1895 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Contents 1 American football 2 Association football 3 Bandy 4 Baseball 5 Boxing 6 Chess 7 Cricket 8 Golf 9 Horse racing 10 Ice hockey 11 Motor racing 12 Rowing 13 Rugby football 14 Tennis 15 Volleyball 16 Yacht racing 17 References

[edit] American football

College championship

• College football national championship – Penn Quakers and Yale Bulldogs (shared)

Events

• 3 September — the earliest known professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania where Latrobe YMCA defeats the Jeannette Athletic Club 12–0.

[edit] Association football

England

• The Football League – Sunderland 47 points, Everton 42, Aston Villa 39, Preston North End 35, Blackburn Rovers 32, Sheffield United 32
• FA Cup final – Aston Villa 1–0 West Bromwich Albion at Crystal Palace, London. This is the first time Crystal Palace is used as the venue for the final and it will stage all finals until 1914.
• In the Football League, Liverpool is relegated from Division One to Division Two and Bury is promoted. Walsall is expelled from the league and replaced by Loughborough FC (league membership 1895–1900)
• West Ham United founded as Thames Ironworks FC, a works team, by Arnold Hills who is a London shipyard owner.

Scotland

• Scottish Football League – Hearts
• Scottish Cup final – St Bernard's 2–1 Renton at Ibrox Park

[edit] Bandy

Events

• Bandy is introduced to Sweden. The royal family, barons and diplomats are the earliest players.

[edit] Baseball

National championship

• Baltimore Orioles win the second of three successive National League championships

Events

• Temple Cup – Cleveland Spiders 4–1 Baltimore Orioles
• Veteran player Bud Fowler and the Page Woven Wire Fence Company organise the Page Fence Giants, a black professional team touring out of Adrian, Michigan. Economic depression in the 1890s has eliminated all but the Cuban Giants in New York City and neighboring states.

[edit] Boxing

Events

• Bob Fitzsimmons relinquishes the World Middleweight Championship in order to fight as a heavyweight (there is no light-heavyweight division yet).^[1]

Lineal world champions^[2]

• World Heavyweight Championship – James J. Corbett
• World Middleweight Championship – Bob Fitzsimmons → title vacant after Fitzsimmons relinquishes it
• World Welterweight Championship – Tommy Ryan
• World Lightweight Championship – title vacant
• World Featherweight Championship – George Dixon
• World Bantamweight Championship – Jimmy Barry

[edit] Chess

Events

• The Grand International Chess Congress is held in the summer at Hastings and is won by Harry Nelson Pillsbury ahead of Mikhail Chigorin and current world champion Emanuel Lasker.

[edit] Cricket

Events

• W G Grace's "Indian Summer" in which he scores his 100th career century and becomes the first player to score 1000 first-class runs in a calendar month (i.e., May)
• County Championship expands from 9 to 14 teams with the restoration of Derbyshire and Hampshire; and the introduction of Essex, Leicestershire and Warwickshire
• Inaugural Minor Counties Championship is held

England

• County Championship – Surrey
• Minor Counties Championship – Durham, Norfolk and Worcestershire share the title
• Most runs – W G Grace 2346 @ 51.00 (HS 288)
• Most wickets – Tom Richardson 290 @ 14.37 (BB 9–49)
• Wisden Cricketer of the Year – WG Grace

Australia

• Sheffield Shield – Victoria
• Most runs – Albert Ward 916 @ 41.63 (HS 219)
• Most wickets – George Giffen 93 @ 22.54 (BB 8–77)

India

• Bombay Presidency – Europeans shared with Parsees

South Africa

• Currie Cup – Transvaal

West Indies

• Inter-Colonial Tournament – British Guiana

[edit] Golf

Events

• Inaugural US Open and US Amateur tournaments are held.

Major tournaments

• British Open – John Henry Taylor
• US Open – Horace Rawlins

Other tournaments

• British Amateur – John Ball
• US Amateur – Charles B. Macdonald

[edit] Horse racing

England

• Grand National – Wild Man From Borneo
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Galeottia
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Kirkconnel
• Epsom Derby – Sir Visto
• Epsom Oaks – La Sagesse
• St. Leger Stakes – Sir Visto

Australia

• Melbourne Cup – Auraria

Canada

• Queen's Plate – Bonniefield

Ireland

• Irish Grand National – Yellow Girl II
• Irish Derby Stakes – Portmarnock

USA

• Kentucky Derby – Halma Soup
• Preakness Stakes – Belmar
• Belmont Stakes – Belmar

[edit] Ice hockey

Stanley Cup

• Montreal Victorias secures its first win

Other events

• Halifax Stanley and Dartmouth Jubilees play the first recorded game involving two all-black hockey teams leading to the formation of the Coloured Hockey League based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The league will feature teams from across Canada's Maritime Provinces and will operate until 1930.

[edit] Motor racing

Paris-Bordeaux-Paris Trail

• The Paris-Bordeaux-Paris Rally is held and is the first real motor race as all competitors start together. The winner is Émile Levassor in his Panhard-Levassor 1205 cc model. He completes the course in 48 hours and 47 minutes, finishing nearly six hours before the runner-up. The race is in retrospect sometimes referred to as the I Grand Prix de l'ACF.^[3]
• The significance of this event is that it proves that cars and their drivers can travel very long distances in a reasonable time. It gives an enormous boost to the motor industry and the enthusiastic public interest in the event ensures the popularity of motor racing as a sport.
• November — subsequently, several French motoring pioneers form the Automobile Club de France (ACF), which thereafter will govern most major races in France.

[edit] Rowing

The Boat Race

• 30 March — Oxford wins the 52nd Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race

[edit] Rugby football

Home Nations Championship

• 13th Home Nations Championship series is won by Scotland

The rugby football split

• Twenty-one clubs in the north of England split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of broken time payments and form the Northern Rugby Union, which is the forerunner of the Rugby Football League. In due course, two separate codes of rugby football develop: rugby union, governed by the RFU; and rugby league, governed by the Northern Union and RFL.
• The Northern Union establishes its National Championship, Lancashire League Championship and Yorkshire League Championship competitions ahead of the inaugural 1895–96 season.
• The issue of professionalism has reached crisis point in rugby football. Association football to its credit has never allowed professionalism to cause an actual split in the sport and the two philosophies of amateurism and professionalism are able to co–exist, as they have done in cricket for more than 200 years, though not always in harmony.

[edit] Tennis

England

• Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship – Wilfred Baddeley (GB) defeats Wilberforce Eaves (GB) 4–6 2–6 8–6 6–2 6–3
• Wimbledon Women's Singles Championship – Charlotte Cooper Sterry (GB) defeats Helen Jackson (GB) 7–5 8–6

France

• French Men's Singles Championship – André Vacherot defeats Laurent Riboulet 9–7 6–2

USA

• American Men's Singles Championship – Fred Hovey defeats Robert Wrenn 6–3 6–2 6–4
• American Women's Singles Championship – Juliette Atkinson defeats Helen Hellwig 6–4 6–2 6–1

[edit] Volleyball

Events

• 9 February — William G Morgan invents volleyball

[edit] Yacht racing

America's Cup

• The New York Yacht Club retains the America's Cup as Defender defeats British challenger Valkyrie III, of the Royal Yacht Squadron, 3 races to 0. (Valkyrie III is disqualified in the second race and abandons the third.)

[edit] References

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