Sports
Telescoping Fish Knocker
Not being a fisherman or sportsman of any sort, I had no idea until now that there existed a special tool for whacking your caught fish on the noggin: the fish knocker or fish bat. You can buy a variety of modern ones, as seen here. But I like the patent on a collapsible model.Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 02, 2023 -
Comments (5)
Category: Sports, Tools, Lakes, Ponds, Rivers, Streams, Swamps and Other Bodies of Fresh Water, Patents, 1950s
Follies of the Madmen #576
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 22, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Celebrities, Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Sports, Advertising, 1970s, Women
Gurning
In September, after a three-year break due to Covid, the World Gurning Championships will once again be held at the Egremont Crab Fair in England. The crab fair dates back to 1267, and the gurning contest may be almost as old.Explanatory text from Yesterday's Country Customs: A History of Traditional English Folklore.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 24, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Sports
Cycle Ball
Call me a Sports Dummy, but I had never previously heard of Cycle Ball.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 10, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Eccentrics, Sports
The Sport of Face Slapping
From The New Encyclopedia of Sports (1947) by Frank G. Menke:
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 23, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Sports
Hand Grenade Throwing as a College Sport
Lewis Omer’s Hand Grenade Throwing as a College Sport, published in 1918, appears in various lists of books with odd titles.I was curious about the contents of the book, but I initially came up empty handed. The British Library blog reported that it was a nine-page booklet, but that no copies of the title seemed to remain in existence. The Library of Congress didn't have a copy, nor did any other libraries. And the British Library's own copy was destroyed during aerial bombing in World War II.
But after some searching I found what appears to be the text of Omer's booklet reproduced in the Spalding's Athletic Library Official Handbook, published in 1919, and viewable at archive.org.
So why hand-grenade throwing as a college sport? Because, at the time Omer wrote his book, young American men were being sent to fight in World War I, and some colleges had introduced grenade throwing as a sport, to prepare them for the war. Using dummy grenades, obviously, rather than live ones. Omer's booklet provided the official rules for the new sport.
Some more info about the history of grenade throwing as a sport can be found at the History Of The California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 22, 2023 -
Comments (5)
Category: Sports, Books, 1910s, Weapons
Miss Sportsorama
I find newspaper references to this beauty title from 1955 to 1990. But I do not think they all refer to the same contest. The largest number of references relate to a trout-fishing contest in NY State.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 13, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Sports, Twentieth Century
Renske Quax, 2-year-old billiards prodigy
It's impressive that this kid could hold a cue stick well enough to hit the ball at the age of two, let alone sinking shots. That's more coordinated than the 2-year-olds I've known.I couldn't find any media references to him after 1953. So I'm assuming that he didn't grow up to be a billiards pro.
Miami Herald - Nov 13, 1952
Info from Life magazine (May 18, 1953):
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 03, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Sports, Children, 1950s
Gloucester Cheese Roll Winner
The annual Gloucester Cheese Roll contest involves chasing a wheel of cheese down Cooper's Hill. The winner of this year's women's race was Delaney Irving of Canada. She won despite getting knocked unconscious while running (falling) down the hill.I had the chance to visit Cooper's Hill about ten years ago (not during the cheese roll, unfortunately), and I can attest that it's very steep — much steeper than it appears on videos such as the one below. The idea of trying to run down it seems suicidal to me.
More info: The Guardian
(Thanks to Gerald Sacks!)
Posted By: Alex - Wed May 31, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Sports
People Hunting
A version of 'the most dangerous game' that ends with licks and cuddles rather than death.
Montreal Star - Feb 2, 1976
Some searching turned up Walter Gilbey's old webpage on the Internet Archive, where he discussed what he called the "Isle of Man Bloodhounds Drag Hunt." A drag hunt (so I learned) is the term for a hunt in which bloodhounds chase after a person who is carrying something aromatic, such as aniseed. However, their noses are so good that they can (and often do) simply follow the scent of the person.
As of 2015, this Isle of Man Bloodhounds Drag Hunt was still taking place. See the March 2015 issue of the Isle of Man magazine (pgs 108-109).
Posted By: Alex - Tue May 16, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Sports, 1970s
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