1. Abraham Lincoln was an avid sports fan. In the months leading up to his 1860 election ta the presidency, he and his friends gathered in an alley in Springfield, Ilinois, U.S.A., to play handball,
2. Because 50 many football players were in the military during WWII, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers formed a combined team for the 1943 season. They were dubbed the "Steagles."
3. The first Olympic victor was Koroibos, a conok who won a foot race of 600 feet (183 m) in 776 B.C:
4. The coldest game in NFL. history occurred on December 31, 1967. when the Dallas Cowboys plaved the Green Pay Packers in -13 F (-25"C) in Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.SA. It became known as "The Ice Bowl."
5. Baseball player Ken Griffey, Jr., was allergic to the candy bar that was named after him and featured his image.
6. On October 23, 2011, television cameras spotted what some believed to be a UFO that year than Babe did by himself.
7. Babe Ruth hit 54 home runs during the 1920 season. Only one team hit more home runs help reduce the sun's glare so they can see the ball better,
8. On July 13, 1934, after smacking his 700th career home run, Babe Ruth exclaimed, "I want that ball!" before circling the bases. The kid who retrieved it swapped it with him for $20 and an autograph,
9. Football players smear black grease under their eyes to during a New 0rleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts game.
10. Michael Jordan always wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his profes- sional uniform for good luck.
11. No other continent besides Europe and South America has produced a soccer team that has won the World Cup.
12. Roger Bannister, a British medical student, was the first person to run a mile (1.6 km) in less than four minutes. He ran orie in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in 1954
13. Heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano won 49 straight fights in his career and retired undefeated.
14- Beginning in 1875, the Kentucky Derby is one of the oldest sporting events in the United States.
15. Muhammed Ali, perhaps the world's most famous boxer, picked up the sport when he was 12 years old because he was angry that his bike had been stolen.
16. The term "checkmate." which is the ultimate goal of chess, comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat." which means "the King is left helpless."
17. Japan's Nagoya Grand Bowl is the largest bowling alley in the world, with 156 lanes divided between three floors.
18: On May 21, 2011, after scaling Mount Everest, Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa arnd Sano Babu Sunuwar launched a paraglider from its summit. Once they landed, they proceeded to kayak all the way to the Indian Ocean, completing the first summit-to-sea journey.
19. At s West Michigan White Caps garme, you can get a "fifth third burger." That is, five one-third pound (15 kg) hamburger patties on one giant bun.
20. Furmuta One race car drivers can sweat off up to six pounds(3 kg) during a race.
21. Twenty-one aut of the 22 players on Bulgaria's 1994 World Cup Soccer team had last names ending in the letters "ev"or"ov." Petar Mikhtarski was the only one who did not.
22. NHL player Dave "Tiger" Williams spent the equivalent of 66 full games in the penalty box-the most of any player to date.,
23. In 1970, 55 people crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon In 2011. 47.323 people crossed it.
24. Bossaball, played in Europe and South America, is a hybrid of volleybali, soccer, gymnastics, and a Brazilian martial es called capoeira-and it involves trampolines.
25. Cheese rolling is a sport in which an eight-pound (3.6 kg), wheel-shaped hunk of cheese is rolled from the top of a steep hill and competitors chase it to the bottom.
26. Ice hockey pucks are frozen before games because they slide better and bounce lass than warm pucks.
27. The weight limit for jockeys in the Kentucky Derby is 126 pounds (57.2 kg), including the jockey's equipment.
28. O Christinas y 1965, a man named Sherman Poppen built a toy for his daughter by combining a pair of snow skis into one wide board and attaching a rope to stt with while standing. The toy, which his wife called a "snurfer," was one of the first snowboards.
29. "Heliskiing" is a form of skiing in which, instead of a chairlift, a helicopter takes skiers to the top of a mountain to ski down it.
30. Adventure athlete Andrew Skurka has hiked more than 25,000 niles (40,000 km)-that's the equivalent of walking around the Earth one time.
31. American cyclist Lance Armstrong survived cancer and went on to win cycling's most important race, the Tour de France, a record seven times.
