Chargers Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
This Chargers trivia quiz has 57 free questions with answers and covers the whole franchise, not just one city. It starts in 1960 with a hotel heir's AFL team playing to empty seats in the Los Angeles Coliseum, follows the move down the coast to Balboa Stadium and the only league title in team history, then runs through Air Coryell, the Epic in Miami and the Freezer Bowl, Junior Seau and Super Bowl XXIX, the LaDainian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers years, and finally the return to Los Angeles, SoFi Stadium, Justin Herbert and Jim Harbaugh. The early questions are the ones any Bolts fan can get: the logo, the powder blues, the retired numbers. The later ones ask about a 1966 sale price, a two-penalty offensive tackle, a wind chill reading and a Kent State basketball run, and are meant for people who can name the kicker who won the Epic in Miami. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered. Play the full set for a shareable score, then send it to the friend who still says San Diego.
30 of 57 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which stadium became the Chargers' home when it opened in 2020?
SoFi Stadium
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood houses the Chargers as tenants, and for a building that cost billions their rent is famously small: one dollar a year.
Q 02Which Chargers linebacker was the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2005?
Shawne Merriman
Shawne Merriman, the 12th overall pick in 2005, recorded 10 sacks as a rookie and won Defensive Rookie of the Year, celebrating each sack with his 'Lights Out' dance.
Q 03Which hotel heir was the Chargers' original owner?
Barron Hilton
Barron Hilton, son of hotel founder Conrad Hilton, started the team for a $25,000 fee and sold control in 1966 because the hotel company wanted him to run it without football on the side.
Q 04The Chargers' owner said the team's name was inspired by what?
Fans yelling 'Charge!' to a bugle
The owner recalled fans yelling 'Charge!' to a bugle call at Los Angeles ballgames and denied any link to his Carte Blanche credit card business; a fan had submitted the name in a contest.
Q 05Where did the Chargers play their home games from 1961 to 1966, their first years in San Diego?
Balboa Stadium
Balboa Stadium, beside San Diego High School, gained an upper deck to hold about 34,000 for the Chargers, who played three AFL title games there and won the one in 1963.
Q 06Who was the Chargers' first head coach, hired in 1960 after five seasons coaching the NFL's Rams?
Sid Gillman
Sid Gillman won five division titles in the AFL's first six seasons with a deep downfield passing attack, and rival teams had to adopt his methods just to stay competitive.
Q 07The Chargers routed which team 51–10 in the 1963 AFL Championship Game?
Boston Patriots
The Boston Patriots were overrun in San Diego, where a single Chargers back gained 329 yards as a runner and receiver on the way to the team's only AFL title.
Q 08Which Chargers back was MVP of the 1963 AFL title game after rushing for 206 yards on just 13 carries?
Keith Lincoln
Keith Lincoln also led the team with 123 receiving yards and completed a 20-yard pass, accounting for 349 yards of offense in the title game.
Q 09Which Chargers receiver was nicknamed 'Bambi' by teammates?
Lance Alworth
Lance Alworth's baby face and deer-like stride earned the 'Bambi' tag; he caught a pass in 96 straight games and in 1978 became the first AFL player in the Hall of Fame.
Q 10How many holding penalties was Chargers tackle Ron Mix called for in ten seasons?
Two
Two, in ten seasons. Ron Mix also studied law while he was playing, which is why a Chargers coach nicknamed him 'The Intellectual Assassin'.
Q 11Who led the group that bought control of the Chargers for $10 million in 1966?
Gene Klein
Gene Klein, a Los Angeles businessman, bought control because the founding owner had been asked to run his family's company full time; Klein kept the Chargers until 1984.
Q 12Which company's name went on the Chargers' San Diego stadium from 1997 to 2017?
Qualcomm
Qualcomm held the naming rights for twenty years; to keep honoring the man the stadium had been named for, the city called the site itself Jack Murphy Field.
Q 13San Diego Stadium was renamed in 1981 for Jack Murphy, who had what job?
Sportswriter
Sportswriter Jack Murphy used his San Diego Union column to urge the Chargers to move south from Los Angeles, then to push for a new stadium, which took his name after he died in 1980.
Q 21After the Raiders beat the Chargers on 1978's 'Holy Roller', the NFL restricted who may advance what late in a game?
A fumble
A fumble: since 1979 only the player who dropped the ball may advance it after the two-minute warning or on fourth down. Ken Stabler later admitted he had flipped it forward on purpose.
