The Sports Portal
A sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organised, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a particular sport can vary from hundreds of people to a single individual.
Physical activity is associated with various aspects of health and longevity. Higher levels of physical activity are associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and mortality from cardiovascular disease, ischemic stroke, and heart failure. Physical activity is also associated with reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. In particular, aerobic exercise, yoga, and multimodal exercise have been found to be effective in reducing symptoms of postpartum depression. (Full article...)
Selected articles
The 1909–10 Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens, formally Le Club de Hockey Canadien, was founded on December 4, 1909. The Canadiens are the oldest professional ice hockey franchise in the world. Created as a founding member of the National Hockey Association (NHA) with the aim of appealing to Montreal's francophone population, the Canadiens played their first game on January 5, 1910, and captured their first Stanley Cup in 1916. The team left the NHA and helped found the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1917. They returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 1919, but their series against the Seattle Metropolitans was cancelled without a winner due to the Spanish flu pandemic that killed defenceman Joe Hall. The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times: once while part of the National Hockey Association (NHA), and 23 times as members of the NHL. With 24 NHL titles overall, they are the most successful team in league history.
The Canadiens' home rink, the Montreal Arena, was destroyed by fire in January 1918. The team moved into the Jubilee Arena, which subsequently burned down in 1919. After spending seven seasons in the Mount Royal Arena, the Canadiens moved into the Montreal Forum in 1926, sharing it with the rival Montreal Maroons until 1938. After 72 years in the Forum, they moved to the Bell Centre in 1996. The club struggled during the Great Depression, nearly relocating to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1935 and contemplated suspending operations in 1939. Their fortunes rebounded following World War II as they reached the Stanley Cup Final each year from 1951 to 1960, winning six championships, including a record five consecutive titles from 1956 to 1960. (Full article...)
Paul Garnet Henderson (born January 28, 1943) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. A left winger, Henderson played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Atlanta Flames and five in the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the Toronto Toros and Birmingham Bulls. He played over 1,000 games between the two major leagues, scoring 376 goals and 758 points. Henderson played in two NHL All-Star Games and was a member of the 1962 Memorial Cup-winning Hamilton Red Wings team as a junior.
Henderson is best known for playing for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union. The series was viewed as a Cold War battle for both hockey and cultural supremacy. Henderson scored the game-winning goal in each of the final three games, the last of which has become legendary in Canada and made him a national hero: it was voted the "sports moment of the century" by The Canadian Press and earned him numerous accolades. Those three wins secured the series for the Canadians by the narrowest of margins. Henderson has twice been inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame: in 1995 individually and in 2005 along with all players of the Summit Series team. He was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2013. (Full article...)
The European Champion Clubs' Cup trophy, won by Liverpool for the fifth time in 2005
The history of Liverpool Football Club from 1985 to the present day covers the appointment of Kenny Dalglish as manager, the Hillsborough disaster, and the club's return to European competition in 1991. Throughout this period, the club played in the top tier of English football, which in 1992 became the Premier League.
Dalglish was appointed as player-manager after Joe Fagan resigned following the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, which resulted in Liverpool's indefinite ban from European competition. Liverpool won a league and FA Cup double in Dalglish's first season, and won a further league title in 1987–88. The Hillsborough disaster, which occurred during an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in April 1989, resulted in the deaths of 97 of the club's supporters. After the disaster, Dalglish led the club to their eighteenth title in 1989–90; he resigned in February 1991. The Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster recommended the end of standing terraces; to comply with its findings, Anfield was converted to an all-seater stadium during the early 1990s, which greatly reduced its capacity. Dalglish's successor Graeme Souness won the FA Cup in his first full season. In the newly formed Premier League, he struggled to sustain the club's domestic successes and was replaced by Roy Evans midway through 1993–94. Liverpool improved to fourth the following season and won the League Cup. (Full article...)
