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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: The NFL changed the rules for extra points during the 1940 NFL Championship Game because they were running out of footballs.

On November 17th, 1940, the West division leading Chicago Bears brought their 6-2 record into Washington D.C. to face off against the East division leading 7-1 Washington Redskins. Both teams had a very good chance of making the playoffs and then facing off again in the NFL Championship Game in three weeks (the Redskins ended up having a very good Brooklyn Dodgers team give them a bit of a scare at the end of the season, but the Bears were pretty much all by themselves in the West) and the game had a bit of a “let’s find out who the best team in the NFL is” feel to it.

The Redskins won 7-3, but the game ended with the Bears on the Redskins’ five-yard line and a possible game-winning touchdown pass going by Chicago Pro Bowl fullback Bill Osmanski. The Bears called for pass interference but to no avail, the game was Washington’s. Redskin owner George Marshall then gave Chicago both barrells as he called them whiners and crybabies, even going as far as to say that they were quitters and they were not a second-half of the season team.

The December 8th Championship Game was a rematch in two ways, with the Redskins only previous NFL Championship coming in 1937 when they also defeated the Chicago Bears.

The game went a whole different direction, though.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: The New York Giants originated the “Gatorade shower.”

During the 1986 National Football League (NFL) season, the New York Giants dominated the league as a whole. They went 14-2 and crushed their three playoff opponents on their way to a Super Bowl victory in January 1987 (their smallest margin of victory in the playoffs was seventeen points). After every one of the Giants’ seventeen victories, the Giants would pour a bucket of Gatorade on head coach Bill Parcells. This “Gatorade shower” (or “Gatorade dunk” or “Gatorade bath,” the act has been given a lot of different names over the years) became a national sensation in 1987, popping up from everywhere to sporting events (like the 1987 World Series) and Presidential celebrations (President Ronald Reagan was given a drawing for his 76th birthday party depicting Reagan receiving a Gatorade shower). Bill Schmidt, head of sports marketing for Gatorade, did not see the Giants do their celebration until the first round of the playoffs (where the Giants defeated the 49ers 49-3). When he did, Schmidt later recalled that he thought, “What the hell? I think I have died and gone to heaven?” Gatorade naturally latched on to the celebration and marketed it heavily. It has now become a longstanding sports tradition, especially in the world of football.

But where did the tradition start?

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: The Governor of Colorado lost Pikes Peak to Texas in a football bet.

Bets between politicans are a common tradition in the world of professional sports. In 2010, before the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series began between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made a bet with Arlington mayor Robert Cluck that the mayor of the losing city has to travel to the winning city to do a day of community service wearing the jersey of the victorious team. In addition, had the Giants lost, Newson would have had to send to Cluck some Ghirardelli chocolate, sourdough bread, Dungeness crabs, and some Anchor Steam Beer. If the Rangers lost, Cluck would have had to send to Newson some BBQ from a local place called Spring Creek BBQ. Similarly, Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi made a bet with Arlington representative Joe Barton. If San Francisco won, Pelosi would receive a Pecan Pie from Corsicana’s Collin Street Bakery. If Texas won, Pelosi would send some of San Francisco’s finest Ghirardelli chocolate.

So this is a common tradition. But in 1938, did the Governors of Texas and Colorado take this tradition to the next level? Did they actually bet national landmarks on the results of a football game?

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: A gymnast won six medals at an Olympics…with only one leg!

In 1904, gymnast George Eyser was 33 years old, competing in his first and last Olympics for the United States (Eyser came to America from Germany as a young teen – he became a citizen in 1894).

He went home with a staggering SIX medals, including THREE Gold Medals!

He won the Gold Medal in Parallel Bars, Long Horse Vault and Rope Climbing. He won the Silver Medal in the Pommel Horse and the Combined Competition. He won the Bronze Medal in the Horizontal Bar.

That’s an impressive enough feat for ANY Olympian, but, naturally, Eyser was a bit more special than that (obviously, as why else would I be featuring him here?).
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: The Chinese Table Tennis team cut four players for “falling in love.”

As you may or may not know, Table Tennis is a wildly popular sport in China.

In the 2008 Summer Olympics, all three of the Singles Table Tennis medals were won by Chinese players in both the Men’s and the Women’s competition. In addition, both the Men’s and Women’s team won the Gold Medal for team play (and if each country were allowed to enter more than one team in competition, China likely would have won those medals, as well).

In 2004, the world saw just how serious China was taking their chances at the 2004 Summer Olympics when Coach Cai Zhenhua made a surprising pronouncement.

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: Joe Frazier qualified for the Olympics due to Buster Mathis suffering an injury – an injury Mathis suffered when he defeated Frazier in the qualifying rounds!!

Hard luck losses are typical, but rarer are hard luck WINS, and that’s what happened to boxer Buster Mathis in the qualifying rounds of the 1964 Olympics.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: Five years before winning a Gold medal, an Olympic athlete was declared dead at the scene of a plane crash.

In 1928, 16-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Robinson of Illinois became the first female winner of a Olympic Gold Medal, as Robinson won the 100 meter race (she also won a Silver Medal in the 4×100 meter relay race).

Tragically, in 1931, the 18-year-old Robinson was in a horrific plane crash.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: An Olympic rower paused during a race to let a family of ducks pass in front of his scull.

For such a true gentleman, it’s a shame that Henry “Bobby” Pearce had to wait as long as he did to be let into a Gentleman’s Club.

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: The Jamaican bobsled team carried their sled to the finish line after a crash.

The 1993 film, Cool Runnings, brought a lot of attention to the bobsled team from the tiny island nation of Jamaica.

However much attention and popularity it might have brought the team, it also brought with it a lot of inaccuracies surrounding the Jamaican bobsled team and what happened to them during the 1988 Winter Olympics.

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about the Olympics and Olympians and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Olympic urban legends featured so far.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND: The International Olympics Committee created a new rule just to make a certain participant ineligible for future Olympics.

Eddie Edwards burst onto the international scene when he competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary as the lone British representative in the ski jumping competition.
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