Born Leroy Robert Paige, Satchel Paige was a legend in the Negro Leagues for 29 years. Many of his records in the Negro League were never recorded. On his 42nd birthday in 1948, he was sold by the Kansas City Monarchs to the Cleveland Indians. Its owner Bill Veeck signed the old pitcher to a major league contract. Two days later, Paige became the oldest rookie ever in the major leagues of baseball when he made his first appearance late in a game. That night, he also became the first black to ever pitch in the American League, and the fifth overall to play in the major leagues. As the majors' oldest rookie ever, Paige had a 6-1 record, mostly in relief, as Cleveland won the 1948 pennant. He also pitched for the St. Louis Browns, and pitched three innings for the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 at the age of 59.
Canada’s first Olympic gold medal was won by a man competing for the United States. George Orton of Strathroy, Ontario took first place in the steeplechase at the 1900 Olympics in Paris, but because Canada didn’t have an official team he entered as part of the American team instead.
The gloves of a boxing professional in the fly- to welter-weight categories weigh 6 ounces; light-middleweight and above, 8 ounces.
In North America, it is considered unsporting to shoot game birds not on the wing.
The Harlem Globetrotters once played before an audience of one – in 1931, before Pope Pius XI.
In speed skating, competitors wear colored armbands to indicate their starting lanes. White is worn by the skater starting in the inner lane; red by the skater starting in the outer lane. The skaters change lanes after each circuit of the track.
The huddle formation used by football teams originated at Gallaudet University, a liberal arts college for deaf people in Washington, D.C., to prevent other schools from reading their sign language.
In the 1931 Rose Bowl game, "Five-Yard" Fogerty carried 25 times and gained exactly 5 yards on each carry. It was in that game that teammates celebrated the oddity of Fogerty's achievement by slapping palms – this practice is now known as exchanging "high fives." The results of that game were Alabama, 24, Washington State, 0. Fogerty played one year of professional football before breaking his leg in a skiing accident. He became a bank president in Wichita, Kansas. Sadly, he died five days before his retirement.
The Iditarod dog sled race – from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska – commemorates an emergency operation in 1925 to get medical supplies to Nome during a deadly diphtheria epidemic.
In the 1936 Swathling Cup Match in table tennis, Alex Ehrlich of Poland and Paneth Farcas of Rumania volleyed for 2 hours and 12 minutes on the opening serve.
The International Skating Union recognizes 48 different types of figure eights in competition.
In the 1979-80 season, at age 19, Wayne Gretzky became the youngest hockey player ever to score 50 or more goals and 100 or more points in a season, and the youngest player to be voted Most Valuable Player.
The key word "amateur" was eliminated from the Olympic Charter in 1971.
In the first Boston Marathon, 15 runners competed. Ten of them finished the race.
The knuckleball baseball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm hit a home run in his very first time at bat in the major leagues. He never hit another in more than 400 times at bat in his twenty-year career with many teams from 1952 to 1972. His career batting average was .088.
In the game of craps, the slang term "Little Phoebe" refers to a roll of 5 on the dice.
The Louisville Slugger logo doesn't always appear just on baseball bats. One of the more recent adaptations of the familiar oval was on the first cruise missile fired in the Persian Gulf war. The missile was painted by sailors on the U.S.S. Louisville nuclear attack submarine which fired the opening shot of the conflict. Each of the sailors on board received a personalized Louisville Slugger bat when the ship was originally commissioned.
In the National Football League, the home team is required to provide 24 footballs for each game, although only 8-12 are normally used.
The maximum height allowed for a fence in equestrian horse-jumping competitions is 5 feet, 6 inches.
In the opening procession of the Olympics, the team representing the host nation always marches last.
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