There are unlimited sports facts that we find fascinating at ScoreBoard, so we thought we’d start sharing some of our favorites with our readers. Here’s our first installment of “Did You Know?” (feel free to use around the water cooler and/or for personal gain).
Baseball:
Major League Baseball umpires are required to wear black underwear while on the job in case they split their pants.
The average lifespan of a major league baseball is 5 pitches.
The velocity of a pitched ball is approximately 8 mph faster when it leaves the pitcher’s hand then when it reaches home plate.
Basketball:
The referee tossed a jump ball after every basket in basketball until 1937.
The first hoops were peach baskets with the bottoms intact – after every bask the ref would climb a ladder to retrieve the ball out of the basket.
Basketball was first made a Summer Olympic sport for the 1936 games in Berlin.
Football:
Bubba Smith was the first player chosen overall in the inaugural combined AFL-NFL draft in 1967 by the Baltimore Colts. Smith was a defensive end out of Michigan State.
It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year’s worth of footballs.
The first professional football team to sport logos on their helmets were their 1950 Los Angeles Rams who hand painted yellow horns on their blue leather helmets.
Hockey:
The red line in hockey is “broken” because in the days of black and white TV it was difficult to differentiate between the red and blue lines.
Maurice Richard was the first player to score fifty goals in one season. He reached the 50 goal mark in 50 games in the 1944-45 season.
The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals were suspended after 5 games due to an outbreak of influenza. It was the only time in the history of the Stanley Cup that it was not awarded due to a no-decision after playoffs were held.
Other:
If a horse wins a race “hands down” it means the jockey never had to raise his whip.
Love stuff like this. Please continue to include this in the newsletter!!!!