Surf Wiki
Save to docs
sports

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1981 in sports

none

none

1981 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

[[Alpine skiing]]

  • Alpine Skiing World Cup –
    • Men's overall season champion: Phil Mahre, USA
    • Women's overall season champion: Marie-Theres Nadig, Switzerland

[[American football]]

  • January 25 – Super Bowl XV: the Oakland Raiders (AFC) won 27−10 over the Philadelphia Eagles (NFC)
    • Location: Superdome
    • Attendance: 76,135
    • MVP: Jim Plunkett, QB (Oakland)
  • Sugar Bowl (1980 season):
    • The Georgia Bulldogs won 17-10 over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win the college football national championship
  • October 11 - LeRoy Irvin sets NFL record for most punt return yards in a game (207).

[[Artistic gymnastics]]

  • World Artistic Gymnastics Championships –
    • Men's all-around champion: Yuri Korolev, USSR
    • Women's all-around champion: Olga Bicherova, USSR
    • Men's team competition champion: USSR
    • Women's team competition champion: USSR

[[Association football]]

  • UEFA Champions League – Liverpool FC 1-0 Real Madrid
  • UEFA Cup – two leg final: 1st leg Ipswich Town F.C. 3-0 AZ '67 (Alkmaar); 2nd leg AZ '67 4-2 Ipswich Town. Ipswich Town win 5-4 on aggregate
  • Cup Winners' Cup – Dynamo Tbilisi 2-1 Carl Zeiss Jena
  • Copa Libertadores de América – Flamengo 2-0 Cobreloa
  • World Club Championship – Flamengo 3-0 Liverpool FC
  • Aston Villa win English League Championship
  • FA Cup – Tottenham Hotspur win 3-2 over Manchester City

[[Australian rules football]]

  • Victorian Football League
    • May 23 – A protest by Richmond against the eligibility of defender Doug Cox to play for St. Kilda led to the Saints temporarily losing the points for their first two wins. They were reinstated later due to changes in the relevant rules, but a fine of $5000 remained.
    • June 6 – ’s Kevin Bartlett became the first to play 350 VFL games.
    • Carlton win the 85th VFL Premiership, beating Collingwood 12.20 (92) to 10.12 (72)
    • Brownlow Medal awarded to Barry Round (South Melbourne) and Bernie Quinlan (Fitzroy)
    • At the end of the season, South Melbourne relocate to Sydney and are renamed the Sydney Swans.

[[Baseball]]

Main article: 1981 in baseball

  • For a Venezuelans baseball player's strike the Caribbean World Series of this year is cancelled.
  • January 15 - In his first year of eligibility, former Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson is the only player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Gibson won 20 games five times, struck out 3,117 batters, and captured the Cy Young Award and MVP in 1968 with a 1.12 ERA. Players falling short of the 301 votes needed for election include Don Drysdale (243), Gil Hodges (241), Harmon Killebrew (239), Hoyt Wilhelm (238), and Juan Marichal (233). All except Hodges would subsequently gain election.
  • April 18 - An International League game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the visiting Rochester Red Wings set the record for the most innings ever played in a single professional baseball game, at 33 innings (24 extra innings). The game was suspended after 32 innings on the morning of April 19, and was concluded on June 23 with a 3-2 Pawtucket victory.
  • June 12 - Major League Baseball players begin a 49-day strike over the issue of free-agent compensation.
  • World Series – Los Angeles Dodgers win 4 games to 2 over the New York Yankees. The Series MVP is a tie between Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager, Los Angeles

[[Basketball]]

[[Boxing]]

  • April 11 – Larry Holmes defeats Trevor Berbick by a unanimous decision to retain the WBC heavyweight title.
  • August 21 – Salvador Sánchez defeats Wilfredo Gómez by knockout in round eight to retain boxing's WBC world Featherweight title.(see: The Battle of the Little Giants)
  • September 16 – Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Thomas Hearns by knockout in round 14 to unify boxing's world Welterweight title.
  • October 3 – Mike Weaver defeats James (Quick) Tillis by a unanimous decision to retain the WBA heavyweight title. Marvin Hagler defeats Mustafa Hamsho by eleventh-round technical knockout to retain his undisputed world Middleweight title as Weaver-Tillis' show's main event.

