1949 Sun Bowl controversy, 1948 Lafayette football season
After defeating Ohio Wesleyan, Lafayette set itself up for a crucial bout against its rival, Lehigh University. However, on November 19, 1948, a day before the game against Lehigh, Lafayette received a phone call from the Sun Bowl Committee inviting the team to participate in the bowl game. This invitation essentially rendered Lafayette's season finale and rivalry game against Lehigh meaningless. Nevertheless, Lafayette went on to defeat Lehigh by a score of 23–13, capping off the regular season.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, David Showell
David Showell, an African American, was a prominent player for Lafayette during the 1948 football season. The Sun Bowl Committee's decision to exclude Showell from the game due to his race led to Lafayette's rejection of its Sun Bowl invitation and the subsequent student protests at the college.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Student demonstrations at Lafayette
On November 23, 1948, the Lafayette College faculty held a meeting to vote upon whether or not to accept the football team's invitation to the Sun Bowl. The faculty voted to turn down the bid as a result of the Sun Bowl Committee's decision to exclude David Showell. The formal announcement of the rejection that was made by college officials did not contain a reason for vetoing the Sun Bowl bid. The Lafayette students, who were excited to see their football team go to the Sun Bowl, were disheartened by the announcement and made it their goal to discover the reason behind the school's abrupt change in plans.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Student demonstrations at Lafayette
At approximately seven o'clock on the night of November 23, the news began to spread around the Lafayette campus as a caravan of students traversed the school grounds to recruit more protesters. Soon after, a mass of nearly 1,000 students holding flaming newspapers in hand made its way to the college's central quadrangle, which housed the materials for a bonfire. This bonfire was previously constructed for a pep rally to be held before the football game against Lafayette's rival, Lehigh University, but was never used due to a rain storm. Therefore, the student mob ignited the fire to continue its demonstration.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Student demonstrations at Lafayette
The students then visited the home of Ralph Cooper Hutchison, the president of Lafayette College. Upon their arrival, President Hutchison told the students that David Showell was not invited to play in the bowl game because he was an African American. Hutchison further explained that the Sun Bowl Committee's decision to exclude Showell ultimately led to the faculty's rejection of the bowl game bid. The student protestors asked that a conditional acceptance be made to the bid as long as they allowed David Showell to play.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Student demonstrations at Lafayette
Athletic Director Bill Anderson, who had arrived at Hutchison's house, agreed to place a call to C. D. Belding, the chairman of the Sun Bowl Committee in El Paso, Texas. During the call the Athletic Director stated, "We want a waiver on Showell. He was a lieutenant in the Army and served in Texas. He wants the boys to go without him, but the College couldn't take that responsibility. We are anxious to accept. If Showell can't play, we wouldn't be able to accept. So it can't be done?" Despite the call, Belding still would not let Showell play.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Student demonstrations at Lafayette
Upon hearing that the answer was still "No" over 1000 frustrated Lafayette students marched to the Centre Square in downtown Easton and held a protest rally against racial intolerance. A number of students rushed to the local Western Union office to wire the news of their protests to prominent individuals to denounce the Sun Bowl Committee's refusal to include Showell. One of the recipients was President Truman. The telegram to Truman read: "Denied Sun Bowl game because we have a Negro on our team. Is that democracy? ", signed by the Lafayette College students. Other telegrams were sent to Walter Winchell to join the cause.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Student demonstrations at Lafayette
Following the telegram sent to President Truman, the Lafayette students broke up their rally and ended the protest in downtown Easton. On the following day, November 24, at 9:30 in the morning, the students assembled once again at Lafayette College's Pardee Hall. Approximately 1,000 students congregated to pass a formal resolution stating their opposition to racial discrimination. The student's resolution stated: "We protest the racial discrimination against one of our fellow students and declare without equivocation our firm resolve that all Americans have equal rights under the law." Subsequently, they informed the media to cover their civil rights resolution.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Coverage in the press
Newspapers shed light on the controversy surrounding the 1949 Sun Bowl in November 1948. The press conveyed conflicting accounts as to why Lafayette College turned down the invitation to play the 1949 Sun Bowl against the Texas Miners. Lafayette College officials maintained that their rejection of the invitation was due in large part to the discrimination against the team's black football player, David Showell, saying that Texas law forbade the halfback's participation in the New Year's Day bowl game.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Coverage in the press
An article in The New York Times quoted Dr. Ralph C. Hutchison, president of the college at the time, saying that "I must state emphatically that the acting president of the Texas College of Mines and C. D. Belding, chairman of the Sun Bowl Committee, each informed us repeatedly that Showell could not play in the proposed game."


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Coverage in the press
According to another newspaper article, Sun Bowl Committee chairman, C. D. Belding, offered another side of the story refuting President Hutchison's claims and stating that Lafayette College jumped to a conclusion too soon. Belding explained that Texas law did not bar Showell from the field to play. Some papers went into great detail regarding the technicalities that Texas Miners officials claimed Lafayette College simply got wrong. An article by The Corsicana Daily Sun on November 24, 1948, stated that the law in question only required Negro players to have a separate lodging.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Coverage in the press
According to The Abilene Reporter, on the evening of November 26, 1948, "The [El Paso] Times believes the officials of Lafayette College injected the Negro question into the Sun Bowl picture unfairly," going on to say that "Lafayette merely rejected the bid on the grounds that it was impractical to accept it."


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Coverage in the press
In other articles, more focus was placed on the fact that Sun Bowl officials reached out to other schools of interest upon receiving Lafayette College's original rejection of the bid. As seen in the article by Amarillo Daily News on November 24, 1948, rather than calling out Lafayette's claim as a fallacy, the paper focused on the fact that no further arrangements could be made with Lafayette College once Texas Miners officials had already reached out to the other schools.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Impact on college football, Desegregation of the Sun Bowl
The events at Lafayette College created a significant amount of media buzz on a national scale. Lafayette's withdrawal from the Sun Bowl was enough to get the residents of El Paso to fight against racial exclusion in the bowl game. The Lafayette Leopards were not the only team to face racism in El Paso. In September 1950, a regular season game between Loyola University (Los Angeles) (now Loyola Marymount University) and the Texas College of Mines was canceled because of the policy that excluded black players from playing in El Paso.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Impact on college football, Desegregation of the Sun Bowl
Finally on October 27, 1950, officials took a vote that allowed the Texas college to include black players in games at the El Paso location. A year after the grant was passed, the Sun Bowl hosted its first integrated football game between the College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific) and Texas Tech University.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, Impact on college football, Integration of college football
The Sun Bowl was not the only bowl game to involve racial exclusion. Many football games during the twentieth century affected the integration of collegiate football and sports in general: in addition to Lafayette, there were games played at The University of California, Los Angeles (1938–1941), Drake University (1948–1952), Georgia Tech (1954–1956), and the University of Wyoming (1967–1970) that led to integrated football games. At the time, these schools conducted studies to monitor the treatment of African American players and how the schools reacted to certain situations involving segregation and prejudice. The teams that were in favor of African Americans participating in football gave players a chance to speak out against the racism that took place in the sport. As a result of protests and communities coming together to support black football players, college football slowly became integrated.


1949 Sun Bowl controversy, References in media
Terry Kitchen is a folk singer-songwriter who grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, during the 1960s. His time spent there inspired him to write the song "The Greatest Game They Never Played" on the album That's How It Used To Be. The song, written about the Lafayette College football team and community, discusses the incidents that took place before the Sun Bowl. He includes references to Lafayette's refusal to play in the bowl game, the student protest against segregation, and the phone call between Lafayette's president and the Sun Bowl Committee in El Paso, Texas.


1949 Surinamese general election
General elections were held in Surinam on 30 May 1949. The result was a victory for the National Party of Suriname, which won 13 of the 21 seats. Voter turnout was 47.5%.


1949 Svenska Cupen
Svenska Cupen 1949 was the ninth season of the main Swedish football Cup. The competition was concluded on 24 July 1949 with the Final, held at Råsunda Stadium, Solna in Stockholms län. AIK won 1-0 against Landskrona BoIS before an attendance of 14,718 spectators.


1949 Svenska Cupen, Second round
The 8 matches in this round were played between 3 July 1949.


1949 Svenska Cupen, Quarter-finals
The 4 matches in this round were played on 10 July 1949 and a replay on 15 July 1949.


1949 Svenska Cupen, Semi-finals
The semi-finals in this round were played on 17 July 1949.


1949 Svenska Cupen, Final
The final was played on 24 July 1949 at the Råsunda Stadium.


1949 Swiss Grand Prix
The 1949 Swiss Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race which was held at Bremgarten on 3 July 1949. The race was won by Alberto Ascari driving a Ferrari 125.


1949 Swiss motorcycle Grand Prix
The 1949 Swiss motorcycle Grand Prix was the second race of the 1949 Motorcycle Grand Prix season. It took place on the weekend of 3 July 1949 at the Bremgarten circuit.


1949 Swiss motorcycle Grand Prix
British rider Leslie Graham won the 500 cc race riding an AJS from Arciso Artesiani and Harold Daniell.


1949 Swiss referendums
Four referendums were held in Switzerland during 1949. The first two were held on 22 May on revising article 39 of the federal constitution concerning the Swiss National Bank and a federal law amending a 1928 law on measures against tuberculosis, with both rejected by voters. The third was held on 11 September on a popular initiative "for the recurrence to direct democracy" and was narrowly approved. The final one was held on 11 December on a federal law to amend the employment status of federal civil servants, and was also approved.


1949 Swiss referendums, Background
The referendum on revising the constitution was a mandatory referendum. Together with the popular initiative, both required a double majority; a majority of the popular vote and majority of the cantons. The decision of each canton was based on the vote in that canton. Full cantons counted as one vote, whilst half cantons counted as half. The referendums on federal laws on tuberculosis and civil servants were both optional referendums, which required only a simple majority of votes in favour.


