The Warriors temporarily returned to the Cow Palace to host the 1975 NBA Finals as the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena was booked for an Ice Follies performance.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the SF Examiner Games, a world-class indoor track and field meet, was held annually at the Cow Palace.

The Cow Palace was also an important venue for professional boxing until the early 1980s, having staged regular shows, including ten world title fights and appearances of all-time greats like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Alexis Arguello.

It has also been the home of the annual Grand National Rodeo, Horse & Stock Show since 1941 (except for a break from 1942 to 1945 due to World War II).

In the following years, it hosted hockey and basketball games, wrestling and boxing matches, concerts, roller derby and political events, most notably the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions.

In the spring of 2008, State Senator Leland Yee advanced legislation to allow Daly City to purchase the Cow Palace from the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Division of Fairs and Expositions in order to develop housing, basic amenities, and possibly a school for the surrounding area.

[7] On September 9, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed this proposed sale of the Cow Palace overflow parking lot.

[8] Following the 2008 publicity associated with Leland Yee's failed bill, the Cow Palace board of directors entered exclusive negotiations with Cypress Equities for a 60-year lease to develop the 13-acre (5.3 ha) proposed by Daly City.

The two NBA Finals games hosted by the Warriors in their 1974–75 championship season were also held at the Cow Palace because of other events at the Oakland Coliseum.

In 2010, the Cow Palace once again had a regular sports tenant when the American Indoor Football Association's San Jose Wolves kicked off.

The Major Indoor Soccer League came to the Cow Palace for the 1980–81 season, when David Schoenstadt relocated his Detroit Lightning there, renaming them the San Francisco Fog.

The Sharks ended their run at the Cow Palace at the conclusion of the 1992–93 season with a 3–2 loss to eventual Campbell Conference champion Los Angeles on April 10, 1993.

At the Cow Palace, the Sharks recorded the franchise's first win, shutout (Artūrs Irbe) and hat trick (Rob Gaudreau).

On September 27, 2011, the ECHL formally announced that pro hockey would return to the Cow Palace after a 16-year hiatus with the arrival of the San Francisco Bulls the following fall.

[13] From 1974 to 1989, the Cow Palace was the site of the Pacific Coast Championships, a yearly tournament on the men's professional tennis tour.

[14] The Palace has also hosted professional wrestling events under various promoters, most notably Roy Shire, who ran cards there from the early 1960s to 1981, oftentimes to sold-out houses headlined by Ray Stevens, Pat Patterson and others.

[21] The explosion of the starship USS Reliant, used in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was filmed in the Cow Palace auditorium.