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...

• Cleveland Browns
  Cleveland Browns
  The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
  
   21–7 San Francisco 49ers
  San Francisco 49ers
  The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
  
   for the All-America Football Conference
  All-America Football Conference
  The All-America Football Conference was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation's best players, and introduced many lasting innovations...
  
   championship. After the 1949 season, the Browns, 49ers and original Baltimore Colts all joined the NFL for the 1950 season.
• Philadelphia Eagles
  Philadelphia Eagles
  The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
  
   14–0 Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship.
• The decades–long "color barrier" in athletics for the Big Seven Conference is broken by Harold Robinson, playing football for Kansas State
  Kansas State University
  Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
  
  . Robinson would go on to be named All–Conference in 1950.

Association football

• First Division
  Football League First Division
  The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
  
   – Portsmouth
  Portsmouth F.C.
  Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
  
   win the 1948–49 title.
• FA Cup
  FA Cup
  The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
  
   – Wolverhampton Wanderers
  Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
  Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...
  
   beat Leicester City
  Leicester City F.C.
  Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
  
   3-1.

• Superga air disaster
  Superga air disaster
  The Superga air disaster took place on Wednesday, 4 May 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Torino A.C. football squad, popularly known as Il Grande Torino, crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard including 18 players, club officials, journalists accompanying the...
  
   – a plane carrying the Torino
  Torino F.C.
  Torino Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Torino, is a professional Italian football club based in Turin, Piedmont, that was founded in 1906. The club has spent most of its history in the top tier in Italian football....
  
   team crashes into a mountain on May 4, killing everyone on board. Of the entire squad, only one player (who didn't fly, due to injury) survived, as well as potential signing Ladislao Kubala
  Ladislao Kubala
  László Kubala Stecz , also referred to as Ladislav Kubala, Ladislao Kubala, was a footballer, who played as a forward with, among others, Ferencvárosi TC, ŠK Slovan Bratislava, Vasas SC, FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol. He also played for three different national teams, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and...
  
  , who was due to fly but did not, due to his son's ill health.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

• Victorian Football League
  Australian Football League
  The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
  
  
  • Essendon
    Essendon Football Club
    The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
    
     wins the 53rd VFL Premiership (Essendon 18.17 (125) d Carlton
    Carlton Football Club
    The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
    
     6.16 (52))
  • Brownlow Medal
    Brownlow Medal
    The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
    
     awarded to Ron Clegg
    Ron Clegg
    Ron "Smokey" Clegg was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.A brilliant key position player at either centre half-forward or centre half-back, he was awarded the Brownlow Medal in 1949 while playing with the then South Melbourne Football Club...
    
     (South Melbourne
    Sydney Swans
    The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
    
    ) and Col Austen
    Col Austen
    Colin 'Col' Austen was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the VFL from 1941 to 1943 and then again from 1946 to 1949. He then played for the Richmond Football Club from 1950 to 1952....
    
     (Hawthorn
    Hawthorn Football Club
    The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
    
    )

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...

• January 28 – The New York Giants
  San Francisco Giants
  The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
  
   sign their first black players: Negro Leaguers
  Negro league baseball
  The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...
  
   outfielder
  Outfielder
  Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...
  
   Monte Irvin
  Monte Irvin
  Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin is a former left fielder and right-handed batter in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball who played with the Newark Eagles , New York Giants and Chicago Cubs .-Biography:Although born in Haleburg, Alabama, Irvin grew up in Orange, New Jersey, one of five...
  
   and pitcher
  Pitcher
  In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
  
   Ford Smith. Both men are assigned to Jersey City. Irvin will star for the Giants, but Smith will not reach the major leagues.
• May 5 – Hall of Fame election
  Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1949
  Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1949 followed the rules in place since 1947, which had governed two successful elections of recent players. The Baseball Writers Association of America voted by mail to select from players retired less than 25 years, with provision for a runoff in case of...
  
