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Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy are on the hunt for the most bizarre stories to ever occur in the world of sport. Sports Bizarre delves into the history of sport to find the stories that you wouldn’t believe if they hadn’t happened. No sport is off-limits, athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and even that sport on the ice with brooms Sports Bizarre is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
- 97 - From the archives - Ten Cent Beer Night
Unfortunately Mick was unwell last week, so we bring you one of our most popular episodes. Wimbledon will be back next week.
On 4 June 1974, the Cleveland Indians decided to host a ten-cent beer night to attract fans; beer at the stadium normally cost 65 cents, so ten cents was a real incentive.
The Indians were in a 30-year slump at the time, as was the city, their river would catch fire with alarming regularity, so the scene was set for trouble. Oh, and it was a full moon.
The result was pure, unbridled chaos. There were streakers, firecrackers, a woman trying to kiss the home plate umpire and eventually, a full-scale riot.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine a night that started badly and then got worse.
Titus has three live shows coming up in May in Melbourne. You can get tickets here.
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Sun, 14 Apr 2024 - 96 - Wimbledon's Crazy Gang Part 2
In part two, Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang unlock their on field persona, tough, hard, and hated by opponents.
As they push up the Football League divisions, a new young player joins the team, named Vinnie Jones, and the club begins their assault on the top division.
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Sun, 07 Apr 2024 - 95 - Wimbledon's Crazy Gang Part 1
In the mid-1970s, Wimbledon FC were an amateur football side that couldn't afford training cones, so they stole them from the nearby highway.
But the club was going about to go on one of the greatest runs of any team in sport, rising from the bottom to the top, and they did it with a crazy owner, manager and a bunch of players who would become known simply as ‘the crazy gang’.
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Sun, 31 Mar 2024 - 94 - The Angriest Man in Baseball
Albert Belle could hit a baseball. He could also hit a range of other objects when he got frustrated, from sinks to buffet tables.
Joining the hapless Cleveland Indians, he was a big part of turning them around, but he also lost it at fans, teammates, and trick-or-treaters.
Belle’s personality of being a jerk, even affected his chances of entering the Hall of Fame, because most journalists who vote for it, just didn’t like him.
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Sun, 24 Mar 2024 - 93 - The Great Babe Didrikson- Part 2
In part two, Babe Didrikson turns to golf as her next sport to conquer, becoming one of the greatest of all time.
She also meets her husband George Zaharias, a professional wrestler, known as the 'Crying Greek from Cripple Creek.'
Together, they propel Babe to great heights, help form the LPGA, before Babe faces her toughest battle.
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Sun, 17 Mar 2024 - 92 - The Great Babe Didrikson- Part 1
Babe Didrikson might very well be the greatest athlete of the 20th century. As a teenager she led her team to the National Basketball Championship, before moving on to the Olympics and became a two-time gold medallist.
Baseball was next, playing against the men in the Major Leagues, and that was just the half of it.
To make money, she turned to the stage, becoming a star, before deciding to conquer one more sport, golf.
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Sun, 10 Mar 2024 - 91 - The Wild Johnstown Jets
In 1977, the movie Slap Shot starring Paul Newman was released about the crazy exploits of a fictional minor league ice hockey team.
The plot was so unbelievable the movie flopped but later became a sports classic, partly because all the crazy stories in it were based on a real team, the Johnstown Jets.
All the characters in the movie were based on real people, like the three Hanson Brothers, (not the musicians) and their arch-nemesis Bill “Goldie” Goldthorpe.
They fought each other, the referees and the fans.
This is the story of the Johnstown Jets, one of the strangest teams of all time.
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Sun, 03 Mar 2024 - 90 - Michael Jackson visits Exeter City
In 2002, none other than Michael Jackson came to Exeter City's stadium to deliver a speech to the 7,000 fans in attendance.
What followed was a rambling speech about curing AIDS, stopping poverty, and for good measure, ending racism.
What made this even stranger was that Exeter City were at the bottom of Division Three at the time. Within weeks of his visit, Jackson would be appointed to their board.
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Sun, 25 Feb 2024 - 89 - Taylor Swift & the NFL
With Taylor Swift in Australia, we look at her impact on the NFL and examine other sport/entertainment relationships, like Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Posh and Becks, and Denis Rodman and Madonna.
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Tue, 20 Feb 2024 - 88 - The Fine Cotton Affair - Part 2
After a few legal checks, we can now bring you part two of Fine Cotton, and we didn't even have to change it!
When we left you, the horse was bright red, the race was imminent and it all looked like this slow-moving disaster was going ahead.
Find out what happens next in this extraordinary tale.
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Sun, 18 Feb 2024 - 87 - The Fabulous Frank Worthington
Unfortunately, we can't bring you Fine Cotton Part Two today, we explain why in this pod, but it will be arriving soon.
Instead, we present Frank Worthington, one of the wild men of English Football in the 1970s.
A friend of George Best, he once famously failed a medical at Liverpool because he went on a bender the week before.
