Useless Sports

The New York Jets were once unable to find hotel rooms for a game in Indianapolis because they had all been booked up by people attending Gencon, a gaming convention

The "huddle" in football was conceived because of a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate. The team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him.

Contrary to popular believe, the Cleveland Browns were likely not named after their legendary coach, Paul Brown. "Browns" was the second choice in a fan contest to name the team. ("Panthers" was the first choice, but unusable as there was a semi-pro team already called the Panthers.) Coach Brown stated that the team was named after boxing legend Joe "The Brown Bomber" Louis.

Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers and Barry Sander were both born in Wichita, Kansas.

Atlanta falcons quarterback Michael Vick and former Oakland Raiders quarterback Aaron Brooks are cousins.

The term "Hail Mary" for a last-second, desperation pass was coined by Cowboys great Roger Staubach. also a practicing Catholic.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre's middle name is Lorenzo

The Mannings are the only family to have had three players selected in the first round: Father Archie by the New Orleans Saints in 1971, Peyton in 1998 by the Indianapolis Colts, and finally Eli in 2004 by the New York Giants.

Many have heard of or seen "the play," in which the Cal Bears threw five laterals to pull off a last second upset off arch-rival Stanford. Few, however, know that Stanford's quarterback in that game was none other than Bronco's legend John Elway.

Though Walter Payton and Gale Sayers are certainly two of the greatest backs of all time, it is the lesser-known Ernie Nevers who holds the Bears record for most rushing touchdowns in a single game, with six.

George O'Leary was head coach at Notre Dame for only five days before forced to resign due to a falsehood on his resume.

The only golf course on the island of Tonga has fifteen holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.

The first golf rule booklet was published in Scotland in 1754.

Golf great Billy Casper perfected his game during the Korean War while serving in then navy. Casper was assigned to operate and build golf driving rangers in the San Diego area.

Not all golf balls have 360 dimples. Most have anywhere from 300-450 dimples. The record holder was a ball with 1,070 dimples. The only odd-numbered dimpled ball on sale today has 333 dimples all other balls have an even number of dimples. There are also many different kinds of dimple patterns.

The fastest golf drive is 120 miles per hour and was set by Gene Sarazen.

Tiger Woods is the only professional golfer to hold all four major championships at on tile, although it did not happen in a single calendar year. He also currently holds the scoring record for all four majors.

Ernie Els's real name is Theodore.

There are more recreational golfers per capita in Canada than in any other country in the world.

When the golf ball was introduced in 1848, it was called a "gutta-percha" ball because its core was made from that tropical tree's sap.

Chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are 1 in 67 million.

In the 1870's, William Russell Frisbie opened a bakery called the "Frisbie Pie Company" In Bridgeport, Connecticut. His lightweight pie tins were embossed with the family name. College students started tossing and catching the empty tins as a pastime.

In the United States, more Frisbee discs are sold each year then baseballs, basketballs, and footballs combined.

Before soccer referees started using whistles in 1878, they used to rely on waving a handkerchief.

Belgian soccer team FC Wijtschale once gave up fifty-eight goals in just two games.

A female photographer has been banned from flying with the Romanian national soccer team because of superstitions that women can bring bad luck.

A man from Medellin, Columbia, has legally changed his name to Deportivo Independiente Medellin, after his favorite soccer team.

British soccer squad Chelsea Football Club received a set of tanning beds as training aids.

British team Norwich City was once urged to wear red underpants to help them win a game when they were in last place.

Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho smashed a window at a twelfth century cathedral by bungling an overhead kick while filming in a commercial.

To bulk up, sumo wrestlers eat huge proportions of protein rich stews called chankonabe, packed with fish or meat and vegetables, plus vast quantities of less healthy foods including fast food. They often force themselves to eat when they are full, and they have a nap after lunch, thus acquiring flab on top of their strong muscles which helps to keep their center of gravity low.

In 1988, the heaviest sumo wrestler ever recorded weighed in at a thundering 560 pounds.

There's a regulation sized half court where employees can play basketball inside the Matterhorn at Disneyland.

In the 1987-88 NBA season, the shortest and tallest players in NBA history played together on the Washington Bullets. Tyrone "Muggsy" Boges stood only 5'3", while his teammate Manute Bol towered over the competition at 7'7".

The iconic NBA logo design of a player's silhouette was based on Los Angeles Lakers great Jerry West.

The NCAA banned dunking in college basketball from 1967-1976, largely as a reaction to the dominance of UCLA center Lew Alcindor who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In China, a rough translation led to the Chicago Bulls being known as the "Red Oxen".

