For the most part, this section is about North American sports. An international section is scheduled for July 26, the day the Olympic Games begin. May the new year be as happy it can be, considering what sort of year it's going to be.
Evel Knievel makes three appearances on Wide World
of Sports. He successfully jumps eleven Mack trucks, then thirteen Mack
trucks, but crashes trying to jump over the Snake River Canyon.
Speaking of Wide World of Sports, that program wins
the Emmy in its category for '73-74 and will win in the Edited Program division
of sports for '74-75.
Kyle Rote Jr. of the NASL's Dallas Tornado
wins the second annual Superstars multi-sport competition on ABC
television. This is the first year the obstacle course is used.
Jim McKay wins his fourth Emmy for Outstanding
Host or Commentator, while Keith Jackson wins his third of five National
Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association awards for sportscaster of the
year.
More than a quarter of a billion dollars is spent on
televising sports, but ratings are down.
In college money matters, the NCAA will report that
four-fifths of its schools lose money on sports in 1974.
Earl Anthony earns many bowling honors for the first
time: winner at the PBA National Championship, winner at the Firestone
Tournament of Champions, money leader, PBA Bowler of the Year, and BWA Bowler
of the Year. One of the events he wins is the California version of the Home
Box Office Open.
Larry Laub wins bowling's U.S. Open, and Paul
Colwell wins the American Bowling Congress Masters tournament. Pat
Costello wins the women's U.S. Open with two strikes in the last frame and
the Professional Women's Bowlers Association championship with a tenth-frame
turkey. The winner of the WIBC (Women's International Bowling Congress) Queens
tourney is Judy Soutar.
LATE ADDITION, 1-3-24, 6:01 p.m.: Jim Godman sets a record
for ABC tournaments with a score of 2,184 for all events. His averages will be:
223.98 in 27 events 1974-76, 219.44 in 36 events 1974-77, and 218.33 in 45 events
1973-77.
Bobby Fischer, eight-time U.S. chess champion
(1958-1966), continues his reign as world champion that started in 1972.
Fischer briefly gives up the championship in June due to a difference of
opinion in how his title defense match should go. In November, he plays against
Anatoly Karpov to remain champion. In '75, Karpov will be awarded the
title on account of Fischer not showing up. However, Fischer makes chess
popular enough for a book called How to Beat Bobby Fischer, published in
1974.
Winston is the first commercial sponsor of a beach
volleyball tournament, paying $1,500 to back an event in San Diego.
Peter Gulgin catches a three-pound rock bass in
Ontario's York River on Aug. 1. The record catch for that type of fish will be
tied in 1998.
Other fishing records, set in 1974 but broken in the
nineties: a 12 pound 9 ounce pink salmon, caught by Steven A. Lee on
Aug. 17 in Alaska's Morse & Kenai rivers, and a 128 pound 1 ounce Atlantic
sailfish caught by Harm Steyn on March 27 in Luanda, Angola.
Tommy Martin, with a total of 33 pounds and 7 ounces, wins the BASS Masters Classic.
In angling, Steve Rajeff of San Francisco dominates at the North American and world casting championships.
In rodeo, Tommy Ferguson of Miami, Okla., begins a
six-year string of All-Around Champion Cowboy titles. In particular, he does
well in steer wrestling and calf roping.
Eleven-year-old Curt Yarborough of Elk Grove, Calif.,
wins the All-American Soap Box Derby; Bret Yarborough had done so the year
before, when he was 11.
The Women's Sports Foundation is established.
In power boat racing (a sport found in the 1975 AP Sports Almanac
as "unlimited hydroplane racing"), George Henley drives Pay
'N Pak to the APBA Gold Cup, and he will do so again in '75.
Also in boating, Art Norris, a young vice president
of the Detroit Red Wings, wins the national offshore inboard with Slap
Shot.
In yachting, Scaramouche -- owned by Chuck Kirsch
of Sturgis, Mich. -- is the winner of the race from Newport to Bermuda.
Johns Hopkins University wins its first of many NCAA
lacrosse championships.
In box lacrosse, the NLL's Philadelphia Wings are the
champs of the indoor game. Paul Suggate of the Maryland Arrows
scores 115 goals and makes 124 assists in the regular season.
The Wisconsin Badgers win the Intercollegiate Rowing
Association Varsity Eights for the second of three times in a row. They cover
2,000 meters in 6 minutes and 33 seconds.
The USC Trojans, with national stars John Naber
and Steve Furniss on the team, snap Indiana's six-year streak as
NCAA swimming champions.
The Oklahoma Sooners are the collegiate wrestling
champions, with Michigan as runners-up.
Larry Kokos, 14, is the boys' champion at the
national marbles tournament, while Susan Regan, 13, is the girls'
champion. Each Pittsburgher defeats an opponent from Cumberland, Md., in the
final. Larry wins a best-of-five overall series against Susan.
Best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show is Ch.
Gretchenhof Columbia River, Dr. Richard P. Smith's German short-haired
pointer.
In the second running of the Iditarod sled dog race, the
winner is Carl Huntington, who travels 1,049 miles in barely over 20
days 15 hours. No one else reaches the goal within three weeks of starting the race.
Finishing second at the World & National junior boys'
horseshoe pitching tournament is one Walter Ray Williams of Eureka,
Calif. The Modified IV winner at the World Series of Snowmobiling is a Canadian
named Jacques Villeneuve.
In archery, Douglas J. Brouthers of Sharonville, Ohio, wins the national amateur championship and then the world championship, the latter competition being held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
The Raybestos Brakettes of Stratford, Conn., dominate
the national women's fast-pitch softball tournament and win it for the fourth
consecutive time.
Danny Seemiller of Pittsburgh defeats three of
Japan's best table tennis players in one day at Grand Rapids, Mich., a feat
likened to Carl Hubbell's 1934 All-Star Game performance.
Fred Lewis of Cleveland is the U.S. Open winner in
both four-wall and three-wall handball, having also won four-wall in 1972,
while Steve Sandler of Brooklyn becomes a seven-time AAU one-wall
champion.
In hunting, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposes bans on lead shotgun ammo. The government agency says too many waterfowl are killed by eating pellets, but hunters say steel isn't as effective and is in fact bad for barrels.
Twenty-seven million fishermen pay $128 million for state
licenses.
Tim Horton, longtime defenseman in the NHL, dies Feb.
21.
John Henry Lewis, former light-heavyweight boxing
champion, dies April 14.
Dizzy Dean, Hall of Fame pitcher, dies July 17.
Don McCafferty, then-active Detroit Lions head
coach, dies July 28.
James J. Braddock, former heavyweight boxing
champion, dies Nov. 29.
English rugby fans and members of the Bury St. Edmunds
Rugby Club are among those killed on a March 3 flight from Paris to London
that crashes right after takeoff. With 346 deaths, it is for three years the
crash with the most deaths ever.
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