# List of people considered father or mother of a sport

Those known as the father, mother, or considered a founder of a sport are those who have made important contributions to that sport. In some sports several people are considered the founders, while in others the title of being the "father" or "mother" is debatable.
| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| 1:8 radio-controlled off-road buggy | Yuichi Kanai (godfather) | Kyosho's lead designer and lifelong employee; best known for the Inferno series of cars, credited for redefining the class from being unreliable and fragile to being tough and user friendlier that helped his employer to lead the 1/8 buggy renaissance from the 1990s, becoming one of the most dominant cars of all time. |
| American football | Walter Camp | Established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs |
| American motocross | Edison Dye | Introduced motocross to American riders |
| American road racing | Cameron Argetsinger | Introduced the first US auto race that was dedicated to road courses at Watkins Glen |
| American sports car | Fred Tone | Fred Tone was the engineer who designed the first sports car known as the American Underslung |
| American soccer | Steve Ross (godfather) | Created the New York Cosmos soccer team and imported a number of well known international footballers to the team in an attempt to bring interest to soccer in the US |
| Angling | Izaak Walton | Author of The Compleat Angler |
| Argentine football | Alexander Watson Hutton | Founded Argentina’s first organized football leagues and promoted the sport’s development in schools, establishing the foundation for Argentine football culture. |
| Argentine professional golf | José Jurado | Pioneered Argentine golf on the international stage, becoming the first Argentine golfer to compete in major championships abroad, including the British Open, and inspiring future generations in the sport. |
| Argentine winter sports | Otto Meiling | Founded Argentina’s first ski club and promoted winter sports development in Patagonia, helping establish Bariloche as a center for skiing and winter tourism. |
| Association football / Modern football | Ebenezer Cobb Morley | Founded the Football Association and drafted the first official rules of association football, laying the groundwork for the modern game. |
| Australian rules football | Tom Wills | Co-founded Australian rules football and helped create its first set of rules, establishing the foundation for Australia’s unique national sport. |
| Australian rules football | H. C. A. Harrison | Refined and promoted the rules of Australian rules football, playing a key role in shaping and popularizing the game as a distinct national sport. |
| Baseball | Henry Chadwick | Developed baseball's scoring system, statistics, and box score, helping to standardize the game. |
| Taekwondo in India | Puran Andrew Gurung | Pioneered Taekwondo in India by introducing the martial art in the 1970s, establishing its foundational training programs, and promoting it across the country. |
| Basketball | James Naismith | Created basketball |
| Black basketball | Edwin Henderson | Introduced the sport to the black community of Washington, D.C. in the first decade of the 20th century, and organized many early competitions for African Americans |
| BMX | Scot Breithaupt | Founded BMX as a sport by organizing the first races and establishing the foundations for BMX culture, earning him the title "The Godfather of BMX." |
| Brahma bull riding | Earl W. Bascom | Introduced Brahma bulls into rodeo events, significantly shaping modern bull riding and influencing the sport’s evolution. |
| Brazilian football | Charles William Miller | Brought football to Brazil by introducing the first footballs and rules, organizing matches, and helping establish the country’s first football clubs. |
| Camel Lights | Jim Downing | Built a racecar a season before it became the basis of a new lightweight prototype class in 1985 |
| Canadian rodeo | O. Raymond Knight | Coined the rodeo term "stampede" and was world's first rodeo producer, rodeo stock contractor, and rodeo champion in 1902 |
| Modern chess | Wilhelm Steinitz | First official world chess champion |
| Drag racing | Wally Parks | Founder of the NHRA and organized the first legitimate drag race |
| Drag racing | Don Garlits | Innovator of drag racing safety |
| Drag racing | Eddie Hill | Regarded as the "Four Father" of drag racing for being the first to break the 5-second barrier. AKA "First in the Fours". |
| Drifting | Kunimitsu Takahashi | Introduced an aggressive high speed cornering technique that became widely used for illicit purposes, which eventually became a sport |
| East Coast skateboarding | Vinny Raffa (godfather) | Helped shape East Coast skateboarding culture by organizing events, building skateparks, and fostering a community that defined the region’s unique skate style. |
| Florida skateboarding | Bruce Walker (godfather) | Advanced Florida skateboarding by founding skate teams, organizing competitions, and mentoring prominent skaters, establishing a strong skateboarding culture in the region. |
| Freestyle BMX | Bob Haro | Pioneered freestyle BMX by developing specialized bikes, creating innovative tricks, and organizing the first freestyle events, shaping the sport’s evolution and culture. |
| Freestyle Motocross | Mike Metzger (godfather) | Revolutionized freestyle motocross by introducing groundbreaking tricks, such as the backflip in competition, and elevating the sport’s popularity worldwide. |
| Funny Car | Dick Landy | Advanced Funny Car racing by innovating high-performance drag racing techniques, influencing car design, and setting competitive standards in the sport. |
| Modern gymnastics | Friedrich Ludwig Jahn | Developed modern gymnastics by founding the Turnverein movement and creating apparatus and exercises that formed the basis of contemporary gymnastic practices. |
| Modern Handball | Karl Schelenz | Developed modern handball by refining the rules and promoting the sport internationally, contributing to its evolution into the game played today. |
| Ice hockey | James Creighton | Captained one of the two teams that participated in the first indoor hockey game on 3 March 1875 in Montreal |
| Import drag racing | Frank Choi | Hosted one of the first events specifically for import cars in the mid-1990s to keep drivers out of street racing that progressed into a professional category |
