Wikipedia:Unusual articles/Sports

Sports

A briefs history of Olympic Flame running.

You take my knight?
I'll punch your face!

1956 Olympic flame hoax	Why the Olympic Flame is pants.
Apopudobalia	Ancient Roman soccer (but not really).
Artistic roller skating	All the grace and charm of figure skating...but with roller skates.
Barefoot running	Why is there an entire article devoted to running without shoes?
Bat and trap	An English bat-and-ball pub game.
Bladderball	Yale University's contribution to the world of team sports.
Bog snorkelling	The noble art of competitive snorkelling through cold, noxious bog water.
Bottle-kicking	A ruleless drunken rugby-like sport played every Easter Monday since the 1700s in Hallaton, Leicestershire.
British baseball	An intermediate species between cricket and baseball played in the hinterlands of Wales and Western England.
Butt Fumble	Be careful where you run with that ball, Mark.
Chess boxing	A sport that alternates rounds of speed chess and boxing.
David Arquette in World Championship Wrestling	"When you're out of ideas, make an outsider actor your World Champion", said no one ever.
Donkey basketball	A wild twist on a classic American sport. In this version, all players are required to ride or be touching a donkey to be play.
Dot-com commercials during Super Bowl XXXIV	"We haven't made any revenue this quarter? Let's spend millions of dollars on a Super Bowl commercial! There's no way we can lose!"
A drive into deep left field by Castellanos	When professionalism meets apologising – as there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos, it will be a home run. And so that will make it a 4–0 ballgame – and smashes into tiny pieces.
Dwarf-tossing	A sporting competition where padded dwarfs are thrown by competitors.
Dwile flonking	A sport that gives a new meaning to the term "drinking game".
Elephant polo	Variant of polo that is played while riding elephants, mostly played by royals in Rajasthan.
Eton wall game	A sport played annually on St. Andrew's Day on a 5-by-110-metre (16 ft × 361 ft) field. The last goal was scored in 1909.
Extreme ironing	A sport whereby participants take an ironing board to a remote location and iron a few items of clothing.
Fair catch kick	A little-known way to score points in American football left over from rugby. Even Bill Belichick wouldn't call one in Super Bowl LI.
Fierljeppen	A Frisian sport where the objective is to jump over a trench.
Football tennis	Wimbledon meets Wembley... in Czechoslovakia.
Gillidanda	In this Indian game, instead of hitting a ball with a stick, players use a stick (danda) to hit another stick (gilli).
Laser Space Cannon	A purple beam shooting out of the roof of the Sacramento Kings' arena, lit after every Kings home win, that became a symbol of the team that broke the NBA's longest-ever playoff drought.
Lawn mower racing	Leaves the lawn in a very poor condition.
Mall walking	Usually done with larger groups of senior citizens.
Mass Transit incident	What happens when you combine a professional wrestler prone to violence with a 17 year old that had lied about his age and experience?
Mythical national championship	When is a champion not exactly a champion?
New Testament athletic metaphors	Blessed are the healthy in heart...
Pelota purépecha	You've heard of ice hockey, but how about fire hockey?
Public image of Roman Reigns	Pushed to the top of the wrestling world, he was rejected by fans, but WWE kept trying, and trying, and trying for years on end. By 2019, Reigns was the most hated man in wrestling, despite being (allegedly) the good guy.
Quidditch (real-life sport)	An international real-life sport, without magic objects.
Scorigami	A scoring combination that has never happened in a league's history.
Ski ballet	Skiers doing flips and spins on a slope. A smooth slope. Wearing skis.
Smiggin Holes 2010 Winter Olympic bid	During the 2002 Winter Olympics, the two Australian comedians who gave the world Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat (see "Animals in sports" below) launched a bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in New South Wales, Australia.
SpoGomi	A sport where teams have to collect as much litter as possible.
Sports-related curses	A variety of excuses for bad performance.
Stoolball	An ancestor of cricket (a game it resembles), baseball, and rounders.
Traditions and anecdotes associated with the Stanley Cup	An ice hockey trophy with a long history of abuse, superstition, and tests of buoyancy.
Ultimate Tazer Ball	A sport in which players must compete to get a large ball into the goal of the opposing team. Oh, and everybody is armed with a stun gun.
Volata	Football for fascists.
Welly wanging	Competitors are required to hurl a Wellington boot as far as possible.
Wife-carrying	One need not carry one's own wife to take part, although you may want to run away as fast as possible afterwards.
Wooden spoon	A Cambridge University tradition adopted by rugby league and rugby union, the Wooden Spoon is awarded to the last-placed team in a competition.
Yukigassen	Competitive snowball fighting.

