69 Fun Facts About Hardest Sports

Which pitcher threw a 1970 no-hitter against the Padres while, by his own account, on LSD?

Dock Ellis later said he thought it was an off day and only learned he was pitching that afternoon; he walked eight batters and hit one, but no Padre got a hit.

Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962 was played in which unlikely city?

Hershey, Pennsylvania hosted it on March 2, 1962, one of several Warriors 'home' games played away from Philadelphia that season; the arena was only about half full, with 4,124 fans.

How did Fred Lorz briefly 'win' the marathon at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics before being found out?

He rode part of the course in a car: Lorz quit with cramps at nine miles, hitched a ride, resumed running when the car broke down near mile 19, and was nearly crowned.

1904 Olympic marathon winner Thomas Hicks was kept going with brandy, egg whites and which poison?

Strychnine, a rat poison that acts as a stimulant in small doses and was legal then, was dosed to Hicks by his handlers; he had to be helped across the line and nearly died.

After the 1980 'Miracle on Ice', which team did the US beat to clinch the gold medal?

The Soviet game was not the final: it was a medal-round game. Two days later the Americans trailed Finland after two periods and scored three times in the third.

Who is the only golfer to win all four majors of his era in one calendar year, in 1930?

Bobby Jones did it as an amateur, retired at 28, and then co-founded the Masters, which is why the pre-1934 Grand Slam involved a different set of four events.

The only perfect game in World Series history was thrown in 1956 by which Yankees pitcher?

Don Larsen threw it in Game 5 against the Brooklyn Dodgers, a few days after being knocked out in the second inning of Game 2.

What was the score of the fifth set when John Isner finally beat Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010?

70–68 in the fifth set ended a match that ran 11 hours and 5 minutes across three days; Wimbledon later introduced a final-set tie-break so it cannot recur.

Whose 400 not out against England in 2004 set Test cricket's individual-innings record?

Brian Lara made 400 not out at Antigua in April 2004; ten years earlier he had set the first-class record of 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham.

Who ran the second sub-four-minute mile, 46 days after Roger Bannister's first?

John Landy ran a world-record 3:57.9 in Turku; the two then met in the 'Miracle Mile' at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver, which Bannister won.

When Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990, what were the odds against him?

42 to 1 was the line at the Mirage, the only Las Vegas book to post odds; Douglas, whose mother had died weeks earlier, stopped Tyson in the tenth round for his first defeat.

How many teams took part in the first FIFA World Cup in 1930?

13 teams entered, with only four European sides making the sea voyage to South America; the hosts beat Argentina 4–2 in the final before 68,346 people.

In 1987 Ron Hextall became the first NHL goaltender to do what?

Shoot the puck into the opponent's net for a goal: he hit an empty net against Boston on December 8, 1987, and the next season scored again in the playoffs, another first.

Which player hit a world professional record 868 career home runs?

Sadaharu Oh hit all 868 for the Yomiuri Giants over 22 seasons, using a one-legged 'flamingo' stance, finishing more than 100 clear of Barry Bonds's MLB mark of 762.

Who broke Bob Beamon's 8.90 m long jump world record after almost 23 years?

Mike Powell jumped 8.95 m at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, beating Carl Lewis in a duel; Beamon's 1968 leap had itself beaten the old record by 55 centimetres.

The 'Maracanazo' of 1950 saw Brazil lose the World Cup's deciding match at home to which country?

Brazil needed only a draw in front of an official 173,850 spectators. Uruguay won 2–1 and lifted the trophy for the second time.

Who is the only driver to win the Formula One World Championship in a car bearing his own name?

Jack Brabham did it in 1966, his third title; McLaren and Gurney each won a race in their own cars but never a championship.

Australia set the record for the largest win in international soccer in 2001, 31–0, against which team?

American Samoa lost 31–0 in Coffs Harbour, with Archie Thompson scoring 13, itself a record; two days earlier Australia had beaten Tonga 22–0.

How many consecutive games did Cal Ripken Jr. play to set the major-league iron-man record?

2,632 straight games: he passed Lou Gehrig's 2,130 on September 6, 1995, and kept going for three more seasons before voluntarily sitting out in September 1998.

Who won the very first Tour de France in 1903?

Maurice Garin, a chimney sweep by early trade, won the six-stage, 2,428 km race, which had been invented to boost sales of the newspaper L'Auto.

Against which team did Kobe Bryant score 81 points in January 2006?

Toronto Raptors were the victims on January 22, 2006; the Lakers trailed by 18 in the third quarter and won 122–104, with Bryant scoring 55 after halftime.

Jim Thorpe was stripped of his 1912 Olympic medals for having been paid to play which sport?

Baseball was the sport: he had earned meagre pay in the Eastern Carolina League in 1909 and 1910; the IOC restored his medals in 1983 and named him sole champion in 2022.

Who was picked second in the 1984 NBA draft, one spot ahead of Michael Jordan?

