Name a Trugo Player ... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Babe Ruth

This quiz was indirectly inspired by one I wrote when my daughter declared, in a game of Trivial Pursuit that asked her to name a baseball player who had achieved something, "If it's not Babe Ruth, I don't know who it is." Today a group of us considered other sports about which such a declaration could be made, and this quiz was the result.

George Herman 'Babe' Ruth (1895-1948), aka The Bambino and the Sultan of Swat. played baseball for the Boston Red Sox from 1914 through 1919, primarily as a highly successful pitcher, before being traded to the New York Yankees in a deal that left Red Sox fans in a state of hostility to the Yankees that persists to this day, even though the Curse of the Bambino was broken in 2004, when they finally won another World Series. The Yankees moved him to the outfield, so he could play every day and increase the contributions from his bat. The move was controversial at the time, but worked pretty well. Babe Ruth was such an awesome player that an entire quiz about his athletic accomplishments could be written (see 'Baseball for Sports Haters').

Other names that came to mind when people were asked to name a baseball player included Joe Dimaggio, Lou Gehrig, Frank Robinson, Nolan Ryan and Willie Mays.

Answer: Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont 'Tiger' Woods, born in 1975, showed his prowess at an early age, appearing on television in a putting contest against Bob Hope at the age of three, and scoring more-than-respectable scores by the age of five. He won the Junior Amateur title at the age of 15, and the US Amateur title while still in high school. After two years playing golf for Stanford University he turned professional, winning the Masters a year later. He managed a career Grand Slam at 24, followed by completing a non-calendar-year Grand Slam in 2001. Before his spectacular fall from grace in 2010, he had spent 683 weeks as the Number 1 player in the world.

Other nominations for memorable golf players included Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman. and Babe Didrickson (we didn't specify males, but most responses were).

Answer: LeBron James

LeBron Raymone James Sr., born in 1984, has been nicknamed King James, a tribute to his dominance in the NBA. He was the first pick in the 2003 draft, and played for the Cleveland Cavaliers until moving to Miami in 2010, then returning to Cleveland in 2014, and on the join the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018. At the time of writing his career is still in progress, so figures will change, but in the 2022-2023 season he moved past Kareem Abdul Jabar's career total of scoring 38,387 points to become the leading all-time scorer, having been the youngest player to pass each milestone (from 1,000 to 38,000).

Internationally-recognized names in basketball also included Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabar (although his former name of Lew Alcindor was used) and Wilt Chamberlain.

Answer: Nadia Comaneci

Nadia Elena Comaneci Conner, born in 1961, was the first gymnast to score a perfect ten at the Olympic Games, which she did seven times in the 1976 Montreal games, at the age of 14. She won three individual gold medals at those games, and another two at Moscow in 1980. In both games, her Romanian team won silver. Her best events were the uneven bars (where she received four of her 10s in Montreal on the way to the gold medal) and the beam (where the other three 10s helped her win another gold). She developed a move on the uneven bars, now called the Comaneci salto, which involves what looks like a mid-air somersault performed with the legs widespread.

This is one sport where female stars were more familiar than males, with Olga Korbut and Simone Biles the only other names mentioned.

Answer: Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Douglas Gretzky CC, born in 1961, nicknamed The Great One, played in the National Hockey League between 1979 and 1999, starting with the Edmonton Oilers who had four Stanley cup wins while he was there. In 1988 he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, which he successfully led to a Stanley Cup win in 1993, and raised the profile of the sport in southern California. Lots of other awards arrived along the way, and on retirement he was immediately inducted into the Hall of Fame, with the usual waiting period being waived. His Number 99 jersey was retired across the entire NHL, a tribute previously only paid to Frank Robinson, whose Number 42 was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997. Bill Russell's Number 6 was retired by the National Basketball Association in 2022.

Other hockey players whose names came up included Mario Lemieux (Supermario), Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr.