1949 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
The 1949 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, was the fifth annual running of the "blue water classic" Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.


1949 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
Hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia based in Sydney, New South Wales, the 1949 edition began on Sydney Harbour, at noon on Boxing Day (26 December 1949), before heading south for 630 nautical miles (1,170 km) through the Tasman Sea, past Bass Strait, into Storm Bay and up the River Derwent, to cross the finish line in Hobart, Tasmania.


1949 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
The 1949 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race comprised a reduced fleet of 15 competitors. Waltzing Matilda, skippered by Phil Davenport won line honours in a time of 5 days, 10 hours and 33 minutes - breaking the three-year hold on the event by Claude Plowman's Morna. Trade Winds, skippered by Mervyn Davey was awarded handicap honours on adjusted time.


1949 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, 1949 fleet
15 yachts registered to begin the 1948 Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. They are:


1949 Syracuse Orangemen football team
The 1949 Syracuse Orangemen football team represented Syracuse University in the 1949 college football season. This was Syracuse's first season under head coach Ben Schwartzwalder, who would eventually coach at the school for 25 years and become Syracuse's all-time winningest coach. The Orangemen finished the season with a record of 4–5.


1949 Syrian constituent assembly election
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Syria on 16 November 1949, with a second round on 25 November. The result was a victory for the People's Party, which won 63 of the 113 seats.


1949 Syrian presidential election
A referendum on Husni al-Za'im's candidacy for President was held in Syria on 25 June 1949, alongside a referendum on presidential powers. Al-Zaim's candidacy was approved by 99.4% of voters.


1949 Syrian presidential powers referendum
A referendum on presidential powers was held in Syria on 25 June 1949, alongside a referendum on Husni al-Za'im's candidacy for the presidency. Voters were asked whether they approved of four proposals, voting separately on each one. All four proposals were approved.


1949 São Paulo FC season
The 1949 football season was São Paulo's 20th season since club's existence.


1949 TANFL season
The 1949 Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL) premiership season was an Australian Rules football competition staged in Hobart, Tasmania over fifteen (15) roster rounds and four (4) finals series matches between 30 April and 24 September 1949.


1949 TANFL season, Participating Clubs, TANFL Under-19's Grand Final
State Schools Old Boys Football Association (SSOBFA) – (Saturday, 10 September 1949)


1949 TANFL season, Participating Clubs, TANFL Under-19's Grand Final
Note: Buckingham were affiliated to New Town, North West were affiliated to North Hobart.


1949 TANFL season, Participating Clubs, State Grand Final
Note: More than 2,500 patrons also entered the ground without paying, swelling the crowd to more than 11,000.


1949 TANFL season, 1949 TANFL Ladder, Round 6
Note: All-time record roster match attendance for Hobart Football Club.


1949 TCU Horned Frogs football team
The 1949 TCU Horned Frogs football team represented Texas Christian University (TCU) in the 1949 college football season. The Horned Frogs finished the season 6–3–1 overall and 3–3 in the Southwest Conference. The team was coached by Dutch Meyer in his sixteenth year as head coach. The Frogs played their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium, which is located on campus in Fort Worth, Texas.


1949 Tangerine Bowl
The 1949 Tangerine Bowl was an American college football bowl game played after the 1948 season, on January 1, 1949, at the Tangerine Bowl stadium in Orlando, Florida. The game was the third annual Tangerine Bowl, now known as the Citrus Bowl, and saw Murray State tie Sul Ross, 21–21. The game was the Tangerine Bowl's first tie; there would not be another tie until the 1954 Tangerine Bowl. This game was also the highest scoring tie in Tangerine Bowl history, throughout all name changes. This game was the first Tangerine Bowl where MVP honors were awarded; they were given to halfbacks Dale McDaniel of Murray State and Ted Scown of Sul Ross State.


1949 Tangerine Bowl, Game summary
The first quarter saw only seven points scored, as Ted Scown from Sul Ross found the end zone from 1 yard out. The second quarter featured half of the game's scoring; Sul Ross increased its lead with a 13-yard touchdown run followed by a 29-yard touchdown reception, both of these scores also being made by Scown. Murray State then fought back with an 85-yard kickoff return by Joe Bronson for a touchdown, and the game went to halftime 21–7. The third quarter was scoreless. In the fourth quarter, Dale McDaniels of Murray State scored two rushing touchdowns, one from 7 yards and the other from 36 yards. The game ended with the Lobos and Racers tied at 21.


1949 Taça de Portugal Final
The 1949 Taça de Portugal Final was the final match of the 1948–49 Taça de Portugal, the 10th season of the Taça de Portugal, the premier Portuguese football cup competition organized by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). The match was played on 12 June 1949 at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, and opposed two Primeira Liga sides: Atlético CP and Benfica. Benfica defeated Atlético CP 2–1 to claim their fourth Taça de Portugal.


1949 Team Speedway Polish Championship
1949 Team Speedway Polish Championship season was the second season and is used to determine the Team Polish Champion.


1949 Team Speedway Polish Championship, Rules
In First and Second League, matches were played with part three teams. Teams were made up of 3 riders plus 1 reserve. The event consisted of  9 races. In one day were played three three-cornered matches. For winning a match a team received 3 points, for second place 2 points, and for third 1 point. In every heat scoring was 3–2–1 and 0 if no-completion heat. The drivers with the main squad of a team started in a match 3 times. The quantity of small points was added up.


1949 Team Speedway Polish Championship, Second League
Event between Rawicz, Łódź and Poznań was canceled and never replayed.


1949 Temple Owls football team
The 1949 Temple Owls football team was an American football team that represented Temple University as an independent during the 1949 college football season. In its first season under head coach Albert Kawal, the team compiled a 5–4 record and was outscored by a total of 225 to 156. The team played its home games at Temple Stadium in Philadelphia.


1949 Tennessee A&I Tigers football team
The 1949 Tennessee A&I Tigers football team was an American football team that represented Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College as a member of the Midwest Athletic Association (MAA) during the 1949 college football season. In their sixth season under head coach Henry Kean, the Tigers compiled a 9–1 record, won the MAA championship, and outscored opponents by a total of 299 to 87. The team was ranked No. 4 among the nation's black college football teams according to the Pittsburgh Courier and its Dickinson Rating System.


1949 Tennessee Volunteers football team
The 1949 Tennessee Volunteers represented the University of Tennessee in the 1949 college football season. Playing as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the team was led by head coach Robert Neyland, in his 18th year, and played their home games at Shields–Watkins Field in Knoxville, Tennessee. They finished the season with a record of seven wins, two losses, and one tie (7–2–1 overall, 4–1–1 in the SEC).


1949 Texas A&M Aggies football team
The 1949  Texas A&M Aggies football team represented Texas A&M University during the 1949 college football season.


1949 Texas Longhorns baseball team
The 1949 Texas Longhorns baseball team represented the University of Texas in the 1949 NCAA baseball season. The Longhorns played their home games at Clark Field. The team was coached by Bibb Falk in his 7th season at Texas.


1949 Texas Longhorns baseball team
The Longhorns won the College World Series, defeating the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the championship game.


1949 Texas Longhorns football team
The 1949 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas in the 1949 college football season.


1949 Texas Tech Red Raiders football team
The 1949 Texas Tech Red Raiders football team represented Texas Tech during the 1949 college football season.


1949 Texas Western Miners football team
The 1949 Texas Western Miners football team was an American football team that represented Texas Western College (now known as University of Texas at El Paso) as a member of the Border Conference during the 1949 college football season. In its fourth season under head coach Jack Curtice, the team compiled an 8–2–1 record (4–2 against Border Conference opponents), finished third in the conference, defeated Georgetown in the 1950 Sun Bowl, and outscored all opponents by a total of 292 to 113.


1949 Texas hurricane
The 1949 Texas hurricane was a tropical cyclone of the 1949 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming in the Pacific Ocean on September 27, the storm crossed into the Gulf of Mexico—one of only a handful of known storms to do so—and began to intensify. It ultimately peaked with winds corresponding to high-end Category 2 status on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale and made landfall near Freeport, Texas, on the morning of October 4. It rapidly weakened after moving inland and dissipated several days later. Damage from the storm was moderate, although the hurricane temporarily cut off the city of Galveston from the mainland. Rice crops suffered extensive damage, with losses estimated at up to $10 million (1949 USD, $109 million 2021 USD). Two people died due to the hurricane.


1949 Texas hurricane, Meteorological history
According to modern-day analysis, a tropical depression developed in the Pacific Ocean, south of El Salvador, early on September 27. It drifted northward across Central America and eastern Mexico before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico near Ciudad del Carmen on September 30. Weather reports had indicated low air pressures over the area for several days. It is relatively rare for a tropical cyclone to cross from the Pacific into the Atlantic, or vice versa, and this storm is among less than a dozen known to have officially done so. Only three other tropical cyclones have crossed from the eastern Pacific into the Gulf of Mexico.


1949 Texas hurricane, Meteorological history
The cyclone intensified into a tropical storm on October 1 and sped up slightly as it curved northwestward. A day later it became a hurricane. Subsequently, a period of rapid intensification took place, and as the cyclone approached the Texas coast on October 3, it attained peak winds of 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), equivalent to upper-end Category 2—almost Category 3—intensity. The storm moved ashore early the next day just east of Bay City with a barometric pressure estimated at 965 millibars (28.50 inHg). The storm is one of a relatively few October hurricanes to either impact or make landfall in Texas. After significantly weakening, it passed directly over Houston; the next storm to do so would be Hurricane Alicia in 1983.


1949 Texas hurricane, Meteorological history
Upon moving inland, the hurricane quickly degraded into a tropical storm within six hours of making landfall. It turned northeastward as it continued through the central United States, weakening to a tropical depression by October 5. It became extratropical the next day, yet persisted until October 7, when it is believed to have dissipated near Sheboygan, Wisconsin.


