1936 in sports

1936 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Alpine skiing

FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 6th FIS Alpine World Ski Championships are held at Innsbruck, Austria. The events are a downhill, a slalom and a combined race in both the men's and women's categories. The winners are:

Men's Downhill – Rudolf Rominger (Switzerland)
Men's Slalom – Rudolph Matt (Austria)
Men's Combined – Rudolf Rominger (Switzerland)
Women's Downhill – Evelyn Pinching (Great Britain)
Women's Slalom – Gerda Paumgarten (Austria)
Women's Combined – Evelyn Pinching (Great Britain)

American football

NFL Championship: the Green Bay Packers won 21–6 over the Boston Redskins. The game was moved from Boston to New York's Polo Grounds due to fan apathy.
Rose Bowl (1935 season):
- The SMU Mustangs lose 7–0 to the Stanford Indians; share national championship
Minnesota Golden Gophers – college football national championship; first season in which a national champion was declared by the AP Poll.
First NFL draft held
Second American Football League (AFL) founded
Cleveland Rams founded by Homer Marsh as part of AFL

Association football

England

First Division – Sunderland win the 1935–36 title.
FA Cup – Arsenal beat Sheffield United 1–0, thanks to a Ted Drake goal.

Spain

La Liga won by Athletic Bilbao

Germany

German football championship won by Nürnberg

Italy

Serie A won by Bologna

Portugal

Primeira Liga won by S.L. Benfica

France

French Division 1 won by RC Paris

Ukraine

FC Shakhtar Donetsk was founded in May (Former part of Soviet Union)^[1]

Australian rules football

Victorian Football League
- Collingwood wins the 40th VFL Premiership, beating South Melbourne 11.23 (89) to 10.18 (78) in the 1936 VFL Grand Final.
- Brownlow Medal awarded to Dinny Ryan (Fitzroy)
South Australian National Football League
- 1 August: Glenelg 14.9 (93) defeat South Adelaide 9.32 (86) despite having 23 scoring shots against South's 41. The eighteen-shot deficit is the greatest deficit in scoring shots by a winning team in a major Australian Rules league.^[2]
- 3 October: Port Adelaide 13.19 (97) defeat Sturt 14.10 (94) for their first premiership since 1929 and their eleventh overall. It is the only SANFL Grand Final where the winning team scored fewer goals than the losing team.
- Magarey Medal won by Bill McCallum (Norwood)
Western Australian National Football League
- 10 October: East Perth 11.5 (71) defeat Claremont 9.6 (60) to win their eighth WANFL premiership.
- Sandover Medal won by George Moloney (Claremont)

Baseball

Japanese Baseball League, as predecessor for Japan Central League and Pacific League of Japan, a first officially game held on February 9.^{[citation needed]}
Plans are announced for a Baseball Hall of Fame to be established in 1939, the game's supposed centennial, in Cooperstown, New York. In the first elections to select 15 initial inductees (5 from the 19th century and 10 from the 20th), Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson are selected from the 20th century; the election for 19th century players is plagued by problems and results in no selections. See: Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1936
World Series – New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants, 4–2.
Nagoya Baseball Club, as predecessor for Chunichi Dragons, officially founded in Japan on January 15.^[3]

Basketball

August 14 – 1936 Summer Olympics: The United States men's national basketball team wins the first Olympic basketball tournament in the final game over Canada, 19–8.^{[citation needed]}
The first season for Argentine Basketball Club Championship League was held, Huracan de Rosario has first season's champion.^{[citation needed]}

Boxing

Events

19 June – in one of boxing's biggest-ever upsets, Max Schmeling knocks out Joe Louis at 2:29 of round 12 at New York's Yankee Stadium

Lineal world champions^[4]

World Heavyweight Championship – James J. Braddock
World Light Heavyweight Championship – John Henry Lewis
World Middleweight Championship – vacant
World Welterweight Championship – Barney Ross
World Lightweight Championship – Tony Canzoneri → Lou Ambers
World Featherweight Championship – vacant
World Bantamweight Championship – Sixto Escobar → Tony Marino → Sixto Escobar
World Flyweight Championship – vacant → Benny Lynch

Cricket

Events

Australia tours South Africa, winning the five-test series three tests to nil.

England

County Championship – Derbyshire
Minor Counties Championship – Hertfordshire
Most runs – Patsy Hendren 2,654 @ 47.39 (HS 202)
Most wickets – Hedley Verity 216 @ 13.18 (BB 9–12)
India play a three-Test series of England, losing two and drawing one
Wisden Cricketers of the Year – Charlie Barnett, Bill Copson, Alf Gover, Vijay Merchant, Stan Worthington

Australia

Sheffield Shield – South Australia
Most runs – Don Bradman 1,173 @ 130.33 (HS 369)
Most wickets – Frank Ward 50 @ 20.94 (BB 6–47)

India

Ranji Trophy – Bombay beat Madras by 190 runs
Bombay Quadrangular – Hindus

New Zealand

Plunket Shield – Wellington

South Africa

Currie Cup – Western Province

West Indies

Inter-Colonial Tournament – British Guiana

Cycling

Tour de France

Sylvère Maes wins the 30th Tour de France^[5]

Giro d'Italia

Gino Bartali of Legnano wins the 24th Giro d'Italia

Field Hockey

Olympic Games (Men's Competition) in Berlin won by India

Figure skating

World Figure Skating Championships:
- Men's singles: Karl Schäfer
- Ladies' singles: Sonja Henie
- Pairs: Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier
1936 Winter Olympics
- Men's singles: Karl Schäfer
- Ladies' singles: Sonja Henie
- Pairs: Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier

Golf

Men's professional

Men's amateur

British Amateur – Hector Thomson
U.S. Amateur – Johnny Fischer

Women's professional

Women's Western Open – Opal Hill

Horse racing

May 8 – jockey Ralph Neves was involved in a racing accident at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, California and mistakenly pronounced dead. A while later, he woke up in the morgue and promptly returned to the racetrack but was not allowed to compete in any of the remaining races because of his "death".

Steeplechases

Cheltenham Gold Cup – Golden Miller
Grand National – Reynoldstown

Flat races

Australia – Melbourne Cup won by Wotan
Canada – King's Plate won by Monsweep
France – Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe won by Corrida
Ireland – Irish Derby Stakes won by Raeburn
English Triple Crown Races:
1. 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Pay Up
2. The Derby – Mahmoud^[6]
3. St. Leger Stakes – Boswell
United States Triple Crown Races:
1. Kentucky Derby – Bold Venture
2. Preakness Stakes – Bold Venture
3. Belmont Stakes – Granville

Ice hockey

The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup Championship 3 games to 1 over the Toronto Maple Leafs
- Combining this with the Detroit Tigers World Series win and the Detroit Lions NFL Championship, in 1935, Detroit played home to the Championship teams in the MLB, NFL, and NHL in one 12-month period. This feat has yet to be duplicated by any other city.^[7]
The first season of Czechoslovak Extraliga was held, which separated into Czech Extraliga and Tipsport Ice-hockey Liga of Slovakia from this league on 1993.^{[citation needed]}

Motorsport

Olympic Games

The infamous 1936 Summer Olympics take place in Berlin
- Germany wins the most medals (89) and the most gold medals (33)
- Jesse Owens wins four athletics gold medals
- The first torch relay takes place from Olympia, Greece
1936 Winter Olympics takes place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- Norway wins the most medals (15) and the most gold medals (7)