Of course, there have been a myriad of legal events in the United States and abroad and selecting the "top" events has not always been easy. While by no means exhaustive nor definitive, many readers will question some of the choices at the expense of others. With that in mind, here is my list of the top events:

1906 - 1910 -- Creation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. College Football was a particularly dangerous affair at the turn of the century. Eighteen players died during the 1905 season. Many more were seriously hurt. The violence concerned President Teddy Roosevelt. He ordered officials from Princeton, Harvard and Yale to Washington during the season and told them to clean up the sport. Ultimately, representatives of more than 60 major colleges created the Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

By 1910, the organization was renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Administration (NCAA). For decades, it has regulated the eligibility to play and coach collegiate sports in the United States. A myriad of rules and regulations regarding eligibility, pay, recruiting and academic standards have been drafted by the organization, which, despite criticism from many, continues to be the major power broker in the world of college sports.

1919 - 1920 -- The "Black Sox" Scandal and the Creation of the Commissioner's Office. The longstanding dislike and distrust between baseball players and owners served as a cornerstone to the notorious 1919 "Black Sox" scandal, where eight players from the Chicago White Sox were accused, but never convicted, of accepting money from a gambler to "throw" the World Series.

Although part of baseball lore, a point less frequently discussed is the labor implications of the event. The tight-fistedness of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey was legendary. Despite having one of the best teams ever, he underpaid his stars when compared with other players on different teams. These players vented their revenge on Comiskey and Comiskey was smart enough to understand their alleged actions as a labor protest, rather than a lack of moral fiber. In fact, he also granted substantial raises for the 1920 baseball year to those involved!

Yet, the scandal led to the modern age of professional sports governance. By 1920 the sport granted its central authority to federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the jurist who helped force the settlement that an antitrust challenge to baseball a few years earlier. The owners abolished a three-person commission and drafted a agreement giving Landis considerable powers, including the right to hear and determine any disputes between leagues, clubs and players and to impose appropriate punishment to anyone engaging in conduct "detrimental to baseball."

For nearly a quarter-century, Landis assumed powers that were near-dictatorial. In the area of labor and management, Landis became the baseball czar as well.  The power of the Landis was so great, so absolute that he was untouchable. In fact, his decisions were rarely challenged in court. One court called him "a benevolent, but absolute despot and all the disciplinary powers of the proverbial pater familias."

His ascention was the precedent for similar structures in other professional sports.

1922 -- Baseball's Antitrust Exemption is born. The United States Supreme Court in Federal Baseball v. National League, concluded that professional baseball was not subject to antitrust law.  The three-page unanimous opinion by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes concluded that while baseball is arguably a business, it is not one that engages in interstate commerce, a requirement stated in the Sherman Antitrust Act. 

This antitrust exemption would give professional baseball a major advantage over other sports and over the players, as it was never reversed by future courts. despite increasing judicial misgivings over its rationale. Only in 1998, was it abolished when President Clinton signed the "Curt Flood Act" stripping the sports of most aspects of the exemption.

1938 -- Pittsburgh Athletic Company v. KQV -- This early case ruled that unauthorized radio broadcasts of Pittsburgh Pirate games. KDKA had the exclusive rights to broadcast home and away games, but radio KQV broadcast "descriptions" of the game based on information from paid observers whom it stationed at vantage points outside Forbes Field.

1947 -- Baseball's breaks the color barrier. Three years after Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis's death, the unwritten code of racial discrimination in baseball ended Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. This singular event changed baseball and American society forever. Within a decade, the Negro leagues disbanded and the national game was finally integrated -- at least on the player level.

At that time, private employment discrimination was not illegal. If the state was not involved in the activity, the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of equal protection could not be applied. Also, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination in employment, was years away.

1951 -- The City College Basketball Scandal -- Betting by the point spread was a relatively new advance for gamblers. The practice came into national prominence when members of the City College men's basketball team admitted that they took money from these gamblers to "fix" the point spread, that is, win by a lesser amount of points than they had to. In doing so, gamblers could manipulate the game without having the team lose it and could guarantee winnings.

Two of the players served brief jail terms. The CCNY scandal did not end the practice of taking money to shave points. But it did irrevocable damage to college basketball in New York City.

1966 -- Marvin Miller becomes the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association. In 1954, The Major League Players' Association was formed. (the National Basketball Players' Association was also formed that year; their NFL and NHL counterparts in 1956 and 1957) At first, the union of baseball players was weak and unorganized, akin to an association rather than a union. Marvin Miller, a negotiator and labor specialist who worked for the Steelworkers Union, would lead the union to the economic promised land within a decade.

