Page 14 - Sports Facts

An Olympic gold medalist almost died in a plane crash. Took TWO years to be able to walk again and went on to win another gold medal!

Betty Robinson was born in 1911 in Riverdale, Illinois. She ran her first 100-meter race at the age of sixteen and came in second only to the American record holder! The next time she ran, she equaled or surpassed the world record, but was not formally recognized. She attended the Amsterdam Olympics and not only won the gold medal, but shattered the world record.

She seemed to be on top of the world until in 1931, tragedy struck. While flying, something in the plane malfunctioned and it crashed. Robinson was found among the wreckage in a severe coma and was believed to be dead. The civilian that discovered her was so convinced that he stuck her in his truck and drove her body to an undertaker, who discovered she was still alive.

Seven months later she woke up, but the process of recovery was much slower. It took six months until she could even stand out of her wheelchair, and two years until she was able to walk. She missed the 1932 Olympics, and in 1936 was still unable to kneel for the start of the race, but decided to compete anyway and fulfilled the definition of resilience by winning herself a second Olympic gold!

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Restaurants can’t turn on the volume if sports are playing on the TV!

Sports bars pay special fees to be able to show sports games. A restaurant would have to pay hefty fees to each league they broadcast within their building. To play an NFL game on their TV, they’d have to pay the Nation Football League a fee.

One exception is from section 110 of the copyright law: you can show the game to a big crowd, provided you’re not charging a fee for people to watch it and that when you tune in, you’re only using a single receiving apparatus of a kind commonly used in private homes.

Cable companies apparently periodically have done legal crackdowns on bars that subscribe to cable TV under a residential contract for display for patrons. The TV must be less than 55 inches to be shown at private parties.

There are actual auditors who go around and check how many people attend a bar for a game, because the special fees for broadcasting a game are partly calculated by how many will be attending.

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The American Sports industry is worth $422 billion and employs 1% of the population!

It’s almost common sense to know that the sports industry is one of the largest in America and brings in huge, billion dollar profits, but do you know just how big it actually is? It is well known that the star athletes make the headlines after being paid a couple million to play yet this still leaves billions left over after athlete’s salaries are paid. 

This is distributed between advertising, different leagues, team owners, coaches, physical therapists, and a variety of other jobs essential to the world of sports that most of us don’t consider. The total size of the American sport’s industry is believed to generate around $422 billion, with a whopping $27.8 billion spent on advertising. 

The NFL starts the list by generating around $9 billion in revenue. With 32 teams in the NFL the average team value is around $1 billion with around 66,957 spectators at each game. Next is baseball, bringing in a revenue of $7.2 billion with each team being worth an estimated $523 million.

Next is the NBA then the NHL, and NASCAR rounds out the bottom with $645.4 million. While these statistics may sound amazing, put in perspective the results are baffling. There are around 3 million American jobs invested in the sports industry, which is roughly 1% of the entire US population! To learn more about the sports breakdown, click below!

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Grunting in tennis actually gives you an advantage!

The grunt is technically a strong exhale that can be physically gratifying for the tennis player. The grunt is a psychological advantage in that some players feel they hit the ball harder when they grunt. It also serves as a powerful distraction. 

Grunting muffles the noise of the racket hitting the ball and keeps the opponent from hearing how hard the ball was struck. The ball is moving so fast, that the opponent will hear the hit before they see it. Grunting makes it nearly impossible to gauge the hit properly. It isn’t illegal to grunt, but the opponent can complain to the umpire about it.

 A study revealed the accuracy of the complaint that grunting can distract enough to affect performance. Scott Sinnett, assistant psychological professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa asked 33 undergrad tennis players to view videos of a tennis shot being hit toward them and quickly judge whether the ball would go to the left or to the right. 

After measuring their responses and accuracy, he asked them to do them same, but he covered up the hitting noise with a grunt. The students’ time and accuracy significantly decreased when they heard the grunts. 

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Baseball player Richie Ashburn hit a foul ball that struck a spectator and as they carried her away, he hit another foul ball and struck her again!

Ashburn played center field for the Philadelphia Phillies and was known by his nicknames Whitey, Putt-Putt, and The Tilden Flash. He grew up on a farm in Tilden, Nebraska. He batted left and threw right handed. During an August 17, 1957 game, Ashburn hit a foul ball into the stands that struck Alice Roth, the wife of Philadelphia Bulletin sports editor Earl Roth. It broke her nose. 

When playing resumed, Ashburn hit another foul ball that struck her again as she was being carried off on a stretcher. Ashburn and Roth were friends and remained so. Her son actually became a batboy for the Phillies in later years. The majority of Ashburn’s career was spent with the Phillies, but he went on to play for the Chicago Cubs for two years and the New York Mets for one year. He received six All Star awards and two NL batting titles.

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