Events in Sport
NHL Record
Dec 1 Toronto Maple Leafs beat St. Louis Eagles, 4-3 to set an NHL record for the most wins to start the season with 8; Leafs do it again 59 years later; won 10 in a row to start 1993-94 season
George Hainsworth
NFL Championship
Dec 9 National Football League Championship, Polo Grounds, NYC: New York Giants defeat Chicago Bears, 30-13
Mel Hein
- Dec 10 NFL adopts player waiver rule; applies after 6th game of season
- Dec 11 1st Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot, Conacher unsuccessful vs Rangers
- Dec 11 Ford C Frick becomes president of baseball's National League
- Dec 11 NL votes to permit night baseball (up to 7 games per home team)
- Dec 26 Yomiuri Giants, Japan's 1st professional baseball team forms
- Dec 28 First ever Women's cricket international begins England vs Australia in Australia
- Dec 29 First collegiate basketball doubleheader is played at Madison Square Garden, NYC; New York University beats Notre Dame, 25-18; Westminster edges St. John's, 37-33
- Dec 30 New York Rangers and Boston Bruins battle out a 0-0 tie; first of a 37-game overtime undefeated streak for the Bruins, the longest in NHL history; streak spans over 4 years and includes 27 ties
Birthdays in Sport
- Dec 1 LaMar Clark, American boxer (record most consecutive knockouts 44, including unsanctioned bouts), born in Cedar City, Utah (d. 2006)
- Dec 2 Andre Rodgers, Bahamian baseball shortstop (first Bahamian to play in MLB; NY/SF Giants; Chicago Cubs), born in Nassau, Bahamas (d. 2004)
- Dec 6 Nick Bockwinkel, American professional wrestler (WCW/AWA), born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 2015)
- Dec 11 Salim Durani, Indian cricketer (successful Indian batsman of 60's), born in Kabul, Afghanistan
- Dec 17 Ray Wilson, English footballer
- Dec 19 Al Kaline, American Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (18 × MLB All-Star; World Series 1968; 10 × Gold Glove Award; Detroit Tigers), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 2020)
- Dec 21 Hanif Mohammad, Pakistani cricketer known as the "Little Master" (1952-69) who played the longest test innings in history at 16 hours, born in Junagadh, British India (d. 2016)
- Dec 22 David Pearson, American stock car racer, born in Spartanburg, South Carolina (d. 2018)
- Dec 25 Giancarlo Baghetti, racing driver/journalist
- Dec 27 Larisa Latynina, Ukrainian Soviet gymnast (Olympic gold 1956, 60, 64), born in Kherson, Soviet Union
- Dec 28 Peggy Wilson, American golfer (US Open runner-up 1969), born in Lauderdale, Mississippi
Deaths in Sport
- Dec 12 Thorleif Haug, Norwegian Nordic skier (b. 1894)