The 1910s Sports: Chronology

1910:     April William Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. president to inaugurate the baseball season by throwing out the first ball.

1910:     July 4 Jack Johnson retains his heavyweight boxing crown by pummeling James J. Jeffries in a fifteen-round bout.

1911:     May 30 Ray Harroun wins the firstever Indianapolis 500 auto race.

1912:      The earned run average (which measures a pitcher's success) becomes a recognized baseball statistic in the National League (NL); the American League (AL) follows suit the following season.

1912:     April 12 The famed Tinker-to-Eversto-Chance double play combination appears in its last game together for the Chicago Cubs.

1912:     April 20 Fenway Park, home of baseball's Boston Red Sox, opens.

1912:     May 5–July 22 The fifth Olympic Games are held in Stockholm, Sweden.

1913:      Baseball's major-league New York Highlanders are rechristened the Yankees.

1913:     February 5 The New York State Athletic Commission votes unanimously to prohibit interracial boxing competition.

1913:     March 8 In baseball, the upstart Federal League is organized to challenge the American and National Leagues.

1913:     April 5 Brooklyn's major league baseball team plays its first game in Ebbets Field, an exhibition against the New York Yankees.

1913:     July 25–28 The United States wins its first Davis Cup tennis championship since 1902, defeating Great Britain three matches to two.

1914:     April 22 Nineteen-year-old Babe Ruth makes his professional baseball debut with the International League's Baltimore team. He pitches a shutout victory over Buffalo.

1914:     July 4 In the first-ever victory by an American crew, eight Harvard men win the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in England.

1914:     July 11 Babe Ruth makes his major league debut as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, earning a 4 to 3 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

1914:     September 29 The "Miracle" Boston Braves, in last place as recently as mid-July, clinch the National League pennant.

1915:     April 5 Jess Willard knocks out Jack Johnson in the twenty-sixth round and becomes heavyweight champ.

1915:     August 18 Braves Field, new home of the Boston Braves, opens.

1915:     October 9 Woodrow Wilson becomes the first U.S. president to attend a World Series game.

1916:     February 7 An organizing committee establishes the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA).

1916:     February 7 A Federal League lawsuit charging the rival American and National Leagues with antitrust violations is dismissed in U.S. District Court by Judge Kenesaw M. Landis, future baseball commissioner.

1916:     April 1 The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) holds the initial women's indoor and outdoor national swimming championships.

1916:     April 10 The first-ever PGA golf tournament is held.

1916:     October 7 In the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech beats Cumberland College 222 to 0.

1917:     June 1 Boston Braves catcher Hank Gowdy becomes the first major league ballplayer to enlist in the military during World War I.

1917:     October 26 St. Louis Cardinals manager Miller Huggins is signed to manage the New York Yankees.

1918:     August 2 Because of World War I, the U.S. government orders major league baseball to end its season on September 1 but permits the World Series to be played.

1919:      Sir Barton becomes the first racehorse to win the Triple Crown.

1919:     August 13 Man o' War suffers the lone defeat in the horse's career, losing to a horse named Upset at the Sanford Stakes in Saratoga, New York.

1919:     April 19 New York Governor Al Smith signs a bill legalizing Sunday baseball in the state.

1919:     July 4 Jack Dempsey knocks out Jess Willard in the third round to become heavyweight boxing champ.

1919:     October Several members of the Chicago White Sox throw (intentionally lose) the World Series.

1919:     December 26 The New York Yankees purchase Babe Ruth from Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee.