1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 2: Army
On October 7, 1961, Michigan defeated Army, 38-8, before a crowd of 65,012 at Michigan Stadium. Michigan's point total was its highest in 39 games, dating back to 1956. Michigan touchdowns were scored by Dave Raimey (13-yard run), Bennie McRae (47-yard run), Bill Tunnicliff (three-yard run), Bruce McLenna (seven-yard run), and Bob Brown (36-yard pass from Bob Chandler). Doug Bickle added a field goal and five extra points.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 3: Michigan State
On October 14, 1961, Michigan (ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll) lost to Michigan State (ranked No. 5), 28-0, before a crowd of 103,198 and a national television audience at Michigan Stadium. The Spartans led, 14-0, at the end of the first quarter and 21-0 at halftime. Michigan was held to 92 rushing yards and 84 passing yards.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 4: Purdue
On October 21, 1961, Michigan defeated Purdue, 16–14, before a crowd of 66,805 at Michigan Stadium. Michigan opened the scoring with a safety in the first quarter, when Purdue fumbled a pitchout in the end zone. Dave Raimey also scored in the opening quarter on a one-yard run. Bennie McRae caught six passes for 144 yards, including a touchdown reception that covered 72 yards in the third quarter.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 5: at Minnesota
On October 28, 1961, Michigan lost to Minnesota, 23–20, at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Michigan led, 20-8, through the first three quarters as Tunnicliff ran eight yards for a touchdown and Dave Raimey scored twice on runs of 27 and four yards. Late in the fourth quarter, Michigan stopped a Minnesota drive at the nine-yard line, but Bennie McRae fumbled on the first play after Michigan took over, and Minnesota scored the winning touchdown with one minute and 24 seconds remaining.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 6: Duke
On November 4, 1961, Michigan defeated 1961 ACC champion Duke, 28–14, before a crowd of 56,488 at Michigan Stadium. Bennie McRae scored three touchdowns on a five-yard run in the first quarter, a 15-yard pass from Dave Glinka in the second quarter, and a 34-yard interception return in the second quarter. Dave Raimey also rushed for 116 yards on 15 carries.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 7: at Illinois
On November 11, 1961, Michigan defeated Illinois, 38–6, before a crowd of 40,179 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. The outcome was the second consecutive Michigan victory in the seven-year rivalry between head coaching brothers Bump Elliott and Pete Elliott. Michigan played all 38 players who traveled to Champaign in an effort to keep the score down. Michigan gained 309 rushing yards and held Illinois to 55 rushing yards. Dave Raimey began the scoring on a 54-yard punt return. J. Paul Raeder scored two touchdowns, and George Mans caught a touchdown pass from Dave Glinka.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 8: Iowa
On November 18, 1961, Michigan defeated Iowa, 23–14, before a crowd of 61,925 at Michigan Stadium. Iowa was led by first-year head coach Jerry Burns who had played quarterback for Michigan. Michigan lost Bennie McRae with a shoulder separation in the first quarter, and Iowa took a 14-3 lead at halftime. Michigan rallied with three unanswered touchdowns in the second half. Dave Glinka ran 44 yards for his first collegiate touchdown. Dave Raimey totaled 102 rushing yards and scored on a one-yard run (set up by a 54-yard run by Harvey Chapman).


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 8: Iowa
Glinka threw a touchdown pass to Bob Brown that covered 20 yards. Iowa was held to two first downs and negative 16 rushing yards in the second half. Michigan outgained Iowa by 266 rushing yards to 97. In the Detroit Free Press, Joe Falls praised the courage of Bump Elliott's team and called the game "Elliott's finest victory of the season."


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Week 9: Ohio State
On November 25, 1961, Michigan lost to Ohio State, 50-20, before a crowd of 80,444 at Michigan Stadium. Ohio State fullback Bob Ferguson scored four touchdowns in the game. The Buckeyes' 50 points was the fourth highest point total allowed by a Michigan team up to that time, with two of the prior occasions occurring in the 1890s. Michigan's three touchdowns were scored on a 90-yard kickoff return by Dave Raimey and one-yard runs by Bruce McLenna and James Ward.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Post-season
At the end of the 1961 season, center and linebacker John Walker received the team's most valuable player award.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Season summary, Post-season
Halfback Bennie McRae received first-team honors from both the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) on the 1961 All-Big Ten Conference football team. Halfback Dave Raimey received second-team honors from the AP and UPI, and fullback Bill Tunicliff received second team honors from the UPI.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Statistical leaders
Michigan's individual statistical leaders for the 1961 season include those listed below.


1961 Michigan Wolverines football team, Personnel, Letter winners
The following 40 players received varsity letters for their participation on the 1961 team. Players who started at least four games are shown with their names in bold.


1961 Midlothian County Council election
Elections to Midlothian County Council were held on 10 May 1961. Midlothian was one of the four divisions that made up the historic region of Lothian in Scotland. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 established Midlothian as an administrative county, governed by a County Council.


1961 Midlothian County Council election
The county was divided into 39 electoral divisions, each of which returned one member. In 1961 there were contests in 16 of these.


1961 Midlothian County Council election
Following the election the council was composed of 30 Labourites, 8 Moderates, and a single Communist.


1961 Milan–San Remo
The 1961 Milan–San Remo was the 52nd edition of the Milan–San Remo cycle race and was held on 19 March 1961. The race started in Milan and finished in San Remo. The race was won by Raymond Poulidor.


1961 Milwaukee Braves season
The 1961 Milwaukee Braves season was the ninth in Milwaukee and the 91st overall season of the franchise.


1961 Milwaukee Braves season
The fourth-place Braves finished the season with an 83–71 (.539) record, ten games behind the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. The home attendance at County Stadium was 1,101,411, fifth in the eight-team National League. It was the Braves' lowest attendance to date in Milwaukee, and was the last season surpassing one million fans.


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Regular season
On April 28, Warren Spahn threw a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants.


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Regular season
On June 8, against the Cincinnati Reds, four consecutive Braves batters hit home runs off pitchers Jim Maloney (two) and Marshall Bridges (two more) in the seventh inning. The batters who accomplished this feat were Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock, and Frank Thomas. Oddly, both Adcock and Thomas were former players for the Reds.


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Regular season, Managerial turnover
Chuck Dressen, 66, was fired on September 2, less than a month shy of finishing his second year as the Braves' manager. The club was in third place at 71–58 (.550), seven games behind the league-leading Cincinnati Reds, when the change was announced after a Saturday home win over the Dodgers. The Braves were 159–124 (.562) under Dressen's command.


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Regular season, Managerial turnover
His successor was executive vice president Birdie Tebbetts, 48, a former Cincinnati manager, who came down from the Milwaukee front office to take the reins; the Braves went 12–13 (.480) under him to finish the season. Tebbetts was signed through the 1963 season but he would spend only 1962 as the Braves' skipper before leaving to become manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1963. Tebbetts retained two of Dressen's coaches, Andy Pafko and Whit Wyatt, while George Myatt departed for the American League Detroit Tigers.


1961 Milwaukee Braves 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


1961 Milwaukee Braves 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


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1961 Milwaukee Braves season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team
The 1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 1961 Big Ten Conference football season. In their eighth year under head coach Murray Warmath, the Golden Gophers were 7–2 in the regular season and won the Rose Bowl, 21–3 over UCLA; Minnesota outscored their opponents 161–78. The Golden Gophers finished sixth in both final polls (Associated Press (AP) writers poll and United Press International (UPI) coaches poll), released in early December, prior to the bowl games.


1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team
Quarterback Sandy Stephens received the team's most valuable player award, was a consensus first-team All-American, finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, was named Rose Bowl MVP, and received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football, given to the Big Ten's most valuable player. Tackle Bobby Bell was also named a first-team All-American by the FWAA, AFCA, Sporting News, and Central Press. Fullback Judge Dickson and offensive lineman Jim Wheeler were named Academic All-Big Ten.


1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team
Total attendance at six home games was 366,491, an average of 61,081, and the season high was against Purdue on November 18.


1961 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team
Days after the conclusion of the regular season, the faculty council at Ohio State University voted down participation in the Rose Bowl, and the berth went to Minnesota.


1961 Minnesota Twins season
The 1961 Minnesota Twins season was the 61st in franchise history and its first in Minneapolis–Saint Paul after it transferred from Washington following a six-decade tenure in late October 1960. The maiden edition of the Twins finished 1961 with a record of 70–90, good for seventh place in the American League, which had expanded from eight to ten teams during the 1960–61 offseason. The Twins played their home games at Metropolitan Stadium, where they set a franchise record for home attendance.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Offseason
After 60 seasons in Washington, the Senators franchise moved to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area – or, more precisely, Bloomington, Minnesota – in 1961. In honor of the cities' nickname, "The Twin Cities", the franchise changed the team's name to the Twins. As one of the conditions to allow the team to move, there would be a new Senators franchise in Washington in 1961, an expansion team that joined the league along with the Los Angeles Angels.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Opening Day
The Twins won their first-ever game, when Pedro Ramos shut out the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium on April 11. In beating the defending American League champs 6–0, Ramos out-dueled New York ace Whitey Ford, allowing just three hits and a walk. Ramos drove in two with a single himself. Bob Allison hit the first home run in Minnesota big-league history with a solo shot off Ford in the seventh inning, and Reno Bertoia followed with another homer, a two-run blast, an inning later off Ralph Terry. On April 21, the Twins lost their home opener to the expansion team that replaced them in the nation's capital, the second edition of the Senators, 5–3, before 24,606 at Metropolitan Stadium.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
The move to Minnesota immediately paid dividends at the turnstiles, where they drew 1,256,723 fans, the third highest total in the American League. The previous year in Washington, the Senators drew just 743,404 fans, worst in the league. However, the team's record went in the other direction, as they dropped from 73–81 and fifth place in 1960 to 70–90 and seventh place under the new 162-game AL schedule.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
In early June, after a losing streak that reached eleven games, Twins owner Calvin Griffith directed manager Cookie Lavagetto to take a week-long sabbatical. Two weeks after his return, Lavagetto was fired by Griffith. Cookie had been managing the club since the 1957 season. He was replaced by his first base coach Sam Mele.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
In a home Fourth of July double-header against Chicago, the Twins' Julio Bécquer hit a pinch hit grand slam home run that was the first of its kind in major league history—each run was credited to a different Chicago pitcher (Billy Pierce, Russ Kemmerer, Frank Baumann and Warren Hacker). In the second game, Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew hit an inside-the-park home run—the only one he would hit in his 573-homer career.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
Two Twins made the All-Star Game: first baseman Harmon Killebrew (both games) and pitcher Camilo Pascual (second game).


