1950s Sports – 1954

1950s sports

FOOTBALL

  • NFL Championship Game:
  • Cleveland Browns (56)   Detroit Lions (10)
  • The Lions actually beat the Browns (14 – 10) in last regular season game
    but lost to them in the Championship game in Cleveland a week later
  • This was the third consecutive Championship match up between the Lions and the Browns with the Lions winning the first two

1950s BaseballBASEBALL

    • World Series:
      (in a sweep) New York Giants (4 games) over the Cleveland Indians (0 games)
    • This was the first time in five years that the NY Yankees didn’t win the AL Pennant or appear in the World Series
    • The St. Louis Browns relocate to Baltimore, MD to become the Baltimore Orioles, they blamed the move on poor attendance
    • Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes the first player to hit five home runs in one game
    • Joe DiMaggio married Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe , a union marked by their contrasting personality traits (learn about Monroe’s personality traits here); however, their marriage ultimately endured for less than a year
    • MVP Honors went to Yogi Berra of the Yankees for the AL and Willie Mays of the Giants for the NL

1950s Basketball

BASKETBALL

  • NBA Championship:
  • (in 7 games) Syracuse Nationals (4 games) over Fort Wayne Pistons (3 games)
  • Neil Johnston of the Philadelphia Warriors emerged as the best center in the league with most rebounds, points, free throws and wins
  • Paul Arizin also of the Warriors was the hottest shooter with most field goals
    ironically the Warriors didn’t make it into the playoffs

1950s Tennis

Tennis

  • Wimbleton: Men’s Singles
    (Egypt) Jaroslav Drobný defeated (Australia) Ken Rosewall (13-11, 4-6, 6-2, 9-7)
  • Wimbleton: Women’s Singles
    (American) Maureen Connolly Brinker topped (American) Louise Brough Clapp (6–2, 7–5)
  • U.S. (Open) National Championship:  Vic Seixas defeated (in four sets) Rex Hartwig (3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4)
  • Davis Cup: United States finally triumphed over the four time defending champion Australia in the Challenge Round
    team U.S. won the Americas Zone and Sweden won the European Zone

1950s Golf

GOLF

  • PGA Championship:   Chick Harbert, (match play) at Keller Golf Club in St. Paul, Minnesota
  • The Masters:  (18-hole playoff)  Sam Snead defeated Ben Hogan (70 – 71) in this unusual playoff
    Snead shot a 289, this would be his last win of a major tournament
  • U.S. Open :   Ed Furgol (284) played at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., a par 70 course
  • British Open :  Peter Thomson shot (283) at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England
    it began a run of four British Open wins in five years and five total for the Australian Thompson

1950s Hockey

HOCKEY

  • Stanley Cup:  (in 7 games) Detroit Red Wings (4 games) over the Montreal Canadiens (3 games)
    the seventh game was decided in overtime by a Tony Leswick deflected shot
  • Gordie Howe was the points leader for his fourth consecutive time
  • World Ice Hockey Championships:
    held in Stockholm, Sweden the Soviet Union resolutely beat Canada (7 – 1) in the final to win gold

1950S Boxing

BOXING

  • The World Heavyweight Championship was defended twice by the undefeated champ Rocky Marciano
    he fought Ezzard Charles to a 15 round decision in June and then
    faced him again in September where he KO’d him in the eighth round
  • The World Middleweight Champion Carl (Bobo) Olson had to defend his belt three times
    Kid Gavilan in April (split decision), Rocky Castellani in August (unanimous decision)and Pierre Langlois in December (11th round TKO)
  • The World Light-heavyweight Champion was still held by Archie Moore after two title fights
    the first against Joey Maxim (split decision) and then Harold Johnson (14th round knock out)

1950s Nascar

CAR RACING

  • Indianapolis 500:  Bill Vukovich wins with an average speed of 130.843 mph
    this is Vukovich’s second consecutive Indy win
  • Nascar: Proving the sports new found popularity 136 cars started at Daytona, Lee Petty wins when Tim Flock is disqualified
  • Petty goes on to win six more races, finishes in the top 10 in 32 of his 34 starts
    and wins the points race to become the Grand National Champion
  • Car manufacturers were getting the hang of building race car engines but Hudson still dominated with 17 wins, Oldsmobile won 11 races

1950s Horse Racing

HORSE RACING

  • Kentucky Derby:  Determine, Jockey – Ray York
    Determine was the first gray to ever win the Derby
    its jockey York was almost bumped off the winner in an out of the gate collision when another horse cut over too quickly
  • Preakness Stakes:  Hasty Road, Jockey – John H. Adams
    Hasty Road had placed second in the Derby
  • Belmont Stakes:  High Gun, Jockey – Eric Guerin

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