Famous Sports Headlines! Trivia Quiz

In 1919 the owner of the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, the Bambino, to their team rival, the New York Yankees, for $125,000. This was an unprecedented decision, as the Babe had already led the team to victory in three World Series contests. The story was that Harry Frazee had made the sale in order to finance a Broadway musical. Really?! The sale was the start of the decades-long "Curse of the Bambino".

The sale ended up being pivotal for both teams beyond the intense rivalry that it sparked. Babe and the Yankees went on to build a baseball dynasty, winning 27 World Series championships from 1923-2009. The Red Sox, however, went from 1918-2004 without winning a single one. Oh, there were plenty of opportunities; in 1946, 1967, and 1986, the team lost the final and deciding World Series game 7 each time. They finally won in 2004, after 86 years. They then added three more (2007, 2013, and 2018), to their list of recent accomplishments. Perhaps the superstition can now be laid to rest.

Only 13 teams chose to participate in the first World Cup in 1930 (all FIFA member countries were invited). The Great Depression hit hard all over the world; there wasn't a lot of money for travel, so no qualification rounds were played. After being split into four round robin groups (standard round robin play), the four group winners advanced to the semi-finals, and a random draw determined the match ups - Argentina vs. the USA and Uruguay vs. Yugoslavia.

Argentina and Uruguay met in the final, but only after a controversy regarding the ball used was settled, as there was no official sponsor of the games. A coin toss determined that Argentina's ball, one purchased from Scotland, would be used during the first half; they led at halftime 2-1. Uruguay's ball, one purchased from England, would be used in the second half, which they dominated, winning the match 4-2.

And so the Battle of the Balls, the first World Cup, made its way into the history books. The Uruguay coach, Alberto Suppici, is the youngest coach to win a World Cup at age thirty-one. Hector Castro, who had lost an arm in a childhood accident, scored the first goal for Uruguay, as well as the game winning goal. Known as "El Divino Manco" (the The One-Armed God), he is still viewed as a hero in Uruguay.

Joe Louis (1914-1981) had been undefeated in his professional career in 1936 when he first fought against Max Schmeling (1905-2005). Louis, the heavy favorite for the bout, was knocked out in the 12th round. Schmeling had done his homework and watched films of Louis to find his flaws. But it was the time of the rise of Hitler and fascism. The Germans used the victory to tout their Aryan superiority, in spite of the fact that Schmeling was not a Nazi.

Two years later, Louis was seeking redemption in the rematch that was held on June 22, 1938, in New York's Yankee Stadium. It was viewed worldwide as a match between democracy and fascism. In front of a crowd of over 70,000 people, Louis knocked Schmeling down three times; after the third fall the referee called the fight. Louis was declared the world Heavyweight champion by a technical knockout, two minutes and four seconds into the first round of the match.

Many historians consider Joe Louis to be the first African American national hero. Max Schmeling, on the other hand, ceased to be used as the symbol of Aryanism by the Nazi party. He did, however, become reinstated as the German national hero due to his resistance to fascism during WWII. Later on, the two boxers became close friends.

One of the oldest professional sports leagues in the USA, the Midwest Basketball Conference was formed in 1935; the name was changed to the National Basketball League (NBL) by 1937. It was mainly centered in Midwest industrial towns, and had thirteen teams with names like Akron Firestone Non-Skids and Oshkosh All-Stars. A rival league, the Basketball Association of America (BAA), was founded in 1946. It had eleven teams, and was found mostly in the bigger cities on the East Coast; of those eleven teams, the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics are still active today.

It was very difficult, however, for both leagues to find quality players and enough fans to fill the basketball venues. The two leagues decided to merge in 1949, and the result was the National Basketball Association (NBA). There were eleven teams that played in the original organization. The NBA has grown considerably since its inception. By 2004 it had expanded to 30 teams upon the admission of the Charlotte Bobcats: 29 teams based in the USA and one in Canada (the Toronto Raptors).

Althea Gibson (1927-2003) was born in South Carolina. Her family moved to New York City during the Great Depression and, luckily for her, their apartment was in a part of Harlem that was set aside as a Police Athletic League play area. This directed her interest toward sports; Gibson played paddle tennis, and by 1939 she had become the New York City women's paddle tennis champion.

Making the transition to tennis was difficult for her, but by 1941 she won her first tournament, the American Tennis Association (ATA) New York State Championship. At the time, the ATA, the oldest African-American tennis association, organized tennis matches for Black players; Gibson won ten consecutive women's singles titles participating in the ATA from 1947 to 1957. She was, however, barred from playing in tournaments that were held at white-only clubs. In 1950, with help from Alice Marble, a legend in women's tennis, she was able to gain entry to qualifying tournaments, and she gained enough points to compete in what is now called the US Open.

In 1951 Gibson became the first Black person to play at Wimbledon, breaking the color barrier which had existed there. By 1957 she was the top seeded player in the tournament, and won her first singles title. Queen Elizabeth II personally presented the Venus Rosewater Dish to her, and shook her hand as she offered Gibson her congratulations. Gibson later wrote, "Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way away from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina".

Gibson retired from tennis in 1958; she was, at the time, the top-ranked women in the sport, but unable to make a living playing the sport. A talented musician, she turned to the Entertainment industry for a time, recording an album, and even appearing in "The Horse Soldiers" (1959) with John Wayne. In 1964 she became the first Black women to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), and she later worked for the state of New Jersey as the Commissioner of Athletics and the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.

