110 Fun Facts About Sports Teams

The Lakers' name refers to the many lakes of which state, where they played until 1960?

Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes; the team kept the name after moving to lake-scarce Southern California.

John Stockton and Karl Malone led which team to back-to-back NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998?

Utah Jazz: both Finals ended in defeat by Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, with Jordan named Finals MVP each time.

Which team is the only non-profit, community-owned major league franchise in the United States?

Green Bay Packers: shareholders get no dividends, and league rules now bar any other non-profit from owning an NFL team.

Which product did the Indian Packing Company, Curly Lambeau's employer and his team's first sponsor, produce?

Canned meat: the company paid for the team's first uniforms and let it practise on a field beside its plant.

The Cleveland Guardians are named after Art Deco statues on which city structure?

Hope Memorial Bridge: a local roller derby team already called the Cleveland Guardians sued over the name, and a settlement let both teams keep using it.

The Oklahoma City Thunder began life as which NBA franchise?

Seattle SuperSonics: the owners paid the city $45 million to break the arena lease, and the SuperSonics name and colours stayed in Seattle.

After Art Modell relocated his Cleveland team in 1996, fans picked a new name inspired by which writer's poem?

Edgar Allan Poe: 'Ravens' beat 'Marauders' and 'Americans' in a newspaper phone poll, honouring a poet who had lived in the team's new city.

Which Raptors star's buzzer-beater bounced on the rim four times before dropping to win a 2019 playoff Game 7?

Kawhi Leonard: the Raptors had traded for him the summer before, and they went on to win the 2019 NBA title with him as Finals MVP.

The Dodgers' name comes from 'trolley dodgers', a nickname for residents of which borough?

Brooklyn: streetcar lines then crisscrossed the borough, and residents had to dodge the trolleys when crossing the tracks.

Which NFL team is the only one to put its logo on just one side of the helmet?

Pittsburgh Steelers: the logo went on one side as a trial of how it looked on gold helmets, and interest in the look made it permanent.

Pittsburgh's NFL team first took the field in 1933 under what name?

Pittsburgh Pirates: the name nodded to the baseball club whose Forbes Field the team rented, until a 1940 newspaper contest replaced it.

Which NHL franchise won its record 24th Stanley Cup in 1993?

Montreal Canadiens: the H on their crest stands for 'Hockey', from Club de Hockey Canadien, not 'Habitants' as many fans believe.

Which team's 2016 World Series win ended a 108-year championship drought?

Chicago Cubs: during a 17-minute rain delay before the 10th inning of Game 7, Jason Heyward rallied his teammates in a weight room, and they won 8–7.

Which animal did William Sianis bring to a 1945 World Series game, supposedly sparking a curse?

A goat: it was not allowed to stay, and the team Sianis supposedly cursed did not return to the World Series for 71 years.

Manchester United were formed in 1878 under what name?

Newton Heath LYR: Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway workers formed the club, and local businessmen who took it over renamed it Manchester United in 1902.

In 1968 Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup, beating whom?

Benfica: Bobby Charlton, a survivor of the Munich air disaster, scored twice and lifted the trophy as captain in the 4–1 win at Wembley.

Which Spanish king granted the title 'Real' (Royal) to Madrid's football club in 1920?

Alfonso XIII: in 1902 the club had proposed Spain's first national football tournament, held in honour of his coronation.

Real Madrid won their 15th European Cup in 2024 by beating which club in the final?

Borussia Dortmund: defender Dani Carvajal headed in a corner in the 74th minute, and Vinícius Júnior added a second for a 2–0 win.

Which star did Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sell to the Yankees in 1919?

Babe Ruth: the Red Sox had won the 1918 World Series with him but did not win another until 2004, a drought fans blamed on the 'Curse of the Bambino'.

Before officially becoming the Yankees in 1913, the New York club was known by what name?

Highlanders: the renamed club became tenants of the rival Giants at the Polo Grounds, until the Giants tried to evict them and Yankee Stadium opened in 1923.

The Colts fled which city overnight in Mayflower moving vans in March 1984?

Baltimore: Maryland lawmakers were passing a bill to let the city seize the team by eminent domain, and the governor signed it only after the vans had gone.

In which Indiana city were the Pistons founded as a company team, before moving to Detroit in 1957?

Fort Wayne: owner Fred Zollner's company there made engine pistons for carmakers, so a name that seems made for the Motor City actually began in Indiana.

Which team reached the Stanley Cup Final in its first season, 2017–18?

