|
|
Click HERE or Refresh to see more random facts.
- The five Olympic rings represent the continents.
- The Indianapolis 500 is run on Memorial Day.
- O.J. Simpson rushed for 2,003 yards in 1973.
- Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.
- Three consective strikes in bowling is called a turkey.
- The theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters is "Sweet Georgia Brown."
- Tokyo has the world's biggest bowling alley.
- Canada beat Denmark 47-0 at the 1949 world hockey championships.
- Six bulls are killed in a formal bullfight.
- Boxing is considered the easiest sport for gamblers to fix.
- In 1870, British boxing champ Jim Mace and American boxer Joe Coburn fought for three hours and 48 minutes without landing one punch.
- Professional sumo wrestlers, called rikishi, must be quick on their feet and supple, but weight is vital to success as they hurl themselves at their opponents, aiming to floor them or push them outside the 15-foot fighting circle.
- To bulk up, rikishi eat huge portions of protein-rich stews called chankonabe, packed with fish or meat and vegetables, plus vast quantities of less healthful 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.
- The average rikishi tips the scales at about 280 pounds, but in 1988 the heaviest sumo westler ever recorded weighed in at a thundering 560 pounds.
- The 1900 Olympics were held in Paris, France.
- The Miami Dolphins were the last NFL team to go through a season unbeaten.
- The city of Denver was chosen to host and then refused the 1976 Winter Olympics.
- Baseball's home plate is 17 inches wide.
- Boxing champion Gene Tunney taught Shakespeare at Yale University.
- In the U.S., there are more then 10,000 golf courses.
- 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.
- Scientists have estimated a fly ball will travel about seven feet further for every 1,000 feet of altitude. With an approximate elevation of 1,100 feet, Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona is the second highest facility in the major baseball leagues; only Coors Field in Denver, Colorado is higher.
|
