Crazy Sports Trivia
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55 free Crazy Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Crazy sports trivia is the good stuff: not who won, but the night a baseball team blew up disco records and had to forfeit, the ten-cent beer promotion that ended in a riot, the 3-foot-7 pinch hitter who walked on four pitches, and the Olympic marathon 'winner' who had done part of the course in a car. This quiz collects 54 of the strangest true stories in sports history and turns each into a multiple-choice question. You will meet the Zamboni driver who won an NHL game, the octopus that predicted the World Cup, the soccer team that scored on itself on purpose, a wrestling bout that lasted eleven hours, a rower who stopped for ducks, and the kicker whose Super Bowl pass went straight up in the air. Baseball, American football, soccer, hockey, boxing, tennis, golf, horse racing, cricket and the early Olympics all get their turn, and the difficulty runs from stories everyone half-remembers to ones almost nobody knows. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, usually the encyclopaedia entry for the game or athlete, and the source is shown after each question. If a story sounds too crazy to be real, that is exactly why it made the cut.
30 of 55 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did the White Sox detonate between games of a 1979 doubleheader promotion?
A crate of disco records
A crate of disco records was detonated by radio DJ Steve Dahl on Disco Demolition Night, July 12, 1979; fans stormed the field, and the White Sox forfeited the second game to Detroit.
Q 02Cleveland forfeited a 1974 game to Texas after a riot during a promotion selling cups of beer for how much?
10 cents
Ten Cent Beer Night on June 4, 1974 sold cups of Stroh's for 10 cents each; drunken fans stormed the field in the ninth with the score tied 5–5, and umpire Nestor Chylak forfeited the game to Texas.
Q 03How tall was Eddie Gaedel, who batted once for the Browns in 1951 as a Bill Veeck stunt?
3 feet 7 inches
Eddie Gaedel stood 3 feet 7 inches; wearing number 1/8, he walked on four pitches for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951, and the American League voided his contract the next day.
Q 04What did a Randy Johnson fastball hit and kill during a 2001 spring training game?
A dove
A dove flew across the plate during a March 2001 spring-training game against the Giants and was obliterated by Randy Johnson's fastball; the umpire ruled it no pitch.
Q 05In 1993 a fly ball bounced off which outfielder's head and over the wall for a home run?
José Canseco
José Canseco, playing right field for Texas at Cleveland on May 26, 1993, let Carlos Martínez's fly ball bounce off his head and over the fence; days later he hurt his elbow pitching in a blowout.
Q 06On 'Grandstand Managers Night' in 1951, how did St. Louis Browns fans make the team's decisions?
Holding up YES and NO placards
On August 24, 1951, more than a thousand Browns fans ran the game by holding up YES and NO placards on each decision against the Philadelphia Athletics; St. Louis won 5–3 in a season it lost 102 games.
Q 07Who was the first woman to play in an NHL game, in goal for Tampa Bay in 1992 preseason?
Manon Rhéaume
Manon Rhéaume played goal for Tampa Bay against St. Louis on September 23, 1992, the first woman in an NHL game; she later won Olympic silver with Canada at Nagano 1998.
Q 08In the 1988 Bears–Eagles 'Fog Bowl', visibility on the field dropped to roughly how far?
15 to 20 yards
Dense fog rolled off Lake Michigan late in the first half of the December 31, 1988 playoff at Soldier Field, cutting visibility to about 15 to 20 yards; Chicago won 20–12 on second-half field goals.
Q 09In 1968 NBC cut away from a Jets–Raiders game with a minute left to show which film?
Heidi
NBC switched to the TV movie Heidi at 7 p.m. Eastern on November 17, 1968, with 65 seconds left; Oakland then scored two touchdowns in nine seconds to beat the Jets 43–32.
Q 10Which rule change followed the Raiders' 1978 'Holy Roller' fumble-and-bat touchdown against the Chargers?
Only the fumbling player may advance a fumble late in a half or on fourth down
The NFL ruled from 1979 that only the fumbling player may advance a fumble in the last two minutes of a half or on fourth down; Stabler fumbled, Banaszak and Casper pushed it forward, and Casper fell on it.
Q 11How did Greg Chappell order his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball to New Zealand in a 1981 ODI?
Underarm, along the ground
Greg Chappell had Trevor bowl the final ball underarm along the ground so Brian McKechnie could not hit the six New Zealand needed; legal at the time, it outraged both countries and NZ's prime minister called it disgusting.
Q 12Wrestler Antonio Inoki spent most of his 1976 Tokyo bout with Muhammad Ali doing what?
Lying on his back kicking Ali's legs
Antonio Inoki spent nearly all 15 rounds lying on his back kicking Ali's legs on June 26, 1976 in Tokyo; the bout was scored a draw, and Ali left with blood clots in his badly bruised legs.
Q 13In which event were animals deliberately killed at the 1900 Paris Olympics?
Q 21In 1964 Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall recovered a fumble and ran 66 yards to where?
