Fun Random Sports Facts - Edition 1

Sports have always been full of unbelievable moments, strange coincidences, and random trivia that sound made up but are actually true. My brain is basically a storage unit for useless sports knowledge, so I figured, why not put some of it into an article? Welcome to the first edition of Fun Random Sports Facts, where we dive into some of the craziest and most interesting facts from around the sports world.

Baseball

1. Cecil Fielder and Prince Fielder are the only father-son duo in MLB history to finish their careers with the same number of home runs, with both players hitting 319.

2. Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. are the only father-son duo to hit back-to-back home runs in the same MLB game. The historic moment happened on September 14, 1990, while both were playing for the Seattle Mariners against the California Angels.

3. As of the end of the 2025 MLB season, only two franchises have never won their division: the Miami Marlins and the Colorado Rockies. The Marlins still managed to win two World Series titles as a Wild Card team in 1997 and 2003, while the Rockies made it all the way to the World Series in 2007 before getting swept by the Boston Red Sox. Both franchises entered the MLB together as expansion teams in 1993.

4. Fred Lynn in 1975 with the Boston Red Sox and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001 with the Seattle Mariners are the only players in MLB history to win both Rookie of the Year and MVP in their first season.

5. In the 1960s, San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark famously joked about pitcher Gaylord Perry, saying, “They’ll put a man on the moon before he hits a home run.” Less than an hour after the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, Perry hit the first home run of his MLB career.

Basketball

1. The Chicago Bulls are the only NBA franchise to win multiple championships without ever losing an NBA Finals series, finishing a perfect 6-0 in the Finals.

2. Ben Wallace became the first undrafted player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

3. Duncan Robinson holds several NBA records for fastest player to reach major three-point milestones, including 200 through 1,000 career threes.

4. Draymond Green is the only NBA player with a non-scoring triple-double. On February 10, 2017, against the Memphis Grizzlies, he finished the game with 4 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals.

5. Nate Thurmond became the first player in NBA history to record a quadruple-double when he posted 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, and 12 blocks against the Atlanta Hawks on October 18, 1974.

Football

1. The New York Jets currently hold the NFL’s longest active playoff drought, having not made the postseason since 2010.

2. The Miami Dolphins currently own the NFL’s longest active playoff win drought. Their last playoff victory came on December 30, 2000, against the Indianapolis Colts — the year I was born.

3. The largest stadium in the United States is Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also known as “The Big House.” Home to the University of Michigan Wolverines football team, the stadium holds over 107,000 fans and is the third-largest stadium in the world.

4. Devin Hester remains the only player in NFL history to return the opening kickoff of a Super Bowl for a touchdown. He did it in Super Bowl XLI in 2007 with a 92-yard return for the Chicago Bears just seconds into the game.

5. Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre holds the NFL record for most career fumbles with 166 over his 20-year career.

Hockey

1. In hockey’s early days during the 1800s, pucks were reportedly made from wood and even frozen cow dung before modern rubber pucks became standard.

2. Wayne Gretzky holds the record for the most MVP awards in North American major professional sports history with nine Hart Trophies.

3. During the 1990s, the NHL banned jersey numbers 0 and 00 because the league’s computerized statistics system struggled to process them correctly, reading the numbers as “null” values.

4. Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs holds the NHL record for most points in a single game. On February 7, 1976, he exploded for 10 points against the Boston Bruins with six goals and four assists.

   
   

5. One of the most unique traditions in sports belongs to the Florida Panthers. Panthers fans throw plastic rats onto the ice after wins because of a famous 1995 incident when forward Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the locker room with his stick before the home opener and then scored two goals that night. The moment became known as the “Rat Trick,” and the tradition has lived on ever since.

Sports are filled with random stories and unbelievable trivia, which is part of what makes them so fun to follow.

Got any random sports facts of your own or a sports trivia topic you want featured in the next edition of Fun Random Sports Facts? Let me know.