Baseball
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World Series:
(in 7 games) New York Yankees (4 games) defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers (3 games)
Don Larsen the Yankees pitcher threw the first perfect game in World Series history in game five, Larsen was of course the series MVP
Cy Young Memorial Award was established for the outstanding pitcher of the year
it went to Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers
All-Star Game: National League again triumphs over the American League (7 - 3)
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Football
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NFL Championship:
New York Giants annihilated the Chicago Bears (47 - 7)
The Eastern Title came down to the final game of the regular season with the Bears hosting the Cardinals, the Cardinals had won a previous meeting,
the Bears won (38 -21) but a fight involving players, fans and the police stopped game play in the 4th for over half an hour
Rule changes included, no grabbing of the face mask and no use of wireless communications between the players and coaches
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Basketball
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NBA Championship:
(in 7 games) Boston Celtics (4 games) over the St. Louis Hawks (3 games)
This is Boston's first National Title win, they would go on to win sixteen more
Proving it was the Celtics year the All Star Game was played in Boston with Bob Cousy of Boston winning the game MVP and the 1956 League MVP
Bob Cousy would be the total points leader while Bill Russell led with rebounds
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Golf
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The Masters: Jack Burke Jr shot a one over par (289) at Augusta GA
Ken Venturi an amateur led the tournament by eight strokes until the last round where he shot an 80
Burkes nine stroke swing in scores over Venturi is the biggest come-from-behind win in Masters history
U.S. Open : Cary Middlecoff who shot a (281), played at Oak Hill Country Club, this is his second Open win
U.S. Women's Open : (in a playoff) Kathy Cornelius who shot a (302) at Northland Country Club
PGA Championship : Jack Burke Jr (match play) at Blue Hill Country Club in Canton, Massachusetts
Burke won two majors (Masters and the PGA)and was named Player of the Year
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Tennis
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Wimbleton: Men's Singles:
(Australian) Lew Hoad defeated (fellow Australian) Ken Rosewall (6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4)
Wimbleton: Women's Singles:
(American) Shirley Fry defeated (British) Angela Buxton (6-3, 6-1)
US (Open) National Championship: in a reverse of Wimbleton, (Australian) Ken Rosewell this time defeats (fellow Australian) Lew Hoad (4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3)
Davis Cup:
Having won the Americas Zone the U.S. for the second year in a row falls to defending champions Australia in the Challenge Round
India won the Eastern Zone and Italy defeated Sweden to win the Europe Zone
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Horse Racing
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Kentucky Derby: Needles, Jockey - David Erb
Needles came from next to last place and made up 21 lengths to finish far out in front
Preakness Stakes: Fabius was ridden to victory by Bill Hartack, Needles placed second
Belmont Stakes: Needles proved that his come from behind style was hard to beat
he was ridden again by Davis Erb, Fabius ran third
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Hockey
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Stanley Cup: (in 5 games) Montreal Canadiens (4 games) would avenge last years loss to the Detroit Red Wings (1 game)
This would make the third consecutive finals for the two teams and the 4th championship meeting in 5 years marking their respective dynasties
Montreal however would win the next five Cups and be called the greatest team in the history of hockey World Ice Hockey Championships: regaining their title the Soviet Union (gold medal) goes undefeated to give the United States (silver medal) their only loss
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Boxing
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World Heavyweight Championship: Rocky Marciano the undefeated world heavyweight champion took voluntary retirement in 1956 which made his title open
after a series of elimination bouts, Floyd Patterson and Archie Moore fought the Championship match with Patterson knocking out Moore in the fifth round
Archie Moore who was the standing light heavyweight champ retained that title by winning fights against Yolande Pompey and James J. Parker both by K.O.
Ray Robinson fought Carl (Bobo) Olson to a fourth round knock out to keep his middleweight title The World Welterweight Title was returned to Johnny Saxton when he defeated Carmen Basilio in a split decision
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Auto Racing
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Indianapolis 500: Pat Flaherty average speed was 128.490 mph
he also won the pole position with a record setting 145.596 mph
The bricks were replaced with asphalt and speeds increased dramatically
After winning the first three races Tim Flock suddenly quits his Chrysler racing team and is replaced by Buck Baker
Baker goes on to win fourteen more races and becomes the Grand National Champion
The Kiekhaefer /Chrysler team won 33 of the 56 scheduled races in 1956
even though Chevy and Ford invested over 6 million dollars to develop winning race cars
Herb Thomas was the early points leader until he was involved in a controversial near fatal crash
at Shelby, NC which put him out of racing for the rest of the year
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Sports