13 interesting facts about rugby

 1. A rugby match consists of two 40-minute halves and a 10-minute halftime.
2. According to legend, rugby was created at Rugby School when, during a footie game in 1823, a pupil named William Webb Ellis suddenly picked up the ball and started running with it. Sadly, there's no evidence to back this up. It's almost certain that the game actually evolved slowly as different generations of pupils tinkered with the rules of football.
3. The field, called a pitch, is 100 yards by 75 yards.
4. There are 15 players per team on the pitch during a match.
5. Being out of bounds is called "touch."
6. The ball is advanced by running or kicking. Forward passes are illegal. All players can run with or kick the ball.
7. A scrum consists of packs of players gathered in a tight huddle where they battle for control of the ball.
8. The place of a penalty infringement is called the mark.
9. The oldest rugby club in the world is Dublin University Football Club. Founded in 1854, it is also happens to predate the first ever soccer club, Sheffield FC, by three years.
10. A tackle does not stop play.
11. A "try" is so-called because the act of running over the line and touching the ball down originally carried no points and merely allowed the team to try for a kick at the goal. The rules were eventually changed to make trys, rather than goals, the best way to score points.
12. Rugby balls are shaped the way they are because the original balls, made by a cobbler near Rugby School, were fashioned from pigs' bladders. These bladders naturally became oval-shaped when inflated – a grisly process which literally involved blowing into them like balloons.
13. The world's first international rugby game was played in 1871 between Scotland and England. Scotland won it, but England got their own back by winning at their next confrontation.

What was the longest boxing match in history?

In the 19th century, boxing fights had no time limit. The fight continued until one of the boxers was knocked out or surrendered.

The first boxing bout with three-minute rounds did not happen until 1872, in England, and the first bout for the heavyweight championship that was fought with three-minute rounds and gloves did not happen until 20 years later.

Before that, in 1855, a couple of boxers were engaged in a bout in Australia that lasted 6 hours 15 minutes. And in 1825, two boxers in England fought a total of 276 rounds!

But the boxing assaults were also different in those days. A round ended as soon as one of the boxers fell or was knocked out momentarily. The longest fight in history that had three-minute rounds was a fight held in 1893 in New Orleans, between Andy Bowen and Jack Burke. This fight lasted 110 rounds, or seven hours and 19 minutes, and ended in a tie when both boxers would not continue!

A boxing ring is called a 'ring' because in ancient times, Roman boxers fought on a circular platform.

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Which countries practice rugby?

 Rugby is a team contact sport born in England. Rugby is very popular in the British Isles and other Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the former British colonies of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as in France and Italy. It is also widespread in other countries of the European continent, especially in Portugal, Spain and Eastern European countries such as Romania, Georgia or Russia. In the Americas rugby is practiced mainly in Argentina, where it has great roots and whose selection has achieved third place in the World Cup played in France in 2007. It is also practiced in other countries, such as Canada, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and a little less in Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. In Africa it is popular, because of South African influence, in Namibia and Zimbabwe, and because of French influence in Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, and Morocco. Because of Australian and New Zealand influence, rugby is also a popular sport in some Pacific islands such as Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, all of them cradles of internationally outstanding players. In Asia, the most prominent team is Japan. In January 2008, 95 national unions were recognised by the International Rugby Board, the federative association that regulates this sport in the world.


Some surprising facts about Rugby

• Rugby was first invented in 1823 at the Rugby School when W.W. Ellis accidentally picked up the ball in his hand and continued to run with it in an ongoing football game.
• Although rugby balls today are oval in shape, they were decades ago shaped like plums because they were made from the bladder of pigs, which gave them their distinctive shape.
• The first reference to the game of Rugby in the Oxford Dictionary was made in 1852.
• Rugby is seen primarily as the Rugby Union or the Rugby League. Although the game consists of running the ball over the line and scoring a goal, the rules of the game are different in each case, respectively.
• The first time a national anthem was sung before sports was Rugby. In New Zealand, the famous Haka dance takes place before the match. It is a war dance that is supposed to intimidate the players of the opposing team and gives the team vigour and enthusiasm to win the game.
• After every four years, Rugby World Cup tournaments are held for the celebration of sports. The first official tournament was organized in 1987 by Australia and New Zealand and the winning team turned out to be New Zealand.
• Touch Rugby is another type of rugby, but it is played without the use of tickets, scrums, lineouts, rucks or even kicks.

