1864 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Association football

Events

• 7 December — Notts County, then called Notts FC, is formally established and remains the oldest club in the Football League

Australian rules football

• Carlton Football Club was founded in Victoria on July.^{[citation needed]}

Baseball

National championship

• National Association of Base Ball Players champion – Brooklyn Atlantics

Events

• The Atlantic club of Brooklyn, New York suffers only one early tie. One match is at Rochester against the Young Canadian club of Woodstock, Ontario, 75–11.
• New rules empower the umpire to "call" balls (bad pitches) and eventually award first base on balls, practically limiting the number of pitches and the length of each batsman's turn.

Boxing

Events

• Tom King retires and the English Championship becomes vacant till 1866.^[1]
• American Champion Joe Coburn tries unsuccessfully to set up a fight with former English Champion Jem Mace. There are challenges to Coburn from Mike McCoole and Jimmy Elliott.^[2]

Cricket

Events

• Law 10 is rewritten by MCC to allow a bowler to bring his arm through at any height providing he keeps it straight and does not "throw" the ball. The issue of overarm bowling has crystallised in the Willsher-Lillywhite incident of August 1862.
• The concept of a champion county gains popularity when newspapers begin to publish tables of inter-county match results
• 12 January — formation of Lancashire County Cricket Club at a meeting in Manchester
• 27–29 January — Otago v. Canterbury at Dunedin is the start of first-class cricket in New Zealand
• Madras v. Calcutta is the start of first-class cricket in India
• First issue of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

England

• Most runs – Will Mortlock 855 @ 34.20 (HS 105)
• Most wickets – James Grundy 99 @ 11.31 (BB 9–19)

Golf

Major tournaments

• British Open – Tom Morris senior

Horse racing

Events

• Inaugural running of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Springs, New York is won by Kentucky

England

• Grand National – Emblematic
• 1,000 Guineas Stakes – Tomato
• 2,000 Guineas Stakes – General Peel
• The Derby – Blair Athol^[3]
• The Oaks – Fille de l'Air
• St. Leger Stakes – Blair Athol

Australia

• Melbourne Cup – Lantern

Canada

• Queen's Plate – Brunette

Rowing

The Boat Race

• 19 March — Oxford wins the 21st Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race

Other events

• 29 July — Yale wins the fifth Harvard–Yale Regatta, its first victory. The Race is resumed after three years off although the American Civil War will continue to next April.

Rugby football

Events

• Foundation of Huddersfield RLFC which is the oldest Rugby Football League member