Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
June 25, 2009, Washington Post

Open a Book to Find Fun Facts on Sports

Hey, kids, bet you didn't know that:

-- The first World Cup soccer trophy was stolen in 1966 before the games in London. It was found later in a park by a dog named Pickles. The trophy was stolen again in 1983. It has never been found.

-- The current World Cup trophy is 14.5 inches high, weighs 13.6 pounds and is made out of 18-karat gold.

-- The first basketballs were made of leather panels stitched together and looked like soccer balls or volleyballs. Some of the early basketballs even had laces like a football. That made them really hard to dribble.

-- During the 1900 Olympics in Paris, the swimming events were held in the Seine River, not in a swimming pool.

-- Female athletes competed for the first time in the 1900 Paris Olympics. They played croquet, tennis and golf, and competed in yachting events.

-- Track and field, cycling, fencing, gymnastics and swimming are the only sports that have been in every Summer Olympic Games since 1896.

So how do I know all this weird sports stuff? Simple: books. I went to the public library the other day and borrowed a stack of cool sports books from the Eyewitness series by DK Publishing. The books are filled with lots of sports facts and great pictures.

I know school is over and it's summer. Kids can't wait to swim at the pool, go to camp or just lie around on long summer evenings with no homework to do.

But don't forget books. For kids who like sports, the libraries are loaded with sports books. Most of them are in the nonfiction section; look around the number 790, where sports, games and entertainment books are found. There are books that can help you improve your soccer skills or golf swing. Biographies of your favorite athletes. Stories about kids playing sports. Books that explain the history of the games we love -- those are my favorites.

Reading can be a lot of fun, especially when you don't have any tests and you are just trying to find out fascinating stuff.

Such as . . .

-- The first football players didn't wear helmets. Some players, however, wore a nose protector that was a leather flap that covered the nose. They strapped it around their head and held it in place with their teeth.

-- The first recognized professional football player was William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, who had been a star at Yale University. Heffelfinger got paid $500 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association in 1892.

So enjoy your summer vacation, but don't forget to hit the books.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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