In 2012, General Mills sent professional basketball player Jeremy Lin a special jersey made entirely of Fruit Roll-Ups after he tweeted about his love for the fruit snack. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://blog.generalmills.com/2012/05/linsanity-over-fruit-snacks/
Deion Sanders once hit an MLB homerun and scored an NFL touchdown in the same week, he is the only person to ever accomplish this. He is also the only athlete to ever compete in both the World Series and a Super Bowl. – WTF Fun Facts
Snooker player Bill Werbeniuk became famous for his drinking ability which doctors advised him to do in order to counteract a familial benign essential tremor. He would drink at least 6 pints before a match and one during each frame. In the 1970’s, he once drank 76 cans during a match in Australia. – WTF Fun Facts
The Church of Scientology (“Dianetics”) sponsored a car in the 1988 Indy 500. It was the first time a religious faith sponsored an IndyCar entry. Unfortunately, it crashed on the second turn of the first lap. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.autoweek.com/racing/indycar/a1844546/39-church-scientology-sponsors-indy-500-entry-1988/
In 2017, Kyrie Irving made the comment that he isn’t entirely sure whether the Earth is flat or round. A year later he told the NY Times in another interview that he still wasn’t entirely sure the shape of the Earth. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.nba.com/article/2018/10/01/kyrie-irving-regrets-flat-earth-comments
In 2015, when the New York Jets played at Wembley Stadium in London, they shipped over 350 rolls of toilet paper for their hotel and the stadium because an intern who had previously been to London thought their TP was too thin. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34430305
Adidas does not sponsor any athletes who are Scientologists because in Germany, where Adidas is headquartered, Scientology is considered a cult.–WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://hypebeast.com/2015/8/adidas-will-terminate-contracts-of-scientologists
Josy Barthel of Luxembourg won an Olympic gold medal in the 1500m race in 1952, but it was so unexpected that the band did not have the score for the national anthem and instead had to improvise. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/sports/national-anthem-controversy.html
In 2012, an Australian was kicked out of a darts competition in England because his appearance caused the crowd to chant “Jesus!” repeatedly, which distracted the other players. He was prevented from entering in 2013 for the same reason. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jesus-lookalike-nathan-grindal-banned-2895176
Deland McCullough, a former NFL player and now coach, was given up for adoption at birth in 1973. He found his birth mother in 2017. She told him the name of his father, who turned out to be his college coach and mentor throughout his adult life. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/24505521/the-jaw-dropping-story-nfl-coach-search-family
In 1889, Hall of Fame pitcher Pud Galvin was one of baseball’s first users of performance enhancing drugs (PED’s) after receiving an injection containing crushed dog and guinea pig testicles. – WTF Fun Facts
Due to an odd contract buyout in 2000, Bobby Bonilla, currently 57 years old, gets an annual payment of ~$1.2 million by the New York Mets despite not playing for them since 1999. He will be paid through 2035. – WTF Fun Facts
South Korean soccer team FC Seoul were fined a record 100 million Korean won after accidentally placing sex dolls instead of mannequins in their stands in the coronavirus aftermath. – WTF Fun Facts
Professional grade shuttlecocks are made only from the feathers of the left wing of geese. Feathers from the right wing make them spin the wrong way. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.inverse.com/article/19768-2016-rio-olympics-goose-geese-left-wing-badminton-shuttlecock
After Nike released the first Air Jordan sneakers in 1985, the NBA banned Michael Jordan from wearing them because it’s colors didn’t match his team’s uniform. Nike paid the per game fine of $5000 so he would continue wearing them. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/27892/why-michael-jordans-fancy-new-sneakers-cost-5000-game
During the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, the American Frederick Lorz was the first to reach the finish line of the marathon race. It turned out, however, that he had covered about half the distance by car. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_marathon
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian basketball team couldn’t afford to participate in the 1992 Olympics. The Grateful Dead funded the team’s expenses and designed some tie-dye gear which they wore to accept their Bronze medal. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_Dead#Sponsorship_of_1992_Lithuanian_Olympic_Basketball_Team
Belgium is the world’s leading producer and exporter of billiard balls thanks to the Saluc company, which has been producing the balls made of phenolic resin since ~1960. – WTF Fun Facts
Source:
https://www.amazingbelgium.be/2017/06/nearly-80-percent-of-worlds-billiard.html