32. Pugil is Latin for "boxer."The sport of boxing is soinetimes referred to pugilism.
33. Former baseball pitcher Turk Wendell would chew four pieces of licorice while he pitched and then brush his teeth between every inning.
34. Evel Knievel, a daredevil motorcycle rider who performed death-defying stunts throughout the 1970s, holds the world record for "most bones broken in a lifetine."
35. The first African-American man to become world heavyweight boxing champion also received a patent for improving the house- hold wrench.
36. The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only NFL team in history to finish an entire season undefeated.
37. Mark McGwire's record-setting 70 home runs in the 1998 season traveled a total of more than 29,000 feet (8,839 m)-the same as the height of Mount Everest.
38. The fastest runners reach incredible speeds by using as much as 1,000 pounds (453.6 kg) of force with a single leg during each step.
39. Unlike in boxing, there are no weight classes in sumo,
40. Jordan Romero finished the challenge of climbing the tallest mountain on every continent when he was 15 years and 165 days old-a world record.
41. It took almost two and a half years for British Army captain Ed Stafford to walk the entire 4,000 miles (6,437 km) of the Amazon River,
42. At 120 miles per hour (193 kph). a Formula One race car generates so much down force that it can drive upside down on the roof of a tunnel.
43. In September 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates were the first Major League Baseball team to send an all-minority lineup onto the field. They went on to win the World Series that year.
44. In 1962, the San Francisco Giants' manager, Alvin Dark, said of his rookie pitcher, Gaylord Perry, "There'li be a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run." Seven years later, one hour after Neil Armstrong stepped foot onto the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first major-league home run.
45. Professional players can make soccer balls curve in midair because of the Bernoulli principle: If a ball is kicked with spin, it will experience less air pressure on one side than on the other, causing it to curve,
46. The longest tennis match in history took place at Wimbledon in 2010. It was played over 3 days, lasted 183 games, and took 11 hours and 5 minutes to complete.
47 In 2002, "Mr. Met," the mascot for the New York Mets had a birthday party attended by many other Major League Baseball mascots.
48. In 1984, West Virginia's Georgeann Wells became the first woman to slam-dunk in an official college basketball game.
49. A hot, dry baseball will travel farther than a cold, moist one.
50. The world's fastest human, Usain Bolt, can reach a top speed of just under 28 miles per hour (45 kph).
51. It took Daniel Buettner almost a year to pedal his bike from Alaska to Argentina. It was a 15.266-mile (24,568-km) journey,
52. Ski Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is the Middle East's first indoor ski resort.
53. Several members of the Chicago White Sox were banned from the game after it was discovered they planned to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, earning them the nickname "Black Sox."
54. Baseball teams in the early 19th century didn't play nine innings. They played until the first team scored 21 aces-runs.
55 In a match in 1871, boxers James Mace and Joe Coburn fought for more than an hour without either man landing a solid punch on the other,
56. In 2006, shaman priest Tzamarenda Naychapi traveled to Germany on behalf of the Ecuador national soccer team to drive away evil spirits and bring the team good luck in the World Cup games.
57. Since 1949, the winner of the Masters Tournament-one of the four major competitions in golf-has been awarded a green jacket as a prize.
58. Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, holds the Klement's Sausage Race at the bottom of the sixth inning-a race between people dressed up as different types of sausage.
59. Eastern Washington University's football field is bright red-matching the school's colors,
60, There are typically 330 to so0 dimples in a golf balL The dimples help the ball travel higher and farther
61. In Major League Baseball, the distance between bases is go feet (274 m)-alittle more than the length of two yellow school buses.
62. The Wife Carrying World Championships are held each year in Finland; men race over hilly terrain carrying their wives on their backs or over their shoulders.
63. The highest-paid athlete in 2011 was golter Tiger Woods, who made around $75 million,
64. In 1962, Maryland was the first U.S. state to adopt an official sport-jousting.
65. Joe Alexander of Germany set a world record in 2010 by breaking 24 concrete blocks while holding an unbroken raN Bog in the hand of the arm used for breaking the blocks,
66. Lauren Woolstencroft, who was born without legs below the knees and without a left arım below the elbow, is one of the best alpine skiers in the world and won five gold medals at the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.