The final match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th edition of the quadrennial football competition organised by FIFA for the men's national teams of its member associations, was played at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, just outside Paris, on 12 July 1998, and was contested by defending champions Brazil and hosts France.
The tournament featured France as the hosts, Brazil as the winners of the previous World Cup and 30 other teams who emerged from the qualification tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 32 teams competed in a group stage, from which 16 teams qualified for the knockout stage. En route to the final, Brazil finished first in Group A, with two wins and one defeat, after which they beat Chile in the round of 16, Denmark in the quarter-finals and the Netherlands in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals. France finished top of Group C with three wins, before defeating Paraguay in the round of 16, Italy in the quarter-final, and Croatia in the semi-final. The final took place in front of 80,000 supporters, with an estimated 1.3 billion watching on television, and was refereed by Said Belqola from Morocco. (Full article...)
Disco Demolition Night was a Major League Baseball (MLB) promotion on Thursday, July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, that ended in a riot. At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the twi-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Many had come to see the explosion rather than the games and rushed onto the field after the detonation. The playing field was so damaged by the explosion and by the rioters that the White Sox were required to forfeit the second game to the Tigers.
In the late 1970s, dance-oriented disco was the most popular music genre in the United States, particularly after being featured in hit films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977). However, disco sparked a major backlash from rock music fans—an opposition prominent enough that the White Sox, seeking to fill seats at Comiskey Park during a lackluster season, engaged Chicago shock jock and anti-disco campaigner Steve Dahl for the promotion at the July 12 doubleheader. Dahl's sponsoring radio station was WLUP (97.9 FM, now WCKL), so admission was discounted to 98 cents for attendees who turned in a disco record; between games, Dahl was to destroy the collected vinyl in an explosion. (Full article...)- During the 1999–2000 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Second Division, the third tier of the English football league system. It was the 68th season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 50th since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. The team started the season in poor form, failing to win any of the first five league games, but then went on a much-improved run and began challenging for promotion to the Football League First Division. Robert Taylor scored 18 goals in 19 games by November, after which he was signed by Manchester City for £1.5 million, a new record fee for Gillingham. On the last day of the regular season, the team had a chance to gain automatic promotion, but lost and instead had to enter the play-offs. After defeating Stoke City in the semi-finals, Gillingham beat Wigan Athletic in the final to gain promotion to the second tier of the English football league system for the first time in the club's history.
Gillingham also had their best run to date in the FA Cup, beating two Premier League teams before being knocked out by a third, Chelsea, at the quarter-final stage. The team reached the second round of the Football League Cup but were eliminated in the first round of the Football League Trophy. The team played 62 competitive matches, winning 34, drawing 12, and losing 16. Despite leaving the club before the mid-point of the season, Taylor was the team's top goalscorer with 18 goals. Nicky Southall made the most appearances, playing 59 times. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 10,386, for the home leg of the play-off semi-final against Stoke City. Having led the team to promotion, manager Peter Taylor left the club after a single season to become manager of Leicester City of the Premier League. (Full article...)
The 1906 Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, commonly known as the 1906 French Grand Prix, was a motor race held on 26 and 27 June 1906, on closed public roads outside the city of Le Mans. The Grand Prix was organised by the Automobile Club de France (ACF) at the prompting of the French automobile industry as an alternative to the Gordon Bennett races, which limited each competing country's number of entries regardless of the size of its industry. France had the largest automobile industry in Europe at the time, and in an attempt to better reflect this the Grand Prix had no limit to the number of entries by any particular country. The ACF chose a 103.18-kilometre (64.11 mi) circuit, composed primarily of dust roads sealed with tar, which would be lapped six times on both days by each competitor, a combined race distance of 1,238.16 kilometres (769.36 mi). Lasting for more than 12 hours overall, the race was won by Ferenc Szisz driving for the Renault team. FIAT driver Felice Nazzaro finished second, and Albert Clément was third in a Clément-Bayard.
