1926 sports: An invention in baseball, famous swim, tennis milestone, more

4 months ago

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The twelvemonth 1926 had a fewer milestones successful nan world of sports, from an invention that still exists coming successful shot to a famed English Channel aquatics and more.

Related: 1926: 100 years agone - life successful nan U.S., entertainment, celebrated firsts, more

Our yearly 100-year lookback dives into nan history and grounds books:

From milestones to records, celebrated births, championships and more.

Born successful 1926 …

• Hobie Billingsley, longtime esteemed Indiana University swimming and diving coach (he attended Ohio State University)

• Don Carter, 1 of nan top bowlers ever

• Chuck Cooper, first African-American to beryllium drafted into nan NBA

• Ballplayer-turned-commentator Joe Garagiola

• Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn

• Hall of Fame protect extremity Gino Marchetti

• Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe

• Longtime Penn State shot coach Joe Paterno

• Pole vaulter Bob (“The Vaulting Vicar”) Richards, nan first jock to look connected nan beforehand of a Wheaties box

• NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle

• Basketball awesome and past coach Bill Sharman

… died successful 1926

• Hall of Fame pitcher Eddie Plank. He died of a changeable astatine property 50.

• Georges Vezina, whose sanction adorns nan trophy honoring nan NHL’s apical goaltender. He was 39 and died of tuberculosis.

Auto racing

Frank Lockhart wins nan Indy 500. Lockhart, only nan 4th rookie to win, captured a rain-shortened title and earned $35,600. Three years later Lockhart, successful Daytona Beach trying to group a land-speed record, collapsed and died. He was 25.

Baseball

Rosin bags are introduced and go a useful contented connected nan pitcher’s mound.

Your hitting leaders are Detroit’s Heinie Manush (.378) and Cincinnati’s Bubbles Hargrave (.353). Hargrave was nan first catcher successful nan modern era to triumph nan honors. The National League victor was not declared until December. League president John Heydler declared Hargrave nan victor complete 2 different players – 1 of whom, Rube Bressler, had a higher mean (.357) but played successful less games. The contention centered astir nan convention having nary defined requisites, for illustration minimum sheet appearances.

The New York Yankees’ Babe Ruth (47) and Chicago Cubs’ Hack Wilson (21) lead nan American and National leagues, respectively, successful location runs.

The Yankees’ Babe Ruth hits 3 location runs successful Game 4 of nan World Series. But nan St. Louis Cardinals triumph successful 7 games successful their first World Series appearance.

It’s each Giants successful nan Negro World Series: The Chicago American Giants hit nan Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey, successful 11 games - 5-4-2.

Washington’s Firpo Marberry saves 20 games successful an era erstwhile astir starters vanished games. (The tract almostcooperstown.substack.com calls him “the OG of closers.”)

Cleveland Indians

Cleveland finishes successful 2nd place, 3 games down nan New York Yankees successful nan pre-playoff American League.

Cleveland’s George Uhle leads nan Majors pinch 27 victories. Uhle is 1 of nan pitchers to declare he invented nan slider. He vanished nan play 27-11.

In a crippled astatine Philadelphia, Cleveland’s Tris Speaker – astatine property 38 - notches his 700th profession double. Speaker would decorativeness his profession pinch 792 doubles - a grounds that stands.

Cleveland’s Dutch Levsen – who earned a grade successful animal husbandry from Iowa State University – wins some games of a doubleheader against Boston successful August. He is nan past pitcher to execute nan copy wins. Interesting fact: He records zero strikeouts successful some games.

Four Cleveland Indians deed complete .300, led by George Burns’ .358 average. He leads nan Majors pinch 216 hits and 64 doubles.

Basketball

The Harlem Globetrotters are founded successful 1926. They are still going strong; they brought their nosy marque of hoops to Cleveland connected Dec. 28.

The Cleveland Rosenblums triumph 8 consecutive games to commencement nan 2nd half, past expanse Brooklyn successful 3 games for nan American Basketball League championship. Cleveland’s prima subordinate was Honey Russell, who later coached and became a shot scout who signed Joe Torre.

Boxing

Gene Tunney thumps Jack Dempsey and becomes world heavyweight boxing champion. It would group up a famed rematch – 1 of nan sport’s astir infamous moments - a twelvemonth later.

Pete Latzo defeats Mickey Waller to triumph nan world welterweight title. Cartoonist Ham Fisher erstwhile met Latzo. The combatant became nan inspiration for Fisher’s characteristic “Joe Palooka” successful nan celebrated comic portion of nan day.

Sammy Mandell thumps Rocky Kansas for nan world lightweight championship. Three years later, Kansas would suffer a batch successful nan banal marketplace clang and went to activity for nan metropolis of Buffalo.

Cycling

Lucien Buysse wins nan Tour de France. It is nan longest TDF successful history, covering 3,570 miles complete 17 stages.

Figure skating

The 1926 World Figure Skating Championships are held successful Berlin: Austrian Herma Szabo wins nan 5th and last of her consecutive world titles. Szabo, who began skating astatine property 2, had a long-running feud pinch famed skater Sonja Henie, who reportedly was favored by Norwegian judges. Austrian Willy Boeckl wins nan men’s title. Andrée Brunet and Pierre Brunet are named world pairs champs. The French mates would emigrate to nan United States, wherever they coached – among others – Carol Heiss Jenkins, longtime Northeast Ohio resident who is successful nan Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame.

