Living Green: Envy or Conservation? Quiz

Answer: Basketball

The Boston Celtics were established in 1946. Legendary coach Red Auerbach took control of the team in 1950, and built a team that was to dominate the NBA for over a decade. Bob Cousy joined the team in 1950, playing point guard until 1963. Controversially, Auerbach did not use his first pick in the draft to select Cousy, stating that he was too flashy to succeed as a team player in the NBA. However, negotiations following the draft saw him join the Celtics, where he quickly proved his critics wrong, and was an All-Star selection every year from 1951 through 1963. I remember watching games, and being amazed at how such a small man (he was only just over six feet tall) could duck and weave to outplay the defenders on the opposition team. In 1956, Auerbach traded draft picks to get Bill Russell, who played center for the team from 1957 through 1969, the last three years as a player-coach.

The Celtics won the National Basketball Association championship in 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969. Something went wrong in 1967 - we don't talk about that year. This was truly a green era in basketball!

Answer: Association football

Since much of the world uses the term football to refer to other sports (often the game Americans call soccer, but also for various forms of rugby and other games), internationally the game is specified as American football or as gridiron football, a reference to the lines running across the field on which it is played, breaking it up into a grid. The Green Bay Packers were formed in 1919, making them the third-oldest franchise currently playing in the National Football League, and the only community-owned team in that competition. In 1959 Vince Lombardi became head coach, and Green Bay began to develop as a force to be reckoned with, culminating in victory in both of the first two Superbowls (then officially called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, as there were still two separate professional leagues, whose league winners confronted each other in the Super Bowl). At the end of the 1967 season, in which the Packers won their third consecutive NFL title and the second Super Bowl, Lombardi resigned as head coach, although he stayed with the team as manager for another year.

Although Green Bay's success in recent years has not been as spectacular as it was during the Lombardi years, 'The Green and Gold' team conserved the support of Cheeseheads (yes, fans wear foam headgear resembling wedges of cheese), who continued to turn out in force.

Answer: One-Day International

The Australian Cricket Team played in the first international Test Match (five-day traditional form of the game) against England in 1877; they played in the first One-Day International game (a shorter form usually involving 50 overs per side) against England in 1971; they played in the first Twenty20 International match (even shorter, with only 20 overs per side, allowing it to be played within three hours) against New Zealand in 2005.

Initially, players for the national team played as a unit, in any form of the game.

As competition has evolved, however, players have developed as specialists in the different requirements of each form, so a number of players only participate in one or two of the forms. Australia has consistently been one of the top ranked teams, especially in One-Day Internationals, a record that has other nations green with envy, and which they strive to conserve.

Answer: Australian rules football

Australian Rules is a form of football originating in Melbourne, Victoria in 1859. It became the most popular football sport in southern states, with the Victorian Football League being the game's peak competition, before expansion into other states (in competition with their locally popular game of rugby) starting in the 1980s led to a rebranding as the Australian Football League (AFL), with the VFL becoming a second-tier competition for teams associated as developmental teams for the AFL sides. The game has a number of unique features, including the two sets of goalposts at each end of the ground. A player must kick the ball through the two inner posts in order to score a goal, worth 6 points. If it is touched by an opponent before it goes through, or if it misses the inner posts and goes across the line between the two outer posts, it is a behind, and scores one point. Another unique aspect of the game is the mark - if a player can catch a ball that has been kicked to them by a teammate, other players must stand clear and allow that player to kick the ball uncontested. Players often leap high into the air as they attempt to catch the ball before others, and take the mark.

The Fremantle Dockers were given that name when first established, but forced to abandon it as an official name when Levi Strauss & Co, who had a copyright on the name for one of their lines of clothing, started a legal case on its use. Fans continued to use it, however, and in 2010 an arrangement was reached to allow the club to use the name officially. This coincided both with the removal of green from the team's uniforms, and with the start of their first substantial success in the AFL competition - they made the finals in four of the following five seasons, including a Grand Finals appearance in 2013. For Freo, the green uniforms did not inspire either envy or a desire to conserve their success.

Answer: Baseball

There has been a competition between different competing baseball organisation to establish which team is the best since the middle of the 19th century, in varying forms, with the winner referred to as the American champions or the world champions, reflecting the fact that at that time the game was only played in the USA as a professional sport. In 1903 the modern World Series was established, with representatives of the American League meeting a National League team for supremacy in a best-of-seven series. Over time, the means of selecting the winner from each league has changed, as the leagues have expanded and restructured their competition.

