1. What sport features the fastest moving ball?
Jai-alai – up to 188 mph.
2. Who was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 score?
Nadia Comaneci – the Romanian gymnast was the first ever to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games in 1976. She then continued to receive another six perfect 10s at the same Games, winning three gold medals.
3. Who held seven American track records from 2,000 to 10,000 meters when he died in a 1975 car crash?
Steve Prefontaine
4. Dump, floater and wipe are terms used in which team sport?
Volleyball
5. In ten pin bowling, what is it called when you roll three strikes in a row?
A turkey. Two strikes is a Barney Ruble, and anything above three is a bagger.
6. Scotty Bowman has won the most championships as a coach in which sport?
Hockey (NHL). He’s been a coach for 5 different NHL teams.
7. Which NFL team scored the very first points in Super Bowl History?
Green Bay Packers. They played the Kansas City Chiefs and scored a touchdown.
8. Who pitched the only no-hit game in World Series history?
Don Larsen – 1956
9. In golf, what do you call a score of four under par on a single hole?
Condor – there have only been four verified; all were hole in ones on par five holes.
10. Who is the only coach to win both an NCAA Division I basketball championship and an NBA title?
Larry Brown – Kansas in 1988 and Detroit Pistons in 2004
11. What is the only U.S. city to win three of the four major pofessional sports championships in the same year?
Detroit – 1935, won NFL, NBA, and NHL
12. Who won the most consecutive Wimbledon singles titles?
Martina Navratilova – six
13. Who wolds the record for most consecutive PGA tour wins?
Byron Nelson – 11 in 1945
14. What pitcher holds the Major League Baseball record for most no hitters?
Nolan Ryan – seven
15. What athlete has appeared on the Wheaties box the most?
Michael Jordan
16. Who was the first non-American golfer to win the Masters?
Gary Player – 1961
17. How many feet wide is a regulation NBA court?
50 feet
18. Who is the youngest ever world heavyweight boxing champion?
Mike Tyson – 20
19. What were the first two women’s sports included in the modern Olympics?
Tennis and golf – 1900
Hard Sports Trivia Questions
20. Who was the first Olympic boxing gold medalist to also win a boxing world championship?
Floyd Patterson – 1952 Olympics and 1956 world champion
21. What was the first U.S. college sport to name an All-American team?
Football – 1889
22. In 1457, King James II of Scotland banned what two sports because they interfered with archery practice needed for national defense?
Golf and soccer
23. At the ancient Olympic games, what did they use as archery targets?
Tethered doves
24. In what sport did the word stymie originate?
Golf – Until 1952 when the rules were changed, balls had to remain in place, so you could be stymied by having another player’s ball between your ball and the hole; you had to loft your ball over the other ball.
25. What is the only country to have won medals in the Winter Olympics but never in the Summer Olympics?
Liechtenstein
26. Who is the only person to win the Heisman Trophy twice?
Archie Griffin – Ohio State in 1974 and 1975
27. How many Olympic games have been hosted in Africa?
Zero
28. Who was the first American to win the Tour de France bicycle race?
Greg Lemond – 1986
29. What U.S. city was the first to host the Olympics?
St. Louis – 1904
30. Who holds the NBA record for most career fouls?
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
31. Who was the first athlete on a Wheaties box?
Lou Gehrig
32. Who was the first American to win the Olympic marathon gold medal?
Frank Shorter – 1972
33. What is the last event in the decathlon?
1500 meters
34. What hockey player has won the most Stanley Cups?
Henri Richard – 11 with the Montreal Canadiens
35. What year were the first modern Olympics held?
1896 – Athens
36. Who has appeared on the most Sports Illustrated covers?
Michael Jordan
37. In what sport is the Iroquois Cup awarded?
Lacrosse
38. Who is the only golfer to complete a calendar year Grand Slam?
Bobby Jones – 1930
39. Who holds the Major League Baseball record for career strikeouts as a batter?
Reggie Jackson
40. What year did the last undefeated team win the Super Bowl?
1972 – Miami
Easy Sports Trivia Questions and Answers
41. What country has won the most soccer World Cups?
Brazil
42. Who is the only NBA player to score 100 points in a game?
Wilt Chamberlain
43. Who was the last Major League Baseball pitcher to win 30 or more games in a season?
Denny McLain – 1968
44. What was Babe Ruth’s first name?
George
45. What NFL team was originally called The Senors?
Oakland Raiders – the original name was winner of a ‘name the team’ contest; it was changed to Raiders, the third-place name, after nine days.