Q 22Which Chargers receiver retired in 1986 with the most receptions and receiving yards of any NFL wide receiver?
Charlie Joiner
Charlie Joiner did most of it late: 586 of his 750 catches came after the Chargers traded for him at 28, and Bill Walsh called him the smartest receiver the game had known.
Q 23Which family took control of the Chargers in 1984 and later moved the team to Los Angeles?
Spanos
Q 14What was the nickname of the pass-heavy offense the Chargers unleashed starting in 1978?
Air Coryell
Air Coryell, named for coach Don Coryell, took off the year the NFL barred defenders from hitting receivers more than five yards downfield, and led the league in passing six straight seasons.
Q 15Before the NFL, the Chargers' 1978–86 head coach won 100-plus games at which college?
San Diego State
San Diego State, where he went 104–19–2 in twelve seasons and gave two future Hall of Fame coaches, John Madden and Joe Gibbs, jobs on his staff.
Q 16Which Chargers quarterback was the first with three straight 4,000-yard NFL passing seasons?
Dan Fouts
Dan Fouts broke the NFL's single-season passing record in each of those three years, 1979 to 1981, yet his Chargers never reached a Super Bowl.
Q 17Which Chargers tight end caught 13 passes and blocked a field goal in the January 1982 'Epic in Miami'?
Kellen Winslow
Kellen Winslow kept leaving the field with cramps and dehydration and kept coming back, and the picture of teammates helping him off afterwards became the game's lasting image.
Q 18Which trick play cut the Chargers' lead to 24–17 at halftime of the 'Epic in Miami'?
Hook and lateral
Hook and lateral: with six seconds left in the half, Duriel Harris caught a pass and flipped it to Tony Nathan, who scored untouched, yet the Chargers still won 41–38 in overtime.
Q 19Which Chargers kicker won the Epic in Miami with a 29-yard field goal in overtime?
Rolf Benirschke
Rolf Benirschke's 29-yard kick came 13 minutes and 52 seconds into overtime, after he had missed a 27-yarder earlier in the period.
Q 20The Chargers' January 1982 AFC title loss, in a reported −59 °F wind chill, is known as what?
Freezer Bowl
The Freezer Bowl came eight days after the Chargers had won an overtime playoff in humid Miami; the air was −9 °F at kickoff, and by wind chill it is the coldest NFL game on record.
The Spanos family. Alex Spanos, a Greek immigrant's son from Stockton, began by selling sandwiches to farm workers from a truck, grew rich building apartments and bought the team in 1984.
Q 24Which linebacker's No. 55 is retired by the Chargers?
Junior Seau
Junior Seau made 12 straight Pro Bowls for his hometown team, and the Chargers retired No. 55 at their 2012 home opener, four months after his death; he reached the Hall of Fame in 2015.
Q 25Which head coach, hired in 1992, took the Chargers to their only Super Bowl?
Bobby Ross
Bobby Ross's 1994 Chargers trailed 13–3 in the third quarter of the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh, then won 17–13 to reach the Super Bowl.
Q 26Which quarterback, acquired in a trade with Washington, led the Chargers to Super Bowl XXIX?
Stan Humphries
Stan Humphries was traded for only after starter John Friesz was hurt in a preseason game; in his third Chargers season he led them into Super Bowl XXIX as 18.5-point underdogs.
Q 27Which quarterback threw six touchdown passes against the Chargers in their 49–26 loss in Super Bowl XXIX?
Steve Young
Steve Young, in his first Super Bowl start, broke the record of five touchdown passes set by Joe Montana, the quarterback he had replaced, and was named the game's MVP.
Q 28Which quarterback did the Chargers take second overall in 1998, right behind the Colts' first pick?
Ryan Leaf
Ryan Leaf went 4–14 as a Chargers starter and was released in 2001, while Peyton Manning, taken one slot ahead of him, went to Canton.
Q 29LaDainian Tomlinson played college football for which program?
TCU
TCU, where he once ran for 406 yards in a single game. The Chargers held the first pick in 2001, traded it to Atlanta, who took Michael Vick, and chose Tomlinson fifth.
Q 30How many total touchdowns did LaDainian Tomlinson score in his record-setting 2006 MVP season?
31
LaDainian Tomlinson's 31 touchdowns in 2006 were 28 rushing, a record, plus three receiving; he also threw a pair of touchdown passes that did not count toward the total.