95 Fun Facts About Crazy Sports

What did the White Sox detonate between games of a 1979 doubleheader promotion?

A crate of disco records was detonated by radio DJ Steve Dahl on Disco Demolition Night, July 12, 1979; fans stormed the field, and the White Sox forfeited the second game to Detroit.

Cleveland forfeited a 1974 game to Texas after a riot during a promotion selling cups of beer for how much?

10 cents bought a cup of beer that night; the home side had just rallied to tie it 5–5 in the ninth when drunken fans stormed the field, so the umpires awarded Texas the game.

Which team owner sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951?

Bill Veeck had Gaedel pop out of a cake between games, then sent him up to pinch-hit; he walked on four pitches, and the league voided his contract within days.

What did a Randy Johnson fastball hit and kill during a 2001 spring training game?

A dove flew across the plate during a March 2001 spring-training game against the Giants and was obliterated by Randy Johnson's fastball; the umpire ruled it no pitch.

In 1993 a fly ball bounced off which outfielder's head and over the wall for a home run?

José Canseco, playing right field for Texas at Cleveland on May 26, 1993, let Carlos Martínez's fly ball bounce off his head and over the fence; days later he hurt his elbow pitching in a blowout.

On 'Grandstand Managers Night' in 1951, how did St. Louis Browns fans make the team's decisions?

On August 24, 1951, more than a thousand Browns fans ran the game by holding up YES and NO placards on each decision against the Philadelphia Athletics; St. Louis won 5–3 in a season it lost 102 games.

Who was the first woman to play in an NHL game, in goal for Tampa Bay in 1992 preseason?

Manon Rhéaume stopped seven of nine shots in her one period against St. Louis, and Tampa Bay sent her out for a second preseason game a year later.

Which Eagles quarterback passed for 407 yards in the 1988 'Fog Bowl' at Chicago without throwing a touchdown?

Randall Cunningham kept moving the Eagles after dense fog rolled over Soldier Field in the second quarter, but he threw three interceptions and the Bears won 20–12.

In 1968 NBC cut away from a Jets–Raiders game with a minute left to show which film?

Heidi started on schedule at 7 p.m. Eastern, so viewers in the East missed Oakland scoring two touchdowns in the final minute to beat the Jets 43–32, and the outcry was enormous.

Which Raiders quarterback's forward fumble on the 1978 'Holy Roller' play led the NFL to restrict who may advance a fumble?

Ken Stabler, about to be sacked, let the ball go forward and two teammates knocked it on over the goal line for the winning score; he later admitted it was deliberate.

How did Greg Chappell order his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball to New Zealand in a 1981 ODI?

Underarm, along the ground, so that Brian McKechnie could not hit the six New Zealand needed to tie; legal at the time, it outraged both countries, and NZ's prime minister called it disgusting.

Wrestler Antonio Inoki spent most of his 1976 bout with Muhammad Ali doing what?

Antonio Inoki spent nearly all 15 rounds lying on his back kicking Ali's legs on June 26, 1976 in Tokyo; the bout was scored a draw, and Ali left with blood clots in his badly bruised legs.

In which event were animals deliberately killed at the 1900 Paris Olympics?

Live pigeon shooting paid cash prizes; a shooter was out after missing two birds, and Belgium's Léon de Lunden won the main event by downing 21.

Why was Dorando Pietri, first home in the 1908 Olympic marathon, disqualified?

Officials helped him finish: Pietri collapsed five times inside the stadium and was steered over the line. Queen Alexandra gave him a special cup, and the drama made him far more famous than the winner.

How did Eric 'the Eel' Moussambani win his 100 m freestyle heat at Sydney 2000 in 1:52.72?

Both rivals false-started and were disqualified, so he swam the heat alone. He had learned to swim only eight months earlier and had never raced over more than 50 metres.

What happened on the last corner to hand Steven Bradbury 2002 Olympic short-track gold?

All four rivals crashed while Bradbury trailed in last place, so he glided through for Australia's first Winter Olympic gold; 'do a Bradbury' later entered the Australian National Dictionary.

Which 1899 baseball team finished a record-worst 20–134 after its owners moved its stars to their St. Louis club?

Cleveland Spiders owners had also bought the St. Louis club and shipped it Cy Young and their other stars; the hollowed-out Spiders folded after that single ruinous season.

What did Cubs outfielder Rick Monday snatch from two protesters at Dodger Stadium in 1976?

An American flag: the two had doused it with lighter fluid and were striking matches when Monday ran in from centre field. The crowd then sang 'God Bless America'.

George Brett's 1983 go-ahead home run against the Yankees was briefly nullified because of what?