  . After a runoff election was necessary, Charlie Gehringer
  Charlie Gehringer
  Charles Leonard Gehringer , nicknamed “The Mechanical Man,” was a German-American Major League Baseball second baseman who played 19 seasons for the Detroit Tigers...
  
   is selected for induction; on May 9, the Old-Timers Committee elects Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown
  Mordecai Brown
  Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown , nicknamed "Three Finger" or "Miner", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher at the turn of the 20th century. Due to a farm-machinery accident in his youth, Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand and eventually acquired his nickname as a result...
  
   and Kid Nichols
  Kid Nichols
  Charles Augustus Nichols , better known as Kid Nichols, was a Major League Baseball pitcher. Admired for his steadfast consistency year-in and year-out, Nichols won 361 games, the 7th highest total in major league history...
  
   as its first selections in 3 years.
• June 5 – MLB Commissioner Happy Chandler
  Happy Chandler
  Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler, Sr. was a politician from the US state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951 and...
  
   lifts the ban on all players who jumped to the Mexican League, starting in 1946
  1946 in sports
  -American football:* All-America Football Conference begins play. Cleveland Browns win the championship by beating New York Yankees 14-9.* Chicago Bears win the NFL crown by defeating the New York Giants 24-14 in New York.-Association football:England...
  
  .
• June 15 – Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus
  Eddie Waitkus
  Edward Stephen Waitkus was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who had an 11-year career . He played for the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies in the National League and for the Baltimore Orioles of the American League...
  
   is shot in Chicago by deranged fan Ruth Ann Steinhagen.

Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

• Minneapolis Lakers win four games to two over the Washington Capitols
  Washington Capitols
  The Washington Capitols were a charter Basketball Association of America team based in Washington, D.C. The team was coached from 1946 to 1949 by NBA Hall of Famer Red Auerbach....
  
  

• Anderson Packers
  Anderson Packers
  The Anderson Packers also known as the Anderson Duffy Packers was a professional basketball team based in Anderson, Indiana, in the 1940s and 1950s....
  
   win three games to none over the Oshkosh All-Stars
  Oshkosh All-Stars
  The Oshkosh All-Stars were a professional basketball team based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. From 1937 to 1948 they played in the National Basketball League, a forerunner to the NBA. The team appeared in the NBL finals five consecutive years , winning twice...
  
  

• On August 3rd, the NBL merges with the BAA, forming the National Basketball Association
  National Basketball Association
  The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
  
  .
• The sixth European basketball championship, Eurobasket 1949
  Eurobasket 1949
  The 1949 European Basketball Championship, commonly called Eurobasket 1949, was the sixth regional championship held by FIBA Europe. Seven national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation took part in the competition...
  
  , is won by Egypt
  Egypt national basketball team
  The Egypt national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Egypt in international competitions.-Eurobasket 1937:The Egyptians finished last at the second European basketball championship, the Eurobasket 1937 held by FIBA Europe continental federation...
  
  .
• The fourteenth South American Basketball Championship
  South American Basketball Championship 1949
  The South American Basketball Championship 1949 was the fourteenth South American Basketball Championship. It was held in Asunción, Paraguay and won by the Uruguay national basketball team. 6 teams competed.-Results:...
  
   in Asunción
  Asunción
  Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
  
   is won by Uruguay
  Uruguay national basketball team
  The Uruguay national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Uruguay in international competitions.Uruguay's best achievement in basketball was obtaining the bronze medal in the both the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics.-Current squad:...
  
  .

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...

• October 27 – death of Marcel Cerdan
  Marcel Cerdan
  Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a French pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa...
  
   (33), Algerian–born French world middleweight champion, in an air crash

Figure skating

Figure skating

Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...

• World Figure Skating Championships
  World Figure Skating Championships
  The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
  
   –
  • Men's champion: Dick Button
    Dick Button
    Richard Totten "Dick" Button is an American former figure skater and a well-known long-time skating television analyst. He is a two-time Olympic Champion and five-time World Champion...
    
    , United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
    
    
  • Ladies' champion: Aja Zanova
    Aja Zanova
    *...
    
    , Czechoslovakia
    Czechoslovakia
    Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
    
    
  • Pair skating champion: Andrea Kékesy
    Andrea Kékesy
    Andrea Kékesy is a former pair skater from Hungary. She and Ede Király won the silver medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics. They placed second at the 1948 World Championships, and first in 1949. They were also European Champions in 1948 and 1949.-Results:-Navigation:...
    
