1948 in sports

Athletics

Marathon

• December 5 — Fukuoka Marathon, Japan
  • Men's Winner: Saburo Yamada (JPN) 2:37:25

Auto Racing

• Indianapolis 500 - Mauri Rose

Baseball

• January 29: Commissioner Happy Chandler fines the Yankees, Cubs, and Phillies $500 each for signing high school players.
• February 27: Hall of Fame election: Voters select the recently deceased Herb Pennock, and Pie Traynor, as the newest inductees; Traynor is the first third baseman elected by the writers in 9 elections.
• World Series: The Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves, 4 games to 2.

Basketball

• NCAA Basketball Championship - Kentucky beat Baylor 58-42
• NBA Finals - Baltimore Bullets beat Philadelphia Warriors 4 games to 2

Boxing

• June 25 - At New York's Yankee Stadium: Joe Louis knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 11th round to retain his heavyweight title for the 25th time. Shortly after the bout, Louis announced his retirement from boxing.

Field hockey

• Olympic Games (men's competition) in London, Great Britain
  • Gold: India

Figure skating

• World Figure Skating Championships
  • Men's champion: Dick Button, United States
  • Ladies' champion: Barbara Ann Scott, Canada
  • Pair skating champions: Micheline Lannoy & Pierre Baugniet, Belgium

Football (American)

• University of Michigan wins college football national championship.
• Cleveland Browns 49-7 Buffalo Bills in the All-America Football Conference championship game.
• Philadelphia Eagles 7-0 Chicago Cardinals in the National Football League championship game. The game was played in a blizzard.

Football (Australian)

• Victorian Football League
  • Melbourne wins the 52nd VFL Premiership (Melbourne 10.9 (69) drew Essendon 7.27 (69), replay Melbourne 13.11 (89) d Essendon 7.8 (50))
  • Brownlow Medal awarded to Bill Morris (Richmond)

Football (soccer)

England

• First Division - Arsenal win the 1947-48 title.
• FA Cup - Manchester United beat Blackpool 4-2.

Golf

• Grand Slam of Golf results
• April - The Masters - Claude Harmon
• June - U.S. Open - Ben Hogan
• July British Open - Henry Cotton
• August PGA Championship - Ben Hogan

Ice hockey

United States

• NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship - Michigan Wolverines defeat Dartmouth College Big Green 8-4 in Colorado Springs, CO to win the first official NCAA championship

• Stanley Cup Finals - Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit Red Wings in 4 straight games to win their 5th Stanley Cup title.

Horse Racing

• Kentucky Derby - Citation
• Preakness - Citation
• Belmont Stakes - Citation
• Citation became the 8th horse to win the Triple Crown, it would be 25 years before Secretariat wins the triple crown.

Radiosport

• First CQ World Wide DX Contest held in October and November. This annual event would go on to become the radio contest with the largest participation world-wide.

Snooker

• World Snooker Championship: Fred Davis beats Walter Donaldson 84-61.

Multi-sport events

• 1948 Summer Olympics takes place in London, United Kingdom
  • United States wins the most medals (84), and the most gold medals (38).

• 1948 Winter Olympics takes place in St. Moritz, Switzerland
  • Norway and Sweden both win the most medals (10 each), and the most gold medals (4 each).

Awards

• Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year: Lou Boudreau, Major League Baseball
• Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year: Fanny Blankers-Koen, Track and field

Births

January

• January 1 — Dick Quax, Dutch-born New Zealand runner
• January 3 — Jan Bazen, Dutch ice speed skater
• January 4 — Reinhard Skricek, German boxer
• January 9 — Jan Tomaszewski, Polish football goalkeeper
• January 11 — Madeline Manning, American athlete
• January 12 — Brendan Foster, British distance runner
• January 14 — Al Feuerbach, American shot putter
• January 14 — Valery Kharlamov, Soviet ice hockey player (d. 1981)
• January 31 — Ton Schmidt, Dutch water polo player

February

• February 1 — Douglas Golder, Australian field hockey player
• February 16 — Piet de Zwarte, Dutch water polo player
• February 28 — Kjell Isaksson, Swedish pole vaulter

