Sport Winners of 1954 Trivia Quiz

Answer: New York Giants

The Cleveland Indians won the American League pennant by 8 games, the first time since 1948 to not have the New York Yankees in this position. The National League saw the New York Giants win the division by 5 games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Indians, despite being the heavily favoured team, were swept by the Giants in four games.

In the first game of the season, Giants' outfielder Willy Mays made his infamous over-the-shoulder catch in the eighth inning with the score tied at 2 apiece. A powerful throw back to the infield prevented the runners from advancing. Since the game was won in extra innings, this catch was not only memorable, it was critical.

Answer: Cleveland Browns

In the regular season, the Cleveland Browns won the Eastern conference comfortably. In the Western conference, the Detroit Lions led from week 6 and never looked back. The game was being played in the Cleveland Stadium, a venue that saw an attendance of 43,827.

The Lions were favoured to defeat the Browns, however, in a game that saw Detroit turn the ball over nine times (three fumbles lost and six interceptions), the Browns routed the Lions 56-10. Lou Groza, hall-of-fame placekicker, kicked a record eight extra points (which was equalled in the Super Bowl era by Mike Cofer). Cleveland quarterback Otto Graham was 9-12 with three touchdowns and two interceptions and ran in for three more scores.

Answer: West Germany

The third edition of the World Cup saw the heavily-favoured Hungarians defeated in the final by the unseeded West German team. They had been reinstated into FIFA only in 1950 and that is why they were considered 'unseeded', despite having a rather strong team. In the group stages (which weren't a round-robin actually, they had a weird format) the West German team had lost to the Hungarians by the colossal score of 8-3, however, the West Germans fielded a reserve XI so it really wasn't an indication of their strength.

The final, also known as 'The Miracle of Bern', is regarded as one of the greatest World Cup finals matches. The Hungarians, incredibly, were up 2-0 after eight minutes with goals from Puskás and Czibor. Two minutes after the second Hungarian goal, the West Germans were on the board with a goal by Morlock, and a second off of a corner kick, headed in by Rahn, eight minutes later to even up the score.

The rest of the game, Hungary pressed and pressed but could not find the back of the net. Some opportunities also went Germany's way, but it was looking like Hungary's game. However, in the 84th minute, a great feint by Rahm left the Hungarian defenders flat-footed and he was able to drive in a shot to put the West Germans up. A Hungarian equalizer was deemed offside and, when the final whistle blew, the game was won.

Answer: Australia

In the 1954 Davis Cup there were 23 teams that entered the running. The Eastern Zone was not played out and India was placed in the next-closest zone - Europe. The finalists from Europe were Sweden and France, with Sweden sweeping the series. In the Americas Zone, the final had the USA against Mexico and the Americans soundly won 4-1. In the Inter-Zone final, it was the Americans who swept the Swedish 5-0, and then went on to face the defending champions, Australia at the White City Stadium in Sydney.

In a close series, the Americans won 3-2 with Vic Seixas and Tony Trabert getting important wins, both individually and as a doubles pairing. The Australians had been on a streak of four Davis Cup wins in a row, but the US team surprised them by winning the first three matches.

Answer: Detroit Red Wings

With six teams and 70 games played, the Detroit Red Wings topped the standings for the NHL in the 1953-1954 season. The Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs came in second and third respectively, with the Boston Bruins taking the last playoff spot. The Red Wings defeated the Maple Leafs 4-1 and the Canadiens swept the Bruins 4-0.

The Stanley Cup Finals was a tightly contested back-and-forth affair. The Red Wings won the first match with the Canadiens winning the second. The Red Wings took both games in Montreal and then the Canadiens won two in a row to even the series at 3-3. The seventh and final game was intense - the Canadiens went up in the first period only to have the Red Wings level it in the second. There was no scoring in the third period so the game went to overtime. In overtime a soft shot by Tony Leswick was not picked up properly by Montreal goaltender Doug Harvey and the puck found its way into the back of the net giving Detroit the win over the defending champions.

