Page 36 - Sports Facts

An amendment to the US Constitution in 1893 was proposed to change the name of the nation to the “United States of Earth.”

Since the ratification of the United States Constitution, the population has grown from 4 million to over 300 million. The country has changed enormously, but the Constitution has only changed 27 times, including the Bill of Rights (amendments 1-10)! Many more amendments have been proposed, however. In fact, the success rate of an amendment is less than 1%. Here are some other ridiculous attempts:

• 1876: to abolish the US Senate
• 1878: to replace the Presidency with a Council of Three
• 1916: to put acts of war to a national vote - anyone voting “yes” had to volunteer for service in the Army
• 1933: to limit personal wealth to $1 million

Check out the source for more!
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Lacrosse is one of the oldest known sports in North America!

Early recorded data on lacrosse, as far back as the 1630s, comes from missionaries and explorers and is sparse and often conflicting. However, it is known that in the traditional Native Canadian forms of the sport, teams could have hundreds of players on fields over a mile long, and games would last a few days! The sport played a significant role in the lives of tribe members, whether as a spiritual event, a ritual with curative purposes, or a surrogate for war. Sometimes, territorial disputes between tribes were settled with a lacrosse game.

The role of lacrosse in American Indian life declined by the late 19th century in the face of cultural erosion and government pressure. When the Choctaw of Oklahoma added lead weights to their sticks to use them as skull-crackers, the game was banned. However, non-native lacrosse hailing from Montreal is today one of the fastest growing sports in North America. The field game of women players today most closely resembles the traditional Indian style, with a wooden stick, lack of protective gear and demarcated sidelines, and use of a mass attack strategy.
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The Shell Oil Company used to be a company that sold sea shells.

Marcus Samuel was a London antique dealer who discovered a demand for sea shells from the Far East. He started importing the shells, and eventually created an import/export business that would eventually become “Shell Transport and Trading Company”. Marcus Samuel passed the company to his two sons, Marcus Samuel Jr. and the unfortunately named Samuel Samuel. In the advent of the internal combustion engine in the 19th Century, the Samuel brothers decided to get into the oil shipping business. For decades Shell’s business primarily consisted of buying oil in Russia and shipping it across the world. In 1907, Shell merged with Royal Dutch Petroleum to become Royal Dutch Shell, which is now one of the largest oil companies in the world.
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Fans traditionally throw octopuses onto the ice at Detroit Red Wings games!

This bizarre ritual was begun in 1952 when the Wings were making a run at the Stanley Cup. Pete and Jerry Cusiamo, a pair of brothers who owned shops in East Detroit made the odd decision to throw the creature out on the rink. This choice was not as strange as you may think though! Back in those days, there were only eight franchises in the entire NHL, so a team only had to win 2 eight-game series to take home the cup. The octopus's eight legs were intended to symbolize each of the victories required for Detroit to win it all, and the squad delivered - by sweeping ALL eight games! Therefore, the multi-legged cephalopod has been considered the team's good luck charm ever since! (source)

Concussions get worse and more deadly each time they occur.

A history of concussions can lead to long-term memory loss. Also, having a concussion in the past lowers the threshold for subsequent concussion injury and make the symptoms for those future concussions more severe. People who suffer three or more concussions are 9 times more likely to suffer more severe concussion symptoms than someone who just had their first one.
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