American Football
- January 3 – Tony Dorsett sets NFL record for longest run from scrimmage by rushing for 99 yard touchdown.
- January 26 – death of Paul "Bear" Bryant, noted college football coach
- Super Bowl XVII – The Washington Redskins win their first Super Bowl title, and first NFL title since 1942, 27-17 over the Miami Dolphins.
- The Miami Hurricanes win their first national championship over the Nebraska Cornhuskers 31-30 in the Orange Bowl.
- Michigan Panthers win United States Football League Championship, 24-22 over Philadelphia Stars
- October 31 – death of George Halas, Chicago Bears founder and coach
Read more about this topic: 1983 In Sports
Famous quotes containing the words american and/or football:
“The American mood, perhaps even the American character, has changed. There are few manifestations any longer of the old American self-assurance which so irritated Dickens.... Instead, there is a sense of frustration so perceptible that even our politicians ... have attempted to exploit it.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)