Too much pine tar on his bat, the umpires ruled, and an enraged Brett charged out of the dugout. The league president overruled them, and the game resumed 25 days later, the Royals winning 5–4.

1976 Rookie of the Year Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych was famous for doing what on the mound?

Mark Fidrych was famous for talking to the baseball on the mound; the 1976 AL Rookie of the Year also knelt to smooth the dirt by hand and got his nickname from his resemblance to Big Bird.

In 1964 Vikings lineman Jim Marshall recovered a fumble and ran 66 yards to where?

Jim Marshall ran 66 yards the wrong way into his own end zone on October 25, 1964 and tossed the ball away, giving the 49ers a safety; Minnesota won anyway, 27–22.

In 'The Play' that ended the 1982 Cal–Stanford game, Kevin Moen ran through what to score?

The Stanford band had marched on thinking the game was won. After five laterals Moen burst through it and flattened trombonist Gary Tyrrell as he scored, and Cal won 25–20.

What did the NBA adopt after Darryl Dawkins shattered two backboards with dunks in 1979?

Breakaway rims, which give under a dunker's weight, followed after Dawkins smashed boards in Kansas City and Philadelphia three weeks apart; he gave the first dunk a rhyming name ending 'Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam'.

Why did Barbados deliberately score an own goal against Grenada late in a 1994 Caribbean Cup qualifier?

To force extra time: Barbados needed a two-goal win, led only 2–1, and a golden goal counted double. Grenada then attacked both nets, but Barbados held out and got its golden goal.

Which runner was stripped of the 1980 Boston Marathon title after jumping into the race near the finish?

Rosie Ruiz was undone when two Harvard students said they had seen her burst out of the crowd close to the end; eight days later officials named Canada's Jacqueline Gareau the winner.

Which astronaut hit two golf balls on the Moon in 1971 using a six-iron head fixed to a sample scoop?

Alan Shepard had to swing one-handed in his stiff suit and joked that his second ball went 'miles and miles'; analysis of the footage in 2021 put it at about 40 yards.

Which jockey, later a bestselling crime novelist, rode Devon Loch when it collapsed yards from winning the 1956 Grand National?

Dick Francis was five lengths clear on the Queen Mother's horse when it leapt at nothing and belly-flopped 40 yards out; no cause was ever settled, and 'doing a Devon Loch' came to mean a late collapse.

Why did 42-year-old Zamboni driver David Ayres play goal for Carolina in a 2020 NHL game?

Both goalies got hurt, so the Toronto arena's emergency backup went in against his own home club; he stopped eight of ten shots in a 6–3 win, the first by an emergency goalie in NHL history.

Which two NFL teams merged in 1943 after wartime service thinned their rosters?

Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers pooled players as the 'Steagles'; most also held defence jobs in shipyards or factories, yet the patched-up side finished 5–4–1, a winning record.

Which 1904 race was awarded to fifth-placed Henri Cornet after the first four finishers were disqualified for cheating?

Tour de France winner Maurice Garin and three others were thrown out four months after the finish; riders were accused of taking trains, and nails had been scattered on the roads.

What happened in 2004 to the ball Cubs fan Steve Bartman deflected in the 2003 playoffs?

It was publicly destroyed: a Chicago restaurant group bought the ball and had it destroyed before the cameras, hoping to lift the Cubs' curse after their eight-run collapse that inning.

Joe Gaetjens scored as a USA team of part-timers beat which country 1–0 at the 1950 World Cup?

England, fielding stars such as Tom Finney, lost to a side that included a postman and a hearse driver; Gaetjens dived to deflect in Walter Bahr's long shot.

Who beat 55-year-old Bobby Riggs at the Astrodome in the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes'?

Billie Jean King, 29, had turned Riggs down until he routed Margaret Court on Mother's Day; then she took him on and won 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 before more than 30,000 at the Astrodome.

How did the longest gloved boxing match, 110 rounds in New Orleans in 1893, finally end?

With no winner: after 7 hours 19 minutes Andy Bowen and Jack Burke were too spent to leave their corners, so the referee called it off; Burke had broken both hands.

What did Zaire's Mwepu Ilunga do as Brazil lined up a free kick at the 1974 World Cup?

Booted the ball away: he burst out of the wall before the kick was taken and was booked. He later said he knew the rules and wanted a red card, in protest at the players' unpaid bonuses.

Mike Tyson said he bit Evander Holyfield's ears in their 1997 fight in retaliation for what?

Headbutts, Tyson said, had gone unpunished by the referee and left him cut. Nevada fined him $3 million and revoked his boxing licence.