1949 Texas hurricane, Preparations and impact
Throughout 10 cities in Texas, 50,000 sought shelter in advance of the hurricane. An estimated 28,000 residents fled to shelters; around 5,000 stayed in the Houston City Auditorium. Tropical cyclone watches and warnings were issued along coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana. Pioneer Airlines removed its aircraft from Houston, while small watercraft were kept safe in port. Schools in Corpus Christi closed by October 3, as well as businesses in the threatened area.


1949 Texas hurricane, Preparations and impact
The hurricane produced gusts of 135 mph (217 km/h) just west of Freeport, accompanied by an air pressure of 28.88 inches of mercury (978 hPa) and tides of 11.4 ft (3.5 m) above normal. Precipitation from the storm was heavy, peaking at 14.5 in (370 mm) at Goodrich. Rainfall extended eastward into Louisiana, amounting to 6.81 in (173 mm) at Shreveport, Louisiana. Urban areas sustained generally light damage. In Houston, the winds shattered some store windows and distributed debris. Galveston was temporarily cut off from the mainland during the hurricane when water surpassed the city's seawall. The hurricane spawned a minor tornado which struck the community of Riceville, injuring on two children. Freeport reportedly suffered the worst damage, costing approximately $150,000.


1949 Texas hurricane, Preparations and impact
A pier at Port Aransas was largely destroyed at a cost of $10,000. The hurricane caused extensive damage to rice, cotton, and vegetable crops in the region. An estimate several days after the storm placed the total quantity of rice damaged at 500,000 bushels, totaling $10 million in monetary losses. However, Zoch (1949) reported that total damage from the storm was $6.7 million. Following the storm, thousands of automobiles in six states were affected by widespread peeling and blistering paint.


1949 Texas hurricane, Preparations and impact
The blisters, usually concentrated on the hoods, fenders and tops of vehicles, contained a small amount of water, and peeling paint was also reported on one Shreveport home. Most of the cars damaged were parked outside, and sheltered automobiles were unaffected. Although total damage from the phenomenon may have reached thousands of dollars, experts were unable to identify its cause immediately following the storm. Two deaths were attributed to the storm: a resident of Port Neches who was electrocuted, and a young woman who drowned in Matagorda Bay.


1949 Thai by-elections
By-elections were held in 19 provinces of Thailand on 5 June 1949 to elect an additional 21 members to the House of Representatives. The elections were called in order to comply with the requirement to have one representative for every 150,000 residents. At the time there were no political parties, so all candidates ran as independents.


1949 Thai by-elections
Orapin Chaiyakan was elected in Ubon Ratchathani Province, becoming the first female member of parliament in Thailand.


1949 The Citadel Bulldogs football team
The 1949 The Citadel Bulldogs football team represented The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in the 1949 college football season. J. Quinn Decker served as head coach for the fourth season. The Bulldogs played as members of the Southern Conference and played home games at Johnson Hagood Stadium.


1949 Thomas Cup
The 1949 Thomas Cup was the inaugural tournament of Thomas Cup, the most important men's badminton team competition in the world.


1949 Thomas Cup
The tournament was originally planned  for 1941-1942 (badminton seasons in the northern hemisphere traditionally ran from the autumn of one calendar year to the spring of the next), but was delayed when World War II exploded across the continents. Sir George's dream was finally realized in 1948-1949 when ten national teams participated in the first Thomas Cup competition. Three qualifying zones were established: Pan America, Europe, and the Pacific; though Malaya (now Malaysia) was the only Pacific zone participant.


1949 Thomas Cup
In a format that would last until 1984, all ties (matches between nations) would consist of nine individual matches; the victorious nation needing to win at least five of these contests. The top two singles player of each side faced both of the top two players  for the opposite side, accounting for four matches. A fifth singles match took place between the third ranked singles players for each team. Finally, two doubles pairings for each side played both of the doubles pairings of the opposite side, accounting for four more matches. Each tie was normally contested over two days, four matches on the first day and five on the next. The United States and Denmark won their respective zone qualifications and thus joined Malaya for the inter-zone ties.


1949 Thomas Cup
The inter-zone ties were held in the United Kingdom. As the tournament used a knockout system, rather than a round-robin system, Denmark was given a bye in the first round. Malaya defeated the USA 6–3 in a highly competitive match played in Glasgow, Scotland (curiously, none of the players on either side had ever seen any of the players on the other side play before). Of note, this tie marked the first of only three ever matches between the USA's Dave Freeman and Malaya's Wong Peng Soon the two greatest singles players of the early post-war period. In the final round held in Preston, England, Malaya beat Denmark 8–1 and became the first nation to win a Thomas Cup.


1949 Thomas Cup, Teams
Only three teams from three regions took part in the Inter-Zone ties. Malaya did not participate in qualification rounds but got through to the final.


1949 Thomas Cup, Knockout stages, First round
Despite only 3 teams playing in the tournament, Denmark was given a bye in the first round and went automatically into the final.


1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquakes
The 1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquakes occurred slightly more than eight hours apart on 17 December. Their epicenters were located in the east of the Chilean Tierra del Fuego Province, close to the Argentine border on the island of Tierra del Fuego.


1949 Tierra del Fuego earthquakes
The two shocks measured 7.7 and 7.6 on the moment magnitude scale and were the most powerful ever recorded in the south of Argentina and one of the most powerful in austral Chile. They were felt with intensities as high as VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and affected the settlements of Punta Arenas and Río Gallegos.


1949 Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship
The 1949 Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship was the 59th staging of the Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Tipperary County Board in 1887.


1949 Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship
Borris-Ileigh won the championship after a 4-06 to 2-01 defeat of Kickhams in the final. It was their first ever championship title overall.


1949 Titleholders Championship
The 1949 Titleholders Championship was contested from March 17–20 at Augusta Country Club. It was the 10th edition of the Titleholders Championship.


1949 Toledo Rockets football team
The 1949 Toledo Rockets football team was an American football team that represented Toledo University during the 1949 college football season. In their second and final season under head coach Skip Stahley, the Rockets compiled a 6–4 record, outscored their opponents by a combined total of 318 to 210, and lost to Mid-American Conference champion Cincinnati, 33–13, in the fourth postseason Glass Bowl game.


1949 Toledo Rockets football team
During the 1949 season, Toledo back Emerson Cole, who later played in the NFL, rushed 160 times for 1,172 yards, an average of 7.26 yards per carry. On November 12, 1949, Cole rushed for 230 yards against North Dakota. Cole's 1,172 rushing yards stood as a Toledo single-season record until 1984. The 1939 Toledo team averaged 253.8 rushing yards per game. Ed Burrus and George Miley were the team captains.


1949 Torneo di Viareggio
The 1949 winners of the Torneo di Viareggio (in English, the Viareggio Tournament, officially the Viareggio Cup World Football Tournament Coppa Carnevale), the annual youth football tournament held in Viareggio, Tuscany, are listed below.


1949 Torneo di Viareggio, Format
The 10 teams are organized in knockout rounds, all played single tie. Four teams have to play a preliminary knockout round to access quarter finals.


1949 Toronto Argonauts season
The 1949 Toronto Argonauts finished in third place in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union with a 5–7–0 record and failed to make the playoffs.


1949 Toronto municipal election
Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 1, 1949. Hiram E. McCallum was elected to his first full term as mayor.


1949 Toronto municipal election, Toronto mayor
Mayor Robert Hood Saunders had resigned in 1948 and Controller McCallum was appointed to succeed him. McCallum faced only Trotskyist Ross Dowson in winning his first full term. Dowson won almost 20% in his run, the best result the perennial candidate would ever receive and the best result for an open Trostkyist in a North American election.


1949 Toronto municipal election, Board of Control
Two sitting members of the Board of Control were defeated. Alderman E.C. Roelfson had been appointed to the Board to replace McCallum when he was made mayor. Roelofson received few votes when running, placing seventh. Also defeated was incumbent K.B. McKellar. The two new arrivals were former Alderman Leslie Saunders and former Alderman and Member of Provincial Parliament Allan Lamport.


1949 Toronto municipal election, City council
Results taken from the January 3, 1949 Toronto Star and might not exactly match final tallies.


1949 Toronto municipal election, Vacancy
Ward 1 Alderman Charles Walton resigned upon appointment to the Toronto Transportation Commission on November 29, 1949 and was not replaced.


1949 Tour de France
The 1949 Tour de France was the 36th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 30 June to 24 July. It consisted of 21 stages over 4,808 km (2,988 mi).


1949 Tour de France
The Italian team had internal problems, because Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi could both be the team leader. During the selection procedure, Coppi almost refused to start the race, but he was convinced to start. During the race, Coppi almost pulled out, because he felt he did not have full support from the team captain. In the Alps, Coppi recovered. The race was won by Coppi, with second place taken by teammate Bartali, the winner of the previous year. Coppi also won the mountains classification, while his Italian team won the team classification.


1949 Tour de France, Innovations and changes
The 1949 Tour de France marked the first time that the Tour de France had a stage finish in Spain, when it stopped in San Sebastian in the ninth stage. While the mountains had been categorised into two categories in 1948, in 1949 the third category was added.


1949 Tour de France, Teams
As was the custom since the 1930 Tour de France, the 1949 Tour de France was contested by national and regional teams. The three major cycling countries in 1949, Italy, Belgium and France, each sent a team of 12 cyclists. Other countries sent teams of 6 cyclists: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Spain. Italy and Belgium also sent two extra teams of young riders of 6 cyclists each. The French regional cyclists were divided into four teams of 12 cyclists: Île-de-France, West/North, Centre/South-West and South-East. Altogether this made 120 cyclists. There were 57 French cyclists, 22 Italian, 18 Belgian, 6 Dutch, 6 Luxembourg, 6 Spanish, 6 Swiss and 1 Polish cyclist.


