General Sports Trivia

As sports fans, we spend a lot of time enjoying our favorite pastimes. We sit with friends at bars, in living rooms, or in sports venues talking about the teams, the players, and the highlights. Here are some fun sports facts and bits of general sports trivia to add to the next conversation.

FOOTBALL

The price for tickets to the first Super Bowl in 1967 ranged from $6 to $12. Today, they can cost thousands of dollars!

In 1990, the San Francisco 49ers became the first team to score 50 points in the Super Bowl. They were also the first team to win five Super Bowl titles.

Deion Sanders played with San Francisco in 1994 and with the Dallas Cowboys in 1995. Both teams went to the Super Bowl and both teams were victorious. Prior to that, Deion Sanders played with the MLB Atlanta Braves and went to the World Series in 1992. He is also the only player in professional sports to have scored a touchdown and hit a home run in the same week.

BASEBALL

Cy Young was credited to be the first pitcher of the Modern Era to pitch a perfect game. Actually, the very first professional baseball pitcher do this was Lee Richmond on June 12, 1880 with the Worcester Ruby Legs.

The first black player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame was Jackie Robinson in 1962. The first woman to be inducted was Effa Manley in 2006, not as a player, but as a team owner/manager.

Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. both played for the Seattle Mariners. They are the only father and son players in MLB to have hit back-to-back home runs in a MLB game.

BASKETBALL

The Lakers have made the most appearances at the NBA finals but do not have the most NBA titles. They have 30 attempts with 15 victories. The Celtics have the most wins with 17 in 20 appearances.

The lowest scoring game in NBA history was between the Pistons and Lakers in 1950, 19 to 18.

One reason the New Jersey NBA team was named the Nets was because it rhymed with the other local professional teams, the Mets and the Jets.

HOCKEY

With 472 minutes sitting in the penalty box, Dave Schultz, aka “The Hammer”, has the record for most penalty minutes in one season.

Ron Hextall, playing for Philadelphia in 1987, was the first NHL goalie to score a goal during a game.

Hockey fans bring sports towels to wave at the refs for bad calls and hats to throw onto the ice if a player scores three goals in one game. In Detroit, fans will bring an octopus to toss on the ice if the Red Wings win in the playoffs.

Modern Olympics

In 1980, the United States hockey team defeated USSR in an incredible miracle win. However, that was not the gold-medal match. They had to go on to defeat Finland to win the gold.

Early Olympic Games included a number of unusual sports: tug-of-war, 100-meter freestyle for sailors, rope climbing, an obstacle swimming race, an underwater distance race, and live pigeon shooting.

Curling has been a team sport in the Winter Olympics since 1998. It is played on ice using a polished granite stone and two brooms.

WOMEN IN SPORTS

Jackie-Joyner-Kersee was the first and only woman to be named “The Sporting News” Man of the Year (1988).

Janet Guthrie was the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500 in 1977. She finished 29th.

The first female gymnast to score a perfect 10 in the Olympics was Nadia Comaneci (1976 Montreal).