Ten Completely Random Questions About Sports Quiz

Answer: Birmingham

Although the rivalry between the University of Alabama and Auburn University on the football field goes back to 1893, its modern incarnation began in 1948. Having not played each other for forty years, the Alabama State Legislature threatened to withhold funding unless they put in place a "full athletic program between the two schools".

As a consequence, the universities agreed to restart the annual football match-up, with Legion Field in Birmingham chosen as a neutral venue, owing to the fact that the home stadia of the two teams were both inadequate for the expected crowds.

However, Auburn fans often complained about this, as Legion Field is just thirty miles from Tuscaloosa, where the University of Alabama is based, and Birmingham is regarded as within the heartland of Crimson Tide fans. Between 1969 and 1987, Auburn made major improvements to their own Jordan-Hare Stadium, until it exceeded the capacity of Legion Field and, in 1988, the two universities agreed that in the years when Auburn was the home team, the game would be played at Jordan-Hare.

The Tigers won their first actual home Iron Bowl on December 2 1989, beating the Crimson Tide 30-20. In 2000, having expanded their own Bryant-Denny Stadium, Alabama left Legion Field, playing Auburn in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 1901, with the Tigers winning 9-0.

Answer: South Africa

From the very first Test match in 1877, England and Australia played each other thirty times up to 1888. In December 1888, an English representative team captained by C. Aubrey Smith undertook a tour of South Africa organised by Robert Warton. The tour saw the English side play a number of games against sides representing both cities and provinces in South Africa, as well as two games against a side representing the whole of South Africa, which were billed as being 'Major Warton's XI v South African XI'.

Although not a financial success, the tour stimulated interest in cricket in South Africa; the major sponsor, Sir Donald Currie, was impressed enough that he purchased a new trophy, the Currie Cup, to be awarded to the winner of South Africa's domestic championship, while the two games brought South Africa into international cricket. Following subsequent English tours of the country, when they played games against the South African team, it was decided in 1897 to retrospectively award all of these games Test status, making South Africa the third Test cricketing nation.

Answer: Triple Jump

James Connolly was born in Boston to Irish immigrant parents in 1868. In 1895, having worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in Savannah, Georgia, where he was instrumental in the founding of the Catholic Library Association's football team and captained their cycling team, he was accepted into Harvard University.

However, upon hearing of the organisation of the first Olympic Games in 1896, he determined to participate, and requested a leave of absence from the university, which was denied, leading to his withdrawing instead. Representing Suffolk Athletic Club, he entered the competition and made his way to Athens. On the first day of the Olympics, he took part in the triple jump (then called 'hop, skip and jump'), which he won with a jump of 13.71m, more than a metre clear of his nearest opponent.

As the triple jump was the first competition to be completed, Connolly became the first Olympic champion since Aurelios Zopyros in 385AD. Connolly also competed in the high jump, where he came second, and the long jump, finishing third. Four years later, he went to Paris to defend his triple jump title in the 1900 Olympics, eventually finishing second behind his compatriot Myer Prinstein.

Answer: Manchester United

In 1994, Manchester United became the sixth team to win the league and cup double, when they won the Premier League by eight points over second placed Blackburn Rovers, and beat Chelsea 4-0 in the FA Cup Final. Two years later, they were the first to achieve this feat for a second time, winning the Premier League title by four points over Newcastle United, and lifting the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over their great rivals Liverpool.

In all, Manchester United won the double three times in the 1990s, with their third coming in 1999 - over the course of ten days, between 16 and 26 May 1999, they secured the Premier League title by a single point over Arsenal and won the FA Cup beating Newcastle 2-0, before going on to win the UEFA Champions League by famously scoring two stoppage time goals to beat Bayern Munich 2-1.

Answer: Cricket

In 1827, Charles Wordsworth was a student at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he studied Classics. During his time at Harrow School, he had been a keen sportsman, playing for the school's cricket team in regular matches against Eton and Winchester, and he carried this passion for sport into his time at Oxford. Remaining in contact with his old schoolmate Charles Merivale, who was at St John's College, Cambridge, Wordsworth set up the first Oxford v Cambridge cricket match, which was scheduled as a two-day match at Lord's in London, and which ended in a draw.

Another match was played two years later in 1829, before it became an annual fixture in 1838. From 2001 onwards, the event switched from a single first-class match played over three days at Lord's, to two games - a one-day game played at Lord's, and a four-day first class match played alternately at Fenner's, the home ground of Cambridge University, or Oxford University's home ground, The Parks.

Answer: Graham Hill

Graham Hill passed his driving test at the age of 24, and soon undertook his first drive in a racing car, when he paid five shillings to the Universal Motor Racing Club for the opportunity to drive laps of Brands Hatch in a Cooper 500 Formula 3 car. Joining Team Lotus as a mechanic, he eventually managed to obtain a seat to drive for the team, making his Formula One debut at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix. Hill eventually won at Monaco a total of five times, with three victories for Owen Racing and two for Lotus.

