Sports74 Gold: International Sports

As the Olympics in Paris begin now, let's take a look at sports around the world 50 years ago.

Dorothy Hamill of Riverside, Conn., wins her first of three U.S. figure skating championships. She finishes second at worlds to 17-year-old East German Christine Errath.

Another East German, Jan Hoffmann, wins the men's world title. The U.S. men's champion, for the second of what will be three times, is Gordon McKellen of Lake Placid, N.Y.

Melissa Militano (Skating Club of New York) and new partner Johnny Johns (Detroit Skating Club) win their first of two U.S. titles in pairs figure skating. Militano had won a title with her brother (Mark Militano) the previous year.

At the world figure skating championships, Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaytsev win their second of six pairs titles together; this is the sixth of ten for Rodnina. At those same championships, fellow Soviets Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov win their fifth consecutive ice-dancing crown.

In speed skating, Soviet Tatyana Averina sets a women's world record in the 1500 meters. In the women's sprint race world championships, Leah Poulos of Northbrook, Ill., is the overall winner.

Eddy Merckx of Belgium wins the Tour de France for the fifth time, tying the record held by French cyclist Jacques Anquetil. He finishes the 4098-kilometer route (about 2,546 miles) in 116 hours 16 minutes 58 seconds. Merkcx has also won five Tours of Italy and a Tour of Spain, giving him a total of eleven victories among those three events, a record not equaled. Merckx has worn the yellow jersey for a record 111 days, also not equaled.

Merckx wins the Tour of Italy for the fifth time this year and joins a club whose membership otherwise consists of only Italians Alfredo Binda and Alfredo Coppi.

Merckx is also the third three-time winner of the UCI Road World Championship (held in Montreal this year), the other two being Binda and Belgian Rik van Steenbergen.

In rugby, Ireland has sole possession of the Five Nations championship for the first time since 1951. All five nations tied for the championship in '73.

Romania wins the men's team handball world championship for the fourth time, a record no one else will reach until 1999.

In Mexico City, Poland wins the men's volleyball world championship, defeating the Soviet Union in the final, while reigning Olympic champion Japan finishes third. In Guadalajara, Japan's women defeat those of the Soviet Union, also reigning Olympic champions, for the world title.

France wins its seventh freshwater fishing championship.

Toshimitsu Ogata, going by the ring name Kitanoumi, reaches the highest rank in sumo at the age of 21 years and 61 days. For decades, he is the youngest yokozuna.

With Ted Hood as skipper, Courageous defeats the Australian yacht Southern Cross 4-0 for the America's Cup. That boat will win the Cup again in 1977 with Ted Turner as skipper. In '74, the two Teds compete in the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit, with Hood's Robin Too II being the champion yacht of Florida and the Bahamas and Turner's Lightnin' being second-best.

In an International Olympic Committee meeting, Lake Placid is named the host of the 1980 Winter Games and Moscow host of the 1980 summer games. It's also decided that the best skiers and skaters will spend two weeks of 1976 not in Denver, but in Innsbruck, Austria.

Mexico City is named to take over as host of the 1975 Pan American Games, Sao Paulo having withdrawn.

At the world gymnastics championships, the all-around winners are Japanese Shigeru Kasamatsu (also the winner for floor exercise and vault) and Soviet Lyudmila Turischeva (also the winner for floor exercise and balance beam). Between Olympic triumphs, Soviet Olga Korbut wins the vault at the world championships.

In international swimming, some men's world records and almost all women's are broken in August. Tim Shaw of Long Beach, Calif., is the one who beats three of the men's, and fellow Californian Shirley Babashoff of Mission Viejo is solely responsible for two of the women's. Many distaff records are set by the masculine swimmers from East Germany, whom physicians think might be on steroids.

At the quadrennial world championships of alpine skiing at St. Moritz, Switzerland, Gustavo Thoeni of Italy wins the men's slalom and giant slalom. He reaches nine events won in his Alpine Skiing World Cup career, which is a record at the time. Fellow Italian Piero Gros wins the 1973-74 Alpine World Cup title, which Thoeni won in the three seasons before and will win in '75.

