1996 in sports

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Years in sports

1996 in sports

1996 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Alpine skiing[]

  • Alpine Skiing World Cup
    • Men's overall season champion: Lasse Kjus, Norway
    • Women's overall season champion: Katja Seizinger, Germany

American football[]

  • Super Bowl XXX – the Dallas Cowboys (NFC) won 27–17 over the Pittsburgh Steelers (AFC)
  • World Bowl 96 – The Scottish Claymores won 32-27 over the Frankfurt Galaxy.
  • Fiesta Bowl (1995 season):
  • Cleveland Browns deactivate and move to Baltimore where they become the Baltimore Ravens The Browns are later reactivated in Cleveland in 1999.
  • The Big 12 Conference begins with its first college football game between . Kansas State won 21–14.[1]

Association football[]

Athletics[]

Australian rules football[]

Baseball[]

  • January 8; For the first time in 25 years, no one garners 75 percent of the votes needed to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Phil Niekro comes closest with 68 percent.
  • The New York Yankees won 1996 World Series defeating the Atlanta Braves.

Basketball[]

  • April 1 – NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
    • Kentucky wins 76-67 over Syracuse
  • NBA Finals
    • Chicago Bulls win 4 games to 2 over the Seattle SuperSonics, after a record-breaking 72-10 regular season.
  • The 1996 NBA Draft takes place at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Tied with the 1984 and 2003 drafts, this draft is considered one of the greatest in NBA history, as it included a class of several Hall of Famers such as Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, and Steve Nash.
  • National Basketball League (Australia) Finals:

Boxing[]

Canadian football[]

Cricket[]

  • Cricket World Cup – Final: Sri Lanka beat Australia by 7 wickets

Cycling[]

Dogsled racing[]

  • Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Champion
    • Jeff King wins with lead dogs: Jake & Booster

Field hockey[]

  • Olympic Games Men's Competition: Netherlands
  • Olympic Games Women's Competition: Australia

Figure skating[]

Gaelic Athletic Association[]

Golf[]

Men's professional

  • Masters Tournament - Nick Faldo
  • U.S. Open - Steve Jones
  • British Open - Tom Lehman
  • PGA Championship - Mark Brooks
  • PGA Tour money leader - Tom Lehman - $1,780,159
  • Senior PGA Tour money leader - Jim Colbert - $1,627,890
  • Tiger Woods turns professional in September. In the last five regular tournaments of the year on the PGA Tour, his finishes were T5-T3-1-3-1, placing him among the tour's top 30 money-winners for the year and thereby qualifying him for the season-ending The Tour Championship. Woods named the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

Men's amateur

  • British Amateur -
  • U.S. Amateur - Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. This was the sixth consecutive year in which he won a USGA championship, one short of Bobby Jones' record of seven.
  • European Amateur - Daniel Olsson

Women's professional

  • Nabisco Dinah Shore - Patty Sheehan
  • LPGA Championship - Laura Davies
  • U.S. Women's Open - Annika Sörenstam
  • Classique du Maurier - Laura Davies
  • LPGA Tour money leader - Karrie Webb - $1,002,000 - becomes the first ever woman to earn more than a million dollars in one golf season.
  • The United States team retained the Solheim Cup beating the European team 17 to 11.

Handball[]

  • Men's European Championship: Russia
  • Women's European Championship: Denmark

Harness racing[]

Horse racing[]

Steeplechases

Flat races

Ice hockey[]

  • Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer during the regular season: Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins
  • Hart Memorial Trophy – for the NHL's Most Valuable Player: Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins
  • Stanley Cup - the Colorado Avalanche defeat the Florida Panthers 4 games to 0 for their first-ever Stanley Cup title. It was also the franchise's first season since relocating from Quebec City, where they were known as the Nordiques.
  • World Cup of Hockey
    • Champion: United States defeated Canada
  • World Hockey Championship
    • Men's champion: Czech Republic defeated Canada
    • Junior Men's champion: Canada defeated Sweden
  • Phoenix Coyotes (now Arizona Coyotes) play inaugural season.