Paul Baras of Brasier set the fastest lap of the race on his first lap. He held on to the lead until the third lap, when Szisz took over first position, defending it to the finish. Hot conditions melted the road tar, which the cars kicked up into the faces of the drivers, blinding them and making the racing treacherous. Punctures were common; tyre manufacturer Michelin introduced a detachable rim with a tyre already affixed, which could be quickly swapped onto a car after a puncture, saving a significant amount of time over manually replacing the tyre. This helped Nazzaro pass Clément on the second day, as the FIAT—unlike the Clément-Bayard—made use of the rims. (Full article...)- The 2010 Sylvania 300 was a stock car racing competition that took place on September 19, 2010. Held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, the 300-lap race was the twenty-seventh in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ended the season. Clint Bowyer of the Richard Childress Racing team won the race; Denny Hamlin finished second and Jamie McMurray came in third.
Brad Keselowski won the pole position, although he was almost immediately passed by Tony Stewart at the start of the race. Many Chase for the Sprint Cup participants, including Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Hamlin, were in the top ten for most of the race, although some encountered problems in the closing laps. Stewart was leading the race with two laps remaining but ran out of fuel, giving the lead, and the win, to Bowyer. There were twenty-one lead changes among eight different drivers, as well as eight cautions during the race. (Full article...)
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. Gameplay centers around the pitcher on the fielding team throwing a baseball to a batter on the opposing team, who tries to hit it into the field of play. Successfully batted balls allow players on the batting team to advance around a circuit of four bases and score runs. Meanwhile, the fielding team attempts to "put out" the batters and baserunners, removing them from play and preventing them from scoring. Once the fielding team records three outs, the offensive and defensive sides switch roles. Play continues until a defined number of innings have been completed, whereupon the team with the most runs wins.
Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games that gained popularity in England during the mid-18th century. Immigrants brought these games to North America, where modern baseball developed into organized clubs playing under codified rules by the mid-19th century. Baseball's American origins, as well as its reputation as a source of escapism during troubled points in American history such as the American Civil War and the Great Depression, have led the sport to receive the moniker of "America's Pastime". Since the late 19th century, it has been unofficially recognized as the national sport of the United States, though in modern times is less popular than some other sports. In addition to North America, baseball spread throughout the rest of the Americas and the Asia–Pacific in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is now among the most popular sports in parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. (Full article...)
The 2015 KNVB Cup final was an association football match between PEC Zwolle and FC Groningen on 3 May 2015 at De Kuip, Rotterdam. It was the final match of the 2014–15 KNVB Cup, the 97th edition of the Dutch cup competition, the KNVB Cup.
PEC were appearing in their fourth KNVB Cup final and were the defending champions, having won the trophy for the first time the previous year by defeating Ajax 5–1. Groningen had reached the final of the competition once before, losing to PSV Eindhoven in 1989. PEC and Groningen each entered the competition in the second round and progressed through five rounds to reach the final. PEC won after extra time in the quarter-final, proceeding to the semi-final of the KNVB Cup for the third consecutive year, where they were victorious in a penalty shoot-out to reach the final. After defeating amateur clubs in the second and third rounds, Groningen eliminated three professional sides from the competition by a three-goal difference or more. En route to the final, Groningen scored 22 goals, the most of all teams during the cup season. (Full article...)
Liverpool's team during their first season, 1892–93
The history of Liverpool Football Club from 1892 to 1959 covers the period from the club's foundation, through their first period of success from 1900 to the 1920s, to the appointment of Bill Shankly as manager.
Liverpool Football Club was formed on 15 March 1892 following a disagreement between the directors of Everton Football Club and its president, John Houlding, who owned the club's ground, Anfield. A dispute over rent resulted in Everton moving to Goodison Park, which left Houlding with an empty stadium. Thus, he founded Liverpool F.C., and they joined the Lancashire League. After winning the league title in their first season, Liverpool were accepted into the Football League for the 1893–94 season, following the resignations of Accrington and Bootle. (Full article...)
