George Eyser, who won three golds, two silvers and a bronze at the 1904 Olympics, had a wooden leg.

Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan was inspired by the last words of a murderer.

In 1920, Clarence Blethen retired hurt from a baseball match after biting himself on the bottom with the false teeth he kept in his back pocket.

Prisoners on Alcatraz always had hot showers so they didn’t get acclimatised to cold water and try to escape by swimming.

Franz Kafka liked to exercise naked in front of the window.

One in four Americans believe that God decides who wins the Super Bowl.

A tennis ball is only in play for about 20 minutes of an average two-and-a-half-hour tennis match.

In 2009, a search of Loch Ness for the Loch Ness monster located 100,000 golf balls.

The Duke of Wellington played cricket for Ireland.

The first football rulebook in Argentina stated that a player who had been fouled could accept an apology rather than involve the referee.

On average, soccer players run as far as 9.5 miles in a single match.

'face-off' in hockey was originally called a 'puck-off'.