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)

• Five teams compete in the 1872 college football season
  1872 college football season
  The 1872 college football season is considered to be the third season ever played of intercollegiate football competition, due to no season taking place in 1871. Much like in the first and second years, 1869 and 1870, the rules were still considered in flux, and were decided on in a game-to-game...
  
  : , , , and .

Association football

• 16 March — inaugural 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...
  
  . The Wanderers
  Wanderers F.C.
  Wanderers Football Club is an English amateur football club, based in London, that plays in the Surrey South Eastern Combination. Founded as Forest Football Club in 1859, the club changed its name to Wanderers in 1864....
  
   1–0 Royal Engineers
  Royal Engineers A.F.C.
  The Royal Engineers Association Football Club is an association football team representing the Corps of Royal Engineers, the "Sappers", of the British Army. In the 1870s it was one of the strongest sides in English football, winning the FA Cup in 1875 and being Cup Finalists in four of the first...
  
   at Kennington 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 London. The goal is scored by Morton Betts
  Morton Betts
  Morton Peto Betts was a leading English sportsman of the late 19th century. He was notable for scoring the first goal in an English FA Cup Final....
  
  . In its way, this first final marks the beginning of major competitive football.
• The FA rules that the ball must have a circumference of between 68cm and 71cm. It must be spherical and must consist of an India rubber bladder enclosed within a casing made of leather or another approved material. Also, the ball must weigh at least 396 grams but no more than 453 grams. The prescribed weight is interesting because leather balls will become notorious for gaining weight when wet: the weight can almost double if the ball gets really soaked.

• Rangers F.C.
  Rangers F.C.
  Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
  
   is formed in west Glasgow by four friends and originally called Argyle FC. The team's first pitch is on common land at Flesher’s Haugh, Glasgow Green. The name is changed to Rangers later in the year.

• 30 November — 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...
  
   v. England
  England national football team
  The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
  
   in Glasgow is the first–ever official football international in that both teams are selected by their home associations, although strictly speaking the Scottish FA is not formally established until a few months later. The match is a goalless draw.

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 Association of Professional Base Ball Players
  National Association of Professional Base Ball Players
  The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players , or simply the National Association , was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 season...
  
   champion – Boston Red Stockings
  Boston Red Stockings
  The color red has been used in the names and commonly in the uniforms of several professional baseball teams in Boston, Massachusetts.* Boston's first professional baseball club was established 1871 by Boston businessman Ivers Whitney Adams, and was nicknamed the Boston Red Stockings....
  
  

• The National Association
  National Association of Professional Base Ball Players
  The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players , or simply the National Association , was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 season...
  
   (NA) permits pitching
  Pitching
  Pitching may refer to the following:* Pitch movement of aircraft, ships, propellers etc.* Baseball pitcher...
  
   with a wrist snap, practically legalising the Mutual of New York (NA).
• Multiple NABBP champions Eckford and Atlantic
  Brooklyn Atlantics
  The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty.Established in 1855, Atlantic was a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1857. In 1859, with a record of 11 wins and 1 loss, Atlantic emerged as the recognized champions of...
  
   from Brooklyn, New York join the NA but neither will regain prominence.
• The original Boston Red Stockings
  Boston Red Stockings
  The color red has been used in the names and commonly in the uniforms of several professional baseball teams in Boston, Massachusetts.* Boston's first professional baseball club was established 1871 by Boston businessman Ivers Whitney Adams, and was nicknamed the Boston Red Stockings....
  
   win the NA pennant, beginning a four-year run

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...

• No fights of note take place in 1872. American Champion Mike McCoole
  Mike McCoole
  Mike McCoole was a boxing champion.He claimed the Heavyweight Championship in 1866 after Joe Coburn retired. He lost the title to Tom Allen in 1873.-External links:*...
  
   and his challengers are inactive.

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...

• An experiment takes place at Lord's
  Lord's Cricket Ground
  Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
  
   to study the effects of covering the pitch before the start of a match, the first time this is known to have been tried.

• Champion County – Nottinghamshire
• Most runs – W G Grace 1485 @ 57.11 (HS 170*)
• Most wickets – James Southerton
  James Southerton
  James Southerton was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1854 and 1879....
  
   169 @ 13.07 (BB 8–20)

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...
  
   – Tom Morris junior
  Tom Morris, Jr.
  Tom Morris, Jr. , known as "Young Tom Morris", was one of the pioneers of professional golf, and was the first young prodigy in golf history...
  
  

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...
  
   – Casse Tete
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Reine
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Prince Charlie
• 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...
  
   – Cremorne
• 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....
  
   – Reine
• 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...
  
   – Wenlock

• 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...
  
   – The Quack

• 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...
  
   – Fearnaught

• 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...
  
   – Scots Grey
• 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,...
  
   – Trickstress

• 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...
  
   – Joe Daniels
  Joe Daniels (horse)
  Joe Daniels was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and stallion who won the sixth Belmont Stakes in 1872. Bred in Kentucky, Joe Daniels won two stakes races as a two-year-old and then the Belmont as a three-year-old when he also won a number of other stakes races, and some match races in California...
  
  

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...

• 23 March — Cambridge
  Cambridge University Boat Club
  The Cambridge University Boat Club is the rowing club of the University of Cambridge, England, located on the River Cam at Cambridge, although training primarily takes place on the River Great Ouse at Ely. The club was founded in 1828...
  
   wins the 29th 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...