The 'Knights' honours owner Bill Foley's alma mater, West Point, and the club won the Cup for real in 2023.

Which NHL team was last in the league in January 2019 but won the Stanley Cup that June?

St. Louis Blues: rookie goalie Jordan Binnington, who made his first start for them only on January 7, led the franchise to its first Stanley Cup.

Which NFL franchise began as the Decatur Staleys, a team sponsored by a starch company?

Chicago Bears: in 1921 the company gave George Halas $5,000 to take the team to Chicago, on condition that he kept the Staleys name for that season.

What name did the Commanders franchise play under in the 2020 and 2021 seasons?

Washington Football Team: the stopgap followed a July 2020 request from FedEx, which held the stadium's naming rights, that the team change its name.

In which city did George Preston Marshall found the Commanders franchise in 1932?

Boston: over poor support there, the owner moved the team's 1936 title game to New York's Polo Grounds, then took the team to Washington, where it won the 1937 NFL title.

Which current NBA franchise won the 1951 NBA title while based in Rochester, New York?

Sacramento Kings: as the Rochester Royals they won the first three games of that Final, lost the next three to the New York Knicks, then won Game 7 79–75.

Which team, dating to 1898, is the oldest continuously run pro football franchise in the US?

Arizona Cardinals: owner Chris O'Brien once bought used college jerseys for the team and called their faded maroon 'Cardinal red'.

The Golden State Warriors were founded in 1946 in which city?

Philadelphia: the team moved west to San Francisco in 1962, left for Oakland in 1971, then returned to San Francisco in 2019.

Under what name did the Astros enter the National League in 1962?

Colt .45s: they endured three seasons of heat and mosquitoes at makeshift Colt Stadium before moving into the air-conditioned Astrodome as the Astros.

Arsenal was founded in 1886 by munitions workers in which part of London?

Woolwich: in 1913 owner Henry Norris moved the club across London to Highbury, on a lease of college playing fields signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

What nickname did Arsenal's 2003–04 side earn by winning the Premier League without losing a match?

The Invincibles: their unbeaten season nearly ended in September 2003, when Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the crossbar with an injury-time penalty in a 0–0 draw at Old Trafford.

Which is the only MLB franchise to have won the World Series in three different home cities?

Atlanta Braves: as the 1914 'Miracle Braves' they were last in the league on July 4, then won the pennant and swept the Athletics in the World Series.

Which NFL franchise was dubbed 'America's Team' by an NFL Films editor?

Dallas Cowboys: Bob Ryan wrote the line into the team's 1978 highlight film after seeing so many Cowboys fans in the stands at away stadiums.

Which franchise won a record 18th NBA championship in 2024?

Boston Celtics: in 1956 they gave up star center Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan to get Bill Russell, who then won 11 titles in his 13 seasons.

The Tennessee Titans began life in 1960 as which AFL charter franchise?

Houston Oilers: with their Nashville stadium still being built, they spent their first Tennessee season playing home games in Memphis, to small crowds.

What is FC Barcelona's famous motto?

Més que un club: Narcís de Carreras coined the phrase in his 1968 speech on becoming club president, and it was later adopted as the club's motto.

Joe Carter's walk-off home run won the 1993 World Series for which team?

Toronto Blue Jays: Carter hit it off Mitch Williams with his team trailing 6–5 in the bottom of the ninth of Game 6, clinching a second straight title.

Which company founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993 and named them after its own film?

Walt Disney: the company sold the team in 2005, and under new owners who dropped 'Mighty' from the name, the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007.

'Knicks' is short for a term that came to describe the descendants of which settlers of New York?

Dutch: the word comes from Diedrich Knickerbocker, Washington Irving's pen name, and Irving promoted his 1809 history with fake newspaper notices that its author had gone missing.

Through 2025, which is the only NFL team to finish a perfect season with a Super Bowl win?

1972 Miami Dolphins: starting quarterback Bob Griese was hurt in Week 5, and 38-year-old backup Earl Morrall won all nine of his regular-season starts.

The Memphis Grizzlies spent their first six seasons in which Canadian city?

Vancouver: the team was nearly called the Mounties, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police objected, so a new name had to be found.

The Raiders left Oakland to play in which city from 1982 to 1994 before returning?

Los Angeles: after the other owners voted 22–0 against the move, Al Davis sued the NFL and won an antitrust case that cleared the way.

Celtic's 1967 European Cup-winning 'Lisbon Lions' were all born within 30 miles of which city?