Theoren Wallace "Theo" Fleury (born 29 June 1968) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, author and motivational speaker. Fleury played for the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers, and Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL), Tappara of Finland's SM-liiga, and the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League. He was drafted by the Flames in the 8th round, 166th overall, at the 1987 NHL entry draft, and played over 1,000 games in the NHL between 1989 and 2003.
One of the smallest players of his generation, Fleury played a physical style that often led to altercations. As a junior, he was at the centre of the infamous Punch-up in Piestany, a brawl that resulted in the disqualification of both Canada and the Soviet Union from the 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Once considered unlikely to play in the NHL due to his small size, Fleury scored over 1,000 points in his career, placing him 61st in career NHL scoring and won the Stanley Cup in 1989 with the Flames. During his career Fleury recorded 90+ points three times, and 100+ points twice. He averaged 1.026 points per game in the Stanley Cup playoffs, 32nd best in league history. He twice represented Canada at the Winter Olympics, winning a gold medal in 2002. Throughout his career, he battled drug and alcohol addictions that ultimately forced him out of the NHL in 2003. He played one season in the British Elite Ice Hockey League in 2005–06, and made two attempts to win the Allan Cup. After an unsuccessful NHL comeback attempt with the Flames, he retired in 2009. (Full article...)
Montague John Druitt (15 August 1857 – early December 1888) was an English barrister and educator who is known for being a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.
Druitt came from an upper-middle-class English background, and studied at Winchester College and the University of Oxford. After graduating, he was employed as an assistant schoolmaster at a boarding school and pursued a parallel career in the law, qualifying as a barrister in 1885. His main interest outside work was cricket, which he played with many leading players of the time, including Lord Harris and Francis Lacey. (Full article...)- The 2014 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2014 Dafabet World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 19 April to 5 May 2014 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 38th consecutive year that the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible. The tournament was also the last ranking event of the 2013–14 snooker season. The event was sponsored by Dafabet for the first time. A qualifying tournament was held from 8 to 16 April 2014 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield for 16 players, who met 16 seeded participants at the main championships.
Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having won the previous year's event by defeating Barry Hawkins in the final. Mark Selby won the 2014 event to capture his first world title by defeating O'Sullivan 18–14 in the final. This was Selby's fourth ranking title, also completing the Triple Crown of World Championship, UK Championship, and Masters titles. Neil Robertson compiled the highest break of the tournament, a 140, and scored his 100th century break of the season in his quarter-final win over Judd Trump. The event featured a prize fund of £1,214,000, the winner receiving £300,000. (Full article...) - The 1989 World Snooker Championship (also referred to as the Embassy World Snooker Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 1989 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, it was the eighth and final ranking event of the 1988–89 snooker season and the thirteenth consecutive World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible, the first tournament at this location having taken place in 1977. There were 142 entrants to the competition.
The defending champion was Steve Davis, who had previously won the World Championship five times. He met John Parrott in the final, which was a best-of-35-frames match. Davis won the match 18–3, which remains the biggest winning margin in the sport's modern era, and meant that the final, scheduled for four sessions, finished with a session to spare. This was Davis's sixth and last world title, and his last appearance in a World Championship final. Stephen Hendry scored the championship's highest break, a 141, in his quarter-final match. There were 19 century breaks compiled during the championship. (Full article...)
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Selected pictures
Hurdling is the act of running over an obstacle at high speed or in a sprint. It is a highly specialized form of obstacle racing, and forms part of track and field in the sport of athletics. In hurdling events, barriers known as hurdles are set at precisely measured heights and distances. This photograph shows the Austrian athlete Leon Okafor taking part in the men's 110-metre (120 yd) hurdles at the Leichtathletik Gala in Linz in 2018.
Photograph: Pete Souza; edit: El GrafoUS Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney posing with President Barack Obama. They are wearing the "McKayla is not impressed" expression of disappointment which became an internet phenomenon after Maroney made it upon winning a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Yahoo! listed the photograph of Maroney on the podium as the most viral picture of 2012.