[[Canadian football]]

  • Grey Cup – Edmonton Eskimos win 26–23 over the Ottawa Rough Riders
  • Vanier Cup – Acadia Axemen win 18–12 over the Alberta Golden Bears

[[Cycle sport|Cycling]]

[[Dogsled racing]]

  • Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Champion –
    • Rick Swenson won with lead dogs: Andy & Slick

[[Field hockey]]

[[Figure skating]]

  • World Figure Skating Championship –
    • Men's champion: Scott Hamilton, United States
    • Ladies' champion: Denise Biellmann, Switzerland
    • Pair skating champions: Irina Vorobeva & Igor Lisovski, Soviet Union
    • Ice dancing champions: Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean, Great Britain

[[Gaelic Athletic Association]]

[[Golf]]

Men's professional

[[Harness racing]]

  • United States Pacing Triple Crown races –
    1. Cane Pace - Wildwood Jeb
    2. Little Brown Jug - Fan Hanover (Filly)
    3. Messenger Stakes - Seahawk Hanover
  • United States Trotting Triple Crown races –
    1. Hambletonian - Shiaway St. Pat
    2. Yonkers Trot - Mo Bandy
    3. Kentucky Futurity - Filet of Sole
  • Australian Inter Dominion Harness Racing Championship –
    • Pacers: San Simeon

[[Horse racing]]

  • August 30 – John Henry becomes the first horse to win a million dollar race, the inaugural Arlington Million, at Arlington Park in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois.
  • November – inaugural running of the Japan Cup, the most prestigious horse race in Japan, at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu, Tokyo. Its distance is about 1½ miles on turf and it is the world's richest turf race. Steeplechases
  • Cheltenham Gold Cup – Little Owl
  • Grand National – Aldaniti Flat races
  • Australia – Melbourne Cup won by Just A Dash
  • Canada – Queen's Plate won by Fiddle Dancer Boy
  • France – 1981 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe won by Gold River
  • Ireland – Irish Derby Stakes won by Shergar
  • Japan – Japan Cup won by Mairzy Doates
  • English Triple Crown Races:
    1. 2,000 Guineas Stakes – To-Agori-Mou
    2. The Derby – Shergar
    3. St. Leger Stakes – Cut Above
  • United States Triple Crown Races:
    1. Kentucky Derby – Pleasant Colony
    2. Preakness Stakes – Pleasant Colony
    3. Belmont Stakes – Summing Quarter Horse Racing
  • Triple Crown of Quarter Horse Racing
  • Special Effort

[[Ice hockey]]

[[Motorsport]]

Main article: 1981 in motorsport, List of 1981 motorsport champions

[[Rugby league]]

[[Rugby union]]

[[Snooker]]

  • World Snooker Championship – Steve Davis beats Doug Mountjoy 18-12
  • World rankings – Cliff Thorburn becomes world number one for 1981/82

[[swimming (sport)|Swimming]]

  • August 15 – USA's Robin Leamy of UCLA sets a world record time of 22.54 in the 50m freestyle (long course) at Brown Deer, Wisconsin, shaving 0.17 off the previous record (22.71) set by Joseph Bottom exactly one year ago in Honolulu, Hawaii

[[Tennis]]

[[Volleyball]]

[[Water polo]]

[[Multi-sport event]]s

Awards

  • Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year – John McEnroe, Tennis
  • Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year – Tracy Austin, Tennis
  • Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year - Sugar Ray Leonard, Boxing

References

References

  1. "Epsom Derby {{!}} History, Winners, & Facts {{!}} Britannica".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1981-in-sports sports-by-year
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1981 in sports — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report