50 Fun Facts About 1940s Sports

Which Brooklyn Dodgers rookie broke Major League Baseball's color line when he started at first base in April 1947?

Jackie Robinson won the first Rookie of the Year award that season, and in 1997 his number 42 was retired by every team in the majors.

Which center fielder set a major league record in 1941 by getting a hit in 56 consecutive games?

Joe DiMaggio's streak was finally snapped on July 17, thanks in part to two backhand stops by Indians third baseman Ken Keltner.

Which Cubs owner founded a professional baseball league for women in 1943, while many male players were at war?

Philip Wrigley, the chewing gum mogul, started the league to keep interest in baseball alive during the war, and it later inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own.

Which animal did tavern owner William Sianis bring to the 1945 World Series, inspiring a famous Cubs curse?

A goat named Murphy was the pet Sianis took to the ballpark, and after the pair were asked to leave he is said to have declared that the team would not win again.

Which heavyweight champion made a record 25 straight title defenses and held the crown from 1937 until retiring in 1949?

Joe Louis defended his title so often, and won so convincingly, that his challengers were given the collective nickname the Bum of the Month Club.

Which city was first chosen to host the 1940 Summer Olympics, which later moved to Helsinki before being cancelled?

Tokyo lost the Games after war with China broke out in 1937, and the city had to wait until 1964 to stage a Summer Olympics.

Which city staged the 1948 Summer Olympics, nicknamed the Austerity Games because wartime rationing was still in force?

London built no new venues for the Games, and athletes were housed in existing accommodation instead of an Olympic Village.

Which golfer survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus in 1949 and won the US Open just 16 months later?

Ben Hogan's doctors were skeptical that he would ever walk independently again, so his 1950 comeback victory became known as the Miracle at Merion.

In which US state did rink owner Frank Zamboni invent the first ice-resurfacing machine in 1949?

California was home to the Iceland rink that Zamboni built in Paramount, where smoothing the ice had taken three or four workers with scrapers and squeegees.

Which racing body did Bill France found in 1948 after a series of meetings at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach?

NASCAR was formed on February 21, 1948, after talks that France began with other racers and promoters in the hotel's Ebony Bar the previous December.

Which Boston Red Sox outfielder batted .406 in 1941 after refusing to sit out the final day to protect his average?

Ted Williams was hitting .39955, which would have rounded up to .400, but he played both games of a doubleheader and went 6-for-8.

Which Negro leagues legend made his major league debut for Cleveland in 1948 at the age of 42?

Satchel Paige was the oldest man ever to debut in the American or National League, and that fall he became the first Negro leagues veteran to pitch in a World Series.

Which outfielder became the American League's first Black player when Bill Veeck signed him for Cleveland in July 1947?

Larry Doby was batting .415 for his Negro leagues club in Newark when Veeck bought his contract for a total of $15,000.

Which Cleveland Indians ace volunteered for the US Navy two days after Pearl Harbor and served aboard the USS Alabama?

Bob Feller lost nearly four seasons to the war and served as a gun captain, keeping his pitching arm in shape by throwing near a gun turret.

Which Tigers slugger came back from 47 months of military service to hit a pennant-clinching grand slam in 1945?

Hank Greenberg served longer than any other major league player, then hit his ninth-inning homer on the final day of the season.

Which Cardinals star, nicknamed "The Man", won his third National League MVP award in 1948?

Stan Musial picked up his nickname during the 1946 season, and in 1948 he finished just one home run short of baseball's Triple Crown.

Which outfielder reached the major leagues in 1945 despite having lost his right arm in a childhood accident?

Pete Gray caught the ball, slipped off his glove and threw with the same hand in one motion, and he had been his minor league's Most Valuable Player in 1944.

In which state has the Little League World Series been played since the first tournament was held in 1947?

Pennsylvania's tournament began as a mostly American affair, and a team from Monterrey, Mexico, became the first champion from outside the United States in 1957.

Which team beat Washington 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game, the most one-sided result in league history?

Chicago Bears players kicked so many footballs into the stands after touchdowns that officials asked the team to run or pass for its last two extra points.

Wartime player shortages forced the Pittsburgh Steelers to merge for the 1943 NFL season with which other team?

Philadelphia Eagles and Steelers players formed a combined team nicknamed the Steagles, many of them men the military had judged unfit to serve.

Which college team starred Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, the Heisman winners called Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside?

Army compiled an undefeated 27–0–1 record in the three seasons the pair played together, the lone blemish a famous 0–0 tie with Notre Dame in 1946.

Which university hosted the 1942 Rose Bowl in its own stadium after Pearl Harbor made a West Coast game too risky?

Duke invited the game to Durham, North Carolina, then lost it 20–16 to Oregon State; no other Rose Bowl left Pasadena until 2021.

Which Washington quarterback led the NFL in passing, punting and interceptions all in 1943?

Sammy Baugh doubled as a safety, and that year he became the first player in league history to intercept four passes in a single game.

Which quarterback led the Cleveland Browns to the title in all four seasons of the All-America Football Conference?

Otto Graham also won a professional basketball championship in 1946, which made him a champion in two major sports in the same year.

In which city were the Lakers based when they won the 1949 BAA championship, long before the move to Los Angeles?

Minneapolis gave the team its name, which was chosen in 1947 because of Minnesota's thousands of lakes.

