General sports trivia
As sports fans, we spend a lot of time enjoying our favorite hobbies. We sit down with friends in bars, lounges, or sports venues to talk about teams, players, and highlights. Here are some fun sports facts and bits of general sports trivia to add to the next conversation.
FOOTBALL
Ticket prices for the first Super Bowl in 1967 ranged from $6 to $12. Today they can cost thousands of dollars!
In 1990, the San Francisco 49ers became the first team to score 50 points in the Super Bowl. They were also the first team to win five Super Bowl titles.
Deion Sanders played for San Francisco in 1994 and the Dallas Cowboys in 1995. Both teams went to the Super Bowl and both teams were victorious. Before that, Deion Sanders played for the MLB’s Atlanta Braves and went to the World Series in 1992. He is also the only player in professional sports to have scored a touchdown and hit a home run in the same week.
BASEBALL
Cy Young was credited with being the first pitcher in the Modern Era to throw a perfect game. Actually, the first professional baseball pitcher to do this was Lee Richmond on June 12, 1880 with the Worcester Ruby Legs.
The first black player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame was Jackie Robinson in 1962. The first woman to be inducted was Effa Manley in 2006, not as a player, but as an owner/team manager.
Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. both played for the Seattle Mariners. They are the only father and son players in MLB to have hit back-to-back home runs in an MLB game.
BASKETBALL
The Lakers have made the most appearances in the NBA Finals, but they don’t have the most NBA titles. They have 30 attempts with 15 wins. The Celtics have the most wins with 17 in 20 appearances.
The lowest scoring game in NBA history was between the Pistons and Lakers in 1950, 19-18.
One of the reasons the New Jersey NBA team was called the Nets was because it rhymed with the other local professional teams, the Mets and the Jets.
HOCKEY
With 472 minutes sitting in the penalty box, Dave Schultz, also known as “The Hammer”, holds the record for the most penalty minutes in a season.
Ron Hextall, playing for Philadelphia in 1987, was the first NHL goaltender to score a goal during a game.
Hockey fans bring sports towels to greet umpires for bad calls and hats to throw on the ice if a player scores three goals in a game. In Detroit, fans will bring an octopus to throw on the ice if the Red Wings win in the playoffs.
modern olympics
In 1980, the US hockey team defeated the USSR in an incredible miracle victory. However, that was not the gold medal match. They had to go on to defeat Finland to win gold.
The early Olympics included a number of unusual sports: tug-of-war, 100-meter freestyle for sailors, rope climbing, a swimming obstacle course, an underwater distance race, and live pigeon shooting.
Curling has been a team sport at the Winter Olympics since 1998. It is played on ice with a polished granite stone and two brooms.
WOMEN IN SPORTS
Jackie-Joyner-Kersee was the first and only woman to be named “The Sporting News” Man of the Year (1988).
Janet Guthrie was the first woman to run the Indianapolis 500 in 1977. She finished in 29th place.
The first female gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics was Nadia Comaneci (1976 Montreal).