Animals in sports

Buzkashi	Something like rugby, played on horseback, with a dead goat.
Conger cuddling	The "most fun a person could have with a dead fish".
Egg tapping	One holds a hard-boiled egg and taps the egg of another participant with one's own egg intending to break the other's, without breaking one's own.
Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat	Sydney's other Olympic mascot.
Ferret-legging	A stunt in which a live ferret is put down one's trousers.
Fox tossing	A popular sport in 17th and 18th century Europe that involved tossing foxes and other live animals as high as possible into the air.
Goose pulling	Hang a live goose from a rope, gallop under it on a horse and pull its head off. What could be simpler?
Hamster racing	A uniquely British response to foot and mouth disease.
Kudu dung-spitting	Games for conservationists.
Kyz kuu	Involving a man and a woman racing horses. Described as a kissing game, but the woman wins by whipping the man.
Legend of the Octopus	If you're going to an ice hockey game in Detroit, be sure to bring your octopus.
Octopus wrestling	A sport which once attracted crowds of thousands to watch free divers wrestle North Pacific Giant Octopus from the waters of the Puget Sound.
Pig Olympics	An international contest between pigs.
Rabbit show jumping	Watership up, Watership Down. Watership up, Watership Down. Watership...
Robot jockey	Robots designed to ride dromedary camels.
Snail racing	Ready, steady, slow!
Teddy bear toss	A Christmas tradition in minor league ice hockey.
Turkey bowling	So much for "don't play with your food".
Vinkensport	Finch-singing in Belgium. More competitive than you might think.
Yak racing	A spectator sport held at traditional festivals in Tibet and Mongolia, among other places.

