10 Little Known Sports Trivia Facts
Test your knowledge and see how many sports facts you know.
Comments (37)|159 Liked It
Below are ten sports trivia facts that many sports buffs probably don’t know.
- Until 1859, the umpire sat behind home plate in a padded rocking chair.
- Babe Ruth was the first baseball player credited to ordering a bat with a knob on it. They were produced by Louisville Slugger in 1919.
- Boxing was filmed for the first time in 1894 in a match between Mike Leonard and Jack Cushing.
- The fastest serve in a game of tennis was in 1963 by Michael Sangster. It was clocked at 154 mile per hour.
- Horse racing is one of the oldest sports around. It was originated by nomads around the year 4500 B.C. It is possible that the sport began before this time but 4500 B.C. is when they first started keeping written records.
- If a horse wins a race “hands down” it means the jockey never raised his whip during the race.
- Even though it was outlawed in 1920, the last legal spitball was thrown by New York Yankee Hall of Famer, Burleigh Grimes in 1934. At the time of the outlaw, anyone already using a spitball was allowed to continue. Burleigh Grimes continued for another fourteen years.
- Official baseball rules state that an umpire may not be replaced during a game except if he becomes ill, injured, or if he dies.
- Before the turn of the century, prize fighters fought bare fisted. Matches sometimes lasted more than one hundred rounds and were counted by knock outs.
- In bowling, three strikes in a row was called a turkey. The term originated in the 1800s when at holiday time, the first member of a team to score three strikes in a row won a free turkey.
Bonus fact:
In Scotland, golf was strictly a Gentlemen-Only- Ladies-Forbidden sport. Hence the name Golf.
37 Comments
I’m not a sports buff, but you had some interesting facts here. Thank you.
Interesting list although, like Judy, I’m not sporty.
Very interesting facts, and I like fact number 6.
Free turkey eh? Hmmm… I’m off bowling.
Thanks guys for taking the time to read my article. Like Judy and louie, I am not a sports person much either but I did think the facts were interesting.
I will have to see if they can fix this for me. The picture belongs at the bottom with the Bonus fact.
Those are really intersting. I neve would have looked these up
these make some great conversation though 
Alexa, thank you for your comment. I thought they were pretty interesting too and you’re right, they would make great conversation.
Wow, great list. I was especially interested in number 1, why would they sit in a rocking chair?, 7 about the spitball outlaw, and 9 the bare fist 100 round games.
I really didn’t know that about golf, what an interesting list you made! Like Icy, I liked No. 6.
Sports is not my cup of tea but interesting none the less!
Darlene,
I for one am not much of a sports fan. The only sports I can get into is football and basketball. I’m not much for watching sports on television, but if I have the money I like going to the actual game and being right there where all the action is taking place. I really liked your article. I like reading about little oddities of everyday things.
Love most sports, good to know all the interesting facts you have listed here. Nice job!
Another great, interesting, unique article Darlene! Keep up the great work!
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
cool info..thanks.
What a wonderful read. I didn’t know any of these.
Best Wishes,
Josey
Oops…I got 0 mark out of 10 for this test. Great info, Darlene, thanks! Take care!
Interesting article. Where do you find all this info?
Francie, thank you for your comment. I admire a woman who is into sports. Unfortunately I am not one of them.
R.B. Parsley, I am a lot like you. Even though I am not that keen on sports, I don’t mind watching if I am watching live.
Laine Schmidt, Thank you for your opinion. I believe interest can be found in any subject.
b.Radley, thank you for your comment and for stopping by.
Josey, Thank you. I appreciate you stopping in to read.
Chan Lee Peng, If I didn’t have the facts in front of me when I wrote this article, I wouldn’t have got a single one right either. Thanks for your opinion, I know how busy you are.
Speed Limit, I accidentally came across these facts in a book while searching for something else and I might have enough material for another article. Thanks for your comment.
I only knew #9 the bare fisted boxing fact…the rest are awesome!!!
Great job Darlene!!
Hi, Darlene. You know a lot in sports. I didn’t know any of the things you listed, but I sure did enjoy it.
Very interesting facts.
Hi Darlene,
Oh well I tried and failed miserably!
I particularly liked the Bonus Fact – learn something new everyday
I hate telling you all this but the first two facts aren’t true. I’ve seen many pics from the 1840’s and 50’s and there are knobs on many of the bats. There were bats without them but not all. And as far as the umpire. They rarely had umpires. But the ones they had didn’t sit on rocking chairs.
#25, Paul S.
Thank you for your comments. I have a fix in for the second fact. The wording is wrong. It should read the first professional player to order a bat with a ball on it. As for umps in rocking chairs…I did more research and it is correct.
The golf this isn’t true. Sorry.
Loved this!
I am a sports nut.
What a unique and interesting article. I really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work!
-Ellen
Very interesting article. I never heard of these facts before. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Cool Facts! How did u make this site?…..
Can You please answer my question asap!!! I’m trying to make my own site!!
Hi AB,
I didn’t make this site. It belongs to Triond. I am an article writer with Triond.
Golf fact is wrong – There is some dispute over where golf originated as a game but there is no doubt it’s roots are in Scotland and well before English in any modern recognizable form was spoken there. Since there was heavy nordic influence and given the dialect of the area that golf originated in was decidedly not English, an acronym for English words is highly improbable at best. The more likely origination of the name is a Scottish dirivitive of ‘kolve’ the Dutch word for ‘club’. It is true that women were not allowed to play, but then they weren’t allowed to own land and it was leagal to beat them so the restriction is hardly noteworthy.
these are interesting facts, you should put more up
numer six especially was very interesting
Great list Darlene,the only one I knew about was the bare fisted boxers.
Unfortunately, #5 is also incorrect, as no form of writing can be traced back beyond the Bronze age, around 3500 B.C., and all writing systems derived from these neolithic proto-writing systems, Unfortunately you have cited writing almost 1000 years before there is any evidence of it, so while horse racing may be the oldests sport (though I would imagine it to be wrestling), it certainly wasn’t documented in writing to modern knowledge until after 3500ish B.C.
I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but a lot of this list is wrong. Among the ones already pointed out, “fact” number 4 is wrong. Andy Roddick hit a 155 MPH serve in 2004 at the Davis Cup.
Where, pray tell, are you getting these “facts”? Almost half of them are out-dated at best, just plain wrong at worst. This is why random articles on the internet should never, ever, be trusted as fact without verification of some sort.