• Home
  • SOCRATES’ THINKING
    • News and comment
    • Editorial
  • About
  • US
    • Sportsocratic team
    • Contributors
  • Reviews
    • Adventures
    • Books
    • Places
  • Contributions
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Sportsocratic

Thoughts, ideas, opinions and postulations on sport and adventuring

  • Sport & society
    • Ethics & Values
    • History
    • Favourite photos
    • Cultural and social issues
    • Politics
    • Big questions
    • Sport fashion
      • Sartorialism and style
  • Wild sports
  • Silly stuff
  • Sports science
    • Research
    • Coaching
    • Innovation
    • HEALTH
  • The things that made me
  • Stories
    • General sporting stories
    • Waves of Pain
      • No Respect!
      • Death Wish at Fairy Bower
      • Fried nuts
      • The ocean is a trickster… especially Hawaii’s North Shore – Gas chambers bites the unwary!
      • Titus Kinimaka’s nightmare Christmas
      • Dix dumped – the trials of a self-confessed elite body surfer
      • The little surf that nearly ruined a promising career…
      • Rabbit killer – a master takes a caning at pipeline!
      • Death Wish at Fairy Bower
      • Easternmost memory – surfing in the wild at the end of the continent
      • Nothing ruins a good surf like a couple of blokes with automatic assault rifles…
      • Agony for Miki Dora
      • Smashed at Gas Chambers
      • Who was Europe’s first surfing woman? Introducing the wonderful Witch of Newbury.
      • A bad day at Palmy – surfies and clubbies at war!
      • When being a proven waterman is not enough!
      • The highs and lows of surfing Sunset Beach while competing at the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational
      • An American midnight surf – that goes very wrong!
  • What does it mean?
    • What is a snake?
    • What does “shag” mean?
    • What does “Freddy Jones” mean?
    • What does “hook and ladder” mean?
    • What does back walk-over mean?
  • Philosophers Sport Bar
    • Socrates and Aristotle debate football defence
    • Michel de Montaigne on coaching sports
    • Ancient philosophers discuss what makes the beautiful game beautiful! Laozi and Socrates get technical.

Match the famous with their sporting secrets – sports-quizz answers revealed!

November 6, 2018 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment Filed Under: Editorial

Who said that they would give up their career to be awarded just one cap playing rugby for their country?

Richard Harris, of course. While many might think that “Dumbledore” would have been more interested in Quiddich, it seems that the Irish master of both stage and screen’s first love was for rugby and he would have given his last dollar to have played for the shamrock greens just once. If Richard were still with us, he would have been thrilled at the heights reached by his beloved Irish rugby team in recent years.

Richard Harris was a better looking rugby player than he was principal at a school for wizards. He cuts a much more dashing character than Harry Potter riding a broom stick in a quidditch game.

Who was an elite 800-meter runner who could have run for their country?

Who would have thought that the nerdy but handsome conservative newspaper columnist, ABC political commentator and director of public policy and research think tank (Centre for Independent Studies), Tom Switzer, would have once been an elite 800 m runner? Tom won the National School’s 800 m championship in 1989 and had the skill and talent to make the Australian team too, if he had gone on with his athletics career. Instead, Tom chose to focus on his studies and his future reporting and broadcasting career.

Unfortunately, cannot find a snap of Tom in his lycra running stuff but this picture of him possibly contemplating forsaking a career as a sports jock in favour of a career as a nerdy conservative pundit is kinda cool.

Which remarkable athlete played sport for his country in two different sports but, all the while, secretly wished to wear the baggy green cap for Australia in cricket?

That would be tonight show host, Rugby League commentator and sports journalist Rex Mossop. Rex played rugby union for Manly and the Australian Wallabies, followed by a successful career at top Rugby League club, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, where he scored multiple caps playing for the Australian Rugby League Kangaroos. Being an athlete with caps in two international sports was not enough for Rex. Mossop regularly confessed to friends that what he really wanted was to play cricket for Australia. Only one problem with that ambition, admitted Rex. He was really crap at cricket!

Rex suited up and having a run for his beloved Manly Sea Eagles. Too bad be was terrible at cricket and never donned the baggy green.

What celebrity started their working life as a semi-pro athlete playing both State League and National League basketball.

Given that this chap is tall, slim and athletic perhaps it is not hard to imagine that Ernie Dingo was once a very good basketballer. Such was Ernie’s talent as shown during his stints with the State League’s East Perth Hawks and the National League’s Wildcats that he, most likely, could have carved out a professional career in basketball. Unfortunately for the NBL but fortunately for Australian big and small screen audiences the much-loved actor and television host found the easier pace of an actor’s life much more to his liking than the rough and tumble of pro sports.

Ernie has hung up his basketball singlet and sneakers and spends his time supporting the West Coast Eagles and Perth Wildcats these days.

Which multi-skilled athlete supported his university legal studies with stints as a professional footballer and professional basketballer.

As one of the American entertainment industry’s most brilliant all rounders it was baritone-bass singer Paul Robeson who funded his university studies with stints in numerous pro sports. While representing his university in a range of sports (where he suffered much racist bullying from both his teammates and opponents) Robeson was also holding down jobs in professional basketball and American football teams as well. Robeson went on to win academic honours for his university study performance but found it difficult to pursue a legal career when white assistants refused to work for him. Robeson gave up his sporting and legal careers to follow his other love in music.

