxford
  Oxford University Boat Club
  The Oxford University Boat Club is the rowing club of the University of Oxford, England, located on the River Thames at Oxford. The club was founded in the early 19th century....
  
   wins the 38th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
  The Boat Race
  The event generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the River Thames in London. It takes place generally on the last Saturday of March or the first...
  
  

Rugby football

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

• Wales
  Wales national rugby union team
  The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...
  
   plays its first international match but is well beaten by England
  England national rugby union team
  The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
  
  

Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

• Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship
  The Championships, Wimbledon
  The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
  
   – William Renshaw
  William Renshaw
  William "Willie" Charles Renshaw is one of the greatest British male tennis players of all time, and a candidate for the greatest tennis player of all time...
  
   (GB) defeated John Hartley
  John Hartley (tennis player)
  John Thorneycroft Hartley was a tennis player from England, and the only clergyman to win Wimbledon.Born in Tong, Shropshire, as the winner of the All Comer's Final, Hartley won the 1879 Gentlemans Singles title by default, after the 1878 Champion, Frank Hadow failed to defend his title...
  
   (GB) 6–0 6–1 6–1

• First U.S. National Singles Championship, precursor of the US Open, won by Richard D. Sears (USA) who defeats William E. Glyn
  William Glyn
  William E. Glyn was an American male tennis player.William Glyn from the Staten Island Cricket and B.B. Club was a finalist in the first U.S. National Championships held in 1881 at the Newport Lawn Tennis Club in Newport, Rhode Island. En route to the final, he defeated Mr. Rives, 1-6, 6-1, 6-1;...
  
   (USA) 6–0 6–3 6–2

Yacht racing

Yacht racing

Yacht racing is the sport of competitive yachting.While sailing groups organize the most active and popular competitive yachting, other boating events are also held world-wide: speed motorboat racing; competitive canoeing, kayaking, and rowing; model yachting; and navigational contests Yacht racing...

• The New York Yacht Club
  New York Yacht Club
  The New York Yacht Club is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. The organization has over 3,000 members as of 2011. ...
  
   retains the America's Cup
  America's Cup
  The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
  
   as Mischief
  Mischief (yacht)
  The yacht Mischief was the victorious American defender of the fourth America's Cup race in 1881 against Canadian challenger Atalanta.-Design:...
  
  defeats Canadian challenger Atalanta, of the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club