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What is Field Hockey?

   Hockey is a stick-and-ball game first played by the ancient Persians. Its modern form originated in England in the middle of the 19th century. The first organized hockey club, the Blackheath Club, was formed in 1842; and a uniform set of rules was adopted in 1886 by all English clubs. The first international match was played between England and Ireland in 1895. From England the game spread to many countries—India, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Germany, and the United States. It is interesting to note that, until beaten by Pakistan in the final game of the 1960 Olympics, India had won every men's Olympic title in hockey since the game was introduced into the Olympic Games program in 1928.
   Field hockey is played by two teams of 11 players each, on a grass-covered field or composition area. The pitch is 100 yards long and 55 to 60 yards wide. The goal at each end is 7 feet high and 12 feet wide. Originally a cricket ball was used, but a white plastic ball is now preferred. The hockey stick now most popular is the short, crooked Indian stick, which is fast replacing the larger, hooked English one. It is from 36 to 38 inches long and weighs between 18 and 22 ounces. The object of the game is to hit the ball into the opponents' goal from within the striking circle, a semicircle drawn 16 yards in front of the goal. The ball is hit with the stick. The goalkeeper only is allowed to kick the ball, and then only when it is in the striking circle. If the ball is hit into the air (and this is not done intentionally), it may be arrested, not caught, by a hand, and the ball must drop straight to the ground. It must never be thrown; however, after the ball has been struck outside the playing area, it is then rolled into play again. To avoid injury the rules prohibit any player from placing his body between the opposing player and the ball and from raising the stick above shoulder level either forward or backward. A game consists of two 30-minute periods for women and of two 40-minute periods for men. The team scoring the greater number of goals is declared the winner.

GAMES AND SPORTS

  All over the world children play games—card games, ball games, singing games, and others besides. Many grown people play games, too. In some games each person is for himself. In others there are teams. Some games are quiet. Others are very lively.
    Every game has its own rules. And every one is a kind of contest. Winning and losing are always a part of playing a game.
    No list could be made of all the games people play. For new ones are being thought up all the time.
    Games that take a great deal of athletic skill are often called sports. Baseball, football, jai alai, tennis, and polo, for instance, are sports. Some games are especially popular in some parts of the world, others in other parts. There are also sports that are not games. Fishing and hunting and mountain climbing are good examples.
    Most sports call for special equipment. There are many sporting goods stores.
    Many sports that are fun to watch as well as to play are called spectator sports. A hundred thousand people may watch a single football game or a boxing match.
    Games and sports are more than fun. Team games help the players learn to get along with one another. All games help the players learn to be good winners and good losers. And many games and sports help in building strong bodies.
    The ancient Greeks believed so much in athletic contests that they started the Olympic games. Americans believe in athletics so much that almost every school now has a program of sports and games.

Ice skating

   Children in many parts of the world ask for ice skates at Christmas time. Ice skates have been popular for many centuries.

   As one would guess, skating on ice first became popular in countries that have long, cold winters. At least 1,000 years ago the people of what are now Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were skating on runners of bone. Ancient books tell us that skating had become a sport in England by the time of the Crusades.

   Ice skating was probably used first as a means of getting from one place to another. A man on skates can go twice as fast as a good runner. Today ice skating is a sport and has a place in the Olympic games.

   Many people go ice skating just for the fun and the exercise. Some others take part in ice skating contests. There are ice skat­ing races and figure skating contests. Special steel skates have been developed for speed skating and figure skating as well as for ice hockey players.

