As sports fans, we spend a lot of time enjoying our favorite hobbies. We sit with friends in bars, living rooms, or sports venues to talk about the teams, players, and highlights. Here are some fun sports facts and snippets of general sports trivia to add to the next conversation.

SOCCER

Ticket prices for the first Super Bowl in 1967 ranged from $6 to $12. Today they can cost thousands of dollars!

In 1990, the San Francisco 49ers became the first team to score 50 points in the Super Bowl. They were also the first team to win five Super Bowl titles.

Deion Sanders played with San Francisco in 1994 and with the Dallas Cowboys in 1995. Both teams went to the Super Bowl and both teams were victorious. Before that, Deion Sanders played with the MLB’s Atlanta Braves and went to the World Series in 1992. He is also the only player in professional sports to score a touchdown and hit a home run in the same week.

BASEBALL

Cy Young was credited with being the first Modern Era pitcher to throw a perfect game. Actually, the first professional baseball pitcher to do this was Lee Richmond on June 12, 1880 with the Worcester Ruby Legs.

The first black player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame was Jackie Robinson in 1962. The first woman to be inducted was Effa Manley in 2006, not as a player, but as a team owner/manager.

Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. both played for the Seattle Mariners. They are the only father-and-son players in MLB to have hit back-to-back home runs in an MLB game.

BASKETBALL

The Lakers have made the most NBA Finals appearances, but they don’t have the most NBA titles. They have 30 attempts with 15 victories. The Celtics have the most wins with 17 in 20 appearances.

The lowest scoring game in NBA history was between the Pistons and the Lakers in 1950, 19-18.

One of the reasons the New Jersey NBA team was named the Nets was because it rhymed with the other local professional teams, the Mets and Jets.

HOCKEY

With 472 minutes sitting in the penalty area, Dave Schultz aka “The Hammer” holds the record for most penalty minutes in a season.

Ron Hextall, playing for Philadelphia in 1987, was the first NHL goaltender to score a goal during a game.

Hockey fans bring sports towels to greet referees for bad calls and hats to throw on the ice if a player scores three goals in a game. In Detroit, fans will bring an octopus to throw on the ice if the Red Wings win the playoffs.

modern olympics

In 1980, the United States hockey team defeated the USSR in an incredible miraculous victory. However, that was not the gold medal match. They had to go on to defeat Finland to win gold.

The early Olympic Games featured a number of unusual sports: tug of war, sailors’ 100-meter freestyle, rope climbing, an obstacle course swimming race, an underwater distance race, and live pigeon shooting.

Curling has been a team sport at the Winter Olympics since 1998. It is played on ice with a polished granite stone and two brooms.

WOMEN IN SPORT

Jackie-Joyner-Kersee was the first and only woman to be named Man of the Year by “The Sporting News” (1988).

Janet Guthrie was the first woman to run the Indianapolis 500 in 1977. She finished in 29th place.

The first female gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics was Nadia Comaneci (1976 Montreal).

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