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
On August 20, pitchers Jack Kralick and Al Schroll each hit a home run against the Los Angeles Angels—the sixth and final pitching duo to do so in the same game. On September 27, Schroll took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before giving up four runs on two walks and two hits.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
Pedro Ramos was the first pitcher to lead the American League in losses for four years in a row. Both Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison topped 100 in RBI, walks and strikeouts.


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Regular season
Harmon Killebrew led the team with 46 home runs, 122 runs batted in, and 94 runs scored. Camilo Pascual led the Twins with 15 wins and a 3.46 ERA. Catcher Earl Battey won his second Gold Glove Award.


1961 Minnesota Twins 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


1961 Minnesota Twins 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


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1961 Minnesota Twins season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1961 Minnesota Vikings season
The 1961 season was the Minnesota Vikings' first in the National Football League (NFL) after being created as an expansion franchise to become the league's fourteenth team. Their inaugural regular season game was a 37–13 victory at home to the Chicago Bears; rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton came off the bench to toss four touchdown passes and run for another. However, under head coach Norm Van Brocklin, the Vikings won just two of their remaining 13 games, including a seven-game losing streak, and finished the season with a 3–11 record.


1961 Minnesota Vikings season
The Vikings' defense surrendered 5.41 rushing yards per attempt in 1961, the fifth-most of all time.


1961 Minnesota Vikings season, Offseason
Although the NFL originally had no interest in expanding, after Max Winter and Bill Boyer agreed to start an American Football League (AFL) franchise in Minnesota, the NFL approached them to change leagues. The "Vikings" name was given to the team by Ole Haugsrud, who had been given a 10% stake in the franchise as a result of having sold the Duluth Eskimos back to the league in the 1920s.


1961 Minnesota Vikings season, Regular season, Game summaries, Week 1: vs. Chicago Bears
This was the first regular season game in Vikings history. George Shaw started the game at quarterback for the Vikings, but he was soon replaced by rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton. Tarkenton threw four touchdown passes and ran for another as the Vikings won 37–13. They were the last expansion team to win their first game until the 2002 Houston Texans.


1961 Minnesota Vikings season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1961 Minnesota Vikings season, Postseason
Both halfback Hugh McElhenny and receiver (end) Jerry Reichow were voted to the East–West Pro Bowl game, played January 14, 1962, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The coach for the West squad was Vikings head coach Norm Van Brocklin. McElhenny scored a third-quarter touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, and the West won the game 31–30.


1961 Mississippi Southern Southerners football team
The 1961 Mississippi Southern Southerners football team was an American football team that represented Mississippi Southern College (now known as the University of Southern Mississippi) as an independent during the 1961 NCAA College Division football season. In their thirteenth year under head coach Thad Vann, the team compiled a 8–2 record.


1961 Mississippi State Bulldogs football team
The 1961 Mississippi State Bulldogs football team represented Mississippi State University during the 1961 NCAA University Division football season. After the season, Wade Walker was fired as head coach, but continued to be the athletic director. This was the first season that Mississippi State athletic teams were known as the Bulldogs.


1961 Missouri Tigers football team
The 1961 Missouri Tigers football team was an American football team that represented the University of Missouri in the Big Eight Conference (Big 8) during the 1961 NCAA University Division football season. The team compiled a 7–2–1 record (5–2 against Big 8 opponents), finished in a tie for second place in the Big 8, and outscored opponents by a combined total of 124 to 57. Dan Devine was the head coach for the fourth of 13 seasons. The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri.


1961 Missouri Tigers football team
The team's statistical leaders included Andy Russell with 412 rushing yards, Ron Taylor with 428 passing yards and 514 yards of total offense, Conrad Hitchler with 124 receiving yards, and Bill Tobin with 38 point scored.


1961 Modena Grand Prix
The 15th Modena Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 3 September 1961 at Modena Autodrome, Italy. The race was run over 100 laps of the circuit, and was dominated by British driver Stirling Moss in a Lotus 18/21.


1961 Modena Grand Prix
The qualifying system for this event was very unusual in that despite over 30 entrants, the starting grid was restricted to only 14 cars. Furthermore, the fastest three Italian drivers in practice would be guaranteed to start the race, regardless of how many other drivers were faster. This resulted in Innes Ireland failing to qualify despite being 13th fastest, and faster than Giorgio Scarlatti who did qualify.


1961 Modena Grand Prix
Moss took pole position, fastest lap and the win, finishing a few seconds ahead of the Porsche pairing of Jo Bonnier and Dan Gurney. Gurney led at the start, but Moss passed him on lap 11 and stayed in front.


1961 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1961 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 14 May 1961 on the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo, Monaco. It was race 1 of 8 in both the 1961 World Championship of Drivers and the 1961 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. It was also the first World Championship race under the new 1.5 litre engine regulations.


1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Report, Qualifying
The erratic yearly variations in Monaco's qualifying regulations saw grid places guaranteed for works teams and past winners in 1961. Therefore, the five works teams were awarded two places each on the grid, while Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant earned spots. This left nine drivers to fight over four remaining slots. A fifth opened up when Innes Ireland crashed during the final practice session, breaking his leg. Moss took pole position from Richie Ginther and Jim Clark, with Graham Hill and Phil Hill on the second row.


1961 Monaco Grand Prix, Report, Race
Ginther led Clark and Moss into the first corner but Clark quickly ran into trouble with a faulty fuel pump. Ginther dropped to third on lap 14, when Moss and Bonnier passed him in quick succession. At quarter distance, Moss had an impressive 10 second lead (in the underpowered Lotus 18-Climax) but the Ferraris of Hill and then Ginther found their way around Bonnier and began to close the gap. At half distance, Moss' lead was 8 seconds, and down to 3 seconds on lap 60. Ginther moved into second on lap 75 and tried to close the gap, but Moss proved able to match his lap times, despite the 156's horsepower advantage.


1961 Montana Grizzlies football team
The 1961 Montana Grizzlies football team represented the University of Montana in the 1961 NCAA University Division football season as a member of the Skyline Conference (Skyline). The Grizzlies were led by fourth-year head coach Ray Jenkins, played their home games at Dornblaser Field and finished the season with a record of two wins and six losses (2–6, 2–4 Skyline).


1961 Montana Grizzlies football team
This was the last year for the conference; the new Western Athletic Conference (WAC) debuted the next season; Montana was an independent in 1962 and a charter member of the Big Sky Conference in 1963.


1961 Montana State Bobcats football team
The 1961 Montana State Bobcats football team was an American football team that represented Montana State College (now known as Montana State University) as an independent during the 1961 NCAA College Division football season. In its fourth season under head coach Herb Agocs, the team compiled a 4–3–1 record.


1961 Montserratian general election
General elections were held in Montserrat on 2 March 1961. The result was a victory for the Montserrat Labour Party, which won five of the seven seats in the Legislative Council. MLP leader William Henry Bramble remained Chief Minister.


1961 Montserratian general election, Background
The elections followed the introduction of a new constitution in 1960, which provided for a ministerial system of government. The number of elected seats in the Legislative Council was increased from five to seven.


1961 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament
The 1961 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 24th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. The championship game featured the 13th seeded Grambling and the third seeded Georgetown. For the first time since seeding, in 1958, the third place game featured the first and second seeds, Northern Michigan, and Westminster.


1961 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament, Awards and honors
Many of the records set by the 1961 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later:


1961 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament, 1961 NAIA bracket, 3rd place game
The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist to determine third and fourth places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.


1961 NAIA Soccer Championship
The 1961 NAIA Soccer Championship was the third annual tournament held by the NAIA to determine the national champion of men's college soccer among its members in the United States.


1961 NAIA Soccer Championship
Howard defeated defending co-national champions Newark Engineering in the final, 3–2, to win their first NAIA national title.


1961 NAIA Soccer Championship
The final was played at Lock Haven State College in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.


1961 NAIA football season
The 1961 NAIA football season was the sixth season of college football sponsored by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The season was played from August to December 1961, culminating in the sixth annual NAIA Football National Championship, played this year at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California. During its three years in Sacramento, the game was called the Camellia Bowl (separate from the present day bowl game with the same name in Montgomery, Alabama).


