9 of the strangest traditions in sports

Rituals, habits and superstitions that will make you scratch your head

KARACHI: Organised sports have now been around for almost two centuries, during which time the competition within has bred all kinds of traditions, superstitions and rituals that are hard to define just with logic.

Some such practices supposedly bring good omens while others got stuck simply because of their odd nature. But whether they bring good luck or not, they do add a certain colour to the sport.

Down below we have shortlisted nine of the strangest practices that sports have churned out over the years.



Nelson in cricket

Individual or team scores of 111 or multiples thereof, for reasons unexplained, are considered to be unlucky in cricket. In order to avoid ill fate, some purists raise their leg when the score strikes 111. English umpire David Shepherd was the most famous practitioner of this tradition, which takes its name from Lord Nelson, who had lost an eye, arm and a leg.



Net cutting in NCAA basketball

Whoever wins the men’s NCAA Division I basketball championship — the premier college basketball tourney in the US — goes on to cut the net around the hoop. It starts with the players and ends with the head coach, who cuts the last strand of the net and keeps it for himself. The tradition began in 1947 when North Carolina State coach Everett Case, in the absence of medals, shredded the net to pieces in order to give his winning team a souvenir from the game.

Playoff beard in Stanley Cup

Come play-offs time in the National Hockey League, it becomes a challenge to spot a clean shaven player. This overabundance of bushy beards does not owe anything to No-Shave November or any other fad but is actually called play-off beard tradition. Popularised by the New York Islanders in 1980s, the play-off beard sees hockey players stop trimming their facial hair as soon as the post-season begins. The snipping moratorium is lifted only if the teams wins the Stanley Cup or is knocked out of the competition.

Leaving no-hitter alone

In baseball, the last thing you want to do to a pitcher who is pitching a perfect game is try and talk to him. That’s because folks have gotten into their minds that talking to, bothering or even being near a no-hitter pitching pitcher would jinx his luck and jeopardise his perfect game.



Indy 500 milk celebration

You win something big, you pop open a bottle of champagne. This widespread celebratory tradition is alive at IndyCar Series’s Indianapolis 500 too, except that in case of champagne, the winner sips a bottle of milk. This healthy yet weird tradition was born in 1933 when winner Louis Meyer photographed drinking a glass of buttermilk after the race. A dairy company sniffed a marketing opportunity and began offering milk bottles to winners every year — a tradition that has stuck since.

Botafogo FC’s peeing dog

Back in the late 1940s, a stray dog named Biriba entered the field of play and peed on the foot of a Botafogo player. The team not only won the match but also clinched the championship that year, prompting Botafogo owner to adopt Biriba as well as his urinating habit. Hence, if you catch a Brazil footballer getting peed on by a dog before a game, don’t be disgusted. Apparently, it brings good luck.



Silent treatment after first home run

One would expect a fresh-faced rookie who has just smacked his first home run to be swarmed by teammates in the dugout. But in Major League Baseball, the exact opposite happens, with the older teammates giving the new hero the coldest of cold shoulders. No high-fives, no pats on the back, no nothing. Of course, they drop the act a few minutes later, but it looks pretty mean, pretty strange until the thaw.

The Gatorade shower

If you’ve won something major, you may want to look a bit sharp and smart for the cameras. Unfortunately, successful coaches in the National Football League are not afforded this courtesy. Immediately after winning a significant game such as Super Bowl, the winning coach is doused with a cooler full of icy cold Gatorade by his own players. The tradition began in the mid-1980s when the New York Giants’ Jim Burt, angry at being mistreated, dumped the Gatorade cooler on coach Bill Parcells’ head when the team was celebrating a crucial win.

Everton’s Toffee Lady

If you follow English football club Everton, you’d know that before every home game a girl dressed in blue walks the perimeter of the pitch and tosses free mints into the crowd. This and Everton’s nickname Toffees both owe their existence to a toffee shop that existed nearby their stadium, the Goodison Park.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2016.

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