Which Pacer charged into the stands after a fan's drink hit him in 2004's 'Malice at the Palace'?

Ron Artest was lying on the scorer's table when the cup hit him; he grabbed the wrong fan in the seats, and the NBA suspended him for the rest of the season, 73 games plus the playoffs.

Why was Ian Woosnam penalised two strokes in the final round of the 2001 Open Championship?

Caddie Miles Byrne had left a spare driver in the bag after the range, giving Woosnam 15 clubs, one over the limit; he went on to tie third and sacked Byrne two weeks later.

In which sport did Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards finish last at the 1988 Olympics, prompting tougher entry rules?

Ski jumping had no home in Britain, so Edwards drove around Europe to qualify; the 1990 'Eddie the Eagle rule' then required hopefuls to rank in the top 30 per cent or top 50 internationally.

Cramping against Ivan Lendl at the 1989 French Open, Michael Chang shocked him with what?

Michael Chang hit an underarm serve in the fifth set of his fourth-round match against Lendl; on match point he stood near the service line to receive, Lendl double-faulted, and Chang won the title at 17.

Why was no champion declared in the 1919 Stanley Cup Final between Montreal and Seattle?

The Spanish flu put so many Montreal players in bed that the deciding game was called off hours before the start, with the series level; Canadiens defenceman Joe Hall died days later.

Why did Australian sculler Bobby Pearce stop rowing mid-race in his 1928 Olympic quarter-final?

To let ducks pass: a duck and her ducklings were crossing his lane in Amsterdam. Pearce waited, then caught his French opponent, won easily and went on to take the gold.

In which sport did a 1912 Olympic semi-final between Martin Klein and Alfred Asikainen last 11 hours 40 minutes?

Wrestling: Klein finally pinned the reigning world champion under a blazing sun, but was too exhausted to contest the final, so Sweden's Claes Johanson took the gold by default.

In 1990 the Griffeys became the first father and son to do what together?

Hit back-to-back home runs: Ken Griffey Sr. had signed with Seattle to play beside his son, and two weeks after their first game together they homered in turn off the Angels' Kirk McCaskill.

How did Auburn beat Alabama on the final play of the 2013 Iron Bowl, known as the 'Kick Six'?

A missed field goal return: Alabama's coach had argued one second back onto the clock, tried a 57-yard kick, and watched Chris Davis catch it and run 109 yards to win 34–28.

Which animal at a German aquarium picked the winner of all eight 2010 World Cup matches put to it?

The octopus, Paul, chose a mussel from one of two flag-marked boxes: he called all seven of Germany's games, two defeats included, then Spain's win in the final.

The United States quit the 1908 Olympic tug of war in protest at what worn by the Liverpool Police team?

Their boots: the Americans called the police service boots illegal, claiming steel-rimmed heels that dug in, but the protest was dismissed, and British police teams took gold, silver and bronze.

In the 200 m obstacle swim at the 1900 Paris Olympics, competitors climbed over and swam under rows of what?

Boats: swimmers in the Seine climbed a pole, scrambled over one row of boats and swam under another. Frederick Lane won, and the event was never held again.

How did Fred Lorz cover part of the 1904 Olympic marathon before being exposed?

In a car: Lorz dropped out after nine miles, rode much of the route, then ran in to be hailed as the winner. Banned for life, he was reinstated in time to win the 1905 Boston Marathon.

The modern sport of wife carrying was first introduced in 1992 in which country?

Finland's village of Sonkajärvi stages the world championship, where the winner takes home the wife's weight in beer; local tales trace the sport to a brigand, Ronkainen, whose gang was said to carry off women.

Which cheese do racers chase down Cooper's Hill every Spring Bank Holiday?

Double Gloucester, in a wheel of about eight pounds, gets a one-second head start and can reach 70 mph, so the real race is to the bottom of Cooper's Hill, where the winner keeps the cheese.

In the World Bog Snorkelling Championship, what are racers forbidden to use?

Swim strokes are banned: racers in snorkel, mask and flippers must kick through two lengths of a 60-yard trench cut in a peat bog near Llanwrtyd Wells, on flipper power alone.

Iepe Rubingh staged the first match in 2003 of which hybrid sport, taken from a 1992 graphic novel?

Chess boxing alternates rounds of chess and boxing until a checkmate or a knockout; Rubingh first staged it as an art performance, from an idea in an Enki Bilal comic, before it grew into a real sport.

Which household chore did Phil Shaw turn into an 'extreme' sport in 1997?

Ironing went outdoors in Leicester, where Shaw began it; 'ironists' now press shirts while rock climbing, scuba diving or wading rivers, board strapped to their backs.