1961 NAIA football season
Pittsburg State defeated Linfield in the championship game, 12–7, to win their second NAIA national title and first since 1957.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series
The 1961 NASCAR Grand National season was the 13th season of professional stock car racing in the United States, and contested over 52 events from November 6, 1960, to October 29, 1961. Ned Jarrett captured the championship which was run on 20 dirt tracks, 31 paved tracks, and one road course. Seventeen events were considered short tracks, and 14 events were held at super speedways. Joe Weatherly won the season opening's event at Charlotte,  and Jarrett went on to capture the championship with 27,272 points; 830 more than second-place finisher Rex White. Emanuel Zervakis finished third in points, with Joe Weatherly fourth and Fireball Roberts fifth.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Season recap
Ned Jarrett only won one race in 1961, at Birmingham, Alabama, but his consistency proved to be the winning factor in capturing the season's championship. Second place finisher, and 1960s defending champion, Rex White won 7 times throughout the season, but Jarrett's 33 top-10 finishes over 46 of the 52 events was enough to capture the points needed for the season's championship. Third place finisher Emanuel Zervakis captured 2 wins in 38 attempts, and former champion Joe Weatherly won a total of 9 times in only 25 attempts. NASCAR icon Fireball Roberts also had two victories, but only raced in 22 events.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Season recap
ABC began showing highlights of NASCAR events on its Wide World of Sports television programs in 1961. Pontiac won 30 and Cheverolet 11 times over the course of the 52 event season, giving General Motors a dominating performance. Ford managed to capture 7 victories, while Chrysler managed a 4 short track wins. After Pontiac took 5 of the top 6 finishing positions, including the top 3, at the Daytona 500, they began advertisements touting their dominating performance. Pontiac rose to 3rd in US automotive sales throughout the year.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Season recap
Joe Weatherly took the season opening win at the Southern States Fairgrounds track in Charlotte in November 1960, with Lee Petty capturing the next event at Jacksonville Speedway Park in Florida. When the series moved to Daytona in February, Weatherly and Fireball Roberts each won their respective qualifying events prior to Marvin Panch grabbing the checkered flag for the Daytona 500. On March 5, defending 1960 NASCAR champion Rex White  captured his first victory of the season at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway. Roberts, Cotton Owens, and Bob Burdick also won events throughout the month of March.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Season recap
On April 9 Fred Lorenzen, who had previously won a USAC championship, captured his first NASCAR win at Martinsville Speedway during the Virginia 500. The race was called due to rain after 159 of its scheduled 500 laps, but a follow-up race at Martinsville was then scheduled. Lorenzen followed that up with a second win, on May 6, at Darlington in the Rebel 300.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Season recap
On May 28 during the second running of the World 600 at Charlotte, future NASCAR legend David Pearson also captured his first NASCAR victory. Pearson blew a tire with more than a lap to go, but continued on to win the race even though he finished on just 3 wheels. Throughout April and May Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Lloyd Dane, and Eddie Gray all add their names to the list of winners in the 1961 season.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, Daytona 500
The third Daytona 500 in the history of NASCAR occurred on February 26, 1961. Marvin Panch won the race in more than three hours after teammate Fireball Roberts suffers a blown engine while leading. Both Lee Petty and son Richard crashed during their respective 100 mile qualifying events, forcing Petty Enterprises into a noncompetitive role for the 1961 Daytona 500. Son Richard crashed through the guardrail and suffered a sprained ankle, and while the car remained upright, the crash kept him from competing.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, Daytona 500
Lee tangled with Johnny Beauchamp when Beauchamp caught Petty's back bumper sending both cars through the guardrail with Petty's car being destroyed. Petty suffered multiple life-threatening injuries, but recovered. While Beauchamp also suffered injuries to his head, they were less serious. Fireball Roberts and Joe Weatherly each won one of the 100-mile qualifying events.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, Rebel 300
This event took place on May 6, 1961. Fred Lorenzen was the winner of this 2½ hour long race.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, World 600
This event would make David Pearson the winner on May 28, 1961, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This was Pearson's first of 105 career victories. Reds Kagle would lose a leg in this race.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, Dixie 400
The 1961 Dixie 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series racing event that was held on September 17, 1961, at Atlanta International Raceway in the American community of Hampton, Georgia.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, Dixie 400
Seven automobile manufacturers from the United States would demonstrate their fastest stock car vehicles in an attempt to impress new vehicle sales on Monday. Homologation rules during this era only allowed drivers to bring vehicles that are street-legal and driver to the track directly by the competing driver(s). A filming of a full-length feature Hollywood film entitled Thundering Wheels was a part of the festivities planned for this racing event in addition to a 210-minute performance by some of the legendary performers from the Grand Ole Opry.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, National 400
The 1961 National 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series racing event that took place on October 15, 1961, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the American community of Concord, North Carolina.


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, National 400
David Pearson, Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson would dominate the early portion of the race. This race would last for roughly three hours and twenty minutes; an audience of more than 35,000 NASCAR followers would see race cars reaching up to 120 miles per hour (190 km/h). Ken Rush was credited with the last-place finish due to problems with his rocker arm on lap 16 out of this 267-lap stock car racing event. Junior Johnson's "top ten" finish came as a result of a problem with one of his wheels on lap 256; he was destined for a "top five" finish until he encountered that problem


1961 NASCAR Grand National Series, Races, National 400
Most of the vehicles in the race were either Pontiacs or Ford. Junior Johnson, Bob Welborn and Fireball Roberts would be the joint leaders during the middle portion of the race.


1961 NBA All-Star Game
The 11th National Basketball Association All-Star Game was played on January 17, 1961, in Syracuse, New York. The coaches were Red Auerbach for the East, and Paul Seymour for the West.


1961 NBA Finals
The 1961 NBA World Championship Series was the championship series of the 1961 NBA Playoffs, which concluded the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1960–61 season. The best-of-seven series was played between the Western Conference champion St. Louis Hawks and the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics. This was the fourth and final World Championship Series meeting between the two teams. It was also Celtics' fifth straight trip to the championship series, and they won the series against the Hawks, 4–1.


1961 NBA Finals
As of the 2019–20 season, this remains the Hawks franchise’s last appearance in the NBA Finals, the second-longest drought behind the Kings franchise who last played in the NBA Finals in 1951.


1961 NBA draft
The 1961 NBA draft was the 15th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on March 27, 1961, before the 1961–62 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was eligible for selection. If a player left college early, he would not be eligible for selection until his college class graduated. In each round, the teams select in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season.


1961 NBA draft
Before the draft, a team could forfeit its first-round draft pick and then select any player from within a 50-mile radius of its home arena as their territorial pick. An expansion franchise, the Chicago Packers, were assigned the first pick of the first round and the last pick of each subsequent round, along with five extra picks at the end of the second round. The draft consisted of 15 rounds comprising 107 players selected.


1961 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
Walt Bellamy from the Indiana University was selected first overall by the Chicago Packers. Bellamy went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award in his first season and was also selected to the All-Star Game. In his rookie season, he averaged 31.6 points per game, the second highest scoring average for a rookie, and 19.0 rebounds per game, the third highest rebounding average for a rookie. He was selected to four consecutive All-Star Games during his stint with the Packers, which later became the Chicago Zephyrs and Baltimore Bullets. He then played for three other NBA teams during his 14-year career. For his achievements, he has been inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.


1961 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
Three other players from this draft, 7th pick Tom Meschery, 21st pick Don Kojis and 32nd pick Bill Bridges, have also been selected to at least one All-Star Game. Doug Moe, the 22nd pick, never played in the NBA. His contract with the Packers was voided due to his suspected involvement in the college basketball point shaving scandal. He eventually played in the American Basketball Association (ABA) for five years. He won the ABA championship in 1969 and was selected to three ABA All-Star Games and two All-ABA Teams. After his playing career, he became a head coach.


1961 NBA draft, Draft selections and draftee career notes
He coached four NBA teams and won the Coach of the Year Award in 1988 with the Denver Nuggets. Ray Scott, the 4th pick, played for the Detroit Pistons for five and a half seasons before he moved on to play with two other teams in the NBA and ABA. After retiring as a player in 1972, he immediately became a head coach. He coached the Pistons for three and a half seasons and won the Coach of the Year Award in 1974. Two other players drafted also went on to have a coaching career: 12th pick Johnny Egan and 60th pick Donnie Butcher.


1961 NBA draft, Other picks
The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one NBA game.


1961 NBA draft, Notes
^ 1: Tom Meschery (née Tomislav Mescheryakov) was born in Harbin, Manchuria (now part of China) to Russian parents. He moved to the United States at the age of 8 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen.


1961 NBA expansion draft
The 1961 NBA Expansion Draft was the inaugural expansion draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 26, 1961, so that the newly founded Chicago Packers could acquire players for the upcoming 1961–62 season. The Packers were the second NBA team from Chicago, after the Chicago Stags, which folded in 1950. The Packers later underwent several name changes and relocations before moving to Washington, D.C.. They are currently known as the Washington Wizards. In an NBA expansion draft, new NBA teams are allowed to acquire players from the previously established teams in the league. Not all players on a given team are available during an expansion draft, since each team can protect a certain number of players from being selected.


1961 NBA expansion draft
The Packers appointed four-times All-Star and former Minneapolis Lakers head coach Jim Pollard as the franchise's first head coach. The Packers selected eight unprotected players, one from each of the other NBA teams. Their selections included former second overall pick Archie Dees from the Detroit Pistons. However, he and Barney Cable only played briefly for the Packers before he was traded to the St. Louis Hawks in exchange for former first overall pick Sihugo Green, one-time All-Star Woody Sauldsberry and Joe Graboski.


1961 NBA expansion draft
Dave Budd, who was selected from the New York Knicks, was traded back to the Knicks without playing any games for the Packers. He was traded in exchange for former second overall pick Charlie Tyra and Bob McNeill. Six players from the expansion draft joined the Packers for their inaugural season, but only two played more than one season for the team. Bobby Leonard would later go on to become the team's head coach.