What follows is a wild ride of women, booze, gambling and some amazing football.
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Sun, 11 Feb 2024 - 86 - The Fine Cotton Affair - Part 1
We are back, and with the most requested topic we've ever had.
In Australia, the two most famous racehorses are Fine Cotton and Phar Lap but for opposite reasons.
When a handful of colourful racing types attempted to swap the poor horse Fine Cotton, for the much faster Dashing Solitaire, it all seemed so easy.
What followed was an inept, sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious slow-moving disaster, with a mystery still at the heart of it.
We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows on in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. The first show is sold out and there’s only a few left for the second night. You can buy tickets here:
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Sun, 04 Feb 2024 - 85 - Texas Football with The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis
Titus sits down with The Ringer’s Editor-at-Large Bryan Curtis to discuss the wonderful world of Texas football.
They look at high school football, the rituals and rivalries of college football and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.
Bryan discusses his beloved Texas Longhorns and how millions of dollars are poured into high school teams.
They also look at the Houston Oilers, the USFL’s San Antonio Gunslingers and why in Texas, the three Fs, Faith, Family and Football are so big.
We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows on in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. The first show is sold out and there’s only a few left for the second night. You can buy tickets here:
We are kicking off at the Corner Hotel because it’s a two minute walk from Mick’s house, but don’t worry if you’re not in Victoria, we will be announcing more dates in the near future.
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Sun, 28 Jan 2024 - 84 - Yankees and Jets fans with Paul Nardizzi & David Barend
Titus sits down with comedians and authors Paul Nardizzi & David Barend who literally wrote the books on how to annoy Jets and Yankees fans.
They discuss the Jets disastrous season and why non-Yankees fans hate Yankees fans.
We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. You can buy tickets here:
We are kicking off at the Corner Hotel because it’s a two-minute walk from Mick’s house, but don’t worry if you’re not in Victoria, we will be announcing more dates in the near future.
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Sun, 21 Jan 2024 - 83 - The Pain of Being a Mets Fan with Devin Gordon
Titus sits down with Devin Gordon, author of So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin' True Story of the New York Mets.
They chat about how Mets fans experience more pain than almost any other fans, and how whenever things look good, they go bad in the funniest way possible.
We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows on in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. You can buy tickets here:
We are kicking off at the Corner Hotel because it’s a two minute walk from Mick’s house, but don’t worry if you’re not in Victoria, we will be announcing more dates in the near future.
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Sun, 14 Jan 2024 - 82 - Best of - General Mayhem
This week we look at people creating mayhem just for the joy of creating mayhem.
First, we look at snooker legend Jimmy White, particularly when he teams up with fellow madman Alex Higgins.
Next, we look at the total mayhem of mob football at the Atherstone Ball game.
Lastly, we look at the player who never played, Carlos Kaiser and his brush with organised crime.
We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. You can buy tickets here:
We are kicking off at the Corner Hotel because it’s a two minute walk from Mick’s house, but don’t worry if you’re not in Victoria, we will be announcing more dates in the near future.
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Sun, 07 Jan 2024 - 81 - Best of - Too Much Money
This week we look at people who had too much money.
Starting with F1 racer James Hunt, and his relationship with Lord Alexander Hesketh, a man who had money, and knew how to have fun with it.
Then there’s J. William Oldenburg, who owned the USFL team, the Los Angeles Express, and got into a spending war with Donald Trump.
Lastly, we look at James Gordon Bennett Jr, the youngest ever Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, who had a cow on his yacht so he could get fresh milk.
We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. You can buy tickets here:
We are kicking off at the Corner Hotel because it’s a two-minute walk from Mick’s house, but don’t worry if you’re not in Victoria, we will be announcing more dates in the near future.
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Mon, 01 Jan 2024 - 80 - From the archives - Young Griffo
This week we look back at one of our favourite characters ever.
Albert Griffiths, or ‘Young Griffo’ began life in the slums of Sydney, as leader of a local gang. This proved to be the perfect training for boxing, and before he was twenty he was the World Featherweight Champion.
Moving to the United States, Young Griffo would go on to be one of the greatest boxers of all time, despite never training and almost never fighting sober.
In a career spanning 232 fights, Girffo would only lose nine, despite multiple arrests, stints in jail and various asylums.
We're doing two live Sports Bizarre podcasts in Melbourne this February. Tickets on sale now.
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Sun, 24 Dec 2023 - 79 - The Bookies Missing Millions with Andrew Rule
While Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival was in full swing, news emerged of what could be Australia’s biggest Ponzi scheme.
High on the list of victims were bookmakers who invested millions with an unassuming suburban lawyer named John Adams.
Titus sits down with crime writer Andrew Rule to discuss the emerging story.
Tickets to Titus’ five Melbourne shows are selling fast with three already sold out and the others selling fast. For tickets to Sport: The Unauthorised History click here.
