Sports Scandals Trivia

1. It was, he said, "the hand of God": which football (soccer) great got away with punching a ball into the net in an important World Cup match?

From Quiz Great (?) Sporting Cheats

Answer: Maradona

Diego Maradona was hailed by many as the greatest footballer of his generation, some say of all time. His talents on the field for a number of clubs and for his native Argentina were clear to be seen. Yet controversy was to follow him, not least for an incident during the 1986 World Cup. In a match against England, he rose to challenge England goalkeeper Peter Shilton for the ball and used one fist to punch it into the net. Shilton protested, but the goal stood. It was, Maradona insisted, "the hand of God" that had inspired him. Argentina went on to win that tournament. Maradona had many more years as a player and manager, but drug use and health issues persisted. He died in November 2020 at the age of 60.

From Quiz Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport

Answer: Deliberately threw games

In the 1919 World Series the White Sox were playing the Cincinnati Reds. White Sox players lost games on purpose for money and lost the series. Arnold "Chick" Gandil organised the match fixing and persuaded teammates to take bribes. Even a century later, the scandal loomed large in baseball. Many baseball fans believed that "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was wrongly accused of involvement - he maintained his innocence - but he was denied a merited place in the Hall of Fame.

From Quiz White Thyme for Green Beans

Answer: Bold Personality

Not the first substitution scandal in the history of horseracing, and not the most effective either. The horse was disqualified within 40 minutes of the race having being run (and won!) by 'Fine Cotton'. But the story didn't end there. John Gillespie, who masterminded the plot, later claimed that the clumsy disguise was all part of a larger plan. Just before the race, the news of the substitution was leaked, and a frenzy of betting on Fine Cotton (Bold Personality in disguise) took place. Gillespie alleges that that was the intended outcome - while the mugs were punting on a horse that was sure to be disqualified, he and his fellow conspirators placed large bets on the horse they reckoned would come second. It did, and once Bold Personality was disqualified, they collected a huge sum - in the millions - on the second placed horse, Harbour Gold. Yes, there was jail time for the baddies.

From Quiz Great Expectorations

Answer: Tennis

This was during the third round of the Men's Singles at Wimbledon in 1995. Tarango was trailing the lowly ranked German Alexander Mronz. At this point Tarango had lost the first set in a tie-breaker and was down in the second. He served what he thought was an ace. The linesperson called it out. The call was over-ruled by the central umpire, Bruno Rebeuh, however, instead of awarding Tarango the point Rebeuh ordered that the point be replayed. That's when Jeff went off the handle and, apart from stating he wasn't playing anymore, added that "you (Rebeuh) are the most corrupt official in the game and you can't do that. No way!" With that Tarango walked off court 13 and out of the tournament. (Aftermath) The affair escalated post-match with Tarango levelling claims of favouritism by Rebeuh to certain players. He was also shocked to hear that after his walk-off his wife, Benedicte, had walked onto the court and slapped the central umpire. Tarango was fined $US60,000, which was rescinded and was banned from the 1996 Wimbledon tournament.

From Quiz Unbelievable But True Sports Events

Answer: He failed to finish the race

Nero was quite a card. First, he convinced officials to postpone the games for two years, so they would coincide with his planned tour of Greece. Then he paid a huge bribe to all the judges to ensure that anyone who was unwise enough to challenge him would be disqualified. In the 10-horse chariot race, he fell out of his chariot, and was helped back in by spectators. But a short time later, he fell out again. By this time, his horses were too excited to control. He was awarded the prize anyway, because he claimed he would have been victorious if he had finished the race. You can't argue with logic like that. Nero won five other events at the games, including three new events that he invented himself. And to think we get all hot and bothered about a little steroid use! By the way, Nero died the following year, and the games of 67 AD were declared null and void, and all the statues Nero had erected to commemorate his victories were ordered destroyed by a decree of the Senate.

From Quiz Great (?) Sporting Cheats

Answer: Michael Schumacher

As the 1994 Formula season came to a close, in the last race in Adelaide, Australia, Michael Schumacher held a narrow one-point championship lead over Damon Hill. Early on, Schumacher crashed off the track while leading. As Hill moved to pass him, Schumacher drove his car into the side of Hill's Williams. Both cars were badly damaged and neither could continue. With no points for either, Schumacher took the championship. Hill accused Schumacher of causing the collision deliberately. That was a claim Schumacher denied. It was not to be the only incident of its kind involving the German driver. He was disqualified for crashing into Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. In December 2013 Schumacher sustained severe brain damage in a skiing accident at Méribel in the French Alps. While skiing between two pistes, he hit a rock under the snow and fell. A camera attached to his helmet is thought to have exacerbated the injuries.

