1868 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
National championship
*
National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was the first organization governing American baseball. (The sport was spelled with two words in the 19th century.)
The first convention of sixteen New York City area clubs in 1857 effecti ...
champion β
New York Mutuals
The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Ass ...
Events
* A few clubs count base hits and total bases on hits for every player, beside the commonplace "official scoring" of runs and times put out (
hands lost)
* In December the
National Association permits full professionalism for 1869. The
Cincinnati Red Stockings
The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first all-professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) 1867β ...
recruit with great success.
Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
Events
* With the arrival in America of English boxers
Jem Mace
James "Jem" Mace (8 April 1831 β 30 November 1910) was an English boxing champion, primarily during the bare-knuckle era. He was born at Beeston, Norfolk. Although nicknamed "The Gypsy", he denied Romani ethnicity in his autobiography. Fi ...
and
Tom Allen, there are several claimants for the American Championship including
Joe Coburn
Joe Coburn (July 29, 1835 in Middletown, County Armagh, Ireland β December 6, 1890 in New York City, New York) was an Irish-American boxer. In 1862 he claimed the Heavyweight Championship from John Carmel Heenan when Heenan refused to fight him ...
and
Bill Davis
William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 β August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the member of provincial Parliament for Peel in the 1959 provincia ...
, but the most credible claims remain with
Jimmy Elliott and
Mike McCoole
Mike McCoole (12 March 1837 in Ireland β 17 October 1886 at New Orleans), sometimes spelled McCool, was an Irish-born bare-knuckle boxing champion who came to America at the age of thirteen. He claimed the Heavyweight Championship of Americ ...
.
[Cyber Boxing Zone β Jem Mace](_blank)
Retrieved on 8 November 2009.
* 27 May β Mike McCoole is due to meet Joe Coburn at Cold Spring Station, Indiana, in a fight billed as for the Heavyweight Championship of America, but police intervene and the fight is not held. Coburn and his trainer, Jim Cusick, are arrested.
Retrieved on 8 November 2009.
Retrieved on 8 November 2009.
* 4 September β McCoole is due to fight former champion
John C. Heenan near St. Louis, Missouri, but the fight is cancelled. McCoole continues to claim the American Championship.
* 12 November β McCoole's only serious rival Jimmy Elliott defeats
Charley Gallagher in the 23rd round at Peach Island, near Detroit, Michigan.
[Cyber Boxing Zone β Jimmy Elliott](_blank)
Retrieved on 8 November 2009.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
Events
* A team of
Australian Aboriginals
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isla ...
tours England, the first organised group of Australian cricketers to travel overseas and the first overseas team to complete a tour of England, although none of the matches have subsequently been given
first-class status.
England
* Most runs β
Harry Jupp 965 @ 24.74 (HS 134)
* Most wickets β
James Southerton
James Southerton (16 November 1827 β 16 June 1880) was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1854 and 1879. After a slow start, he became, along with Alfred Shaw, the greatest slow bowler of the 1870s. He played in th ...
150 @ 13.86 (BB 8β34)
Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
Major tournaments
*
British Open
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
β
Tom Morris junior
Horse racing
Events
*
Formosa becomes the first horse to win four classic races in a single year, although one victory is a dead heat.
England
*
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...
β The Lamb (first of two wins)
*
1,000 Guineas Stakes
The 1000 Guineas Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old fillies. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 1 mile (1,60 ...
β
Formosa
*
2,000 Guineas Stakes β Formosa and Moslem (dead heat)
*
The Derby β
Blue Gown
Blue Gown (1865 – November 25, 1880) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse that was the winner of the 1868 Epsom Derby and Ascot Gold Cup. He was one of the best colts of his generation at two, three years and four of age, but his form de ...
*
The Oaks β Formosa
*
St. Leger Stakes
The St Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a ...
β Formosa
Australia
*
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melb ...
β
Glencoe II
Canada
*
Queen's Plate
The King's Plate (known as the Queen's Plate between 1860 to 1901 and 1952 to 2022) is Canada's oldest Thoroughbred horse race, having been founded in 1860. It is also the oldest continuously run race in North America. It is run at a distance of ...
β Nettie
Ireland
*
Irish Derby Stakes
The Irish Derby ( Irish: DearbaΓ na hΓireann) is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of ...
β Madeira
USA
*
Belmont Stakes β
General Duke
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...
Events
*
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
players in
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
begin playing lacrosse and it spreads through the
New York City metropolitan area, where teams are soon organized.
Rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...
The Boat Race
* 4 April β
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
wins the 25th
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. There are separate men' ...
Other events
* The world champion "
Paris Crew" from
Saint John, New Brunswick
Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K ...
wins the Championship of America in
Springfield, Massachusetts
Rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
Events
* Foundation of
York FC (initially
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
, then Northern Union, i.e.
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
)
References
{{Sports by year 1851 β 1900
Sports by year