1884 in sports

1884 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Athletics

Events

Amos Alonzo Stagg enters Yale University as a divinity student and, a natural athlete, joins the university's football team.
25 October — Yale Bulldogs defeat Dartmouth 113–0. This is the first college football game where one team scores over 100 points and also the first time one team scores over 100 points while the opposing team scores zero.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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29 October — The next week, the Princeton Tigers outscore the Lafayette Leopards by 140–0.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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England

FA Cup final – Blackburn Rovers 2–1 Queen's Park (Glasgow) at The Oval. Blackburn Rovers is the first extant club to win the FA Cup.
Everton moves as tenant to Anfield, a newly enclosed ground off Anfield Road, Liverpool.
Derby County founded by Derbyshire CCC to provide a winter activity for players and supporters.
Leicester City founded as Leicester Fosse.

Scotland

Scottish Cup final – Queen's Park win by a walkover after Vale of Leven fail to appear<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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The Anglo-Australian Football Association is created as a separate association for the colony of Victoria.
The Anglo-Queensland Football Association, now Football Queensland, is founded.

The Canadian Rugby Football Union is founded as a regulatory body for Canadian Football.
Montreal wins the first Rugby Football Dominion Championship by defeating Toronto 30-0.
The Quebec Challenge Cup is won by Montreal after defeating Britannia 1-0.

National championship

Inauguration of the National League v. American Association fixture, sometimes called the "Original World Series" – Providence Grays (NL) defeats New York Metropolitans (AA) 3 games to nil.

Events

Ned Williamson hits 27 home runs for the Chicago White Stockings, establishing a record that will last for 35 years. He nearly doubles the record of 14 set the season before by Harry Stovey.
Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black American major league baseball player when he makes his American Association league debut for the Toledo Blue Stockings.

Events

The first of the modern World titles is recognised with Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey as the original World Middleweight Champion.<ref>Cyber Boxing Zone – Lineal Middleweight Champions. Retrieved on 6 June 2009. Archived 2009-06-08.</ref> The weight limit for middleweights at this time is 154 pounds. Dempsey will hold the title until 1891.
American heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan faces a number of challengers but none of them last more than four rounds. Sullivan is very active on the exhibition circuit.<ref name="JLS">Cyber Boxing Zone – John L Sullivan. Retrieved on 12 November 2009.</ref>

Lineal world champions<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Events

The Canadian Rugby Football Union, forerunner of the Canadian Football League, is established.

Events

An Australian team tours England but loses the three-match Test series 1–0 with two matches drawn.
Derbyshire suffer the ignominy of a perfectly bad season losing all ten of their county games
In stark contrast Nottinghamshire come closer to an absolutely perfect season than any county side since, winning nine games and being three wickets shy of victory in their tenth

England

Champion County<ref>A semi-official seasonal title proclaimed by media consensus prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship is constituted.</ref> – Nottinghamshire
Most runs – Lord Harris 1,417 @ 33.73 (HS 112*)
Most wickets – Fred Spofforth 207 @ 12.82 (BB 8–62)

Australia

Events

1 November — Gaelic Athletic Association is founded at Hayes' Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary, to promote hurling and Gaelic football. The foundation date has significance as Samhain: according to legend the day the Fianna fell from power.