From Quiz Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport

Answer: Ben Johnson

Johnson won the Olympic 100m final in Seoul in 1988, lowering his own world record to 9.79 seconds. However, in a mandatory drugs test he tested positive for Stanozolol, a prohibited substance, and within two days had been stripped of his gold medal and the record. Johnson again failed a test in 1993 and was banned for life. Ironically, six of the eight sprinters who lined up before that Seoul final went on to fail drugs tests during the remainders of their careers. Note: The wrong answers are all fictional.

From Quiz White Thyme for Green Beans

Answer: Basketball

Thirteen years after the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Australia, scandal rocked the Spanish Paralympic committee, when it was disclosed that of the 200 athletes sent to the Games, at least 15 were not intellectually or physically disabled. This included all but 2 of the basketball team that claimed the gold medal. The former head of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports was fined about $10000 and ordered to repay government subsidies. The team was forced to return its medals, and after the 2000 Games, the category of ID (Intellectual Disability) basketball was removed from the Paralympic program.

From Quiz Unbelievable But True Sports Events

Answer: Football

None of the Wolverines' games was even close. Their smallest margin of victory was a 21-0 win against Ohio State. The largest was a 128-0 drubbing of Buffalo. They also won the very first Rose Bowl, defeating Stanford 49-0. Amazing as it seems, only three years later, St. Louis University fielded a team that went 11-0, outscoring its opponents 336-0 in the season. The last NCAA team to go undefeated, untied and unscored upon was Colgate's 1932 squad.

From Quiz Great Sporting Scandals

Answer: 68%

Over two thirds of athletes in the survey group from 8 countries - Canada, England, Egypt, Morocco, New Zealand, Russia and USA - admitted juicing with drugs. Set against a backdrop of dodgy judging decisions, a Rhodesian sports ban and an appalling act of anti-Israeli terrorism, it is sadly fitting that these games were no cleaner than their more modern counterparts.

From Quiz Great (?) Sporting Cheats

Answer: Got a lift in a car

On a hot day, only 14 of the 32 starters made it around the course. First home in a time of three hours and 13 minutes was the American runner Fred Lorz. Before he could be presented with a gold medal, the story broke that he had travelled 11 of the 26 miles in a car. He was initially banned for life, but the ban was rescinded.

From Quiz Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport

Answer: Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were the closest of rivals and few beforehand were able to predict which would come out on top of the US National figure skating championships in 1994. Harding resolved that by hiring a man to injure one of Kerrigan's knees. A video shows a man strike Kerrigan with a metal pole on her leg right before the Championships, leaving her crying and screaming in pain. Harding later confessed that she, her ex-husband and her bodyguard conspired to hire the assailant. Harding was banned from skating, but after threatening to sue was allowed back into the US team. In the next Olympics, Harding took eighth place while the recovered Kerrigan won a silver medal.

From Quiz Great Expectorations

Answer: He was overlooked for the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron

Heiden was an icon of his sport. So much so that he was ranked in ESPN's "50 Greatest Athletes of the Twentieth Century" list. At the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York in 1980 he did something extraordinary - winning five individual gold medals at a single Winter Olympics event. In the course of those five victories he set four new Olympic race records and one new world record. The latter would be the fifteenth world record of his illustrious career. By being overlooked for the lighting of the cauldron Heiden figured that he wasn't being appreciated for his contributions to the sport and as a human being. Consequently he declared that he'd rather watch the event on television with his buddies. (Aftermath) The honour of setting the cauldron to flame was granted to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" US Men's Hockey team who'd won gold at the same Lake Placid Games as Heiden.

From Quiz Unbelievable But True Sports Events

Answer: A base-running error

On April 26, 1931, the Yankees were playing the Washington Senators. Gehrig came to bat in the top of the first inning, with one out and the Yankees' shortstop, Lyn Lary, on first. The "Iron Horse" hit a terrific shot into the deepest part of centerfield. The ball landed in the stands for a home run, then bounced back out, and was caught by outfielder Harry Rice. Lary, who was running the bases, happened to glance toward the outfield just as Rice caught the ball. Rice, thinking quickly, fired the ball back into infield as if it were still in play. Lary assumed the ball was caught, and that he was out. He stopped at third, then sauntered into the Yankees dugout. Gehrig, however, continued running and crossed home plate. The umpire ruled that he was out for having passed Lary on the base path. The play was scored as a triple, instead of a home run, and that's why Gehrig had to share the home run title.

