Editing 1974 in sports

{{Short description|Sports-related events of 1974}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
'''1974 in sports''' describes the year's events in world sport.
{{Year nav sports topic5|1974|sports}}

==[[Alpine skiing]]==
* [[1973–74 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup|Alpine Skiing World Cup]]
** Men's overall season champion: [[Piero Gros]], Italy
** Women's overall season champion: [[Annemarie Pröll]], Austria

==[[American football]]==
* 13 January – [[Super Bowl VIII]]: the [[Miami Dolphins]] (AFC) won 24–7 over the [[Minnesota Vikings]] (NFC)
** Location: [[Rice Stadium (Rice University)|Rice Stadium]]
** Attendance: 71,882
** MVP: [[Larry Csonka]], FB (Miami)
* [[World Bowl (WFL)|World Bowl I]] – [[Birmingham Americans]] won 22–21 over [[Florida Blazers]] (at Birmingham, Alabama)
* [[1974 Sugar Bowl|Sugar Bowl]] (1973 season):
** The game was actually played on 31 December 1973; other major bowl games were played on 1 January 1974
** The [[Notre Dame Fighting Irish]] won 24–23 over the [[Alabama Crimson Tide]] to win [[AP Poll]] [[1973 NCAA Division I football season|national championship]]
* [[1974 NCAA Division I football season]]:
** The [[1974 Oklahoma Sooners football team|Oklahoma Sooners]] win the AP Poll national championship; do not play in any bowl the following January due to sanctions

==[[Artistic gymnastics]]==
* [[1974 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Artistic Gymnastics Championships]] –
** Men's all-around champion: [[Shigeru Kasamatsu]], Japan
** Women's all-around champion: [[Ludmilla Tourischeva]], [[USSR]]
** Men's team competition champion: Japan
** Women's team competition champion: [[USSR]]

==[[Association football]]==
* Brazil – [[CR Vasco da Gama]] wins the [[1974 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A|Campeonato Brasileiro]]
* [[FIFA]] gives to [[Colombia]] the right to host the [[1986 FIFA World Cup]], but Colombian officials decided in late 1982 that they could not afford to host the tournament on the scale FIFA required.
* [[1974 FIFA World Cup|Football World Cup]] – [[German national football team|West Germany]] won 2–1 over the [[Dutch national football team|Netherlands]].
* [[1974 FA Cup Final|England – FA Cup]] – [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] won 3–0 over [[Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United]].
* Ecuador – [[1974 Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol Serie A|Ecuadorian Serie A]] Champions: [[Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito]]

==[[Sport of athletics|Athletics]]==
* January – [[Athletics at the 1974 Commonwealth Games|1974 Commonwealth Games]] held at [[Christchurch]], New Zealand
* September – East German athlete [[Manfred Kuschmann]] wins the [[1974 European Championships in Athletics|1974 European Championships]] in Rome

==[[Australian rules football]]==
* [[Victorian Football League (1897–1989)|Victorian Football League]]
** [[Richmond Football Club|Richmond]] wins the 78th [[1974 VFL season|VFL Premiership]] (Richmond 18.20 (128) d [[North Melbourne Football Club|North Melbourne]] 13.9 (87))
** [[Brownlow Medal]] awarded to [[Keith Greig]] ([[North Melbourne Football Club|North Melbourne]])

==[[Baseball]]==
{{main|1974 in baseball}}
* 16 January – Former [[New York Yankees|Yankees]] teammates [[Mickey Mantle]] and [[Whitey Ford]] are inducted into the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]]. Mantle becomes only the seventh player to make it in his first try. His 536 [[home run]]s with the Yankees ranked second only to [[Babe Ruth]] and he played in more games (2,401) than any other pinstriper, including [[Lou Gehrig]]. Ford was arguably the greatest Yankees [[pitcher]] of all time, retiring with more [[Baseball statistics|win]]s (236), more [[Innings pitched|innings]] (3,171), more [[strikeout]]s (1,956), and more [[shutout]]s (45) than anyone in club history.
* [[Frank Robinson]] becomes the first [[African-American]] manager in [[Major League Baseball]].
* 8 April – [[Hank Aaron]] hit home run# 715 in the fourth inning off [[Los Angeles Dodgers]] pitcher [[Al Downing (baseball)|Al Downing]] breaking [[Babe Ruth]]'s career home run record.
* 4 June –  The [[Cleveland Indians]] hosted "[[Ten Cent Beer Night]]", but had to forfeit the game to the [[Texas Rangers (baseball)|Texas Rangers]] due to drunken and unruly fans.
* [[1974 World Series|World Series]] – [[Oakland Athletics]] win 4 games to 1 over the [[Los Angeles Dodgers]].
* 14 October – [[Shigeo Nagashima]], a well known sports player from Japan, retires from the [[Yomiuri Giants]] of Tokyo, after a 17-year baseball player career.

