Events in Sports History in January 1956

6th NFL Pro Bowl

Jan 15 6th NFL Pro Bowl, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: Eastern Conference beats Western Conference, 31-30; MVP: Ollie Matson, Baltimore Colts, RB

Jan 19 City of Hoboken, New Jersey dedicates a plaque honoring achievements of Alexander Cartwright in organizing early baseball at Elysian Field

Jan 24 6th NBA All-Star Game, Rochester War Memorial Coliseum, NY: West beats East, 108-94; MVP: Bob Pettit, St. Louis Hawks, C

Jan 26 Hank Greenberg and Joe Cronin are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Jan 26 VII Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Jan 27 NFL's New York Giants move their home from the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan to Yankee Stadium in The Bronx
Jan 27 Veikko Hakulinen of Finland wins Olympic 30k cross country gold medal at Cortina d'Ampezzo; second career Olympic title after winning the 15k event in Oslo, 1952
Jan 28 Austrian skier Toni Sailer wins the giant slalom at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics on his way to a sweep of the 3 alpine skiing events at the Games
Jan 28 Italy goes 1-2 in the 2-man bobsleigh at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics; along with silver in 4-man event, the only medals for the home nation at the Games

Jan 30 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Lew Hoad beats fellow Australian Ken Rosewall 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 for his first Grand Slam title

Jan 30 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Mary Carter Reitano beats fellow Australian Thelma Coyne Long 3-6, 6-2, 9-7 for her 1st Australian singles title
Jan 30 Hallgeir Brenden of Norway wins Olympic 15k cross country gold medal at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games; his 2nd career Olympic title after taking out the 18k event in Oslo (1952)
Jan 30 Soviet 500m speed skating champion Yevgeni Grishin wins 2nd gold medal of the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics when he dead heats teammate Yuri Mikhatlov in the 1,500m in world record 2:08.6
Jan 31 Austrian skier Toni Sailer wins the slalom at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics for his 2nd gold medal of the Games; sweeps all 3 alpine skiing events