Fascinating and Obscure Sports Trivia Quiz

Answer: Florida

Florida won both titles in 2006. The other three won both championships, but not in the same year: Ohio State has won seven football titles (1942 to 2002) and a basketball title in 1960; Michigan State won football titles in 1952 and shared the title in 1965 and 1966 -- their basketball title was in 1979, led by Magic Johnson. UCLA shared its 1954 football title with Ohio State but won an astounding 11 basketball titles (1963 to 1975) led by players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.

Answer: Hinkey Haines

Hinkey Haines played for the New York Yankees in 1923, winning a World Series title, and then played for the 1927 New York Giants winning a football championship, coached by Earl Potteiger.

Deion Sanders did indeed win the Super Bowl, twice in fact, once with the Dallas Cowboys and once with the San Francisco 49ers. He came so close to being a correct answer for this question but while he played for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1992 World Series, they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays. Bo Jackson also played both sports professionally and was an All-Star in both, but never won a championship in either.

Jim Thorpe's only World Series appearance for the New York Giants but they lost to the Chicago White Sox in 1917. He won pro football championships with the Canton Bulldogs, of the American Professional Football Association which became the NFL later in 1922.

Answer: University of Utah Utes

Although Rutgers in New Jersey and Utah both have Business Schools named Eccles, it is the University of Utah's Utes football team that competes in Rice-Eccles Stadium in the Pac-12 Conference. The state of Arkansas may produce the most rice in the USA, but the Arkansas Razorbacks play at Frank Broyles Field at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Rice-Eccles Stadium is an outdoor stadium located in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a seating capacity of over 45,000.

Answer: Spencer Ross

All except for the New York Mets. Spencer Ross called the play-by-play for the New Jersey Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets) starting in 1967-68 as the radio announcer for their first three seasons. (He would reunite with them in the 1990's as the TV voice of the Nets). He was one of the original TV broadcasters of the New York Islanders, starting in 1972-73 and remaining through 1977. Ross never called a regular season game for the NFL's New York Giants but he did announce their preseason games for three years. He did radio play-by-play for the New York Jets from 1978-84, and continued doing their preseason games through to 1998 while he was doing the New York Yankee games. He started to announce New York Knick games in 1973 for the Knicks Radio Network, and continued to do so on and off through to the 2008 season. He started calling New York Ranger hockey in 1972 as Marv Albert's back-up, also up to 2008. Ross was part of the New Jersey Devils' original TV team in 1982 on the Sports Channel, continuing through to 1995. And for the New York Yankees he called radio and TV from 1985 to 1987, winning an EMMY, the first ever given to a Yankees broadcaster, whereupon he was then of course fired by George Steinbrenner.

But hold on, Spencer Ross also called games on HBO for the New York Stars of the Word Football League, and the New York Golden Blades of the World Hockey Association. For The USFL's New Jersey Generals football team he called games for WPIX Channel 11. And let's not ignore tennis and soccer: On WPIX and HBO he called New York Sets games in World Team Tennis, and for the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League he announced for the USA Network, and for the Major Indoor Soccer League he announced the New York Arrows games on WPIX. At age 81, he continued weekend sports updates for WINS on AM radio.

Answer: Hugo Bezdek

Before the NFL's Rams were in Los Angeles or St. Louis, they were the Browns and their hometown was Cleveland. Hugo Bezdek was their coach. Bezdek was born in Bohemia in 1884, but after his family emigrated to the USA he learned baseball and football, and played both at the University of Chicago. He coached college football for several years, and also scouted for the MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates.

When the Pirates started off the 1917 season with a 20-40 record the team made a drastic movie in making Bezdek their manager. He would often defer to veteran players in asking their advice about what to do (paging Ted Lasso!). Bezdek would indeed set the team back on the winning track. But the collegiate world summoned him and he took a job at Penn State that he couldn't refuse. He did so well that the NFL offered him the coaching job for a new team in 1937, the Cleveland Rams.

Answer: 1993's Alex Rodriguez of the MLB's Seattle Mariners

Alex Rodriguez was not a Rookie of the Year Award winner, nor did he leave the Mariners after his first season. Ray Felix was the player drafted in the 1953 draft and went on to win Rookie of the Year in 1953-54. He then joined the New York Knicks before the start of the 1954 season, but his playing soon disappointed.

After his Rookie of the Year win, Adrian Dantley was traded by the Buffalo Braves (who as a team traded their locale and name, becoming the L.A. Clippers) to the Indians Pacers. The Pacers then traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers after just 23 games. Chris Webber was the first player picked in the 1994 NBA draft--The Orlando Magic promptly traded him to the Golden State Warriors where he played Rookie of the Year basketball. After internal disputes with the organization, he was traded to the Washington Bullets.

Answer: Jackie Jensen

In college, Jackie Jensen was a Heisman Trophy candidate (losing to Doak Walker), but in 1948 he helped lead his University of California team to the Rose Bowl. The team had a 10-0 record that year playing for coach Pappy Waldorf and earned a share of their first Pacific Coast Conference title in ten years. Cut to two years later, and Jackie Jensen is playing for the New York Yankees in the 1950 World Series, as a rookie. He wound up pinch running for Bobby Brown in the 8th inning of Game 3 in that series in which the Yankees swept the Phillies.

Jensen not only played in a MLB World Series, he also played in the first College World Series in 1947. Jensen was an outfielder and a pitcher for his Cal team, and he helped the team win the Series by beating Bobby Layne who was a future football Hall of Fame quarterback. Cal then defeated the Yale team (with future President George Bush) for the Championship.

Answer: Concord

Although one can maybe make a case for Concord being a color, kinda, sorta, there's no denying that it does not have an NCAA Division I team in any sport. Concord University is an NCAA Division II school in West Virginia and is part of the Mountain East Conference. Brown University is an NCAA Division I school in the Ivy League, Auburn in Alabama, is also Division I NCAA school. And Siena College in New York State is a Division I NCAA school in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Answer: Calvin Hill

George Hurley was a guard for the Boston Braves from 1932-1933, thirty four years before there was ever a Super Bowl. Lou Ferry played in the NFL from 1949 to 1955 before there was ever a Super Bowl. And Randy Duncan was a quarterback for the Dallas Texans in 1961, before the Super Bowl Era.

Yale graduate Calvin Hill was the first pick in the 1969 NFL draft, became Rookie of The Year, and 4-time Pro Bowl star running back for the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl VI. Married to Hillary Clinton's college roommate at Wellesley, their son, Grant Hill was the star of the Duke Blue Devils NCAA Championship teams in 1991 and 1992.

Answer: Abe Lemons

Abe Lemons never reached the Final Four with his teams (Oklahoma City University, Texas-Pan-American, and Texas) although he reached the Elite Eight three times. And he never coached a college baseball team. Frank McGuire led the St. John's Redmen to the Baseball College World Series in 1949 (in which they lost to Texas in the first round), and then the NCAA basketball tournament in 1952 in which they lost to Kansas in the Championship game. Sam Barry coached USC to the Final Four in 1940 losing by 1 point to Kansas, and then he coached his Trojans to the College World Series Championship over Yale in 1948 and again 1949, this time losing in the Semi-Finals to Wake Forest. Everett Dean took his Stanford Cardinals team to the NCAA Championship team in 1942, and then the College World Series in 1952, where they lost in Lower Round 2 to Lafayette.