Events in Sport
Baseball Record
May 1 Future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Mickey Mantle hits first career home run in 8-3 win v White Sox in Chicago; Minnie Minoso homers in Sox debut
Mickey Mantle
- May 3 Gil McDougald ties major league record with 6 RBIs in 1 inning
Event of Interest
May 19 76th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Bold wins in 1:56.4
Eddie Arcaro
Event of Interest
May 25 NY Giant Willie Mays 1st major league game (goes 0 for 5)
Willie Mays
- May 28 After going 0-for-12, Willie Mays connects for his 1st major league home run
Boxing Title Fight
May 30 Ezzard Charles beats Joey Maxim in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
Ezzard Charles
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Lee Wallard wins in 3:57:38.103 (203.170 km/h)
Birthdays in Sport
- May 1 Gordon Greenidge, West Indies Cricket Batsman (108 Tests, 7,558 runs @ 44.72; 19 x 100s), born in St. Peter, Barbados
- May 6 Zhaksylyk Ushkempirov, Kazakh Greco-Roman wrestler (Olympic gold, light-flyweight 1980; World C'ship gold 1981), born in Tegistik, Kazakhstan (d. 2020)
- May 8 Mike D'Antoni, American-Italian basketball guard and head coach (NBA Coach of the Year 2005, 17; Houston Rockets 2016-19; LA Lakers, NY Knicks, Phoenix), born in Mullens, West Virginia
- May 11 Mike Sleman, English rugby union winger (32 caps; British and Irish Lions 1980; Liverpool RUFC), born in Liverpool, England (d. 2020)
- May 12 Gunnar Larrson, Swedish 200m/400m swimmer (Olympic gold 1972)
- May 18 Angela Voigt, German DR, long jumper (Olympic gold 1976)
- May 18 Rodger Davis, Australian golfer (British Open runner-up 1997), born in Sydney, New South Wales
- May 18 Jim Sundberg, American baseball player
- May 23 Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess player (world champion 1975-85, 93-99), born in Zlatoust, Russia
- May 27 John Conteh, British boxer, WBC Light Heavyweight crown (1974-77), born in Liverpool
Deaths in Sport
Leo Diegel
May 5 Leo Diegel, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1928-29), dies of throat and lung cancer at 52
Leo Diegel