Who knew?

After my last post, I felt a need to lighten up the mood, and maybe even bring a smile or grin to someone's face. There are obviously a large number of ways to do that, but being an educator, I think that learning something new to you that also makes you smile is the Dynamic Duo! There is no theme to these questions since they are just things that made me smile. I freely admit there are a lot of questions here from the world of sports, which will come as no surprise to those that know me well.

I've always been amazed by the sheer volume of useless information that we humans can store and retrieve, yet struggle to remember some of the most important, simplest things. In this day and age of Smartphones, most people can't recall a phone number of a loved one, yet can immediately recall ones for random individuals from their past. I know, at least for me, that some of that is due to my Kinesthetic learning style since I had to dial (on a rotary phone and yes, I'm that old) or push buttons to connect the call. The little bit that I have retained from learning about memory and recall, in the truest sense of irony, has to do with the concept of association, or the idea that finding connections between things you wish to remember, allows me to recall them more readily.

For each of the following little Trivial Challenge questions, scroll to the bottom for answers:

1) In what stadium would you be if you were looking down at Touchdown Jesus?
2) A line drive ricochets off the pitcher's mound into the 1st base dugout. What base does the batter go?
3) What are the colours of the 5 rings in the Olympic emblem?
4) A field goal kick grazes the helmet of the offensive lineman before clearing the uprights. Does it count?
5) Who has the longest tenure of any broadcaster with a single club in Pro Sports history?
6) Who is the only NBA Hall of Famer to have his Harlem Globetrotter uniform number retired?
7) What is the rarest M&M colour?
8) In the football movie "Brian's Song", Brian Piccolo and Gayle Sanders were played by which actors?
9) Who is arguably the best athlete to come out of St May-St Vincent HS, in Akron, Ohio?
10) Who is the only player in North American sports history to wear a Roman numeral on his back?
11) Name the 4 NBA nicknames that don't end in an "S".
12) Who is the only man to set world records in both the 100m and 200m sprints in the same Olympics?
13) Alabama's Bear Bryant once famously said, "A tie is like kissing your _______."
14) Who is the "Say Hey Kid"?
15) Which country consumes the most chocolate, per capita?
16) Lambeau Field is named after which founder, player and head coach of the Green Bay Packers?
17) The official length and width of which professional playing surface is 200 feet x 85 feet?
18) Which Canadian hockey legend invented the goalie mask?
19) What is the largest type of deer?
20) Who is a former Heisman Trophy winner, Pro Football player and Major League Baseball player.
21) Who was the 1st athlete to appear on the Wheaties box?
22) Which Hall of Fame head coach was know as the "Wizard of Westwood"?
23) What year were the first Air Jordan sneakers released?
24) What is the tiny plastic piece at the end of a shoelace called?
25) In what year was the first Wimbledon tennis Championship held?

Doing a little Internet sleuthing, it turns out there are some biological reasons behind the rush of excitement we feel when we get a trivia question right. According to psychologist John Kounios, answering a trivia question correctly triggers a release of dopamine (a neurotransmitter associated with ensuring we remember important keys to surviving) in the brain that gives the person answering a sense of pleasure. Beyond that short-term benefit, collecting and deploying information can exercise the brain as we age, supporting healthy neurological function. Trivia is like taking your brain to the gym, without the need to shower afterwards.

According to the site Man-Telligence, "Trivia is essentially cross training for our brains. When you answer trivia questions, you’re using your brain to answer questions on multiple topics, from language to sports or mathematics to history. In addition, our brains need not only to think critically, but also creatively, to find answers."

I got 21 of these 25 correct when I was researching questions to include ... just saying.
Hope that you found yourself learning ... and smiling.

Answers:

1) Notre Dame Stadium
2) Home - foul ball
3) Blue, Yellow, Black, Green and Red
4) Nope
5) Vin Scully with the Dodgers
6) Wilt Chamberlain #13
7) Brown
8) Piccolo was played by James Caan and Gayle Sayers by Billy Dee Williams
9) LeBron James
10) Robert Griffin III
11) Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Orlando Magic and Oklahoma City Thunder
12) Usain Bolt in 2008
13) "A tie is like kissing your SISTER."
14) Willie Mays
15) Switzerland
16) Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau
17) An NHL hockey rink
18) Jacques Plante
19) A moose
20) Bo Jackson
21) Lou Gehrig in 1934
22) UCLA's John Wooden
23) 1984
24) An Aglet
25) 1877