==[[Basketball]]==
* [[1974 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament|NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship]] –
** [[North Carolina State University|North Carolina State]] wins 76–64 over [[Marquette University|Marquette]]
*** In the semifinals of this tournament, North Carolina State defeated [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] 80–77 in overtime, ending UCLA's record streak of seven national titles. The last previous tournament not won by the Bruins was the [[1966 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament|1966 tournament]].
* [[1974 NBA Finals|NBA Finals]] –
** [[Boston Celtics]] win 4 games to 3 over the [[Milwaukee Bucks]]
* [[1974 ABA Finals]] –
** [[New York Nets]] defeat [[Utah Stars]], 4 games to 1
* [[1974 FIBA World Championship|FIBA World Championship]]
** [[Soviet Union national basketball team|USSR]] World Champion
* 19 January – [[University of Notre Dame|Notre Dame]] defeats UCLA 71–70, ending the Bruins' record 88-game winning streak.

==[[Boxing]]==
* 9 February in [[Paris, France|Paris]] – [[Carlos Monzón]] retains his world Middleweight title by a knockout in round seven over world Welterweight champion [[José Nápoles]].
* 17 to 30 August – '''[[1974 World Amateur Boxing Championships|First World Amateur Boxing Championships]]''' held in [[Havana, Cuba]]
* 30 October in [[Kinshasa]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Zaire]] – [[Muhammad Ali]] regained the World Heavyweight title by knocking out [[George Foreman]] in the eighth round of what was called ''[[The Rumble in the Jungle]]''.

==[[Canadian football]]==
* [[62nd Grey Cup|Grey Cup]] – [[Montreal Alouettes]] won 20–7 over the [[Edmonton Eskimos]]
* [[10th Vanier Cup|Vanier Cup]] – [[Western Ontario Mustangs]] won 19–15 over the [[Toronto Varsity Blues]]

==[[Cycle sport|Cycling]]==
* [[1974 Giro d'Italia|Giro d'Italia]] won by [[Eddy Merckx]] of Belgium
* [[1974 Tour de France|Tour de France]] – [[Eddy Merckx]] of Belgium
* [[1974 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race|UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race]] – [[Eddy Merckx]] of Belgium

==[[Flying disc games|Disc sports]]==
* [[Ken Westerfield]] and Jim Kenner introduce the first [[Flying disc freestyle|disc freestyle]] competition and other disc sports to Canada at the Canadian Open [[Frisbee]] Championships, in Toronto

==[[Dog sledding]]==
* [[Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race|Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Champion]] –
** [[Carl Huntington]] won with lead dog: ''Nugget''

==[[Field hockey]]==
* [[1974 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship|Men's European Nations Cup]] held in Madrid and won by Spain
* [[1974 Women's Hockey World Cup|Women's World Cup]] held in [[Mandelieu]], France, and won by the Netherlands

==[[Figure skating]]==
* [[1974 World Figure Skating Championships|World Figure Skating Championships]] –
** Men's champion: [[Jan Hoffmann]], Germany
** Ladies' champion: [[Christine Errath]], Germany
** Pair skating champions: [[Irina Rodnina]] & [[Alexander Zaitsev (skater)|Alexander Zaitsev]], Soviet Union
** Ice dancing champions: [[Lyudmila Pakhomova]] & [[Aleksandr Gorshkov (figure skater)|Alexandr Gorshkov]], Soviet Union