Considered to be one of the most prestigious endurance races in the world, Le Mans is an annual race held in France since 1923. The race is not just about the mechanical superiority of the car, but also about the skill and fortitude of the driver. It does not stop due to nightfall or weather conditions; instead, the winner of the race is the car and driver that can go the farthest in exactly 24 hours.

The famous feud between Ford and Ferrari, immortalized in the movie "Ford v Ferrari (2019)", began in 1963. Ford was hoping to build a sports car that would appeal to younger drivers, and Henry Ford II actually tried to buy that Ferrari company. The deal was made, but fell through when Enzo Ferrari realized that the contract would strip him of control of the company. He tore it up and made some quite unflattering comments about Ford's automobiles.

After that Henry Ford II vowed to seek revenge by ending Ferrari's winning streak at Le Mans. It took two years, but Carroll Shelby, designer, and Ken Miles, driver, pulled off the win in 1966, with the Ford team taking all three places in the race. Ford went on to dominate the race from 1966-1969 with its GT40, and Ferrari became part of Fiat.

The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing in the USA features three races for three-year-old horses: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. It is considered to be a difficult achievement as the three races are held close together in a span of five weeks, and they are all a bit different (not the same distance). When the Triple Crown Trophy was commissioned in 1950, it was awarded to all previous winners in addition to the subsequent ones.

Sir Barton was the Triple Crown Champion from 1919, and for the next one hundred years there were only twelve more. Secretariat, considered by many to be the most outstanding thoroughbred racehorse of the 20th century, won in 1973. What makes Secretariat stand out from the others is that his speed records at all three race tracks are still standing. Many believe that the size of his heart is what gave Secretariat such success. After his death, a necropsy, which is an autopsy for an animal, showed that his heart, weighed in at about 22 pounds. It was about twice the size of a typical racehorse's heart, and is believed to be what gave him such unsurpassed power and stamina, e.g. he won the last leg of the Triple Crown by an unprecedented 31 lengths! Many believe that it was the greatest race ever run by a thoroughbred racehorse.

Nadia Comăneci was born in Onești, Romania, in 1961. Her mother once said that Nadia was quite the active child; she enrolled her in gymnastics when she was in kindergarten because she had so much energy. Soon after, she was chosen to attend the famous Béla Károlyi gymnastics school which, at the time, was experimental. Nadia was chosen when she and a friend were seen doing cartwheels in the school playground. Because Károlyi's school was located in her hometown, she was able to live at home.

When she was nine years old, Comăneci won the Romanian Nationals, the youngest gymnast to do so. The next year she began competing at international tournaments. By the age of thirteen she gained recognition at the European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she took gold in every event except for the floor exercise, where she took second.

While the perfect score at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal was quite some feat, it wasn't the first time she had received a ten. She had competed in the America Cup in March of that year, and had received perfect scores for her preliminary stage vault and for her floor routine in the final. Her perfect tens at the Olympic Games, however, were unprecedented. The scoreboard couldn't even handle the score: it was displayed as 1.0 (!). She was awarded a total of seven perfect Olympic scores in 1976 and two more in 1980 at the Moscow games.

Greg LeMond was born in California in 1961, and grew up near Carson City in Nevada. He has said that he was hyperactive while growing up, and outdoor activities, such as fishing, skiing, and hunting, helped to keep him out of trouble. During the time he attended high school in Reno, LeMond began riding his bike to school in order to continue his skiing conditioning in the off season. It was a 36 mile round trip over a variety of terrains that he said helped him to focus better on school.

After experiencing great junior and amateur careers on the cycling circuits - he was considered to be a teenage prodigy - LeMond signed up with Renault in 1980, beginning his professional career the next year. He rode with Renault for four seasons, winning the 1983 World Championships, and joined La Vie Claire in 1985. After making a pact with a teammate to help him win the Tour de France that year, LeMond felt double crossed during the race in 1986, as he thought the teammate would then help him. Amid an intense rivalry, however, he was able to overcome adversity to become the first American and the first non-European to win the legendary race. He went on to win again in 1989 and 1990.

Emmitt Smith was born in 1969 in Florida. He began playing American football when he was eight years old, and went on to play football at Escambia High School; his team won two state championships during his high school career, and he was also a member of the track team. Smith was named the 1986 national high school player of the year by many groups and publications, and today, within the world of Florida high school football, he is known as the Player of the Century. In spite of his accomplishments, many believed Smith was too small to excel at college football when he signed at the University of Florida in 1987. He played there three years before going pro, shattering school records, rushing for 3928 yards and 36 touchdowns, and was named the 1989 SEC Player of the Year.

As a pro Smith played thirteen years for the Dallas Cowboys (1990-2002) and two for the Arizona Cardinals (2003-2004), but it was with the Cowboys where he made his biggest impact on the sport. There he was fortunate to be a member of the famous Triplets, a group that consisted of himself, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin. The Triplets led the team to three Super Bowl championships. During the 1993-94 season, Smith became the first running back in history to win the Quadruple Crown - the league MVP, the Super Bowl MVP, the NFL rushing title, and the Super Bowl championship. There are many football experts today who believe that his records for career rushing yards (18,355) and his career rushing touchdowns (164) may never be broken.