Football

Ohio State finishes successful nan apical 10 pinch a 7-1 record. The Buckeyes’ sole nonaccomplishment is to Michigan, 17-16.

Brown goes 9-0-1 pinch 7 shutouts. And while two-way players were not uncommon, Brown won consecutive games pinch zeros substitutions against Yale and Dartmouth. They fto up nary points successful those wins.

Alabama edges Washington, 20-19, successful nan 12th Rose Bowl. It became known arsenic “The Game That Changed nan South.” Birmingham News sportswriter Clyde Bolton wrote: “The 1926 Rose Bowl was without a uncertainty nan astir important crippled earlier aliases since successful Southern shot history.”

The Frankford Yellow Jackets are named NFL champions aft finishing pinch nan champion record, 14-1-2.

The Ottawa Senators hit nan University of Toronto Varsity Blues, 10-7, successful nan 14th Grey Cup. It was nan last clip a assemblage squad made it to nan Grey Cup final.

Golf

The awesome Bobby Jones becomes nan first American amateur to triumph nan British and U.S. Open

titles successful nan aforesaid year. The wins came a fewer weeks apart.

Walter Hagen defeats Leo Diegel for nan U.S. PGA Championship. Diegel is remembered arsenic being nan astir accomplished Michigan autochthonal golfer ever. His unsocial elbows-out putting method “with a melodramatic crook astatine nan waist became known arsenic ‘Diegeling.’”

Jess Sweetser wins nan British Amateur. It was nan first clip an American-born golfer captured nan tournament.

George Von Elm wins nan U.S. Amateur, avenging a nonaccomplishment successful 1924 to Jones.

Hockey

The National Hockey League approves a franchise successful Detroit. The Detroit Cougars yet would go nan Red Wings. The New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks besides subordinate nan league.

The Montreal Maroons hit nan Western Hockey League champions Victoria Cougars, 3 games to 1, to headdress nan 1925-26 season.

The WHL folds.

Ottawa’s Frank Nighbor wins his 2nd Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship. It was only nan 2nd twelvemonth nan yearly grant was given.

Horse racing

Bubbling Over, ridden by Albert Johnson, wins nan Kentucky Derby by 5 lengths. A period later, he rides Crusader – sired by Man o’ War - to triumph astatine nan Belmont Stakes.

John Maiben rides Display to triumph astatine nan Preakness Stakes successful 1:59.8. The horse, astatine 19-1 odds, started slowly, gained and won by a head.

Jack Horner, ridden by William Watkinson, wins nan Grand National steeplechase title successful nan United Kingdom. The equine was injured successful training aft nan title and ne'er competed again. Watkinson suffered a autumn 3 weeks later and died.

Take My Tip – astatine 63-1 likelihood - wins nan Grand Prix de Paris. The equine is owned by James Hennessey, of nan famed liquor company.

Ohio

Kent State holds a title pinch a $25 prize to prime a caller sanction for its teams. “Golden Flashes” wins. But it will return a fewer years to shingle nan erstwhile sanction of “Silver Foxes.”

Running

Paavo Nurmi runs a grounds 8:25.4 successful nan 3,000-meter race, past breaks it months later astatine 8:20.4.

Canadian Johnny Miles wins nan first of 2 Boston Marathons. Miles won by 4 minutes. He died successful 2003 astatine property 97.

Swimming

American Gertrude Ederle becomes nan first female to aquatics nan English Channel, from France to England. She lived to beryllium 98.

Tennis

Britains Leslie and Kitty Godfree go nan only joined mates to triumph nan mixed doubles title astatine Wimbledon.

Kitty Godfree wins nan singles final, too, defeating Spaniard Lilí de Álvarez.

Frenchman Jean Borotra wins Wimbledon men’s final. He was a spot eccentric, aliases astatine slightest outlandish connected nan court. Among his antics: On wide shots he’d tumble into nan stands and buss women’s hands.

René Lacoste wins nan first of his 2 consecutive U.S. Open men’s titles. Yes, he was down nan famed Lacoste apparel statement pinch logo of a crocodile, his nickname.

Molla Mallory wins nan U.S. Open women’s title astatine property 42. She remains nan oldest U.S. Open singles champion.

Sources

almostcooperstown.substack.com, a-z-animals.com, baseball-almanac.com, baseball-reference.com, basketball-reference.com, biography.com, bornbuffalo.com/rocky-kansas, britannica.com, cfl.ca, The Buffalo News, ebsco.com, gettyimages.com, golfcompendium.com, gordonkirby.com, historyextra.com, hoophall.com, horseracingnation.com, indianapolismotorspeedway.com, infoplease.com, itv.com, kent.edu, lakeplacidolympicmuseum.com, luzernehistory.org, marathonview.net, mghof.org, newspapers.com, nytimes.com, onthisday.com, probasketballencyclopedia.com, sabr.org, silverclubgolfingsociety.com, skateguardblog.com, tennisfame.com, the-independent.com, thisdayinbaseball.com, thisgreatgame.com, tournamentofroses.com, usfdons.com, usopen.org, usracing.com, wimbledon.com.