     & Ede Király
    Ede Király
    Ede Király was a Hungarian figure skater. He was born in Budapest. As a solo skater he won two silver medals and a bronze at the World Figure Skating Championships, placing second behind Dick Button twice. He also was European men's champion in 1950. In pairs, he and Andrea Kékesy won the silver...
    
    , Hungary
    Hungary
    Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
    
    

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....

• Masters Tournament – Sam Snead
  Sam Snead
  Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors. He failed to win a U.S...
  
  
• PGA Championship
  PGA Championship
  The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
  
   – Sam Snead
  Sam Snead
  Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors. He failed to win a U.S...
  
  
• U.S. Open
  U.S. Open (golf)
  The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
  
   – Cary Middlecoff
  Cary Middlecoff
  Emmett Cary Middlecoff was a dentist who gave up his practice to become a professional golfer on the PGA Tour in the 1940s....
  
  
• 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...
  
   – Bobby Locke
  Bobby Locke
  Arthur D'Arcy "Bobby" Locke was the first internationally successful South African professional golfer. He won four Open Championships.-Early years:...
  
  

• British Amateur
  The Amateur Championship
  The Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. It is one of the two leading individual tournaments for amateur golfers, alongside the U.S. Amateur...
  
   – Samuel McCready
• U.S. Amateur – Charles Coe
  Charles Coe
  Charles Robert "Charlie" Coe was an American golfer who is considered by many to be one of the greatest amateur golfers in history. A two-time U.S...
  
  

• Women's Western Open – Louise Suggs
  Louise Suggs
  Mae Louise Suggs is a retired professional golfer, one of the founders of the LPGA Tour and thus modern ladies' golf.-Amateur career:Born in Atlanta, Suggs had a very successful amateur career, beginning as a teenager...
  
  
• U.S. Women's Open – Louise Suggs
  Louise Suggs
  Mae Louise Suggs is a retired professional golfer, one of the founders of the LPGA Tour and thus modern ladies' golf.-Amateur career:Born in Atlanta, Suggs had a very successful amateur career, beginning as a teenager...
  
  
• Titleholders Championship
  Titleholders Championship
  The Titleholders Championship was a women's golf tournament played from in 1937 to 1966 and again in 1972. It was later designated a major championship by the LPGA Tour.It should not be confused with two other LPGA events with similar names:...
  
   – Peggy Kirk

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...

• Cheltenham Gold Cup
  Cheltenham Gold Cup
  The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a Grade 1 National Hunt chase in the United Kingdom which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run on the New Course at Cheltenham over a distance of about 3 miles and 2½ furlongs , and during its running there are twenty-two fences to be jumped...
  
   –
• 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...
  
   –

• Australia – 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...
  
   won by
• Canada – 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...
  
   won by
• France – Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
  Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
  The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is a Group 1 flat horse race in France which is open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Longchamp over a distance of 2,400 metres , and it is scheduled to take place each year, usually on the first Sunday in October.Popularly referred to as the...
  
   won by
• Ireland – 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,...
  
   won by
• English Triple Crown Races
  Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
  The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of three races for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplishment of a Thoroughbred racehorse...
  
  :
  1. 2,000 Guineas Stakes –
  2. 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...
     
      –
  3. 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...
     
      –
• United States Triple Crown Races
  Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
  The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of three races for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplishment of a Thoroughbred racehorse...
  
  :
  1. 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...
     
      – Ponder
     Ponder (horse)
     Ponder , an American Thoroughbred racehorse, was the son of the 1944 Kentucky Derby winner, Pensive and sire of the winner of the 1956 Kentucky Derby, Needles. Ponder, himself, won the Derby in 1949...
     
     
  2. 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...
     
      –
  3. 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...
     
      –

Ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

• Canada defeats Denmark 47-0 at the 1949 World Hockey Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

• NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship
  NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship
  The annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship tournament determines the top men's ice hockey team in NCAA Division I and Division III. The semi-finals and finals of the Division I Championship are branded as the Frozen Four, a passing nod to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - known...
  
