1867 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Football

England * Formation of the Sheffield FA, which continues to promote its own

Sheffield Rules The Sheffield Rules was a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1858 and 1877. The rules were initially created and revised by Sheffield Football Club, with responsibility for the laws passing to the Sh ...

. The Sheffield FA establishes the local

Youdan Cup The Youdan Football Cup, also known as the Youdan Cup, was an 1867 Sheffield rules football competition. Preceding the FA Cup by more than four years, it was among the first tournaments in any code of football. Background Thomas Youdan, seen ...

, the first organised football tournament, which is won by

Hallam FC Hallam Football Club is an English football club based in Crosspool, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Founded in 1860, Hallam is the second oldest association football club in the world. Hallam currently play in the Northern Counties East League P ...

. * 4 September —

The Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

founded by members of the Wednesday Cricket Club in Sheffield. As is so often the case, a football club is founded by cricketers who need a winter activity to keep fit. The club name acknowledges that Wednesday was the day on which members take an afternoon off work for practice. The Wednesday is originally based at Bramall Lane, then a multi–sports complex that had originally opened for cricket in 1854. Scotland * Queen's Park founded in Glasgow; it is the oldest association football club in Scotland.

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 – Union of Morrisania Events * The National baseball club of Washington ( original Washington Nationals) tours from Ohio to Missouri, playing ten matches in 17 days. Like the Excelsiors tour of New York state in 1860, the Nationals boost the game and demonstrate advanced points of play to fans and players. Several top teams will tour on a similar national scale in the next few years.

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 * Publication of the Marquess of Queensberry rules which had been written in 1865. These rules prescribe the use of gloves, the ten second count, the three minute round and the one minute's rest between rounds. * 10 May — Jimmy Elliott defeats

Bill Davis William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – 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 ...

in the 9th round at Point Pelee Island in Canada. Davis has now lost to both Elliott and

Mike McCoole Mike McCoole (12 March 1837 in Ireland – 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 ...

who continue to claim the American Championship, but these two will never meet in the ring.Cyber Boxing Zone – Jimmy Elliott
Retrieved on 8 November 2009. * 31 August — McCoole defeats Aaron Jones in the 34th round at Busenbord's Station, Ohio.Cyber Boxing Zone – Mike McCoole
Retrieved on 8 November 2009. * 15 October —

Jem Mace James "Jem" Mace (8 April 1831 – 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 ...

is due to defend the English Championship against Ned O'Baldwin in London but the bout is prevented by the authorities. There is by this time considerable opposition to bareknuckle boxing in England and fights are becoming impossible to stage at all, let alone profitably. Mace reacts to the latest ban by taking his trade to America, leaving the English Championship as a dead title. Competitive boxing in Great Britain is effectively terminated until after the foundation of the

National Sporting Club The National Sporting Club was a club founded in London in 1891, which did more to establish the sport of boxing in Great Britain than any other organisation. Origins The club was founded on 5 March 1891 as a private club. Its premises were at ...

in 1891.Cyber Boxing Zone – Jem Mace
Retrieved on 8 November 2009. * The demise of bareknuckle boxing in England is consistent with the spread of Victorian ethics and morality. The influential newspaper industry has fuelled distaste for prizefighting by widely publicising the brutality of the 1860 Heenan–Sayers fight. The Queensberry Rules with their demand for gloves and timings are an establishment reaction to the furore and are designed to "clean up" a sport that is out of touch with Victorian values.

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 * George Wootton's tally of 142 wickets breaks his own record for an English season England * Most runs – Thomas Humphrey 946 @ 26.27 (HS 144) * Most wickets – George Wootton 142 @ 11.58 (BB 8–15)

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 ...

– Tom Morris senior

Horse racing

Events * Inaugural running of the Belmont Stakes is won by Ruthless 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 ...

– Cortolvin *

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 ...

– Achievement * 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Vauban * The Derby –

Hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

* The Oaks – Hippia *

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 ...

– Achievement 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 ...

– Tim Whiffler 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 ...

– Wild Rose Ireland *

Irish Derby Stakes The Irish Derby ( Irish: Dearbaí na hÉireann) 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 ...

– Golden Plover USA * Belmont Stakes – Ruthless

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 *

William George Beers William George Beers (May 5, 1843 – December 26, 1900) was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada's first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the "fat ...

, a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

dentist, rewrites the rules written by the

Montreal Lacrosse Club The Montreal Lacrosse Club was a lacrosse club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Club is notable in the history of lacrosse as it was responsible for establishing the first set of written rules of the game. The Club was established in 1856 by the ...

1856 Events January–March * January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California. * January 23 – American paddle steamer SS ''Pacific'' leaves Liverpool (England) for a transatlantic voya ...

. * First lacrosse game using Beers' rules is played at

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an elite, all-boys, private school in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as the country's most prestigious preparatory school, and has produce ...

, who lose to the Toronto Cricket Club by a score of 3–1.

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 * 13 April —

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 24th

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 * Four oarsmen 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 ...

, Canada win the World Championship in Paris, becoming Canada's first world champions and earning the " Paris Crew" nickname.

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

Wasps RFC Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

References

{{Sports by year 1851 – 1900 Sports by year