The Athletics were the equal-second most successful team in terms of winning the World Series during the 20th century. Only the New York Yankees (with 25 victories) won it more times, and the St. Louis Cardinals tied the Athletics with 9 victories. Much of the Athletics' success came early - they won in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930, under the management of the legendary Connie Mack, who managed the team between 1901 and 1950.

Answer: Soccer (association football)

The Mexican women also wear green, but the first FIFA Women's World Cup was not held until 1991. Neither futsal, a five-a-side version of the game, nor beach soccer (also five-a-side, and played on a small sandy area) held a World cup competition in the 20th century.

The first soccer World Cup was played in Uruguay in 1930, and won by the host nation. Mexico lost all three of their group matches, and struggled to experience World cup success in subsequent competitions, with their best performances being quarter-finals appearances in 1970 and 1986. Nevertheless, the Mexicans wear their green uniform with pride, their success in regional competitions, leading to regular qualification for the World Cup, has made them the envy of less successful national teams.

Answer: Ice hockey

The Dallas Stars were originally the Minnesota North Stars, founded in 1967. In 1978 they merged with the Cleveland Barons, before moving to Dallas in 1993. Since that move, they have experienced considerable success, including winning the Stanley Cup (the top trophy of the National Hockey League) in 1999, becoming the first team based south of the 35th parallel to do so. The team colors are green, silver, black and white - with the shade of green aptly named Victory Green.

In North America, the term hockey almost always refers to ice hockey. In many other parts of the world, it refers to field hockey, a similar game played on grass rather than ice.

Answer: Canadian football

Canadian football is similar to American football, with the major differences being in the number of players (twelve, as opposed to eleven), the size of the field (Canadian football uses a field that is ten yards wider, ten yards longer, and with an extra ten yards in the end zone, compared to American football), and the number of downs allowed to complete a forward movement of ten yards (three, as opposed to four). The top trophy in the Canadian Football League is called the Grey Cup, named after Earl Grey, the Canadian Governor-General who commissioned the first trophy in 1909.

The Roughriders were founded in 1910 as the Regina Rugby Club (the games of rugby and football evolving and merging over the years), making them one of the oldest professional teams in North American sport. They changed their name to the Regina Roughriders in 1924, and then to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1946. The team nicknamed Jolly Green Giants has had a lot of success over the years, and their success in one of the sports regions with the smallest fan base in North American professional sports (only Green Bay offers a smaller population for the Packers) is certainly the envy of many other teams.

Answer: Golf

The US Masters is the only one of the four majors in golf to be played at the same course every year - the others rotate through a series of venues. It is the first major each year, being held in the first week of April at the Augusta National Golf Club. The tournament was first held in 1933, on a course designed by Bobby Jones in association with Alister MacKenzie. Since 1949, the winner has been awarded a green jacket, which he holds for one year, and returns the following year. If the same player wins again, he is given the same jacket (unless it no longer fits, and must be replaced). Usually the player only actually takes the jacket away the first time it is won. Needless to say, the losers are green with envy, and the winner is keen to conserve possession of the green jacket.

Jack Nicklaus won the Masters six times between 1963 and 1986; Arnold Palmer won four times, and other multiple winners include Tiger Woods, Sam Snead, Gary Player (the first non-American to win, in 1961), Nick Faldo and Phil Mickleson.

Answer: Rugby League

The Kangaroos play rugby league, a modification of the original game of rugby (now often called rugby union, or just union) which evolved to produce an even faster game, following a split from the Rugby Football Union over a dispute regarding payments to players. Players attempt to carry the ball across a line at the end of the field, and touch it down on the ground inside the scoring area - successfully doing so is called scoring a try. This is short for 'try at goal' - originally, making a try just gave the team a chance to try and score by kicking the ball through the goal posts above the crossbar. This converted the try to an actual goal. In the contemporary form of the game, a try is awarded points (five points in union, 4 points in league); the subsequent conversion is seen as a lesser achievement, awarded only two points. The final way to score is the drop goal, in which a player scores a goal in play, using a drop kick rather than the place kick usually chosen for a conversion. The value of a drop goal is three points in rugby union, and one point in rugby league.

There are a number of other variants of rugby played in international competition, including rugby sevens, a form with seven players on a team instead of fifteen, which is played at the Commonwealth Games, and was selected for inclusion at the Olympic Games for the first time as part of the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro. This is a shorter form (typically seven or ten minutes in each half of play, rather than 80 minutes or more, with injury time, for a game) which is less demanding on players, allowing a quicker recovery so that a tournament can be completed in a shorter time frame than those using the more traditional forms of the game.