1961 NBA playoffs
The 1961 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1960-61 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Division champion Boston Celtics defeating the Western Division champion St. Louis Hawks 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.


1961 NBA playoffs
The Lakers made the playoffs for the first time after moving to Los Angeles. They were one game away from their first Finals in L.A. as the St. Louis Hawks defeat them.


1961 NBA playoffs
The Division Semifinals were extended from a best-of-three to a best-of-five series.


1961 NBA playoffs
For the Celtics, it was their third straight NBA title and fourth overall. This would be the last Finals appearance for the Hawks franchise to date; though they still exist in the NBA as the Atlanta Hawks, they have yet to return to the Finals as of 2020.


1961 NBA playoffs, Bracket
Bold Series winnerItalic Team with home-court advantage in NBA Finals


1961 NBA playoffs, Division Semifinals, Eastern Division Semifinals, (2) Philadelphia Warriors vs. (3) Syracuse Nationals
This was the eighth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the 76ers/Nationals winning four of the first seven meetings.


1961 NBA playoffs, Division Semifinals, Western Division Semifinals, (2) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (3) Detroit Pistons
This was the eighth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Lakers winning six of the first seven meetings when the Lakers were in Minneapolis.


1961 NBA playoffs, Division Finals, Eastern Division Finals, (1) Boston Celtics vs. (3) Syracuse Nationals
This was the eighth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Nationals winning four of the first seven meetings.


1961 NBA playoffs, Division Finals, Western Division Finals, (1) St. Louis Hawks vs. (2) Los Angeles Lakers
This was the fifth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Hawks winning three of the first four meetings while the Lakers were based in Minneapolis.


1961 NBA playoffs, NBA Finals: (E1) Boston Celtics vs. (W1) St. Louis Hawks
This was the fourth playoff meeting between these two teams, with the Celtics winning two of the first three meetings.


1961 NC State Wolfpack football team
The 1961 NC State Wolfpack football team represented North Carolina State University during the 1961 NCAA University Division football season. The Wolfpack were led by eighth-year head coach Earle Edwards and played their home games at Riddick Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. They competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, finishing tied for fifth.


1961 NCAA College Division Basketball Tournament
The 1961 NCAA College Division Basketball Tournament involved 32 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA College Division college basketball as a culmination of the 1960-61 NCAA College Division men's basketball season. It was won by Wittenberg University and South Dakota State's Don Jacobson was the Most Outstanding Player.


1961 NCAA College Division football rankings
The 1961 NCAA College Division football rankings are from the United Press International poll of College Division head coaches and from the Associated Press. The 1961 NCAA College Division football season was the fourth year UPI published a Coaches Poll in what was termed the "Small College" division. It was the second year for the AP version of the poll, which only listed 10 teams.


1961 NCAA College Division football season
The 1961 NCAA College Division football season was the sixth season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the NCAA College Division level.


1961 NCAA College Division football season, Rankings, Small college poll
In 1961, both United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP) conducted "small college" polls. The number one selection of both wire services was the Pittsburg State Gorillas, who compiled a regular season record of 9–0 while outscoring opponents 299–25 and registering seven shutouts. The Gorillas went on to win two NAIA postseason games and finished 11–0 for the season.


1961 NCAA Golf Championship
The 1961 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship was the 23rd annual tournament to determine the national champions of NCAA Division I men's collegiate golf.


1961 NCAA Golf Championship
It was contested in 1961 at the Purdue University Golf Course in Lafayette, Indiana.


1961 NCAA Golf Championship
Host team Purdue won the team title and Jack Nicklaus from Ohio State won the individual title over Purdue's Mark Darnell.


1961 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The consensus 1961 College Basketball All-American team, as determined by aggregating the results of seven major All-American teams. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors from a majority of the following teams: the Associated Press, the USBWA, The United Press International, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), The Sporting News, and the National Collegiate Association Bureau (NCAB). 1961 was the only year where the National Collegiate Association Bureau teams were used in determining consensus teams.


1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1960–61 NCAA men's ice hockey season, the 14th such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 16 and 18, 1961, and concluded with Denver defeating St. Lawrence 12-2. All games were played at the University of Denver Arena in Denver, Colorado.


1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
This was the first time in the history of the tournament that teams from the same conference would play each other in the opening round. The next occurrence would not happen until 2008.


1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
Denver's 10-point margin of victory is the largest ever for a title game and the second most for one team in the championship match, behind only Colorado College in both 1950 and 1957. (as of 2016)


1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
Four teams qualified for the tournament, two each from the eastern and western regions. The WCHA tournament co-champions received automatic bids into the tournament. Two at-large bids were offered to eastern teams based upon both their regular season record and strength of competition.


1961 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The higher-ranked eastern team was seeded as the top eastern team while the WCHA champion with the better conference record was given the top western seed. Because Minnesota refused to schedule Denver beginning this season as a result of a disagreement over recruiting practices, the two western participants had not yet played each other during the season. As a result the NCAA broke with tradition and pitted the two against one another in the semifinals, leaving the two eastern teams to face one another in the other semifinal game. All games were played at the University of Denver Arena. All matches were Single-game eliminations with the semifinal winners advancing to the national championship game and the losers playing in a consolation game.


1961 NCAA Skiing Championships
The 1961 NCAA Skiing Championships were contested at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl in Hancock, Vermont at the eighth annual NCAA-sanctioned ski tournament to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate alpine, cross country skiing, and ski jumping in the United States.


1961 NCAA Skiing Championships
Denver, coached by Willy Schaeffler, captured their fifth national championship, the first since 1957, edging out host Middlebury in the team standings. This was the start of Denver's seven straight titles from 1961 through 1967.


1961 NCAA Skiing Championships, Venue
This year's championships were held March 9–11 in Vermont at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl in Hancock. Middlebury College, located in nearby Middlebury, served as hosts.


1961 NCAA Skiing Championships, Venue
These were the first NCAA Championships hosted by Middlebury, the second in Vermont (Northfield, 1955), and third in the East (Lyme, New Hampshire, 1958).


1961 NCAA Soccer Tournament
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Wmtribe2015 (talk | contribs) at 11:58, 3 April 2020 (→Bracket). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


1961 NCAA Soccer Tournament
The 1961 NCAA Soccer Tournament was the third organized men's college soccer tournament by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to determine the top college soccer team in the United States. The West Chester Golden Rams won their first title, defeating the two-time defending champion Saint Louis Billikens in the final on November 25, 1961, by a score of 2–0. The tournament was played in St. Louis, Missouri.


1961 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
The 1961 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships were contested in March 1961 at the Pavilion Pool at the University of Washington in Seattle at the 25th annual officially NCAA-sanctioned swim meet to determine the team and individual national champions of men's collegiate swimming and diving in the United States. Including the championships held before NCAA sponsorship in 1937, this was the 38th overall American collegiate championship.


1961 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
Michigan returned to the top of team standings, finishing twenty-three points ahead of defending champions USC, and claimed their tenth national title. It was the Wolverines' fourth championship in five years.


1961 NCAA Tennis Championships
The 1961 NCAA Tennis Championships were the 16th annual NCAA-sponsored tournaments to determine the national champions of men's singles, doubles, and team collegiate tennis in the United States.


1961 NCAA Tennis Championships
Defending champions UCLA again captured the team championship, the Bruins' seventh such title. UCLA finished just one point ahead of rivals USC in the final team standings (17–16).


1961 NCAA Tennis Championships, Host site
This year's tournaments were contested at the Forker Tennis Courts at the newly-rechristened Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.


1961 NCAA Tennis Championships, Team scoring
Until 1977, the men's team championship was determined by points awarded based on individual performances in the singles and doubles events.


1961 NCAA Track and Field Championships
The 1961 NCAA Track and Field Championships were contested June 16−17 at the 40th annual NCAA-sanctioned track meet to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate track and field events in the United States. This year's meet was hosted by the University of Pennsylvania at historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia.


1961 NCAA Track and Field Championships
USC claimed the team national championship, the Trojans' 21st team title.


1961 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament
The 1961 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament was played at the end of the 1961 NCAA University Division baseball season to determine the national champion of college baseball. The tournament concluded with eight teams competing in the College World Series, a double-elimination tournament in its fifteenth year. Eight regional districts sent representatives to the College World Series with preliminary rounds within each district serving to determine each representative. These events would later become known as regionals.


1961 NCAA University Division Baseball Tournament
Each district had its own format for selecting teams, resulting in 25 teams participating in the tournament at the conclusion of their regular season, and in some cases, after a conference tournament. The College World Series was held in Omaha, NE from June 9 to June 14. The fifteenth tournament's champion was Southern California, coached by Rod Dedeaux. The Most Outstanding Player was Littleton Fowler of runner-up Oklahoma State.


1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
The 1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball in the United States. It began on March 14, 1961, and ended with the championship game on March 25 in Kansas City, Missouri. A total of 28 games were played, including a third place game in each region and a national third place game.


1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
Cincinnati, coached by Ed Jucker, won the national title with a 70–65 victory in the final game over state rival Ohio State, coached by Fred Taylor. Jerry Lucas of Ohio State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.


1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament
The national third-place game, won by Saint Joseph's over Utah by the score of 127–120 in four overtimes, tied the record for the longest game in NCAA Division I tournament history, set in 1956 in a first-round game between Canisius and North Carolina State. As of the regional finals of the 2019 tournament, no NCAA Division I tournament games since then have gone to a fourth overtime period. Saint Joseph's victory was later vacated because of the 1961 gambling scandal.


