The 1920s Sports: Chronology

1920:     February 13 The Negro National League is organized in Kansas City, Missouri.

1920:     May 1 In major league baseball, Leon Cadore of Brooklyn and Joe Oeschger of Boston each pitch twenty-six innings in a 1 to 1 tie.

1920:     July 10 The racehorse Man o' War sets a world record by beating John P. Grier in a match race at Aqueduct.

1920:     August 16 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is hit in the head by New York Yankees' pitcher Carl Mays and dies the following day.

1920:     August 20 The formation of what would become the National Football League (NFL) is set in motion when representatives from several Ohio-based professional football teams meet in Canton, Ohio.

1920:     October 3 The St. Louis Browns' George Sisler sets a major league season record with his 257th hit.

1920:     October 10 Cleveland Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganss makes an unassisted triple play in the World Series.

1921:     January 12 Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is appointed major league baseball's first commissioner.

1921:     August 2 Eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox are acquitted on charges of fixing the World Series. However, Commissioner Landis bans them from baseball for life. The banned players become known as the "Black Sox."

1921:     November 25 The American Olympic Association is created; it is the permanent controlling board for American Olympic teams.

1922:     May The U.S. Supreme Court decrees that baseball is not interstate commerce and thus is exempt from antitrust laws.

1922:     August 26 The U.S. defeats Great Britain and Ireland in the first Walker Cup golf matches.

1923:     April 18 Yankee Stadium opens in New York.

1923:     October 15 The New York Yankees win their first world championship.

1924:      The Boston Bruins become the first U.S. team to join the National Hockey League (NHL).

1924:     January 25–February 4 The first Winter Olympic Games are held in Chamonix, France.

1924:     September 28 The Chicago Cardinals' Paddy Driscoll drop-kicks a 55-yard field goal in professional football.

1924:     October 5 The St. Louis Cardinals' Rogers Hornsby hits .424, the twentieth century's highest major league baseball batting average.

1924:     October 18 Illinois halfback Harold "Red" Grange scores four touchdowns in twelve minutes against the Michigan football team.

1925:     June 1 The Yankees' Lou Gehrig plays the first of his record 2,130 consecutive games.

1925:     November 26 A new Madison Square Garden stadium opens in New York.

1926:     February 16 Suzanne Lenglen defeats Helen Wills in the tennis "Match of the Century."

1926:     April The New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, and Detroit Cougars join the NHL.

1926:     August 6 Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel.

1926:     September 23 Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey to become the heavyweight boxing champion.

1927:     June 5 The U.S. defeats Great Britain in the first Ryder Cup golf competition.

1927:     September 30 Babe Ruth hits his sixtieth home run, breaking the record he set in 1921.

1928:     April 15 The New York Rangers become the first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup championship.

1928:     September 3 Ty Cobb pinch-hits a double in a game against the Washington Senators. It is the last of his 4,189 major league hits.

1928:     December 11 National League President John Heydler suggests the use of a designated hitter for pitchers.

1929:     January 1 Roy Riegels runs 63 yards to the wrong goalpost and sets up a score for Georgia Tech, who beat Riegels' team, the University of California, Berkeley, 8 to 7 in the Rose Bowl game.

1929:     July 5 The New York Giants become the first baseball team to employ a public address system in a major league ballpark.

1929:     November 28 Ernie Nevers scores all forty points for the Chicago Cardinals in a 40 to 6 NFL victory over the Chicago Bears.