Athletes

Margaret Abbott	Possibly the only Olympic champion who was never made aware of their achievement.
Sebastián Abreu	Prolific Uruguayan striker, most known for switching through clubs like his underwear.
Nasra Ali Abukar	Possibly the record holder for the slowest ever competitive 100-meter dash, after she got into the University Games by being related to the chair of the Somali Athletics Committee.
Anthony Ammirati	A French pole vaulter who went viral for appearing to knock over the bar with his, um, other pole in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Arrhichion	A multi-time Olympic champion of the ancient Greek predecessor of MMA, who didn't let being dead stop him from retaining his title.
David Ayres	A 42-year-old arena building operator, who briefly played as an emergency goalie in the National Hockey League.
Paula Barila Bolopa	A swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, who – much like Eric Moussambani below – competed in the Sydney Olympics. Her time in the 50m freestyle is apparently the longest in Olympic history.
Steve Bartman incident	Similar to, yet also the polar opposite of, the Jeffery Maier incident (see below), a fan is blamed for causing the Cubs to lose that year's NLCS and continue the Curse of the Billy Goat.
Philip Boit	How many other Kenyan skiers can you name?
Steven Bradbury	Australia's first Winter Olympics gold medalist, who won speed skating gold after everyone in front of him crashed.
Iván Buhajeruk	An Argentine YouTuber who in 2024 signed a contract with the Deportivo Riestra club to play a professional soccer match......and possibly the person with the shortest professional football career in history, as he was substituted after 59 seconds.
Rogério Ceni	It's not often you see a goalscoring goalkeeper in soccer, much less one with over 100 recorded goals.
Oksana Chusovitina	Most gymnasts plan retirement in their 20s – she's 40 and still going!
Cup of coffee	A minor-league player who makes it to the majors just long enough to have a...
JamesOn Curry	In perhaps the most extreme example of the above, his NBA career lasted a grand total of 3.9 seconds.
Curse of Billy Penn	How a skyscraper in Philadelphia kept the city's sports teams from winning championships for over 20 years.
Curse of the Colonel	Colonel Harland Sanders wreaks revenge from beyond the grave on a Japanese baseball team.
Rajai Davis	"Quick, Jason, ride me to Citi Field, I've been called up!"
Ali Dia	A guy who tricked his way into English soccer team Southampton by claiming he had won 12 caps for Senegal, was related to George Weah and had played for Paris Saint-Germain. In 2007, The Times branded him the worst-ever player in top-flight soccer.
Daniel Dye	A man who got arrested for quite literally busting a nut.
Dock Ellis	Baseball pitcher who, among other things, threw a no-hitter while under influence of LSD, and once tried to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup.
Eddie the Eagle	A British sportsman famous for coming last in the 1988 Winter Olympics ski-jump competition.
Sidd Finch	A fictitious baseball player who learned yoga in Tibet and could pitch a fastball at 168 miles per hour, among other things.
Eddie Gaedel	A 65-pound (29 kg) baseball player, 3 ft 7 in (1.09 m) tall. Career on‑base percentage: 1.000.
Sajjad Ganjzadeh	Getting your head kicked isn't always bad – it won this Iranian an Olympic gold medal.
Dolly Gray impostor	Possibly the least known NFL player in history.
Rachael Gunn	An Australian breakdancer whose less-than-smooth moves took the Olympics by storm.
Ferdinand Habsburg	One of the greatest racing drivers Austria has to offer. He's also the heir to the throne of one of Europe's most powerful royal families, but nevermind that.
Hannes Þór Halldórsson	An Icelandic filmmaker who also served as the national team's goalkeeper during their most successful period in history and saved a Lionel Messi penalty kick in the World Cup.
John Hilton	A man who won the men's singles at the European Table Tennis Championships despite being only the fourth-ranked player at his local YMCA.
Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe	A blue blooded Alpine skier, from the frozen wastes of Mexico City.
Carlos Kaiser	A footballer who managed a decade-long career despite lacking pro-level ability and never playing a regulation game.
Shizo Kanakuri	An Olympic marathon runner who took a 54-year detour.
Oliver Kirk	It's not unusual for a boxer to win two (or more) Olympic gold medals. But it is unusual for them to be won in the same edition.
Evel Knievel	A biker known for his numerous stunts, and accidents during said stunts.
Kyle Larson	A NASCAR driver who is most known for three things: crashing and taking down the catchfence at Daytona, saying a racial slur during a virtual race during a pandemic, and winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Among other things.
Bob Lemon	A below-average MLB hitter suddenly gets put on pitching duty after other players said he was good at it when they fought in World War II together. Now he's in the Hall of Fame.
Jeffrey Maier incident	A twelve-year-old helped the Yankees win the pennant.
Mendoza Line	Baseball's standard for underperformance.
Eric Moussambani	A swimmer from Equatorial Guinea in the 2000 Summer Olympics whose time in the 100m freestyle was seven seconds behind the winner - of the 200m freestyle.
José Offerman	Former baseball player who is most remembered for charging the mound with a bat in one game and attempting to punch an umpire in another.
Phantom ballplayer	A baseball player who spent time on an MLB roster without actually playing, or occasionally one who never existed.
Fuahea Semi	As though being a luger from Tonga wasn't unusual enough, he tricked the world's media and the International Luge Federation for more than two years into believing that he bore the same name as a German lingerie firm.
Josip Šimunić	A Croatian footballer booked three times before being sent off in the 2006 World Cup, and also known for giving Ustaše chants to the crowd.
Sturla Snær Snorrason	An Icelandic alpine skier who (as of October 2018) has competed in 1 Olympic Games and 2 World Championships, but has yet to finish a single race.
Elizabeth Swaney	A Hungarian-American freestyle skier who competed at the halfpipe event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, despite being incapable of performing basic tricks.
Manti Te'o	Played in eight NFL seasons, but is perhaps more known for being the victim of one of the most famous catfishing schemes ever.
Taro Tsujimoto	An imaginary ice hockey player, drafted because a manager was reportedly "fed up with the slow drafting process via the telephone".
Kazuo Uzuki	The greatest baseball prospect who never played.
L. W. Wright	Racing driver and confidence trickster who is often referred to as the "D. B. Cooper of NASCAR". Competed in one career race, attempted to qualify for the next race, and then disappeared for a full 40 years.

