60 free 1980s Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The 1980s in sport opened with a bunch of American college kids beating the Soviet hockey machine at Lake Placid and closed with an earthquake stopping the World Series, and this 1980s sports trivia quiz covers everything in between: the boycotted Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics, Carl Lewis matching Jesse Owens, Mary Lou Retton, Ben Johnson's 9.79 and the stanozolol test in Seoul, Flo-Jo's records and Steffi Graf's Golden Slam. There are questions on the 1985 Bears and the Super Bowl Shuffle, The Catch and Hail Flutie, Dan Marino's 48 touchdowns, Wayne Gretzky's trade to Los Angeles, Bird and Magic, Michael Jordan's draft and banned sneakers, Villanova and NC State's upsets, Bill Buckner, Kirk Gibson's home run, Pete Rose's ban, Maradona's Hand of God, Mike Tyson, No Más, Hagler-Hearns, Boris Becker, Navratilova, Nicklaus at 46, Greg LeMond's eight seconds, Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsled team. Easy questions open each sport, deeper cuts follow. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the events and athletes, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Miracle on Ice took place at which 1980 Winter Olympics?
Lake Placid
The US beat the Soviet Union 4-3 and then had to beat Finland two days later to secure the gold.
Q 02Which broadcaster asked "Do you believe in miracles?" as the clock ran out on the US-Soviet game?
Al Michaels
Sports Illustrated later named the game the top sports moment of the 20th century.
Q 03Which team did the US have to beat after the Soviets to clinch the 1980 hockey gold?
Finland
The 4-2 win came two days later; the Soviets took silver by thrashing Sweden 9-2.
Q 04Why did the United States and 65 other countries boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics?
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviets returned the favour by boycotting Los Angeles in 1984.
Q 05How many Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?
14
Romania was the only Soviet-aligned state to attend, and the Games still turned a $232.5 million profit.
Q 06Whose 1936 feat of four track and field golds did Carl Lewis match in Los Angeles in 1984?
Jesse Owens
100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump; Owens's granddaughter carried the torch into the Coliseum.
Q 07Which event was held for women for the first time at the 1984 Olympics?
The marathon
American Joan Benoit won it.
Q 08Who became the first American woman to win the Olympic gymnastics all-around title in 1984?
Mary Lou Retton
The 16-year-old from Fairmont, West Virginia, was inspired by watching Nadia Comaneci in 1976.
Q 09Barefoot runner Zola Budd famously tangled with which American in the 1984 Olympic 3,000m?
Mary Decker
Romania's Maricica Puica won the race while the two rivals' collision made the headlines.
Q 10Which drug did Ben Johnson test positive for after winning the Seoul 1988 100m in a world-record 9.79?
Stanozolol
The Canadian was stripped of gold and the world record.
Q 11Florence Griffith Joyner's 1988 world record over which distance still stands?
200m
Her 21.34 in Seoul is untouched; her 100m record of 10.49 from the US trials also still stands.
Q 12What did Steffi Graf achieve in 1988 that no tennis player had before?
The Golden Slam: all four majors plus Olympic gold in one year
Tennis had only just returned to the Olympics in Seoul.
Q 13How old was Boris Becker when he became the youngest men's Wimbledon champion in 1985?
17
He was also unseeded and the first German to win it.
Q 21What was the 1985 Chicago Bears' regular-season record?
15-1
The only loss was to Miami on Monday Night Football; they then crushed New England 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.
Q 22By what score did the Bears win Super Bowl XX?
46-10
The 36-point margin was a Super Bowl record until the 49ers beat Denver 55-10 four years later.
Q 23Who caught "The Catch" from Joe Montana in the January 1982 NFC Championship Game?
Dwight Clark
The 6-yard leaping grab beat Dallas 28-27 and launched the 49ers dynasty.
Q 24Doug Flutie's 1984 Hail Mary pass beat which defending national champion?
Q 14How many consecutive singles majors did Martina Navratilova win across 1983 and 1984?
6
She went 86-1 in 1983 and holds the longest winning streak on all surfaces, 74 matches.
Q 15Against which country did Diego Maradona score the Hand of God goal in 1986?
England
Four minutes later he scored the Goal of the Century in the same quarter-final in Mexico City.
Q 16How did the scorer describe his controversial first goal in the 1986 quarter-final?
"A little with the head, a little with the hand of God"
He later called it symbolic revenge for the Falklands War.
Q 17How old was Mike Tyson when he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986?
20
He unified the WBA, WBC and IBF belts and knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988.
Q 18How long did Tyson need to knock out Michael Spinks in 1988?
91 seconds
It made him the lineal champion as well as the undisputed one.
Q 19Which boxer turned away and quit in the eighth round of the 1980 "No Más" fight?
Roberto Durán
It was the rematch of his win over Leonard in Montreal five months earlier, held at the Superdome.
Q 20The 1985 middleweight fight known as "The War" lasted how many rounds?
3
Marvin Hagler stopped Thomas Hearns in what are often called the greatest three rounds in boxing.
Miami
Gerard Phelan caught it at the Orange Bowl; Flutie won the Heisman that season.
Q 25How many touchdown passes did Dan Marino throw in his record 1984 season?
48
He also threw for 5,084 yards; both marks stood for two decades.
Q 26To which team was Wayne Gretzky traded on August 9, 1988?
Los Angeles Kings
Edmonton got Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million and three first-round picks; Canada treated it as a national tragedy.
Q 27How many Stanley Cups did Gretzky win with the Edmonton Oilers?
4
The Oilers won a fifth in 1990 without him.
Q 28Larry Bird won three consecutive NBA MVP awards in which years?
1984 to 1986
He remains the only forward ever to win three in a row.
Q 29How many NBA titles did Magic Johnson win with the Showtime Lakers?
5
He was drafted first overall in 1979 after beating Bird's Indiana State in the NCAA final.
Q 30Which two players were drafted ahead of Michael Jordan in 1984?
Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie
Houston won a coin flip for the first pick; Portland took Bowie second with a pick acquired from Indiana.