1949 in sports

1949 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

American football

 * Cleveland Browns 21–7 San Francisco 49ers for the All-America Football Conference championship. After the 1949 season, the Browns, 49ers and original Baltimore Colts all joined the NFL for the 1950 season.
 * Philadelphia Eagles 14–0 Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship.
 * The decades–long "color barrier" in athletics for the Big Seven Conference is broken by Harold Robinson, playing football for Kansas State. Robinson would go on to be named All–Conference in 1950.

Association football
England Italy
 * First Division – Portsmouth win the 1948–49 title.
 * FA Cup – Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Leicester City 3-1.
 * Superga air disaster – a plane carrying the Torino team crashes into a mountain on May 4, killing everyone on board. Of the entire squad, only one player (who didn't fly, due to injury) survived, as well as potential signing Ladislao Kubala, who was due to fly but did not, due to his son's ill health.

On 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park, Liverpool, the home of Everton, England were defeated 2-0 by Ireland in a friendly international.

Australian rules football

 * Victorian Football League
 * Essendon wins the 53rd VFL Premiership (Essendon 18.17 (125) d Carlton 6.16 (52))
 * Brownlow Medal awarded to Ron Clegg (South Melbourne) and Col Austen (Hawthorn)

Baseball

 * January 28 – The New York Giants sign their first black players: Negro Leaguers outfielder Monte Irvin and pitcher Ford Smith. Both men are assigned to Jersey City. Irvin will star for the Giants, but Smith will not reach the major leagues.
 * May 5 – Hall of Fame election. After a runoff election was necessary, Charlie Gehringer is selected for induction; on May 9, the Old-Timers Committee elects Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown and Kid Nichols as its first selections in 3 years.
 * June 5 – MLB Commissioner Happy Chandler lifts the ban on all players who jumped to the Mexican League, starting in 1946.
 * June 15 – Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus is shot in Chicago by deranged fan Ruth Ann Steinhagen.

Basketball
BAA Finals


 * Minneapolis Lakers win four games to two over the Washington Capitols

NBL Championship


 * Anderson Packers win three games to none over the Oshkosh All-Stars

Events
 * On August 3rd, the NBL merges with the BAA, forming the National Basketball Association.
 * The sixth European basketball championship, Eurobasket 1949, is won by Egypt.
 * The fourteenth South American Basketball Championship in Asunción is won by Uruguay.

Boxing

 * October 27 – death of Marcel Cerdan (33), Algerian–born French world middleweight champion, in an air crash

Figure skating

 * World Figure Skating Championships –
 * Men's champion: Dick Button, United States
 * Ladies' champion: Aja Zanova, Czechoslovakia
 * Pair skating champion: Andrea Kékesy & Ede Király, Hungary

Golf
Men's professional Men's amateur Women's professional
 * Masters Tournament – Sam Snead
 * PGA Championship – Sam Snead
 * U.S. Open – Cary Middlecoff
 * British Open – Bobby Locke
 * British Amateur – Samuel McCready
 * U.S. Amateur – Charles Coe
 * Women's Western Open – Louise Suggs
 * U.S. Women's Open – Louise Suggs
 * Titleholders Championship – Peggy Kirk

Horse racing
Steeplechases Flat races
 * Cheltenham Gold Cup –
 * Grand National –
 * Australia – Melbourne Cup won by
 * Canada – Queen's Plate won by
 * France – Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe won by Coronation
 * Ireland – Irish Derby Stakes won by
 * English Triple Crown Races:
 * 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Nimbus
 * Epsom Derby – Nimbus
 * St. Leger Stakes – Ridge Wood
 * United States Triple Crown Races:
 * Kentucky Derby – Ponder
 * Preakness Stakes –
 * Belmont Stakes –

Ice hockey
Sweden United States
 * Canada defeats Denmark 47-0 at the 1949 World Hockey Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.
 * NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship – Boston College Eagles defeat Dartmouth College Big Green 4-3 in Colorado Springs, CO

Motor racing

 * The first 24 hours of Le Mans is held since the beginning of World War II. Luigi Chinetti and Lord Seldson win the race in a Ferrari 166M.
 * 30 May – Bill Holland wins the 33nd running of the Indianapolis 500 in the Blue Crown Spark Plug Special Deidt-Offenhauser
 * The inaugural NASCAR Strictly Stock season takes place. Robert "Red" Byron, driving the #22 Oldsmobile for Raymond Parks, is the series' first champion.

Rowing
The Boat Race
 * 26 March — Cambridge wins the 95th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race

Rugby league
Australia
 * 1949 NSWRFL season

England
 * 1948–49 Northern Rugby Football League season/1949–50 Northern Rugby Football League season

Rugby union
Five Nations Championship
 * 55th Five Nations Championship series is won by Ireland
 * 3 September – "blackest day" in All Blacks history as two Test matches are lost on the same day: 6–11 at home to the Wallabies; and 3–9 on tour to South Africa.

Snooker

 * World Snooker Championship – Fred Davis beats Walter Donaldson 80–65.

Speed skating
Speed Skating World Championships
 * Men's All-round Champion – Kornél Pajor (Hungary)
 * Women's All-round Champion – Maria Isakova (USSR)

Tennis
Australia England France USA Davis Cup
 * Australian Men's Singles Championship – Frank Sedgman (Australia) defeats John Bromwich (Australia) 6–3, 6–2, 6–2
 * Australian Women's Singles Championship – Doris Hart (USA) defeats Nancye Wynne Bolton (Australia) 6–3, 6–4
 * Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship – Ted Schroeder (USA) defeats Jaroslav Drobný (Czechoslovakia) 3–6, 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4
 * Wimbledon Women's Singles Championship – Louise Brough Clapp (USA) defeats Margaret Osborne duPont (USA) 10–8, 1–6, 10–8
 * French Men's Singles Championship –
 * French Women's Singles Championship –
 * American Men's Singles Championship –
 * American Women's Singles Championship –
 * 1949 Davis Cup – 4–1  at West Side Tennis Club (grass) New York City, United States

Volleyball

 * Men's World Championship in Prague won by the USSR

Awards

 * Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year – Leon Hart, College football
 * Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year – Marlene Bauer, LPGA golf