1948 - Sports

Sports

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is created with 17 professional teams by a merger of the 2-year-old Basketball Association of America with the National Basketball League.

Robert Falkenburg, 22, (U.S.) wins in men's singles at Wimbledon, Louise Brough in women's singles; Richard A. "Pancho" Gonzalez, 20, wins in men's singles at Forest Hills, Margaret Osborne duPont in women's singles.

Cambridge University cricketer Peter B. H. (Barker Howard) May, 18, begins a 15-year career in which he will score 85 centuries and 27,592 runs, serving as captain of the England team 41 times before ill health and the pressure of his work as a broker at Lloyd's forces him to retire from Test Match play.

The Olympic games are held for the first time since 1936, but German and Japanese athletes are banned. A record 6,005 contestants from 59 nations compete at London, with U.S. athletes taking the lion's share of medals. U.S. athlete Bob Mathias, 17, wins the decathlon. Dutch runner Fanny (Francina) Blankers-Koen, 30, wins the 100-meter in 11.9 seconds, the 200-meter in 24.4 seconds, and the 80-meter hurdles in 11.2 seconds (the mother of two, reporters call her the "flying Dutch housewife"); Albany, Ga.-born athlete Alice Coachman, 26, wins the running high jump (5 feet, 6 1/8 inches)—the first black woman gold medalist. Canadian figure skater Barbara Ann Scott has won her event in the winter Olympics at St. Moritz.

Citation wins U.S. racing's Triple Crown with Eddie Arcaro up. It is Arcaro's second Triple Crown title (see 1941), and he sets a record by earning $645,145 with one horse in a single season; no horse will win the Triple Crown again until 1973.

Former Chicago Cubs player Joe Tinker dies of a respiratory ailment at Orlando, Fla., July 27 on his 68th birthday; baseball legend Babe Ruth of throat cancer at New York August 16 at age 53.

The Cleveland Indians win the World Series, defeating the Boston Braves 4 games to 2 with pitching from Bob Feller and Satchel Paige, now 42 (see 1934).