1906 - Sports

Sports

The International Collegiate Athletic Association founded January 12 at New York shortens football games from 70 minutes to 60 and works to make football safer after a 1905 season that saw 19 American boys killed playing the game and 154 seriously injured (see 1905). Some have been paralyzed from the waist down, but 26 boys will die playing football in 1909 and 246 will sustain major injuries as the sport grows in popularity. The ICAA will be renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1910 (see 1939).

The forward pass is legalized in football (see 1913).

Canadian prizefighter Tommy Burns (Noah Brusso), 25, wins the world heavyweight championship February 23 by defeating Marvin Hart in a 20-round match at Los Angeles.

H. L. Doherty wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, D. K. Douglass in women's singles (she will marry Robert Lambert Chambers next year and play as Mrs. Dorothea Lambert Chambers); William J. Clothier, 24, wins in U.S. men's singles, Helen Homans in women's singles.

The first Newport-Bermuda yacht race takes competitors over a 635-mile course to begin an ocean sailing competition that will continue for more than 90 years.

"Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance" becomes a sportswriter catchphrase to denote efficient teamwork. Chicago Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker, 26, second baseman Johnny Evers, 27, and first baseman Frank Chance, 29, give the club an airtight infield that enables the Cubs to win 116 games, lose only 36, and take the National League pennant, setting a record that will never be broken (the 154-game season will be extended to 160).

The Chicago White Sox win the World Series, defeating the Cubs 4 games to 2.

The world's first ski course is laid out at Zürs by Vorarlberg skier Viktor Sohm, whose pupils include Hannes Schneider, 16 (see 1907).