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Sun, 17 Dec 2023 - 78 - Funniest moments in cricket with Dan Liebke
Titus sits down with author Dan Liebke to discuss his new book, The 100 Funniest Moments in Australian Cricket.
They discuss Rob Quiney's resurrection of a dead seagull, Shane Watson's LBW appeals, Dennis Lillee asking the Queen for an autograph and Jeff Thomson's speech at the Allan Border Medal.
For tickets to Titus' new live show; Sport: The Unauthorised History click here.
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Sun, 10 Dec 2023 - 77 - Best of - Unlucky in Love
In 2023, we found plenty of athletes who were unlucky in love. In this best of, we look at John Daly's interesting marriages, Jese Rodriguez interesting way of gaining revenge on an ex, and James Hunt's creative end to a marriage.
For tickets to Titus' new Show; Sport: The Unauthorised History click here.
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Sun, 03 Dec 2023 - 76 - Keith Miller- Part Two
Following the war, Keith Miller dazzled England in the Victory Test and returned to Australia a star.
Debuting for Australia, Miller would dazzle crowds around the world, while also clashing with Don Bradman on a regular basis.
Miller’s on-field antics were matched by the intense interest in what he did off-field. He was rumoured to have had an affair with Princess Margaret, and once while hungover, used a bike to switch fielding positions.
For tickets to Titus' new Show; Sport: The Unauthorised History click here.
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Sun, 26 Nov 2023 - 75 - Keith Miller - Part One
When it comes to cricketers, there have been many as exciting on and off the pitch as Keith Ross Miller.
Miller played VFL, flew fighter planes in the war, and was one of, if not the greatest, all-rounder of all time.
Miller combined movie star looks and incredible charm off the field, with a dark side few got to see.
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Sun, 19 Nov 2023 - 74 - Elias ' Lucky Baldwin' - Part 2
In the second part of our Lucky Baldwin series, Lucky had just escaped death after being shot by a jilted lover.
He followed that up by being shot by another lover almost immediately, which is careless.
Lucky also managed to create a new town, which the Los Angeles Times described as a “gambling hell and booze pleasure park.”
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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 - 73 - Elias ‘Lucky’ Baldwin Part One
The Santa Anita Park is one of the most famous racetracks in America, a regular host of the Breeders' Cup, but its founder is little known.
Elias 'Lucky' Baldwin was a self-made millionaire, who left behind him a trail of wives, mistresses and unhappy business partners.
In business, he was lucky and shrewd, and his biography starts with the line, 'immoral, unmoral, amoral, Lucky Baldwin was all of them.'
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Sun, 05 Nov 2023 - 72 - Reg Spiers comes home
In 1964, one of Australia’s leading javelin throwers, Reg Spiers, was training in England when he failed to make the Australian Olympic team.
Things got worse when his wallet was stolen, leaving him completely broke.
He was stuck in England with no way to get home. Reg, however, was an out-of-the-box thinker. Perhaps there was a way to get home that would cost him nothing, it just had never been done before.
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Sun, 29 Oct 2023 - 71 - A Real-Life Wacky Races: Part Two
The MacRobertson Air Race got underway in spectacular fashion, with a pilot trying to take off but forgetting to release the brake.
Once in the air, things got only more confused, with emergency landings, crashes, and pilots getting arrested by Benito Mussolini’s men.
Soon the first planes would arrive in Australia, and the people of Albury would play a major role in saving one plane from disaster.
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Sun, 22 Oct 2023 - 70 - A Real-Life Wacky Races: Part One
In 1934, the 100th anniversary of the founding of Melbourne was celebrated by what was at the time, the most dangerous and ambitious race in world history, flying from England to Melbourne.
The race would see wooden biplanes go up against the first metal airliners and was funded by an Australian Willy Wonka, Sir Macpherson Robertson, inventor of Freddo Frog and Cherry Ripe.
The finest pilots of the age gathered in England, a man who flew with a lion cub, a married couple who argued over directions, and a man who once ‘bombed’ the English flagship, HMAS Queen Elizabeth, with toilet paper during a naval exercise.
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Sun, 15 Oct 2023 - 69 - The invention of rugby: Part Two
On October 26, 1863, at the Freemason’s Tavern in Great Queen Street, London, representatives of various football clubs from across England met to try and figure out a universal set of rules for football.
This optimistic project fell apart over differences over whether you could run while holding the ball, and if you could kick an opponent in the shins.
The group split, one would form the Football Association, and the rest would go off an create Rugby.
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Sun, 08 Oct 2023 - 68 - The Invention of Rugby: Part 1
In 1823, William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a school match creating the "rugby" style of play.
Except he didn’t, and the true story of how rugby emerged involved school uprisings, broken shins, and the invention of an origin story.
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Sun, 01 Oct 2023 - 67 - The America's Cup: Special Guest John Bertrand
On the 26th of September 1983, forty years ago, Australia II crossed the line to end the New York Yacht Club's 132-year-long winning streak.
