SPORTS TRIVIA
SOCCER / Football
The most popular sport in the world is one
in which people chase after a ball and kick it
with their feet (and give it an occasional
head-butt). In most places where this sport
is enjoyed it is referred to in a
straightforward fashion: football. No matter
whether the language is Spanish (fútbol),
French (football), German (fußball),
Icelandic (fótbolta), Albanian (futboll), or
Dutch (voetbal), you are likely to find some
combination of foot and ball used to
describe the game. Some countries are
directly translating the word football,
whereas others are using their language’s
word for the two components (such as
Malay and Indonesian, which use bola
sepak andsepak bola, respectively).
SOCCER / Football Why Is It Called Soccer?
The quick and dirty answer is that soccer is a variant of an abbreviation.
One common name for the sport in question is Association Football, and
the earliest spelling of soccer on record is socca(presumably since it was
considered most euphonious to abbreviate association in this fashion,
rather than to call it assoc). For a short while socca and socker were used
interchangeably with soccer, but by the early 20th century, the form we use
today had become the dominant one. By the time the sport had caught on
in the US, the word football was tethered to another sport in American
English.
It should be noted that in the US are not
the only ones who refuse to call football by
what many people seem to feel is its
rightful name.
SOCCER / FOOTBALL TROPHY AWARDS
Golden Boot / Shoe Award
Awarded to a top goal scorer in
a tournament
Golden Ball Award
Award given to the best
player of each tournament
Golden Glove Award
For the tournament’s
outstanding
goalkeeper
Popular Football Players Lionel Messi
FC Barcelona,
Argentina
Cristiano Ronaldo
Real Madrid, Portugal
Luis Suarez
Barcelona, Uruguay
Neymar
Barcelona, Brazil
TENNIS GRAND SLAM
The Grand Slam Tournaments, also called Majors, are the four most important
annual tennis events.
The Grand Slam itinerary consists of the:
Australian Open in mid January, the French Open in May/June, Wimbledon in
June/July, and the US Open in August/September.
Each tournament is played over a period of two weeks.
Australian and US tournaments are played on hard courts, the French on clay, and
Wimbledon on grass. Wimbledon is the oldest, founded in 1877, followed by the US
in 1881, the French in 1891, and the Australian in 1905. However, of these four, only
Wimbledon was a major before 1924/25, the time when all four became designated
Grand Slam tournaments.
The term Grand Slam also, and originally, refers to the achievement of winning all
four major championships in a single calendar year within one of the five events:
men's and women's singles; men's, women's, and mixed doubles.
Popular TENNIS players
Novak Djokovic
Serena Williams
Rafael Nadal
Maria Sharapova
PHILIPPINE BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Founded April 9, 1975 Commissioner Chito Salud
Is a men’s professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve
company-branded franchised teams. It was the first professional basketball league in
Asia and is the second oldest continuously existing in the world after the NBA. The
league’s regulations are a hybrid of rules from FIBA and the NBA.
All franchises teams are owned by corporations. They are not based on geographic
locale, so they do not play in a “home stadium”. The league rents the different
stadiums in which the teams play.
Unlike other leagues, there is no “season champion” of the PBA. Instead, the season
is divided into conferences or tournaments, wherein the teams compete for a
conference cup. A season was usually composed of three conferences. Since
the 2010-11 season, the conferences were named Philippine, Commissioners and
Governors’ Cups, usually ending in a best-of-seven series where the winner took the
conference cup. If the same team won all of the conferences, the team was said to
be the “Grand Slam” champion. A draft was held in August with the season-ending
Governors Cup ending in July. An opening ceremonies is held before the start of the
first game of the season.
PHILIPPINE BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) awards the Most Valuable
Player award (MVP) at the end of the season. The winner is selected via
votes from the press, players, coaches and top PBA officials.
The Best Player of the Conference Award is given to the best local (Filipino
or part-Filipino) player at the end of each conference (tournament). It was
first awarded in the 1994 All-Filipino Conference.
The Best Import Award is given to the best player (non-Filipino) at the end
of each conference.
The method of selecting the Best Player of the Conference is similar on
how the season’s Most Valuable Player is selected.
In addition, a Filipino player can only be eligible for awards if he played in
at least 70% of his team’s games.