1949 Tour de France, Pre-race favourites
In the previous year, Fausto Coppi refused to enter the Tour de France because of personal problems with his teammate Gino Bartali. Bartali had won the previous Tour, and was trying to equal Philippe Thys by winning the Tour three times. Coppi had won the 1949 Giro d'Italia, and wanted to be the first one to achieve the Tour-Giro double in one year. The Italian team manager Alfredo Binda convinced them two weeks before the start of the race to join forces, so both Italians were in the race.


1949 Tour de France, Route and stages
The 1949 Tour de France started on 30 June, and had four rest days, in Les Sables-d'Olonne, Pau, Cannes and Aosta. The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,770 m (9,090 ft) at the summit of the Col de l'Iseran mountain pass on stage 17.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
In the early stages, Bartali and Coppi both lost time. Before the fifth stage, Coppi and Bartali both were not in the top fifteen of the general classification.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
In that fifth stage, Coppi escaped together with the leader of the general classification, Jacques Marinelli. When they were leading by 6 minutes, Coppi and Marinelli fell in Mouen. Marinelli was not hurt and could continue, but Coppi's bike was broken. The Italian team car offered him a new one, but Coppi refused because he wanted his personal spare bike, and threatened to quit the race.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
When Bartali reached Coppi, he saw the problem, and waited. Even later, the Italian team captain Binda arrived with Coppi's spare bike, and Bartali and Coppi started to ride. Coppi started to slow down, complaining he was hungry and exhausted. Bartali decided he could not wait anymore, and rode away from Coppi. Coppi came in 18 minutes late that stage. Later that night, it became clear that Coppi had been angry because the team leader had not been following him, even though he was in the leading group. Coppi did not want to race in a team where Bartali and not he was the leader. Binda tried to convince Coppi that he had been delayed, and he succeeded in keeping Coppi in the race.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
In the Alps, Coppi recovered. In the sixteenth stage, Coppi escaped, and only Bartali followed him. It was Bartali's 35th birthday, and Coppi gave Bartali the stage victory. After that stage, Bartali was first in the general classification, with Coppi in second place, 82 seconds behind. In stage 17, Bartali and Coppi again were leading together. Around 40 km into the stage, Bartali punctured. Coppi waited for Bartali, but when Bartali later fell and twisted his ankle, team leader Binda allowed Coppi to take  off alone. Coppi did so, won the stage, and decided the race.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
That seventeenth stage finished in the Italian town Aosta. Many Italians had come to see the Tour de France, to cheer on their Italian heroes Coppi and Bartali but also to express their anger against the French cyclists, specifically Jean Robic, who had said in an interview that he could beat those Italians easily. Insults were shouted against non-Italians in the Tour, and some windows of French cars were smashed. For safety, and because there were not enough telephone connections for the journalists, most Tour officials and journalists decided to spend the night in Switzerland.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
When the Tour returned to France in the nineteenth stage to Colmar, some French spectators took revenge by throwing tomatoes and rocks towards the Italian cyclists and followers. The organisation apologised for this behavior, and the Italian cyclists accepted this apology.


1949 Tour de France, Race overview
In the rest of the race, Coppi's lead was not endangered; Coppi won the mountain time trial in stage 20, and won the Tour with a margin of more than ten minutes over Bartali.


1949 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The time that each cyclist required to finish each stage was recorded, and these times were added together for the general classification. If a cyclist had received a time bonus, it was subtracted from this total; all time penalties were added to this total. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey. Of the 120 cyclists, 55 finished the race.


1949 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
Points for the mountains classification were earned by reaching the mountain tops first. There were two types of mountain tops: the hardest ones, in category 1, gave 10 points to the first cyclist, the easier ones, in category 2, gave 5 points to the first cyclist, and the easiest ones, in category 3, gave 3 points.


1949 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The team classification was calculated by adding the times in the general classification of the best three cyclists per team. The Italy Cadets and Switzerland finished with two cyclists each, so they were not eligible for this classification.


1949 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass a point by his final residence, the "Villa Mia" in Beauvallon, Grimaud, on the French Riviera on stage 15. This prize was won by Paul Giguet. The special award for the best regional rider was won by third-placed Jacques Marinelli.


1949 Tour de France, Aftermath
As Coppi had also won the 1949 Giro d'Italia, he became the first person to achieve the Giro-Tour double.


1949 Tour de France, Aftermath
After the unrest in Aosta and Colmar, there were doubts if the Italian cyclists would return in 1950, and if that Tour should pass through Italy again. At the start of the 1950 Tour de France, the Italian team was present and the Tour was scheduled to go through Italy, but after further incidents the Italian team left the race, and the stage through Italy was rerouted.


1949 Tour de France, Aftermath
Coppi would go on to repeat the Giro-Tour double in 1952.


1949 Tour de Hongrie
The 1949 Tour de Hongrie was the 14th edition of the Tour de Hongrie cycle race and was held from 29 June to 3 July 1949. The race started and finished in Budapest. The race was won by André Labeylie.


1949 Tour de Romandie
The 1949 Tour de Romandie was the third edition of the Tour de Romandie cycle race and was held from 12 May to 15 May 1949. The race started and finished in Geneva. The race was won by Gino Bartali.


1949 Tour de Suisse
The 1949 Tour de Suisse was the 13th edition of the Tour de Suisse cycle race and was held from 30 July to 6 August 1949. The race started and finished in Zürich. The race was won by Gottfried Weilenmann.


1949 Tour of Flanders
The 33rd running of the Tour of Flanders cycling classic was held on Sunday, 10 April 1949. Italian Fiorenzo Magni won the race in an 18-man sprint before Belgians Valère Ollivier and Briek Schotte. Magni was the second non-Belgian rider to win the Tour of Flanders, as well as the first Italian. 52 of 225 riders finished.


1949 Tour of Flanders, Route
The race started in Ghent and finished in Wetteren – totaling 260 km. The course featured three categorized climbs:


1949 Tulane Green Wave football team
The 1949 Tulane Green Wave football team represented Tulane University as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) during the 1949 college football season. Led by fourth-year head coach Henry Frnka, the Green Wave played their home games at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Tulane finished the season with an overall record of 7–2–1 and a mark of 5–1 in conference play, winning the SEC title.


1949 Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team
The 1949 Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team represented the University of Tulsa during the 1949 college football season. In their fourth year under head coach Buddy Brothers, the Golden Hurricane compiled a 5–5–1 record, 1–2–1 against conference opponents, and finished in fifth place in the Missouri Valley Conference.


1949 Turkish Football Championship
The 1949 Turkish Football Championship was the 14th edition of the competition. It was held in June. Ankaragücü won their first and only national championship title by winning the Final Group in Ankara.


1949 Turkish Football Championship
The champions of the three major regional leagues (Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir) qualified directly for the Final Group. Eskişehir Demirspor qualified by winning the qualification play-off, which was contested by the winners of the regional qualification groups.


1949 U.S. National Championships (tennis)
The 1949 U.S. National Championships (now known as the US Open) was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts at the West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills in New York City, United States. The tournament ran from 26 August until 5 September. It was the 69th staging of the U.S. National Championships, and the fourth Grand Slam tennis event of the year.


1949 U.S. National Championships (tennis)
Pancho Gonzales won his second and final Grand Slam title before turning professional.


1949 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Men's Singles
Pancho Gonzales defeated  Ted Schroeder  16–18, 2–6, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4


1949 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Men's doubles
John Bromwich /  Bill Sidwell defeated  Frank Sedgman /  George Worthington 6–4, 6–0, 6–1


1949 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Women's doubles
Louise Brough /  Margaret Osborne duPont defeated  Shirley Fry /  Doris Hart 6–4, 10–8


1949 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Mixed doubles
Louise Brough /   Eric Sturgess defeated  Margaret Osborne duPont /  Bill Talbert 4–6, 6–3, 7–5


1949 U.S. National Championships – Men's Singles
Pancho Gonzales defeated Ted Schroeder 16–18, 2–6, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 1949 U.S. National Championships.


1949 U.S. National Championships – Men's Singles, Seeds
The tournament used two lists of ten players for seeding the men's singles event; one for U.S. players and one for foreign players. Pancho Gonzales is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated.


1949 U.S. National Championships – Women's Singles
Second-seeded Margaret Osborne duPont defeated Doris Hart 6–4, 6–1 in the final to win the Women's Singles tennis title at the 1949 U.S. National Championships.


1949 U.S. National Championships – Women's Singles, Seeds
The tournament used two lists of seven players for seeding the women's singles event; one for U.S. players and one for foreign players. Margaret Osborne duPont is the champion; others show in brackets the round in which they were eliminated.


1949 U.S. Open (golf)
The 1949 U.S. Open was the 49th U.S. Open, held June 9–11 at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois, a suburb northwest of Chicago. Cary Middlecoff won the first of his two U.S. Open titles, one stroke ahead of runners-up Clayton Heafner and Sam Snead. For Snead, it was the third of four second-place finishes at the only major championship he never won. Middlecoff, a dentist, won his second U.S. Open in 1956.


1949 U.S. Open (golf)
Middlecoff began the championship with a 75, but rebounded with scores of 67-69 in the next two rounds to take a one-shot lead over Buck White after 54 holes. In the final round, Middlecoff was paired with Heafner, and the two exchanged the lead several times during the round. Heafner went ahead by one after the 11th, then double-bogeyed 12 to give Middlecoff the lead. After a Heafner birdie at 13, the two were tied again.


1949 U.S. Open (golf)
Heafner then bogeyed 14 to fall one behind, a deficit he would not be able to overcome after missing a 6-footer for birdie at 18 that would have forced a Sunday playoff. Snead also had a chance to force a playoff with a birdie at the last, but his approach shot missed the green and he could only save par.