Swede Ingemar Stenmark wins his first of what will be 86 slalom and giant slalom races, and Austrian Franz Klammer wins his first of what will be 25 World Cup downhill races.

The women's Alpine World Cup winner for the fourth of five times in a row is Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell (previously Annemarie Proell). The downhill gold medalist at St. Moritz, she also wins her eleventh consecutive downhill race in January. Finishing fourth in downhill is Cindy Nelson of Lutsen, Minn., the downhill winner at the International SDS ladies' ski races.

In professional skiing, Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy is unable to defend his championship because of stomach trouble. Austrian Hugo Nindl wins the title, with fourth place belonging to Hank Kashiwa of Bellingham, Wash., and fifth to Spider Sabich of Snowmass, Colo.

In cricket, Australia wins three matches against New Zealand and loses one, with two draws between the Antipodean countries.

England sweeps the year's cricket matches against India but ties in all three of its matches with Pakistan. The team wins one and loses one against the West Indies, with three ties.

In bullfighting, Spain's leading matador is Pedro Gutierrez, "Nino de la Capea," with 84 bullfights, 112 ears, and 15 tails. Ruling the Mexico City bullring is Curro Rivera, with 12 kills in six bullfights, but no ears or tails.

Two of the world motorcycling championships are won on Yamaha bikes: by Sweden's Kent Anderson in 100cc and by Italy's Giacomo Agostini in 350cc. Agostini equals his 500cc streak by winning his seventh consecutive 350cc world championship. Walter Villa, a fellow Italian, wins his first of three straight 250cc crowns.

East Germany wins all but two of the competitions at the quadrennial world rowing championships, with the Soviet Union taking pairs with coxswain and the United States eights with coxswain.

In the two English universities' annual regatta, Oxford defeats Cambridge by 5 1/2 lengths.

Among the best shooters in the country and the world are Lanny Bassham of Dallas (or Fort Worth, depending on the source), Margaret T. Murdock of Topeka, Kan., and Carter, Mont.'s own Maj. Lones Wigger (yes, that was his name).

Bud Somerville and his fellow residents of Superior, Wis., win the world curling title. The Canadian entry loses in the semifinals.

Superior also wins its fourth national curling championship under Somerville. The skip has won three times in the '60s and will win again in 1981.

In fencing, Italian Aldo Montano wins the individual saber at worlds in Grenoble, France, with Paul Apostol of New York making the semifinals. Viktor Romankov wins at least one of the Soviets' four titles at Grenoble, as individual foil champion.

In weightlifting, the heavyweight champion of the world for the fifth time in a row is Soviet Vasily Alekseyev, with 407 3/4 pounds in the snatch and 529 in the clean and jerk. He sets records for each within the calendar year: 413 for the snatch, 536 3/4 for the clean and jerk.

One of the four Americans who makes the top eight in any weight class at the world Greco-Roman wrestling championships is Koroly Kancser of Lincoln, Neb., who finishes sixth in the 105 1/2-pound class.

In chess, Viktor Korchnoi begins to seek asylum. He's been censured by the Soviet Chess Federation for saying bad things about Anatoly Karpov.

Italian contract bridge players will in time be suspected of having cheated last year and this year (Italy wins the world championship in 1974).

Twenty-six countries compete in the Stoke Mandeville International Games, where the U.S.'s wheelchair athletes win 103 medals and Great Britain's 91.

There are winners and losers. From a famous university blowing a big rivalry game to an obscure school that never expects to win, the college football season of '74 is headed your way Aug. 16.

Sports74 Gold: Miscellaneous

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.

On New Year's Day, there'll be a big list of 1974 births. The next full installment goes from Dr. J to a couple of T's – technical fouls, that is. The NBA and ABA will be brought together Jan. 19.