American Sports
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50 free American Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
American sports come with their own language, legends and rituals. Four big professional leagues, a college scene that fills enormous stadiums and a long Olympic record have produced more than a century of stories: curses that outlasted generations, trades that changed whole cities, and rule changes made because one athlete was simply too good. This quiz covers the ground a USA sports fan would expect: football, baseball, basketball and hockey, plus golf, tennis, boxing, horse racing, motor racing and the Olympic Games. You will meet famous franchises and how they got their names, record-setting athletes, trophies and traditions, the people who invented whole sports, and the moments that crossed over from the sports page to the history books. It is written for general fans rather than stat-heads. The early questions are friendly, the later ones dig into history, and every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works for a pub quiz, a classroom, a family game night or a quick test of your own knowledge. Every question is multiple choice.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which NFL team is owned by its fans as a nonprofit rather than by a wealthy individual?
Packers
The Packers are held by more than half a million stockholders, a structure that has kept the team, founded in 1919, in tiny Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Q 02Which six-time NBA champion quit in 1993 to play minor league baseball for the Birmingham Barons?
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan batted just .202 in his one season in the Chicago White Sox system, then went back to basketball and won three more titles.
Q 03Which team did the United States beat in the 1980 Olympic hockey upset known as the Miracle on Ice?
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union had won four straight Olympic golds, while the American side was mostly college players; the US then had to beat Finland two days later to take the gold medal.
Q 04Which touring basketball team, famous for comic routines, was founded on Chicago's South Side?
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters began in Chicago in 1926; owner Abe Saperstein put Harlem in the name because it was seen as the center of Black American culture.
Q 05Which sports drink did University of Florida scientists create in 1965 for its football team?
Gatorade
Gatorade takes its name from the Florida Gators, whose coach asked university doctors for a drink to replace the fluids his players sweated away.
Q 06At which American auto race does the winner traditionally drink a bottle of milk in victory lane?
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500 custom began after the 1933 winner asked for a glass of buttermilk, and a dairy executive spotted a marketing chance.
Q 07Which Brooklyn Dodgers player broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in April 1947?
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired by every Major League team in 1997, the first time any sport had honored one athlete that way.
Q 08Which trophy, donated by a governor general of Canada in 1892, do NHL champions each keep for a day?
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and since 1995 every member of the winning team has had it for a day.
Q 09Which NFL team's name, chosen in a fan contest, honors a poem by a writer buried in its home city?
Ravens
The Ravens are named for Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven; more than 33,000 fans voted in the contest, and Poe lies buried in Baltimore.
Q 10Which paddle sport was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, for bored children?
Pickleball
Pickleball was cobbled together by future congressman Joel Pritchard and two friends, using a badminton court, table tennis paddles and a plastic ball.
Q 11Which slugger did the Red Sox sell in 1919, a deal later blamed for an 86-year title drought?
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth's sale was only tied to a curse decades later: the phrase took off with a 1990 book, and the drought ended in 2004.
Q 12Which baseball team was supposedly cursed by a tavern owner whose pet goat was ejected in 1945?
Cubs
The Cubs did not reach another World Series for 71 years, then won it in 2016 by beating Cleveland after trailing three games to one.
Q 13Which baseball club, founded in 1903 as the Highlanders, has won the most World Series titles?
Yankees
The Yankees dropped the Highlanders name in 1913, having begun life when two owners bought the rights to a defunct Baltimore club.
Q 21Which coach, winner of the first two Super Bowls, gives his name to the NFL's championship trophy?
Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi died of cancer in September 1970, and the trophy, first sketched on a cocktail napkin by a Tiffany executive, was renamed in his memory.
Q 22Which golfer won his first major by 12 strokes at Augusta National in 1997, aged just 21?
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods became both the youngest Masters champion and the tournament's first non-white winner that week.
Q 23What nickname was given to the 1992 US Olympic basketball squad, the first with active NBA players?
Dream Team
The Dream Team label became so famous that the 2008 US Olympic side was nicknamed the Redeem Team as a play on it.
Q 14Which boxer, stripped of his title for refusing the Vietnam draft, lit the 1996 Olympic cauldron?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali lit the flame in Atlanta before a television audience estimated at 3.5 billion, almost three decades after his conviction for draft evasion.
Q 15Which American sprinter won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, hosted by Nazi Germany?
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens won the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and sprint relay; nobody won the same four events at one Games again until Carl Lewis in 1984.
Q 16Which American swimmer won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a record for one Games?
Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps broke the mark of seven golds that fellow American Mark Spitz had set in 1972.
Q 17Which NBA center scored 100 points in a single game in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in March 1962?
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point night was never televised and no film of it has surfaced; only a radio recording of the fourth quarter survives.
Q 18Which tennis champion beat Bobby Riggs in 1973's Battle of the Sexes, seen by 90 million worldwide?
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King won in three sets at the Houston Astrodome, four months after Riggs had beaten Margaret Court.
Q 19Which quarterback, the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL draft, went on to win seven Super Bowls?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady was only the seventh quarterback taken that year, and he wept when recalling the wait in an interview 11 years later.
Q 20Which racehorse won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths to complete the Triple Crown?
Secretariat
Secretariat was the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, and his Belmont run is often called the greatest race ever run by a thoroughbred.
Q 24Which award for college football's top player is named after a Downtown Athletic Club director?
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Trophy began in 1935 as a prize for the best player east of the Mississippi, and took its name a year later when John Heisman died.
Q 25Which ballpark, the oldest in the major leagues, has a left-field wall called the Green Monster?
Fenway Park
Fenway Park opened in April 1912, when news of its first game was overshadowed by coverage of the Titanic, which had sunk five days earlier.
Q 26Which term for a desperate long pass did Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach popularize in 1975?
Hail Mary
Hail Mary was Staubach's own description: a devout Catholic, he told reporters he had closed his eyes and prayed as he threw the winning touchdown against Minnesota.
Q 27Which 1972 federal law banning sex discrimination in schools transformed women's sports in America?
Title IX
Title IX never mentions sports: its opening words, written by Senator Birch Bayh, simply bar sex discrimination in federally funded education.
Q 28Which racing organization traces its roots to moonshine runners evading police during Prohibition?
NASCAR
NASCAR grew out of bootleggers who used small, fast cars to carry whiskey out of Appalachia, then raced each other as a show of pride.
Q 29Which machine, first built in 1949 in Paramount, California, smooths the ice between hockey periods?
Zamboni
Zamboni is a family name: inventor Frank Zamboni came to ice rinks from the refrigeration business, and his surname became the everyday word for the machine.
Q 30Which sea creature do Detroit Red Wings fans traditionally throw onto the ice during the playoffs?
Octopus
The octopus custom began in 1952, when two brothers hurled one onto the rink: its eight arms stood for the eight playoff wins then needed for the title.