Sports Facts

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

Tug of War was an Olympic event between 1900 and 1920.

Today's top fuel dragsters take off with more force than the space shuttle.

Left-handed people often exhibit an advantage in sports that demand quick reactions and spatial judgment, frequently due to tactical unpredictability and specific neurological factors.

When pitched, the average Major League baseball rotates 15 times before being hit.

Pittsburgh is the only city where all major sports teams share the same colors: black and gold.

Three consective strikes in bowling is called a turkey.

It takes about 3,000 cow hides to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.

People in nudist colonies play volleyball more than any other sport.

Kite flying is a professional sport in Thailand.

At 120 miles per hour, a Formula One car generates so much downforce that it can drive upside down on the roof of a tunnel.

A 'face-off' in hockey was originally called a 'puck-off'.

The most popular sport as a topic for a film is boxing.

NASCAR teams use nitrogen instead of regular air to fill their tires because it maintains more consistent pressure under extreme heat.

Honey is used sometimes for antifreeze mixtures and in the center of golf balls.

In the 1930's, American track star Jesse Owens used to race against horses and dogs to earn a living.

Hockey player Jarome Iginla donates $2,000 to the children’s charity Kidsport for every goal he scores. Since 2000 it has added up to more than $700,000.

There is a growing sport in Berlin and London called Chess Boxing. Players alternate between a round of chess and a round of boxing until one is declared winner either by checkmate, KO, or technical stoppage.

The 1904 Olympic Marathon in St. Louis had one water station for the entire 25-mile course. The first man across the finish line had ridden in a car for 11 miles. The actual winner was fed strychnine and brandy by his trainers and was hallucinating at the finish. A South African runner was chased a mile off course by wild dogs. Only 14 of 32 runners finished.

When Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo won two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, his country went all out. He received a $550,000 fully furnished condo, $350,000 in government cash, lifetime free buffets, a lifetime supply of ramen and chicken, two café franchises, a Land Cruiser, and free flights for life. Total haul: over $2.6 million.

In 2000, the New York Mets owed Bobby Bonilla $5.9 million. Instead of paying, they deferred it: $1.19 million per year from 2011 to 2035. The owner planned to invest the savings with his friend Bernie Madoff. Madoff turned out to be running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The Mets are now paying Bonilla $29.8 million for a career that ended in 1999.

Michael Jordan never wanted to sign with Nike. He wore Adidas. He begged Adidas to sign him. They told him: "We can not make a shoe work." Nike offered $2.5 million and a signature shoe. Jordan still did not want to go. His mother forced him onto the plane. Jordan Brand now generates $7 billion a year.

Karl Kissner was cleaning out his late grandfather's attic in Defiance, Ohio when he found a dusty box. Inside were roughly 700 baseball cards from 1910 - including 16 Ty Cobbs and a Honus Wagner - in near-perfect condition, untouched for a century. The collection was valued at $3 million.

$700 million. That's what Shohei Ohtani's contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers is worth - the richest deal in sports history. But right now, he takes home just $2 million per year. He deferred $680 million of his own salary so the Dodgers could use that money to sign other players and build a championship team around him.