Sport teams and associations

Atlanta Black Crackers	A Negro League baseball team named like many others after a local white baseball team, but in this case the Atlanta Crackers were named after a racial nickname.
Baltimore Colts relocation to Indianapolis	How an entire NFL team relocated to another city overnight.
DPMM FC	A Bruneian football club that has played in the Malaysian Super League and Singapore Premier League, despite their home ground being over 1,000 kilometers away from either country.
East Africa rugby union team	Did this rugby team really select a future dictator to play for them?
FC Slutsk	How a group of Australians brought worldwide fame to this modest Belarusian football club.
Federated States of Micronesia national under-23 football team	Only 3 games played, 0 goals scored, 114 conceded.
Jamaican bobsled team	The real life inspiration for the film Cool Runnings.
London Rippers	A Canadian independent league baseball team that modeled its logo and mascot after Jack the Ripper. Local feminists were not amused, but Rush Limbaugh came to the team's defense.
Mongolia national baseball team	They've only scored 3 runs at the Asian Games. Without ever finishing a game, because of the mercy rule.
New Zealand national team nomenclature based on the "All Blacks" Badminton New Zealand	When your national rugby team is successful, what do you do? Follow New Zealand's example and rebrand all of your other sports teams as something similar to them, including a badminton team that tried to rename itself "Black Cocks".
Oorang Indians	An all-Native American NFL team put together as a marketing gimmick to sell Airedale Terriers and known more for its halftime dog shows than for its football play.
Plainfield Teachers College	Their American football team was unbeaten ...and non-existent.
Sark national football team	Also known as The Bad Lions, the only national team that failed to ever score a goal.
Sealand national football team	The football team of a micronation with a permanent population of 2.
Somalia national bandy team	The only African national bandy team is seated in Sweden.
Steagles Card-Pitt	Sports teams get relocated all the time (especially in the NFL), but what if they had mergers? Wartime conscription during World War II forced the Pittsburgh Steelers to do exactly that. Twice.
Tropical nations at the Winter Olympics	More than just Jamaican bobsledders.
Vatican City national football team	The squad makes up more than 2 percent of the national population.
Washington Generals	The only basketball team whose job it is to lose, again and again, to the same team.
Wichita Monrovians	A Negro League baseball team that played a game against the KKK and won.
Windsor Swastikas	A Canadian ice hockey team with a well-known logo.
Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars	Baseball on death row. The team had a 100% record (because if they lost, their execution date would be brought sooner).