Lacrosse[]

Mixed martial arts[]

The following is a list of major noteworthy MMA events during 1996 in chronological order.

Before 1997, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was considered the only major MMA organization in the world and featured much fewer rules then are used in modern MMA.

Date Event Alternate Name/s Location Attendance PPV Buyrate Notes
February 16 UFC 8: David vs. Goliath N/A Puerto Rico Bayamón, Puerto Rico 13,000 160,000 UFC rule change, timed rounds were changed to two 10-minute rounds for first two rounds of the tournament and a single 15-minute round in the tournament final and superfights. Introduction of judges. First MMA event to draw criticism from politicians.
May 17 UFC 9: Motor City Madness N/A United States Detroit, Michigan, US 10,000 N/A First UFC event not to feature a tournament, however it was not the last.
Closed fisted strikes to the head were banned for this event only, however this was not enforced.

Following this event the UFC was removed from airing events on numerous cable systems, including TCI cable.
July 12 UFC 10: The Tournament N/A United States Birmingham, Alabama, US 4,300 N/A This event was originally going to be held at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
September 20 UFC 11: The Proving Ground N/A United States Augusta, Georgia, US 4,500 N/A N/A
December 7 The Ultimate Ultimate 2 Ultimate Ultimate 1996
UFC 11.5
United States Birmingham, Alabama, US 6,000 N/A
UFC rule change, introduction of "no grabbing of the fence" rule.

In promotion for this event, Ken Shamrock appeared as a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.


Following this event Ken Shamrock would leave the UFC until 2002. And marked the last UFC fight of Don Frye.

Motorsport[]

Professional Wrestling[]

Radiosport[]

Rugby league[]

Rugby union[]

  • 102nd Five Nations Championship series is won by England
  • SANZAR's new leagues the Super 12 (now Super 14) and the Tri Nations Series begin. The Super 12 is won by the Auckland Blues and the Tri Nations is won by the New Zealand All Blacks

Snooker[]

Swimming[]

  • XXVI Olympic Games, held in Atlanta United States (July 20 – July 26)
  • First European SC Championships, held in Riesa, Germany (December 13 – 15)
    • Germany wins the most medals (39) and the most gold medals (14)
  • December 1 – American swimmer Misty Hyman clocks 58:29 to break the world record in the women's 100m butterfly (short course)

Tennis[]

  • Grand Slam in tennis men's results:
    1. Australian Open - Boris Becker
    2. French Open - Yevgeny Kafelnikov
    3. Wimbledon championships - Richard Krajicek
    4. US Open - Pete Sampras
  • Grand Slam in tennis women's results:
    1. Australian Open - Monica Seles
    2. French Open - Steffi Graf
    3. Wimbledon championships - Steffi Graf
    4. US Open - Steffi Graf
  • 1996 Summer Olympics
    • Men's Singles Competition – Andre Agassi
    • Women's Singles Competition – Lindsay Davenport
    • Men's Doubles Competition – Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde
    • Women's Doubles Competition – Gigi Fernández & Mary Joe Fernández
  • Davis Cup final:
    • France wins 3-2 over Sweden
  • Fed Cup final:
    • USA wins 5-0 over Spain

Volleyball[]

  • Men's World League: Netherlands
  • Women's World Grand Prix: Brazil
  • Olympic Games Men's Competition: Netherlands
  • Olympic Games Women's Competition: Cuba

Water polo[]

  • Olympic Games Men's Competition: Spain
  • Olympic Games Women's Competition: Netherlands

Multi-sport events[]

  • 1996 Summer Olympics takes place in Atlanta, United States
    • United States wins the most medals (101), and the most gold medals (44).
  • Winter Asian Games held in Harbin, China
  • Athletic competition in the Big 12 Conference is inaugurated with a football game between Kansas State University and Texas Tech University, in Manhattan, Kansas on August 31.

Awards[]

  • Associated Press Male Athlete of the YearMichael Johnson, Track and field
  • Associated Press Female Athlete of the YearAmy Van Dyken, Swimming

References[]

  1. ^ DeLassus, David. "Kansas State University football records--1996". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  2. ^ "Epsom Derby | History, Winners, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
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