Glasgow: Inter Milan led from an early penalty, but full-back Tommy Gemmell equalised in the second half and Stevie Chalmers scored the winner.

Which NBA team began in the ABA as the Dallas Chaparrals?

San Antonio Spurs: in 1970–71 the team renamed itself the Texas Chaparrals to widen its regional following, but dropped the experiment after one season.

The Colorado Avalanche were which franchise before moving to Denver in 1995?

Quebec Nordiques: the players they received for 1991 top pick Eric Lindros included Peter Forsberg, who helped win the 1996 Stanley Cup in their first Denver season.

Which club won the 2023–24 Bundesliga without losing a league match?

Bayer Leverkusen: long mocked as 'Neverkusen', they won their first Bundesliga title, ending Bayern Munich's run of 11 straight.

Before moving to Milwaukee in 1970, the Brewers played one season as which team?

Seattle Pilots: after one season the team went bankrupt, and a bankruptcy referee's ruling sent it to Bud Selig's Milwaukee group a week before the next season opened.

The current Winnipeg Jets were which NHL franchise before relocating in 2011?

Atlanta Thrashers: to prove Winnipeg could support the team, the new owners set a goal of 13,000 season tickets, and the public sale sold out in 17 minutes.

The 76ers began in 1946 as the Nationals of which New York city?

Syracuse: owner Danny Biasone pushed the NBA to adopt the 24-second shot clock in 1954, and his Nationals won the title in that first season.

The Patriots' Gillette Stadium sits in which Massachusetts town?

Foxborough: in 1999 the Patriots called off a signed deal to move to Hartford, Connecticut, because a new stadium there could not be built fast enough.

Which NHL team played its first season in 2021–22?

Seattle Kraken: their arena is a new building dug out beneath the landmarked roof of a coliseum built for the 1962 World's Fair.

Through 2025, which team's 11 World Series titles were the most of any National League club?

St. Louis Cardinals: in 2011 they were twice one strike from elimination in Game 6, won it on David Freese's 11th-inning homer, then took Game 7.

The Detroit Pistons won back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990 under what nickname?

The Bad Boys: they repeated as champions in 1990 even after losing Rick Mahorn from their 1989 title team in the expansion draft.

The Philadelphia Eagles took their name from the Blue Eagle logo of which New Deal agency?

The National Recovery Administration lent the team its Blue Eagle, yet the Supreme Court struck down the agency's program in 1935 and the Eagles kept the name.

On which feast day in 1966 did the NFL award New Orleans its expansion franchise?

All Saints' Day fell on 1 November 1966, and the team's name, Saints, was cleared with Archbishop Philip Hannan, who liked the idea.

The Los Angeles Clippers began life in 1970 as which NBA expansion franchise?

The Buffalo Braves' owner swapped franchises with Irv Levin in 1978, and Levin moved the team to San Diego, where it became the Clippers.

Juventus copied their black-and-white striped shirts from which English club?

Notts County were invited to open Juventus's new stadium in 2011 because of the shirt link, and spoiled the party with a late equaliser in a 1–1 draw.

Through the 2025 MLB season, which franchise had never appeared in a World Series?

The Seattle Mariners lost ALCS Game 7 in 2025, one win from the Series, and even their record-tying 116-win 2001 team fell short.

Which NFL team is named after the prospectors who flooded into Northern California during the Gold Rush?

49ers takes its name from 1849, the year the rush took off. The club was also the first major professional sports team based in San Francisco.

Which NFL team took its name from its own first head coach, who had also helped to found it?

Browns honors Paul Brown, whose teams won seven league championships before owner Art Modell fired him in January 1963.

Which is the only NFL team that actually plays its home games in New York State?

Bills home games are in Orchard Park, in the state's western corner, while the Jets and Giants share a stadium over the state line in East Rutherford.

Which NFL team retired the number 12 in 1984 as a tribute to its famously loud fans?

Seahawks crowds have twice set a world record for the loudest roar at a sporting event, and one celebration was picked up by local earthquake sensors.

Which NBA team won six championships during the 1990s, split into two separate runs of three straight titles?

Bulls teams went six for six in the NBA Finals between 1991 and 1998, and their 72 wins in 1995–96 set a regular-season record that stood for 20 years.

In 2016, which team became the first to win the NBA Finals after trailing three games to one?

Cavaliers players ended a 52-year title drought for Cleveland's major teams, and did it against a Warriors side that had just won 73 regular-season games.

Which home of the Red Sox since 1912 is the oldest venue still in use in Major League Baseball?

