1961 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.

Men's professional

Men's amateur

Women's professional

Steeplechases

Flat races

Australia

England

France

USA

Davis Cup

Vince Taylor (14 July 1939 — 28 August 1991), born Brian Maurice Holden, was a British rock and roll singer. As the frontman for The Playboys, Taylor was successful primarily in France and the Continent during the late 1950s and early 1960s, afterwards falling into obscurity amidst personal problems and drug abuse.

Taylor spent his early life in Isleworth, Middlesex. When he was seven, the Holdens emigrated to America and settled in New Jersey where his father took work in a coal mine. Around 1955, his sister, Sheila, married Joe Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera. As a result of the marriage, the family moved to California where Taylor attended Hollywood High School. As a teenager, Taylor took flying lessons and obtained a pilot's license.

At age 18, impressed by the music of Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley, Taylor began to sing, mostly at amateur gigs. Barbera, his brother-in-law, became his manager. When Barbera went to London on business he asked Taylor to join him. In London, Taylor went to a coffee bar on Old Compton Street in Soho, The 2i's Coffee Bar where Tommy Steele was playing. There he met drummer Tony Meehan (later of The Shadows) and bass player Tex Makins (born Anthony Paul Makins, 3 July 1940, Wembley, Middlesex). They formed a band called the Playboys. Whilst looking at a packet of Pall Mall cigarettes he noticed the phrase, 'In hoc signo vinces', thus giving rise to his new stage name of Vince Taylor.