1876 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

• USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

College championship

• College football national championship –Yale Bulldogs

Events

• 23 November — representatives ofHarvard Crimson,Yale Bulldogs,Princeton Tigers andColumbia Lions meet at the Massasoit House inSpringfield, Massachusetts to standardise a new code of rules based on the Canadian rugby game first introduced to Harvard by Canada's McGill University in 1874. The rules are based largely on the EnglishRugby Football Union's code, though one important difference is the introduction of the touchdown as the primary means of scoring instead of the field goal (a change that will later occur in rugby football itself). Three of the schools (Harvard, Columbia and Princeton) form an Intercollegiate Football Association as a result of the meeting. Yale will join in 1879.
• Walter Camp enrolls atYale University and will become perhaps the most important figure in college football history.

England

• FA Cup final –The Wanderers 3–0Old Etonians in a replay following a 1–1 draw (both games played atThe Oval).
• Middlesbrough FC founded as a winter activity byMiddlesbrough Cricket Club.

Scotland

• Scottish Cup final –Queen's Park 2–0Third Lanark atHampden Park (replay; following 1–1 draw atHamilton Crescent)^[1]

Wales

• Establishment of theFootball Association of Wales, the world's third oldest football association.
• 25 March —Wales plays its first international match againstScotland in Glasgow, Scotland winning 4–0. Wales is the third oldest international football team.

National championship

• National League champions -Chicago White Stockings

Events

• 2 February — theNational League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL) is founded at the Grand Central Hotel in New York City. It is the first pro sports league, North American style: closed and territorial.Major League Baseball recognises this event as the beginning of "all-time history".
• The venerable Mutuals and Athletics, holding the New York and Philadelphia franchises, are competitive failures on field and off. They cancel their final western trips and suffer expulsion, the last formerly amateur clubs in the majors.

Events

• After three years of inactivity,Tom Allen finally defends his American Championship title againstJoe Goss at Boone County, Kentucky.^[2] Goss, another English fighter, takes the title when Allen is disqualified for a foul punch in the 14th round. Goss is another inactive champion and does not defend the title until May 1880.^[3]

• Ottawa Football Club is founded. They would go on to win theGrey Cup 9 times before folding in 1996.

Events

• 14 January — formation ofEssex County Cricket Club at a meeting in the Shire Hall,Chelmsford. There have been previous county organisations in Essex going back to the 18th century, focused mainly onHornchurch Cricket Club.
• W. G. Grace becomes the first player to score 2,000 runs and take 100 wickets in a season: 2,622 runs and 130 wickets in 26 matches.
• Grace makes his highestfirst-class score of 344, forMCC vKent at Canterbury in August. Two days later he makes 177 forGloucestershire vNotts, and two days after that 318 not out for Gloucestershire vYorkshire, the latter two innings against counties with exceptionally strong bowling attacks. Thus, in three consecutiveinnings, Grace scores 839 runs, and is only out twice. His 344 is the first triple century scored in first class cricket.William Ward's 278 scored in 1820 has stood as a record for 56 years; within a week Grace has bettered it twice.

England

• Champion County^[4] –Gloucestershire
• Most runs –W. G. Grace 2,622 @ 62.42 (HS 344)
• Most wickets –Alfred Shaw 191 @ 13.61 (BB 8–37)

Major tournaments

• British Open –Bob Martin

England

• Grand National – Regal
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Camelia
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes –Petrarch
• The Derby –Kisber^[5]
• The Oaks – dead heat between Camelia and Enguerrande
• St. Leger Stakes –Petrarch

Australia

• Melbourne Cup –Briseis

Canada

• Queen's Plate – Norah P.

Ireland

• Irish Grand National – Grand National
• Irish Derby Stakes – Umpire

USA

• Kentucky Derby – Vagrant
• Preakness Stakes – Shirley
• Belmont Stakes – Algerine

Events

• 7 January — theGlaciarium opens in Chelsea, London, as the world's first artificialice rink.

The Boat Race

• 8 April —Cambridge wins the 33rdOxford and Cambridge Boat Race

Other events

• TheHarvard–Yale Regatta for the main event establishes the 4-mile distance and returns to the original eight-oar shells. Yale wins by 29 seconds on theConnecticut River.^[6]

Events

• Cardiff RFC,Keighley RLFC,Kelso RFC,Oldham RLFC,Pontypridd RFC andSaracens are all established in 1876

America's Cup

• TheNew York Yacht Club retains theAmerica's Cup asMadeleine defeats challengerCountess of Dufferin, of theRoyal Canadian Yacht Club