Sport in Literature Trivia

1. Fortunate Hogwarts students are permitted to play what fascinating game during PE in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series?

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Quidditch

Quidditch is the creation of J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter universe. Young witches and wizards, flying on broomstickes, learn how to play the semi-contact sport in school. Seven players make up a team and four balls (Quaffle, Bludgers, and Golden Snitch) are used during the game. The field of play is 500 feet long by 180 feet wide and has three circular goals at either end (30 feet, 40 feet, and 50 feet high respectively). Harry Potter becomes an accomplished seeker and the game of Quidditch features prominently in the first six of the seven Harry Potter books.

From Quiz A Literary History of Croquet

Answer: Flamingo/Hedgehog

"The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away ..." (from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"). In 1866, Carroll also invented a variant of croquet known as castle croquet. This involves four players each controlling two balls, and is still played today.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Arthur Kretchmer, "Playboy"

The short story was aptly titled "Butkus." Arthur Kretchmer had a degree in creative writing from the City College of New York. He later got a job working for 'Playboy' and his story was printed in 1973.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Bridge to Terabithia

"Bridge to Terabithia" was published by Harper Collins in 1977 and won the Newbery Medal in 1978. The story focuses on the friendship of two lonely children who create a magical kingdom in the woods that they name Terabithia. Leslie is the daughter of two authors and loves to read books about fantasy lands. Jess is a talented artist who loves to draw. They both love to run and Jess is horrified when the new girl, Leslie, beats him in a sprint race when the new school year begins. However, the two become best of friends and share adventures together. Ultimately tragedy occurs when Leslie is killed when falling from the rope swing that is the entrance to Terabithia. The story is based upon the memory of a student who died in a lightning strike back in 1974. The victim was a young girl who was the best friend of Paterson's son David.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Dick Schaap

The shory story was titled "Lone Wolf of Tennis." It was published in 1958. Dick Schaap's autobiography 'Namedropping' was published in 1999. He passed away in 2001.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Basketball

"The Moves Make the Man" by Bruce Brooks is set in 1961 North Carolina during the Civil Rights Movement. Jerome Foxworthy is a young African American boy who is transferred to an all-White public school. Jerome narrates the story which explores his relationship with a young white boy called Braxton Rivers. Jerome teaches Bix how to play basketball which leads to Bix playing his stepfather in a bid to earn a visit to see his mother at the mental hospital. It is a profound and touching story that speaks to many societal issues such as racism, domestic violence, prejudice, and death of loved ones. "The Moves Make the Man" earned the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and in 1984 it was chosen as the best book by School Library Journal.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin was born in 1929. He began his career as a journalist in 1948, getting a job at the 'Long Island Press.' Jimmy Breslin wound up writing sports columns for the 'New York Herald Tribune,' 'World Tribune Journal,' 'New York Post' and the 'Daily News.' He has also written numerous books.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Michael Jordan

"Dream Big" was written and published in 2012 by Michael Jordan's mother Deloris Jordan. It is illustrated by Barry Root and focuses on the inspirational story of one of the greatest basketball players that has ever lived. Only 9 years old, he watches on television the American team lose at the 1972 Olympic Games. At that moment he tells his mother and brothers that one day he will be an Olympic Champion. Through hard work in middle school, high school, and then college, he maintains his dream and makes the U.S. Olympic team in 1984. At those Games, the Dream Team captures the first of many Olympic Gold medals and Michael's dream becomes a reality. Deloris has also written another inspiring story about her son entitled "Salt in his Shoes."

