16
votes
Did ice-hockey players actually not wear helmets until the 1970s-1980s?
NHL players started wearing helmets for the most part after a player, Bill Masterson, died from a check that caused him to hit his head on the ice at speed. That occurred in 1968. The mandate was ...
- 12.9k
13
votes
Accepted
NFL division with 3 teams in the playoffs
The NFL started allowing two wildcard teams per conference to enter the playoffs in the 1978-79 season, and went to three wildcard teams in 1990-91. With only three divisions per conference, it was ...
- 8,622
12
votes
Accepted
Why are American teams always named in a certain format?
The answer to why all the U.S. professional teams are named this way (Location Nickname) today is because it is tradition. Baseball teams were named this way, and football, basketball, hockey, and ...
- 8,622
12
votes
Accepted
Lowest championship finishing position for a defending champion
After winning the 1952 and 1953 World Championships, Alberto Ascari only finished 25th in the 1954 Championship. He failed to finish any of the four races he entered that season, and his only points ...
- 4,071
11
votes
Accepted
Is the 1925 White Hart Lane match real?
Such a match did take place, but a few of the facts as stated in the question are incorrect. The visitors were Dynamo Moscow and not Spartak as claimed in the question. And the year was 1945, after ...
- 2,044
10
votes
Lowest championship finishing position for a defending champion
After Alberto Ascari, the following champions also faced their worst campaign on next season.
Alberto Ascari - 25 - 1954
Juan Manuel Fangio - 14 - 1958
Mario Andretti - 12 - 1979
Jody Scheckter - 19 -...
- 201
10
votes
Which two football clubs are competing in this YouTube video billed as the first ever filmed football match in 1897?
According the The Belfast Telegraph, this is a match between Glentoran FC and Cliftonville FC on Mersey Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and is indeed thought to be the first known video of a ...
- 3,086
9
votes
Accepted
Longest time between ATP or WTA #1?
Longest time span between the First and Last time at #1 (ATP)
Roger Federer was first ranked at the top of the ATP Rankings on February 2nd, 2004. The last time he was promoted to the top of the ATP ...
- 834
9
votes
Accepted
World cup winner as manager and captain
There are 3 footballers who won the World Cup both as a player and as a coach:
Mário Zagallo, Brazil (1958 & 1962 as player, 1970 as coach)
Franz Beckenbauer, West Germany (1974 as player, ...
- 5,909
8
votes
Fastest opening goal of a FIFA World Cup
Here is an answer listing times of first goals in FIFA World Cups. It is community wiki, feel free to edit it - correct mistakes, add more sources, etc.
2022: Valencia 16'
2018: Gazinsky 12'
2014: ...
8
votes
Accepted
Is it true that a sprinter ran the 100m in 21.73 seconds in a World Championship?
Yes, the story is true. Here is a video showing the race (at timecode 5:51).
As you can see, Kim Collins (at lane 7: it is him indeed, cf. the IAAF official results, heat #5) makes a normal start, but ...
- 196
8
votes
Accepted
Football teams qualifed for World Cup with no loss
1982
West Germany (8-0-0)
Soviet Union (6-2-0)
Poland (4-0-0)
Brazil (4-0-0)
Peru (2-2-0)
Chile (3-1-0)
Honduras (3-2-0)
1986
England (4-4-0)
Brazil (2-2-0)
Canada (5-3-0)
Algeria (5-1-0)
1990
...
- 5,909
8
votes
Accepted
Longest 3rd and 4th down conversions
It was surprisingly difficult to find solid data on this - individual play data is only readily available back to 1994, so consider this accurate up to that point. Anyway, the longest 3rd down ...
- 1,330
6
votes
Most number of extra-time Goals
In Coupe Gambardella (U19 Men's French cup); [round of 64 and round of 32]
12 goals in extra time: Douai SC-Amiens SC: 0-0 to 0-12 Coupe Gambardella 1998-99
10 goals in extra time: Besançon RC-...
- 61
6
votes
Why are American teams always named in a certain format?
In most places in the world there is a considerable amount of space between different competing teams in the same league. The naming convention used in the US is not just the US but is also many/most ...
- 5,149
6
votes
Accepted
NFL players with at least 5 Super Bowl rings
According to Wikipedia on Super Bowl Rings, at least 24 people have 5+ rings. However, only 2 have 5+ rings as players:
Charles Haley (two with San Francisco and three with Dallas, all as a ...
- 216
6
votes
Accepted
Origin of Counter-attacking style of play in football?
Herbert Chapman is believed to be the inventor of counter-attacking style of play. From his Wikipedia article, citing Studd, Stephen (1998) - Herbert Chapman, Football Emperor: A Study in the Origins ...
- 5,909
6
votes
Accepted
Why is the Croatian football team so successful despite having a population of only 4 million people?
The following article about Why are Croatia so good at football with only a population of 4 million? sums up some of the key reasons why Croatia achieved so much with a smaller player pool:
Hardship ...
- 5,909
6
votes
Accepted
What was a "try" in ancient football?
A try, at least originally, did not affect the score directly, and is only recorded to mark a key aspect of that game: there were very few scoring opportunities at all.
What it did was provide that ...
Nij♦
- 8,215
6
votes
Accepted
What's the highest number of points without winning the Premier League?
According to Wikipedia, it is:
Most points in a season without winning the league: 97, Liverpool (2018–19)
It's not surprising since the record for most points is 100, only three higher (by ...
- 1,805
6
votes
Accepted
When did the NFL move the stanchion out of the end zone?
When the NFL began in 1920, the goal posts were on the goal line. In addition, the goal posts were shaped like an H with two stanchions also located directly on the goal line. The NCAA moved the goal ...
- 8,622
6
votes
Accepted
Why did China and some other communist countries boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics?
The 1980 boycott wasn't specifically a capitalist vs communist boycott - it was to protest at the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.
With particular regards to China, China and the ...
- 24.8k
5
votes
Origin of the 3rd Down "noise"
The theory is that crowd noise hurts the offense and helps the defense, which is most critical on 3rd down, where the offense is usually facing their last chance for a 1st down.
The offense has to ...
- 8,622
5
votes
Accepted
When was eleven players per team decided upon?
From this article Players in a football team we can get some hypotheses:
The big change arrived in 1870 with the agreement of the regulations that, amongst other things, established that there should ...
- 1,385
5
votes
Longest time between ATP or WTA #1?
I took data from the Tennis ATP and Tennis WTA repositories in GitHub. They do not have all the rankings, so it is not comprehensive and Logan's answer will be more accurate.
From there we see that:
...
- 1,385
5
votes
Accepted
Cooperative sports throughout history
Certainly depends on your definition of sports, but...
Are there sports that are uniquely cooperative? YES
I can think of several examples where a team accomplished a goal of sport that was not ...
- 770
5
votes
Accepted
What have been the NFL scoring rules changes?
I found this video titled "The OFFICIAL History of NFL Rules!" and similar to the link in the question, it talks about rule changes over time from 1920 to 2019. It's uploaded from a channel ...
- 11.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible