1876 in sports

yearbox
in?=in sports
cp=18th century
c=19th century
cf=20th century

yp1=1873
yp2=1874
yp3=1875
year=1876
ya1=1877
ya2=1878
ya3=1879
dp3=1840s
dp2=1850s
dp1=1860s
d=1870s
da=0
dn1=1880s
dn2=1890s
dn3=1900s|

Baseball

*February 2 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL) is founded at the Grand Central Hotel in New York City, the first pro sports league, North American style: closed and territorial. Major League Baseball recognizes "all-time history" beginning here.
*Chicago fields a practically invincible team featuring four stars from the champion Bostons (Big Four) and one from the Athletics of Philadelphia (Cap Anson).
*The venerable Mutuals and Athletics, holding the New York and Philadelphia franchises, are competitive failures on field and off. They cancel their final western trips and suffer expulsion, the last formerly amateur clubs in the majors.

Football

*March 11 - FA Cup: Wanderers FC beat Old Etonians 1 - 1 (aet) ; March 18 Replay 3 - 0

Golf

*British Open - Bob Martin

Horse Racing

*May 15 - Virgin wins the Kentucky derby

Ice sports

*January 7 - The Glaciarium opens in Chelsea, London; the world's first artificial ice rink.

=Rowing=

*Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race - Cambridge
*The Harvard-Yale Regatta for the main event establishes the 4-mile distance and returns to the original eight-oar shells. Yale wins by 29 seconds on the Connecticut River. [http://hcs.harvard.edu/~harvcrew/Website/History/HY/]

Yacht racing

*The New York Yacht Club retains the America's Cup as "Madeleine" defeats challenger "Countess of Dufferin", of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club

Births

* February 7 — Harry Freeman, British field hockey player (d. 1968)
* March 21 — John Tewksbury, American track and field athlete (d. 1968)
* March 25 — Irving Baxter, American athlete (d. 1957)
*June 16 — Gustav Schuft, German gymnast (d. 1948)