1903 in sports

1903 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

American football

College championship

• College football national championship – Princeton Tigers

• Ohio League championship – Massillon Tigers
• "US Pro Football Title" – Franklin Athletic Club
• Western Pennsylvania Championship – Latrobe Athletic Association
• Syracuse Athletic Club
• 1903 World Series of Football champion
  – Franklin Athletic Club

Events

• 1 January – the
  1902–03 World Series of Football, held at Madison Square Garden
  .
• 3 September – the Massillon Tigers of the "Ohio League" are established in Massillon, Ohio.
• 17 December – the Franklin Athletic Club defeated the
  1903 World Series of Football
  , held at Madison Square Garden.

Association football

Argentina

• Racing Club, officially founded in Avellaneda, suburb of Buenos Aires on March 25.^{[citation needed]}

Brazil

• Gremio of Porto Alegre, officially founded on September 15.^{[citation needed}
  ]

• Stoke
  37
• FA Cup final – Bury 6–0 Derby County at Crystal Palace
  , London. This remains the record scoreline in an FA Cup final.

• National Championship – VfB Leipzig 7—2 DFC Prag at Hamburg-Altona (after extra time)
• The 1903 German football championship is the first to be sanctioned by the Deutscher Fußballbund (DFB). Until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, the championship format is based on a knockout competition, contested between the winners of each of the country's top regional leagues.

Scotland

• Scottish Football League – Hibernian
• 1903 Scottish Cup final – Rangers 2–0 Hearts at Celtic Park (second replay after 1–1 and 0–0 draws previously)^[1]

• Besiktas, officially founded in Istanbul on March 19.^{[citation needed}
  ]

Athletics

• John Lorden wins the seventh running of the Boston Marathon.^[2]

Australian rules football

VFL Premiership

• Collingwood wins the 7th VFL Premiership: Collingwood 4.7 (31) d Fitzroy 3.11 (29) at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)

Baseball

World Series

• 1–13 October — inaugural World Series is played between the winners of the National and American Leagues. Boston Americans (AL) defeats Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) by 5 games to 3.

Events

• New York Yankees founded.
• Northern League championship – Winnipeg Maroons
  win a second consecutive minor leagues title.

Boxing

Events

• Having previously held the
  World Light Heavyweight Championship
  .
• The inaugural
  Charles "Kid" McCoy at Detroit on 22 April. Root's title is short-lived as he loses on 4 July to George Gardiner
  at Fort Erie, Ontario. Gardner wins by a technical knockout after 12 rounds. On 25 November, Gardner loses the title to Fitzsimmons after 20 rounds at San Francisco. Fitzsimmons retains the title until 1905.
• World Featherweight Championship. The vacant title is won by Abe Attell
  who defeats Johnny Reagan at St Louis in the 20th round. Attell is one of the great champions and holds the title until 1912.
• World Bantamweight Championship
  , which he holds for one year.

Lineal world champions[3]

• World Heavyweight Championship – James J. Jeffries
• World Light Heavyweight Championship – new title → Jack Root → George Gardiner → Bob Fitzsimmons
• World Middleweight Championship – Tommy Ryan
• World Welterweight Championship – Barbados Joe Walcott
• World Lightweight Championship – Joe Gans
• World Featherweight Championship – Young Corbett II → vacant → Abe Attell
• World Bantamweight Championship – Harry Forbes → Frankie Neil

Cricket

Events

• Following the conclusion of the
  Boer War, first-class cricket
  resumes in South Africa.

