1950s Sports – 1955

FOOTBALL

• NFL Championship Game:
• Cleveland Browns (38) over the Los Angeles Rams (14)
• This is the Browns second Championship in two seasons having lost in the previous three seasons
• NBC is awarded the contract to televise the game but at a cost of $100,000.
  this is the most ever paid to carry an event by a network
• Yet another rule change: a play is blown dead if a player is in contact with a defending player and any part of his body, except hands and feet, touches the ground

BASEBALL

• World Series:
  (in 7 games) Brooklyn Dodgers (4 games) over New York Yankees (3 games)
  the Dodgers win comes after seven previous attempts at a World Series Championship
• Kansas City Athletics are added to the American League in an expansion,
  their third game however turned out to be the worst loss in baseball this year with the Chicago White Sox destroying them (29 – 6)
• All Star Game: (in extra innings) National League (6),  American League (5)

BASKETBALL

• • NBA Championship:
  • (in five games) Philadelphia Warriors (4 games) over the Fort Wayne Pistons (1 game)
    there were allegations that certain Fort Wayne players had conspired with gamblers and thrown the game, no charges were ever filed
  • Most Valuable Player goes to Bob Pettit of the St. Louis Hawks, this is the first year for this award
    he also led the league in total points, free throws and rebounds
  • All Star Game:  Eastern Division (100) over the West (91), game MVP is Bill Sharman of the Boston Celtics

Tennis

• Wimbleton: Men’s Singles
  (American) Tony Trabert defeated (Danish) Kurt Nielsen in straight sets (6-3, 7-5, 6-1)
• Wimbleton: Women’s Singles
  (American) Louise Brough Clapp over (American) Beverly Baker Fleitz (7-5, 8-6)
• U.S. (Open) National Championship:  Tony Trabert over Ken Rosewall (9-7, 6-3, 6-3)
• Davis Cup: Australia recaptured the Inter Zonal Challange Cup defeating the current champ the United States (5 – 0)
  this would bring Australias Challange total to five wins in six years
• Italy triumphed over Sweden in the Europe Zone and Japan defeated the Philippines in the Eastern Zone

GOLF

• The Masters:  Cary Middlecoff shot a (279) seven strokes better than Sam Snead who finished second, played at Augusta Ga as always
• This was the first appearance for Arnold Palmer, who finished in 10th place
• PGA Championship;  Doug Ford won by two strokes (match play), played at Meadowbrook Country Club
  Ford won three tournaments this year and received the Player of the Year award
• U.S. Open :  Jack Fleck shot (287), played at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California
  Fleck was 9 strokes behind runner up Ben Hogan and in the last round closed that gap and wound up beating Hogan by 3 strokes
• British Open :  Australian Peter Thomson shot a (281) at St Andrews Club in Scotland
  this is Thompsons second consecutive win, he will go on to win one more

HOCKEY

• Stanley Cup:  (in 7 games)   Detroit Red Wings (4 games) over the Montreal Canadiens (3 games)
  this is a repeat of last years championship and Detroits fourth cup win in six seasons
• Gordie Howe was once again the leading scorer and scored the series winning goal at the end of the second period in game 7
• Detroit was forced to play without their leading scorer Maurice “Rocket” Richard who was suspended for the remainder of the season
  for a fight which escalated and wound up stopping a late season game oddly enough aaginst Detroit
• World Ice Hockey Championships:  Canada after losing to the Soviet Union last year came back to defeat them (5 – 0)

BOXING

• The World Heavyweight Championship was defended by Rocky Marciano
  who increased his undeafted record to 49 fights by defeating Don Cockell in a ninth round knock out and
  Archie Moore (the current light heavyweight champion) also in a ninth round KO
• Three months before fighting Marciano, Archie Moore defended his light heavyweight title
  by scoring a third round knock out of (the current middleweight champ) Carl (Bobo) Olson
• Tony DeMarco in a world welterweight champion bout defeated champion Johnny Saxton in a fourteenth round TKO
  DeMarco would however lose the title to Carmen Basilio in a twelveth round knockout just over two months later

CAR RACING

• Indianapolis 500:  Bob Sweikert wins, his average speed was 128.209 mph
• Bill Vukovich, who had won the last two Indy 500s, was killed in a chain-reaction crash while holding a 17-second lead on the 57th lap
  Vukovich had led the race for 50 of the 56 laps that he completed and was thought to be the absolute forerunner in this race
• The Chrysler 300 makes its debut in Daytona, driven by Tim Flock, who last year had his win at Daytona taken away on a technicality,
  the car was part of outboard motor manufacturer Carl Kiekhaefer’s team who went on to win 22 of the 37 scheduled races in 1955
• Tim Flock would also be crowned the Grand National Champion accumulating enough points by winning 18 races interestingly his brother Fonty Flock also won 3 races

HORSE RACING

• Kentucky Derby:  Swaps,  Jockey – Willie Shoemaker
• The following year (1956) Swaps would break his leg, extrordinary means would be taken and lead to his partial recovery
  he would of course never race again but he did make it to stud and be proclaimed Horse of the Year for 1956
• Preakness Stakes:  Nashua,  ridden by Eddie Arcaro
• Belmont Stakes:  Nashua,  Jockey – Eddie Arcaro
  after the death of Nashua’s owner he was auctioned off for $1,251,200 the highest price ever paid for a horse