- Jan 1 19th Orange Bowl: #9 Alabama beats #14 Syracuse, 61-6
- Jan 1 19th Sugar Bowl: #2 Georgia Tech beats #7 Mississippi, 24-7
- Jan 1 39th Rose Bowl: #5 Southern California beats #11 Wisconsin, 7-0
- Jan 2 NBA Baltimore Bullets begin a record 32 game road losing streak (12 games in 1952-53; 20 games in 1953-54) with a 73-66 defeat at the Indianapolis Olympians
- Jan 10 3rd NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: National Conference beats American Conference, 27-7; MVP: Don Doll, Detroit Lions, DB
Hoover Declines Offer
Jan 11 J. Edgar Hoover declines 6 figure offer to become president of International Boxing Club
3rd NBA All-Star Game
Jan 13 3rd NBA All-Star Game, Allen County Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana: West beats East, 79-75; MVP: George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers, C
Rosewall Defeats Rose
Jan 17 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: In an all-Australian final Ken Rosewall wins his first Grand Slam title; beats Mervyn Rose 6-0, 6-3, 6-4
Connolly Defeats Sampson
Jan 17 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: In an all-American final Maureen Connolly wins 1st leg of her Grand Slam; beats Julia Sampson 6-3, 6-2
Owens Athletic Commission Secretary
Jan 19 American track and field olympian Jesse Owens named Illinois Athletic Commission secretary
- Jan 22 1953 NFL Draft: Harry Babcock from University of Georgia first pick by San Francisco 49ers
- Jan 23 Future Australian cricket captain and coach Bobby Simpson makes his 1st-class debut for NSW at 16 years and 357 days
- Jan 23 NFL Dallas Texans become Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts)
- Jan 23 NFL's National & American conference become Eastern & Western conference
Retaliation Against Veeck
Jan 31 MLB New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, & Boston Red Sox retaliate against St. Louis Browns Bill Veeck for trying to relocate the team, scheduling the Browns to play afternoon games to avoid sharing TV revenues
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