1949 U.S. Open (golf)
Byron Nelson, the 1939 champion, came out of retirement but missed the cut. He played the U.S. Open six years later in 1955, then retired for good. Two-time champion Ralph Guldahl played in his final U.S. Open. Defending champion Ben Hogan missed the tournament after being severely injured in an automobile accident in February. He returned the following year and won three of the next four U.S. Opens.


1949 U.S. Open (golf)
This was the first U.S. Open at Medinah, which returned in 1975 and 1990, both ending in 18-hole playoffs. It later hosted the PGA Championship in 1999 and 2006, both won by Tiger Woods, and the Ryder Cup in 2012.


1949 U.S. Women's Open
The 1949 U.S. Women's Open was the fourth U.S. Women's Open, held September 22–25 at Prince George's Country Club in Landover, Maryland, a suburb east of Washington, D.C.


1949 U.S. Women's Open
Louise Suggs led wire-to-wire and won the first of her two U.S. Women's Open titles, fourteen strokes ahead of runner-up Babe Zaharias, the defending champion. It was the fourth of eleven major championships for Suggs.


1949 U.S. Women's Open
The course no longer exists and is now the site of Kentland Community Center Park.


1949 UCI Road World Championships
The 1949 UCI Road World Championships took place in Copenhagen, Denmark between 20–21 August 1949.


1949 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race
The men's road race at the 1949 UCI Road World Championships was the 16th edition of the event. The race took place on Sunday 21 August 1949 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The race was won by Rik Van Steenbergen of Belgium.


1949 UCI Track Cycling World Championships
The 1949 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were the World Championship for track cycling. They took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from 22 to 28 August 1949. Five events for men were contested, 3 for professionals and 2 for amateurs.


1949 UCLA Bruins football team
The 1949 UCLA Bruins football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Los Angeles during the 1949 college football season. In their first year under head coach Red Sanders, the Bruins compiled a 6–3 record (5–2 conference) and finished in second place in the Pacific Coast Conference.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year
The 1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year was the 24th year of greyhound racing in the United Kingdom and Ireland.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Summary
The annual totalisator turnover was a healthy £85,643,207, which although the fifth highest ever recorded was also the third consecutive drop since 1946.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Summary
Another concern was the fact that there were 207 tracks operating which was 63 less than during 1934. The industry put the blame squarely on government legislation that continued to squeeze operating profits. The government however were under pressure from organisations such as the Committee of Churches and ordered a public session.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Summary
They presented evidence to the Royal Commission of Betting Lotteries and Gaming attacking all forms of betting with greyhound racing being singled out in particular, with mention of all under 18s being banned from tracks and the deduction from the totalisator to be brought down from its current percentage with no gain for promoters through the operations of the bookmakers. The session resulted in a full blown disagreement.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Summary
Narrogar Ann became only the second bitch to win the English Greyhound Derby which was also the second success in three years for the British breeders.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Tracks
Employment at National Greyhound Racing Club tracks was 4,140 permanent employees and 14,809 part-time.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
Local Interprize continued his success by winning a second consecutive Gold Collar title. The Wimbledon Two Year Old Produce Stakes offered a first prize of £900 for the 36 runner event. It was won on 22 June by Huntlawrigg, trained by Jerry Hannafin. The schedule of big races took a major hit as both the Welsh Greyhound Derby and Scottish Greyhound Derby were cancelled following problems over insufficient entries and funding. Local Interprize once again ran well in the Scurry Gold Cup but got beaten by a short head in the final to Burndennet Brook.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
Trainer Stan Martin claimed the first two places with Ballymac Ball and Magna Hasty in the Laurels. Ballymac Ball won his heat beating Eastern Madness by three lengths and setting a new fast time for the event which was also a track record at Wimbledon of 28.03 seconds. He improved this time in his semi-final with a time of 27.99 seconds, beating Trev's Jubilee by twelve lengths, with Local Interprize a further length behind.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
He was the first greyhound to break 28 seconds at Wimbledon for 500 yards and in the final won by two lengths from kennelmate Magna Hasty, he possessed the same speed as his half-brother Ballyhennessy Seal. Defending champion Good Worker finished fifth with his trainer the former Surrey cricketer Jack Daley relinquishing his licence to become a cricket coach.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
Ballymac Ball next contested the Thames Silver Salver at Southend Stadium, winning his heat and semi-final but, in the final, was beaten three lengths by Red Wind in 27.78 seconds, a new track record. Red Wind went on to win the Grand Prix. Defending champion Rio Cepretta did well to make the Oaks final again, two years after her triumph, the race was won by Still Drifting.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
Trainer Frank Davis continued his fine run in the sport and winning a major double in the October events, Red Wind had won the Grand Prix from kennelmate Drumgoon Boy and then the latter made amends by becoming Cesarewitch champion from another kennelmate Quare Caltha. The year ended with Ballymac Ball setting another track record, on 10 December, at White City over 550 yards in a time of 30.30 seconds when beating Good Worker and Narrogar Ann and on Boxing Day he went even faster in a time of 30.27, beating Red Wind, Eastern Madness and Narrogar Ann again.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
The Bob Burls trained Behattan Marquis ended the year as the leading open race winner after 14 victories. He earned £2,637 in prize money and won the Wood Lane Stakes, the Northern Flat, the Midland Flat, the Summer Cup and the Eclipse.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, News
Clapton Stadium appointed a new trainer called Sidney Clare Orton known as 'Clare', son of Sidney Orton, he had spent three years at Coventry. Fred Trevillion's put up his entire operation up for sale which consisted of his £150,000 estate including kennels for 100 greyhounds, a schooling track, farmhouse and forty acres. Trevillion would later return to the United States but later died there greatly disillusioned.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, News
At greyhound racing's premier track (White City) three new sea-food bars attract more than 4,000 customers on race nights and the track employs 14 part time staff to cope with the demand. Wimbledon introduced a new photo finish system which is unveiled by Instaprint Ltd.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Ireland
Tim 'Chubb' O’Connor bred a successful litter from a mating with his bitch Cordal Moonlight. He put her to Shaggy Lad and four of the litter Spanish Lad, Spanish Emperor, Spanish Treasure and Ardraw Moonlight excelled in coursing which prompted O'Connor to mate her again. This time it was to Rebel Abbey and resulted in a greyhound named Spanish Chestnut. Spanish Lad won the Irish Greyhound Derby and Spanish Chestnut caused a sensation when winning the Irish Laurels in early September, aged just 18 months beating Derby champion and older half-brother Spanish Lad into second place.


1949 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Ireland
Ear-marking for litters is introduced and all Irish greyhounds must be named by ten months old.


1949 UMass Redmen football team
The 1949 UMass Redmen football team represented the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 1949 college football season as a member of the Yankee Conference. The team was coached by Thomas Eck and played its home games at Alumni Field in Amherst, Massachusetts. UMass finished the season with a record of 3–5 overall and 1–1 in conference play.


1949 USC Trojans baseball team
The 1949 USC Trojans baseball team represented the University of Southern California in the 1949 NCAA baseball season. The Trojans played their home games at Bovard Field. The team was coached by Sam Barry serving his 17th year and Rod Dedeaux in his 8th year at USC.


1949 USC Trojans baseball team
The Trojans won the California Intercollegiate Baseball Association championship, the Pacific Coast Conference Tournament and advanced to the College World Series, where they were defeated by the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.


1949 USC Trojans football team
The 1949 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1949 college football season. In their eighth year under head coach Jeff Cravath, the Trojans compiled a 5–3–1 record (4–2 against conference opponents), finished in a tie for third place in the Pacific Coast Conference, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 214 to 170.


1949 USSR Chess Championship
The 1949 Soviet Chess Championship was the 17th edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 16 October to 20 November 1949 in Moscow. The tournament was won by Vassily Smyslov and David Bronstein. Mikhail Botvinnik did not participate in the championship again, he was to take a three-year break, to work on his doctorate. Semifinals tournaments were played in the cities of Moscow, Leningrad, Tbilisi and Vilnius.


1949 Ulster Grand Prix
The 1949 Ulster Grand Prix was the fifth round of the 1949 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place at the Clady Circuit.


1949 Ulster Grand Prix
British rider Leslie Graham riding an AJS won the 500 cc race from Artie Bell and Nello Pagani. The race victory for Graham, with Pagani only in third place, wrapped up the first world championship for Graham. Similarly AJS secured the constructor's title.


1949 Ulster Grand Prix
It was also the final race of the 350 cc title. British Velocette rider Freddie Frith was already world champion having achieved a perfect score and in winning the Ulster Grand Prix he completed a remarkable clean sweep, winning all five races of the championship.