Sam Bowie, the Kentucky centre, went to Portland, which already had Clyde Drexler at guard; Hakeem Olajuwon went first to Houston.

How long did Ronnie O'Sullivan's famous 1997 World Championship maximum 147 break take?

5 minutes 8 seconds, at the 1997 World Championship against Mick Price, is listed by Guinness as the fastest maximum; the break earned him £165,000.

Who set the NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards in 1984?

Eric Dickerson did it for the Los Angeles Rams in his second season; Adrian Peterson's 2,097 in 2012 fell eight yards short of the mark.

Whose 84-year-old record for hits in a season did Ichiro Suzuki break in 2004?

George Sisler's 257, set in 1920, fell when Ichiro finished with 262; at the time Ichiro also held Japan's single-season hit record.

Which country gave the 1992 Dream Team its closest game, in the Olympic gold-medal final?

Croatia lost the final 117–85, 'closest' being relative: the Americans won their eight games by an average of almost 44 points.

Who is the only tennis player to complete a calendar-year 'Golden Slam'?

Steffi Graf did it in 1988, beating Gabriela Sabatini in the Seoul Olympic final after sweeping the four majors.

Who is the only male athlete to win both the 200 m and 400 m at the same Olympic Games?

Michael Johnson did it in Atlanta in 1996 wearing golden Nike spikes, running the 200 m in a world-record 19.32 seconds.

Who scored the fastest World Cup goal to that point, 10.8 seconds into a 2002 match?

It came in the third-place play-off against South Korea, which Turkey won 3–2. Bryan Robson's 1982 strike had held the record at 27 seconds.

England's 'Bodyline' bowling tactic of 1932–33 was devised specifically to combat which batsman?

Don Bradman, who had averaged 139 in the 1930 Ashes, was the target: captain Douglas Jardine had fast bowlers aim at the body with fielders packed on the leg side, nearly causing a diplomatic incident.

Which Ethiopian won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome running barefoot?

Abebe Bikila wore shoes to win again in Tokyo in 1964, becoming the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title.

Who scored Canada's winner with 34 seconds left in Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series?

Paul Henderson scored past Vladislav Tretiak to take the series four games to three with one tie; the goal is routinely voted the greatest moment in Canadian sports history.

How many innings did the longest MLB game, a 1920 Brooklyn-Braves 1-1 tie, last?

26 innings, with starters Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger both going the distance; the game was called for darkness with the score unchanged since the sixth inning.

What was the final score when the Patriots beat the Rams in Super Bowl LIII?

13–3, the lowest-scoring Super Bowl to that point, in February 2019; Julian Edelman was MVP with 10 catches for 141 yards, and the only touchdown came in the fourth quarter.

When in his Test career did Muttiah Muralitharan take his record 800th wicket?

With the last ball he ever bowled in Tests: Pragyan Ojha was the final wicket at Galle in July 2010, on the last delivery of Murali's farewell Test.

How many straight games did the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers win to set the NBA record?

33 straight wins: the streak ended in Milwaukee in January 1972, and the Lakers finished 69–13 before beating the Knicks in the Finals for the title.

Which team scored just three points in Super Bowl VI, a mark of futility not equalled until 2019?

Miami Dolphins lost 24–3 to Dallas, then went unbeaten and won the title the very next season; the Rams matched the three points in Super Bowl LIII.

With what record did Rocky Marciano retire as undefeated heavyweight champion?

49–0, with 43 knockouts; Floyd Mayweather passed the number with his 50th win in 2017, but never held the heavyweight title.

What was the day job of Spyridon Louis, winner of the first modern Olympic marathon in 1896?

Water carrier: he hauled water from his village of Maroussi to Athens, and his 2:58:50 made him Greece's hero of the first modern Games.

Who in 1926 became the first woman to swim the English Channel?

Gertrude Ederle was 20 and had already won Olympic relay gold in 1924; her 14-hour-34-minute crossing beat the men's record of the day by about two hours.

Who was the first African-American to win a Grand Slam tennis title, in 1956?

Althea Gibson won the 1956 French Championships, followed by Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships in both 1957 and 1958, and later became a professional golfer.

Which jockey rode Secretariat to a 31-length win in the 1973 Belmont Stakes?

Ron Turcotte rode the 2:24 flat, a record for a mile and a half on dirt; he later said the horse paced himself.

What did the scoreboard show when Nadia Comăneci scored the first Olympic perfect 10 in 1976?

1.00 appeared because the manufacturer had been told a 10 was impossible and built the board with three digits; she was 14 and scored six more 10s at those Games.

Which golfer's total of 82 PGA Tour wins did Tiger Woods tie in 2019?

Sam Snead won everything except the U.S. Open, where he was runner-up four times; Woods drew level at the 2019 Zozo Championship in Japan.

Which German won silver behind Jesse Owens in Berlin in 1936, then walked arm in arm with him?

Luz Long was killed fighting in Sicily in 1943; Owens said the friendship meant more to him than all his medals.

Which franchise was the first NFL team to go 0–16 over a full season?

