Sports historians have traced roller skating to the early 1800s when an unknown Dutchman sought to find a warm-weather equivalent to ice skating. He decided to attach wooden disks to shoes; after a short period of refinement, roller skating became a popular pastime in Holland. The sport attained even greater popularity among the North American public with the introduction of the steel wheel with ball bearings.
Surprisingly in 1969, basketball legend Jerry West was named NBA Most Valuable Player of the finals despite losing.
Table tennis was originally played with balls made from champagne corks and paddles made from cigar-box lids. It was created in the 1880s by James Gibb, a British engineer who wanted an invigorating game he could play indoors when it was raining. Named "Gossima," the game was first marketed with celluloid balls, which replaced Gibb's corks. After the equipment manufacturer renamed the game "Ping-Pong" in 1901, it became a hot seller.
The Chicago Tribune purchased the Chicago Cubs baseball team from the P.K. Wrigley Chewing Gum Company for $20.5 million in 1981. The sale ended the longest continuous ownership of a team that stayed in its original city, which had been 60 years.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology reported that about 30,000 children are treated for sports-related eye injuries in U.S. emergency rooms every year. Ninety percent of those injuries are preventable by wearing safety goggles. Baseball and basketball are the two most hazardous sports for the eye. The primary eye danger in basketball isn't the ball — it's the opponent.
The ancient sport of chariot racing gave us the phrase "turning point." Turning points were the places where chariot drivers turned at each end of a stadium.
The average major league baseball lasts 7 pitches.
The balance beam used in Olympic gymnastic competition is 16 feet, 3 inches long and 4 inches wide.
The ball used in hurling is also known as a sliotar or sliothar. The ball usually has a cork center and is covered with horsehide. Hurling for women is called camogie.
The beautiful Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon, New Jersey, was deemed the Number 1 golf course in the world by Golf Digest. The course was built in 1918, offers a par 70, and measures 6,765 yards. Pine Valley Golf Club has achieved designation as a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System, the educational division of Audubon International, endorsed by the United States Golf Association.
The biggest badminton shuttle in the world can be found on the lawns of the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, in Kansas City – 48 times larger than the real thing at 18 feet tall and weighing 5,000 pounds.
The bow used by Olympic archers measures a maximum of 6 feet for men, 5¼ feet for women. It is made of laminated wood, and is coated with graphite or fiberglass.
The Brooklyn Dodgers (who later became the Los Angeles Dodgers) did not get their name because of their sporting ability. The term "dodger" was a shortened form of "trolley dodgers," which was first used to describe Brooklynites for their ability to avoid being hit by trolley cars.
The California Academy of Tauromaquia in San Diego is a world renowned school for Matadors.
The Chicago Cubs are the oldest original franchise in professional sports, dating back to the founding of the National League by team president Walter A. Hubert in 1876. Nicknamed the "lovable losers" of the North Side, the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 and have not played in the fall classic since 1945.
The Cleveland Indians were named in honor of Louis Cockolexis, a native Maine Indian who was the first American Indian to play professional baseball. Before it became the Indians, the Cleveland team was known as the Spiders.
The concealed-lace basketball was introduced in 1927. Before the concealed lace, the ball bounced at unexpected angles when the lacing hit the floor.
The depression made in the snow by a skier who has fallen backward is called a "sitzmark."
The distance between bases on a Little League baseball field is 60 feet. In the major leagues, the distance is 90 feet.
The first baseball game to be televised was not in the United States. It was in Tokyo, Japan.
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