Which bespectacled DePaul center was so dominant in the late 1940s that pro basketball later widened the foul lane?

George Mikan also prompted the goaltending rule and the shot clock, and the wider lane became known simply as the Mikan Rule.

Which city's Huskies hosted the first game of the league that became the NBA, losing to New York in November 1946?

Toronto drew an opening night crowd of 7,090 for the 68–66 defeat, but the Huskies disbanded after that single season.

Which touring team made headlines in 1948 by beating the Lakers, one of America's best white basketball teams?

Harlem Globetrotters players won 61–59 with a basket at the buzzer, a result that challenged racial stereotypes about the abilities of Black athletes.

Which university's "Fabulous Five", led by Ralph Beard and Alex Groza, won the 1948 NCAA basketball tournament?

Kentucky's five starters then played as a unit at that summer's Olympics and came home with gold medals.

Which middleweight, later played by Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, took the world title from Marcel Cerdan in 1949?

Jake LaMotta was nicknamed the Bronx Bull for his constant stalking and brawling, and he won when the champion could not answer the bell for the tenth round.

Which country did Fanny Blankers-Koen, the "Flying Housewife", represent when she won four golds at the 1948 Olympics?

The Netherlands sprinter competed as a 30-year-old mother of two, and she was the most successful athlete at those Games.

In which event did 17-year-old American Bob Mathias win Olympic gold in 1948, only months after first trying it?

Decathlon was new to Mathias, who took it up early that year at his high school track coach's suggestion and went on to defend the title in 1952.

In which event did Alice Coachman become the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, at the 1948 Games?

High jump gold made Coachman the only American woman to win an athletics title at those Games, and King George VI presented her medal.

Which country hosted the 1948 Winter Olympics, the first Games held after the Second World War, at St. Moritz?

Switzerland was chosen as a neutral country to avoid political posturing by former combatants, and the event was named the Games of Renewal.

In which sport did American Dick Button and Canadian Barbara Ann Scott both win gold at the 1948 Winter Olympics?

Figure skating history was made that year when Button became the first skater to land a double Axel jump in competition.

Which distance runner won the 10,000 metres at the 1948 Olympics, four years before taking three golds in Helsinki?

Emil Zátopek only just missed a double in 1948, finishing second in the 5,000 metres, which was run in a driving rainstorm.

Which middleweight champion from Gary, Indiana, fought three title bouts with Rocky Graziano in just 21 months?

Tony Zale was nicknamed the Man of Steel for his steel-town roots and his ability to take fearsome punishment, and two of the three fights were named Fight of the Year.

Which golfer won 11 tournaments in a row, and 18 in total, during his record-breaking 1945 season?

Byron Nelson won 18 of the 30 tournaments he played that year, and the Texas street he lived on was later renamed Eleven Straight Lane.

Which former Olympic track champion became the first American to win the British Ladies Amateur golf title, in 1947?

Babe Zaharias had won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Olympics before she turned to golf.

Which item of clothing was first awarded to a Masters champion in 1949, when Sam Snead won at Augusta?

A green jacket was also given retroactively to the champions of earlier years, and each winner must return his to the clubhouse a year after his victory.

Which tennis tournament was not held from 1940 to 1945, when bomb damage destroyed 1,200 seats at its main court?

Wimbledon's Centre Court was hit in an air attack in October 1940, and although play resumed on time in 1946 the court was not fully repaired until 1949.

Which Montreal Canadiens star, known as "The Rocket", scored 50 goals in 50 games in the 1944–45 NHL season?

Maurice Richard got the name after a teammate remarked that he went in on goal like a rocket, and nobody matched his 50-in-50 feat for 36 years.

Which team lost the 1942 Stanley Cup Final in seven games after winning the first three against the Maple Leafs?

Detroit Red Wings players were on the wrong end of a first in North American sports: no team had ever overcome a 3–0 deficit to win a playoff series.

Which Calumet Farm colt became the eighth winner of the Triple Crown in 1948, taking the Belmont by 8 lengths?

Citation won 16 consecutive stakes races and later became the first horse in history to win a million dollars.

Which racehorse came back from a ruptured ligament to win the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap, a prize that had eluded him?

Seabiscuit won by a length and a half under jockey Red Pollard, who was coming back from a broken leg of his own, and the horse's retirement was announced that April.

Which American motor race was not held from 1942 to 1945, after which Tony Hulman bought its track?

The Indianapolis 500 had also been paused during the First World War, and Hulman's family went on to own the Speedway for three generations.

Where did Ottorino Barassi hide soccer's World Cup trophy from the Nazis during the Second World War?

A shoebox under his bed kept the trophy safe after Barassi, an Italian FIFA official, secretly removed it from a bank in Rome; no World Cup was played in 1942 or 1946.

Which Italian soccer club lost its whole active squad in the Superga air disaster of May 1949?

Torino's players, popularly known as the Grande Torino, were almost all members of Italy's national team as well; their plane struck the wall behind a hilltop basilica.

Which Italian cyclist became the first rider to win the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the same year, in 1949?

Fausto Coppi repeated the double in 1952, even though the war had interrupted his career and left him a prisoner of war in North Africa.

Which Australian batsman was bowled for a duck in his final Test innings in 1948, leaving his average at 99.94?

Don Bradman needed just four runs for a career average of 100, but he was deceived by a googly from Eric Hollies on the second ball he faced.