To celebrate the anniversary, Mick and Titus sat down with winning skipper John Bertrand to learn more about what it took to win the America’s Cup.
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Mon, 25 Sep 2023 - 66 - The America’s Cup: Part Six
In 1983, Alan Bond would go all in for the Cup, bringing together John Bertrand and Ben Lexcen in an all-out assault on the New York Yacht Club.
The Australians would bring their winged keel, and perhaps more importantly, their mind tricks, as they fought the Americans in court and out on the water.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy recount the year the Australians challenged for the cup and for the first time in 132 years, prised it from the New York Yacht Club’s iron grip.
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Sun, 24 Sep 2023 - 65 - The America’s Cup: Part Five
With the British trying and failing for 100 years, the Australians now entered the fray, with Sir Frank Packer launching a challenge.
When Sir Frank was asked why he decided to challenge, he replied, "Alcohol and delusions of grandeur."
With the passing of Frank Packer, another Australian would pick up the mantle. He was from Western Australia, and his name was Alan Bond.
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Tue, 19 Sep 2023 - 64 - The America’s Cup: Part Four
By the end of the 19th Century, the America’s Cup had become a plaything for the rich, with men like J.P.Morgan and William K Vanderbilt controlling the New York Yacht Club.
Challenging them from Britain was Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, founder of Lipton’s tea, who would challenge five times for the Cup.
In one practice, no less than King Edward II was on board when the mast collapsed, almost killing him. The King had his cigar knocked out of his hand, and calmly lighted a fresh one before asking if anyone was hurt.
This week, there will be two episodes; the second will be out on Wednesday, except for Bizarre Plus members, who will receive both immediately.
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Sun, 17 Sep 2023 - 63 - The America’s Cup: Part Three
With the English accusing the New York Yacht Club of ‘unfair and unsportsmanlike proceedings’ it fell to the Canadians to launch the next challenges.
The Canadians were so unprepared that the crew were still nailing down her deck as their ship set sail.
The English would pick up the mantle again, with the challenge of William Henn, who raced with five dogs, a cat, a lemur, a raccoon and an official mascot of the ship, a monkey named Peggy, who wore a pullover and a hat and could pull in the sails.
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Tue, 12 Sep 2023 - 62 - The Americas Cup: Part Two
With the America’s Cup donated to the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), Civil War would intervene before anyone could challenge for it.
After the war, it would be the new NYYC Commodore James Gordon Bennett Jr, who would kick start the challenges.
Nicknamed “The Mad Commodore”, Bennett Jr was known for riding his personal horse carriage about the streets of New York city at break-neck speeds in the middle of the night while completely nude.
This week, there will be two episodes; the second will be out on Wednesday, except for Bizarre Plus members, who will receive both immediately.
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Sun, 10 Sep 2023 - 61 - The America’s Cup: Part One
In 1851, the yacht America,headed to England to take on the best of the British, stopping to pick up the finest French wines along the way.
After defeating the English, the owners decided to entrust the trophy to the New York Yacht Club, as an international trophy to be competed for. They named it after their yacht, America and the America’s Cup was born.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy begin their series on the America’s Cup, the 132-year winning streak, and its end, 40 years ago when Australia II won a famous victory.
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Sun, 03 Sep 2023 - 60 - Preview: 1983 America's Cup 40th Anniversary Edition
Forty years ago, on the 26th of September 1983, Australia II crossed the finish line in the deciding race of the America’s Cup, ending the longest winning streak in the history of sport, 132 years.
Sports Bizarrewith Titus O’Reilyand Mick Molloy will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory with a special series exploring the history and rare facts of the America’s Cup.
The series begins Monday 4 September and will run right up to the 40th anniversary on the 26 September with a special episode.
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Thu, 31 Aug 2023 - 59 - A Drunken Le Mans: Part Two
In part two of our series, Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt begin their assault on the Le Mans 24-hour race.
Signing with Jaguar, the 1953 seemed full of promise, only for them to be disqualified during qualifying on a technicality. Not to waste the evening, Rolt and Hamilton have a huge night out, only to find out they might not be disqualified after all.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy discuss the wildest 24-hour Le Mans race in history, and the two men at the centre of it.
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Sun, 27 Aug 2023 - 58 - A Drunken Le Mans: Part One
As a baby, Duncan Hamilton crashed his pram down 38 steps. This proved to be just a precursor to him crashing cars and planes.
Despite the crashes, he was fast, incredibly fast, becoming one of the great race car drivers of his era. Then he met Tony Rolt, a war hero who had escaped from seven German prisoner-of-war camps, and the two formed one of the great racing partnerships of all time.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy discuss a friendship that led to one of the greatest Le Mans races in history.
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Sun, 20 Aug 2023 - 57 - Bunker Spreckels
Bunker Spreckels became famous as a surfer, but he was born into the wealthy Spreckles family, a dynasty built on the sugar trade that gave us the term ‘sugar daddy.’