Photo: Armin KübelbeckKiril Lazarov (b. 10 May 1980) is a Macedonian handball player active since 1991. He currently plays for HBC Nantes and is also the captain of the North Macedonia men's national handball team.
Motocross is form of motorcycle or ATV racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The tracks are often quite large, natural, terrains with very few man made jumps, unlike Supercross, a sport that was originally derived from Motocross and is executed on a smaller track with many more extreme man made obstacles.
Photograph: Carlos DelgadoZoran Dragić (right) committing a personal foul on Carl English during a 2013 basketball game between Game Estudiantes and Unicaja Málaga. Personal fouls, defined as illegal personal contact with an opponent which affects gameplay, are the most common type of foul in basketball, but are not always considered unsportsmanlike.
Photo: Steven Rasmussen; edit: KeraunoscopiaAustralian artistic gymnast Lauren Mitchell (b. 1991) performing a layout step-out on the balance beam during the 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in London, United Kingdom, on 14 October 2009; at the Championships, Mitchell won two silver medals, one for the balance beam and another for floor exercises. Since her first medal in 2007, Mitchell has placed in the World Championships, World Cup, and Commonwealth Games, and competed in two Olympic Games.
Credit: KuebiMara Friton in a handball match in the German Handball-Bundesliga.
Credit: Fernando FrazãoThe balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the event performed using the apparatus. Pictured is Daniele Hypólito in the final of the women's artistic gymnastics competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where Brazil finished in 8th place.
Credit: Ralf RoletschekMartin Sesaker representing Norway in curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.
Photo: Steven J. Weber/US NavySandboarding is a boardsport similar to snowboarding, but competitions take place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. Here, a member of the US Navy sandboards down a dune in Jebel Ali, Dubai.
Photograph credit: Matteo BramaAlessandro Martinelli (born 30 May 1993) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie B club Brescia. Born in Mendrisio, Ticino, he moved south to Italy to begin his professional career in 2009. Martinelli then left the reserve team of Sampdoria in 2012 for Portosummaga. After returning to Sampdoria in 2013, he was signed by Venezia later that year and then by Modena in 2014. Martinelli left for Brescia in 2015 and joined the club on a permanent basis in 2017. From 2008 to 2013, he also played for various Swiss national youth football teams.
This picture, taken in 2015, shows Martinelli playing for Modena in a match against Ternana.
Photograph: Аркадий ЗарубинBalzhinima Tsyrempilov is a World Cup-winning and former world number-one archer from Russia. He has competed in both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, though he has not medalled.
Photograph credit: Rodney EeThe pacu jawi is a traditional bull race in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. In the race, a jockey stands holding on to a pair of loosely tied bulls while the bulls run across a muddy track in a rice field. Recently, it has become a tourist attraction supported by the government, and the subject of multiple award-winning photographs. Dramatic high-speed action, mud splashing, and the jockeys' distinctive facial expressions add to its aesthetic value.
Credit: ChePriit Narusk in the qualification for the Tour de Ski cross-country skiing competition in Prague.
Photograph: John Sherwell, Australian Paralympic CommitteeMaddison Elliott (b. 1998) is an Australian swimmer. She is S8 classified, having right side cerebral palsy as a result of a neonatal stroke. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she became the youngest Australian Paralympic medallist by winning bronze medals in the women's 400 m and 100 m freestyle S8 events. She then became the youngest Australian gold medallist when she was a member of the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay 34 points team.
Boxing is a sport where two participants of similar weight attack each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called "rounds". Modern boxing began in 1867 with the Marquess of Queensberry rules. Currently, there are two distinct branches of boxing: Professional and Olympic, which have different rules, but are similar in execution.
Photo credit: Hoch ZweiAmerican windsurfer Robby Naish at the 2006 Windsurf World Cup, off the coast of Sylt, Germany. Naish was one of the first athletes to gain long-lasting international fame as a windsurfer. He won his first overall World Championship title, at the age of 13.
