50 Fun Facts About Black Sports Trivia: Black Athletes Who Made History

On what date did Jackie Robinson break MLB's colour line by starting for the Dodgers?

MLB now retires his number 42 league-wide and marks the date as Jackie Robinson Day.

Which award did Jackie Robinson win in its inaugural season, 1947?

He won the NL MVP two years later, the first Black player so honoured.

Who was the American League's first Black player, debuting for Cleveland eleven weeks after Robinson?

He and Robinson spoke by phone through that first season, agreeing not to give anyone an excuse to send them down.

Who founded the Negro National League in 1920?

He also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981.

Who became MLB's first Black manager in 1975?

He was player-manager of the Cleveland Indians and homered in his first game in charge.

Hank Aaron and which teammate hit a record 863 home runs as a pair?

Aaron played 21 seasons for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves.

Who was the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion, reigning from 1908 to 1915?

His 1910 win over James J. Jeffries triggered race riots across the United States.

How many consecutive title defences did Joe Louis make, a record for any weight class?

He held the heavyweight title from 1937 until 1949, the longest single reign in the division's history.

Under what name did Muhammad Ali win light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics?

He turned professional later that year and joined the Nation of Islam in the early 1960s.

Ali's 'Rumble in the Jungle' was fought against which opponent?

The Thrilla in Manila and the Fight of the Century were both against Joe Frazier.

Sugar Ray Robinson, often called the greatest boxer pound for pound, was born with what name?

He fought from 1940 to 1965 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990.

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in which city?

He took the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100 relay in front of Hitler's regime.

Wilma Rudolph overcame which childhood illness before winning three golds at the 1960 Rome Olympics?

She became the first American woman to win three golds at a single Games.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists on the podium at which Olympics?

Smith had just become the first man to officially break 20 seconds in the 200m.

Florence Griffith Joyner's 100m world mark of 10.49, set in 1988, had what status in 2025?

The wind gauge read 0.0 on a windy day, which has fuelled debate ever since.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee has held the world record in which event since 1988?

She won six Olympic medals across four Games in the heptathlon and long jump.

What is Usain Bolt's 100m world record time?

He set it in 2009, the biggest improvement since electronic timing began.

Who was the first Black player to win a Grand Slam tennis title, taking the 1956 French Open?

She won Wimbledon and the US Nationals in both 1957 and 1958.

Arthur Ashe is the only Black man to win singles titles at which three majors?

He was also the first Black player picked for the US Davis Cup team.

How many major singles titles did Serena Williams win?

That is the most in the Open Era; she was world number one for 319 weeks.

Venus Williams won five of her seven major singles titles at which tournament?

She also took singles gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Naomi Osaka became the first player from which continent to hold the world number one singles ranking?

Her four majors are split evenly between the Australian Open and the US Open.

Tiger Woods won his first major, the 1997 Masters, by how many strokes?

He was world number one within a year of turning pro.

Which six-time National Negro Open champion joined the PGA Tour and won the 1967 Greater Hartford Open?

Tiger Woods said that without him, 'I probably wouldn't be here'.

Who became the NBA's first Black head coach in 1966?

He was player-coach of the Celtics and won two more titles in the role.

Who was the first African American to play in an NBA game, on October 31, 1950?

Chuck Cooper was the first drafted and Sweetwater Clifton the first to sign a contract, but Lloyd played first.

Which team drafted Chuck Cooper in 1950, making him the first African American drafted into the NBA?

Owner Walter Brown took him 13th overall; he had been playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Texas Western's 1966 NCAA title was historic because the Miners did what?

They beat an all-white Kentucky team 72-65 in College Park, Maryland.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won how many NBA MVP awards, a record?

He was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. and played 20 seasons for the Bucks and Lakers.

Who was the first player signed by the WNBA?

She went on to win three WNBA MVPs and three Olympic golds.

Fritz Pollard became the NFL's first Black head coach in which year?

He and Bobby Marshall had been the league's first two Black players the year before.

Where did Kenny Washington, the modern NFL's first Black signee, play college football?

He was a Bruins teammate of Jackie Robinson.

Marlin Briscoe became pro football's first Black starting quarterback in 1968 for which team?

He threw 14 touchdown passes as a rookie, then was moved to wide receiver.

Doug Williams threw four touchdowns in one quarter of which title game?

He was named MVP as Washington beat Denver.

Tony Dungy became the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl with which team?

His Colts beat Lovie Smith's Bears in Super Bowl XLI, the first Super Bowl with two Black head coaches.

Ernie Davis of Syracuse was the first Black winner of which award, in 1961?

Drafted first overall in 1962, he died of leukemia at 23 without playing a pro game.

Willie O'Ree broke the NHL's colour barrier as a winger for which team?

The Fredericton native is sometimes called the Jackie Robinson of hockey, and met Robinson as a boy.

Wendell Scott's 1963 win in Jacksonville made him the first African American to do what?

He drove a Chevrolet Bel Air bought from Ned Jarrett; he had been NASCAR's first Black licence holder in 1953.

Bubba Wallace joined 23XI Racing in 2021 driving which NASCAR Cup Series car number?

The team is co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, hence the number.

Lewis Hamilton's seven Formula One world titles tie him with which driver?

He holds the outright records for wins, poles and podiums.

Vonetta Flowers became the first Black athlete from any country to win Winter Olympic gold in what?

She was a former UAB sprinter and long jumper who switched to being a brakewoman.

Cullen Jones was the first African American to hold a world record in which sport?

He nearly drowned at a water park at age five before learning to swim.

Who was the first African American to win the Olympic gymnastics individual all-around title?

She did it in London in 2012 as part of the 'Fierce Five'.

By the end of Paris 2024, Simone Biles had 30 world medals and how many Olympic medals?

At 16 she became the first African American to win the world all-around title.

Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 while playing for which team?

He was protesting police brutality and racial inequality; he never played another NFL season after 2016.

Jackie Robinson was the first UCLA athlete to win varsity letters in how many sports?

He lettered in baseball, basketball, football and track, and was actually better known for football than baseball at the time.

Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of how many children in her father's two marriages?

Born prematurely at 4.5 pounds in Tennessee, she survived pneumonia and scarlet fever before polio weakened her left leg at age five.

Which Tennessee State track coach spotted the teenage Wilma Rudolph playing high school basketball?

He invited the 14-year-old to his summer training programme; she then won all nine events she entered at an AAU meet in Philadelphia.

Where in Harlem did Althea Gibson's neighbours pay for her to take lessons in 1940?

At first she thought tennis was a game for weaklings, but she went on to win 56 national and international titles before retiring in 1958.

Which Ohio State coach guided Jesse Owens to a record eight individual NCAA titles?

On May 25, 1935, at the Big Ten Championships, Owens set five world records and tied a sixth in the space of an afternoon despite a back injury.