Events in Sport
- Dec 1 MLB announces attendance for the season is 20.2 million, down from 20.9 in 1948; New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians each finish with over 2.2 million, but the St. Louis Browns fall to 270,000
- Dec 3 14th Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 14-13 in Birmingham
- Dec 4 Bob Gage ties NFL record of a 97 yard touchdown run
Boxing Title Fight
Dec 5 Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for heavyweight boxing title
- Dec 7 15th Heisman Trophy Award: Leon Hart (end), Notre Dame
- Dec 9 NFL merges with AAFC; Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers & Baltimore Colts join league intact, other teams in New York and Los Angeles are merged with existing units
- Dec 11 Chicago Bear Johnny Lujack passes for 6 touchdowns vs Chicago Cards (52-29)
- Dec 11 Cleveland Browns beat SF '49ers 21-7 in final AAFC championship game
- Dec 18 National Football League Championship, Philadelphia Eagles beat Los Angeles Rams, 14-0; played in driving rain that caused field to become a mud pit
Birthdays in Sport
- Dec 3 John Akii-bua, Ugandan athlete (Olympic gold 400m hurdles 1972), born in Abako, Uganda (d. 1997)
- Dec 5 Lanny Wadkins, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1977), born in Richmond, Virginia
- Dec 6 Peter Willey, English cricketer (England batsman late 70's early 80's), born in Sedgefield, County Durham, England
- Dec 11 Noel Campbell, Irish soccer midfielder (11 caps; St Patrick's Athletic FC, SC Fortuna Köln, Shamrock Rovers FC), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 2022)
- Dec 12 Ricardo Luis Carreras, American bantamweight boxer (Olympic bronze 1972), born in NYC, New York
- Dec 13 Nana Alexandria, Georgian International Woman's Chess Grandmaster (1976), born in Poti, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
- Dec 14 Bill Buckner, American MLB 1st baseman (1986 World Series infamous fielding error; NL batting champ 1980), born in Vallejo, California (d. 2019)
- Dec 17 Sotiris Kaiafas, Cypriot footballer
- Dec 19 Claudia A Kolb, American 200m breast stroke swimmer (Olympic silver 1964)
- Dec 20 Cecil Cooper, American baseball player, born in Brenham, Texas
- Dec 23 Wally Edwards, Australian cricketer (three Tests Australia v England 1974), born in Subiaco, Australia
- Dec 24 Warwick Brown, Australian racing driver, born in Sydney, Australia
- Dec 25 Serhiy Novikov, Russian judoka (Olympic gold heavyweight 1976), born in Moscow, Russia (d. 2021)
- Dec 29 Syed Kirmani, Indian cricketer (Indian keeper after Engineer), born in Chennai, India
- Dec 30 Bruce Davidson, equestrian 3-day (Olympic silver 1996)
Deaths in Sport
- Dec 28 Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (Olympic gold 1,500m 1936), dies in rail accident at 39
