U.S. Sports Connections Trivia Quiz

Answer: Barry Sanders

All won the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the player selected as the best college football player. Staubach won the award in 1963, Simpson in 1968, Walker in 1982, Sanders in 1988, and Tebow in 2007.

Manning was second in the 1997 voting, losing to Charles Woodson. Elway finished second to Walker in 1982. Namath was 11th in the 1964 voting, losing to John Huarte - whom he would eventually beat out as the starting quarterback for the New York Jets football team.

Answer: Dan Devine

Each was a coach or manager that succeeded a legendary one. Bartow replaced John Wooden as coach of the UCLA basketball team. Hall replaced Adolph Rupp as Kentucky's basketball coach. Russell replaced his mentor Red Auerbach in the Boston Celtics job. Brennan, Perkins, and Jones replaced football coaches Frank Leahy at Notre Dame, Bear Bryant at Alabama, and Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma respectively. Houk replaced Casey Stengel as manager of the New York Yankees.

Devine gets special recognition for replacing two legendary coaches, Vince Lombardi at the Green Bay Packers and Ara Parseghian at Notre Dame. The other coaches were hired after their predecessor had been fired.

Answer: Dwight Howard

Each man led the NBA in rebounding for at least one year. The obvious leaders were tall and powerful, but sometimes shorter players or those with limited jumping ability have led the league. Surprisingly Kareem Abdul Jabbar was the rebounding leader only once; and Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James never were.

Howard won the honor in 5 of 6 consecutive seasons, beginning in 2007, for the Orlando Magic and then the Los Angeles Lakers.

Answer: Tom Seaver

Scherzer, Wood, and Clemens each struck out 20. The list of pitchers with 19 strikeouts (omitting two 19th Century pitchers) includes David Cone, Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, David Cone, and Tom Seaver.

Both Koufax and Feller both had games with 18 strikeouts, but played in an era where strikeouts were far less common than today.

The most strikeouts in a game is held by journeyman pitcher Tom Cheney, who notched 21 strikeouts for the Washington Senators in a 16 inning game against the Baltimore Orioles in 1962. He only had 345 strikeouts in his total major league career.

Answer: Elmer Layden

The school publicist cemented their fame by photographing the players mounted on horses (first time for each player) in a pose reminiscent of Valentino's film, "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".

Layden succeeded Rockne as football coach at Notre Dame and later became the NFL commissioner. Crowley coached at Michigan State and Fordham, where he developed the "Seven Blocks of Granite" starring Vince Lombardi.
Stuldreher was a successful coach at Villanova and Wisconsin and later an executive for U.S. Steel.
Miller coached at Georgia Tech before becoming US District Attorney for Northern Ohio.

Gipp had died a couple of seasons earlier. Lujack was a star much later after WW2.
Shakespeare, known as the Bard of Staten Island to differentiate himself from the Elizabethan era actor/poet, was an All-American back who threw the winning touchdown pass on the final play of the "Game of the Century" 18-13 comeback against Ohio State in one of the first national radio broadcasts. He was also a first round draft pick of the Pittsburg Steelers in 1936.

Answer: Gallant Fox

Citation won in 1948 under the hand of Eddie Arcaro. Secretariat (Ron Turcotte) in 1973, Seattle Slew (Jean Cruguet) in 1977, and Affirmed (Steve Cauthen) in 1978 were the last Triple Crown winners before a spell of nearly 40 years without another winner. Gallant Fox, under jockey Earl Sande, was the second Triple Crown winner in 1930.

The other horses came close. Spectacular Bid in 1979 and Majestic Prince in 1969 had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness before faltering in the Belmont. Nashua in 1958 won the final two races after falling to an excellent horse Swaps in the Kentucky Derby.

Answer: Won American League's Most Valuable Player

Foxx, a prodigious home run hitter who played in the large shadow of Babe Ruth) won the award in 1932 and 1933 while playing for Cleveland. Boudreau (1948) and Rosen (1953) also won the MVP while playing for Cleveland. The peripatetic Allen won the award in 1972 while playing for Chicago and Yastrzemski won in a Boston Red Sox uniform in his Triple Crown year of 1967.

Answer: Arkansas

Holy Cross won the NCAA men's basketball championship in 1947, defeting Oklahoma. CCNY (City College of New York) in 1950 and LaSalle in 1954 also won the championship, both defeating Bradley. Villanova reached that level by beating Georgetown in a famous upset.

Of the remaining schools only Arkansas in 1994, under the direction of Nolan Richardson and his intense "40 Minutes of Hell" style of play, has won it all.

Answer: Baseball umpires

Bill Klem was an umpire between 1908 and 1940. He was an umpire in 18 World Series, the most of any umpire, and has been selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Emmet Asford was a major league umpire for only 5 years, but he broke the color barrier for umpires. An inveterate showman, he was beloved by players and crowds for his friendliness and interactionwith them.
Ron Luciano was a former college football star at Syracuse University whose professional career was ended by a series of injuries.
Al Barlick umpired between 1940 and 1971 with some time out for military service. He was regarded by players as an exceptional umpire, not for his ability to call balls and strikes correctly.

Answer: Jackie Robinson

The first African Americans to break the color barrier (technically to reintegrate baseball) by team included:
Robinson (Brooklyn), Doby (Cleveland - second man overall), Irvin (Giants), Howard (Yankees), and Green (Redsox). Others include Hank Thompson (St Louis Browns), Sam Jethroe (Boston Braves), Minnie Minoso (White Sox), Bob Trice (Athletics), Curt Roberts (Pirates), Tom Alson (Cardinals), John Kennedy (Phillies) and Ozzie Virgil (Tigers). It took 12 years between Jackie Robinson breaking the barrier in 1947 until the last team (Redsox) signed an African American player.

Jackie Robinson has received much deserved credit for his role in opening baseball to minorities, and his success inspired those who followed him. However, these other players and other pioneers also deserve credit for their courage and dignity for their role.