Three more sports have legends to be made and stories to be told.
BOXING
Muhammad Ali (216 1/2 pounds, 32
years old) is once again world heavyweight champion after knocking out George
Foreman (220 pounds, 26 years old) in the eighth round at Kinshasa, Zaire,
in the early morning local time Oct. 30. Ali, a 4-to-1 underdog, uses the
"rope-a-dope" strategy, wherein he lies on the ropes and takes blows,
bringing Foreman to keep punching and get tired. He wins the championship and
$5 million. The "Rumble in the Jungle" is Don King's first big
promotion, and it's the Fight of the Year as selected by The Ring
magazine, which names Ali Fighter of the Year.
Before all that, Foreman (224 3/4 pounds, 25 years old)
defends his title March 26 at Caracas, Venezuela, with a two-round TKO against Ken
Norton (212 1/4 pounds, 30 years old).
Ali's second match against Joe Frazier, Jan. 28 in
New York, ends in 12 rounds with Ali winning by unanimous decision.
The AP and UPI both name Ali Male Athlete of the Year. Sports Illustrated names him Sportsman of the Year, and he also wins the Hickok
Belt (a pro sports award given annually from 1950 to 1976). The
Sporting News, however, chooses baseball stolen bases king Lou Brock.
Roberto Duran is in the process of
setting a lightweight title defenses record. Among his 12 from 1972 to 1979
are an eleventh-round knockout delivered to Esteban de Jesus March 16
and a first-round kayo on Masataka Takayama Dec. 21.
Carlos Monzon is in the middle
of a record-setting run of 14 title defenses as a middleweight (1970-1977) as
he defeats welterweight champion Jose Napoles in the sixth round Feb. 9
and knocks out Tony Mundine in the seventh round Oct. 4. Monzon's wife
had shot him in '73.
The middleweight title is actually disputed; Monzon is
recognized by the WBA, Rodrigo Valdez by the WBC. Also disputed is Duran's
lightweight title; Guts Ishimatsu is the WBC's lightweight champ after
an April 11 victory over Rodolfo Gonzalez.
Besides Ali and Napoles (who has held his title since
1971), junior middleweight champion Oscar Albarado is the only
undisputed titleholder at the end of the year, having gained both belts from Koichi
Wajima in a June 4 bout.
Among bantamweights, Soo-hwan Hong defeats Arnold
Taylor for the WBA title in a July 3 fight, the win being the result of a
unanimous decision after 15 rounds. Hong defends that championship Dec. 28
against Fernando Cabanela and wins by a split decision (the Japanese and
Korean judges rule in his favor, the Philippine judge in Cabanela's).
The WBA featherweight title changes hands several times. Ernesto
Marcel retires after he wins his Feb. 16 fight in a unanimous decision over
Alexis Arguello. Ruben Olivares knocks out Zensuke Utagawa
for the belt July 9 but goes down for the count against Arguello Nov. 23. This
is the first of three weight classes in which Arguello will be a champion.
In amateur boxing, Leon Spinks wins the AAU
championship in the 178-pound class, and his brother, Michael Spinks,
wins the Golden Gloves in the 156-pound class. Ray Leonard is the AAU
and Golden Gloves winner in the 139.
TENNIS
The best of the men is Jimmy Connors, who has won
three of the four majors. This is one of ten times so far that one man has won
three or more Grand Slam singles titles.
The French Open champion is 18-year-old Bjorn Borg,
with his first of six titles at Roland Garros and his first of eleven Grand
Slam titles.
Chris Evert wins the French Open
and the title at Wimbledon, and these are the first of what will be 18 Grand
Slam singles titles. At one point winning 56 consecutive matches and setting a
record that will stand for a decade, Evert is the AP Female Athlete of the Year.
Evonne Goolagong wins
the Australian Open, while Billie Jean King, with a narrow victory over
Goolagong, adds a fourth U.S. Open title.
Connors and Evert winning their respective titles at
Wimbledon is noteworthy because the two are engaged at the time, although the
planned November wedding does not come to fruition.
Connors is the annual men's No. 1 for the first of five
times. His first time as the weekly No. 1 is July 29, and he will stay there
for 160 weeks straight. The last time Ilie Nastase is in the top spot
is the week of June 2 (40 weeks total), while John Newcombe's eight-week
reign starts June 9 and ends when Connors takes over.
In the women's rankings, King is the women's No. 1 for the
last of five times.
The power couple sits atop the money leaderboard. At the
end of the year, Connors just beats out Guillermo Vilas and Newcombe
with $281,309. Evert sets a record by winning $261,460.
India refuses to play South
Africa at the Davis Cup final. The international team trophy is ultimately won by
default.