Sporting competitions and organisations

24 Hours of Lemons	An endurance race for terrible cars, with a $500 spending limit, infractions determined by a random wheel, and the grand prize going to the worst car that managed to finish the thing. Holds the world record for most participants in a single race.
Australian Football International Cup	The "World Cup" of Australian rules football...in which Australia does not participate.
Bobby Jones Open	There's only one name in contention to win this golf tournament.
Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake	Don't let it get away!
Enhanced Games	The Olympics, just without drug testing requirements. They hope an athlete can beat Usain Bolt's 100m dash record soon.
Fan Controlled Football	The world's first professional sports league completely owned by its fans.
Henley-on-Todd Regatta	An Australian boat race that is cancelled when there is water in the river.
International Rutabaga Curling Championship	Rutabaga curling originated in the frosty December climes of Ithaca, New York.
Isles of Scilly Football League	A round-robin, twenty-matchday league between only two teams.
Lingerie Football League	"Uniforms consist of helmets, shoulder pads, elbow pads, knee pads, garter belts, bras, and panties." Renamed the Legends Football League in 2013 and Extreme Football League in 2020, with the garters, bras, and panties replaced by slightly more modest performance sportswear.
Naha Great Tug-of-War Festival	Requires thousands of participants and a 40-metric-ton, 1.5-metre diameter rope.
Pillow Fight League	The first rule of Pillow Fight League is that you do not discuss Pillow Fight League.
RoboCup	The goal of this robotics project: to create a robot soccer team that can beat the most recent FIFA World Cup winners.
Rocket Racing League	A racing league intending to use rocket-powered aircraft to race a closed-circuit air racetrack.
Ultimate Typing Championship	Created in order to promote typing and find the fastest typists in the United States of America.
World Black Pudding Throwing Championships	A super championship for a super food.

Specific sporting events

1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech American football game	The most lopsided game in American football history (featuring the godfather of American football himself, John Heisman).
1967 NFL Championship Game	Often called "The Ice Bowl", a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers played in absolutely frigid conditions, at a temperature of −15 °F (−26 °C) (and that's before the wind chill.)
1969 Talladega 500	"Them dang unions trying to bust my race that I paid millions for because of tire failures! What am I ever going to do now?" - Probably NASCAR CEO Bill France Sr.
1978 CONCACAF Champions' Cup	The only time in the history of association football in which an official championship ended up being championed ex aequo by more than one team; in this case there were three.
1991 Recopa Sudamericana	An international football tournament that was not played because one team won both tournaments that were required to be won in order to play in it.
1992 Troy State vs. DeVry men's basketball game	The highest scoring NCAA basketball game ever.
2004 AFL Cairns Grand Final	A regional Australian rules football grand final that devolved into an all-in brawl just seconds after the national anthem ended.
2005 United States Grand Prix	A race in which 14 out of 20 drivers retired before the start of the race.
2012 Daytona 500	The 54th running of the Daytona 500 (which was supposed to start on Sunday afternoon) did not finish until early Tuesday morning because of rain and a freak jet dryer accident.
2014 Hiram vs. Mount St. Joseph women's basketball game	How a dying teenager's wish became one of the year's biggest stories in American sports.
2021 Belgian Grand Prix	The shortest race in Formula One history, notable for its lack of any actual "racing", but instead three laps of caution in the rain.
2023 Turkish Super Cup	Due to venue issues, one team had to abandon this final two minutes after the start of the match.
Announcerless game	The first NFL game to be played in complete silence.
AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne	Taking own goals to the extreme.
Athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon	The worst-run Olympic event in history. No water in the blazing Missouri heat, a winner who'd been poisoned by his trainers, the "winner" being disqualified for "illegal use of cars", a postman joining at the last minute and a tribesman being chased by aggressive dogs. Among other things.
Australia 31–0 American Samoa	The most lopsided "fair" match in association football history since World War I.
Barbados 4–2 Grenada	A strange rule change in this soccer match saw one team defending both goals for several minutes, then winning 4–2 despite only scoring three goals.
Battle of Bramall Lane	An English professional association football match that was ended at the 83rd minute because the home team lost too many of their players due to injuries and red cards.
Battle of Surfaces	Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal went head-to-head to determine which court was more victorious: grass or clay?
Campbells Creek vs Primrose (1990)	The only time a senior Australian rules football team kicked at least one hundred goals in a game, which took more than three hours to complete due to the sheer amount of time needed to retrieve the ball after all one hundred (plus three) goals.
Collision in Korea	A WCW pay per view event in 1995 wasn't so unusual. A professional wrestling match in North Korea, however, is a once in a lifetime event.
Coventry City 2-2 Bristol City West Germany 1-0 Austria	Match fixing with benefits.
Disco Demolition Night	What could go wrong with encouraging people to bring unwanted disco albums to a baseball doubleheader and blowing up the records between games?
Heidi Game	The last-minute comeback in this American football game wasn't seen by television viewers, as the network cut off the game to show the children's film Heidi.
Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships	A record-breaking 11-hour, 5-minute tennis match at the Wimbledon 2010.
Ka I 21–18 Hang Sai	Basically the same as AS Adema 149-0 SO l'Emyrne (see above) but only this time it was both teams who did it.
Mormons vs. Mullets	December 2, 2020: An unbeaten college football team finds itself with an unexpected open date... and another unbeaten team is looking for a game. December 3: Game on. December 5: Kickoff.
One-armed versus one-legged cricket	According to Charles Dickens: "The one-legged men were pretty well with the bat, but they were rather beaten when it came to fielding."
The Play	Before going onto the field for your postgame musical performance, make sure the game is over.
Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's sailors 100 metre freestyle	Not just any old sailor - this most niche of events was only open to those serving in the Greek Navy.
Ten Cent Beer Night	A Major League Baseball game that tried to attract fans with a beer promotion got progressively worse, until an all-out riot broke out at Cleveland Stadium.
Underarm bowling incident of 1981	An infamous end to an international cricket match that was arguably not cricket at all.
Wrestling at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight	Possibly the longest final in any Summer Olympic event. Also possibly the only one where no gold medal was awarded (ignoring those Olympics where gold medals had yet to be introduced).

