Game Changer: A Televised Sports Quiz

Image: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Did you know that before TV, tennis balls were white? The color was changed so that the balls would show up better on camera. There's a lot you may not know about the history of sports and television. Think you're an expert? Take this fact-or-fiction quiz to test your knowledge!

The first sports television broadcast was in Germany.

Fact

The German broadcast of the 1936 Olympics went live just in time to show American Jesse Owens winning the finals of the 100-meter sprint.

Fiction

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Generally, television brought new viewers to minor league sports, helping these minor leagues grow.

Fact

Fiction

Television actually hurt minor league teams. It allowed fans to choose nationally televised broadcasts of major league teams over sitting in the bleachers to watch their local, minor league teams.

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Watching sports on TV influences people to spend less time playing sports themselves.

Fact

Fiction

Most studies show that televised sports inspire fans to their own feats of athleticism; thus, TV sports create more, not fewer, sports participants.

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In 1992, the size of the NHL goal was increased by 2 inches in every dimension, in hopes of creating more scoring and thus a more exciting TV experience.

Fact

Fiction

While this idea has been proposed a number of times over the years, the size of the NHL goal has resisted change so far.

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The first sports event televised in the United States was a boxing match, televised from Madison Square Garden.

Fact

Fiction

The first sports radio broadcast was of a boxing match from Motor Square Garden in Pennsylvania, while the first televised event was a 1939 football game between the Princeton Tigers and the Columbia Lions.

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Instant replay became part of sports television in 1982, when the NFL first allowed referees to review calls in the final two minutes of a game.

Fact

Fiction

The trick is in the words: Instant replay is the taping and rebroadcasting of especially exciting plays, first used in 1963 in an Army/Navy football game.

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In top rugby competitions, a television umpire watches along with and assists the on-pitch umpire.

Fact

While they're much maligned in the rugby community, television umpires watch the game on a screen and assist with officiating.

Fiction

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Before World War II and the following TV boom, cheers in the stands were generally led by male "yell captains."

Fact

Archive photos show that these yell captains were attired quite differently from modern cheerleaders.

Fiction

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In order for the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics to be seen in Europe, airplanes carrying reels of film flew from California to the viewing countries.

Fact

Talk about time delay. It took two days for this Olympic film to reach Europe from the U.S.

Fiction

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During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, NBC used the term "plausibly live" to describe events that weren't shown live, but could've been.

Fact

NBC argued that showing edited versions of "live" events allowed the network to ensure that only the most exciting programming was shown.

Fiction

FINISH QUIZ

You Got:

/10

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