Interesting Sports Facts

Ancient Egyptians used to play a game like bowling. They used large stones as pins and the smaller ones as ball.
Golf was first played by ancient Romans who used bent wooden sticks and leather ball stuffed with feathers for this purpose.
Did you know that you can play the first four turns in a game of chess in 318,979,564,000 ways?
Laos, Thailand and Cambodia have built a 27-hole golf course on the border between the three countries. Most of this golf course was previously a minefield.
Turkey knocked Spain out during a World Cup qualifier by drawing straws. The straws were picked by a blindfolded Italian boy Luigi Franco.
Babe Ruth was the first one to order a bat with a knob on it, back in 1919.
The first boxing match ever filmed was between Mike Leonard and Jack Cushing in 1894.
In bowling, three successive strikes are called "turkey". This term originated in the 19th century when first team member to do this was rewarded with a turkey.
Cyclists cover a distance of about 2,300 miles during the Tour de France cycle race.
During the World War II a lot of players were called to duty, thus the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles combined to become The Steagles.
In first basketball game, peach baskets were used.
Yankees were the first one to identify their team of baseball players by numbers.
Jousting is the state sport of Maryland.
Since the inclusion of field hockey in Summer Olympics in 1908, it has been played in every Olympic Games except 1924 due to the lack of an international sporting structure.
There are 336 dimples on a golf ball and its weight is estimated to be 1.62 oz.
Soccer is the world's most popular game.
There are four major types of contests of the ice hockey, that are: slopestyle, rail jam, boarder cross, and halfpipe.
The referee used to toss a jump ball after every basket until 1937.
Although swimming was a part of the first modern Summer Olympic Games played in 1896, but the backstroke was included as in Olympic event in second Summer Olympics plaed in 1900.
In 1997, Martina Hingis of Switzerland became the youngest woman to be ranked world number 1 player of tennis. She was only 16 years old then.
National Football League (NFL) used to be APFA before June 1922.
Lenin Stadium in Moscow can easily accommodate accommodate more than 103,000 people.
A practice match of Arsenal was the first soccer match to be telecasted on TV.
The real name of Pele is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Pele was his nickname.
In cricket, if a bowler get three wickets in thee successive deliveries, then it is known as hat-trick. Wasim Akram was the first bowler to perform a hat-trick in both one days and test matches.
A German player named Boris Becker won Wimbledon tennis tournament at the age of 17 in 1985.
Jackie Robinson was the first baseball player to be named rookie of the year. This happened in 1947.
Butterfly wasn't accepted as a separate style until 1952. Before that it was considered a variant of Breaststroke.
20 red cards were shown during a soccer game in 1993. It was played between Sportivo Ameliano and General Caballero in Paraguay.
On June 14 1974, Carlos Caszely of Chile was the first player to be shown a red card in a match of World Cup.