1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Locations
The Final Four would return to the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City for the record eighth time. Only one on-campus venue, Allen Fieldhouse, was used, along with two off-campus sites in Louisville and Houston. This would be the last tournament until 1986 where the majority of venues were not regular hosts of college teams. There were two new venues used in the 1961 tournament. For the first time, the tournament came to the city of Houston, with games played at Delmar Fieldhouse, then the home for the Houston Cougars.


1961 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, Locations
This would be the first of five venues in the city to host games. The West Regional and two quarterfinal games were held at the brand new Memorial Coliseum in Portland, the second time the city had hosted games. The Memorial Coliseum was one of two venues, along with Freedom Hall, to host three rounds of the tournament in 1961. This would be the only year to feature Delmar Fieldhouse, and the last of sixteen seasons in nineteen years that the old Madison Square Garden in New York City would host games. The city would return to the tournament in nine years, when Alumni Hall on the St. John's campus hosted first-round games. However, it would take until 2014 for the tournament to return to the third MSG's successor.


1961 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships
The 1961 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships were the 23rd annual cross country meet to determine the team and individual national champions of men's collegiate cross country running in the United States. Held on November 27, 1961, the meet was hosted by Michigan State University at the Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing, Michigan. The distance for the race was 4 miles (6.4 kilometers).


1961 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships
All NCAA University Division members were eligible to qualify for the meet. In total, 17 teams and 134 individual runners contested this championship.


1961 NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships
The team national championship was won by the Oregon State Beavers, their first. The individual championship was won by Dale Story, also from Oregon State, with a time of 19:46.84.


1961 NCAA University Division baseball rankings
The following poll makes up the 1961 NCAA University Division baseball rankings. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper published its first human poll of the top 20 teams in college baseball in 1957. The 1961 season was the first to rank the top 30 teams.


1961 NCAA University Division baseball rankings, Collegiate Baseball
Currently, only the final poll from the 1961 season is available.


1961 NCAA University Division baseball season
The 1961 NCAA University Division baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began in the spring of 1961. The season progressed through the regular season and concluded with the 1961 College World Series. The College World Series, held for the fifteenth time in 1961, consisted of one team from each of eight geographical districts and was held in Omaha, Nebraska at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium as a double-elimination tournament. Southern California claimed the championship.


1961 NCAA University Division baseball season, Conference winners
This is a partial list of conference champions from the 1961 season. Each of the eight geographical districts chose, by various methods, the team that would represent them in the NCAA Tournament. 9 teams earned automatic bids by winning their conference championship while 16 teams earned at-large selections.


1961 NCAA University Division baseball season, College World Series
The 1961 season marked the fifteenth NCAA Baseball Tournament, which culminated with the eight team College World Series. The College World Series was held in Omaha, Nebraska. The eight teams played a double-elimination format, with Southern California claiming their third championship with a 1–0 win over Oklahoma State in the final.


1961 NCAA University Division football rankings
Two human polls comprised the 1961 NCAA University Division football rankings. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, does not bestow a national championship, instead that title is bestowed by one or more different polling agencies. There are two main weekly polls that begin in the preseason—the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll.


1961 NCAA University Division football rankings, AP Poll
The final AP Poll was released on December 5, at the end of the 1961 regular season, weeks before the bowls. For the 1961 season, the AP Poll ranked 10 teams during the regular season and 20 teams for the final poll. The poll would commit to only ten teams for all polls from 1962 to 1967.


1961 NCAA University Division football rankings, Final Coaches' poll
The final UPI Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, on December 5. Alabama received 18 of the 35 first-place votes; Ohio State received fifteen, Ole Miss one, and Colorado one.


1961 NCAA University Division football season
During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for the major college football teams in the University Division, later known as Division I-A. The NCAA did recognize a national champion based upon the final results of "wire service" (AP and UPI) polls. The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual 'NCAA Football Guide of the "unofficial" national champions. The AP poll in 1961 consisted of the votes of 45 sportswriters, each of whom would give their opinion of the ten best teams.


1961 NCAA University Division football season
Under a point system of 10 points for first place, 9 for second, etc., the "overall" ranking was determined. Although the rankings were based on the collective opinion of the representative sportswriters, the teams that remained "unbeaten and untied" were generally ranked higher than those that had not. A defeat, even against a strong opponent, tended to cause a team to drop in the rankings, and a team with two or more defeats was unlikely to remain in the Top 10. The top teams played on New Year's Day in the four major postseason bowl games: the Rose (near Los Angeles at Pasadena), Sugar (New Orleans), Orange (Miami) and Cotton (Dallas).


1961 NCAA University Division football season, September
In the preseason poll released on September 18, Iowa was the No. 1, and its Big Ten rival Ohio State No. 2. SEC teams Alabama and LSU were third and fifth, and Texas was fourth. Rounding out the top ten were 6.Michigan State 7.Penn State 8.Kansas 9.Mississippi and 10.Syracuse.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, September
As the regular season progressed, a new poll would be issued on the Monday following the weekend's games. The Big Ten schools would not kick off until September 30. On September 23, No. 3 Alabama won 32–6 at Georgia and No. 4 Texas won at California 28–3. In Houston, No. 5 LSU fell to Rice 16–3. No. 10 Syracuse, which had beaten Oregon State 19–8 in Portland, rose to fifth. In the poll that followed, Iowa remained No. 1, followed by 2.Mississippi 3.Ohio State 4.Alabama and 5.Syracuse. Texas dropped to sixth place.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, September
September 30 California played a top-ranked team for the second straight week, losing at No. 1 Iowa 28–7. No. 2 Mississippi won 20–6 at Kentucky. Texas Christian University (TCU) tied No. 3 Ohio State 7–7 at Columbus. In a game at Mobile, No. 4 Alabama beat Tulane 9–0. No. 5 Syracuse defeated visiting West Virginia 29–14, but fell out of the poll. No. 6 Texas, which beat Texas Tech at home, 42–14, returned to the Top Five, along with previously unranked Georgia Tech, which shut out Rice 24–0.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, September
In the poll that followed, Iowa remained No. 1, followed by 2.Mississippi 3. Georgia Tech 4.Alabama and 5.Texas


1961 NCAA University Division football season, October
October 7No. 1 Iowa won 35–34 at USCNo. 2 Mississippi won 33–0 against Florida StateNo. 3 Georgia Tech lost to LSU 10–0No. 4 Alabama won 35–6 at VanderbiltNo. 5 Texas routed Washington State 41–8No. 6 Michigan StateNo. 7 Syracuse lost 22–21 to MarylandNo. 8 Ohio State beat UCLA 13–3In the poll that followed, Mississippi took over first place from Iowa, which dropped to second. These were followed by 3.Alabama and 4.Texas and 5.Michigan State (had beaten Stanford 31–3)


1961 NCAA University Division football season, October
October 14 No. 1 Mississippi met the Houston Cougars at Memphis and won 47–7. No. 2 Iowa beat Indiana 27–8 at home. No. 3 Alabama beat North Carolina State 26–7 at Birmingham, and No. 4 Texas played its annual game against Oklahoma at Dallas, winning 28–7. No. 5 Michigan State won at Michigan, shutting out the Wolverines 28–0. On the next poll, Michigan State took the No. 1 spot from Ole Miss by a margin of only two points (431 to 429), though the Rebels had more first place votes than the Spartans (21 vs. 16). They were followed by 3.Texas 4.Iowa and 5.Alabama.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, October
On October 21, No. 1 Michigan State got by Notre Dame 17–7 at home, and No. 2 Mississippi shut out Tulane in a game at Jackson, 41–0. No. 3 Texas won at Arkansas, 33–7, No. 4 Iowa hosted Wisconsin, winning 47–15, and No. 5 Alabama defeated Tennessee at Birmingham, 34–3. The top three (Michigan State, Ole Miss and Texas) were unchanged, while Alabama and Iowa traded places at 4th and 5th.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, October
October 28 In a week of shutouts, No. 1 Michigan State beat Indiana 35–0, and No. 2 Mississippi had an even bigger blowout, 47–0, against Vanderbilt. No. 3 Texas beat the visiting Rice Owls, 34–7, while No. 4 Alabama won at Houston over the Cougars, 17–0. No. 5 Iowa was on the wrong side of scoreless, losing 9–0 at Purdue. The top 4 stayed the same, while No. 6 Ohio State, which had won at Wisconsin 30–21, took fifth place from Iowa, whom they would play the following Saturday.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
November 4 No. 1 Michigan State fell to unranked Minnesota, 13–0. At the same time, No. 2 Mississippi lost to No. 6 LSU 10–7 at Baton Rouge. The No. 3 Texas Longhorns beat the SMU Mustangs at Dallas, 27–0. No. 4 Alabama shut out Mississippi State 24–0. At Columbus, No. 5 Ohio State beat No. 9 Iowa 29–13. Texas, Alabama and Ohio State moved up from 3, 4 and 5 to 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and giant-killers LSU and Minnesota were 4th and 5th. Michigan State and Ole Miss fell to 6 and 7.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
November 11 No. 1 Texas beat Baylor, 33–7. No. 2 Alabama crushed the visiting Richmond Spiders (which would be I-AA later) 66–0 at home. No. 3 Ohio State won 16–7 at Indiana, No. 4 LSU won 30–0 at North Carolina, and No. 5 Minnesota handed formerly first place Iowa its second straight loss, at home, 16–9. No. 6 Michigan State, too, lost its second straight, falling 7–6 at Purdue. The Top Five remained unchanged.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
November 18 Texas Christian University had earlier tied Ohio State 6–6 in Columbus, and bested that with a win over No. 1 Texas in Austin, 6–0. After the 6–0 loss, legendary Texas coach Darrell Royal uttered his immortal description of TCU:


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
"They're like a bunch of cockroaches," Royal said. "It's not what they eat and tote off, it's what they fall into and mess up that hurts."


