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.