Spectacular Sports Facts
- In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single NBA basketball game. No one has broken this record (not even Steph Curry!).
- Babe Ruth began his career as a pitcher: Ruth was both a left-handed pitcher and a left-handed batter.
- The record for the long jump is held by Mike Powell: 29 ft. + 4 inches. That’s like jumping the length of two minivans!
- The most medals won for Olympic basketball (male or female) are both held by women: Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie with four gold medals each.
- Wilma Rudolph (who set the world record in 1960 for 100, 200, and 4×100-meter relay) had polio, scarlet fever, and pneumonia as a child, leading doctors to believe she’d never walk again.
- NFL Super Bowl referees also get Super Bowl rings.
- In 1919, Cleveland Indians pitcher Ray Caldwell was struck by lightning in the middle of the 9th inning. He kept playing!
- The ‘G’ on the Green Bay Packers helmet stands for “greatness”, not Green Bay!
- Baseballs last an average of seven pitches.
- Manon Rheaume is the only woman to have played in an NHL game.
- Golf is one of only two sports ever played on the moon. In 1971, Alan Shepard hit a ball with a six-iron while on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission. The other sport was a javelin toss, during the same visit.
- The shortest player in the National Hockey League (NHL) was goaltender Roy Waters who measured 5 ft. 3 in. tall.
- The tallest player in the NHL is Zdeno Chara, who is 6 ft. 9 in. tall.