Detroit Lions went 0–16 in 2008; Cleveland matched it in 2017, and Tampa Bay's 0–14 in 1976 came in a shorter season.

How old was Jack Nicklaus when he won the 1986 Masters, his 18th and final major?

46 years old: he shot 30 on the back nine on Sunday at Augusta to become the oldest Masters champion, six years after his previous major.

How many Stanley Cups did the Montreal Canadiens win between 1916 and 1993?

24 Cups between 1916 and 1993, the most of any franchise when the 1993 win came; the club was founded in 1909, before the NHL existed.

British rower Steve Redgrave won gold at how many consecutive Olympic Games?

Five golds from Los Angeles 1984 to Sydney 2000, in three different boat classes, the last after being diagnosed with diabetes in 1997.

Who was the first unanimous MVP in NBA history?

Stephen Curry did it in 2015–16, when he made 402 three-pointers and the Warriors won 73 games; even Jordan and O'Neal had missed out on a vote or two.

Wayne Gretzky's assists alone outnumber which figure for every other player in NHL history?

Their total career points: Gretzky's 1,963 assists exceed anyone else's goals plus assists combined, so even with his 894 goals removed he would top the all-time scoring list.

Which team won the first Cricket World Cup in 1975, beating Australia in the final at Lord's?

The tournament ran for just two weeks in England, and the West Indies retained the title in 1979.

At which ground did New Zealand beat France 29–9 in the final of the first Rugby World Cup in 1987?

Eden Park, Auckland hosted the final of a tournament co-hosted with Australia, where both semi-finals were played; South Africa was excluded under the sporting boycott of apartheid.

The first FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991 was unusual because every match lasted how long?

80 minutes, two halves of 40: it was held in China and the Americans beat Norway 2–1 in the final; full 90-minute matches arrived in 1995.

Which nation has won a record eight Olympic gold medals in men's field hockey?

India won six of them consecutively from 1928 to 1956, a run in which the team never lost an Olympic match, then added titles in 1964 and 1980.

Which nation has won tennis's Davis Cup the most times, with 32 titles?

United States won 32 titles through 2007, ahead of Australia's 28; the competition began in 1900 as a challenge between the US and the British Isles.

Besides strikeouts, which career record does Nolan Ryan hold by an even bigger margin?

Bases on balls (walks): his 2,795 are 962 more than second-place Steve Carlton, over 50 per cent clear of anyone else, across a record-equalling 27 seasons.

Who ran 2:00:35 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon to break the men's marathon world record by 34 seconds?

Kelvin Kiptum was 23 and had run only three marathons, all under 2:02; he died in a car crash in Kenya four months later.

In which two sports did Eddie Eagan win Olympic gold at the Summer and Winter Games?

Boxing and bobsleigh: he won the light heavyweight boxing title at Antwerp in 1920 and rode in the winning four-man bobsled at Lake Placid in 1932, with a Rhodes Scholarship in between.

The Australian batsman targeted by 'Bodyline' retired with which Test average, often called sport's greatest statistic?

99.94: the next best average among players with 20 or more Tests is in the low sixties; he played his final Test at The Oval in August 1948, bowled for a duck.

Which race did 1952 triple gold medallist Emil Zátopek enter at the last minute and win?

The marathon was the first of his life, following wins in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres; the 'Czech Locomotive' won it by more than two minutes.

How many consecutive tournaments did Byron Nelson win during his record 1945 season?

11 straight wins, from March to August 1945, within an 18-win season; he retired at 34 the next year to become a rancher.

Which Cincinnati Reds left-hander is the only MLB pitcher to throw two consecutive no-hitters?

Johnny Vander Meer no-hit the Boston Bees on June 11, 1938 and the Brooklyn Dodgers four days later, in the first night game at Ebbets Field.

What nickname did Fanny Blankers-Koen earn winning four golds at London 1948 aged 30?

The Flying Housewife, a mother of two, won the 100 m, 200 m, 80 m hurdles and 4x100 m relay, the most successful athlete of those Games.

At his peak, how many consecutive races from 800 m upwards did Paavo Nurmi go unbeaten?

121 straight wins at 800 m and up; the Flying Finn set 22 world records and won nine Olympic golds, but was barred from the 1932 Games over his amateur status.

Jesse Owens's 'greatest 45 minutes ever in sport' came at the 1935 Big Ten Championships in which city?

Ann Arbor, Michigan, at Ferry Field on May 25, 1935: he won four events, setting three world records and tying a fourth in about 45 minutes.

How many pole positions did Ayrton Senna hold at his death in 1994, then a Formula One record?

65 poles, a record that stood until Michael Schumacher passed it in 2006; Senna also won 41 Grands Prix and three world titles with McLaren.

Wilma Rudolph, who won three sprint golds at Rome 1960, had overcome which childhood disease?

Polio left her in a leg brace as a young child; she had already won a relay bronze at Melbourne in 1956 and was hailed as the fastest woman in the world.