• Middlesex
• Minor Counties Championship – Northamptonshire
• Most runs –
  C B Fry
  2683 @ 81.30 (HS 234)
• Most wickets – Wilfred Rhodes 193 @ 14.57 (BB 8–61)
• Wisden Cricketers of the Year – Colin Blythe, John Gunn, Albert Knight, Walter Mead, Plum Warner

Australia

• Sheffield Shield – New South Wales
• Most runs – Reggie Duff 786 @ 87.33 (HS 194)
• Most wickets –
  Jack Saunders
  32 @ 20.81 (BB 8–106)

India

• Parsees

West Indies

• Inter-Colonial Tournament – not contested

Cycling

Tour de France

• Inaugural Tour de France is won by Maurice Garin (France)^[4]

Figure skating

World Figure Skating Championships

• World Men's Champion – Ulrich Salchow (Sweden)

Golf

Major tournaments

• British Open – Harry Vardon
• U.S. Open – Willie Anderson

Other tournaments

• British Amateur – Robert Maxwell
• US Amateur – Walter Travis

Horse racing

England

• Grand National – Drumcree
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Quintessence
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – Rock Sand
• The Derby – Rock Sand^[5]
• The Oaks – Our Lassie
• St. Leger Stakes
  – Rock Sand

Australia

• Melbourne Cup – Lord Cardigan

Canada

• King's Plate – Thessalon

Ireland

• Irish Grand National – Kirko
• Irish Derby Stakes
  – Lord Rossmore

USA

• Kentucky Derby – Judge Himes
• Preakness Stakes – Flocarline
• Belmont Stakes – Africander

Ice hockey

Stanley Cup

• Montreal HC defeats Winnipeg Victorias three games to one in a cup challenge.
• Montreal HC and
  Ottawa HC tie for first place in the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) regular season
  with 6–2 records. The teams play off for the CAHL championship and Stanley Cup. Ottawa defeats Montreal 9–1 in a two-game, total-goals series to win its first Stanley Cup title.
• Ottawa HC defeats
  Rat Portage Thistles
  two games to nil in another cup challenge.
• Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Montréal AAA in 2 games

Events

• First ice hockey league in Europe begins, contested by five teams from
  Hengler's Ice Rink, both in London
  .

• The Paris-Madrid Trail is run on 24 May with a scheduled distance of 1014 km. It is a disastrous event which causes at least eight deaths including those of drivers Marcel Renault and Claude Barrow. The race is stopped by the authorities at Bordeaux. It is in retrospect sometimes referred to as the VIII Grand Prix de l'ACF.^[6] Fernand Gabriel (France) is the first to reach Bordeaux in his Mors.
• Road racing is banned as a result and the legacy of the event is the introduction of circuits, the first being opened at
  Automobile Club de France
  (ACF).

Gordon Bennett Cup

• Fourth running of the
  Mercedes
• It is at the 1903 Gordon Bennett cup that international racing colours are formally adopted with Italy taking red, Germany white, France blue and Great Britain taking its British racing green (BRG) for the first time. The British choice of green is partly due to the event being held in Ireland, which at the time is part of the UK, and to precedent as the winning Napier of 1902 had been painted olive green.

Ardennes Circuit

• Second running of the
  Panhard-Levassor
  70 hp in a time of 5:52:07. The total distance is 512.05 km (85.34 km x 6 laps).

Rowing

The Boat Race

• 1 April — Cambridge wins the 60th Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race

Rugby league

England

• Halifax
• Halifax 7–0 Salford at Headingley Rugby Stadium, Leeds
• Lancashire League Championship – not contested
• Yorkshire League Championship – not contested

Rugby union

Home Nations Championship

• 21st Home Nations Championship series is won by Scotland

Speed skating

Speed Skating World Championships

• Men's All-round Champion – none declared

Tennis

England

• Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship – Laurence Doherty (GB) defeats Frank Riseley (GB) 7–5 6–3 6–0
• Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers (GB) defeats Ethel Thomson Larcombe
  (GB) 4–6 6–4 6–2

• French Men's Singles Championship – Max Decugis (France) defeats André Vacherot
  (France): details unknown
• Françoise Masson (France) defeats Kate Gillou
  (France) 6–0 6–8 6–0

• American Men's Singles Championship – Laurence Doherty (GB) defeats William Larned (USA) 6–0 6–3 10–8
• Marion Jones
  (USA) 7–5 8–6

Davis Cup

• Boston, United States

Yacht racing

America's Cup

• The New York Yacht Club retains the America's Cup as Reliance defeats British challenger Shamrock III, of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, 3 races to 0 (Shamrock III abandoned the third race)^[7]

References