Events in Sport
- Jan 1 45th Orange Bowl: #4 Oklahoma beats #6 Nebraska, 31-24
- Jan 1 45th Sugar Bowl: #2 Alabama beats #1 Penn State, 14-7
- Jan 1 65th Rose Bowl: #3 Southern California beats #5 Michigan, 17-10
- Jan 1 John Y. Brown attends his first game as owner of the Boston Celtics NBA franchise after trading the Buffalo Braves to previous Celtics owner, Irving H. Levin
- Jan 2 Australian Open Women's Tennis: unseeded Australian Christine O'Neil wins her first and only Grand Slam event; beats American Betsy Nagelsen 6-3, 7-6
Australian Men's Tennis Open
Jan 3 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Guillermo Vilas of Argentina wins 3rd Grand Slam title; beats Australian John Marks 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
- Jan 7 AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Houston Oilers, 34-5
- Jan 7 NFC Championship, LA Memorial Coliseum Dallas Cowboys beat Los Angeles Rams, 28-0
Sports History
Jan 14 John McEnroe wins his first of 3 season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix tennis titles 6–7, 6–3, 7–5 against fellow American Arthur Ashe at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Sports History
Jan 14 Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benitez beats WBC welterweight champion Carlos Palomino of Mexico in a 15-round split decision in San Juan, Puerto Rico; becomes two-division champion at the age of 20
- Jan 21 Super Bowl XIII, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 35-31; MVP: Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, QB
Baseball Hall of Fame
Jan 23 NY/SF Giants / New York Mets center fielder Willie Mays elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Birthdays in Sport
- Jan 4 Tristan Gommendy, French racing driver, born in Le Chesnay, Yvelines
- Jan 5 Ronnie O'Brien, Irish footballer, born in Bray, County Wicklow
- Jan 8 Adrian Mutu, Romanian footballer, born in Călinești, Romania
- Jan 8 Seol Ki-hyeon, South Korean footballer, born in Jeongseon County, South Korea
- Jan 8 Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian footballer, born in Split, Croatia
- Jan 12 Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer, born in Szczecin, Poland
- Jan 12 Jenny Schmidgall, American ice hockey forward (USA, Olympics 1998), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Drew Brees (44 years old)
Jan 15 American football quarterback (Super Bowl MVP 2009, New Orleans Saints; 13 x Pro Bowl; 7 × NFL passing yards leader), born in Austin, Texas
- Jan 15 Martin Petrov, Bulgarian soccer winger (90 caps; Servette, VfL Wolfsburg, Atlético Madrid, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers), born in Vratsa, Bulgaria
- Jan 16 Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Carlyle, Canada
- Jan 16 Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Chapleau, Canada
- Jan 16 Jimmy Walker, American golfer (PGA C'ship 2016), born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Jan 18 Brian Gionta, American ice hockey player, born in Rochester, New York
- Jan 18 Kenyatta Jones, American football player, born in Gainesville, Florida
- Jan 18 Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer, born in Cascais, Portugal
- Jan 19 Josu Sarriegi, Spanish football player, born in Lazkao, Spain
- Jan 19 Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast, born in Belgorod, Russia
Brian O'Driscoll (44 years old)
Jan 21 Irish rugby union player (Ireland, British & Irish Lions), born in Dublin, Ireland
- Jan 21 Byung-Hyun Kim, Korean baseball player
- Jan 23 Juan Rincón, Venezuelan baseball player, born in Maracaibo, Venezuela
- Jan 23 Larry Hughes, American basketball player, born in St. Louis, Missouri
- Jan 25 Pi Hongyan, Chinese-born French badminton player, born in Chonqing, China
- Jan 27 Daniel Vettori, New Zealand cricketer
- Jan 27 Liesbet Van Breedam, Belgian beach volleyball player
- Jan 27 Rodrigo Ribeiro, Brazilian racing driver, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Jan 28 Ali Boulala, Swedish skateboarder
- Jan 30 Karen Smith, Australian hockey player (Olympics 1996)