At five, Bunker’s mother remarried, and he suddenly had a new stepfather, Hollywood icon Clark Gable, who treated him as his own son. When Clark died, Bunker fled to Hawaii, where surfing took over his life.
At 21 years old, Bunker unexpectedly inherited $50 million, leading to his life becoming an ongoing international surfing trip, with a coterie of writers, artists, photographers and filmmakers documenting his every move.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the man who made popular the idea of the surfer as a rock and roll star and look at the family that produced him.
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Sun, 13 Aug 2023 - 56 - Mob Football
Before organised sport, there was mob football, where entire villages played against each other for days, with no rules, and the kings of England banning it, then legalising it and then banning it again.
Like one of those prehistoric fish in the depths of the ocean, some forms of medieval football have survived to this day, still without rules. Organisers do say, ‘Unnecessary violence is frowned on.’ There is a lot of frowning.
Titus O’Reily and Mick examine how modern-day medieval football games, such as the Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide game and the Atherstone Ball Game have survived.
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Sun, 06 Aug 2023 - 55 - Tex Rickard: Sports Greatest Promoter Part Two
In part two, Tex Rickard moves to Argentina to raise cattle. Instead, he ends up in the middle of a war between Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, with Argentina asking him to lead their army.
Declining this, Tex returns to the United States, where he begins promoting a boxer by the name of Jack Dempsey, buys Madison Square Garden, and creates the New York Rangers.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy wrap up their series on the greatest promoter of all time and how the mafia tried to end him.
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Sun, 30 Jul 2023 - 54 - Tex Rickard: Sports Greatest Promoter Part One
By his mid-twenties, Tex Rickard had been a cowboy, a Marshal, was friends with Wyatt Earp and had followed the gold rushes to Alaska.
In Alaska he became friends with people with names like Swiftwater Bill, Deep Hole Johnson, Ham-Grease Jimmy, and the Chills and Fever Kid. He also discovered his true genius, promoting sport.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life of Tex Rickard, the greatest promoter in the history of sport.
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Sun, 23 Jul 2023 - 53 - The Footballer Who Wasn't
Carlos Kaiser had one of the longest careers in Brazilian football, joining all the big four clubs Botafogo, Fluminense, Flamengo, and Vasco da Gama, plus stints in Mexico, Argentina and France.
However, what made Kaiser’s career remarkable was not its length or being part of so many top sides but the fact that he never played a single game.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the greatest footballer to never play football and examine how he got away with it for so long.
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Sun, 16 Jul 2023 - 52 - Sports Biggest Family Feud Part Two
Last week we left off with the two Dassler brothers splitting apart their shoe company after a vicious falling out.
With the Second World War now over, the two brothers start building their new companies, Puma and Adidas, with the rivalry only getting hotter.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at how the two feuding companies took sports apparel, footwear and marketing to new heights, and how the focus on each other meant they missed a new company emerging, Nike.
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Sun, 09 Jul 2023 - 51 - Sports Biggest Family Feud Part One
In 1923, two brothers formed a new shoe company, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, or Geda.
The company grew quickly against the backdrop of the rising Nazi party, and by the 1936 Berlin Olympics, top athletes, including Jesse Owens, wore the brothers' shoes.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at how the Second World War tore the two brothers apart, leading to the biggest feud in sports history.
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Sun, 02 Jul 2023 - 50 - The LIV Golf-PGA Merger Part Two
In part two of our look at the LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger, Greg Norman is now CEO of LIV Golf, unleashing a civil war in the sport.
Money is thrown around like a loose bucks night, as golfers make hundreds of millions of dollars by swapping sides.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy then ask they question, after all the unpleasantness, why the sudden change of heart?
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Tue, 27 Jun 2023 - 49 - The LIV Golf-PGA Merger Part One
We have a treat, two episodes this week, on the LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger. The second episode will be out Wednesday unless you’re a Bizarre Plus member, then you’ll have both today.
In this episode, we trace the history of breakaway leagues in golf. The first being the PGA Tour splitting from the PGA of America, caused by a dispute between Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope.
Then look at an attempted breakaway league in 1994, the World Golf Tour, led by none other than Greg Norman.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy then look at how Greg Norman launched his revenge on the PGA Tour thirty years later.
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Sun, 25 Jun 2023 - 48 - Trump v USFL Part Three
In our final episode on the USFL, the league’s final season is overshadowed by the showdown court case between the USFL and the NFL.
In one of the strangest cases of all time, Donald Trump takes the stand, the jury doesn’t understand how their job works and the court's decision makes no real sense to anyone.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy watch the sun set on the beautiful chaos of the USFL.
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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 - 47 - Trump vs USFL Part Two
Following the first season of the USFL, the most incredible offseason in sports history commenced.
New teams were created, teams traded their entire playing lists, Donald Trump purchased a team, Andy Warhol selected cheerleaders, and a new honour set a high bar for erratic behaviour.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 11 Jun 2023 - 46 - Trump VS USFL: Part One
On March 6 1983, the new United States Football League (USFL) season kicked off with a plan to bring American football to springtime.