Games and strategy contests

Blood-vomiting game	"Go" is serious business.
Buzzword bingo	A synergistic, forward-thinking game where you can leverage your strategy by avoiding... Bingo!
The Campaign for North Africa	The peak of wargaming, this frighteningly complex beast is estimated to take over a real-time decade to complete (you know, if you want to eat and sleep as well).
The Game	A mind game in which players try not to think about The Game – which means that, by reading this, you just lost The Game.
Ghettopoly	An unauthorized version of Monopoly that played on black and other stereotypes. The NAACP was not amused.
Kanchō	Popular among East Asian children, this "game" is played by going up to someone and sneakily poking them in the ass.
List of games that Buddha would not play	What games would Buddha play? None of these, apparently.
Mornington Crescent	A deceptively tricky game of navigating the London Underground—don't be caught in Nidd!
Potato race	On foot, a tame activity for children. On horseback, a chaotic no-holds-barred blood sport where anything goes–except biting.
USA Rock Paper Scissors League	Organised finger sport.
War on Terror, the Board Game	A boardgame satire of the real War on Terror that has proved so popular, it has ended up in national museums, in a TV sitcom, as part of a military training simulation and as a teaching aid in higher education institutions.

Chess

Atomic chess Beirut chess Stratomic	Three different variations on the same idea: combining chess with explosions.
Bongcloud Attack	An explanation of why 2. Ke2 is the height of modern chess theory.
Carlsen–Niemann controversy	Chess doesn't always produce drama, but when it does, it's glorious. A tale of cheating, lawsuits, and vibrating butt plugs.
Chess on a really big board	Self-explanatory.
Fairy chess pieces	Looking to spice up a game of chess? Throw one of these into the mix.
Human chess	Enacted by costumed "pieces" on a scaled-up chessboard.
Kasparov versus the World	"The greatest game in the history of chess", per Kasparov. His opponent suffered from flame wars, poor chess software and accusations of ballot stuffing.
List of chess variants	Of which there are an astounding ~2,000.
Poole versus HAL 9000	"I'm sorry, Frank, I think you missed it..."
Taikyoku shogi	Japanese 'ultimate chess', with over 400 pieces per side.
The Turk	An 18th century chess computer, which turned out to be a hoax.