In 1988, the expansion Charlotte Hornets became the first team in major league sports to be named after an insect.

In 1996-97, Robert Parish became the oldest acting player in NBA history. He played for the Chicago Bulls at the ripe old age of forty-three.

A traditional sport on Nauru, a small Pacific island, is lassoing flying birds.

Vaimonkanto, or "Wife Carrying," is a popular sport. The championship games are held annually in Sonkajarvi, Finland.

Enthusiasts of a sport called "Extreme Ironing" are trying to get Olympic recognition by showing off their ironing skills in extreme places like Times Square, Mount Rushmore, and even underwater.

"Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in Medieval times. Players took turns striking a blindfolding player, who had to guess the name of the person delivery the blow.

One of the hall of fame pitcher Nolan Ryan's jockstraps sold at an auction for $25,000

Hefty slugger Cecil Fielder went more than one thousand games without a stolen base until 1995, when he swiped his first bag after an errant throw from the catcher and a juggled catch by the second baseman.

Two father-son combination's have played in the same lineup: Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., and Tim Raines Sr. and Tim Raines Jr. However, the Griffeys are the only father-son combination's to hit back to back homers, which they did in 1990.

Former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver holds the record for ejections with ninety-seven.

In 1941, Ted Williams became the last player to hit .400 for a season (he hit .406), but lost out in the American League MVP race to Yankee rival Joe DiMaggio.

Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even thought he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.

In July 1934, Babe Ruth paid a fan $20 for the return of the baseball he hit for his 700th career home run.

In 1964, for the tenth time in his major-league baseball career, Mickey Mantle hit home runs from both the left and right sides of the plate in the same game - setting a new baseball record.

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and Manager Billy Martin had a turbulent relationship. From 1975 to 1988, Steinbrenner hired and subsequently fired Martin four separate times.

Future NFL great John Elway spent two years in the Yankee's farm system before embarking on his celebrated career with the Denver Broncos.

In the 1988 Calgary Olympics, ski jumper Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards finished fifty-eighth (last) in the 70-meter jump and fifty-fifth (last) in the 90-meter jump.

A helicopter installed the worlds largest Olympic torch on top of the Calgary tower. The flame was visible for 10 to 12 miles and required 30,000 feet of natural gas per hour.

In 1969, a brief skirmish broke out between Honduras and El Salvador. Although tensions had been heightened between the two countries, the conflict is often referred to as "The Football War" due to rioting during the qualifying matches of the 1970 FIFA World Cup. The actual war lasted only four days before a cease-fire was declared.

Around 18 million more text messages than normal were sent on the day England clinched victory against Australia in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final.

When a male skier falls down, he tends to fall on his face. A woman skier tends to fall on her back.

Men are more streamlined the women for swimming, because the female's breasts create a lot of drag. Enough, in fact, that racing suits have been developed with tiny pegs above the breasts to create disturbance, which decreases the drag.

If you add up all the letters in all the names of the cards in one suit of the deck (ace, two, etc.) the total number of letters is fifty-two, the same as the number of cards in the deck.

In 2003 former world chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov became the first player to be disqualified at a major event after his cell phone rang during a game.

The longest Monopoly game in a bathtub was ninety-nine hours long. The longest game ever played was 1,680 hours (seventy days).

Table tennis was originally played in England in the 1880's with balls made from champagne corks and paddles made from cigar-box lids.

The sport of volleyball was originally known as mintonette.

Tennis pro Evonne Goolagong's last name means "kangaroo's nose" in Australia's aboriginal language.

Micheal Sangster, who played in the 1960's, had tennis's fastest serve, once clocked at 154 miles per hour.

Tennis great Goran Ivanisevic's father once crashed his $4 million yacht. not long after a friend totaled his $200,000 Porsche.

The longest singles match in tennis history took place in 1982 at the Davis Cup quarterfinals. John McEnroe and Mats Wilander battled for six hours and thirty-two minutes, with McEnroe finally emerging as the victor.

A NASCAR fan once sent more then half a million emails to Fox because they'd shown a baseball game instead of a scheduled race.

Go-karting originated in 1956 when Art Ingels Built the first kart in Southern California.

At 101, Larry Lewis ran the 100-yard dash in 17.8 seconds, setting a new world record for runners of one hundred years old or older.

Horse-racing is one of the most dangerous sports. Between two and three jockeys are killed each year. That's about how many baseball players have died in baseballs entire professional history.

Brazil has qualified for every single World Cup.

The average number of days per year that no major league sport is played: 5.



- Lord Josmar's Emporium Of Useless Information