In 1966, driving for the Mecom Racing Team, Hill qualified on the fifth row of the starting grid of the Indianapolis 500 and became the sixth rookie to win the race. Hill qualified for the race in the following two years, finishing 32nd and 19th respectively. Hill also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans a total of ten times between 1958 and 1972.

In 1964, driving alongside Jo Bonnier for the Maranello Concessionaires team he came second, while in 1972, his final entry in the race, Hill and Henri Pescarolo won while driving for Equipe Matra-Simca Shell.

Answer: Stars

The Philadelphia Stars, owned by real estate developer Myles Tanenbaum, was one of the USFL's founding franchises. Playing at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, the team achieved a 15-3 record during its first regular season, finishing top of the Atlantic Division and reaching the playoffs, where they defeated the Chicago Blitz in the divisional playoff, before losing to the Michigan Panthers in the Championship Game.

The following season, the Stars again won their division with a 16-2 record. the expansion of the USFL led to the need for two rounds of playoffs - the Stars beat the New Jersey Generals in the divisional playoff, before defeating the Birmingham Stallions in the conference championship, to reach their second straight USFL Championship, where this time they won the title by overcoming the Arizona Wranglers 23-3.

In 1985, following the decision to move the USFL from a spring to a fall schedule, the Stars left Philadelphia to move to Baltimore. The new Baltimore Stars again reached the playoffs following the 1985 season, this time as a wild card. By defeating the Generals in the conference quarter-final and the Stallions in the semi-final, the Stars reached their third straight Championship Game, where they beat the Oakland Invaders to win back-to-back titles. Winning titles in both Philadelphia and Baltimore means that the two cities have won both the USFL Championship and the Super Bowl (the Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl in 2018, while two Baltimore teams have won Super Bowls, the Colts, who won in 1971 and the Ravens, whose first title was in 2001).

Answer: France

Following the success of the 1896 Olympics, plans were put in place to hold the event at four-year intervals coinciding with major expositions. In 1900, the Exposition Universelle was scheduled to take place in Paris, and so the 1900 Olympic Games were scheduled to take place during the same period, with the competition starting on 14 May 1900, and ending on 28 October.

In 1924, the Olympic Games returned to Paris, which became the first city to host the Summer Olympics twice, with the competition lasting just under three months. Earlier the same year, the winter resort of Chamonix hosted the first holding of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) week of winter sports - although both figure skating and ice hockey had been part of the Olympic programme at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, many winter sports were limited by the seasons, which led to the IOC proposing that the hosts of the 1924 Olympics organise a week of winter sports competition.

The success of this event led to it being held again in 1928, with the 1924 event retroactively named as the first Winter Olympics.

Answer: Chicago

The modern World Series traces its origin to 1903, when the National League (NL), which had been founded in 1876, and the American League (AL), founded in 1901, agreed to a series of interleague exhibition series, one of which paired the NL champion Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans, who had won the AL. From 1905, the playing of the series was made mandatory between the two league champions - in 1906, the Chicago Cubs reached their first World Series as champions of the National League, while their crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox, were champions of the American League, reaching their first participation in the series.

The Cubs had posted both the highest number of total wins (116) and highest win percentage (.763) since the season was extended to 154 games, while the White Sox, who had been nicknamed the "Hitless Wonders", had won the American League pennant despite having the worst batting average (.230) of any of the eight AL teams that year.

The Cubs were overwhelming favourites but, despite this, the White Sox won the series by four games to two. Following the 1906 World Series, crosstown match-ups have occurred featuring teams from New York City (the AL Yankees have played all three of their NL rivals, the Giants, Dodgers and Mets in the World Series) and St Louis (in 1944 the NL Cardinals won 4-2 over the AL Browns).

Answer: Victoria

In 1897, a number of clubs belonging to the Victoria Football Association, elected to split and form their own competition, which they called the Victoria Football League (VFL). The new competition introduced a number of innovations, including a scoring system awarding six points for a goal and one for a behind, and having a post-season playoff tournament to award the title.

The VFL enjoyed increasing success over the following decades, expanding from its initial eight clubs to nine by 1914, and 12 in 1925.

Although other states had their own competitions, with the winners of state championships playing for the sporadic Championship of Australia, the VFL was the most powerful and popular, and eventually left the Australian National Football Council, the governing body for the game nationally, setting up a rival televised series of floodlit night games (the AFC Night Series) to the existing NFL Night Series. Eventually, many of the teams from other states joined the VFL's series, leading to the VFL overtaking the ANFC as the pre-eminent body in the game.

By the mid-1980s, the VFL was expanding to include new teams from outside Victoria, which led to the VFL essentially becoming the new national competition. To reflect this, in 1990, the VFL renamed itself as the Australian Football League.