Sunday, March 15, 2009

1. What American city is recognized as the cradle of modern professional football?

A. Canton, Ohio
B. Chicago, Illinois
C. Muncie, Indiana
D. Rochester, New York

A. Canton, Ohio
QQ: Today, Canton is recognized as the cradle of modern professional football. The Pro Football Hall of Fame, dedicated in 1963, is located there, but the real reason is that a 1920 meeting led to the formation of the American Professional Football Association.

2. The English organized the game, which they called hockie and the French called hoquet, and instituted most of the modern rules. However, the stick and ball game called Field Hockey can trace its routes back to three ancient civilizations. Which of these is NOT one of them?

A. Egypt
B. Greece
C. Persia
D. Rome

D. Rome
QQ: Field hockey, a stick and ball game related to ice hockey and lacrosse,
originated in ancient Egypt, Persia, and Greece and assumed its present form
after its spread to Europe.

3. Lacrosse, an outdoor game in which two teams using netted sticks compete to throw a ball into the opponents' goal, is similar in tactics to ice hockey and soccer. A national sport of Canada, lacrosse has grown in popularity in the United States, Australia, England, and Ireland. Who invented the game?

A. Canadians
B. English
C. Huron Indians
D. Irish

C. Huron Indians
QQ: In 1636 a Jesuit missionary in North America observed Huron Indians playing a game with a hide-covered ball carried and hurled from a curved stick with a pouch at the top. The Indians called the game bagataway, but the curved stick resembled a bishop's crosier, or la crosse in French, from which the sport takes its name.

4. Where did the sport of rugby originate in 1823?

A. The Rugby School in England
B. The Rugby School in Australia
C. A Scottish parochial school in the parish of Rugby
D. No one knows for sure, but rugby is much older than 1823

A. The Rugby School in England
QQ: Whether in legend or in fact, rugby is said to have originated in 1823 at the Rugby School in England. A stone marker at the gates of the school commemorates the event when "William Webb Ellis with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it." The game being played was soccer, the ancestor of both rugby and American football.

5. Soccer evolved from centuries of different ball games, but the modern-day version of soccer is known to have started in England, and the first ball reportedly was the head of a dead Danish brigand. The game was already incredibly popular in the 14th century despite being prohibited by King Edward

III. Why did he ban it?
A. He preferred golf and wanted it to be more popular
B. It interfered with military preparedness
C. They would never let him play
D. The Danish brigands lodged a formal protest

B. It interfered with military preparedness
QQ: King Edward III prohibited soccer in 1365 because of its excessive violence and for military reasons playing took time away from archery practice. However, the game had become too popular to be curtailed.