67. Boston's Fenway Park is the oldest baseball stadium in the U.S. stil in use. The left field wall is known as the "Green Monster"
68. Unlike most professional sports, a clock isn't used in baseball and the time of the game is unlimited.
69. Each requlation baseball has 108 red double stitches(or 216 single stitches).
70. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBAS all-time leading scorer; collects rugs,
71. Early basketball games in the United States used peach baskets as the hoops, 50 people had to chimb a ladder to retrieve the ball after they made a shot.
72. Footballs are nicknamed "pigskins" because they were originally nade from inflated pigs' bladders. Now, they are made from rubber and cowhide,
73. Formula One race car drivers must do special exercises for their neck muscles, which are put to the test when handling the force of turning corners at extremely high speeds,
74. Three consecutive strikes in bovling is called a "turkey."
75- In a deck of playing cards., all four kings have beards but only three of them have mustaches. The one without a mustache s the King of Hearts.
76. Patrick Roy-one of the best ice hockey goaltenders in history-talked to his goalposts, and he claimed they talked back to htre
77. In underwater hockey, teams use short sticks to push a heavy puck across pool floors and into their opponents' goal.
78. Figure scoter Kristi maguchi wan bern with a foot condition and began skating to strengthen her feet and ankles.
79. In 1935 Dunper Jesse Owens set four world records in less than an hour.
8o. Before a sumo tournament, wrestlers perform an "entering the ring" ceremony. It ends with the highest-ranked wrestler clapping his hands and stomping his feet to attract the attention of the gods and drive evil from the sumo ring.
81. In 1951, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis WINNING FACTS ABOUT SPORTS player at the Wimbledon tournament. Later in life she also became a professional golfer.
82. Freya Hoffmeister is the first woman ever to paddle around the entire continent of Australia. The 8,569-mile(13.760-km) trip took 332 days.
83. Downhill skiers control their momentum by traveling in an S-shaped path down the slope because it slows them down.
84. Luge athletes can reach speeds of more than 95 mph (153 kph) while sliding down the track on their sleds.
85. The temperature of an Olympic swimming pool must be between 77 and 82°F (25 and 28°C). The sürrounding air must be kept within three degrees of the pool water.
86. At 60 years old, Jack LaLanne swam the mile (1.6 km) from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, U.SA. while handcuffed, shackled, and toving a 1,000-pound (453.6-kg) boat.
87. The "Legend of the Octopus" is a tradition in which Detroit Red Wings hockey fans throw real octopi onto the ice for good luck.
88. On Halloween night 2009, the San Antonio Spurs and Sacramento Kings basketball game was delayed because someone released a live bat into the arena.
89. Third baseman Wade Boggs was very superstitious: He ate chicken on every game day and drew a Hebrev symbol in the dirt each time he stepped up to the plate.
90. Egyptians played a sport similar to baseball called "tipcat."
91. Extreme Ironing competitors have ironed clothes on the top of Mount Rushmore, while parachuting, In the wilderness, and even underwater,
92. Quidditch, the sport played on broomsticks in the popular Harry Potter series, is played today in real life by people around the world. The United States has the most registered teams: 572.
93. Toe wrestling championships are held annually in the town of Wetton in Derbyshire, England.
94. A presidential race takes place at every Washington Nationals baseball game, as Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson race around the bases during the fourth inning.
95 There's an ongoing debate between the University of Washington and a man named "Krazy George Henderson" over who invented the wave. University students claim they invented it at a homecoming game in 1981, Krazy George, a profes- sional cheerleader, claims he invented it at an 0akland A's vs. Yankees baseball game two weeks before.
96. The first team mascot was an actual bulldog named "Handsome Dan," who supported Yale University athletes in 1889.
97. The Italian mountain climber Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb all 14 of the world's "eight-thousanders"-peaks which are at least 8,000 meters (26,247 ft).
98. Studies show that athletes who wear red are more likely to win their contest,
99. The Faroe Islands' national football team plays on a field that sits on the edge of the sea. A boat stands by in the water to collect any balls that are accidentally kicked off the field.
100. The Olympics were established in 776 8.C. to honor Zeus and to bring peace to Greece.
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