46. How many players are on the field at one time in a men’s lacrosse game?
20
47. What is the oldest championship in North American professional sports?
Stanley Cup – 1893
48. Who is the youngest woman to ever win a tennis grand slam singles title?
Martina Hingis – 16 years 3 months
49. What was the last country to host both the summer and the winter Olympic games in the same year?
Germany – 1936
50. How many throwing events are there in a decathlon?
Three – discus, shot put, javelin
51. Who is the only person to win the tennis grand slam (win all four grand slam tournaments in a calendar year) twice?
Rod Laver
52. What sport takes place in a 4.5-5 meter diameter circle?
Sumo wrestling
53. What single sporting event has the most in person spectators in the world?
Tour de France bicycle race – 12 to 15 million
54. In which Olympics did Mark Spitz win seven gold medals?
1972 – Munich
55. Singer Johnny Mathis was a world class athlete in what event?
High jump – He was invited to the Olympic trials when he got a recording contract; his major high jump competitor in the San Francisco Bay area where he grew up was future NBA Hall of Fame star Bill Russell.
56. The Emperors Cup is awarded in what sport?
Sumo wrestling
57. What was the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup?
Seattle Metropolitans in 1917 – The next season the National Hockey Association was replaced by the NHL; the Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893.
58. Where is the world’s largest bullfighting ring?
Mexico City
59. Who became the oldest rookie in Major League Baseball at age 42?
Satchel Paige
60. Who was the first Major League Baseball player to strike out 4,000 batters?
Nolan Ryan
Sports Questions
61. Mintonette was the original name of what sport?
Volleyball
62. What is the fastest racquet sport?
Badmington – the shuttlecock can travel with over 200 mph.
63. What sport is played on the largest field?
Polo – 300 yards by 160 yards
64. What sports hero wore a cabbage leaf under his cap?
Babe Ruth – he put chilled cabbage leaves under his cap to keep cool.
65. In cricket, how many runs are scored if the ball is hit over the boundary without bouncing?
Six
66. What is the only sport where you can see teams defending goals of different sizes?
Water polo – the goal at the deep end is smaller than the goal at the shallow end.
67. Who was the first thoroughbred horse to win 1 million dollars?
Citation – last Triple Crown winner prior to Secratariat.
68. Over what distance is a human steeplechase run?
3,000 meters
69. Who is the youngest man to win the Wimbledon tennis singles title?
Boris Becker – 17
70. Who is the only person to ever play in the Super Bowl and World Series?
Deion Sanders
71. What is the longest track and field race in the Olympics?
50-kilometer walking race
72. What university originated the football huddle?
Gallaudet University (school for the deaf) in 1892 – they huddled to avoid the other team seeing their sign language.
73. What was Mildred Didrikson Zaharias’s nickname?
Babe – one of the greatest female athletes of all time.
74. Who was the first unseeded man to win Wimbledon?
Boris Becker – 1985
75. Cathy Rigby was the first woman to do what for Sports Illustrated?
Pose nude
76. Who is credited with inventing basketball?
James Naismith
77. What former Olympian lit the flame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games?
Muhammad Ali
78. Who is the only Major League Baseball player to win MVP in both leagues?
Frank Robinson
79. Who is Edson Arantes do Nascimento better known as?
Pele – Brazilian soccer player
80. What sport are Torvill and Dean famous for?
Ice dancing
Sports Quiz Questions and Answers
81. Who was the first woman to swim the English Channel?
Gertrude Ederle – 1926
82. How many disciplines are there in men’s gymnastics?
Six – vault, rings, floor, high bar, parallel bars, horse
83. Who has won the most heavyweight boxing title fights in history?
Joe Louis
84. Who is the only starting pitcher in a World Series game to bat other than ninth?
Babe Ruth
85. What do Indianapolis 500 winners traditionally drink in the winner’s circle?
Milk
86. What sport features a series of bouts known as a barrage?
Fencing
87. Who was Sports Illustrated’s first female sportperson of the year?
Billie Jean King – 1972
88. How many furlongs are there in a mile?
Eight
89. Famous pediatrician and author Benjamin Spock won an Olympic gold medal in what sport?
Rowing
90. True or false – live pigeon shooting was once an Olympic sport?
True. However, live pigeon shooting was held only once in Olympic history, in 1900.
91. At its center, how high in feet is a tennis net?
Three feet
92. The French Open tennis tournament is hosted at a stadium named after which World War I pilot?
Roland Garros
93. Over what distance if the marathon run?
26 miles 385 yards
94. How many dogs take part in a greyhound race?
Six
95. How many cards will be on the table at the end of a game of Texas Hold ‘Em if there are four players and all stay in the game until the showdown?
Thirtheen
96. Name the Sportsman of the century, declared in 1999 by both the prestigious US magazine Sports Illustrated and the BBC?
Muhammad Ali
97. In 2012 Lewis Hamilton announced he’s leaving McLaren to drive for which other team?
Mercedes
98. Which sport is commenced (and re-started) with a bully-off?
Hockey (both field and ice)
99. Which is the only one of the four golf tournaments that make up the Majors to be held at the same venue every year?
US Masters at Augusta National
100. Which basketball player was Michael Jordan nicknamed after when he was in high school?
Magic Johnson