   Figure skating is a sport that takes great skill and many hours of practice. The skater must perform according to an exact pattern. The figure-eight is one of the simplest patterns and is usually the first one a figure skater learns. The grace and beauty of figure skating make it pleasing to watch.

Some facts about Lacrosse

• Lacrosse is a hard, fast game adopted from the North American Indians. 
• The word lacrosse comes from the French words la crosse, meaning the stick.
• Lacrosse is widely played in Canada and the eastern part of the United States. 
• The players are equipped with sticks that have a net at one end. The object of the game is to throw, scoop, or kick a small rubber ball into the opposing team's goal. 
• Each player has a hickory stick called a crosse which he uses to throw or carry the ball. One end of the stick has a loose net called a face which serves the same purpose as the pocket in a baseball player's glove. 
• The sticks range from 3 to 6 feet long, and the faces from 7 to 12 inches wide. Attacking players usually use shorter sticks man defensive players. The players wear shorts, cleated shoes, helmets, and padded gloves. The ball used in lacrosse is slightly smaller than a baseball.
• A lacrosse team consists of 10 men: a goalkeeper; three defense men named point, cover point, and first defense; three midfielders called second defense, center, and second attack; and three attack players called fast attack, out home, and in home.
• The goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch or bat the ball with their hands.
• A lacrosse game is 60 minutes long, and is divided into four 15-minute quarters. 

Who was Whatizit?

Did you know?

The mascot of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was a character named Izzi, or "Whatizit."

Who was John L. Sullivan?

   John L. Sullivan (1858-1918) was an Amer­ican pugilist, born in Boston, Massachussets. Sullivan became a professional prize fighter in 1878; in 1882 he won the world's heavyweight championship by knocking out Paddy Ryan, champion since 1880, in the ninth round of a contest fought at Mississippi City, Miss. This contest was fought with bare knuckles under London Prize Ring rules; Sullivan remained the bare-knuckle heavyweight champion of the world until his death. However, in many of the contests in which he engaged after 1882 Sullivan fought with boxing gloves under the Marquis of Queensberry rules, then coming into favor; and in 1892 he fought the American pugilist James J. Corbett to determine the first heavyweight champion of the world under Marquis of Queensberry rules. In this fight, which was held at New Orleans, La., for a purse of $25,000 and a side bet of $10,000, Sullivan was knocked out by Corbett in the first round. Sullivan's last-known appearance; in the ring was in a benefit contest in 1896.
   During his career he engaged in thirty-seven matches; he won twelve by knockouts and twenty by decisions, drew three, and was knocked out once. His unusual strength earned him the sobriquet "the Boston strong boy"; and his personal popularity, together with adoption of the Marquis of Queensberry rules which eliminated many of the brutal aspects of prize fighting, did much to advance public interest in the sport.

Stadiums (some history)

   Millions of sports fans jam stadiums each year to watch their favorite teams compete. The idea of a big "bowl," with terraced steps on which people can sit, goes back nearly 3,000 years, to the ancient Greeks. When the first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C., the events took place in a magnificent stadium built for the occasion in the city of Olympia. Ancient stadiums still stand, such as the one at Pergamum, in Turkey.
The Greeks, and later the Romans, erected many of these arenas, which often were used for entertainments other than sports. Circuses were held there, and plays were performed on a stage at one end.
Today, stadiums continue to have various uses. Yankee Stadium in New York City, for example, is mainly a place to play baseball. Yet it has also held huge crowds who have wanted to attend a concert or to hear the pope during his visit to the United States.

Jiu-jitsu - "the gentle art"

   Jiu-jitsu or Ju-Jitsu, the Japaness art of self-defense. The word means "the gentle art," for no weapons are used in jiu-jitsu. Formerly the art was kept secret, and confined to the soldier class of Japan, but now its value for gen­eral training having been recognized, scarcely a Japanese can be found without at least an elementary knowledge of it. The principie of the system is merely to turn an opponent's strength against himself by a simple, well-directed movement requiring but slight exertion. In order to master it one must acquire a practical knowledge of the position of the nerves, joints, and muscles; quickness, suppleness, and presence of mind. The praactice of jiu-jitsu itself is good training in these things, as it is unquestionably one of the best systems of physical training known.

