Sports History Trivia

So many sports and players have a long and illustrious history, so we’ve taken a look at some of the amazing trivia that’s amassed over the last century or so!

• The average golf ball has 336 dimples, and this number has remained the same for well over 50 years.
• If swimmer Michael Phelps were a country, he’d be ranked number 35 on the list of all time Olympic medal winners.
• Roger Bannister set a new world record for the fastest mile. But he only held it for 46 days before it was broken.
• Golfer Jordan Spieth won just $61,867 less playing at The Masters than Arnold Palmer won over the course of his entire career. Palmer would have been better off playing pokies online if he was hoping for big wins!
• When Michael Jordan tried his luck at baseball the White Sox owner kept him on the payroll, shelling out $4 million just to watch Jordan decide what sport he liked best. Jordan returned to the White Sox after his baseball career was a non-starter.
• The Philippines have competed in 20 Summer Olympics. They have never won a gold medal.
• Worse off than the Philippines is Liechtenstein. They have never won a medal and have competed in 16 Summer Olympics.
• Babe Ruth may be a legend, but he only won 4 World Series in 15 seasons when playing for the Yankees.

• Princess Anne was not subject to gender verification when she competed at the 1976 Olympics. She was excused as a ‘royal courtesy”.
• In 1984 the longest recorded point in tennis took place. It took 29 minutes and saw the ball pass over the net 643 times.
• Approximately 46% of the players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame played for 1 team throughout their entire NFL careers.
• China won their first Olympic medal in 1984. They made up for the previous years losses however as in 2008 they took home over 100 medals.
• The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle played goalie for the Portsmouth Association amateur football club. This club went on to become the pro team that won the 2008 FA Cup.
• The world record for men’s long jump has only been broken once since 1969.
• 3 Olympic games have been held in countries that no longer exist.
• If you say someone has won something hands down the expression you are using stems from when a jockey would win a race without whipping a horse, or pulling the reins.
• At the World Cup in Munich in 197 teams were given BMW busses to use for transportation. After Zaire lost, they tried to drive theirs home, but were stopped.
• When Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 the arena was half empty. Clay went on to change his name to Muhammad Ali and became one of the world’s most famous boxers.
• In high school, Michael Jordan’ nickname was magic- named after Magic Johnson.