1949 United Kingdom local elections
Elections in England and Wales, 1949 held during the week of 4–9 April for County Council positions, resulted in sweeping Conservative gains and correspondingly heavy Labour losses. A remarkable feature of the elections was the "dead heat" in the London County Council between Labour and the Conservatives, who each won 64 seats,  with the Liberals retaining one seat, that of Sir Percy Harris in Bethnal Green. Outside London, Labour lost its former control of Middlesex, Essex, Northumberland, and the West Riding of Yorkshire; retained control of Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, and Nottinghamshire, but won Carmarthenshire, the only county gained by Labour.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, Background
County Councils were introduced in England and Wales on 22 September 1889 by the Local Government Act of 1888. County councils were responsible for their area's strategic services, with smaller urban district councils and rural district councils responsible for other activities. The writ of the county councils did not extend everywhere: county boroughs were independent of the council for the county in which they were geographically situated, and county borough councils exercised the functions of both county councils and district councils.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, 1949 County Council election results
The England and Wales County Council elections were held the week of 4–9 April 1949. Prior to 1949 local elections were held in November, so those councillors who were due to retire in November 1948 had their terms extended to April 1949. (Local elections were later moved to the first Thursday of May.) Of the total of 3,879 vacant seats in the 62 counties in which elections were held, about half (1,938) the councillors were returned unopposed, whilst 1,941 seats were contested. The table below,  compiled by The Times newspaper, summarises the results, showing candidates returned, and individual gains and losses.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, 1949 Borough elections
There were also local elections in urban district councils, rural district councils, Municipal boroughs in London and 392 cities and towns in England and Wales in May 1949. These showed a similar advance in Conservative support to that recorded in the County Council elections.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, By-elections in 1949
There were six Parliamentary by-elections held in 1949. All were in Labour held seats and all were retained by Labour but each one showed a movement of votes away from Labour and towards the Conservatives. Cook and Ramsden comment however that there was relatively little in these by-election results to indicate the extent to which the Tories would recover lost ground in the 1950 general election.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, By-elections in 1949
However the first by-election to be held after the County and other local elections, in West Leeds on 21 July 1949,  showed the largest swing to the Conservatives in any Parliamentary contest for the previous nine months. Despite the assessment by Cook & Ramsden that the by-elections of 1949 offered little indication that the Tories would do so well in 1950, taken together with the County and other local results, a clear pattern of dissatisfaction with the Labour government can be discerned and a willingness by the electorate to turn again towards the Conservatives.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, General election prospects
After the Second World War local elections came to be accepted increasingly as barometers of the national political mood. The combined County and Borough election results offered a useful snapshot of public opinion as the Labour government elected in 1945 neared the end of its term of office.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, General election prospects, Conservative reaction
The influential Conservative peer, Lord Woolton who was chairman of the Tory party between 1946 and 1955, commented that the elections had taken place on a national scale and in effect constituted a miniature general election, indicating how opinion had changed in the country since 1945. The Conservatives especially took heart from the results. Tory leader Winston Churchill told a rally at the Royal Albert Hall that the County Council contests had seen great Conservative victories and there was a prospect of more to come. He forecast that the next general election would be ‘one of the most memorable’. Anthony Eden told the same meeting that the election results showed the electorate were moving towards the Conservative approaches of lower taxation, halting further nationalisations, providing incentives and the revival of the virtue of thrift.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, General election prospects, Labour reaction
For Labour, Herbert Morrison told supporters that it was inevitable that Labour would be unable to hold on to the gains it had made in the exceptional years of 1945–46. He said that Labour would have to learn the lessons of the election results, particularly tactical ones about how and in which constituencies the Tories chose to fight the hardest and put the greatest resources.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, General election prospects, Labour reaction
This was a theme taken up in The Times leader of 14 May 1949 when it was commented that the Conservative Party machine had made great strides under Lord Woolton's direction and was now capable of enthusing its supporters and getting them to the polls in great numbers. However, in policy terms Morrison seemed reluctant to learn lessons, saying Labour needed more of the same and arguing for further attacks on ‘powerful vested interests’ to transform great private economic interests into public concerns, a call for more nationalisation and state regulation.


1949 United Kingdom local elections, General election prospects, Liberal reaction
As for the Liberals, they had read the writing on the wall. In late 1949 they persuaded Lloyd's of London to insure their candidates’ deposits for the next general election. For the sum of £5,000 Lloyds agreed to pay for all deposits lost after the first 50 up to 250. This turned out to be a shrewd deal as 319 of the 475 candidates the Liberal Party put up at the 1950 general election lost their deposits, amounting to two thirds of the total number of candidates standing.


1949 United States House of Representatives elections
There were five special elections to the United States House of Representatives in 1949, during the 81st United States Congress.


1949 United States Senate special election in New York
The United States Senate special election of 1949 in New York was held on November 8, 1949. On June 28, 1949, incumbent senator Robert F. Wagner resigned due to ill health. On July 7, John Foster Dulles was appointed by Governor Thomas Dewey to fill the vacancy temporarily.


1949 United States Senate special election in New York
The Republican State Committee nominated Dulles to succeed himself. The Democratic State Committee nominated former Governor Herbert H. Lehman. The Liberal Party endorsed Lehman. The American Labor Party made no nominations and urged its members not to vote for any candidate. The Democratic/Liberal ticket was elected and Dulles was defeated.


1949 United States gubernatorial elections
United States gubernatorial elections were held on 8 November 1949, in two states. In New Jersey, the governor was elected to a 4-year term for the first time, instead of a 3-year term.


1949 Uruguayan Primera División, Overview
It was contested by 10 teams, and Peñarol won the championship.


1949 Utah Redskins football team
The 1949 Utah Redskins football team represented the University of Utah during the 1949 college football season.


1949 Utah Redskins football team, After the season, NFL Draft
Utah had one player selected in the 1950 NFL Draft.


1949 Utah State Aggies football team
The 1949 Utah State Aggies football team was an American football team that represented Utah State University in the Skyline Six Conference during the 1949 college football season. In their first season under head coach George Melinkovich, the Aggies compiled a 3–7 record (1–3 against Skyline opponents), finished fifth in the Skyline Six Conference, and were outscored by opponents by a total of 211 to 105.


1949 Utah State Aggies football team
Prior the 1949 season, Dick Romney retired as Utah State's head football coach after 30 years in the position.


1949 VFA season
The 1949 Victorian Football Association season was the 68th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, which defeated Oakleigh by three points in the Grand Final on 1 October. It was the fifth premiership won by the club.


1949 VFA season
During the season, the Association agreed to join the Australian National Football Council, effective from the 1950 season, ending a decade of division in Victorian football. Consequently, it was the final season in which the throw-pass was legal in the Association.


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, Background
During the 1940s, unity of football control within Victoria had been a topic of regular discussion. The two football bodies in Victoria had been divided since 1938, when the Association broke away from Australian National Football Council. In the following decade, the Association had introduced a number of rule changes, most notably legalising throwing of the football in general play, while the ANFC-affiliated Victorian Football League was bound by the national rules; and, there was no player transfer agreement between the two bodies, allowing players to switch codes without a clearance.


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, Background
By standing alone, the Association's throw-pass innovation and aggressive recruiting of League stars substantially boosted its attendances during the 1940s. However, the schism was problematic for Australian rules football as a whole: the poaching of players from one body by the other was undermining public opinion, giving other sports the opportunity to attract disenchanted fans; and, the lack of a consistent code of rules made it more difficult to spread the game to other parts of the country.


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, Background
The VFL, VFA and ANFC all believed that the sport would benefit from unified control in Victoria, and there were regular discussions between the VFA and VFL during the early 1940s seeking amalgamation; none were successful. In the late 1940s, the VFA began looking at obtaining a seat on the ANFC as a means of unifying football control while maintaining its independence.


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, 1949 player transfer reciprocity agreement
No arrangement for affiliation to the ANFC was reached for the 1949 season, but in March the VFA and VFL reached a separate bilateral agreement to recognise the validity of each other's clearances, effective from the start of the 1949 season. The new agreement meant that League players were not legally permitted to play in the Association without a clearance from their League clubs, or vice versa; prior to the agreement, players who switched competitions without a clearance received a suspension which was binding only in his former competition.


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, 1949 player transfer reciprocity agreement
By the end of the season, both the League and the Association had agreed to lift any active suspensions which players had received for switching codes without a clearance.


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, Affiliation with the ANFC
The Association formally agreed to affiliate with the ANFC in August 1949. Under the terms of the affiliation:


1949 VFA season, Australian National Football Council affiliation, Affiliation with the ANFC
The motion to affiliate was passed on 8 August 1949 by a majority of 18–7. Delegates representing Oakleigh, Williamstown and Yarraville voted against the motion. The Association remained affiliated with the ANFC until it was expelled in March 1970 for playing League players without an endorsed clearance.


1949 VFA season, Premiership
The home-and-home season was played over twenty-one matches, before the top four clubs contested a finals series under the Page–McIntyre system to determine the premiers for the season.


1949 VFL Grand Final
The 1949 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Essendon Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 24 September 1949. It was the 53rd annual grand final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1949 VFL season. The match, attended by 88,718 spectators, was won by Essendon by 73 points, marking that club's ninth premiership victory.


1949 VFL Grand Final
It was Essendon's fourth successive grand final appearance, having won the 1946 VFL Grand Final but finishing runners-up the previous two years. Star Bombers full-forward John Coleman, in his first season of VFL Football, kicked six goals for the game, the last of which brought up his 100th goal for the year.


1949 VFL season
The 1949 Victorian Football League season was the 53rd season of the elite Australian rules football competition.


1949 VFL season, Premiership season
In 1949, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man. A player could be substituted for any reason; however, once substituted, a player could not return to the field of play under any circumstances.


1949 VFL season, Premiership season
Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 19 rounds; matches 12 to 19 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 8.


1949 VFL season, Premiership season
Once the 19 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1949 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.


1949 VPI Gobblers football team
The 1949 VPI Gobblers football team represented Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the 1949 college football season. The team was led by their head coach Robert McNeish and finished with a record of one win, seven losses and two ties (1–7–2).


1949 VPI Gobblers football team, Players
The following players were members of the 1949 football team according to the roster published in the 1950 edition of The Bugle, the Virginia Tech yearbook.


1949 Valdostan regional election
The Valdostan regional election of 1949 took place on 24 April 1949. The National Liberation Committee of Italy had granted in 1946 a special autonomy to Aosta Valley, later confirmed by the Italian Constitution of 1948.


1949 Vanderbilt Commodores football team
The 1949 Vanderbilt Commodores football team represented Vanderbilt University during the 1949 college football season. The team's head coach was Bill Edwards, who served his first season as the Commodores' head coach. Vanderbilt went 5–5 with a record of 4–4 in Southeastern Conference play. The Commodores played their six home games at Dudley Field in Nashville, Tennessee.


