Category:
Sports
Sports
Pulled Video
Mashable.com is hosting a video that Nascar and Youtube chose to censor. A fan in the stands got some pretty intense video of a very serious wreck from todays race. Part of a car flew into the stands causing injuries to spectators including the person in the video who was apparently hit by a tire. Details of the huge wreck are also available at the link.UPDATE: Youtube has reinstated the previously pulled video.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 23, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Sports
Octopus Wrestling
According to wikipedia, octopus wrestling "involves a diver grappling with a large octopus in shallow water and dragging it to the surface."Popular Mechanics (May 1966) provides some more details:
Two things work for the hunters. The octopus is basically timid, and divers work in teams. One man goes down (about 50 feet) and tries to force an octopus from his cave. When he comes up for air, the second man goes down and tries to pry the octopus loose from the rocks. If he's not up in 30 seconds, the third man goes down. They don't harm the animals. They just weigh them and throw them back in. Why do they do it? Well, why not?
Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 23, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Sports, Wrestling, 1960s
Jim Cripps, the Backwards Bowler
He was just a run-of-the-mill talented bowler, until he started bowling backwards. Now he's famous. (famous among bowlers, at least.) Check out his website.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 11, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Sports
Is Your Mister a Mystery?
I venture to suggest that there is no mystery as to what will appeal to the recipient of such gifts. Most men, if presented with an old dishrag by a Christmas "elf" in such attire, would be quite happy.
Original ad here. (Scroll down and to the right.)
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 30, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Holidays, Sports, Sex Symbols, 1950s
Patrick O’Connor, Wrestler and Artist
There aren't that many people who seriously pursue art and wrestling at the same time, but Patrick O'Connor was one of them. Back in the 1940s, he was heavyweight wrestling champion of Ireland, but also had a Greenwich Village art studio. He was an artist of the "conservative Realist and Romantic school." Apparently he viewed art as his true passion. Wrestling was just a way to make money. From The Evening Independent, Sep. 9, 1944:His portraits were too realistic. If a rich dowager had three chins, he refused to conveniently omit two of them. As a result there was no rush of customers, so the painter turned to wrestling as a means of earning an honest dollar.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any examples of his art, except for the ones that can be seen behind him in the pictures below. O'Connor is the one with the beard. The pictures were taken in his art studio.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 02, 2013 -
Comments (3)
Category: Art, Sports, Wrestling, 1940s
Patricia McCormick, Female Bullfighter
There haven't been many female bullfighters, and being a female bullfighter back in the 1950s made Patricia McCormick even more of an oddity. Wikipedia offers this brief bio of her:Patricia debuted as a bullfighter in September 1951 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. She joined the Matador's Union soon after and began bullfighting as a professional Matadora in January 1952. Throughout her decade-long career, she fought in 300 corridas throughout Mexico and Venezuela. Six times bulls gored her, once so seriously that a priest administered last rites.
Wikigender has some info about the history of female bullfighting:
Women have fought bulls since the 18th century, but a law in 1908 banned then from the ring on the grounds of "decency and public morality". The restriction was lifted in the 1930s but reimposed by the dictator Francisco Franco in 1940. It was lifted again only after his death in 1975. Women bullfighters still remain rare.
Read more about McCormick here and here.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 28, 2012 -
Comments (7)
Category: Sports, 1950s
Kabbadi
New sports are always being invented. But will they become universal? I am in doubt about Kabbadi. Although, as this BBC article tells us, there's a UK women's team. What do you think? USA Kabbadi leagues with primetime ESPN coverage?
I am a little unclear how any ref could enforce this rule during the melee: "Then the raider tries to return to his own half, holding his breath and chanting the word "Kabaddi" during the whole raid."
I think the announcers though will rival the Latino ones who shout "GOOOOAAAL!" in soccer matches.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 22, 2012 -
Comments (2)
Category: Sports, Asia, Europe, India
The Ear Pull (and other painful Inuit sports)
Quoting from wikipedia:The ear pull is a traditional Inuit game which tests the competitors' ability to endure pain. In the ear pull, two competitors sit facing each other, their legs straddled and interlocked. A two-foot-long loop of string, similar to a thick, waxed dental floss, is looped behind their ears, connecting right ear to right ear, or left to left. The competitors then pull upon the opposing ear using their own ear until the cord comes free or one player quits from the pain. The game has been omitted from some Arctic sports competitions due to safety concerns and the squeamishness of spectators; the event can cause bleeding and competitors sometimes require stitches.
The ear weight is a related competition. The goal is to walk as far as possible with lead weights (16 pounds) hanging from your ears. For many years, the reigning champion was Joshua Okpik, Jr. (shown below) who went half a mile with the weights. From People magazine (Aug 11, 1986):
As Okpik entered his fifth circuit of the Big Dipper Arena in Fairbanks, the crowd of 2,000 picked up a clapping beat. Around and around he padded, his ear darkening from purple to black, his neck muscles straining like cables. Six, seven, eight circuits he went, face contorted in pain, the audience now rocking and bellowing in support. Okpik was starting his tenth lap when his twine loop slipped and the 16 pounds thudded to the floor. He had walked 1,813 feet and five inches, more than a third of a mile. What drove him? As pain tested his limits, Okpik later said, "I told myself, 'Just be tough like a man.'"
Or there's the Knuckle Hop, which tests how far contestants can hop on their knuckles on a hardwood floor. Apparently you lose feeling in your hands after the first few hoops. So no worries!
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 18, 2012 -
Comments (2)
Category: Sports
The Egyptian Popeye
Mustafa Ismail won the 2013 Guinness World Record for having the largest biceps. He's called the 'Egyptian Popeye.' He insists his bulging arm muscles are 100% natural, and according to albawaba.com, 'Japanese doctors' have examined him, looking for any signs of doping or suspicious needle marks, and have pronounced him to be the real deal. But I'm having trouble believing that. Arm muscles simply don't develop like that naturally.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Nov 20, 2012 -
Comments (9)
Category: Body, Bodybuilding, Sports, World Records
Tilting the Bucket
Tilting the Bucket is one of the unusual sports that used to be played in the British Isles. Life magazine offers this description of it:'Tilting the bucket' is a burlesque of medieval jousting. Instead of a lance ye knight carries a pole. His steed is a wheelbarrow. To win the tilt the young clansman must throw his pole through a small hole in an overhead target. The target is attached to a bucket of water. If he misses, as he almost always does, the barrow-pusher must run at top speed to avoid a drenching.
The game requires some specialized equipment (the revolving overhead bucket), but if you don't have this, there's is a board game version you can play.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 17, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Sports
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |