Sports Philadelphia Style Trivia Quiz

Answer: Phillies

When the team was founded in 1883 they were called the Quakers. The nickname of Phillies became the team name around 1890. It started off in an article in the newspaper, which gradually gained common use.

There have been many other baseball teams in the Philadelphia area, including the other two options. The Philadelphia Pythians played in the Negro Leagues, which gave African-American players the opportunity to participate in their sport in the days when the professional game was strictly segregated. The team was active between 1867 and 1871, but collapsed after Octavius Catto, one of the co-founders was killed during election day riots (in protest at black men being allowed to vote) in 1870.

The Philadelphia Athletics were one of the first teams in the American League when it was set up in 1901, located to provide direct competition to the Phillies. They were quite successful in this, but in 1954 relocated to Kansas City, Missouri and became the Kansas City Athletics. In 1967 another move turned them into the Oakland Athletics.

Answer: 1980

The first World Series was played in 1903, played between the Pittsburgh Pirates, representing the more established National League, and the Boston Americans, later to be known as the Red Sox, for the newer American League. Boston won the best-of-nine-game series 5-3. When the Phillies won the World Series in 1980, they became the last of the original 16 teams that played in 1903 to do so. They had previously made it to the World Series in 1915 and 1950, losing both times.

The Philadelphia Athletics won the World Series five times under the management of Connie Mack, but they played in the American League.

Answer: Jim Bunning

On Sunday, June 21, 1964, Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game at Shea Stadium, against the New York Mets. A perfect game is one in which no batter gets on base, including by being walked or due to an error. They are understandably rare, and this was only the seventh time it had been done in MLB history. The game was played on Father's Day, and his wife and daughter were in the stands to enjoy the moment.

Grover Cleveland Alexander, who pitched for the Phillies between 1911 and 1917, was part of the squad the made it to their first World Series in 1915. Robin Roberts played for the team in 1948-1961, and Roy Halladay's stint was from 2010 until 2013.

Answer: Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles were established in 1933, as part of the National Football League. When the National League and the American League combined in 1970, their group became the National Football Conference East. The name of this conference is geographically misleading, as it has almost always had one team that was based nowhere near the east coast: the Saint Louis Cardinals who became the Arizona Cardinals were included until 2001, when they were shuffled to the NFC West; the Dallas Cowboys remained in the NFC East with Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

The Patriots used to be the Boston Patriots, before their base moved out of the city and they became the New England Patriots. The Giants are still known as the New York giants despite moving their home ground to Newark NJ. The Bears play in Chicago.

Answer: Yes

The first Super Bowl win by the Eagles came in the 2017 season, when they defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl LII by a score of 41-33, in a game played on 4 February 2018 in Minneapolis. Although this was the first Super Bowl win for the Eagles, they had won NFL championships before the merger of the AFL and NFL led to the first Super Bowl. These came in 1948, 1949 and 1960.

Answer: Pittsburgh Steelers

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia joined the NFL in the same year, and developed a fierce rivalry over the years. In 1943 the rivalry was put aside, and the Phil-Pitt Combine (known as the Steagles by adding the ST from the Steelers to the start of the combined name) were formed.

The two head coaches worked together, and they finished the season with a 5-4-1 record. This was the first time that the Philadelphia players had been on a team that won more games than it lost in the season, and the start of a successful era.

Answer: 76ers

The franchise actually started as the Syracuse Nationals in 1946, joining the National Basketball League that had started in 1937. In 1949 the NBL merged with the BAA (Basketball Association of America) to form the NBA (National Basketball Association).

In 1963 they were purchased by a group who wanted to replace the Warriors (who had moved to San Francisco) as the Philadelphia team in the NBA, and they moved there. The team's official name was selected in reference to the 1976 signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

The shortened form Sixers quickly gained popular use, as it is so much easier to shout, and has become an officially sanctioned form of their name.

Answer: 1967

The Nationals won a title in 1955, but that was when they were still in Syracuse. The 76ers, led by Wilt Chamberlain, won the title in 1967, and a team featuring Moses Malone and Julius Erving won in 1983. The 1966-7 season saw the 76ers compile a 68-13 record during the season, the best to that time for any NBA team.

In the semi-finals they beat the Celtics in five games, ending that team's eight-year run as champions. The finals saw them defeat the Warriors in six games. The Warriors, when they were playing in Philadelphia, had won the title twice, in 1947 and 1956.

Answer: Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt 'the Stilt' Chamberlain played for Harlem Globetrotters in 1958 and 1958, before joining the Philadelphia Warriors in 1959. When they moved to San Francisco in 1965, he managed a transfer back to his home town, and played for the 76ers until 1968 before moving again to the Los Angeles Lakers.