What unfolded was a wild tale of early success, crazy players and crazier owners, and the undoing of the entire league by a little-known property developer from New York, Donald J Trump.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy begin their three-part look at one of the wildest leagues in history, a league that featured ex-criminals, a defensive end who gained fame for trapping his head in the sunroof of a car, and the bodyguard of Rick James.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 04 Jun 2023 - 45 - Dodgy Denny McLain
Few players have burned so bright and fallen so far as Detroit Tigers Denny McLain.
In 1968, 'The Year of the Pitcher', Denny would win 30 games, a World Series, release a record through Capitol Records, Denny McLain at the Organand drink 24 bottles of Pepsi daily.
The fall was fast; it involved fraud, the mafia, his house burning down, and jail time.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy looked at an athlete as brilliant as he was dodgy.
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Sun, 28 May 2023 - 44 - Weirdest Sport Injuries Ever
Athletes get injured; it comes with the territory, but a lot of them get injured in weird ways.
From damaging a tooth eating a microwaved chocolate doughnut, having your own dentures bite you, to falling asleep in a sunbed.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the weirdest sport injuries of all time, and wonder how exactly you injure yourself by running into a moose.
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Sun, 21 May 2023 - 43 - James Hunt vs Niki Lauda
In the final of our series on James Hunt, we look at his 1976 battle with close friend Niki Lauda for the World Championship, the greatest season of F1 ever.
We then look at his commentary career, where he once said French driver Jean-Pierre Jarier had “a mental age of 10” and should be given a short suspension for poor driving before adding: “for being himself, he should receive a permanent suspension.”
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy finish off their tribute to the most entertaining F1 driver of all time.
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Sun, 14 May 2023 - 42 - James Hunt and Hesketh Racing
When Lord Hesketh started Hesketh Racing team, he needed a driver, and he found the perfect one, James Hunt.
Everything about Hesketh Racing was fun. “We had failed in both Formula 2 and Formula 3, so Formula 1 was the only logical place to go, said Lord Hesketh on entering the big leagues.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molly continue their series on James Hunt, covering his time at Hesketh and his interesting marriage.
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Sun, 07 May 2023 - 41 - Superstar James Hunt
Perhaps no other Formula One Driver has captured the imagination of racing fans as much as James Hunt.
For a man who said, “my first priority is to finish above rather than beneath the ground,"he spent an enormous amount of his early career crashing.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy begin looking into the life of James Hunt, race car driver, international playboy and keen breed of budgerigars.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 - 40 - The World's Greatest Pedestrian
In the late 19th century, one sport stood above all others in terms of popularity, pedestrianism. That's right, walking.
Tens of thousands of people would come to watch the top pedestrians walk for five days. Arguably the greatest was Edward Payson Weston, a man who walked wearing a costume of 'black velvet, white silk hat, blue sash, white kid gloves, top boots reaching to the knees on the outside of the pantaloons, and a gold-mounted riding-whip.'
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the career of arguably the greatest pedestrian of all time and the rise of his great rival, Daniel O’Leary.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 23 Apr 2023 - 39 - Shadow Games
Sport is fun, but it's a lot of effort to organise, run a whole competition, and then fix the result so you can win a lot of money through betting.
The simple solution is to run your own event, or even better, just convince people you ran one and take their money.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at some of the greatest sporting events that never happened. From one of the great scams of all time the Trodmore Race Day to the IPL match that was played on a farm.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 16 Apr 2023 - 38 - The Voyage of the 1932 Brazilian Olympic team
In 1932, with the world going through the Great Depression, Brazil had no money to send its Olympic team to Los Angeles.
Then a government official had an idea—load a ship with 50,000 bags of coffee, and have the Olympic team sell the cargo to fund the entire trip.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at a strange trip which included pretending the ship was a warship, and civil war breaking out.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 09 Apr 2023 - 37 - Jese Rodriguez
Jese Rodriguez was a future star in the soccer world, but things like a music career and discovering he was a father via Instagram sent things sideways.
Despite a career that included stints at Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, it was off the field Jese shone, like when he spent €5,000 on text messages to vote an ex-girlfriend off the show Big Brother.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life and loves of Jese Rodriguez, a man who could resist anything except temptation.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 02 Apr 2023 - 36 - The Dangerous World of Speed Gluing
In the final of our series on Table Tennis, we look at the use of glue to cheat in table tennis.
When Hungarian player Tibor Klampár discovered volatile glues gave the rubber on bats 30 per cent more spin and speed, it led to an arms race for the most toxic glues.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the dangerous trick that led to players passing out and police raiding table tennis shops.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 26 Mar 2023 - 35 - Mao and Nixon play Ping Pong
In the early 1970s, with China and the United States locked in a Cold War struggle, it took Ping Pong to save the world.