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
No. 2 Alabama beat Georgia Tech in Birmingham, 10–0. No. 3 Ohio State defeated visiting Oregon, 22–12, and No. 4 LSU hosted Mississippi State and won 14–6 No. 5 Minnesota defeated No. 7 Purdue, 10–7, at home. Alabama (9–0–0) rose to No. 1, with Ohio State (7–0–1) at No. 2 . Minnesota rose to No. 3, LSU stayed at No. 4 and Texas (8–1–0) fell from No. 1 to No. 5.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
Post-Thanksgiving (November 25) No. 1 Alabama was idle. No. 2 Ohio State won at Michigan, 50–20. No. 3 Minnesota narrowly lost to Wisconsin 23–21. No. 4 LSU crushed visiting Tulane, 62–0, and No. 5 Texas 25–0 over Texas A & M. Ole Miss, which was idle, returned to the Top Five.


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
December 2, No. 1 Alabama won its annual Birmingham game against the Auburn Tigers, 34–0, to close the season with a 10–0–0 record. No. 5 Mississippi closed its season at 9–1–0 with a 37–7 win against Mississippi State. The AP's final poll was a Top 20 ranking. With 26 of the 48 first place votes the Alabama Crimson Tide was awarded the AP Trophy, ahead of Ohio State (with 20 votes). The point total was even closer, with 16 points separated the Tide from the Buckeyes (452 to 436).


1961 NCAA University Division football season, November
The final poll was: 1.Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Texas 4.LSU 5.Mississippi 6.Minnesota 7.Colorado 8.Michigan State 9.Arkansas 10.Utah State 11.Missouri 12.Purdue 13. Georgia Tech 14.Syracuse 15.Rutgers 16.UCLA. Arizona, Penn State and Rice were tied for 17th place, followed by 20.Duke. Unbeaten and tied only once, Ohio State University qualified for the Rose Bowl. In a move that stunned the sports world, however, the University's faculty council voted 28–25 on November 28 not to accept the invitation, declaring that the school's emphasis on sports over academics was excessive. The wire service commented that "A team of 57 Ohio State University faculty members handed the second ranked Buckeyes their only defeat of the season.". The University of Minnesota took the Buckeyes' place at Pasadena.


1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal
During the 1960–61 NCAA University Division men's basketball season, a major gambling scandal broke. The scandal involved 37 arrests of students from 22 different colleges.


1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal
Jack Molinas, already a known gambling associate from the CCNY point shaving scandal in 1951, was implicated in this gambling scandal. His partners were bookmaker Joe Hacken and Genovese crime family enforcer Vincent Gigante.


1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal
Included were Doug Moe of UNC, Tony Jackson from St. John's University, Roger Brown of University of Dayton, and students from NYU, North Carolina State, and the University of Connecticut


1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal
Naismith Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins was kicked out of Iowa, but was never involved: as a freshman he could have had no effect on varsity games. No investigative action was taken against coach Scheuerman or varsity players (including All-American Don Nelson). Hawkins was barred from playing in NCAA, NIA, or the NBA due to these unproven allegations until his successful lawsuit for reinstatement was successful in 1969, and he played with the Phoenix Suns.


1961 NCAA University Division men's basketball gambling scandal
Saint Joseph's University was stripped of its third-place finish in the 1961 NCAA tournament. Paul Tagliabue unknowingly played in a fixed game and as a result became ardently anti-gambling as the NFL's future commissioner.


1961 NFL Championship Game
The 1961 National Football League Championship Game was the 29th title game. It was played on December 31 at "New" City Stadium, later known as Lambeau Field, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with an attendance of 39,029.


1961 NFL Championship Game
The game was a match-up of the Eastern Conference champion New York Giants (10–3–1) and the Western Conference champion Green Bay Packers (11–3). The home team Packers were a 3⅓-point favorite. Packers Ray Nitschke, Boyd Dowler, and Paul Hornung, were on leave from the U.S. Army. Hornung scored 19 points (a touchdown, three field goals, and four extra points) for the Packers and was named the MVP of the game, and awarded a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette from Sport magazine.


1961 NFL Championship Game
The victory was the first of five NFL titles won in a seven-season span by the Packers and their head coach, Vince Lombardi. It was the Packers' seventh league title and their first in 17 years.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Overview
This was the first NFL championship game held in Green Bay. The Packers' only other championship home game until then was 22 years earlier in 1939, played at the State Fair Park in West Allis outside Milwaukee. Both teams were eager to shed the "runner-up" label. The Giants were in their third championship game in four years, falling in 1958 and 1959 to the Baltimore Colts, and the Packers had lost the title game in 1960 to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants' last league title was in 1956 and the Packers in 1944.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Overview
Temperature at game time hovered at 20 °F (−7 °C) and for several days the field had been covered with a tarp, topped by a foot (30 cm) of hay. The covering was particularly significant as just two days before, the temperature dipped to −15 °F (−26 °C). Field conditions were of paramount concern if the teams were to make effective use of the running game. All the Packers players used cleats and about half of the Giants players, led by head coach Allie Sherman, chose sneakers, believing they would grip better on a frozen field. At 6 a.m. on game day, workers began the arduous process of snow and hay removal by hand using baskets, as heavy equipment could have potentially damaged the field.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Overview
Green Bay had defeated the Giants 20–17 four weeks earlier at County Stadium in Milwaukee to clinch the Western title before a record crowd of 47,012.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Overview
Injured in late October, Packer right guard Jerry Kramer was sidelined for the remainder of the season. Forrest Gregg moved in from right tackle to guard, and Norm Masters started at right tackle.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Game summary, First quarter
After both teams exchanged punts, the Giants were on the move to the Green Bay 46-yard line when the Giants end Kyle Rote, who was wide open but looking back into the sun, dropped a long pass from Y. A. Tittle at the GB 10. When the Packers took over for their 2nd possession, end Max McGee returned the favor by dropping a 50-yard pass from Starr. However, Starr then hit Paul Hornung for a 24-yard gain to midfield. Jim Taylor, despite having injured a kidney in the Rams game two weeks before, and Hornung kept the Packers drive moving to the NY 6-yard line as time expired.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Game summary, Second quarter
Capping a 12-play 80-yard drive, Hornung, the NFL's MVP for 1961, slashed outside right tackle for a touchdown on the first play of the 2nd quarter. Hornung's extra-point gave Green Bay a 7–0 lead. The Giants' next two possessions resulted in two Tittle interceptions within two minutes. The first, by Ray Nitschke, led to a Bart Starr to Boyd Dowler slant pass in front of the goal post for a 13-yard touchdown. Both Nitschke and Dowler were on leave from Ft. Lewis in Washington. The second Packer interception, by Hank Gremminger, resulted in a Ron Kramer 14-yard touchdown from Starr.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Game summary, Second quarter
Charley Conerly then replaced Tittle at quarterback and most of the Giants had switched to cleats by this time. Conerly hit Kyle Rote with a 35-yard pass to the Green Bay 15, but Bob Gaiters overthrew Rote (who was wide open) in the end zone on a 4th down halfback option pass. With time in the half running down, Hornung gained 24 yards on two carries, then tight end Ron Kramer caught a pass from Starr for 38 yards. Hornung followed with a 17-yard field goal as time ran out, to make the score 24–0 at halftime.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Game summary, Third quarter
In an unusual turn of events, the Packers were given five downs on their first possession of the quarter. On first down, Hornung ran up the middle. Then, on second down, Bart Starr scrambled for fifteen yards and fumbled the ball away. But the Packers were flagged for an illegal procedure penalty. After the Giants refused the penalty, the officials at first gave the ball to the Giants. But realizing a procedure penalty negates any resulting play, the officials correctly gave the ball back to Green Bay, albeit with a first down instead of second down. Despite the extra play, Green Bay eventually punted. The following series also resulted in a GB punt, with the Giants Joe Morrison fumbling and Forrest Gregg recovering for the Packers. Hornung then booted a 22-yard field goal, making it 27-0.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Game summary, Third quarter
The Packers continued their march toward a championship with hard running by Hornung and Tom Moore (replacing Taylor). Starr completed his third touchdown pass, this one to Ron Kramer in the left corner of the end zone. Kramer fell heavily on the ice after scoring and limped off the field. The Giants went back to Tittle at quarterback again as the quarter ended.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Game summary, Fourth quarter
The veteran Tittle, who led the Giants to two more championship appearances in 1962 and 1963, could do no better than Conerly, throwing an interception to the Packers Jesse Whittenton. Jim Taylor, back in the game, promptly rumbled outside the right tackle on a 33-yard run to the Giants' 13. Hornung ended the scoring with a 19-yard field goal. A fourth Tittle interception had the Packers knocking on the goal line again as the gun sounded to end the game. The 19 points that Paul Hornung scored was at the time the most ever in a championship game. One year earlier, in a 12-game season, Hornung scored an incredible 176 points, which remained a record - even though the season had been increased to 16 games - until 2006.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Officials
The NFL had five game officials in 1961; the line judge was added in 1965 and the side judge in 1978.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Players' shares
With 40,000 tickets sold at $10 each and $615,000 in TV revenue, this game was the first NFL Championship to generate $1 million in revenue. Each player on the winning Packers team received $5,195, while Giants players made $3,340 each.