From Quiz Great Sporting Scandals

Answer: Baseball

The infamous 'Black Sox' scandal was encapsulated in this immortal quote. 'Shoeless Joe' Jackson was emerging from a courthouse on charges that he and his Chicago White Sox team-mates conspired to fix the results of the 1919 World Series for a gambling syndicate. A young fan cut to the soul of sporting morality with his heartfelt question. The notorious eight players were ultimately acquitted, but served life bans in the fallout from the scandal. 'Shoeless Joe' never played in the major leagues again, and died in 1951, aged 63.

From Quiz Great (?) Sporting Cheats

Answer: Had hidden switch on sword to register phantom hits in duelling

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Onischenko, from the Ukraine, was well fancied in the modern pentathlon One of the five events was fencing. Onischenko concealed a switch on his épée that enabled him to fool the electronic scoring system by registering a 'hit' even when there was no contact with his opponent. An opponent objected and the épée was taken away. After an examination, he was disqualified. The rules were later changed to ban grips that could conceal switches.

From Quiz Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport

Answer: Income tax irregularities

Rangers FC along with their Glasgow rivals Celtic dominated Scottish football for decades. Each had the money to pay the best players around - they had budgets 10 times that of other clubs. But Rangers went further; they used an pay system to attract players who demanded more money than could be legally paid. Rangers Football Club entered liquidation in October 2012. As a result, the club was thrown out of the Scottish Premier League and reduced to playing in the lowest division of Scottish professional football. In 2017 the UK Supreme Court ruled that £47m paid to players, managers and directors was in the form of tax-free loans, and this was in breach of income tax laws. There is not enough room here to describe the intricacies of the aftermath, save to say it was legally messy. The assets of the club were sold and a new club emerged and it returned to the SPL within a few years.

From Quiz White Thyme for Green Beans

Answer: Tonya Harding

An accomplished skater, Harding won the U.S. Figure skating championships from 1986 - 1989. She was banned for life by the U.S. Figure Skating Association after admitting she had perjured herself in her interview with the FBI, indicating that she was aware of the intention to injure her opponent, Nancy Kerrigan. Kerrigan went on a few weeks later to win Olympic silver in Lillehammer, Norway.

From Quiz Great Expectorations

Answer: Ricky Ponting

The pressure was mounting on Ricky Ponting. This was his first Ashes series as captain of a (still) powerful Australian Test line-up. Australia, at this point, had held the Ashes since 1989 (16 years) and were expected to retain them. Coming into the Fourth Test of the summer the series had been tied at 1-1 though England had held the upper hand in the Third Test in which Australia had escaped with a draw by the skin of their teeth. The home side had scored 477 on the back of a Freddie Flintoff century and then proceeded to roll Australia for 218. Asked to follow-on (bat again) the Australians were putting up some stout resistance with Ponting at the crease having ground out a sterling 48 runs when he called for a sharp single. England's substitute fieldsman, Gary Pratt, a man who'd developed a reputation in the county as an exceptional fieldsman, swooped on the loose ball and threw down the Australian skipper's stumps. Ponting, allowing his emotions to get the better of him, stormed off expressing his displeasure as he departed. It didn't stop there as he continued to hurl verbal grenades at the English dressing room and, what would only be seen as a show of sour grapes, he would accuse the English of bending the rules by resting their key bowlers and replacing them on the field with specialist fieldsmen. (Aftermath) Ponting was fined 75% of his match payments at an ICC hearing that night. Australia lost the Test and, ultimately, the series 2-1.

From Quiz Unbelievable But True Sports Events

Answer: He stole first base

Herman "Germany" Schaefer was quite a character. A scrappy second baseman, he spent 15 years in the majors, playing for half a dozen teams. On August 4, 1911, he was wearing the uniform of the Washington Senators, and they were playing the Chicago White Sox. He was on first, with teammate Clyde Milan on third. The Senators tried a "double steal". The runner on first would attempt to steal second base; if he drew a throw from the catcher, his teammate on third would try to steal home. Germany stole second, but the Sox catcher didn't make a throw. So Schaefer promptly ran back to first base, presumably so he could attempt another double steal on the next pitch. The White Sox protested this unorthodox manner of play, but to no avail (the rules were later changed to make running the bases in "reverse order" illegal).

From Quiz Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport

Answer: Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong started to race professionally in 1992 but quit due to illness in 1996. Returning to the sport in 1998, he went on to win arguably cycling's most famous event, the Tour de France, seven times before 2005. However, rumours of doping emerged in 1999. He denied them. The rumours remained and in 2012 an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) concluded he had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career. Later, Armstrong said he started using the drugs in 1995, and did not challenge the USADA ruling. He was stripped of all of his wins from August 1998. Note: The wrong answers were all motorcycling world champions.

