Page 48 - Sports Facts

Australia achieved the largest victory ever in an international soccer match when they defeated American Samoa 32-0 in 2001.

This came just a day after the Australians had broken the previous record by dominating Tonga by a score of 22-0 in the opening round of the 2002 World Cup qualifier! The previous goals record had been achieved by Kuwait a year prior in a 20-0 massacre of Bhutan.

Part of the reason the second Australian victory was so dramatic was because the American Samoans had to call in their junior squad because the senior team had a passport mixup (the juniors' average age was 18!). Archie Thompson of Australia also scored a record 13 goals in the match, beating the former World Cup record of 7, held by Iran's Karim Bagheri. Thompson had only scored one goal in two other appearances for his country before that point!

Watch every one of these goals on Youtube! It's ridiculous!

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A highway in Missouri had to be shut down after 20 tons of mayonnaise spilled on it.

The eastbound lanes of Interstate 44 in southwest Missouri were closed for several hours Saturday night as crews cleaned up 40,000 pounds of split mayo! The driver of the tractor-trailer that had been transporting the condiment reportedly lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the median, dumping his precious cargo in the process. A local police lieutenant said that walking on the mayo slick felt like walking on ice!

Thankfully, no one was injured during the ordeal and no lives were lost - just a few appetites.
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Philadelphia sports teams were cursed for 20 years!

The "Curse of Billy Penn" is said to have kept Philadelphia's four professional sports teams from winning championships. According to legend, the city had been cursed since 1987 after the construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper. This tower exceeded the height of the statue of William Penn, founder and namesake of the state of Pennsylvania, atop the Philadelphia City Hall building.

It wasn't until 2007 that this curse was lifted. At the end of the construction of Philadelphia's new tallest skyscraper, the Comcast Center, members of the local ironworkers union affixed a figurine of Penn to the final beam. This, once again, put William Penn at the highest point of the city, lifting the curse. One year and 4 months later the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.

Of course, the mayor of Philadelphia was smart enough not to further jinx the city by making the Billy Penn statue wear a Phillies jersey and cap.

Read more about the Curse of Billy Penn in this Wall Street Journal article. For more info on this and other weird sports curses, check out this post-World Series column.

Trees have a maximum height of 130 meters (426.5 ft).

Even redwoods, the tallest trees on Earth, cannot grow past a certain height. This is because of limitations posed to the trees in transporting water to such heights and the increased path length for photosynthesis. Trees can also only achieve these dramatic heights in areas where stresses are minor, resources are plentiful, and the competition for sunlight rewards trees that grow taller.
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In 1962 major league baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry famously said, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20th, 1969 he hit his first home run just minutes after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, 'They'll put a man on the Moon before I hit a home run.'

On July 20, 1969, just minutes after Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first home run.