Christmas Sports History

One tradition that has become part of our holiday’s is sports, from the NFL on Thanksgiving Day, to Hockey on Christmas in the early 20th Century, and more recently NBA on Christmas Day.

Boxing has been one of the oldest sports in the world dating all the way back to the origins of the Olympics and had been held on Christmas Day in the U.S. until 1969. On Christmas Day in 1933 one of the biggest boxing matches ever held on the holy day was an upset of one of the top 50 greatest boxers in the world when Frank Klick beat Eligio Sardinias, aka Kid Chocolate. Kid Chocolate had held the junior lightweight title since 1931 and was the favorite to win when Klick stopped the Kid in the seventh round to take the title.

Another sports moment on Christmas history involves one of the most physical yet elegant sports in hockey when the NHL stopped the over 50 year tradition. In 1971 the NHL stopped playing hockey games on Christmas Day in order to give their players a small holiday break in their grueling season, a tradition that had started in the 1920s. On the final day of Christmas hockey there were six games with the California Golden Seals Stan Gilbertson scoring the last Christmas goal ever.

Women have found their way into sports history on Christmas Day when the first female participated in a college football bowl game. Katie Hnida was the first women to play in a NCAA Division I-A game, college football’s highest level of play, in the 2002 SEGA Sports Las Vegas Bowl. Unfortunately Hnida was not able to score in that game as her PAT attempt was blocked, but she later went on to become the first female to score in a D-1 game when in 2003 she helped her University of New Mexico Lobos blowout Texas State University 72-8.