Sports Facts Generator

• [Sports fact 1] Norman Mineta's baseball bat was confiscated when he was sent to a Japanese-American internment camp as a boy. As a Congressman, he was sent a $1500 bat, which he had to send back, as it exceeded a price limit on gifts. He was quoted as saying, "The damn government's taken my bat again."

  Countries, Government, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 2] In 1996, Fox tried to place a computerized blue halo around the pucks in hockey games to make them more visible. That technology later evolved into the yellow first down line in football.

  Sports, Technologysource

• [Sports fact 3] Harvard's first black faculty member was a dentist named Dr. George Franklin Grant who joined the Department of mechanical dentistry in 1871. He was also an inventor and he patented the wooden golf tee. Previously, golfers carried around buckets of sand, placing their balls on little piles as they went.

  Health, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 4] In the early 70s, the Oakland Athletics paid their players $300 bonuses to grow mustaches.

  Finance, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 5] When Australia beat England in a cricket match in 1882, a British newspaper published an obituary proclaiming the death of English cricket. The symbolic ashes of its cremation were placed in an urn, and both teams still compete to win them back every two years.

  Countries, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 6] Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina was widely touted as the next great gymnastics star until 1979. Her coach rushed her recovery from an injury and pressured her to perform a dangerous move (the Thomas salto), which caused her to break her neck, leaving her a lifelong quadriplegic. She died at the age of 46 in 2006.

  Death, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 7] As of 2016, Anders Haugen was the only American to ever have won a medal in ski jumping. He finished 4th in the 1924 Olympics, but when a historian reviewed the results 50 years later, he found a scoring error. Shortly thereafter, Anders went to Norway at the age of 86 where he was awarded his long overdue bronze medal.

  Government, Military, Honor, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 8] Georgian swimming is a swimming style where swimmer's hands and feet are bound together. It was re-discovered in the '60s after a swimming enthusiast decided to fact-check a legend about ancient warriors training by swimming in this manner.

  Misc, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 9] In 1950, Ladislao Kubala signed for Barcelona after getting drunk on the way to join Real Madrid.

  Beverages, Sportssource

• [Sports fact 10] During the Christmas of 1914 (World War 1), a truce was held between Germany and the UK. They decorated their shelters, exchanged gifts across no man’s land and played a game of football between themselves.

  Festival, Places, Sports, Warsource

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