1968 -- The Mexico City Olympics. In what became a defining moment in turbulent time, two African-American sprinters gave a fisted salute during the playing of national anthem after winning the gold and bronze medals in the 200 meter race. After pressure by IOC President Avery Brundage, Tommy Smith and John Carlos were expelled   by the United States Olympic Committee. The civil rights unrest of the decade made its way to the athletic field and, rightly or wrongly, brought grievances by black athletes to a worldwide stage. Although their actions would be protected speech under the First Amendment, the IOC and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) were private organizations and not state actors. The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 would change the relationship between the government and the USOC.

1971 -- The Supreme Court reinstates Muhammad Ali's boxing license. From 1961 until April, 1967, Ali was licensed to box in New York, where he was recognized as the World Heavyweight Champion. When Ali refused to be drafted to the Armed Forces, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his license. Other state commissions followed. Ali claimed conscientious objector status on religious grounds, but nevertheless lost his license to box and faced a five-year jail sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court overthrew his prison sentence and banishment from boxing. In an opinion expressing the views of six members of the court, it was held that  since the registrant's beliefs were founded on the tenets of the Muslim religion as he understood them, they were religiously based and therefore satisfied this test for qualification as a "conscientious objector." Ali came back to the ring and recaptured the heavyweight title twice.

1972 -- Curt Flood loses in the Supreme Court. In Flood v. Kuhn, the Supreme Court revisited the issue of  baseball's antitrust exemption for the third time in half a century. Flood was an all-star player with the St. Louis Cardinals. He refused to accept a trade to Philadelphia in 1969 and demanded to be a free agent, arguing that the reserve clause -- a perpetual option in every player's contract since the 1870s that stated that the player was property of the club whether he had a contract or not -- was a restraint of trade under Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-trust Act.  The majority refused to nullify the reserve clause, despite being "illogical and unrealistic." The court put the burden on Congress to change the antitrust laws.

1972 -- Title IX passed. A portion of a federal statute guaranteeing equal opportunities for men and women in federally-funded educational programs, it became the principal vehicle for women to get athletic opportunities they previously lacked. This Amendment prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal funding. Interpreting the scope of the law became difficult until Office of Civil Rights imposed interpretative guidelines in the 1980s. The court upheld the present standard of "proportionality" in the Cohen v. Brown University case in 1993.

1975 -- Just before Christmas, baseball players received the biggest gift any professional athlete ever did. The era of free agency began. It did not come the courts or Congress, but from an arbitrator. In a dispute involving players Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally and their respective teams (Los Angeles Dodgers and Montreal Expos), arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that they had played out their "reserve clause" year and were free to negotiate with any team within the league. The reserve clause does not last indefinitely. The modern age of sports and labor begun and with it dramatic salary escalations.

1978 -- Amateur Sports Act passed.  This law was enacted in response to apparent disorganization plaguing amateur sports in the United States and contributing to an overall decline of American achievement in Olympic competition. The act reorganized the USOC, and among its objectives, sought to provide for the swift and equitable resolution of disputes involving amateur athletes and sports organizations, and to protect the opportunity of any
amateur athlete to participate in the Olympic Games.  Among other things, it provides for the recognition of one national governing body for each sport included on the program of the Olympic Games. In 1998, it was amended to tighten rules on dispute resolution and expand its  applicability to paralymic games. 

1980s -- The Easing of Amateurism in the Olympics and International Championships -- IOC President Lord Killanin and his successor Juan Antonio Samaranch pushed for the opening of the Olympics to non-amateurs, realizing that the puritanical rules of amateurism were a thing of the past. Ultimately, rules for competition were decided by the National and International governing bodies of the particular sport.

1988 - 91 -- NFL antitrust litigation. After a disastrous strike, the NFL players union attempted to use the antitrust laws to nullify the onerous terms of rules which restricted free agency rights. They failed after four federal court decisions refused to apply the Sherman Act to labor - management controversies even after a contract expires. The union then was formed to attempt decertification. Both the NFL and NFL Players' Association compromised and in 1993, the current collective bargaining agreement was consummated.

1994 - 1995 -- Baseball players strike. For the first time, this longest job action by the players' union resulted in the cancellation of the World Series. It would not end until a federal judge ruled that the baseball owners engaged in unfair labor practices and could not unilaterally impose a salary cap. The players then voted to return to the playing field. Some months later, the present collective bargaining agreement was negotiated. In 1995 and 1998, the NHL and NBA imposed lockouts, resulting in cancellations of major portions of their seasons. The main issue: controlling escalating salaries.

1995 -- Bosman ruling creates free agency in European. Following the lead of American athletes, the European Court of Justice declared that soccer clubs could not charge a "transfer fee" for players whose contracts have expired. The case was brought by Jean-Marc Bosman, a Belgian player who claimed the transfer system restrained him from the right to choose whatever team he wishes. He took the Belgian Soccer Federation and his prior team to court after the club blocked his transfer to a French club when his contract ended and won.

The European Court's ratification of the decision meant that players would become free agents at the end of their terms and could sell their "physical and intellectual" property to any interested club.