March

• March 20 — Bobby Orr, American Hall of fame ice hockey player

April

• April 5 — Wolfgang Strödter, German field hockey player
• April 15 — Werner Otto, East German track cyclist
• April 17 — Pekka Vasala, Finnish middle-distance athlete
• April 17 — Wilf Wedmann, Canadian high jumper
• April 24 — Eddie James Hart, American track and field athlete
• April 27 — Hans van Helden, Dutch ice speed skater
• April 29 — John Christensen, New Zealand field hockey player

May

• May 11 — Alfred Matt, Austrian slalom skier
• May 14 — Bob Woolmer, English cricket coach
• May 15 — Peter Hussing, German heavyweight boxer

June

• June 5 — Bill Smart, Canadian middle distance runner
• June 6 — Barry Maister, New Zealand field hockey player
• June 10 — Tom Sneva, American Indianapolis 500 race car driver champion (1983)
• June 13 — Garnet "Ace" Bailey, ice hockey player/scout (d. 2001)
• June 15 — Graeme Reid, Australian field hockey player
• June 18 — Eliezer Halfin, Israeli wrestler (d. 1972)
• June 22 — Peter Prijdekker, Dutch freestyle swimmer

July

• July 13 — Alf Hansen, Norwegian double sculls rower
• July 15 — Enrique Basilio, Mexican hurler, first woman to light Olympic flame
• July 17 — Cathy Ferguson, American backstroke swimmer
• July 18 — Jim Watt, Scottish boxer
• July 22 — Kevin Ryan, New Zealand long-distance runner
• July 26 — Norair Nurikian, Bulgarian bantam weight boxer

August

• August 5 — Tony DiCicco, US women's soccer coach
• August 7 — Greg Chappell, Australian cricketer
• August 7 — Walter Schmidt, German hammer thrower
• August 10 — Pal Gerevich, Hungarian fencer
• August 31 — Tomás Nistal, Spanish road cyclist

September

• September 3 — Ronald Harris, American lightweight boxer
• September 5 — Wayne Hammond, Australian field hockey player
• September 6 — Kevin Towns, New Zealand field hockey player and coach
• September 19 — Julius Sang, Kenyan runner (d. 2004)
• September 19 — Nadezhda Tkachenko, Soviet pentathlet
• September 23 — Vera Nikolić, Serbian track and field athlete
• September 29 — Viktor Krovopouskov, Soviet fencer

October

• October 14 — Terry Liskevych, Ukrainian-American volleyball coach
• October 16 — Peter Asch, American water polo player
• October 16 — Günter Haritz, German road and track cyclist
• October 20 — Andrei Suraikin, Soviet figure skater
• October 22 — John Peterson, American middleweight wrestler

November

• November 2 — Victor Galindez, Argentinian boxer (d. 1980)
• November 4 — Wim van de Schilde, Dutch water polo player
• November 5 — Janusz Gortat, Polish boxer
• November 9 — Sharon Stouder, American butterfly swimmer
• November 17 — Jaime Huélamo, Spanish cyclist
• November 23 — Gabriele Seyfert, German figure skater
• November 26 — Krešimir Ćosić, Croatian professional basketball player (d. 1995)
• November 26 — Galina Prozumenschikova, Soviet backstroke swimmer

December

• December 1 — Luciano Re Cecconi, Italian football midfielder (d. 1977)
• December 2 — Jim Irvine, Australian field hockey defender and coach
• December 2 — Antonín Panenka, Czech footballer
• December 7 — Jay Dahlgren, Canadian javelin thrower
• December 13 — Lillian Board, British track and field athlete (d. 1970)

Deaths

• January 30 — Herb Pennock, Major League pitcher
• February 2 — Bevil Rudd (53), South African athlete (b. 1894)
• February 8 — Gustav Schuft (71), German gymnast (b. 1876)
• February 17 — Jacobus Hoogveld (63), Dutch athlete (b. 1884)
• April 3 — Candy Jim Taylor, Negro League Baseball player and manager
• August 16 — Babe Ruth, American Hall of Fame baseball playerde:Sportjahr 1948

fr:1948 en sport ja:1948年のスポーツ sv:Sportåret 1948