What did trainers dose 1904 Olympic marathon winner Thomas Hicks with, leaving him hallucinating?

Thomas Hicks's trainers dosed him with brandy, raw eggs and strychnine, then used as a stimulant, during the 1904 St. Louis marathon; he finished hallucinating and had to be helped across the line.

Which Caribbean nation's bobsleigh debut at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics inspired the film Cool Runnings?

Jamaica lost control of the sled on the third of four runs in Calgary, so the debut team never officially finished the event.

What was the name of the collie who found the stolen World Cup trophy on a London street in 1966?

Pickles sniffed out the Jules Rimet Trophy, wrapped in newspaper, on a walk a week after the theft, and was invited to the winners' celebration banquet as a reward.

Following a custom begun by Louis Meyer in 1936, the Indianapolis 500 winner celebrates in victory lane with what?

A bottle of milk became the custom after Meyer asked for a glass of buttermilk, which his mother had encouraged him to drink on hot days.

Which American high jumper won 1968 Olympic gold by sailing over the bar backwards, a technique now named after him?

Dick Fosbury sprinted at the bar on a curve and went over back-first, a style one newspaper mocked by calling him the world's laziest high jumper.

Which medieval pastime, kept alive through ring tournaments, became the official state sport of Maryland in 1962?

Jousting in Maryland means riding at full speed to thread a lance through small hanging rings, not unseating an armoured knight.

Gymnast George Eyser won six medals in a single day at the 1904 Olympics while competing with what?

A wooden leg replaced the left one Eyser lost when a train ran over it, yet his six St. Louis medals included gold in the vault.

Jockey Frank Hayes rode outsider Sweet Kiss to victory at Belmont Park in 1923 despite what happening mid-race?

Hayes won although he died of a heart attack late in the steeplechase, and nobody realised until officials came over to congratulate him.

What knocked Indians pitcher Ray Caldwell unconscious on the mound in 1919 before he got up to record the final out?

Lightning flattened Caldwell with two out in the ninth inning, yet he came round, refused to be replaced and sealed the win himself.

Which Argentine captain punched the ball into the net for the 'Hand of God' goal at the 1986 World Cup?

Diego Maradona followed the handball four minutes later by dribbling past five opponents to score what became known as the Goal of the Century.

In an annual cross-country race at Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales, human runners try to outpace which animals?

Horses and their riders have usually won since the race grew out of a 1980 pub argument, and no runner beat them until Huw Lobb in 2004.

Which Ethiopian runner won the 1960 Rome Olympic marathon barefoot after his new shoes gave him blisters?

Abebe Bikila, a soldier in Ethiopia's Imperial Guard, became his country's first Olympic gold medallist, finishing at night beside the Arch of Constantine.

Which American won the longest tennis match in history, an 11-hour epic spread over three days at Wimbledon in 2010?

John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in a final set that lasted more than eight hours, longer than all the earlier sets combined.

Which American figure skater was clubbed above the knee in 1994 in a plot hatched by a rival's ex-husband?

Nancy Kerrigan missed the US Championships but recovered in time for the Winter Olympics that February, where she won the silver medal.

Which country ended the USA's unbeaten Olympic basketball run in a 1972 final whose last three seconds were replayed?

The Soviet Union scored the winning basket only after officials reset the clock to three seconds, ending an American Olympic record that stood at 63–0.

Seventeen-year-old Jackie Mitchell, a female pitcher, struck out Lou Gehrig and which Yankees star in a 1931 exhibition?

Babe Ruth swung and missed twice, watched a third strike go by and trudged back to the bench; Mitchell was pitching for the minor-league Chattanooga Lookouts.

In the mid-1980s, New York Giants players began celebrating wins by dousing coach Bill Parcells with a cooler of what?

Gatorade was first tipped over Parcells by Jim Burt in 1984 as revenge for a punishing week of practice, and the grateful company later sent gift certificates.

Johnny Weissmuller won five Olympic swimming gold medals in the 1920s before playing which hero in twelve films?

Tarzan kept Weissmuller on screen from 1932 to 1948, after a swimming career in which he also set 67 world records.

The marathon's odd 26.2-mile length dates from the 1908 London Olympics, when the race began at which royal home?

Windsor Castle lay 26 miles from the stadium entrance, and a part-lap of the track to finish in front of the Royal Box made up the rest; the length became standard in 1921.

The halfway line of the Zerão football stadium in Macapá is said to follow which imaginary line around the Earth?

The Equator gives the Brazilian ground its nickname, a nod to zero latitude, and each team is said to defend a hemisphere.

