1980s Sports Trivia
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58 free 1980s Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 1980s in sport opened with a bunch of American college kids beating the Soviet hockey machine at Lake Placid and closed with an earthquake stopping the World Series, and this 1980s sports trivia quiz covers everything in between: the boycotted Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics, Carl Lewis matching Jesse Owens, Mary Lou Retton, Ben Johnson's 9.79 and the stanozolol test in Seoul, Flo-Jo's records and Steffi Graf's Golden Slam. There are questions on the 1985 Bears and the Super Bowl Shuffle, The Catch and Hail Flutie, Dan Marino's 48 touchdowns, Wayne Gretzky's trade to Los Angeles, Bird and Magic, Michael Jordan's draft and banned sneakers, Villanova and NC State's upsets, Bill Buckner, Kirk Gibson's home run, Pete Rose's ban, Maradona's Hand of God, Mike Tyson, No Más, Hagler-Hearns, Boris Becker, Navratilova, Nicklaus at 46, Greg LeMond's eight seconds, Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team. Easy questions open each sport, deeper cuts follow. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the events and athletes, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Miracle on Ice took place at which 1980 Winter Olympics?
Lake Placid
Lake Placid, New York, hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics, where a US team of college players beat the Soviet Union 4-3 on 22 February 1980.
Q 02Which broadcaster asked "Do you believe in miracles?" as the US beat the Soviets at Olympic hockey in 1980?
Al Michaels
Al Michaels made the call for ABC, but American viewers heard it only that evening: the afternoon game was shown on tape delay.
Q 03Which team did the US have to beat after the Soviets to clinch the 1980 hockey gold?
Finland
Finland were beaten on 24 February 1980, two days after the Soviet game, to clinch the gold; the Americans had begun the tournament by rescuing a 2-2 draw with Sweden 27 seconds from the end.
Q 04Why did the United States lead a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics?
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 led President Carter to call the boycott; the Soviet Union and its allies retaliated by staying away from Los Angeles in 1984.
Q 05Which Warsaw Pact country defied the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?
Romania
Romania was the only Warsaw Pact nation to go, and with its Eastern Bloc rivals absent it won 53 medals, more than any country except the United States and West Germany.
Q 06Whose 1936 feat of four track and field golds did Carl Lewis match in Los Angeles in 1984?
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens won the 100m, 200m, long jump and sprint relay in Berlin; Lewis, kept out of the 1980 Games by the US boycott, won the same four at his first Olympics.
Q 07Which event was held for women for the first time at the 1984 Olympics?
The marathon
The marathon for women made its debut in Los Angeles, and Joan Benoit won it months after qualifying at the US trials just 17 days after knee surgery.
Q 08Who became the first American woman to win the Olympic gymnastics all-around title in 1984?
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton, a 16-year-old from Fairmont, West Virginia, scored a perfect 10 on the vault to win the 1984 all-around by 0.05 points.
Q 09Barefoot runner Zola Budd famously tangled with which American in the 1984 Olympic 3,000m?
Mary Decker
Mary Decker fell after the collision and did not finish, while Budd led for a while longer before fading to finish seventh.
Q 10Which drug did Ben Johnson test positive for after winning the Seoul 1988 100m in a world-record 9.79?
Stanozolol
Johnson's sample showed the anabolic steroid stanozolol; he was stripped of the gold and the 9.79 record, and Carl Lewis was awarded the title.
Q 11Which American sprinter set the women's 100m and 200m world records in 1988?
Florence Griffith Joyner
Florence Griffith Joyner ran 10.49 at the US trials, then broke the 200m record twice in one day in Seoul, with 21.56 in the semi-final and 21.34 in the final.
Q 12What did Steffi Graf achieve in 1988 that no tennis player had before?
Four majors and Olympic gold
Four majors and Olympic gold made up the first 'Golden Slam': Graf, 19, won the singles in Seoul, where tennis was a medal sport again for the first time since 1924.
Q 13Which unseeded 17-year-old became the youngest men's Wimbledon champion in 1985?
Boris Becker
Q 21Who caught "The Catch" from Joe Montana in the January 1982 NFC Championship Game?