National Basketball
Association
Founded June 6, 1946
is the pre-eminent men's professional
basketball league in North America, and
is widely considered to be the premier
men's professional basketball league in
the world. It has 30 franchised member
clubs (29 in the United States and 1 in
Canada), and is an active member
of USA Basketball(USAB), which is
recognized by FIBA (also known as the
International Basketball Federation) as
the National governing body for
basketball in the United States. The NBA
is one of the four major North American
professional sports leagues. NBA players
are the world's best paid sportsmen, by
average annual salary per player.
National Basketball Association
The model of this logo is Jerry West #44 of
Los Angeles Lakers.
Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a
retired American basketball player who played
his entire professional career for the Los
Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball
Association (NBA). His nicknames
include "Mr. Clutch", for his ability to make a
big play in a clutch situation.
Siegel was the name who designed the
familiar logo in 1969, taking a Wen Roberts
photograph of the Lakers star and turning it
into an iconic image. In red, white and blue, it
shows a player in silhouette purposefully
dribbling the ball upcourt with his left hand.
Larry O’Brien
Championship Trophy
Is the championship trophy awarded
annually by the National Basketball
Association (NBA) to the winner of the NBA
finals. The name of the trophy was
previously the Walter A. Brown Trophy until
1984. The current design was first awarded
in 1977 still under its original name, which
was changed in honor of former NBA
commissioner Larry O’ Brien who served
from 1975 to 1984.
The trophy, made of 14.5 pounds of sterling
silver and vermeil with a 24 karat
gold overlay, stands two feet tall. Valued at
$13,500, the trophy is manufactured by
the Tiffany & Co. Silver Shop every year. The
winning team maintains permanent
possession of the trophy.
Is the championship trophy awarded
annually to the National Hockey
League (NHL) playoff winner after the
conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Originally commissioned in 1892 as the
Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the
trophy is named for Lord Stanley of
Preston then – Governor General of
Canada.
The two professional ice hockey
organizations, the National Hockey
Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast
Hockey Association (PCHA), reached a
gentlemen’s agreement in which their
respective champions would face each
other annually for the Stanley Cup.
ICE HOCKEY
Founded November 1993
Industry Mixed martial arts
promotion
UFC is the largest mixed martial arts
promotion company in the world
featuring most of the top-ranked
fighters in the sport. Based in the
United States, the UFC produces
events worldwide.
The purpose of the early UFC
competitions was to identify the most
effective martial art in a real flight
between competitors of different
fighting disciplines, including boxing,
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling,
Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other
styles.
The 750 square foot Octagon measures 30 feet across and 6
feet high, and was created with both safety and fairness in
mind.
Vince Lombardi Trophy
Is the trophy awarded each year to the winning
team of the National Football League’s
championship game, the Super Bowl. The trophy
is named in honor of legendary NFL coach Vince
Lombardi.
The Vince Lombardi Trophy stands 22 inches
(56 cm) tall, weighs 7 pounds (3.2 kg) and depicts
a football in a kicking position on a three concave
sided stand, and is entirely made of sterling silver.
The NFL championship game is called the Super
Bowl, and is among the biggest events in club
sports worldwide. It is played between the
champions of the National Football Conference
(NFC) and the American Football Conference
(AFC), and its winner is awarded the Vince
Lombardi Trophy.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL
Commissioner’s
Trophy
Is presented each year by the
Commissioner of Baseball to the
Major League Baseball teams that
wins the World Series.
In the United States and Canada,
professional Major League Baseball
(MLB) teams are divided into the
National League (NL) and American
League (AL), each with three
divisions: East, West, and Central.
The major league champion is
determined by playoffs that culminate
in the World Series.
BASEBALL
The Six Nations Championship is
an annual international rugby
union competition involving six
European sides: England, France,
Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is
sponsored by the Royal Bank of
Scotland.
RUGBY UNION
The winners of the Six Nations are
presented with the Championship
Trophy. This was originally conceived by
the Earl of Westmorland, and was first
presented to the winners of the 1993
championship, France. It is a sterling
silver trophy, designed by James Brent-
Ward and made by a team of eight
silversmiths from the London firm
William Comyns.
RUGBY UNION
The winners of the Six Nations are
presented with the Championship Trophy.
This was originally conceived by the Earl
of Westmorland, and was first presented
to the winners of the 1993 championship,
France. It is a sterling silver trophy,
designed by James Brent-Ward and made
by a team of eight silversmiths from the
London firm William Comyns.
The Triple Crown may only be won by
England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales,
when one nation wins all three of their
matches against the others, during the Six
Nations Championship.