Facts about Athletics

Usain Bolt

The term athletics is derived from the Greek word "athlos", meaning "task" or "contest."

More than 2,000 years ago the Greeks said that it was just as wise to train the body as to train the mind.

Athletic events involve competitive jumping, running, throwing, and walking.

In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with athletic sports in general.

Almost every high school and college in the United States has its baseball and basketball teams. Many have football and tennis teams.

All over the United States mere are track and field rneets every year. These meets are contests in running, jumping, pole vaulting, and throwing. There are swimming meets, too.

In athletic meets careful records are kept. Every once in a while a newspaper headline tells that some record has been broken.

Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC.

The simplicity of the competitions makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world.

The game of bowling

The popular game of bowling is played with big pins and a big ball. Ten wooden pins weighing at least 3½ pounds apiece are set up at one end of a smooth runway, or alley. The balls may weigh as much as 16 pounds (7 kg) and be 27 inches (69 cm) around. A player who finds a 16-pound ball too heavy may use a lighter one. But, of course, with a heavy ball a player has a better chance of knocking down the heavy pins.

There are ten rounds, or frames, in a game. In a frame each player is allowed to roll two balls. If he knocks all the pins down with the first ball, he has a "strike." If he knocks them all down with two balls, he has a "spare."
Scoring is rather complicated. The highest possible score in a game is 300. To get this the player must have a strike in every frame. Perfect games are not common, but neither are they rare.

Bowling was brought to the United States by early Dutch settlers. It was then called "skittles" and was played with nine pins instead of ten. The lawmakers thought that people were wasting too much time playing ninepins and passed a law against the game. But those who wanted to play soon found a way of getting around the law. They began using ten pins instead of nine.

Fast facts about badminton

• About 1,000,000 Americans play badminton at least twenty five times a year.
• The beginnings of Badminton can be traced to mid-18th century British India, where it was created by British military officers stationed there.
• Badminton is an Olympic Sport played first in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
• Only three countries have won the Thomas Cup since it's inception in 1948: Malaysia, Indonesia and China.
• Badminton is by far the world's fastest racket sport.
• At high levels of play, the sport demands excellent fitness: players require aerobic stamina, agility, strength, speed and precision.
• The International Badminton Federation (IBF) (now known as Badminton World Federation) was established in 1934.
• Only four countries have won the Uber Cup since its inception in 1956: USA, Japan, China and Indonesia.
• Badminton is the second most popular sport in the world, after football (soccer).
• A badminton player can cover more than two kilometers in just one match.
• Sixteen feathers are used to make a shuttle.
• Because shuttlecock flight is affected by wind, competitive badminton is played indoors.
• The 2 most successful badminton countries are Indonesia and China which between them have won 75 percent of all IBF events.
• The American Dave Freeman has not lost a singles match from 1939 until his retirement in 1953.

Bowling quick facts

• Primitive forms of bowling may have existed in ancient times as early as A.D. 300 in Germany, and also in ancient Finland and Yemen.
• The Dutch are the ones who introduced bowling to North America in the 1600s.
• The first standardized rules in bowling were established in New York City, on September 9, 1895.
• Today, bowling is enjoyed by 95 million people in more than 90 countries worldwide.
• The governing body of competitive bowling in the United States is called Professional Bowlers Association
• Bowling helps in burning calories and works muscle groups not usually exercised.
• The facility where people play bowling is commonly called bowling alley
• Bowlers should warm up their fingers before inserting them into a bowling ball, to ensure that their fingers do not get stuck in the ball.

