- January 11
- Detroit Tigers' ace reliever John Hiller, 27, suffers a heart attack, and misses the 1971 season. [1]
- January 14
- John Snow takes 7-40 for England to beat Australia by 299 runs. [1]
- January 16
- Ard Schenk skates world record 1500m (1:58.7). [1]
- January 17
- Super Bowl V: Baltimore Colts-16, Dallas Cowboys-13 in Miami, Florida; Most Valuable Player: Chuck Howley, Dallas, Linebacker. [1]
- January 19
- 24th NHL All-Star Game: West beat East 2-1 at Boston. [1]
- NHL Writers' Association renamed Professional Hockey Writers' Association. [1]
- January 20
- Ard Schenk skates world record 1000m (1:18.8). [1]
- January 23
- 4th ABA All-Star Game: East 126 beats West 122 at Carolina. [1]
- January 24
- NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 27-6 (first Pro Bowl after NFL-AFL merger). [1]
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- January 29
- Test debut of Dennis Keith Lillee, versus England at Adelaide. [1]
- January 30
- Dennis Lillee takes 5-84 in his first Test bowl, versus England. [1]
- January 31
- Jake Beckley, Joe Kelley, Harry Hooper, Rube Marquard, Chick Hafey and Dave Bancroft and George Weiss elected to baseball Hall of Fame. [1]
- US female Figure Skating championship won by Janet Lynn. [1]
- US male Figure Skating championship won by John Misha Petkevich. [1]
- February 6
- First time a golf ball is hit on the Moon (by Alan Shepard). [1]
- February 9
- Leroy "Satchel" Paige becomes first negro-league player elected to Baseball Hall of Fame. [1] [129]
- February 11
- Montreal Canadiens' John Believau scores his 500th NHL goal. [1]
- February 12
- Only Test Cricket for Ken Eastwood, who scored 5 and 0 Australia versus England. [1]
- February 13
- Golfing US Vice President Spiro Agnew hits two tee shots into the crowd, injuring two. [1]
- February 17
- England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win. [1]
- February 19
- Walt Wesley becomes the first Cleveland Cavaliers' player to score 50 points in a game. [1]
- February 20
- Boston Bruins' Phil Esposito is NHL's quickest to score 50 goals in a season. [1]
- February 21
- Ruth Jessen wins LPGA Sears Women's World Golf Classic. [1]
- February 28
- 53rd PGA Championship: Jack Nicklaus shoots a 281 at PGA National to win his second golf grand slam. [1]
- March 6
- Test Cricket debut of Sunil Gavaskar, versus West Indies at Port-of-Spain. [1]
- March 8
- Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden (New York City, New York) in 15 rounds, retains heavyweight boxing title. [1]
- Milwaukee Bucks win their 20th straight NBA game (team record). [1]
- March 9
- J M Noreiga takes 9-95 West Indies versus India at Port-of-Spain. [1]
- March 19
- Philadelphia 76ers outscore Cincinnati Royals 90-8 in one half. [1]
- March 20
- Boston Bruins win 13th straight NHL game. [1]
- March 21
- Gavaskar scores first of his 34 Test Cricket tons, 116 at Georgetown. [1]
- Jan Ferraris wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic. [1]
- March 25
- Boston Patriots become New England Patriots. [1]
- March 27
- 33rd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Villanova 68-62; this is UCLA's 5th consecutive NCAA basketball title. [1]
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