==[[Golf]]==
'''Men's professional'''
* [[1974 Masters Tournament|Masters Tournament]] – [[Gary Player]]
* [[1974 U.S. Open (golf)|U.S. Open]] – [[Hale Irwin]]
* [[1974 Open Championship|British Open]] – [[Gary Player]]
* [[1974 PGA Championship]] – [[Lee Trevino]]
* [[PGA Tour]] money leader – [[Johnny Miller]] – $353,022
'''Men's amateur'''
* [[The Amateur Championship|British Amateur]] – [[Trevor Homer]]
* [[United States Amateur Championship (men's golf)|U.S. Amateur]] – [[Jerry Pate]]
'''Women's professional'''
* [[1974 LPGA Championship|LPGA Championship]] – [[Sandra Haynie]]
* [[1974 U.S. Women's Open|U.S. Women's Open]] – [[Sandra Haynie]]
* [[LPGA|LPGA Tour]] money leader – [[JoAnne Carner]] – $87,094

==[[Harness racing]]==
* [[Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers|United States Pacing Triple Crown races]] –
*# [[Cane Pace]] – [[Boyden Hanover]]
*# [[Little Brown Jug (horse racing)|Little Brown Jug]] – [[Armbro Omaha]]
*# [[Messenger Stakes]] – [[Armbro Omaha]]
* [[Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Trotters|United States Trotting Triple Crown races]] –
*# [[Hambletonian Stakes|Hambletonian]] – [[Christopher T.]]
*# [[Yonkers Trot]] – Spitfire Hanover
*# [[Kentucky Futurity]] – [[Way Maker]]
* [[Australian Inter Dominion Harness Racing Championship]] –
** Pacers: [[Hondo Grattan]]

==[[Horse racing]]==
'''Steeplechases'''
* [[Cheltenham Gold Cup]] – [[Captain Christy]]
* [[1974 Grand National|Grand National]] – [[Red Rum]]
'''Flat races'''
* Australia – [[Melbourne Cup]] won by [[Think Big (horse)|Think Big]]
* Canada – [[Queen's Plate]] won by [[Amber Herod]]
* France – [[1974 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe|Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe]] won by [[Allez France]]
* Ireland – [[Irish Derby Stakes]] won by [[English Prince]]
* [[Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing|English Triple Crown Races]]:
*# [[2,000 Guineas Stakes]] – [[Nonoalco]]
*# [[Epsom Derby|The Derby]] – [[Snow Knight]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Epsom Derby {{!}} History, Winners, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/sports/Derby-horse-race |website=www.britannica.com |access-date=3 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
*# [[St. Leger Stakes]] – [[Bustino]]
* [[Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing|United States Triple Crown Races]]:
*# [[1974 Kentucky Derby|Kentucky Derby]] – [[Cannonade]]
*# [[1974 Preakness Stakes|Preakness Stakes]] – [[Little Current (horse)|Little Current]]
*# [[Belmont Stakes]] – [[Little Current (horse)|Little Current]]

==[[Ice hockey]]==
* [[Art Ross Trophy]] as the [[National Hockey League|NHL]]'s leading scorer during the regular season: [[Phil Esposito]], [[Boston Bruins]]
* [[Hart Memorial Trophy]] for the [[National Hockey League|NHL]]'s Most Valuable Player: [[Phil Esposito]] – [[Boston Bruins]]
* [[1974 Stanley Cup Finals|Stanley Cup]] – [[Philadelphia Flyers]] win 4 games to 2 over the [[Boston Bruins]]
* [[1974 Ice Hockey World Championships|World Hockey Championship]] –
**Men's champion: Soviet Union defeated [[Czechoslovakia]]
* [[Avco World Trophy]] – [[Houston Aeros (WHA)|Houston Aeros]] win 4 games to 0 over the [[Chicago Cougars]]
* [[1974 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament|NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship]] – [[University of Minnesota-Twin Cities]] Golden Gophers defeat [[Michigan Technological University]] Huskies 4–2 in [[Boston, Massachusetts]]