1949 Vermont Catamounts football team
The 1949 Vermont Catamounts football team represented the Vermont Catamounts football team of the University of Vermont during the 1949 college football season. Despite a 2–0 conference record, the league title was awarded to both Connecticut and Maine, who finished with 2–0–1 league records, with their tie coming against each other.


1949 Victorian Legislative Council election
Elections were held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 18 June 1949 to elect 17 of the 34 members of the state's Legislative Council for six year terms. MLCs were elected in single-member provinces using preferential voting.


1949 Victorian Legislative Council election, Results, Legislative Council
Victorian Legislative Council election, 18 June 1949Legislative Council << 1946–1952 >>


1949 Victorian Legislative Council election, Retiring Members
Note: Sir George Goudie (Country, North Western) had died prior to the election; no by-election was held.


1949 Victorian Legislative Council election, Candidates
Sitting members are shown in bold text. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour. Where there is possible confusion, an asterisk (*) is also used.


1949 Villanova Wildcats football team
The 1949 Villanova Wildcats football team represented the Villanova University during the 1949 college football season. The head coach was Jim Leonard, coaching his first season with the Wildcats. The team played their home games at Villanova Stadium in Villanova, Pennsylvania.


1949 Virginia Cavaliers football team
The 1949 Virginia Cavaliers football team represented the University of Virginia during the 1949 college football season. The Cavaliers were led by fourth-year head coach Art Guepe and played their home games at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia. They competed as independents. Opening the year with seven straight victories, Virginia climbed to ninth in the AP Poll. They lost their final two games of the year, including to rival North Carolina, to finish 7–2.


1949 Virginia gubernatorial election
In the 1949 Virginia gubernatorial election, incumbent Governor William M. Tuck, a Democrat, was unable to seek re-election due to term limits. Virginia State Senator John S. Battle was nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Republican Walter Johnson.


1949 Volta a Catalunya
The 1949 Volta a Catalunya was the 29th edition of the Volta a Catalunya cycle race and was held from 18 September to 25 September 1949. The race started in Montjuïc and finished in Barcelona. The race was won by Émile Rol.


1949 WANFL season
The 1949 WANFL season was the 65th season of senior football in Perth, Western Australia.


1949 Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball team
The 1949 Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball team represented Wake Forest College in the 1949 NCAA baseball season. The team was coached by Lee Gooch in his second season as head coach at Wake Forest.


1949 Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball team
The Demon Deacons reached the College World Series, finishing as the runner up to Texas.


1949 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team
The 1949 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team was an American football team that represented Wake Forest University during the 1949 college football season. In its 13th season under head coach Peahead Walker, the team compiled a 4–6 record and finished in a three-way tie for ninth place in the Southern Conference.


1949 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team
Back Bill Gregus and guard Ray Cicia were selected by the Associated Press as first-team players on the 1949 All-Southern Conference football team.


1949 Walker Cup
The 1949 Walker Cup, the 12th Walker Cup Match, was played on August 19 and 20, 1949, on the West course at Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, New York. The United States won by 10 matches to 2.


1949 Walker Cup, Format
Four 36-hole matches of foursomes were played on Friday and eight singles matches on Saturday. Each of the 12 matches was worth one point in the larger team competition. If a match was all square after the 36th hole extra holes were not played. The team with most points won the competition. If the two teams were tied, the previous winner would retain the trophy.


1949 Walker Cup, Teams
Ten players for the United States and Great Britain & Ireland participated in the event. Great Britain & Ireland had a playing captain, while the United States had a non-playing captain. Laddie Lucas, the Great Britain and Ireland playing captain, did not select himself or Bunny Millward for any of the matches.


1949 Washington Huskies football team
The 1949 Washington Huskies football team was an American football team that represented the University of Washington during the 1949 college football season. In its second season under head coach Howard Odell, the team compiled a 3–7 record, finished in a tie for sixth place in the Pacific Coast Conference, and was outscored by its opponents by a combined total of 285 to 167. Chuck Olson was the team captain.


1949 Washington Huskies football team, NFL Draft selections
Two University of Washington Huskies were selected in the 1950 NFL Draft, which lasted 30 rounds with 391 selections.


1949 Washington Redskins season
The 1949 Washington Redskins season was the franchise's 18th season in the National Football League  The team failed to improve on their 7–5 record from 1948 and finished 4-7-1.


1949 Washington Redskins season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1949 Washington Senators season
The 1949 Washington Senators, the 49th edition of the Major League Baseball franchise, won 50 games, lost 104, and finished in eighth and last place in the American League. It was the worst showing by the Washington club in 40 years, since the 1909 Senators lost 113 games. The team was managed by Joe Kuhel; it played its home games at Griffith Stadium, where it drew 770,745 fans, seventh in the circuit.


1949 Washington Senators season
The Senators actually won 25 of their first 45 games and stood in third place after Sunday, June 5, 1949. But they would win only 25 games more all season, playing at an abysmal .229 rate over their last 109 contests. In today's 162-game schedule, that would have resulted in a 37–125 mark, surpassing the 1962 Mets' record for futility. At year's end, manager Kuhel would be replaced by Bucky Harris, the Senators' 1924 "boy wonder" manager, now 53, returning for a third term as skipper of the Senators.


1949 Washington Senators season, Regular season
On September 28, Senators pitcher Ray Scarborough ended Ted Williams' streak of most consecutive games reaching base safely at 84 games. Scarborough gave up just four hits in a 4–1 complete game win over the Boston Red Sox. Johnny Pesky made the final out with Williams on deck.


1949 Washington Senators season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1949 Washington Senators season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1949 Washington Senators season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1949 Washington Senators season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1949 Washington Senators season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1949 Washington State Cougars football team
The 1949 Washington State Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Washington State College during the 1949 college football season. In his fifth and final year as head coach, Phil Sarboe led the team to a 2–6 mark in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) and 3–6 overall.


1949 Washington State Cougars football team
The Cougars' four home games were played on campus in Pullman at Rogers Field, with a nearby road game in Moscow against Palouse neighbor Idaho. Washington State opened with two wins at home but ended the season on a four-game losing streak.


1949 Washington State Cougars football team
Sarboe resigned after the season in early December, then coached at North Central High School in Spokane. He was succeeded at WSC in late January by 31-year-old Forest Evashevski, the backfield coach at Michigan State under Biggie Munn and a former back at Michigan under Fritz Crisler.


1949 Waterford Senior Hurling Championship
The 1949 Waterford Senior Hurling Championship was the 49th staging of the Waterford Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Waterford County Board in 1897.


1949 Waterford Senior Hurling Championship
On 16 October 1949, Mount Sion won the championship after a 4-08 to 0-06 defeat of Clonea in the final. This was their 7th championship title overall and their second title in succession.


1949 Wayne Tartars football team
The 1949 Wayne Tartars football team represented Wayne University (later renamed Wayne State University) as an independent during the 1949 college football season. Under first-year head coach Louis F. Zarza, the team compiled a 3–5 record.


1949 West German federal election
Federal elections were held in West Germany on 14 August 1949 to elect the members of the first Bundestag, with a further eight seats elected in West Berlin between 1949 and January 1952 and another eleven between February 1952 and 1953. They were the first free federal elections in West Germany since 1933 and the first after the division of the country.


1949 West German federal election, Campaign
After World War II, the German Instrument of Surrender and the country's division into four Allied occupation zones, the elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany, established under occupation statute in the three Western zones with the proclamation of its Basic Law by the Parlamentarischer Rat assembly of the West German states on 23 May 1949. Most West German parties at the time of the 1949 Bundestag election were committed to democracy, but they disagreed on what kind of democracy West Germany should become.


1949 West German federal election, Campaign
The Christian Democratic (CDU) leader, 73-year-old Konrad Adenauer, former mayor of Cologne and party chairman in the British Zone since March 1946, believed in moderate, non-denominational and Christian democracy, social market economy and integration with the West. In 1948 he had become president of the Parlamentarischer Rat, an office that added to his popularity as protagonist of a "state-to-be".


1949 West German federal election, Campaign
The Social Democratic (SPD) leader, Kurt Schumacher, wanted a united, democratic and socialist Germany. Schumacher had heavily agitated against the forced merger of the Communist Party (KPD) and SPD (both in the Soviet occupation zone) into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and he had also turned the party's course away from the working class advocacy group of the Weimar Republic towards a left-wing big tent party with distinct patriotic features. He constantly accused Adenauer of betraying national interests (see, for example, Bjöl, Grimberg's History of the Nations), culminating in his heckle at the Bundestag session of 25 September 1949: "The Chancellor of the Allies! ".


1949 West German federal election, Results
In the end and to the great disappointment of the Social Democrats, the CDU/CSU outnumbered them by 31.0% to 29.2% of the votes cast. Enough participating West Germans favoured Adenauer's and his coalition partners' – the liberal Free Democrats' (FDP) and the conservative German Party's (DP) – policies and promises over Schumacher's and the other left-wingers' policies to give the centre-right parties a slight majority of deputies.


1949 West German federal election, Results
To enter the Bundestag, a party had to surmount a threshold of 5% at least in one of the states or to win at least one electoral district; ten parties succeeded. A number of non-voting members (elected in 1949:2 CDU, 5 SPD, 1 FDP; joined in February 1952 by: 3 CDU, 4 SPD, 4 FDP) indirectly elected by the West Berlin legislature (Stadtverordnetenversammlung) are included below in parentheses. The French Saar Protectorate did not participate in this election.


1949 West German federal election, Post-election
Schumacher had explicitly refused a grand coalition and led his party into opposition, where it would remain until December 1966, assuming the chair of the SPD parliamentary group as minority leader. On 12 September 1949, he lost the German presidential election, defeated by FDP chairman Theodor Heuss in the second ballot. Schumacher died on 20 August 1952 of the long-term consequences of his concentration camp imprisonment during the Nazi years.