Fenway Park hosted its first game on April 20, 1912, but the opening was pushed down the front pages by the sinking of the Titanic five days earlier.

Fans of which NHL team have thrown octopuses onto the ice during the playoffs since 1952?

Red Wings fans copied two storeowner brothers who hurled the first one in 1952: its eight arms stood for the eight wins then needed to lift the Stanley Cup.

Which NHL team is named after a legendary creature said to haunt the Pine Barrens forests?

Devils won a naming contest that drew more than 10,000 votes in 1982, when the franchise arrived on the East Coast after starting life as the Kansas City Scouts.

Which nickname is shared by a Major League Baseball team in Texas and an NHL team in New York?

Rangers means the Texas lawmen in baseball, but the hockey name began as a joke: founder Tex Rickard's new club was dubbed Tex's Rangers by a sports editor.

Which NFL expansion team lost the first 26 games in its history, beginning in 1976?

Buccaneers losses ran to 0–26 before a first win in December 1977, on the road in New Orleans in week 13 of the club's second season.

Which NFL team became the first to wear a helmet logo after a player hand-painted horns in 1948?

Rams halfback Fred Gehrke, an art major in college, designed and painted the horns himself to lift team morale.

Which team joined the NFL in 1995 as an expansion franchise alongside the Carolina Panthers?

Jaguars players reached a conference championship game in 1996, only their second season, a feat matched that same year by their fellow newcomers.

Which expansion team began play in 2002, bringing the NFL to an even 32 franchises?

Texans founder Bob McNair turned to football only after his 1997 bid to bring an NHL expansion team to the same city had failed.

Which NFL team is named after the nickname of the mayor who lured it to his city in the early 1960s?

Chiefs won a fan contest in honor of Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle, known as The Chief from his years as a Boy Scout executive.

Which NBA team was founded in San Diego in 1967 and moved to Texas four years later?

Rockets won a local naming contest as a nod to the Atlas missile and booster program being developed in San Diego, long before the club had any link to NASA's home city.

Which NBA team's name comes from a British general who reportedly called its home city a nest of rebellion in 1780?

Hornets comes from General Cornwallis, who is said to have cursed Charlotte's resistance after a battle there, though the phrase was first recorded in 1819.

Which former ABA team won its first NBA championship in 2023, led by Serbian center Nikola Jokić?

Nuggets fans had waited since the club left the ABA for the NBA in 1976, and the title came on the team's very first trip to the Finals.

Which NBA team did internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban buy from Ross Perot Jr.'s group in January 2000?

Mavericks season-ticket holder Cuban paid $285 million for the club, then watched it win the NBA championship in 2011.

Which NBA team lost a 1969 coin flip for the right to draft Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?

Suns officials settled for center Neal Walk with the second pick, while the Bucks took Alcindor and were NBA champions by 1971.

The Detroit Lions chose their name in 1934 to pair with which baseball team already in the city?

Tigers baseball was long established when the football club arrived from Portsmouth, Ohio, so its new owner picked another big cat to match.

Which MLB team took its name from a livestock show that began in its home city in 1899?

Royals pays tribute to the American Royal, a Kansas City livestock show, horse show and rodeo, rather than to any monarch.

Which MLB team was founded in 1961 by Gene Autry, the singing star of Western films?

Angels founder Autry paid $350,000 just for the rights to the name, then owned the franchise for its first 36 years.

Which MLB team adopted an elephant as its emblem after a rival manager mocked it as a white elephant?

Athletics manager Connie Mack answered John McGraw's jibe by making the elephant a mascot, then handed McGraw a stuffed toy one before the 1905 World Series.

Which MLB team stores its baseballs in a humidor to offset the thin, dry air of its mile-high home?

Rockies staff began using the room-sized humidor in 2002, after fly balls carried so far in Denver that the outfield fences had already been moved back.

Which NHL club, founded in 1924 by grocery magnate Charles Adams, is the league's oldest team in the United States?

Bruins was a nickname dreamed up by first general manager Art Ross with help from his secretary, chosen partly to suit the colors of the owner's store chain.

Which NHL team was known as the Hartford Whalers until it moved south in 1997?

Hurricanes history goes back to 1971 and the New England Whalers of the rival World Hockey Association, which merged into the NHL in 1979.

The NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets take their name from Ohio soldiers who fought in which conflict?

The Civil War saw Ohio answer Abraham Lincoln's first call for troops with far more volunteer regiments than its quota, a history the team's name was chosen to honor.