His own end zone
Jim Marshall ran 66 yards the wrong way into his own end zone on October 25, 1964 and tossed the ball away, giving the 49ers a safety; Minnesota won anyway, 27–22.
Q 22'The Play' ending the 1982 Cal–Stanford game finished with Kevin Moen scoring through what obstacle?
The opposing marching band, which had wandered onto the field
The band thought the game was over. Moen flattened a trombone player in the end zone and Cal won 25–20.
Q 23Which NBA rule change was prompted by Darryl Dawkins shattering two backboards with dunks in 1979?
Live pigeon shooting
Live pigeon shooting at Paris 1900 killed nearly 300 birds; Belgium's Léon de Lunden won the main event by downing 21 pigeons.
Q 14Why was Dorando Pietri disqualified after finishing first in the 1908 Olympic marathon?
Officials helped him up when he collapsed repeatedly
He fell five times in the stadium. Queen Alexandra gave him a gilded silver cup as consolation, and the finish made him world famous.
Q 15How did Eric 'the Eel' Moussambani win his 100 m freestyle heat at Sydney 2000 in 1:52.72?
The other two swimmers were disqualified for false starts
He had learned to swim eight months earlier in a lake and a 12-metre hotel pool, and had never seen a 50 m pool before the Games.
Q 16What happened on the last corner to hand Steven Bradbury 2002 Olympic short-track gold?
All four skaters ahead of him crashed
He was about 15 metres back with 50 to go. It was the first Winter Olympic gold for any Southern Hemisphere country, and 'doing a Bradbury' entered Australian slang.
Q 17What was the record of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, the worst in Major League history?
20–134
The 1899 Spiders went 20–134 after the Robison brothers shifted their best players to their St. Louis club; crowds vanished and the team played 112 of its 154 games on the road.
Q 18What did Cubs outfielder Rick Monday grab from two protesters at Dodger Stadium in 1976?
An American flag they were about to set on fire
He was in centre field when the pair knelt to light it. He handed the flag to a Dodgers pitcher, and the crowd broke into 'God Bless America'.
Q 19George Brett's 1983 go-ahead home run against the Yankees was briefly nullified because of what?
Too much pine tar on his bat
He charged out of the dugout in a rage. The league president overturned the umpires and the game was finished 25 days later with the Royals winning 5–4.
Q 201976 Rookie of the Year Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych was famous for doing what on the mound?
Talking to the baseball
Mark Fidrych was famous for talking to the baseball on the mound; the 1976 AL Rookie of the Year also knelt to smooth the dirt by hand and got his nickname from his resemblance to Big Bird.
Breakaway rims
Breakaway rims that snap down and spring back were adopted after Dawkins, who claimed to hail from the planet Lovetron, shattered backboards in Kansas City and Philadelphia within a month in late 1979.
Q 24Why did Barbados deliberately score an own goal against Grenada late in a 1994 Caribbean Cup qualifier?
To force extra time, where a golden goal counted double
Barbados needed a two-goal win; leading only 2–1, they scored an own goal to force extra time, where a golden goal counted double, and won 4–2 while Grenada tried to score in either net.
Q 25Where had Rosie Ruiz joined the course when she 'won' the 1980 Boston Marathon?
About half a mile from the finish
Rosie Ruiz joined the course about half a mile from the finish; two Harvard students saw her burst from the crowd on Commonwealth Avenue, and she had reportedly ridden the subway during her qualifying New York Marathon.
Q 26What did Alan Shepard use as a golf club to hit two balls on the Moon during Apollo 14 in 1971?
A six-iron head on a lunar sample scoop handle
Alan Shepard fitted a six-iron head to a lunar sample scoop handle; bulky gloves forced one-handed swings, and although he joked the second ball went 'miles and miles,' later image analysis put it at about 40 yards.
Q 27How did Devon Loch, the Queen Mother's horse under Dick Francis, lose the 1956 National?
He inexplicably jumped into the air and belly-flopped 40 yards from the finish
He was five lengths clear at the time. Nobody has ever fully explained it, and 'to do a Devon Loch' became British shorthand for a late collapse.
Q 28How did 42-year-old Zamboni driver David Ayres end up winning an NHL game in goal for Carolina in 2020?
Both of the team's goalies were injured and he was the emergency backup
He was the arena's practice goalie in Toronto and had to play against the home team. He is the first emergency backup ever credited with an NHL win.
Q 29Which two NFL teams merged for the 1943 season after wartime service thinned their rosters?
Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers
The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers combined as Phil-Pitt for 1943 and went 5–4–1; in 1944 Pittsburgh instead merged with the Chicago Cardinals as 'Card-Pitt' and finished 0–10.
Q 30How old was Henri Cornet, declared winner of the 1904 Tour de France after the top four were disqualified?
19
Henri Cornet was 19 during the July 1904 race; Maurice Garin and the rest of the top four were later disqualified for cheating that included taking trains and cars.