With diplomatic ties severed between Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao, the US Table Tennis team were sent to China to mend relations. Things got off to a rough start when one member of the US team converted to Communism and two others played an imaginary game of table tennis in the street, almost starting a riot.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the rise of Table Tennis in China and how the US Table Tennis Championships were once kicked out of a venue by El Mongol, a not-so-famous wrestler.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Sun, 19 Mar 2023 - 34 - Stalin, Hitchcock and table tennis
The sport of table tennis or ping pong, or as it was once known, Whiff Waff, has arguably had a more significant impact on world history than any other sport.
In this episode, we look at the life of Ivor Montagu, the man who built table tennis into an international sport while also making films with Alfred Hitchcock, hanging out with Charlie Chaplin and spying for the Soviets during the War.
Mick Molloy and Titus O'Reily examine a sport that connects Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Chairman Mao, King Charles, HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw and General Douglas MacArthur.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for even more Sports Bizarre.
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Mon, 13 Mar 2023 - 32 - Jimmy "The Whirlwind" White
By the time Jimmy White was 13, he was skipping school and travelling around England in a black cab to play snooker and hustle adults out of their money. Turning professional, Jimmy quickly became the most beloved snooker player in the world while...
Sun, 05 Mar 2023 - 31 - The very odd Marquis of Queensbury
Completing our look at the early days of boxing, we pick up where the sport moves from having no rules whatsoever to having at least three of them. It's the nanny state gone mad. We meet the man who lends his name to these new rules, the 9th Marquess...
Sun, 26 Feb 2023 - 30 - The unruly early days of boxing
In the seventeenth century in England, the earliest form of modern boxing emerged, a wild free for all style of fighting that included eye gouging, hair pulling, spitting, head-butting, shin-kicking, stomping and kicking downed opponents. Out of...
Sun, 19 Feb 2023 - 29 - Chaos Agent John Daly- Part Two
If you thought Part One was crazy, Part Two is looser than a night out with John Daly. We pick up just after Daly had signed a sponsorship contract with a 'no alcohol or gambling' clause. What follows is an awful lot of drinking and gambling. Titus...
Sun, 12 Feb 2023 - 28 - Chaos Agent John Daly- Part One
Golfer John Daly may be one of the most relatable sportspeople ever, having once said, “I don’t think I’ve ever stepped in the gym – they won’t let me smoke there.” Daly took the golfing world by storm, winning the 1991 PGA Tournament with...
Sun, 05 Feb 2023 - 27 - Somewhat important announcement
Despite a valiant effort to stay on holiday forever, Mick and Titus will return in 2023, with the first episode going out on the 6th of February. Titus gives a brief overview of the year ahead and reveals the focus of episode one. Follow Sports...
Thu, 26 Jan 2023 - 26 - The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Six
It’s the final episode in our dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup series and our final show of 2022. Don’t worry, we’re back early in the new year. This episode looks at the fall of Sepp Blatter, features more arrests than an episode of The Wire...
Sun, 11 Dec 2022 - 25 - The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Five
It's part of five of our look at the beautiful corruption that is FIFA; we pick up with Sepp Blatter still ascendant, but the cracks are starting to appear. Facing challenges for the FIFA presidency and numerous legal problems, Sepp tries to...
Sun, 04 Dec 2022 - 24 - The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Four
It’s part four of our look at the history of FIFA, which means it's time to introduce two new fun characters to our story, Chuck Blazer and Fred Warner, two men so corrupt even other FIFA delegates were shocked by them, which is saying something. We...
Sun, 27 Nov 2022 - 23 - The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Three
It’s part three of our look at the history of FIFA, and in this episode, we introduce a young man with a sparkle in his eye, Sepp Blatter. Part Bond villain, part, well actually, all Bond villain; under Blatter, FIFA made the final step towards...
Sun, 20 Nov 2022 - 22 - The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup Part 2
It’s part two of our look at the history of FIFA, and its somewhat eccentric accounting practices. In this episode, we look at João Havelange, President of FIFA from 1974 to 1998, who brought in the money and bought the votes to be President. Titus...
Tue, 15 Nov 2022 - 21 - The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup Part 1
With the FIFA World Cup in Qatar fast approaching, we begin a multi-episode dive into the corruption that led to FIFA thinking a country the size of the Falkland Islands, with no infrastructure and temperatures hovering around the 'too hot to play...
Sun, 13 Nov 2022 - 20 - Beer Plus Fans Equals Chaos
On 4 June 1974, the Cleveland Indians decided to host a ten-cent beer night to attract fans; beer at the stadium normally cost 65 cents, so ten cents was a real incentive. The Indians were in a 30-year slump at the time, as was the city, their...
Sun, 06 Nov 2022 - 19 - The man who invented the Melbourne Cup
Frederick Charles Standish left England in 1852 under a false name and fleeing moneylenders. Landing in Melbourne, he was forced to live on the goldfields and run a sly grog business. Yet, just six years later, he would be the colony's Chief...