Dwight Clark
Dwight Clark's leaping catch of Joe Montana's pass at the back of the end zone beat Dallas in the final minute and sent the 49ers on to the franchise's first Super Bowl win.
Q 22Doug Flutie's 1984 Hail Mary pass beat which defending national champion?
Miami
Miami were beaten when Flutie's 48-yard pass was caught in the end zone as time ran out; the Boston College quarterback went on to win that season's Heisman Trophy.
Q 23Which quarterback threw a record 48 touchdown passes in the 1984 NFL season?
Dan Marino
Dan Marino, in only his second season, shattered the old record of 36 touchdown passes, then lost what proved his only Super Bowl 38-16 to Joe Montana's 49ers.
Boris Becker beat Kevin Curren in four sets to become Wimbledon's first unseeded and first German men's champion; Curren had knocked out the defending champion in straight sets.
Q 14Who won six straight Grand Slam singles titles across 1983 and 1984?
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova won every major from Wimbledon 1983 to the 1984 US Open; the run, and a 74-match winning streak, ended when Helena Suková beat her in that December's Australian Open semi-finals.
Q 15Against which country did Diego Maradona score the Hand of God goal in 1986?
England
England's Peter Shilton was beaten when Maradona punched the ball in; the referee thought he had headed it, and minutes later Maradona dribbled from midfield through the defence to score again.
Q 16Which striker won the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup with six goals?
Gary Lineker
Gary Lineker scored all three goals of a 3-0 win over Poland inside 36 minutes, finished the tournament with six and joined Barcelona that summer.
Q 17Which trainer became Mike Tyson's legal guardian but died a year before his 1986 title win?
Cus D'Amato
Cus D'Amato took the teenage Tyson in from a reform school and taught him his peek-a-boo style; a year after his death Tyson, 20, stopped Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight champion.
Q 18Which unbeaten rival did Mike Tyson knock out in 91 seconds in June 1988?
Michael Spinks
Michael Spinks had never lost as a professional and held his own claim to the heavyweight title; after those 91 seconds he never fought again.
Q 19Which boxer turned away and quit in the eighth round of the 1980 "No Más" fight?
Roberto Durán
Roberto Durán turned his back and quit late in the eighth round, five months after taking the title from Leonard; he insists he never said 'no más' and that broadcaster Howard Cosell coined it.
Q 20Which head coach led the 1985 Chicago Bears?
Mike Ditka
Mike Ditka's Bears went 15-1, released a rap single, The Super Bowl Shuffle, before the regular season had ended, then allowed only 10 points in three playoff games.
Q 24To which team was Wayne Gretzky traded on August 9, 1988?
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings paid US$15 million in cash, plus players and draft picks, to an Oilers owner, Peter Pocklington, who is said to have needed the money; Gretzky had just won his fourth Stanley Cup in Edmonton.
Q 25Whose run of four straight Stanley Cups did Gretzky's Oilers end in the 1984 final?
Islanders
The New York Islanders had swept Edmonton in the 1983 final, but a year later the Oilers beat them for the first of four Stanley Cups in five seasons with Gretzky.
Q 26Which player won three straight NBA Most Valuable Player awards from 1984 to 1986?
Larry Bird
Larry Bird, the first non-centre to win three in a row, had walked out of Indiana University as a freshman and gone home to French Lick before starting again at Indiana State.
Q 27Which rookie was named Most Valuable Player of the 1980 NBA Finals?
Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson, a point guard, started the deciding game at centre in place of the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and scored 42 points; it was the first of his five titles with the Lakers.
Q 28Which centre did Portland draft second in 1984, one pick ahead of Michael Jordan?
Sam Bowie
Sam Bowie went second because Portland already had Clyde Drexler and Jim Paxson at Jordan's position; he arrived with a history of leg injuries from Kentucky, and more cut his career short.
Q 29Which brand did Michael Jordan want to sign with before Nike won him over in 1984?
Adidas
Adidas was the brand Jordan wanted, but Nike built a signature line around him instead, and the first Air Jordan reached the shops in April 1985.
Q 30Which eighth-seeded team beat Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA final in "The Perfect Game"?
Villanova
Villanova, a No. 8 seed, made 78.6% of its shots and missed only once in the second half to win 66-64 in the first year of the 64-team tournament.