   – Boston College
  Boston College
  Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
  
   Eagles defeat Dartmouth College
  Dartmouth College
  Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
  
   Big Green 4-3 in Colorado Springs, CO

Motor racing

• The first 24 hours of Le Mans
  24 Hours of Le Mans
  The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...
  
   is held since the beginning of World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
  . Luigi Chinetti
  Luigi Chinetti
  Luigi Chinetti was an Italian-born racecar driver, who emigrated to the United States during World War II and became an American citizen....
  
   and Lord Seldson win the race in a Ferrari
  Ferrari
  Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
  
   166M
  Ferrari 166
  Ferrari used its 2 L V12 engine in a number of models, all called 166 for the displacement of a single cylinder. Most early 166es were sports cars built for racing, though a later line of GT cars launched the company's street model line.The following models used the 166 name:* 1948 Ferrari...
  
  .
• 30 May – Bill Holland
  Bill Holland
  Bill Holland was an American race car driver from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1949. He nearly won as a rookie in 1947 but slowed and allowed teammate Mauri Rose to pass him seven laps from the end, mistakenly believing that Rose was a lap down...
  
   wins the 33nd running
  1949 Indianapolis 500
  Results of the 1949 Indianapolis 500 held at Indianapolis on Monday, May 30, 1949....
  
   of the Indianapolis 500
  Indianapolis 500
  The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
  
   in the Blue Crown Spark Plug Special Deidt
  Deidt
  Deidt was a racing car constructor. Deidt cars competed in the FIA World Championship from 1950 to 1952.-World Championship Indy 500 results:...
  
  -Offenhauser
  Offenhauser
  Offenhauser was an American racing engine manufacturer that operated from 1933 to 1983.The Offenhauser engine, familiarly known as the "Offy", was developed by Fred Offenhauser and his employer Harry Arminius Miller, after maintaining and repairing a 1913 Peugeot Grand Prix car of the type which...
  
  
• The inaugural NASCAR
  NASCAR
  The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
  
   Strictly Stock season
  1949 in NASCAR
  The 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season was the inaugural season of professional stock car racing in the United States. Beginning at Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949, the season included eight races and two exhibition races. The season concluded with the Wilkes 200 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on...
  
   takes place. Robert "Red" Byron
  Red Byron
  Robert "Red" Byron was a NASCAR driver who was successful in the sanctioning body's first years. He was NASCAR's first Modified champion in 1948 and its first Strictly Stock champion in 1949.-Background:Born in Colorado he moved to Anniston, Alabama at an early age, Byron began...
  
  , driving the #22 Oldsmobile
  Oldsmobile
  Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
  
   for Raymond Parks
  Raymond Parks (auto racing)
  Raymond Parks was the owner of Red Byron's car which won NASCAR's first Strictly Stock championship in 1949.-Background:...
  
  , is the series' first champion.

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...

• 26 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 95th 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 union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

• 55th Five Nations Championship
  Six Nations Championship
  The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....
  
   series is won by Ireland
  Ireland national rugby union team
  The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...
  
  
• 3 September – "blackest day" in All Blacks history as two Test matches are lost on the same day: 6–11 at home to the Wallabies
  Australia national rugby union team
  The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
  
  ; and 3–9 on tour to South Africa
  South Africa national rugby union team
  The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
  
  .

Snooker

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

• World Snooker Championship
  World Snooker Championship
  The World Snooker Championship is the leading professional snooker tournament in terms of both prize money and ranking points. The first championship was held in 1927; since 1977, it has been played at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England...
  
   – Fred Davis beats Walter Donaldson
  Walter Donaldson (snooker player)
  Walter Donaldson was a Scottish professional snooker player.He turned professional at age 16, in 1923. He contested many world championships, finally achieving victory in 1947 after Joe Davis had retired from the tournament, and again in 1950...
  
   80–65.

Speed skating

Speed skating

Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...

• Men's All-round Champion
  World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Men
  The International Skating Union has organised the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Men since 1893. Unofficial Championships were held in the years 1889-1892.-History:-Distances used:...
  