Answer: Michael Phelps

Despite Australian pride in the excellent performances of our swimmers, the only name that was nominated multiple times was that of the American Michael Phelps. Michael Fred Phelps II, born in 1985, won a total of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold, and eight won at a single event, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. This broke the record Mark Spitz set in 1972 when he won seven gold medals in Munich. After winning four more gold medals, and two silver, in London, Phelps retired in 2014, but made a comeback to attend the Rio Olympics in 2016, winning five more gold medals and two more silver.

Australian swimmers whose names were suggested included Ian Thorpe, Kieran Perkins, Shane Gould and Dawn Fraser.

Answer: Don Bradman

Sir Donald George Bradman, AC (1908-2001) was nicknamed 'The Don', a tribute to his masterful batting skills. (A don is a senior and respected member of a university staff, and also a title of respect in Spanish - take your pick for the explanation.) He represented Australia internationally from 1928 through 1948, and was so dominant that teams developed tactics specifically to curb his scoring (e.g., the infamous Bodyline Series in 1932-3). His last innings was played in 1948 at The Oval in London. His lifetime batting average was 101.39 (over 100 runs scored every time he batted and was out), and he needed only 4 runs to finish with an average of 100. He was out to the second ball he faced, without scoring, to finish with a career average of 99.94.

Nobody else was named! Discussion led us to agree that we were a biased group, and male players such as Sachin Tendulkar (especially if you asked an Indian audience) and Brian Lara were good candidates. Had the question been to name a cricket bowler, not just any cricket player, all agreed that Shane Warne would be a top candidate. Then the topic of women's cricket was broached.

Answer: Serena Williams

Serena Jameka Williams, born in 1981, may be American, but she has a special place in the minds of Australian sports fans, due to her success in the Australian Open; she won the event seven times between 2003 and 2017, along with four doubles wins partnering with her sister Venus. Her Grand Slam career has led to her becoming the first (and currently only) player, male or female, to win a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. A Golden Slam is a Grand Slam (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) with an Olympic gold medal added in. She invented the term Serena Slam to describe holding all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously, although not within a single year.

Possibly Serena came out as the most repeated answer because those who immediately thought of a male player spread themselves more thinly: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt and Rod Laver each got a mention.

Answer: Pele

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022) was an early sporting mononym (player known by a single name) under his nickname Pelé. He first played for the Brazilian national team at the age of 16, and by the end of his career had scored a record-setting 1,279 goals in 1,363 games. His display of skills at the 1958 FIFA World Cup, won by Brazil, turned him into a superstar of the sport, with major European teams bidding for him, but he remained with Santos from 1956 until his retirement in 1974. He was tempted out of retirement in 1975 to join the New York Cosmos, where he played for two years, drawing popular attention to the North American Soccer League, then attempting to make soccer take off in the United States.

While Pele was the commonly-nominated player, Diego Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mia Hamm were also suggested.

Answer: Muhammad Ali

How can you go past the world's most recognized sportsman, according to multiple surveys and sources? Self-proclaimed The Greatest, Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (1942 - 2016) adopted the name Muhammad Ali in 1964, having become a Muslim in 1961. The year 1964 also saw him become heavyweight boxing champion, with an upset win over Sonny Liston. When he cited religious beliefs for his refusal to be drafted in 1966, he was convicted of draft evasion. The conviction was overturned on appeal in 1971, but meanwhile he had been stripped of his title. In 1971 The Fight of the Century saw Ali lose to Smokin' Jow Frazier, his first professional loss. Ali won a rematch, as well as the third in the series of bouts, known as The Thrilla in Manila. Then came the 1974 fight (subject of the 1996 documentary 'When We Were Kings') against George Foreman in Zaire, billed as The rumble in the Jungle, where Ali first used a tactic he called rope-a-dope, to gain an underdog victory.

The only other name suggested by a member of our group came from someone with no familiarity with boxing at all - we had to rule out Rocky Balboa as a ringer.