Sports Controversies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Australia

Phar Lap was actually foaled in New Zealand, but raced primarily in Australia. He was transported to North America and won his initial race at Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana before coming to the U.S. He died suddenly at a ranch near Menlo Park, California and suspicion arose that he had been poisoned with arsenic by American gamblers. A later autopsy concluded that he had died due to gastroenteritis, but the fact that an abnormally large amount of arsenic in his system never quieted doubters.

Phar Lap had won 37 of 51 races in his career with 3 second place and 2 third place finishes before dying as a 5-year old.

Answer: Nancy Kerrigan

Jeff Gillooly, Harding's former husband, and her bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt hired a third person to attack Kerrigan. The attacker only bruised Kerrigan's upper leg, but forced her out of the competition, which was won by Harding. Eventually both skaters were entered in the Olympics, where Kerrigan won the silver medal and Harding placed eighth.

The males involved in the attack were later convicted and Harding pled guilty of hindering the prosecution. She received probation, a heavy fine, and was banned from figure skating competitions.

The other three ladies were US Olympic figure skaters. Fleming and Hamill won gold medals in 1968 and 1976 respectively, and Thomas won a bronze in 1988.

Answer: Colorado

Colorado trailed Missouri by 32-28 with less than a minute left, but had the ball near the Missouri goal line. They spiked the ball (deliberate incomplete pass) on first down to stop the clock. On second down their running play was stopped short of the goal line and they called their final timeout. Their third down play was another unsuccessful run, and Colorado immediately spiked the ball again on what should have been their fourth and final play. However, the line markers and referees had lost track and thought that Colorado had one last play left. They ran again and scored a touchdown (although there is some dispute whether the ball crossed the line). Before the extra point try, Missouri questioned the referees and they conferred for about 20 minutes before allowing the "illegal" touchdown.
Many years previous to this incident Cornell had won a game with the same benefit of a fifth down, but sportingly forfeited tyne victory.
Their good luck continued in the Orange Bowl when a questionable clipping call nullified Raghib (Rocket) Ismail's punt return touchdown.

Answer: Australia

For those unfamiliar with limited overs cricket, each team receives a specified number of legal pitches (or fewer if all ten wickets are taken). The underhand delivery didn't have enough pace or bounce to be hit for a six. No less than the Prime Minister of New Zealand complained that "this was the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket", calling it an act of cowardice and stating it was appropriate that the Australian team was wearing yellow that day. In fairness most Australians and even members of the team were embarrassed by the ploy.

Eventually both sides moved on. In 2005 Australian bowler Glenn McGrath added a touch of humor by employing the same tactic (in jest) when the Autralians had a 44 run lead on the last ball.

Answer: Diego Maradona

On Maradona's second goal he wove through five English defenders to score the match winner in the 2-1 contest. FIFA voted this the goal of the century in 2002. The first goal, however, has never been forgiven by England fans. England attempted a back pass to their goalie Peter Shilton.

The pass looped just over Maradona's head, but he gave a subtle, but obvious, punch to send the ball into the goal.

Answer: Ingemar Johansson

The Swedish boxer Johansson was fighting American Ed Sanders and both fighters preferred a counter attacking style. Both fighters had been warned for "passivity" earlier in the bout.

The Olympic committee chose not to award Johansson his silver medal at that time; however, he later received it in 1982 after a successful professional career.

Rademacher was the 1956 heavyweight gold medalist and fought Patterson for the heavyweight title in his initial professional fight. Stevenson won the heavyweight boxing gold medals in 1972, 1976, and 1980. Cuba boycotted the 1984 Olympics or he may have had a fourth gold.

Answer: Roy Jones

The Olympic scoring system counts the number of punches landed and does not reward a single staggering punch any more than a lighter punch. Even taking that into account, Jones landed three times as many punches, many of them very hard. The final decision was 3-2 in favor of his opponent, although neutral observers thought it was the worst decision they had ever seen.

Leonard and DeLaHoya were both gold medalists and Mosley never fought in the Olympics.

Floyd Mayweather lost another controversial decision in his semifinal match with a Bulgarian boxer in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, but experts don't consider that decision as egregious as Jones' was.

Answer: Golden Tate - Seattle

On the last play of the game Seattle was trailing and threw a desperation pass (so-called hail Mary) into the Green Bay end zone. The defensive back seemingly intercepted the pass, but Tate managed to get his hand on the ball as both he and the defender fell to the ground. They proceeded to wrestle for possession, while still in the arms of the defender. The replacement referee ruled that both players had possession of the original pass, and by rule that's a completed pass for the offensive team (and a touchdown in this case).

The call was criticized by the media, fans, and other players. By the end of the following day, the strike was settled for some reason.

Answer: Dickie Kerr

Kerr was a small left-handed pitcher who won two games for Chicago in the nine game series and was not implicated in the scandal. Cicotte was the star Chicago pitcher who pitched way below his level until the gamblers reneged on paying the players as much as promised.

Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the premiers batters of this era, was omitted from the list because there is controversy how involved he was (and even how mentally competent he was). He confessed, but later recanted that confession. He banned from baseball for life, but nothing in his play would indicate deliberately underperforming and other banned players stated he was not part of the action .

Answer: 3

Doug Collins, of later NBA playing and coaching fame, made a pair of free throws with three seconds left to give the US the lead. On the second free throw, the scorers blew a horn (part of the story whether USSR had called a timeout), but the shot was allowed.

Try 1: USSR inbounds the ball and gets to half court with 1 second left before the referees stop play. USSR coach is attempting to call a timeout (apparently illegal in this case). Referees allow the timeout, but don't assess a technical foul.
Try 2: Referees and Olympic officials decide to restart with 3 seconds left. The clock is still being reset when play resumes. The buzzer goes off almost immediately, but the USSR attempted pass goes out of bounds.
Try 3: Officials call this a clock malfunction and allow another mulligan - on which the USSR scores.
At this point the actions could be called incompetence, rather than malfeasance. A later review lets the end of the game stand, but it's by a 3-2 vote with all three voters Communist nations.