Which NHL team's logo recalls a saber-toothed cat skeleton found beneath its home city's downtown in 1971?

Predators was chosen in a fan vote only after the fanged logo had been unveiled, honoring bones dug up during construction of a Nashville bank tower.

Which NHL team won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983, barely a decade after its founding?

Islanders teams won 19 consecutive playoff series between 1980 and 1984, a streak no other club in major North American pro sports has matched.

Which New York arena, home of the NBA's Knicks, sits directly on top of Pennsylvania Station?

Madison Square Garden is the fourth venue to carry the name; the first two really did stand on Madison Square, at East 26th Street.

What is the name of the furry orange, googly-eyed mascot the Flyers introduced in 2018?

Gritty stands seven feet tall and became an internet sensation within months; until he arrived, the Flyers were one of only two NHL teams without a mascot.

What nickname was given to the fast-breaking Lakers teams built around Magic Johnson in the 1980s?

Showtime ran from 1979–80 to 1990–91 and was as much about the Hollywood celebrities in the crowd at The Forum as the up-tempo play on the court.

The first six hitters in the 1927 Yankees lineup, Lou Gehrig among them, were known by what name?

Murderers' Row was a recycled name: a 1905 newspaper article had already used it for the first six batters in the Cleveland order.

What name is given to the group of teams that made up the entire NHL from 1942 to 1967?

The Original Six is a misnomer: the NHL was founded in 1917, and these were simply its only teams for 25 seasons until the league doubled in size.

What was the NBA's Wizards franchise called until 1997, when its owner dropped a name he found too violent?

Bullets had acquired violent overtones for owner Abe Pollin, who announced the change after the assassination of his longtime friend, Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin.

At the height of McCarthyism in 1953, baseball's Reds asked to be called what, to avoid any link to communism?

Redlegs was announced as the club's preferred name in April 1953, and the team even added blue to its color scheme during the rebrand.

What nickname is given to the 37-foot left-field wall at the Red Sox's home ballpark?

The Green Monster was not painted its famous color until 1947; before that, the wall was covered with advertisements.

What was the name of the Canadian MLB team that moved south in 2005 and became the Nationals?

Expos honored Expo 67, the world's fair their home city had just hosted, and the name appealed because it is spelled the same in French and English.

The 76ers are named after the year of which event in their home city's history?

Declaration of Independence signers gathered in the city in 1776, and a fan named Walter Stalberg suggested the tribute in a contest to rename the team.

What official name do the NFL's Detroit Lions give the main color of their home jerseys?

Honolulu blue is said to echo the waves off the coast of Hawaii, and the Lions chose it with silver when they arrived in Detroit in 1934.

In 1996 the Eagles swapped their classic kelly jerseys for a darker shade known by what name?

Midnight green replaced a brighter shade the club had worn for decades, although the earliest Eagles had no green at all until they added it in 1935.

Which color in the Lakers' uniforms was officially known as Forum blue until the early 1980s?

Purple was owner Jack Kent Cooke's choice when the team moved into The Forum in 1967, and the arena lent the shade its odd official name.

Which MLB team took its blue from the departed Dodgers and its orange from the departed Giants?

Mets colors honor the two National League clubs that left New York for California after 1957, and both shades also appear on the city's flag.

Which teal-clad NHL expansion team led the league in merchandise sales while losing heavily in the early 1990s?

Sharks gear brought in $150 million, 27% of all NHL merchandise sales, a figure topped in North American sports only by the reigning champions of the NBA.

Which two colors has the Raiders franchise worn since Al Davis took charge in 1963?

Silver and black replaced the team's original black, gold and white when Davis arrived, and the uniform design has barely changed since.

Which NFL team's stingy late-1970s defense was nicknamed the Orange Crush by a local sportswriter?

Broncos defenders got the name early in the 1977 season from writer Woody Paige, and that year the team reached the playoffs for the first time.

Which MLB team went back to its first color scheme of brown and gold in 2020?

Padres is Spanish for fathers, a tribute to the Franciscan friars who founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769.

Which NFL team wore powder blue jerseys with gold lightning bolts on the shoulders from its 1960 debut?

Chargers shirts were officially collegiate blue, and after the club went darker in 1974, fans spent years clamoring for the lighter shade's return.

Which NFL team's orange helmets have carried black stripes in place of a logo since 1981?

Bengals helmets before 1981 simply spelled out the team name in block letters, and Sports Illustrated compared the striped replacements to varicose pumpkins.