Sports History
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98 free Sports History trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free sports history trivia questions with answers. Think you know your sports history? From Jesse Owens defying Nazi propaganda in Berlin to the Miracle on Ice that captivated a nation, from Babe Ruth's home run records to Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100-point game — the history of sports is filled with moments that transcended the games themselves. Test your knowledge across every major sport and era with these 98 questions.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country won the FIFA World Cup five times between 1958 and 2002?
Brazil
Brazil won in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002; the third title let it keep the Jules Rimet Trophy for good, but the cup was stolen in 1983 and has never been recovered.
Q 02The NBA championship trophy is named after which former commissioner?
Larry O'Brien
Larry O'Brien chaired the Democratic National Committee when burglars broke into its Watergate offices in 1972; he then ran the NBA from 1975 to 1984, and the trophy took his name that year.
Q 03Jackie Robinson broke MLB's color barrier in 1947 with which team?
Brooklyn Dodgers
The Brooklyn Dodgers' Branch Rickey signed Robinson after telling him he wanted a player with guts enough not to fight back against abuse; MLB retired his number 42 for every team in 1997.
Q 04The 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' heavyweight title fight took place in which African country?
Zaire
Zaire's ruler Mobutu Sese Seko bankrolled the fight, hoping a world title bout would bring his young state attention and investment; the country is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Q 05Which swimmer won a record 23 Olympic gold medals between 2004 and 2016?
Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps retired after the 2012 Games, came back two years later and won five more golds in 2016; his 2008 butterfly win had come by one hundredth of a second.
Q 06Who won the first Super Bowl, in January 1967?
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers beat the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in what was then called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game; about a third of the stadium's seats went unsold.
Q 07Which team sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees?
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox sold Ruth after their 1919 campaign; he went on to hit 714 home runs, while the club waited 86 years for its next World Series title, a drought fans called the Curse of the Bambino.
Q 08Which Greek sanctuary hosted ancient games every four years from 776 BC?
Olympia
Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, hosted them for over a thousand years; a sacred truce let athletes and pilgrims travel to the Games in safety.
Q 09In the 1980 'Miracle on Ice', the US Olympic hockey team upset which four-time defending gold medallist?
Soviet Union
The US beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the Lake Placid medal round on February 22, 1980, then beat Finland 4-2 to clinch the gold.
Q 10Which sport did Michael Jordan famously leave basketball to play professionally?
Baseball
Baseball was a detour of barely a year: Jordan batted .202 for the Double-A Birmingham Barons in 1994, then announced his NBA return in March 1995 with a two-word statement, 'I'm back.'
Q 11What is the back-first high jump technique that won gold at the 1968 Olympics called?
The Fosbury Flop
The Fosbury Flop won Dick Fosbury gold with a 2.24 m leap; landing on the neck and shoulders only became safe once foam mats replaced sand pits, and the flop soon became the dominant style.
Q 12Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" goal occurred during which World Cup?
1986 Mexico
Maradona punched the ball past Peter Shilton in Argentina's 1986 quarter-final against England at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca, then scored the 'Goal of the Century' four minutes later.
Q 13Which player scored 100 points in a single NBA game in March 1962?
Wilt Chamberlain
Q 21Which sprinter was stripped of his 1988 Olympic 100m gold medal after testing positive for stanozolol?
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson's world-record 9.79 was erased three days later and the gold passed to Carl Lewis, who had run 9.92; the final became known as 'the dirtiest race in history'.
Q 22In which event did Al Oerter win the same individual title at four straight Olympics?
Discus throw
Al Oerter won the discus throw at four straight Games from 1956 to 1968, each with an Olympic record; in 1964 he did it wearing a neck brace, days after tearing rib cartilage.
Q 23Charlotte Cooper became the first individual female Olympic champion in which sport?
Tennis
Wilt Chamberlain did it for the Philadelphia Warriors against the Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania; the game was not televised and no film of it exists, only a radio recording of the fourth quarter.
Q 14Which boxer bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 bout?
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson bit both of Holyfield's ears in the third round of their 1997 rematch and was disqualified; Nevada then revoked his boxing licence and fined him $3 million.
Q 15Which man won his 24th Grand Slam singles title, a men's record, at the 2023 US Open?
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic had passed Rafael Nadal's 22 earlier in 2023; four years before, he had saved two championship points on Roger Federer's serve and still won a major final.
Q 16Who founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894?
Pierre de Coubertin
Pierre de Coubertin later won an Olympic gold medal himself: his poem 'Ode to Sport', entered under a pseudonym, took the literature prize at the 1912 Games.
Q 17Who broke Babe Ruth's career home run record in 1974?
Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron hit number 715 off the Dodgers' Al Downing on April 8, 1974, after a year of hate mail and death threats from people who did not want a Black player to pass Ruth.
Q 18Which footballer won three World Cups, in 1958, 1962 and 1970?
Pelé
Pelé was 17 when he won the first; injury ended his 1962 tournament after two games, and under the rules of the day he had to wait until 2007 to receive that winner's medal.
Q 19Which city hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics, controversially used as propaganda by the Nazi regime?
Berlin
Berlin won the vote in 1931, two years before Hitler took power; his regime then turned the Games into a showcase and staged the first Olympic torch relay.
Q 20What was the original name of the NBA when it was founded in 1946?
Basketball Association of America
The Basketball Association of America was started in 1946 by owners of big hockey arenas who wanted to fill their empty nights; it took the NBA name after merging with the National Basketball League in 1949.
Charlotte Cooper won the women's tennis singles at Paris 1900, the first individual Olympic title won by a woman; sailor Hélène de Pourtalès had won gold earlier as part of a crew.
Q 24Which team completed the first perfect season in NFL history, going 17-0 in 1972?
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins lost quarterback Bob Griese to a broken ankle in week five, so veteran backup Earl Morrall started the rest of the regular season before Griese returned to win Super Bowl VII.
Q 25Which cyclist was stripped of seven Tour de France titles due to doping?
Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong lost all seven titles, 1999 to 2005, in 2012; cycling's governing body left those Tours with no winner, and he admitted doping in a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Q 26The ancient Mesoamerican ballgame was played with a solid ball made of which material?
Rubber
Rubber balls weighing up to about 4 kg were kept in play mainly with the hips; a version of the game called ulama is still played in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Q 27The American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics protested the invasion of which country?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan was invaded in December 1979; President Carter set a deadline for withdrawal, and when it passed the American team and dozens of others stayed away from Moscow.
Q 28Which athlete won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany?
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens won the 100 m, 200 m, long jump and sprint relay; back home he struggled to find work, and at times raced against horses for prize money.
Q 29Which player's 56-game hitting streak in 1941 set the MLB record?
Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio hit safely in every Yankees game from May 15 to July 16, 1941; two backhand stops by Cleveland third baseman Ken Keltner finally ended the run at 56.
Q 30Who beat Bobby Riggs in the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes' at the Houston Astrodome?
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King had declined Riggs's first challenge; after he beat Margaret Court that May she accepted, and won 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in front of 30,472 people.