1949 West German federal election, Post-election
Adenauer had favoured the formation of a smaller centre-right coalition from the beginning. Nominated by the CDU/CSU faction, he was elected the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on 15 September 1949 by an absolute majority of 202 of 402 votes. Adenauer had ensured that the votes of the predominantly Social Democrat West Berlin deputies did not count and later stated that he "naturally" had voted for himself. On 20 September, he formed the Cabinet Adenauer I of CDU/CSU, FDP, and DP ministers. Chosen as an interim Chancellor, he held the office until 1963, being re-elected three times (in 1953, in 1957 and in 1961).


1949 West German presidential election
The election of the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany (officially the 1st Federal Convention) was held on 12 September 1949, following the first Bundestag election of 14 August 1949 and coalition talks/ negotiations between CDU/CSU, FDP and German Party (DP).


1949 West German presidential election
The FDP leader Theodor Heuss, who was nominated by CDU/CSU and FDP by agreement of the partners of the ruling coalition, was elected by the Federal Convention (composed of all members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates selected by the state legislatures).


1949 West German presidential election
Under the 1949 Basic Law, the new office of the Federal President was given fewer powers than the preceding office of Reich President, due to the bad experiences of the past, especially the abuse of emergency powers. Heuss therefore assumed a largely ceremonial role. However, his duties included the nomination of the first Federal Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. Federal President Heuss took the oath of office in front of Bundestag and Bundesrat the same day of his election, on 12 September 1949.


1949 West Texas State Buffaloes football team
The 1949 West Texas State Buffaloes football team was an American football team that represented West Texas State College (now known as West Texas A&M University) in the Border Conference during the 1949 college football season. In its third season under head coach Frank Kimbrough, the team compiled a 5–4 record (3–2 against conference opponents) and outscored opponents by a total of 249 to 170.


1949 West Virginia Mountaineers football team
The 1949 West Virginia Mountaineers football team was an American football team that represented West Virginia University as an independent during the 1949 college football season. In its second and final season under head coach Dudley DeGroot, the team compiled a 4–6–1 record and was outscored by a total of 275 to 227. The team played its home games at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia. Peter Zinaich was the team captain.


1949 West Virginia State Yellow Jackets football team
The 1949 West Virginia State Yellow Jackets football team was an American football team that represented West Virginia State University as a member of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) during the 1949 college football season. In their fifth season under head coach Mark Cardwell, the team compiled an 8–0–1 record and outscored opponents by a total of 197 to 79. The team ranked No. 3 among the nation's black college football teams according to the Pittsburgh Courier and its Dickinson Rating System. The team played its home games at Lakin Field in Institute, West Virginia.


1949 West Virginia State Yellow Jackets football team
Key players included quarterback Joe Gilliam, fullback Oliver Ellis, halfbacks Alfred Graves, Charlie Fairfax, and Jack Taylor, ends Clarence "Bump" Clark, Horace Christian, and John Gist, tackle Ed Wickliffe, and kicker Alfred Melchor.


1949 Western Michigan Broncos football team
The 1949 Western Michigan Broncos football team represented Western Michigan College of Education (later renamed Western Michigan University) in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) during the 1949 college football season. In their eighth season under head coach John Gill, the Broncos compiled a 4–4 record (2–3 against MAC opponents), finished in fourth place in the MAC, and outscored their opponents, 148 to 123. The team played its home games at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan.


1949 Western Michigan Broncos football team
Guard Bob Carlson was the team captain. Safety George Dunn received the team's most outstanding player award.


1949 Western Reserve Red Cats football team
The 1949 Western Reserve Red Cats football team represented the Western Reserve University in the American city of Cleveland, Ohio, now known as Case Western Reserve University, during the 1949 college football season. The Red Cats were a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC).


1949 Western Reserve Red Cats football team
The team was coached by Mike Scarry, a former Cleveland Browns player who played under and learned his coaching style from Paul Brown. Assistant coaches were Dick Luther and Lou Zontini.


1949 Western Reserve Red Cats football team
1949 was the last season both Western Reserve University and Case Institute of Technology used League Park for their home football games, relocating to Shaw Stadium in 1950. In fact, the Thanksgiving Day rivalry game on November 24, 1949 was the final football game ever played at League Park.


1949 Wichita Shockers football team
The 1949 Wichita Shockers football team was an American football team that represented Wichita University (now known as Wichita State University) as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference during the 1949 college football season. In its first season under head coach Jim Trimble, the team compiled a 3–6–1 record (2–3–1 against conference opponents), finished fourth out of seven teams in the MVC, and outscored opponents by a total of 212 to 211. The team played its home games at Veterans Field, now known as Cessna Stadium.


1949 Wightman Cup
The 1949 Wightman Cup was the 21st edition of the annual women's team tennis competition between the United States and Great Britain. It was held at the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States.


1949 Wilkes 200
The 1949 Wilkes 200 was a NASCAR Strictly Stock Series racing event that took place on October 16, 1949.


1949 Wilkes 200
Ten thousand people would attend this live racing event where Kenneth Wagner qualified for the race with a pole position speed of 57.563 miles per hour (92.639 km/h) – the equivalent of 31.27 seconds. The entire race took place on a dirt track spanning 0.500 miles (0.805 km) per lap. Weather conditions for the race were recorded at nearby Hickory Regional Airport; a public airport located three miles (5 km) west of the central business district of nearby Hickory, North Carolina.


1949 Wilkes 200, Summary
This would be the final race of the 1949 NASCAR season and would take place at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.


1949 Wilkes 200, Summary
Bob Flock would defeat Lee Petty by an entire football field – 100 yards (91 m) – to win NASCAR's first racing event with an established name. Flock would earn a mere $1,500 in prize winnings ($16,315.38 when inflation is taken into effect). Frank Mundy would receive a last-place finish for only finishing 38 laps out of the mandated 200 laps. Bill Blair would lead the most laps in this race with 180 laps led out of 200.


1949 Wilkes 200, Summary
Red Byron would go on to win NASCAR's first ever championship while Sara Christian would become one of its first female drivers. Byron almost became a cripple after being shot by an enemy fighter plane while serving as a tail gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber during World War II. He spent two years in military hospitals rehabilitating his leg so that he could compete in NASCAR after the war ended.


1949 Wilkes 200, Summary
Notable crew chiefs who actively participated in the race were Buddy Elliott, Julian Petty, Buddy Helms, Red Vogt, and Cliff Rainwater.


1949 Wilkes 200, Summary
While Red Byron and Lee Petty were the better drivers of the 1949 NASCAR Cup Series season, Bill Blair was the most consistent driver along with Petty.


1949 William & Mary Indians football team
The 1949 William & Mary Indians football team represented the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia during the 1949 college football season. The 1940s was the most successful decade in William & Mary football history. The Indians amassed more wins than any other decade (and this includes a non-existent 1943 season due to World War II), had the largest positive-point differential, won two conference championships and qualified for back-to-back bowl games in 1947 and 1948. There were 24 National Football League (NFL) Draft selections, which is the most all-time for William & Mary in a single decade. Additionally, the 1940s was the only decade in which William & Mary was an Associated Press nationally ranked team as a major college football team.


1949 Wimbledon Championships
The 1949 Wimbledon Championships took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament was held from Monday 20 June until Saturday 2 July. It was the 63rd staging of the Wimbledon Championships, and the third Grand Slam tennis event of 1949. Ted Schroeder and Louise Brough won the singles titles.


1949 Wimbledon Championships
A record 25,000 people attended the opening day of the championships. Centre Court was fully restored and renovated for the championships in 1949, having suffered bomb damage during The Blitz in the Second World War. Women officiated as lines judges on Centre Court for the first time in 1949. The Men's Singles champion received the winners' trophy on Centre Court for the first time.


1949 Wimbledon Championships, Finals, Seniors, Men's Singles
Ted Schroeder defeated  Jaroslav Drobný, 3–6, 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4


1949 Wimbledon Championships, Finals, Seniors, Men's Doubles
Pancho Gonzales /  Frank Parker defeated  Gardnar Mulloy /  Ted Schroeder, 6–4, 6–4, 6–2


1949 Wimbledon Championships, Finals, Seniors, Women's Doubles
Louise Brough /  Margaret duPont defeated  Gussie Moran /  Pat Todd, 8–6, 7–5


1949 Wimbledon Championships, Finals, Seniors, Mixed Doubles
Eric Sturgess /  Sheila Summers defeated  John Bromwich /  Louise Brough, 9–7, 9–11, 7–5


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Boys' Singles
Staffan Stockenberg defeated John Horn in the final, 6–2, 6–1 to win the Boys' Singles tennis title at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Girls' Singles
Christiane Mercelis defeated Violette Rigollet in the final, 6–4, 6–2 to win the Girls' Singles tennis title at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Doubles
John Bromwich and Frank Sedgman were the defending champions, but lost in the quarterfinals to Budge Patty and Eric Sturgess.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Doubles
Pancho Gonzales and Frank Parker defeated Gardnar Mulloy and Ted Schroeder in the final, 6–4, 6–4, 6–2 to win the Gentlemen' Doubles tennis title at the 1949 Wimbledon Championship.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Doubles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles
Ted Schroeder defeated Jaroslav Drobný in the final, 3–6, 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4 to win the Gentlemen's Singles tennis title at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships. Bob Falkenburg was the defending champion, but lost in the quarterfinals to John Bromwich.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Mixed Doubles
Eric Sturgess and Sheila Summers defeated the defending champions John Bromwich and Louise Brough in the final, 9–7, 9–11, 7–5 to win the Mixed Doubles tennis title at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Mixed Doubles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Doubles
Louise Brough and Margaret duPont successfully defended their title, defeating Gussie Moran and Pat Todd in the final, 8–6, 7–5 to win the Ladies' Doubles tennis title at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships.


1949 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Doubles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.