| Italian football | James Richardson Spensley | Associated with Genoa CFC; contributed to the modern day-variation of the game in Italy |
| Italian football | William Garbutt | Laid the foundations of skilled coaching in Italian football |
| Japanese baseball | Horace Wilson | Credited with introducing baseball in Japan |
| Japanese baseball | Hiroshi Hiraoka | Credited with establishing the first baseball team |
| Jogging | Jim Fixx | Founding father |
| Kart racing | Art Ingels | Developed the world's first kart (1956) |
| Kenyan running | Colm O'Connell | Founded the first running camp in Kenya |
| Lacrosse | William George Beers | Codified the sport from its original Indigenous American formation |
| Mexican taekwondo | Dai-won Moon | Credited with introducing the sport to Mexico; founded school that has trained tens of thousands in the sport |
| Mississippi rodeo | Earl W. Bascom Weldon Bascom | Produced the first rodeo in Columbia, Mississippi in 1935 |
| Mixed martial arts | Edward William Barton-Wright | Experimented 1898–1902 with Shinden Fudo Ryu jujutsu, Kodokan judo, British boxing, Swiss schwingen, French savate and a defensive la canne (stick fighting) style that had been developed by Pierre Vigny of Switzerland, which led to the invention of Bartitsu |
| Model aviation | Joseph S. Ott | Chicago Tribune, in an obituary, referred him as the father mainly for his designs of thousands of model aircraft spanning from the 1920s up to his death in 1986. |
| Modern bodybuilding | Eugen Sandow | Pioneered modern bodybuilding by popularizing muscle display performances, establishing the first bodybuilding competitions, and setting standards for physique assessment. |
| Modern bodybuilding | Harold Zinkin | Called so by Arnold Schwarzenegger during a press statement on his passing in 2004; inventor of modern exercise machines |
| Modern boxing | James Figg | Laid the foundation for modern boxing by being the first recognized champion and establishing early rules |
| Modern boxing | James J.Corbett | Revolutionized the sport with scientific techniques and defensive strategies, introducing a more sophisticated style |
| Modern figure skating | Jackson Haines | "Jackson Haines — The Father of Figure Skating", according to Roy Blakey |
| Modern football in Japan | Dettmar Cramer | Played a pivotal role in developing modern football in Japan by coaching the national team, enhancing training methods, and promoting professional standards, greatly influencing the sport's growth in the country. |
| Modern rodeo | Earl W. Bascom | Inventor of rodeo gear and equipment that made rodeo into a modern international sport |
| Modern tennis | Jack Kramer | Creator of the "Open"-era tournaments and the Association of Tennis Professionals |
| Para-equestrian dressage | Lee Pearson (godfather) | Most decorated para-equestrian rider of all time |
| Pickleball | Joel Pritchard | One of three inventors of the sport which was invented at Pritchard's home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Pickleball Hall of Fame 2017 inductee. |
| Professional Pickleball | John Gulo | Founder of the Professional Pickleball Federation and the Tournament of Champions. Pickleball Hall of Fame 2024 inductee. |
| Puroresu | Rikidōzan | Popularized puroresu (Japanese professional wrestling) by establishing it as a mainstream sport in Japan, blending traditional wrestling with dramatic storytelling, and inspiring future generations of wrestlers. |
| Organized radio controlled racing | Ted Longshaw | Regarded as a grandfather of the sport; founded an organization for racing in the United Kingdom (1971); founded governing bodies for organized racing in Europe (1973), the far east (1980) and worldwide (1979) |
| Organized radio controlled racing | Roger Curtis | Co-founder of Associated Electrics, one of the most significant R/C car brands; contributed to racing |
| Modern sabre fencing | Italo Santelli | Transformed modern sabre fencing by introducing innovative techniques and footwork, establishing a dynamic style that became the standard in competitive sabre. |
| Modern surfing | Duke Kahanamoku | Popularized modern surfing worldwide by showcasing the sport internationally, refining surfing techniques, and inspiring global interest in Hawaiian surf culture. |
| Rodeo bareback bronc riding | Earl W. Bascom | Designed and made the first one-hand rigging in 1924 |
| Rugby union | A. G. Guillemard | Helped formalize rugby union by serving as the first president of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and contributing to the establishment of standardized rules, shaping the modern game. |
| Rugby union | William Webb Ellis | "Who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his arms and ran with it thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game". |
| Scuba diving | Jacques Cousteau | Developed the aqua-lung jointly with Émile Gagnan; popularized scuba diving as a research diver, writer, and film and television producer and personality |
| Skateboarding | Skip Engblom (godfather) | Influenced the evolution of skateboarding by co-founding the Zephyr Skate Team (Z-Boys) and promoting a bold, surf-inspired style that transformed skateboarding culture and competition. |
| Skateboarding | Tony Hawk (godfather) | Redefined skateboarding by advancing technical tricks, notably landing the first 900, and elevating the sport’s popularity through competitions, video games, and media, becoming an iconic figure in skateboarding culture. |
| Skateboarding | Rodney Mullen (godfather) | Revolutionized skateboarding by inventing fundamental tricks like the kickflip, heelflip, and flatground ollie, shaping the foundation of modern street and freestyle skateboarding. |
| Snooker | Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain | Adopted the name and framed the rules in Ooty, India |
| Snowboarding | Jake Burton Carpenter | Pioneered modern snowboarding by innovating snowboard design, founding Burton Snowboards, and promoting the sport globally, helping to establish snowboarding as a mainstream winter sport. |
| Stock car racing | Bill France Sr. | Founded the sanctioning body for stock car racing |
| Supercross | Mike Goodwin | Organized the first supercross race |
| Telemark skiing | Sondre Norheim | Invented modern telemark skiing by developing the first flexible ski bindings and popularizing the telemark turn, laying the groundwork for contemporary ski techniques. |
| Televised golf | Frank Chirkinian | Personally responsible for much of the production conventions of modern golf broadcasting |