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: "Resurrecting the Champ"

J.R. Moehringer was born in New York City in 1964. "Resurrecting the Champ" is the story of former boxing great Bob Satterfield. J.R. Moehringer is the national correspondent for the 'Los Angeles Times.' He won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2000.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Croquet

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, introduced the world to Alice in 1865. During her adventures in Wonderland she meets many extraordinary characters. One of these is the Queen of Hearts who orders her to participate in a game of croquet using hedgehogs for balls, playing cards as hoops, and flamingos for mallets. Needless to say, the game erupts into chaos.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Richard Cramer

Richard Ben Cramer won that Pulitzer Prize while working at the 'Philadelphia Inquirer.' He began his career at the 'Baltimore Sun' in 1973. In 1986, he wrote a short story about Red Sox great Ted Williams. Then in 1991, he wrote a book about Ted Williams.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Cricket Match

"Tom Brown's School Days" was written by Thomas Hughes and published in 1857. The novel is set at Rugby School for Boys. Hughes attended Rugby School in the 1830's and many of the events within the book parallel his own life, including the final cricket match played at the end of the book. Rugby School is also the birthplace of the sport of rugby. History records that during a regular game of soccer, a boy picked up the ball with his hands and ran with it - an initiative that gave birth to a new sport.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Grantland Rice

Grantland Rice was a well known writer of his generation. He passed away in 1954. There is a sports-writing scholarship named for him. He was the father of actress Florence Rice.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Boxing

Robert Cormier first published "The Chocolate War" in 1974 and it was adapted into a screenplay in 1988. Critics have suggested that it is one of the best pieces of young adult fiction ever to be written. The protagonist is Jerome Renault, who is an underclassman at Trinity High School. The school is dominated by bullies that operate with a mob mentality. Jerry challenges the cruel and brutal nature of the status quo only to suffer physical and emotional beatings for resisting the requirement to conform and accept oppression. The story is a powerful commentary on both adolescence and society as a whole. In 1985, Cormier published a sequel entitled "Beyond the Chocolate War".

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Boxing

"All the Way to the Grave" was written by Frank Graham and published in 1950. Frank Graham is considered to have altered sports columns by reducing the editorializing and getting more actual reporting done. Frank Graham passed away in 1965.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: The Catcher in the Rye

"The Catcher in the Rye" was published by J.D. Salinger in 1951. Originally it was written for an adult audience, but it has consistently been used in high school English classes on account of its strong adolescent themes. The narrator and protagonist of the novel is Holden Caulfield, an angst-ridden teenager who struggles to find purpose in his life. In 2005, "Time" listed the book as one of the top 100 books written since 1923. The novel takes on topics such as alienation, identity, sexuality, and psychosocial development.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Westbrook Pegler

Westbrook Pegler joined the 'Chicago Tribune' as a sports columnist in 1925. "The Olympic Army" got published through Scripps-Howard News in 1936. In 1944, he went to work for the 'New York Journal-American' and created the character George Spelvin.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: Soccer

Ann Brashares's series was published starting in 2003. Four books were written in the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series that follows four fictional friends through four summers beginning after their sophomore year in high school. The connection for the group is a pair of jeans that fits them perfectly despite the very different body shapes that they have. In 2011, a fifth book was released that catches up with the friends as they are about to turn 30.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Gerald Holland

Gerald Holland's most noted work is "Mr. Rickey and the Game." Before he helped found 'Sports Illustrated', Gerald Holland worked as the public relations director of the Cleveland Browns in the 1930s.

From Quiz Running Through the Pages

Answer: The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins published the first installment of her "Hunger Games" series on September 14, 2008. The voice of the story is 16-year old Katniss Everdeen. The setting of the novel is a post-apocalyptic society in the Americas that is divided into 12 districts. The country is called Panem and the Capitol chooses two children from a lottery every year to compete in a televised battle to the death. Only one competitor is permitted to live, but Katniss and a child-hood friend named Peeta force the administration to have to change the rules. The sequels to the first book include "Catching Fire" published in 2009, and "Mockingjay" in 2010.

From Quiz Great American Sports Writers

Answer: Jim Murray

Jim Murray won an eclectic array of awards in regards to sportswriting. He helped launch 'Sports Illustrated' in 1954. He died in 1998.

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