Sports Trivia

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• Fishing is the biggest participant sports in the world.
• Soccer is the most attended or watched sport in the world.
• Boxing became a legal sport in 1901.
• More than 100 million people hold hunting licence's.
• Jean Genevieve Garnerin was the first female parachutists, jumping from a hot air balloon in 1799.
• In 1975 Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the top of Everest.
• The record for the most Olympic medals ever won is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina. Competing in three Olympics, between 1956 and 1964, she won 18 medals.
• The record for the most major league Bbaseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings.
• The first instance of global electronic communications took place in 1871 when news of the Derby winner was telegraphed from London to Calcutta in under 5 minutes.
• In 1898, one of the first programs to be broadcast ed on radio was a yacht race that took place in British waters.
• Sports command the biggest television audiences, led by the summer Olympics, World Cup soccer and Formula One racing.
• Gymnasiums were introduced in 900BC and Greek athletes practiced in the nude to the accompaniment of music. They also performed naked at the Olympic Games.
• The very first Olympic race, held in 776 BC, was won by Corubus, a chef.
• The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors.
• Michael Schumacher is the highest paid sportsman, ahead of Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer. (Not including sponsorship endorsements.)
• Martina Hingis is the highest paid sportswomen.
• The high jump method of jumping head first and landing on the back is called the Fosbury Flop.
• The Major League Baseball teams use about 850,000 balls per season.
• About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship.
• A baseball ball has exactly 108 stitches, a cricket ball has between 65 and 70 stitches.
• A soccer ball is made up of 32 leather panels, held together by 642 stitches.
• Basketball and rugby balls are made from synthetic material. Earlier, pigs' bladders were used as rugby balls.
• The baseball home plate is 17 inches wide.
• Golf the only sport played on the moon - on 6 February 1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball.
• Bill Klem served the most seasons as major league umpire - 37 years, starting in 1905. He also officiated 18 World Series.
• The oldest continuous trophy in sports is the America's Cup. It started in 1851, with Americans winning for a straight 132 years until Australia took the Cup in 1983.
• Volleyball was invented by William George Morgan of Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895.
• Ferenc Szisz from Romania, driving a Renault, won the first Formula One Grand Prix held at Le Mans, France in 1906.
• Billiards great, Henry Lewis once sank 46 balls in a row.
• Golf-great Billy Casper turned golf pro during the Korean War while serving in the Navy. Casper was assigned to operate and build golf driving ranges for the Navy in the San Diego area.
• Four men in the history of boxing have been knocked out in the first eleven seconds of the first round.
• Mark McGwire's record-setting 70 home runs in the 1998 season traveled a total of 29,598 feet, enough to fly over Mount Everest.
• Prior to 1900, prize fights lasted up to 100 rounds.
• Not all Golf Balls have 360 dimples. There are some as high as 420. There are also all different kinds of dimple patterns.
• Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was considered a distraction from the serious pursuit of archery.
• The Iditarod dog sled race - from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska - commemorates an emergency operation in 1925 to get medical supplies to Nome following a diphtheria epidemic.
• In July 1934 Babe Ruth paid a fan $20 dollars for the return of the baseball he hit for his 700th career home run.
• In 1969 a brief battle broke out between Honduras and El Salvador. Although tensions had been rough between the two countries, the reason for the war was El Salvador's victory over Honduras in the World Cup Soccer playoffs. Gunfire was exchanged for about 30 minutes before reason could prevail.
• Horse racing is one of the most dangerous sports. Between 2 and 3 jockeys are killed each year. That's about how many baseball players have died in baseball's entire professional history.
• Bulgaria was the only soccer team in the 1994 World Cup in which all 11 players' last names ended with the letters "OV."
• Gene Sarazen, a golfer from several generations ago, set the record for the fastest golf drive: 120 mph.
• Michael Sangster, who played in the 1960s, had tennis' fastest serve, once clocked at 154 mph.
• In 1964 for the 10th time in his major-league baseball career, Mickey Mantle hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game - setting a new baseball record.
• Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.
• Australian Rules football was originally designed to give cricketers something to play during the off season.
• Baseball cards have been around since 1886. Modern cards, with high-resolution color photographs on the front and player statistics on the back, date from 1953. The photos are taken in the spring, with and without team caps, just in case the player is traded to another team.
• Because of fears that the Japanese, who had attacked Pearl Harbor less than a month earlier, might attach California, the Rose Bowl game of 1942 between Oregon State and Duke University was moved east to Duke's hometown in Durham, North Carolina. It didn't, however, help the home team. Oregon won, 20-16.
• Racehorses have been known to wear out new shoes in one race.?
• The home team must provide the referee with 36 footballs for each National Football League game.
• Olympic Badminton rules say that the birdie has to have exactly fourteen feathers.
• Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000.
• Will Clark, professional baseball player, is a direct descendant of William Clark of Lewis and Clark.
• The 1990 New York Yankee pitching staff set an all-time record with the fewest complete games, three.
• Rick and Paul Reuschel of the 1975 Chicago Cubs combine to pitch a shutout, the first time brothers do this.
• At 101, Larry Lewis ran the 100 yard dash in 17.8 seconds setting a new world record for runners 100 years old or older.
• The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.
• Superfly Jimmy Snuka was the first E.C.W. World Champ.
• Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures.

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