Australia wins the Federation
Cup, the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup, by defeating the United States
in the final.
Vilas defeats Nastase at the final of the Tennis Masters
Cup. Goolagong beats Evert at the WTA Championship.
Newcombe now has three singles titles and six doubles
titles at Wimbledon. The doubles championship with Tony Roche this year
is the fifth and last for the pair. By 1976, Newcombe and Roche will have a
record 16 titles in Grand Slam doubles competition.
Goolagong and Peggy Michel win women's doubles in
Australia and England, Evert and Olga Morozova in France, King
and Rosemary Casals in the U.S.
While Evert's star is rising, another star is born. Martina
Navratilova wins her first singles title in Orlando, and she also gets her
first taste of Grand Slam glory in French Open mixed doubles,
which she and Ivan Molina of Colombia win.
At the Italian Open, Borg wins the men's singles competition, while Evert defeats Navratilova in the women's singles final.
In World Team Tennis, the
championship goes to the Denver Racquets, who win the final over the Philadelphia
Freedoms. The season MVP is Philadelphia's King, winner of four Virginia
Slims events over the year. The playoff MVP is Denver's Andrew Pattison,
who in 1974 wins International Championship Tennis events in Monte Carlo and
Johannesburg.
The collegiate champion team is Stanford, whose own John Whitlinger is the individual champ.
This is the U.S. Open's last year on grass; there will be
clay at Forest Hills in '75 and a hard court at Flushing Meadows in '78.
GOLF
For one year, Johnny Miller, who wins the Bing
Crosby National Pro-Am, is the top golfer in America instead of Jack
Nicklaus. He is the money leader with over $350,000, interrupting what
would have been a six-year streak for Nicklaus. Miller also interrupts what
would have been a five-year streak of PGA Tour Player of the Year awards for
Nicklaus.
Miller's victories include the Crosby at Pebble Beach, the
Heritage Classic at Harbour Town, the Westchester Classic at Westchester C.C.,
and the World Open at Pinehurst.
Gary Player wins the Masters (which he had also won in 1961) and
the Open Championship, the latter at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Hale Irwin wins the U.S. Open at
Winged Foot. This is his first major victory.
Lee Trevino wins the PGA
Championship at Tanglewood. He also finishes the season with his fourth and
last Vardon Trophy for best scoring average.
Nicklaus finishes one stroke behind Trevino at the PGA
Championship, an event the Golden Bear had won in '73. Although he doesn't win
a major, he has a busy year. Nicklaus finishes first at the Hawaiian Open, wins
the inaugural Tournament Players Championship, is in the first class
for the World Golf Hall of Fame, gets Golf My Way published,
and opens Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Sam Snead, 61, takes third place
at the PGA Championship.
Bobby Nichols wins the Canadian
Open.
Peter Oosterhuis, who
finishes second to Player by four strokes at the Open, is the money leader on
the European Tour, with the French Open and Italian Open as two of his wins.
However, his loss in a playoff at Pensacola Country Club makes a major
headline.
By winning the Monsanto Open at Pensacola, Lee Elder
becomes the first African-American to gain automatic invitation to the Masters.
Deane Beman is the first PGA Tour
commissioner.
Jerry Pate wins the U.S. Amateur.
He will finish at the top of the leaderboard when the '76 U.S. Open is held.
Future professional Curtis Strange of Wake Forest
wins the NCAA individual title and the Western Amateur.
Trevor Homer
wins the Amateur Championship of the U.K. for the second time in three years.
JoAnne Carner is the LPGA Tour money
leader with a record total of $87,094 and the winner of the Vare Trophy (female
counterpart to the Vardon Trophy). Sandra Haynie, however, wins the U.S.
Women's Open and the LPGA Championship. After a playoff with Haynie and Jane
Blalock, it is Jo Ann Prentice who wins the Dinah Shore tournament.
In women's amateur golf, Cynthia Hill is the U.S.
champion, and the American team defends the Curtis Cup by defeating the British
team 13-5.
Nancy Lopez wins the U.S. Girls'
Junior Amateur tournament.
The PGA Hall of Fame (whose last new inductees will be
honored in 1982) adds to its ranks Julius Boros and Cary Middlecoff.
On Sept. 25 at the U.S. National Seniors Open Championship
in Las Vegas, 64-year-old Mike Austin sets a record by driving a ball
515 yards. The 35-mph tailwind helps.
These are all good sports, but for some around
the world, there's only one true sport. A wide variety of soccer stuff,
starting with the biggest event of all, is the subject of the next installment,
coming June 14.
[EDITS 7:07-7:22 a.m. EDT: A few edits so fewer last words are dangling on their own lines on mobile view.]
