Some Things Never Change Trivia Quiz

Answer: Manchester United

One man instantly springs to mind when discussions arise regarding the Manchester United team of the 1990s and the 2000s and that is Sir Alex Ferguson. Scottish born but a Mancunian at heart, Sir Alex Ferguson presided over thirteen of the club's Premier League titles.

The Premier League's inaugural season was contested in 1992-93 and apart from Manchester United, only two other clubs (Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal) managed to take the title in any of the seasons of the 1990s.

Answer: Switzerland

Three years after America's Pete Sampras won his seventh and final Wimbledon Singles title in 2000, Roger Federer became arguably one of Switzerland's greatest ever sporting exports. In 2003, Federer became Wimbledon Singles champion for the first time; at that point, very few would have had the youngster down to go on to win another four titles in a row and by extension match the five consecutive Wimbledon Singles of legendary Swede, Bjorn Borg, but he did just that!

Answer: Pittsburgh Steelers

The footballing success of the Pittsburgh Steelers began in January 1975 at the Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pennsylvania-based franchise, under the leadership of head coach Chuck Noll, defeated the Minnesota Vikings 16-6 at Super Bowl IX in front of a crowd 80,000 strong.

The next year, the Steelers persevered against tough opposition from the Dallas Cowboys and despite being behind at the start of the fourth quarter, the Steelers went on to win their second consecutive Super Bowl.

A further two victories came for Pittsburgh at Super Bowls XIII and XIV, held in January 1979 and January 1980 respectively. After this flurry of four titles, Steelers fans had to wait until February 2006 for the franchise's fifth Super Bowl victory.

Answer: Boston Celtics

The issue of whether or not the Irish are historically lucky aside, one thing can be said with certainty, and that is that the Boston Celtics were THE team of the early 1960s. Quite incredibly, the Celtics made it to the NBA Finals every year from 1957 to 1966 - ten seasons at the pinnacle of American and world basketball. From those ten appearances in the series of games that constitute an NBA Final, the Celtics won an astonishing nine titles, including a whitewash 4-0 series victory over the Minnesota Lakers.

The only loss suffered by the Boston Celtics in this period was inflicted upon them by the St. Louis Hawks in 1958, the score being 4-2.

Answer: Snooker

Snooker has a funny habit of generating players who dominate the sport over the course of a decade. The 1970s saw Welshman Ray 'Dracula' Reardon win six titles, the 1980s was the decade of success for Englishman Steve Davis as he also won six titles and the 1990s saw Scotland's Stephen Hendry take home seven World Championships.

The remarkable aspect of all this is not just the ability of the three players who had nineteen World Championship wins between them, but the fact that once the decade ticked over, their respective abilities to win seemed to vanish!

Answer: Rugby Union

The Five Nations was a rugby union competition which featured the national teams of England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Just as many English football fans refuse to let go of their nation's 1966 World Cup victory, their Celtic neighbours to the west are known to frequently reminisce and hark back to the golden era of Welsh rugby, the 1970s! I suppose it is with good reason; the brilliance of Gareth Edwards, the seven Five Nations titles (never mind that some of them were tied) and lest we forget, the sideburns of J.P.R. Williams.

The Five Nations would become the Six Nations in 2000 upon the inclusion of another team from the mainland of Europe, Italy.

Answer: Michael Phelps

The first glimpses of the talent of Michael Phelps on the international stage were seen at the Pan Pacific Championships of 2002, but this was mostly in the context of the team events, the medleys. He continued to shine in the medley events at the 2003 World Championships but he was beginning to show signs of an outstanding butterfly stroke; he won the gold medal for the event.

This brilliance in the butterfly races was replicated at the Athens Olympics of 2004 where he picked up the gold medal for both the 100m and 200m events in Olympic record time.

In Athens, the Maryland-born swimmer picked up six gold medals and two bronze medals, a performance that would he would outdo in Beijing four years later. In Beijing's "Water Cube", Phelps won an incredible eight gold medals, two of those medals were again for the 100m and 200m butterfly events. Fast forward to London 2012 and the stamina of Phelps could be seen in all its glory, as he added another six Olympic medals to his collection: four gold and two silver.

Despite winning this number of medals and coming first in the 100m butterfly for a third consecutive time, his performance showed that swimming really is a young person's game; the rest of the competitors may have caught up to him somewhat in London but matching his legacy will be a feat that remains many strokes out of the reach of the vast majority who come after him.

Answer: Australia

Cricket, with its interesting terminology, quirky history and its extensive set of laws, is a sport that baffles many people and in good spirit some Australians might say that it also baffles England. This air of superiority over the "poms" (the special name given to the British by Australians) was justifiably at its height in 2007 when Australia won its third consecutive Cricket World Cup.

In contrast, by the time Australia had won in 2007, England had managed to reach the final of the Cricket World Cup on three occasions (1979, 1987 and 1992) but never emerged victorious.

Answer: Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a golf tournament that takes the best players from the USA, the best players from Europe (prior to 1979 it was just Great Britain and Ireland), and pits them against each other over the course of a few days. From the inaugural tournament held in 1927 to the 1983 Ryder Cup in Florida, the US won 22 times out of a possible 25; a poor showing from the British contingent, just three victories in over fifty years.

When the competition was expanded to include mainland Europe, the situation turned on its head with the USA frequently finding itself the runner-up.

Answer: Ice hockey rink

The Montreal Canadiens were an ice hockey team that really set the standard in the NHL for many decades, most notably in the late 1950s, the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. In the 1950s, coach "Toe" Blake carried on and improved upon the work of his predecessor, Dick Irvin, as he oversaw the team's dominance of the sport winning five consecutive Stanley Cups.

The success didn't stop there however, as the Canadiens would pick up the Stanley Cup four times in the 1960s and six times in the 1970s.