On 2 March 1962 the Warriors played the New York Knicks in Hershey PA, and Wilt Chamberlain had a blinder of a game. The game was not filmed, so the only record we have is the radio broadcast of the fourth quarter, in which the announcer's reaction to the shot that scored the 100th point can be heard: "He made it! He made it! He made it! A Dipper Dunk!" The Dipper Dunk was the term Chamberlain used to describe a dunk - a shot in which the player holds the ball over the top of the basket before pushing it down in to score.

Chamberlain finished his 14-year career with a 30.1 scoring average and a 22.9 rebound average. The four-time league MVP also gained the NBA record for most games with 50 or more points, a feat he accomplished an astounding 122 times. And that is only the start - a list of all his record-breaking statistics would take too much space for a mere quiz question!

Answer: Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers were established in 1967 as part of the National Hockey League's expansion from the original six teams to a twelve-team competition. The expansion teams were the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Oakland Seals, the Los Angeles Kings, the Minnesota North Stars and the St. Louis Blues. Expansion has continued - by the end of the century there were 30 teams, with more to come.

Before the Flyers, Philadelphia had (for a single season) been the home for an NHL team, when the Pittsburgh moved to become the Philadelphia Quakers due to financial difficulties. Their abysmal season (4-36-4) stood into the 21st century as the worst record in the NHL. They stopped playing after that season.

The Flyers struggled in their early years, along with the other expansion teams, due to the rules in place to protect the Original Six (Boston, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit and Chicago) from having their players lured away to other teams. In 1969 they introduced what was to become a tradition: instead of playing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' over the sound system before the start of the game, they used a recording of 'God Bless America'. It is supposed to bring the team good luck - and they have actually won three times as many games as they have lost when that song is played.

Answer: Yes

Their first season in 1967-68 saw them win their division (which was the six expansion teams), but they lost to St. Louis in the playoffs. The nest year they made the playoffs, but again lost to St Louis. Several more years of getting close but not succeeding followed, but in the 1972-1973 season they made their first of 18 consecutive playoff appearances, and gained the nickname of 'Broad Street Bullies' (a reference to the fact that they played in a stadium on Broad Street). The following season saw them win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Boston Bruins 4-2. Kate Smith appeared in person at the Spectrum before Game 6 to sing 'God Bless America', instead of the usual recorded version of her performance.

After a second win the following season, the Flyers lost form, and entered a long spell of uneven seasons. While they won their division nine more times in the 20th century, and appeared in the finals on five of those occasions, they did not win the Stanley Cup again in that time.

Answer: Legion of Doom

These three came together to form the forward line of the Flyers due to some mid-season trades, and almost immediately their sheer size and skill had an impact. During their first season together they scored a combined total of 80 goals, 70 of them from Eric Lindros. The next season yielded 121 goals, and their final year together 104 goals, a total reduced due to injury problems. They led the team to the Stanley Cup Finals with impressive victories in the playoffs, but lost to the Detroit Redwings in an upset 4-0 series. Mikael Renberg was traded before the next season, and the Legion of Doom was no more.

Orange Crush is not only a brand of soft drink, it is also the nickname given to the defensive lineup of the Denver Broncos in the 1970s. Like the Flyers, they wore orange uniforms.

Answer: Union

Until the 2010 expansion, MLS did not have a team in Philadelphia. The Atoms and the Fury had played in the North American Soccer League which operated between 1968 and 1984. The LA Galaxy were one of the original ten MLS teams when the league was set up in 1993, as part of the promotion of soccer in advance of the United States acting as hosts for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

The team name was selected following a survey of fans (and there were a lot of enthusiastic fans - all 12,000 season ticket passes were sold before the start of the season). Given a choice that included the more traditional European-style names of AC Philadelphia, SC Philadelphia, and Philadelphia City, the fans went for the Philadelphia Union, another team name commemorating the city's role in the early years of the nation.

Answer: 2022

The Union did not have a spectacular start in the NSL, losing their first game and battling to a season record of 8-15-7, making them 14th out of 18 in the league. The team improved with player deals over the years, and in 2020 won the Supporters' Shield, awarded to the team with the best win-loss record at the end of the season. Their coach, Jim Curtin, won the Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year Award, and the team qualified for international competition. They played in the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition organised by the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football in which the winners or each nation's season compete.

In 2022 the Union won their conference (missing out on the Supporters' Shield due to having fewer wins than Los Angeles Football Club, who had the same number of points), and made it to the finals, where they lost to Los Angeles FC in a penalty shootout, 3-0.

Answer: Eagles and Yankees

Boston, New York and Pittsburgh are all close enough to Philadelphia that local rivalries can be stoked by the media to generate attendance at games. The Eagles and the Yankees play in different sports (football and baseball), so have no rivalry. The Eagles-New York Giants rivalry, however, is real. Since the Yankees and the Phillies play in different leagues, they have not established a rivalry - but that between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox is legendary.

While these rivalries are long-standing, there are others whose intensity waxes and wanes as the teams' relative success changes. New York and Pittsburgh, being nearby, are often the enemy of choice for Philadelphia teams, as is Boston.