==[[Lacrosse]]==
* The 2nd [[1974 World Lacrosse Championship|World Lacrosse Championship]] is held in [[Melbourne]], Australia. The United States win, and there is a 3-way tie for the runner-up position.
* The [[National Lacrosse League (1974–75)|National Lacrosse League of 1974 and 1975]] is formed. It is not related to the modern [[National Lacrosse League]].
* The Rochester Griffens defeat the Philadelphia Wings in the six-game [[National Lacrosse League (1974–75)]] championship, 4 to 2 games.
* The New Westminster Salmonbellies win the [[Mann Cup]].
* The Whitby Transporters win the [[Founders Cup]].
* The Peterborough PCO's win the [[Minto Cup]].
* The [[Johns Hopkins University]] Bluejays defeat the [[University of Maryland]] Terrapins 17–12 to win the [[1974 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship|NCAA Division I Men's Championship]].

==[[Motorsport]]==
{{main|1974 in motorsport|List of 1974 motorsport champions}}

==[[Rugby league]]==
*[[1974 Amco Cup]]
*[[Captain Morgan Trophy]]
*[[1974 New Zealand rugby league season]]
*[[1974 NSWRFL season]]
*[[1973–74 Northern Rugby Football League season]] / [[1974–75 Northern Rugby Football League season]]

==[[Rugby union]]==
* 80th [[1974 Five Nations Championship|Five Nations Championship]] series is won by [[Ireland national rugby union team|Ireland]]

==[[Snooker]]==
* [[1974 World Snooker Championship|World Snooker Championship]] – [[Ray Reardon]] beats [[Graham Miles]] 22–12

==[[Tennis]]==
* [[Grand Slam in tennis]] men's results:
*# [[1974 Australian Open – Men's singles|Australian Open]] – [[Jimmy Connors]]
*# [[1974 French Open – Men's singles|French Open]] – [[Björn Borg]]
*# [[1974 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles|Wimbledon championships]] – [[Jimmy Connors]]
*# [[1974 U.S. Open – Men's singles|U.S. Open]] – [[Jimmy Connors]]
* [[Grand Slam in tennis]] women's results:
*# [[1974 Australian Open – Women's singles|Australian Open]] – [[Evonne Goolagong]]
*# [[1974 French Open – Women's singles|French Open]] – [[Chris Evert]]
*# [[1974 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Singles|Wimbledon championships]] – [[Chris Evert]]
*# [[US Open (tennis)|US Open]] – [[Billie Jean King]]
* [[1974 Davis Cup|Davis Cup]] – South Africa wins over India (walkover) in world tennis.
* Last year in which US Open was played on [[grass court]]s

==[[Volleyball]]==
* [[1974 FIVB Men's World Championship]] held in Mexico City and won by Poland

==[[Yacht racing]]==
*The [[New York Yacht Club]] retains the [[America's Cup]] as ''Courageous'' defeats Australian challenger ''Southern Cross'', of the [[Royal Perth Yacht Club]], [[1974 America's Cup|4 races to 0]]; it is Australian businessman [[Alan Bond (businessman)|Alan Bond]]'s first Cup challenge

==Multi-sport events==
* [[1974 Asian Games]] held in [[Teheran, Iran]]
* [[1974 British Commonwealth Games]] held in [[Christchurch]], New Zealand<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Games {{!}} Commonwealth Games Federation |url=https://thecgf.com/games |website=thecgf.com |access-date=4 January 2022 |language=en |archive-date=4 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104004327/https://thecgf.com/games |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[1974 Central American and Caribbean Games|Central American and Caribbean Games]] held in [[Santo Domingo]], [[Dominican Republic]]
* [[International Olympic Committee]] choose Moscow to host the [[1980 Summer Olympics]]

==Awards==
* [[Associated Press Athlete of the Year#List of award winners|Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year]] – [[Muhammad Ali]], [[Boxing]]
* [[Associated Press Athlete of the Year#List of award winners|Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year]] – [[Chris Evert]], [[Tennis]]
* [[Sports Illustrated]] [[Sportsman of the Year]] - Muhammad Ali, Boxing

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Sports by year 1951 – 2000}}

[[Category:1974 in sports| ]]
[[Category:Sports by year]]