Sun, 30 Oct 2022 - 18 - The Philadelphia Eagles wild man
Timothy John Rossovich was a star defensive end and linebacker at the University of Southern California and the Philadelphia Eagles, but it was off the field where his genius shone. Rossovich was famous for surreal pranks that included chewing glass,...
Sun, 23 Oct 2022 - 17 - Good Old Bob
Robert Standish Sievier was one of the most colourful personalities of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, a man who revolutionised bookmaking in Australia before returning to England, where his horse Sceptre won four of the five English classics....
Sun, 16 Oct 2022 - 16 - The Weirdest Contracts in Sport
Contracts in sports contain clauses so weird they are scarcely believable. There are clauses banning players from going to nightclubs, but there's also been a clause insisting a player got drunk after every game. Contracts have included clauses for...
Sun, 09 Oct 2022 - 15 - Dock Ellis, LSD and other adventures
In an All-Star career, Dock Ellis managed to win a World Series, pitch a no-hitter on LSD, hit every batter that came to the plate in a game and set a clubhouse on fire. But for every bit of craziness, Ellis was also ahead of his time as a...
Sun, 02 Oct 2022 - 14 - The 2000 Spanish Paralympic team
At the 2000 Paralympic games, a new category, Basketball for the Intellectually Disabled, was to be included in the games. It got the head of the Spanish Paralympics Fernando Martin Vicente thinking, what if you could get people who weren’t...
Sun, 25 Sep 2022 - 13 - The 1900 Paris Olympics
The 1900 Paris Olympics were a disaster of planning and execution, to the point many athletes never even knew they’d participated in an Olympics. So poorly organised were the games that the discus field was too narrow and throws went into the crowd,...
Sun, 18 Sep 2022 - 12 - The Monkey Testicle Doping Scandal
In the 1930s, several English football clubs experimented with a new treatment sweeping the globe, ingesting, injecting or transplanting testicular tissue from monkeys into people. So widespread was the practice that the 1939 FA Cup final...
Sun, 11 Sep 2022 - 11 - Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un
Former Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman has recently offered to go to Russia to talk to President Vladimir Putin about the imprisoned WNBA star Brittney Griner. While Rodman claims somewhat falsely that "I know Putin too well," there’s one dictator he...
Sun, 04 Sep 2022 - 10 - The Curse of Colonel Sanders
Sporting curses are always strange, but perhaps none is stranger than the Curse of Colonel Sanders, which has seen the Japanese baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, suffer decades of poor performances after offending the spirit of the KFC founder....
Sun, 28 Aug 2022 - 9 - The Rise of John Wren
In 1893, John Wren, unemployed and from a poor family, set up the Collingwood Tote, an illegal betting shop that would achieve mythical status, depending on who you asked, as either a den of vice ruining the lives of many or as a symbol of the working...
Sun, 21 Aug 2022 - 8 - The Battle of Montevideo
The 1967 Intercontinental Cup saw Scottish club Celtic and Argentinian side Racing Club face off across three brutal matches. In one match, the Celtic goalkeeper was knocked unconscious by a bottle thrown from the crowd before the game; despite this,...
Mon, 15 Aug 2022 - 7 - Young Griffo
Albert Griffiths, or ‘Young Griffo’ began life in the slums of Sydney as the leader of a local street gang. This proved to be the perfect training for boxing, and before he was twenty, he was the World Featherweight Champion. Moving to the United...
Mon, 08 Aug 2022 - 6 - The Worst Event in Olympic History
The 1904 Olympics in St Louis, Missouri, were a disaster in every way possible. Held over six months alongside the World’s Fair, it had a human zoo and a ‘savage Olympics’ pitting various indigenous groups against each other. But the marathon...
Sun, 31 Jul 2022 - 5 - Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding
Days out from the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships, Nancy Kerrigan had just finished training at the Cobo Arena in Detroit when a man approached and hit her with a metal object just above her knee. Almost immediately, the FBI would identify four...
Sun, 24 Jul 2022 - 4 - Doping in the Tour De France
From the first Tour De France, riders were putting all kinds of things in their bodies, caffeine, strychnine, cocaine and alcohol. Drugs were so much part of the sport that the 1930 rulebook, given to all riders, reminded them that drugs would not be...
Sun, 17 Jul 2022 - 3 - Tour De France, the Early Years
The early years of the Tour De France were a hot mess, with a spiked bottle of lemonade, itching powder put in cyclists’ shorts, riders taking rides in cars and trains, attempted murder and pitched battles between cyclists and spectators. Beginning...
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 - 2 - The Strangest Trade in the History of Sport
On March 4, 1973, it was announced New York Yankees pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson would be holding separate press conferences that day. Both men would be announcing a trade, nothing unusual in baseball where players move around more than...
Mon, 11 Jul 2022 - 1 - Sports Bizarre Coming Soon
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy are on the hunt for the most bizarre stories to ever occur in the world of sport. Sports Bizarre delves into the history of sport to find the stories that you wouldn’t believe if they hadn’t happened. No sport is...
Wed, 06 Jul 2022
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