1961 NFL Championship Game, Vince Lombardi
This was the fifth shutout in NFL Championship game history and coach Lombardi's first of five championships in seven years. Lombardi used a strategy in this game that was common in all the Packers championships. A strategy of fundamentally sound football (the Packers had no turnovers and only 16 yards in penalties) and to beat the opposition at their strength, in this case running the ball at the Giants linemen Andy Robustelli and Rosey Grier. This strategy allowed the Packers to control the game, running 63 offensive plays to only 43 for the Giants. In 1959. Lombardi had taken over a Green Bay franchise that was the worst team in the league in 1958, and in three years turned them into NFL Champions.


1961 NFL Draft
The 1961 National Football League draft took place at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia on December 27–28, 1960. The league would later hold an expansion draft for the Minnesota Vikings expansion franchise, and the Vikings were also awarded the first selection position in this draft. This draft was also the first regular draft for the Dallas Cowboys as they had only participated in the 1960 NFL expansion draft that year. The Cowboys held the worst record in the NFL the previous season, but selected second in this draft because of the entry of the Vikings into the league.


1961 NFL expansion draft
The 1961 NFL expansion draft was a National Football League (NFL) draft in which a new expansion team, named the Minnesota Vikings, selected its first players. That selection was provided by the expansion draft, held on January 26, 1961.


1961 NFL expansion draft
In August 1959, a group of Minneapolis businessmen were awarded a franchise in the new American Football League (AFL). In January 1960, they forfeited their AFL membership and were awarded a 90% stake in the 14th franchise of the NFL (the other 10%, under a decades-old agreement, went to former Duluth Kelleys/Eskimos owner Ole Haugsrud). Though the ownership group had participated in the 1960 American Football League draft before jumping leagues to the NFL, they did not take any of the players they selected in that draft with them. As such, they entered the 1961 draft with an empty roster.


1961 NFL expansion draft
So that the Vikings could become competitive with existing teams, the league awarded the Vikings the first pick in the 1961 NFL draft and gave them the opportunity to select current players from existing teams. In the expansion draft,  the existing franchises listed players from which the Vikings could select to switch to the new team.


1961 NFL expansion draft, Rules of the draft
Every existing NFL team except the Dallas Cowboys listed eight of its 38 players, and the Vikings selected three players on the list from each team.


1961 NFL season
The 1961 NFL season was the 42nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL). The league expanded to 14 teams with the addition of the Minnesota Vikings, after the team's owners declined to be charter members of the new American Football League. The schedule was also expanded from 12 games per team to 14 games per team where it would stay for 16 years. The Vikings were placed in the Western Conference, and the Dallas Cowboys were switched from the Western Conference to the Eastern. The addition of the Vikings returned the NFL to an even number of teams (and eliminated the bye week of 1960 until 1966 temporarily and 1990 on a permanent basis).


1961 NFL season
The season ended when the Green Bay Packers shut out the New York Giants 37–0 in the 1961 NFL Championship Game.


1961 NFL season, Draft
The 1961 NFL Draft was held from December 27-28, 1960 at Philadelphia's Warwick Hotel. With the first pick, the Minnesota Vikings selected halfback Tommy Mason from Tulane University.


1961 NFL season, Conference races
The new Minnesota Vikings won their first game when they upset the Chicago Bears team, 37–13, on September 17, 1961. Mike Mercer made the Vikings' first points on a 12-yard field goal, and Fran Tarkenton guided the team to five touchdowns. The Vikings finished at 3–11 after that good start. With 14 teams in two conferences, each NFL team now played a 14-game schedule: a home-and-away series with the other six teams in their division, and two interconference games.


1961 NFL season, Conference races
In Week Five, the Giants and Eagles led the Eastern Conference, and the Packers and 49ers led the Western, all with records of 4–1. The following week, the 49ers lost to the Bears, 31–0, while Green Bay beat Minnesota 33–7. The Giants and Eagles, both winners, remained tied in the Eastern standings at 5–1. In Week Seven, Dallas edged the Giants 17–16, while the Eagles beat the Redskins 27–24 on Sonny Jurgensen's last-quarter touchdown pass to Tommy McDonald.


1961 NFL season, Conference races
In Week Nine (November 12), the Giants beat the Eagles, 38–21, to give both teams 7–2 records, while Green Bay survived a game at Chicago, 31–28, that would otherwise have tied both teams at 6–3; Green Bay led the Western race the rest of the way. In Week Ten, New York's 42–21 win over Pittsburgh put it at 8–2, while Cleveland's 45–24 win over Philadelphia put both those teams at 7–3. In Week 11 (December 3), New York lost 20–17 to Green Bay, while the Eagles won 35–24 at Pittsburgh, tying the race again.


1961 NFL season, Conference races
The Giants and Eagles, both at 9–3, met the following week in Philadelphia (December 10). After New York trailed 10–7, Coach Allie Sherman replaced Y. A. Tittle with Charlie Conerly, who at 40 was the NFL's oldest player. Conerly threw for three touchdowns for the 28–24 win. The winning score came after the Eagles were penalized for roughing the kicker on the Giants' fourth down, giving the Giants first down on the 24. At season's end (December 17), the Eagles rallied to beat Detroit 27–24, and hoped for a Giants' loss to force a playoff. At that moment, New York and Cleveland were tied 7–7 with two minutes left. A long punt by the Giants' Don Chandler pinned the Browns on their own 7-yard line, and ended any threat of a loss.


1961 NFL season, Final standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1961 NFL season, Postseason, NFL Championship Game
Green Bay 37, New York 0 at City Stadium, Green Bay, Wisconsin, December 31, 1961


1961 NFL season, Postseason, Playoff Bowl
The Playoff Bowl was between the conference runners-up, for third place in the league. This was its second year and it was played a week after the title game.


1961 NHRA Winternationals
The 1961 NHRA Winternationals were a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing event, held at Pomona Raceway at Los Angeles County Fairgrounds on 19 February.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, History
The 1961 Pomona event was NHRA's second to be called Winter Nationals; the first was held in Florida in 1960, in conjunction with NASCAR, and was not a success. It marked a return to NHRA's spiritual home: the association's rules had been written in Southern California, and LACF hosted NHRA's first ever national event, the Southern California Championships, in 1953.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, History
NHRA's Wally Parks worked with the Pomona Valley Timing Association (PVTA) to organize the Winternats.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, History
The Winternats were unusual for Southern California, due to NHRA's ban on nitromethane.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, History
The prizes were modest:  four 390 cu in (6,400 cc) Ford V8s, one each for the Top, Middle, Little, and Street Eliminator winners, with a gift certificate for a color television set to the Stock Eliminator winner. The trophies were paid for by model kit maker AMT.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, Results
Jack Chrisman (at the wheel of twin-Chevrolet-engined Howard Cam Special) took Top Eliminator over Tom "Mongoo$e" McEwen (driving for Dick Rea) with an 8.99 in the final.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, Results
Little Eliminator went to Dick Manz (in the Larry Sanchez-owned car), beating Frank Pisano.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, Results
Street Eliminator was won by Johnny Loper over "Big John" Mazmanian (driving a  Chevrolet Corvette.


1961 NHRA Winternationals, Results
Stock Eliminator was won by "Dyno Don" Nicholson, which got him his start in match racing.


1961 NSWRFL season
The 1961 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 54th season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and WD & HO Wills Cup during the season, which culminated in a grand final between St. George and Western Suburbs.


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary
Ten Sydney-based clubs participated in the competition with each team meeting all others twice in eighteen regular premiership rounds to reach a top four who battled out four finals.


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary
In round 1, Sydney's Nine Network made the first live telecast of an Australian rugby league match between Balmain and North Sydney from North Sydney Oval on 15 April. The second half of the match was beamed live with former international Ray Stehr the first commentator. There were only two cameras to capture the action, one positioned on each 25-yard line and cameramen frantically switched lenses depending on where play was located.


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary
St. George won their eighth premiership, defeating Western Suburbs in the Grand Final. The Magpies again won the NSWRFL Club Championship this season.


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary
The 1961 season also saw the retirement from the League of future Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame inductee, Keith Holman.


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
27th seasonGround: Belmore Sports Ground Coach: Eddie BurnsCaptain: Ray Gartner


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
15th seasonGround: Brookvale Oval Coach: Ken Arthurson Captain: Rex Mossop


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
54th seasonGround: Henson Park Coach: Charles Cahill Captain: Tony Brown


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
54th seasonGround: North Sydney OvalCoach: Robert Sullivan Captain: Brian Carlson


1961 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
41st seasonGround: Jubilee Oval Coach: Ken KearneyCaptains: Brian Clay / Billy Wilson


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
Wests beat St George for the minor premiership on for-and-against and they were both ten points clear of their nearest rivals. If the Dragons run was to be stopped, this was the chance in legendary half Keith Holman's last match.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
With misty rain on the day of the decider, Wests were knuckling down for another tight forward struggle as had been the case the major semi final also played in the wet. However, Saints stunned the Magpies as they ignored the conditions and threw the ball around.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
The Dragons backline ran riot. Eddie Lumsden had a tremendous match, scoring three tries while Johnny King also scored another. Brian Clay, the best player on the field, cut loose against the veteran Holman who was playing in the unaccustomed five-eighth role. In every attacking raid there was an abundance of St George players backing up as the Wests' defence became more and more compressed.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
St George scored three tries in a window of fifteen minutes to lead 15-0 at the 26-minute mark. The first was scored after nine minutes when Norm Provan from dummy-half passed to Johnny Raper who sent Clay away to the corner. Close to the sideline and fifteen metres before the try line, Clay called Lumsden inside him and snapped a reverse flick pass into the winger's hands enabling him to score untouched.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
At the 21-minute mark from a St George scrum win Raper took the ball and ran toward King, he drew three defenders then lofted the ball to King who scored in the corner. Five minutes later a classic backline got the ball through the hands to Dave Brown who drew Barnsley in leaving Lumsden unmarked for his second try.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
They took a 17-nil lead to the half-time break and the match appeared theirs. Fifteen minutes into the second half Lumsden scored again. St George then proceeded to lock up the game and Wests could not overcome the tough Dragons defence.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
St George won their sixth Grand Final in a row, stunning Western Suburbs by 22-0. This victory enabled them to beat the previous record of Grand Final wins in a row, held by the South Sydney Rabbitohs. It was Bob Bugden's last match for the Dragons. He had featured in all six wins.