Ted Williams facts

Ted Williams

• Theodore Samuel Williams (Ted Williams) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played 21 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot.
• Ted Williams was born in San Diego, California as Teddy Samuel Williams, named after his father, Samuel Stuart Williams, and Teddy Roosevelt.
• Ted Williams was the last major league baseball player to bat for over .400 in a single season.
• Nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame, and The Thumper, he is widely considered the greatest hitter ever.
• His paternal ancestors were a mix of Welsh and Irish and his maternal ancestors were of Mexican descent.
• Ted Williams would have liked to be a professional fisherman.
• Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice.
• Ted Williams interrupted his Major League career to serve in the military– twice.
• Ted Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs.
• Throughout his career, Ted Williams disliked Boston newspapers because he believed that they focused too much on his personal life as opposed to his splendid career.
• Early in his career, Ted stated that he wished to be known as "The greatest hitter who ever lived," an honor that he achieved in the eyes of many by the end of his career.
• Ted Williams pitched once during his career, on August 24, 1940. He pitched the last two innings in a 12-1 loss to Detroit; Williams allowed one earned run on three hits, while striking out one batter, Rudy York.
• Ted Williams spoke up for Negro League players during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Williams called for recognition of great Negro League players like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, who never got a chance to play in the MLB before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. This was an unprecedented call, but one that was finally met in 1971 with the induction of Paige.

Great facts about the NFL

• With almost $1 billion in yearly revenues, the NFL is the world’s richest professional sports league.
• Up until 1912, a touchdown was only worth five points.
• Saints running back Reggie Bush was high school teammates with 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.
• The first night game was played in 1929 in Providence against the Chicago Cardinals.
• The Indianapolis Colts are the first team in NFL history to win 12 or more games in five consecutive years.
• The American Professional Football Association became the NFL on June 24, 1922. The Chicago Staleys became the Chicago Bears that year, and are the only team not to change name or city.
• No network footage exists of Super Bowl I. It was reportedly taped over (for a soap opera, according to some rumors).
  

Twenty five facts about Baseball

Baseball infield

1. On one day every season even the president of the United States takes part in a game.
2. Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each.
3. Baseballs and bats are very carefully made. The balls are made of cork, rubber, yarn, and horsehide. They weigh about 5 ounces and are about 9 inches around. Baseball bats are usually made of ash wood. They cannot be longer than 42 inches, or thicker than 2-3/4 inches.
4. In April of 1961 Maris hit only one home run, but had 50 before September 1st. The only player to reach that mark before September until Sosa and McGwire did it in '98. Maris had no stolen bases that year.
5. In the United States there are many base­ball leagues. The two major leagues are the National League and the American League. At the end of the season the winners in these two leagues play the World Series. 
6. The New York Yankees have won 26 World Series titles, which is more than any other team.
7. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball.
8. Ted Williams won the AL batting titles when he was 39 and again at 40. The last At Bat of Ted's career was a homerun on the last day of the 1960 season.
9. The first World Series was played between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 and was a nine-game series. Boston won the series 5-3.
10. The first "Babe" in baseball was Babe Adams who pitched from 1906 to 1926.
    Baseball stars from the National League and the American League played the first All-Star Game in 1933In North America, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central.
11. Former Yankees right fielder Mickey Mantle holds the record for most career home runs (18) and RBI (40) in World Series history.
    
    
    

Sixteen facts about Badminton

badminton

1. Badminton is officially the fastest racquet sport in the world. The shuttle is smashed around the court at speeds of up to 200 mph.
2. Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net.
3. Badminton claims to be the second most-popular participation sport in the world. Only football (soccer) beats it.
4. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their opponents' half of the court.
5. 1.1 billion people watched the first Olympic badminton tournament on TV.
6. The shuttlecock (or shuttle) is a feathered projectile whose unique aerodynamic properties cause it to fly differently from the balls used in most racquet sports; in particular, the feathers create much higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly than a ball.
   
   

Interesting Tennis facts

Rafael Nadal

• Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages.
• Tennis is a sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt past a net into the opponent's court.
• Billie Jean King was the first player in the Open era to win back-to-back US Opens (1971-1972).
• The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs.
• Yellow tennis balls were used at Wimbledon for the first time in 1986.
• The rules of tennis have not changed much since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1960 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and then the adoption of the tie-break in the 1970s.