Answer: Edmonton Eskimos

The 42nd Grey Cup was the first to be contested between a team from Eastern Canada, the Montreal Alouettes, and a team from Western Canada, the Edmonton Eskimos. There was, at that time, a strong bias towards teams from the East and the pundits decreed that there was absolutely no way that the Eskimos would be able to win the Cup. However, win they did, on a controversial 90-yard fumble return for a touchdown that made the score 26-25 for the Esks. [Montreal supporters claimed that the Chuck Hunsinger fumble was a forward pass and should have been ruled incomplete]

This Grey Cup was also the first to be shown on national television, and was the first time that Edmonton and Montreal would play against each other in the Grey Cup, of many. The 90-yeard fumble return, Montreal's 656 total yards, and Montreal end Red O'Quinn's 13 receptions for 316 yards were all long-standing records set that day.

Answer: Roger Bannister

While there had been claims that the record had already been broken, they were all unsubstantiated. On the other side, the 4-minute barrier was said to be a barrier of human physiology and that nobody would be able to get a sub-4 mile. Roger Bannister, a middle-distance runner and a medical student, did it on May 6, 1954. Running on Iffey Road Track at Oxford University and with two other runners as pacemakers, Bannister ran 3:59.4! Amazingly, the record only stood for 46 days when Australian John Landy ran in 3:57.9. On August 7, these two runners raced against one another for the first time at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

In a memorable race, Bannister beat Landy by 0.8 seconds.

Answer: USSR

The 1954 World Championship in artistic gymnastics might not even seemed to be a fair competition. The men's all-around champion were Viktor Chukarin and Valentin Muratov (tied), the women's all around champion was Galina Rudko (Shamrai), and both the men's and the women's teams from the USSR took gold in the team competition.

In fact, the USSR took three times as many medals as all of the other teams combined. Interestingly, this was the first World Championship that the Soviets were participating in.

Their first competition in artistic gymnastics had been the 1952 Olympics, and this was their second overall.

Answer: Rugby League

1954 marked the first Rugby League World Cup and it was held in France. The four contesting teams, Australia, France, Great Britain, and New Zealand, played a round-robin against one another which saw France and Great Britain level on points since they had tied their head-to-head match. Whereas the first contest ended 13-13, the final was a similar score, but with an advantage to the British in the end, who won 16-12, led by two tries by fullback Gordon Brown, another by scrum half Gerry Helme, another by right wing David Rose, and two goals by Jimmy Ledgard.

All in all, despite it being an attempt to finance the bankrupt rugby league situation in France, it turned out to be a fine affair which was sportsmanlike, good-spirited, and professionally done. The tournament was replayed, at first irregularly, and then more structured, as the years progressed.

Answer: Syracuse Nationals

All of the aforementioned 1954 teams would, in fact, relocate. The Fort Wayne Pistons would move to Detroit in 1957, keeping the name for obvious reasons. The Milwaukee Hawks would move to St. Louis in 1955, then to Atlanta in 1968. The Rochester Royals would move to Cincinnati in 1957, then to Kansas City/Omaha in 1972 and would then alter their name to the Kings. They moved to Sacramento in 1985.

The winners, the Minneapolis Lakers, would move to Los Angeles in 1958. However, in 1954, they were a very strong team led by future hall-of-famers George Mikan, Clyde Lovellette, Jim Pollard, and more, and coached by John Kundla. The losers were the Syracuse Nationals, and they moved to Philadelphia in 1963. They held a contest to change the name and then rebranded as the 76ers. The 1954 team had future hall-of-famers Dolph Schayes and Earl Lloyd on their team and were coached by Al Cervi.

The Lakers won the first game, at home, and then the teams alternated wins. The last game was played in Minneapolis and the Lakers prevailed, 87-80. Jim Pollard was the game's leading scorer with 21 while George Mikan was the leading scorer in the entire series with 252 points.