From Quiz White Thyme for Green Beans

Answer: Placing a curse on a rival

The idea was to write a curse against a rival faction on a piece of lead or a stone tablet, then place it in under the part of the arena where the event was to take place. Sometimes an 'activating' word was said (a bit like abracadabra) and the curse was in effect. I can't tell you if they actually worked or not (okay, I'm guessing not) but the power of suggestion was strong and often riots occurred amongst race-goers when they found out a curse had been placed.

From Quiz Great Expectorations

Answer: John Daly

During this period "Long" John Daly's golf game was as volatile as his personality. This day represented the second round of the tournament and he looked likely to miss the cut. Coming to the last hole he'd had three double bogeys and three bogeys to partner his four birdies for the day. It wasn't a good day and he was a ticking time-bomb. His drive at the last hole was wayward and, as he was stepping into the scrub to fetch his ball, he was photographed by Brad Clegg, a spectator who'd ventured too close to the golfer. Daly snapped, grabbed Clegg's camera and threw it to the ground. He then picked it up and slammed it against a tree, sending parts flying. (Aftermath) There was no disciplinary action taken against Daly who had promised to replace Clegg's camera. Mr Clegg admitted that he was aware of the signs that prohibited the use of cameras by the public on course. Daly bogeyed the last hole and missed the cut by five strokes.

From Quiz Unbelievable But True Sports Events

Answer: A bat

Game 3 of the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals has to be one of the most bizarre contests in the history of the game. May 20, 1975 was a warm night in Buffalo - a very warm night. Memorial Auditorium was not air-conditioned, and the temperature on the ice was 90 degrees. This caused dense fog to be generated; the game had to be stopped 12 times while employees skated around waving blankets to dissipate it. Nevertheless, the Sabres and their opponents, the Philadelphia Flyers, gamely played on, even though at times the visibility was so poor that they couldn't see each other. To top it all off, a bat somehow found its way into the auditorium and began diving at players and spectators alike. In the third period, while preparing for a face off, Lorentz raised his stick and took a swipe at it. He somehow manage to hit it, and it lay on the ice for quite a while, because no one wanted to touch a dead bat! Finally, the Flyers' Rick MacLeish picked up the corpse and dumped it in the penalty box. Buffalo won the game, but lost the series in six games.

From Quiz Great Sporting Scandals

Answer: Match fixing

The gambling syndicates strike again - Hansie was convicted by the King Commission of receiving gifts and money from bookmakers to fix the results of games and was banned for life. Poor Hansie was indeed a fine cricketer, with 3,714 test runs at the impressive batting average of 36.41, even though he undercooked a few games. Hansie was killed in a plane crash in 2002. Despite the match fixing scandal, public sentiment remained with Hansie and he was voted the 11th greatest South African in 2004.

From Quiz Great (?) Sporting Cheats

Answer: Used sandpaper on a cricket ball

In cricket, there is a theory called 'reverse swing'. It hurts most people's heads to think about it so, in simple terms, if one side of a ball is rougher than the other, it will 'move' more in the air, deceiving the batsman. In a match between Australia and South Africa in Cape Town, TV cameras spotted Steve Smith and David Warner using sandpaper to roughen one side of the ball. A teammate Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months. Ball tampering in cricket is -or at least was- not unusual. Some cricketers have been detected, or at least accused of, carrying dust or grit in their pockets to use on the ball.

From Quiz Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport

Answer: Fielded ineligible players

At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, the Spanish Paralympic basketball squad was supposed to comprise intellectually disabled player. In fact, 10 out of 12 members of the squad had no such disability and were competing with fraudulent documents. Their gold medals were removed.

From Quiz White Thyme for Green Beans

Answer: Going to the toilet so he could cheat by using his mobile phone

Gaioz Nigalidze's title of Grandmaster was revoked after he went to the bathroom once too often at crucial points in the game. It was found that a smart-phone and headset had been placed behind the pan and covered with toilet paper. It wasn't the first time that his behaviour had been under scrutiny; in the Al Ain tournament in 2014, he had indulged in similar activity. After the Dubai Open, he was banned from competition for three years.

From Quiz Sports Controversies

Answer: Ingemar Johansson

The Swedish boxer Johansson was fighting American Ed Sanders and both fighters preferred a counter attacking style. Both fighters had been warned for "passivity" earlier in the bout. The Olympic committee chose not to award Johansson his silver medal at that time; however, he later received it in 1982 after a successful professional career. Rademacher was the 1956 heavyweight gold medalist and fought Patterson for the heavyweight title in his initial professional fight. Stevenson won the heavyweight boxing gold medals in 1972, 1976, and 1980. Cuba boycotted the 1984 Olympics or he may have had a fourth gold.

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