1961 NSWRFL season, Finals, Grand Final
St. George 22 (Tries: Lumsden 3, King. Goals: Graham 5.)


1961 Naples Grand Prix
The 19th Naples Grand Prix was a motor race, run to Formula One rules, held on 14 May 1961 at Posillipo Circuit, Naples. The race was run over 60 laps of the circuit, and was won by Italian driver Giancarlo Baghetti in a Ferrari 156 in only his second Formula One race, having also won his first. Baghetti went on to win his next Formula One race as well, his first World Championship race, and is the only driver to have won his first three Formula One races run.


1961 Naples Grand Prix
This race was held on the same day as the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, therefore very few of the top drivers of the day were in action in Naples. Baghetti took a comfortable victory despite only starting third on the grid, with pole-sitter Gerry Ashmore finishing second after the other main challenger and early leader Roy Salvadori suffered a puncture. Lorenzo Bandini had led for a lap before Baghetti took over on lap 4, and he held the lead until the chequered flag.


1961 Natal Grand Prix
The 1st Natal Grand Prix was a motor race, run to South African Formula One-style rules, held on 17 December 1961 at Westmead Circuit, South Africa. The race was run over 89 laps of the circuit, and was won by British driver Jim Clark, in his Lotus 21.


1961 Natal Grand Prix
There were no great differences between the local rules to which this race was run and the international Formula One rules, but for example sports car bodies were permitted, such as the Porsche special driven by Jennings.


1961 Natal Grand Prix
Clark led the race from start to finish, with only Stirling Moss, who had started from the back of the grid, able to stay on the same lap by the end. The local South African entrants were outclassed, with the first of them finishing three laps down on Clark.


1961 National 400
The 1961 National 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series stock car race that was held on October 15, 1961, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.


1961 National 400
The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s.


1961 National 400, Background
Around 35,821 spectators traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway to watch the race. Located in Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway is a banked 1.5-mile (2.4 km) quad-oval that opened in 1960 for the inaugural World 600. Construction for the track began in 1959 with Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner as architects for the speedway.


1961 National 400, Race report
David Pearson, Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson would dominate the early portion of the race. This race would last for roughly three hours and twenty minutes; an audience of more than 35,000 would see race cars reaching up to 120 miles per hour (190 km/h). Ken Rush was credited with the last-place finish due to problems with his rocker arm on lap 16 out of this 267-lap event. Junior Johnson's top ten finish came as a result of a problem with one of his wheels on lap 256; he was destined for a top five finish until he encountered that problem.


1961 National 400, Race report
Notable crew chiefs in the event; included Smokey Yunick, Bud Allman, Shorty Johns and Ray Fox.


1961 National 400, Race report
Most of the vehicles in the race were either Pontiacs or Fords. Junior Johnson, Bob Welborn and Fireball Roberts would be the leaders during the middle portion of the race.


1961 National 400, Race report
Fireball Roberts' vehicle would suffer severe damage after blowing a right front tire on lap 113. The vehicle struck the guardrail and slid back into a pack cars; a car slammed into it while driving in excess of 100 miles per hour or 160 kilometres per hour. Roberts wasn't injured."


1961 National 400, Race report
Joe Weatherly would eventually gain the lead on lap 263 and beat Richard Petty by almost two car lengths. This would be the seventh of nine wins for Joe Weatherly in the 1961 NASCAR Grand National Series season. He ended on a hot-streak, winning the next race and then the last race of the 1961 NASCAR Cup Series season as well. Joe Weatherly made four pit stops during the race, one unscheduled. He put on one or more new tires each time. He was the only of the top-10 starters in the top-10 finishers' list. Four caution flags, one for 12 laps, helped the Norfolk veteran to stay in contention.


1961 National 400, Race report
Individual race winnings for each driver ranged from the winner's share of $9,510 ($82,360 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finishers' share of $275 ($2,382 when adjusted for inflation). The total prize purse offered for this event was $42,050 ($364,168 when adjusted for inflation).


1961 National Challenge Cup
The 1961 National Challenge Cup was the 48th edition of the USSFA's annual open soccer championship. The Philadelphia Ukrainians defeated the Los Angeles Scots to win.


1961 National Invitation Tournament
The 1961 National Invitation Tournament was the 1961 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition.


1961 National Invitation Tournament, Selected teams
Below is a list of the 12 teams selected for the tournament.


1961 National Races Lime Rock
The July 1, 1961, race at Lime Rock Park was the seventh racing event of the eleventh season of the Sports Car Club of America's 1961 Championship Racing Series.


1961 Navy Midshipmen football team
The 1961 Navy Midshipmen football team represented the United States Naval Academy (USNA) as an independent during the 1961 NCAA University Division football season. The team was led by third-year head coach Wayne Hardin.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash
On 18 September 1961, a DC-6 passenger aircraft of Transair Sweden, operating for the United Nations, crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia). The crash resulted in the deaths of all people onboard including Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, and 15 others. Hammarskjöld had been en route to cease-fire negotiations with Moise Tshombe during the Congo Crisis. Three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash, which set off a succession crisis at the United Nations.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Incident
In September 1961, during the Congo Crisis, Hammarskjöld learned about fighting between "non-combatant" UN forces and Katangese troops of Moise Tshombe. On 18 September, Hammarskjöld was en route to negotiate a cease-fire when the aircraft he was flying in crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Hammarskjöld and fifteen others perished in the crash. The crash set off a succession crisis at the United Nations, as Hammarskjöld's death required the Security Council to vote on a successor.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Aircraft and crew
The aircraft involved in this accident was a Douglas DC-6B, c/n 43559/251, registered in Sweden as SE-BDY, first flown in 1952 and powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cylinder radial piston engines. It was flown by Captain Per Hallonquist (35); First Officer Lars Litton (29); and Flight Engineer Nils Goran Wilhelmsson.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, UN special report
A special report issued by the United Nations following the crash stated that a bright flash in the sky was seen at approximately 01:00. According to the UN special report, it was this information that resulted in the initiation of search and rescue operations. Initial indications that the crash might not have been an accident led to multiple official inquiries and persistent speculation that the secretary-general was assassinated.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
Following the death of Hammarskjöld, there were three inquiries into the circumstances that led to the crash: the Rhodesian Board of Investigation, the Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, and the United Nations Commission of Investigation.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
The Rhodesian Board of Investigation looked into the matter between 19 September 1961 and 2 November 1961 under the command of Lt. Colonel M.C.B. Barber. The Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, under the chairmanship of Sir John Clayden, held hearings from 16–29 January 1962 without United Nations oversight. The subsequent United Nations Commission of Investigation held a series of hearings in 1962 and in part depended upon the testimony from the previous Rhodesian inquiries. Five "eminent persons" were assigned by the new secretary-general to the UN Commission. The members of the commission unanimously elected Nepalese diplomat Rishikesh Shaha to head an inquiry.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
The three official inquiries failed to determine conclusively the cause of the crash that led to the death of Hammarskjöld. The Rhodesian Board of Investigation sent 180 men to search a six-square-kilometer area of the last sector of the aircraft's flight path, looking for evidence as to the cause of the crash. No evidence of a bomb, surface-to-air missile, or hijacking was found. The official report stated that two of the dead Swedish bodyguards had suffered multiple bullet wounds.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
Medical examination, performed by the initial Rhodesian Board of Investigation and reported in the UN official report, indicated that the wounds were superficial, and that the bullets showed no signs of rifling. They concluded that cartridges had exploded in the fire in proximity to the bodyguards. No evidence of foul play was found in the wreckage of the aircraft. The Rhodesian Board concluded that the pilot flew too low and struck trees, thereby bringing the aircraft to the ground.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
Previous accounts of a bright flash in the sky were dismissed as occurring too late in the evening to have caused the crash. The UN report speculated that these flashes may have been caused by secondary explosions after the crash. Sergeant Harold Julien, who initially survived the crash but died five days later, indicated that there was a series of explosions that preceded the crash. The official inquiry found that the statements of witnesses who talked with Julien before he died in hospital five days after the crash were inconsistent.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
The report states that there were numerous delays that violated established search and rescue procedures. There were three separate delays: the first delayed the initial alarm of a possible plane in trouble; the second delayed the "distress" alarm, which indicates that communications with surrounding airports indicate that a missing plane has not landed elsewhere; the third delayed the eventual search and rescue operation and the discovery of the plane wreckage, just kilometres/miles away.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
The medical examiner's report was inconclusive; one report said that Hammarskjöld had died on impact; another stated that Hammarskjöld might have survived had rescue operations not been delayed. The report also said that the chances of Sgt. Julien surviving the crash would have been "infinitely" better if the rescue operations had been hastened.


1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash, Official inquiry
On 16 March 2015, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed members to an independent panel of experts to examine new information related to the tragedy. The three-member panel was led by Mohamed Chande Othman, the Chief Justice of Tanzania. The other two members were Kerryn Macaulay (Australia's representative to ICAO) and Henrik Larsen (a ballistics expert from the Danish National Police). The report was handed over to the secretary-general on 12 June 2015.