1862 in sports
Encyclopedia
BaseballBaseballBaseball 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 championship
- National Association of Base Ball PlayersNational Association of Base Ball PlayersThe National Association of Base Ball Players was the first organization governing American baseball. The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs...
champion – Brooklyn Eckfords
Events
- National Association membership drops from 55 to 33 clubs, shedding every one outside greater New York except the Victory club of TroyTroy, New YorkTroy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, which plays only local matches. - Baseball laments the death of Jim CreightonJim CreightonJames Creighton, Jr. was an American baseball player during the game's amateur era, and is considered by historians to be the its first superstar. As a pitcher in baseball's amateur era, he changed the sport from a game that showcased fielding, into a confrontation between the pitcher and batter...
, aged just 21 and the sport's first great player, perhaps from organ damage sustained on the field. His outsize base ball memorial at Greenwood CemeteryGreenwood CemeteryGreenwood Cemetery may refer to:in the United States*Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando, Florida, near Downtown Orlando*Greenwood Cemetery, Jefferson County, Alabama, near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport...
will be a mecca for the fraternity during the amateur era.
BoxingBoxingBoxing, 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...
Events
- Joe CoburnJoe CoburnJoe Coburn was an Irish-American boxer. In 1862 he claimed the Heavyweight Championship from John Carmel Heenan based on Heenan refusing to fight him. Mike McCoole claimed Coburn's title in 1866 after Coburn retired. Coburn came out of retirement in 1871 against Jem Mace...
challenges John C. HeenanJohn C. HeenanJohn Camel Heenan, aka the Benicia Boy was an American bare-knuckle prize fighter. Though highly regarded, he had only three formal fights in his entire career, losing two and drawing one....
for the American Championship. Heenan refuses to fight and Coburn claims the title. - 28 January — Jem MaceJem MaceJem Mace was an English boxing champion. He was born at Beeston, Norfolk. Although nicknamed "The Gypsy", he denied Romani ethnicity in his autobiography...
successfully defends his British Championship against Tom King, winning in the 43rd round. - 26 November — Tom King becomes British Champion after defeating Jem Mace at Medway in the 21st round.
CricketCricketCricket 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...
Events
- 26 August — Surrey v. All-EnglandAll-England ElevenIn cricket, the term All-England has been used for various non-international teams that have been formed for short-term purposes since the 1739 English cricket season and it indicates that the "Rest of England" is playing against, say, MCC or an individual county team...
at The OvalThe OvalThe 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...
. Edgar WillsherEdgar WillsherEdgar "Ned" Willsher was an English cricketer who is famous for being the catalyst in the shift from roundarm to overarm bowling....
of All-England is no-balled six times in succession by John LillywhiteJohn LillywhiteJohn Lillywhite was an English cricketer during the game's roundarm era....
for bowling with his hand above the shoulderOverarm bowlingIn cricket, overarm bowling refers to a delivery in which the bowler's hand is above shoulder height. This is in contrast to a roundarm delivery, where the hand is between shoulder height and waist height; and an underarm delivery where the bowler's hand is below waist height.After roundarm was...
. For some years previously, Willsher and others have bowled in this way and the incident at The Oval puts the issue into context. The drama is exaggerated when Willsher and the other eight professionals in the England team walk off the field. Play continues next day but with a replacement umpire.
England
- Champion County – Nottinghamshire CCC
- Most runs – Thomas HaywardThomas Hayward (cricketer)Thomas Hayward was a Cambridgeshire and All-England Eleven cricketer who was generally reckoned to be one of the outstanding batsmen of the 1850s and 1860s. In the early 1860s, he and Robert Carpenter, his Cambridgeshire colleague, were rated as the two finest batsmen in England...
661 @ 31.47 (HS 117) - Most wickets – George TarrantGeorge TarrantGeorge Frederick Tarrant was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1860 to 1869...
96 @ 10.07 (BB 8–16)
Football (Soccer)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...
Events
- An impromptu team formed in Nottingham around this time is understood to have been the original Notts County. Although County will be formally constituted in December 1864, the club will celebrate its centenary in 1962.
- Invention of the India rubber bladder enables the modern ball to be created with the bladder inside a hard outer casing, at first made of leather. During the days of "mob football", the ball in an organised game had often been an inflated pig's bladder but in fact it could have been made of any material (for example, tin can football is still played now) with no rules about its size either. In certain games that were somewhat less civilised, such as among soldiers after a battle, human skulls are known to have been used.
- 29 December — Bramall LaneBramall Lane-Cricket at the Lane:Bramall Lane opened as a cricket ground in 1855, having been leased by Michael Ellison from the Duke of Norfolk at an annual rent of £70. The site was then away from the town's industrial area, and relatively free from smoke. It was built to host the matches of local cricket...
, which opened as a cricket ground in 1855, hosts its first football match between Sheffield FCSheffield F.C.Sheffield Football Club is an English football club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The club is most noted for the fact that they are the world's oldest club now playing Association football, founded in 1857...
and Hallam FCHallam F.C.Hallam Football Club are a football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who currently play in the Northern Counties East League Division One...
under Sheffield RulesSheffield RulesThe Sheffield Rules were a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1857 and 1877. They were devised by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest for use by the newly founded Sheffield Football Club. The rules were subsequently adopted as the official rules of...
. Bramall Lane will become the home of first Sheffield Wednesday (1867–1887) and then of Sheffield United from 1889. It is the oldest stadium in the world that stages professional football matches.
GolfGolfGolf 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....
Major tournaments
- British OpenThe Open ChampionshipThe 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 seniorTom Morris, Sr.Thomas Mitchell Morris, Sr. , otherwise known as Old Tom Morris, was a pioneer of professional golf. He was born in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, the "home of golf" and location of the St Andrews Links and died there as well. His son was Tom Morris, Jr...
Horse racingHorse racingHorse 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...
England
- Grand NationalGrand NationalThe 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...
– The Huntsman - 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Hurricane
- 2,000 Guineas Stakes – The Marquis
- Epsom DerbyEpsom DerbyThe 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...
– Caractacus - Epsom OaksEpsom OaksThe 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....
– Feu de Joie - St. Leger StakesSt. Leger StakesThe 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...
– The Marquis
Australia
- Melbourne CupMelbourne CupThe 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...
– ArcherArcher (horse)Archer was an Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won the first and the second Melbourne Cups in 1861 and 1862. He won both Cups easily, and is one of only five horses to win the Melbourne Cup twice or more; he is one of only four horses to win two successive Cups.-Breeding:Archer was sired by...
(second successive title)
Canada
- Queen's PlateQueen's PlateThe 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...
– Palermo
RowingRowing (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...
The Boat Race
- 12 April — OxfordOxford University Boat ClubThe 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 19th Oxford and Cambridge Boat RaceThe Boat RaceThe 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...