Kicker Tom Dempsey, whose 63-yard field goal in 1970 stood as the NFL record for 43 years, was born without what?

Dempsey had no toes on one foot, his right, and kicked in a custom flat-fronted shoe with no toe box; he was also born without fingers on his right hand.

In which Pennsylvania town did Wilt Chamberlain score 100 points in a 1962 NBA game that was never televised?

Hershey's draughty old ice-hockey arena hosted the 169–147 win over the Knicks, which survives only as an audio recording of the fourth quarter.

In which island nation did AS Adema win a 2002 match 149–0 as their protesting opponents kept scoring own goals?

Madagascar's SO l'Emyrne took turns putting the ball into their own net, about once every 36 seconds, to protest refereeing that had cost them the title.

The 1969 'Football War', sparked by rioting at World Cup qualifiers, was fought between El Salvador and which neighbour?

Honduras and El Salvador fought for about 100 hours; the deeper causes were land reform and migration, with the matches only the spark.

Because of Australian quarantine rules, the 1956 Melbourne Olympics staged its equestrian events in which faraway city?

Stockholm ran the riding events in June 1956 after Australian authorities refused to relax a six-month quarantine on animals arriving for the Games.

Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis said he threw his 1970 no-hitter against the Padres while under the influence of which drug?

LSD was in Ellis's system because he had lost track of the days and thought it was still Thursday, until he was reminded that he was due to pitch that night.

After Qatar banned child jockeys in 2005, its emir ordered that racing camels be ridden by what instead?

Robots carrying remote-controlled whips now sit on the camels, and the emir wanted them directing every race in the country by 2007.

In buzkashi, the national sport of Afghanistan, mounted players battle to drag what into the goal?

A goat carcass, or sometimes a calf, stands in for the ball, and the name buzkashi itself means goat-pulling.

In which South Asian contact sport must a raider tag opponents on a single breath while chanting the sport's name?

Kabaddi raiders keep repeating the word, a chant known as the cant, to show referees they have not inhaled during the raid.

After a grenade wrecked his right hand, Károly Takács won two Olympic golds by learning to do what left-handed?

Takács taught himself to fire a pistol with his other hand and won the rapid-fire event in 1948, beating the reigning world champion, then again in 1952.

Pentathlete Boris Onishchenko was thrown out of the 1976 Montreal Olympics for rigging which piece of his equipment?

His fencing sword hid a switch that registered a hit without touching the opponent, and newspapers dubbed him Boris the Cheat.

In 1996 Ali Dia won a Southampton contract after a phone caller claimed he was the cousin of which star striker?

George Weah, then the world player of the year, was only impersonated on the call; Dia played 53 minutes of one league match and was released two weeks into his contract.

Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin won a 1912 gold medal of his own, entered under a pseudonym, in which category?

Literature was one of five art categories contested at the Games from 1912 to 1948, and Coubertin's winning entry was a poem titled Ode to Sport.

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Liechtenstein discovered that its blue-and-red flag was identical to that of which country?

Haiti's civil flag had the same two horizontal stripes, so Liechtenstein added a gold crown to its own the following year.

The 1932 NFL playoff, moved indoors to Chicago Stadium by blizzards, was played on tanbark laid down for what event?

A circus had been in the building a week earlier, and the makeshift field it left behind was only 80 yards long and ten yards too narrow.

Dennis Lillee was made to change his bat during a 1979 Test in Perth because it was made of which metal?

Aluminium broke no rule at the time, but both captains objected, and a furious Lillee hurled the thing 40 yards towards the pavilion before accepting a normal one.

Which Colombian goalkeeper cleared a cross at Wembley in 1995 with an airborne, heels-over-head 'scorpion kick'?

René Higuita said the idea came from watching a child try a similar kick while he was filming an advertisement.

Which Southeast Asian sport has players send a rattan ball over a net using only feet, knees, shoulders, chest and head?

Sepak takraw joins the Malay word for kick to a Thai word for a woven ball, and the sport is considered Malaysia's national game.

Granite for curling stones has long been quarried on which uninhabited island in Scotland's Firth of Clyde?

Ailsa Craig's blue hone granite absorbs very little water, so repeated freezing does not erode it, and a single firm holds exclusive rights to the rock.

Colorado beat Missouri on the last play in 1990 after officials lost count and mistakenly gave the Buffaloes what?

A fifth down let Colorado score the winning touchdown as time expired, and the team went on to share that season's national championship.

Why was cricket's last 'Timeless Test', at Durban in 1939, abandoned as a draw after nine playing days?

The ship home was leaving and the touring side could not afford to miss it, so a match designed to have no time limit ran out of time anyway.