1970s in sports

Major events

The 1970s will be forever associated in terms of sport with the great Welsh Rugby teams of that decade.

The 1970s was known for three renegade sports leagues that challenged older, established organizations in need of an energy boost and fresh perspective on their respective sports. The American Basketball Association (ABA), founded in 1967, was well-known for its faster, up-tempo style of play, its multicolored red, white, and blue ball, and the introduction of the three-point shot. In 1976, the NBA took in four former ABA teams when that league folded. The NBA also adopted the three-point shot and many star ABA players who would go on to star in the NBA. The World Hockey Association (WHA), which lasted from 1972 through 1979, brought four new franchises to the NHL and the player who would come to dominate the sport itself in Wayne Gretzky. World Series Cricket was a breakaway league from 1977-1979, which attracted international players with salaries far in excess of officially established competition. It was the catalyst for the major restructuring of world cricket which took place in the 1980s.

The "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, who proclaimed the women's game to be inferior, was a turning point in sports during the decade. Playing a male chauvinist card, Riggs originally challenged Margaret Court, whom he beat soundly on Mother's Day 1973. Riggs took this as an invitation to challenge all female players, and Billie Jean King took the opportunity to accept his challenge. Highly publicized and nationally televised, the "Battle of the Sexes" match was held on September 20, 1973, at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas; King defeated the 55-year-old Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. The match was heralded as a major victory for women in athletics.

Olympics

During the 1970s, the Summer Olympics took place twice, with Munich hosting the games in 1972 and Montreal playing host in 1976. The 1972 Summer games became victim to both terrorism and international controversy with ties to the ongoing Cold War situation. During the games, Palestinian terrorists killed two Israeli athletes and took nine hostage. After a failed rescue attempt, all hostages and all but three of terrorists were killed. The United States-Soviet Union basketball game was also embroiled in controversy. The U.S. basketball Olympic winning streak, which started in 1936, was ended by the Soviet Union team's close victory in the final game.

The U.S. complained about errors in officiating but the victory by the Soviet Union was upheld. Among the 1972 Summer Olympic highlights was the performance of swimmer Mark Spitz, who set seven World Records to win a record seven gold medals in one Olympics, bringing his total to nine. Other notable athletes at the 1972 games were sixteen-year-old Olga Korbut, whose success in women's gymnastics earned three gold medals for the Soviet Union, and British athlete Mary Peters, who took home the gold in the women's pentathlon.

The 1976 Summer games in Montreal marked the first time the Olympic games were held in Canada. Mindful of the tragedy during the 1972 games, security was high during the Montreal games. Due to its policy on apartheid, South Africa was banned from the games. Even so, twenty-two other African countries sat out to protest South Africa's treatment of blacks, mainly because New Zealand was allowed to compete, despite their rugby team touring South Africa earlier in the year.

The 1976 Summer Olympics were highlighted by the legendary performance of Romanian female gymnast Nadia Comăneci. The 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci of Romania scored seven perfect 10s and won 3 gold medals, including the prestigious All Around in women's gymnastics. The performance by Comaneci also marked the rise of legendary women's gymnastics coach Béla Károlyi, who went on to coach the U.S. team in both the 1988 and 1992 summer Olympic games. The 1976 Summer games also featured the strong U.S. boxing team, which consisted of Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, Leo Randolph and Howard Davis Jr. The team won five gold medals and was arguably the greatest Olympic boxing team ever. In wrestling, Dan Gable won the gold medal in the 149-pound weight class without having a single point scored against him. Amazingly, this was done with a painful shoulder injury.

The 1970s marked a boom in thet popularity of distance running, especially in the United States. Frank Shorter won the marathon at the 1972 games and his runaway performance inspired average people to get out and run. Road running boomed and new courses like the New York City marathon came into existence. The decade also marked a resurgence of Finnish power in the distance running world. Finnish athletes Pekka Vasala (1500m) and Lasse Virén (5000 m, 10000 m) swept the men's distance races on the track at the 1972 Olympic games, the first time one country had done this since Finland in 1928. Viren repeated his double at the 1976 games.

The Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo, Japan, in 1972 and Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976. Originally, Denver, Colorado, was supposed to host the '76 games, but voters rejected a plan to finance the venues needed and the IOC chose Innsbruck instead; the city had already had venues from hosting the 1964 Winter Olympics.

By year

*1979 in sports – Sugar Ray Leonard wins his first world boxing title
*1978 in sports – First Ironman Triathlon. Johan Cruyff pulls out of the World Cup for political reasons. Affirmed becomes the last thoroughbred to date to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
*1977 in sports – Pelé plays the last game of his professional career in a friendly between the New York Cosmos and Santos FC
*1976 in sports – Nadia Comăneci earns the first perfect score in the history of Olympic gymnastics
*1975 in sports – First Cricket World Cup
*1974 in sports – "The Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match; Gerd "der Bomber" Müller scores his 14th World Cup goal, a then record, as West Germany win the World Cup; Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's career home run record
*1973 in sports – Ajax win third consecutive European Cup; Secretariat wins the Triple Crown of United States Thoroughbred Racing
*1972 in sports – USSR beat USA in last second of the Olympic basketball final; Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the same Olympics; Canada defeats U.S.S.R. in Summit Series - Paul Henderson scores winning goal.
*1971 in sports – Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Championship; Second Ibrox disaster. 1971 Springbok tour causes protest all over Australia; British and Irish Lions defeat All Blacks for the first time in a series.
*1970 in sports – Nijinsky II becomes the last horse to date to win the Triple Crown of British Thoroughbred Racing. The Marshall University football team is killed in a plane crash. The National and American Football Leagues merge to become one 26-team mega-league.