Photo credit: Håkan DahlströmIce hockey player Wayne Gretzky, as a member of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1997. Gretzky, nicknamed "The Great One", is widely considered the best hockey player of all time. Upon his retirement in 1999, he held forty regular-season records, fifteen playoff records, and six All-Star records. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season—a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 15 NHL seasons, 13 of them consecutively. He is the only player to have his number (99) officially retired by the NHL for all teams.
Credit: Fir0002Horses race on grass at the 2006 Tambo Valley Races in Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia. Horseracing is the third most popular spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002–03.
Photo: KallernaNasser Al-Attiyah, a Qatari rally driver, in a Ford Fiesta S2000 at the 2010 Rally Finland. He is the only Arab to have won the Dakar Rally, which he did in 2011. In addition to driving, Al-Attiyah is a sport shooter and won a bronze medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in skeet.
Credit: PierreSelim
Joe Oakley (right), being penalised by the official (centre) for "dabbing" his foot on the ground during a mountain bike trials competition. Trials riding is a mountain biking discipline in which the rider attempts to pass through an obstacle course without setting foot to ground. Originating in Catalonia, it is popular within Europe and has a small following worldwide.
Photograph: Ira Rosenberg; restoration: Chris WoodrichMuhammad Ali (1942-2016) was an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. A controversial and polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is now highly regarded for the skills he displayed in the ring plus the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience. Ali remains the only three-time lineal world heavyweight champion, having won the title in 1964, 1974, and 1978.
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Did you know...
- ...that Vulcana was a Welsh strongwoman who traveled the world with her husband, performing as The Atlas and Vulcana Group of Society Athletes?
- ...that Julien Wiener is the only Jewish Australian Test cricketer?
- ...that a cousin of curling, ice stock sport (pictured), is played primarily in Germany and Austria?
- ...that Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis, the son of professional wrestler Road Warrior Animal, is the first Buckeyes scholarship football player from Minnesota since 1933?
- ...that the longest NHL overtime game in the history of hockey was a 1936 match between the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons?
Selected quote
Selected athlete
Jordan going in for a slam dunk with his signature exposed tongue.
After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which included a national championship in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball.
Jordan led the Bulls to NBA championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999. After retiring from the sport, he returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five MVP awards, numerous All-NBA Team and All-Defensive Team appearances, All-Star Game MVP and NBA Finals MVP awards, and other accolades. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game).
In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Jordan is also noted for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, and starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself. (Full article...)
Selected team
The Brabham BT33 in 1970
In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams, and had built more than 500 cars by 1970. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three. Brabham cars also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and in Formula 5000 racing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced innovations such as the Gordon Murray designed "fan car"—which won its only race before being withdrawn.. The team won two more Formula One drivers' championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet. He won his first championship in 1981 in the Ground effects BT49-Ford, and became the first to win a drivers' championship with a turbocharged car in 1983. In 1983 the Brabham BT52, driven by Piquet and Italian Riccardo Patrese, was powered by the BMW M12 Straight-4 engine, and powered Brabham to four of the team's 35 Grand Prix victories.
Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as its owner was unable to make repayments against loans. The case was investigated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. In 2009, an unsuccessful attempt was made by a German organisation to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name. (Full article...)
In this month
- October 1, 1903 – The first game of the inaugural Major League Baseball World Series (2011 game pictured) takes place at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston, Massachusetts
- October 4, 1895 – The first U.S. Open golf tournament is held at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island
- October 7, 2006 – The inaugural Lusophony Games, a multi-sport event for athletes from Portuguese language-speaking countries, begins in Macau
- October 15, 1999 – The first match of the inaugural Rugby League Tri-Nations series is played
- October 24–25, 1987 – The FILA Wrestling World Championships hold their first World Women Championships in Lørenskog, Norway
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