   – Kornél Pajor
  Kornél Pajor
  Kornél Pajor is a former speed skating World Champion from Hungary. He was born in Budapest.In early 1943, Pajor was a young and promising skater of 19 years old, but because World War II was in progress there were not many competitions. In Klagenfurt, Austria, at one of the few skating...
  
   (Hungary)
• Women's All-round Champion
  World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Women
  The International Skating Union has organised the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Women since 1936. Unofficial Championships were held in the years 1933-1935.-Distances used:...
  
   – Maria Isakova
  Maria Isakova
  Maria Grigoryevna Isakova , nicknamed Cinderella of Vyatka, was a World Champion speed skater. She was born in Vyatka , Russian SFSR, and competed for the Soviet Union....
  
   (USSR)

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...

• Australian Men's Singles Championship – Frank Sedgman
  Frank Sedgman
  Frank Arthur Sedgman, born 29 October 1927, in Mont Albert, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was a tennis player who was arguably the world No.1 in 1952. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Sedgman in his list of the 21...
  
   (Australia) defeats John Bromwich
  John Bromwich
  John Edward Bromwich was a male tennis player from Australia who, along with his countryman Vivian McGrath, was one of the first great players to use a two-handed forehand....
  
   (Australia) 6–3, 6–2, 6–2
• Australian Women's Singles Championship – Doris Hart
  Doris Hart
  Doris Hart is a former World No. 1 American female tennis player.As a child, she suffered from osteomyelitis, which resulted in a permanently impaired right leg...
  
   (USA) defeats Nancye Wynne Bolton
  Nancye Wynne Bolton
  Nancye Wynne Bolton was a female tennis player from Australia. She won the women's singles title six times at the Australian Championships, second only to Margaret Court who won 11 titles...
  
   (Australia) 6–3, 6–4

• Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship – Ted Schroeder
  Ted Schroeder
  Frederick Rudolph "Ted" Schroeder was an American tennis player who won the two most prestigious amateur tennis titles, Wimbledon and the U.S. National. He was the No. 1-ranked American player in 1942 and the No. 2 for 4 consecutive years, 1946 through 1949...
  
   (USA) defeats Jaroslav Drobný
  Jaroslav Drobný
  Jaroslav Drobný was an amateur tennis champion as well as being an ice hockey player for the Czechoslovakian national team...
  
   (Czechoslovakia) 3–6, 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4
• Wimbledon Women's Singles Championship – Louise Brough Clapp (USA) defeats Margaret Osborne duPont
  Margaret Osborne duPont
  Margaret Evelyn Osborne duPont is a former World No. 1 American female tennis player.DuPont won a total of 37 singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, which places her fourth on the all-time list despite never entering the Australian Championships. She won 25 of her Grand...
  
   (USA) 10–8, 1–6, 10–8

• French Men's Singles Championship –
• French Women's Singles Championship –

• American Men's Singles Championship –
• American Women's Singles Championship –

• 1949 Davis Cup
  1949 Davis Cup
  The 1949 Davis Cup was the 38th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in men's tennis. 28 teams would enter the competition, 24 in the Europe Zone, and 4 in the Americas Zone....
  
   – 4–1 at West Side Tennis Club
  West Side Tennis Club
  The West Side Tennis Club is a private tennis club located in Forest Hills, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is currently an oasis within the City with 38 courts in all four surfaces , a junior Olympic swimming pool and many other amenities.It is most notable for hosting...
  
   (grass) New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
  , United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
  

Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

 

• Men's World Championship
  1949 FIVB Men's World Championship
  The 1949 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship was the first edition of the tournament, organised by the world's governing body, the FIVB. It was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia from September 10 to September 18, 1949.-Final standing:# # # # # # #...
  
   in Prague won by the USSR

Awards

• Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year – Leon Hart
  Leon Hart
  Leon Joseph Hart was an American football tight end and defensive end. He was raised in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh....
  
  , College football
  College football
  College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
  
  
• Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year – Marlene Bauer, LPGA golf
  LPGA
  The LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...