The 1950s Sports: Chronology

1950:     January 19–22 The Ladies' Professional Golf Association (LPGA) holds its inaugural tournament.

1950:     April–May The American Bowling Congress (ABC) ends its white-male-only policy.

1950:     August 8 Florence Chadwick swims the English Channel in thirteen hours and twenty minutes, a women's record.

1950:     August 29 Althea Gibson becomes the first black woman to compete in a national tennis tournament.

1951:     February 14 Sugar Ray Robinson takes the middleweight boxing championship from Jake LaMotta.

1951:     March 2 The National Basketball Association (NBA) holds its first All-Star game.

1951:     April 18 New York Yankees rookie Mickey Mantle makes his major league debut.

1951:     May 25 New York Giants rookie Willie Mays makes his major league debut.

1951:     October 3 Bobby Thomson hits the "Shot Heard 'Round the World," catapulting the New York Giants into the World Series.

1951:     October 10 Joe DiMaggio plays his final game for the New York Yankees.

1952:     April 30 Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox homers in his final at-bat before heading off to serve in the Marines as a fighter pilot in the Korean War.

1952:     September 23 Rocky Marciano beats Jersey Joe Walcott for the heavyweight championship.

1953:     February 15 Tenley Albright becomes the first American to win the world figure skating title.

1953:     March 18 In the first franchise shift in major league baseball since 1903, the Boston Braves move to Milwaukee.

1953:     July 10 Ben Hogan takes the British Open, after already having won the Masters and the U.S. Open, making him the first golfer ever to win all three major championships in the same year.

1953:     October 5 The New York Yankees become the first team ever to win five consecutive World Series.

1953:     November 9 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds its 1922 ruling that exempts Major League Baseball from antitrust laws.

1954:     April 23 Milwaukee Braves rookie Henry "Hank" Aaron hits the first of his 755 major league home runs.

1954:     August 16 The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine hits the newsstands.

1954:     September 29 Willie Mays's over-the-shoulder catch leads the New York Giants to victory against the Cleveland Indians in the first game of the World Series.

1954:     October The NBA introduces the twenty-four-second shot clock.

1955:     May 30 Bill Vukovich, winner of the previous two Indianapolis 500s, dies in a crash in this year's race.

1955:     October 4 The Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series. It is the franchise's lone championship while in Brooklyn.

1956:     June 29 Charles Dumas becomes the first person to high-jump more than seven feet.

1956:     October 8 New York Yankee Don Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series.

1956:     December 13 Jackie Robinson is traded from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the New York Giants. He chooses to retire instead.

1957:     February 25 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the National Football League (NFL) is not similar to Major League Baseball, and must comply with antitrust laws.

1957:     May 4 Iron Liege wins the Kentucky Derby when jockey Willie Shoemaker, riding Gallant Man, misjudges the finish line.

1957:     September 24 The Brooklyn Dodgers play their final game at Ebbets Field. The following season they relocate to Los Angeles and the New York Giants move to San Francisco.

1957:     November 16 In college football, Notre Dame ends Oklahoma's forty-seven-game winning streak with a 7–0 victory.

1958:     January 12 College football adopts the two-point conversion option following a touchdown.

1958:     January 29 Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella is paralyzed in an auto accident.

1958:     December 28 In one of the most significant games in NFL history, the Baltimore Colts stun the New York Giants, 23–17, in overtime, and win the league championship.

1959:     May 26 Pittsburgh Pirates hurler Harvey Haddix pitches a perfect game for twelve innings but loses in the thirteenth.