One of the most multi-talented Americans to ever draw breath, old Paul played multiple professional sports, won university blues in multiple college sports, topped subjects while at university, was a potentially brilliant lawyer but drummed out of the profession by racism and finally settled for a career as one of America’s greatest ever bass/baritone singers and social activists. Hats of to the champ!

Which world beating athlete in one sport also represented his university in rowing, rugby and boxing?

Multiple world record holder in swimming, Cecil Healy, from Australia, won the silver medal in the 100 m freestyle and a gold medal in the 4 X 100m freestyle relay at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Not long after, Healy’s swimming career was interrupted by the First World War. While studying at officer school at Cambridge University Healy demonstrated his versatility as an athlete by winning university blues in boxing, rowing and rugby as well as swimming. Tragically, Healy was killed in action only weeks after concluding his officer training. Healy is still the only Australian Olympic Gold medallist to be killed in battle.

Just prior to his enlistment in the First World War Cec could be found hanging out with his fellow surfy mates (Duke Kahanamoku and Fred Williams) at the Freshwater surf camp Boomerang.

What elite athlete is still training diligently in the hope of securing a gig as a professional athlete despite being over sixty years old?

Retired soldier, now working as a journalist, writer and cricket commentator, Cate McGregor, plays first grade cricket in the ACT. In recent years she has been working hard on her batting, with the help of several prominent coaches, in the hope of her winning a spot on one of Australia’s professional Women’s Big Bash League cricket teams. If she succeeds in her dream, she will become one of the only professional athletes in the world who commenced a pro career after their sixtieth birthday. McGregor, who transitioned her gender several years ago, was always a keen and capable cricketer, as a young man, but passed up on opportunities to pursue elite cricket through focusing on a military career.

Cate padding up for a hit.

Which prominent and successful individual once had a successful career as an aerobics instructor and fitness leader?

The new member of parliament in the Australian federal seat of Wentworth, Dr Kerryn Phelps, as well as being a highly regarded medical general practitioner was once the President of the A.M.A. (Australian Medical Association) as well as a very popular aerobics instructor and gym leader. Phelps, who was already working hard at a medical practice and being a mother, managed to hold court over an adoring fan base of gym enthusiasts at the Physical Factory in Mosman for several years. Phelps’ classes were renowned, across Sydney, as being some of the cities toughest and most enjoyable high impact exercise options.

Yup. When it comes to health and fitness and fitness leading you better bet that Kerryn is the real deal!

Which internationally famous entertainer and life-time gym enthusiast worked front of house at the very gym where Kerryn Phelps was training hundreds of adoring fans?

In the 1990s Hugh Jackman was the popular “front of house” man at the Physical Factory in Mosman. After several years as one of the gyms most loved employees, Hugh took up an offer to train as an actor at WAPA (Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts). His dramatic training led him to a phenomenal career with international acclaim in the theatre, in film and on television.

Hughey has been a fitness nut all of his life!

Which critically important twentieth-century character refused to allow one of the centuries most significant political events to interrupt a gymnasium session?

Despite a burgeoning interest in politics, and despite the excitement of her fellow East-Berliners who flocked to the Berlin Wall as it was being pulled down, Angela Merkel, (who was to go on to become the Chancellor of the unified East and West Germany a few years later), refused to be distracted from her gym session and kept up with her bench pressing and arm curling while the rest of the city gathered at the wall to celebrate.

“For god’s sakes guys… how many times do I have to tell you. I’m not going down to the wall. I have pecs, abs and biceps to work on today!”

What famous individual not only played a pretty fine game of rugby but also spent significant time helping to grow the sport and its administration in his state and country.

Englishman, Will Pratt, much better known as Boris Karloff… and even better known as Frankenstein and the Mummy… had a successful long-term acting career in Hollywood. He starred in a broad range of tinsel-town roles but was most famous for playing frightening characters in horror films. As well as scaring the daylights out of cinema goers throughout the twentieth century, Boris also frightened competitors on Southern California’s rugby pitches. Will (or Boris) didn’t just play the game. He spent many years dedicated to the administration and the growth of the sport in both California and across the United States.

Couldn’t find a picture of Boris playing rugga. This is as close as I could get.

Which famous character and keen athlete has made very little fuss over the fact that he is a highly skilled body surfer?

Most know Barack Obama as America’s first African-American President. It occurs to very few that Obama is also America’s first Hawaiian President. When one considers Barack’s Hawaiian background it should not surprise anyone to learn that Obama is a very good body surfer. Very few Hawaiians grow up (certainly not the athletic ones) not being able to handle themselves in Hawaii’s famous waves. Obama is no exception. Granted, while at high school, Barack was more well-known as one of the stars on the school basketball team (that went on to win a state championship), but Obama can also handle himself in the surf. He has never been a keen board rider but, like so many others from his state, he is a committed water-man.

Well, it’s not too convincing a shot, but take my word for it, Barack is a water man!

  

SOCRATES

Short, fat, slow, uncoordinated and clumsy, ancient Athenian Socrates had very few of the physical quality required of the elite athlete. He did have, on the other hand, a better than average brain between his ears and a mouth that could talk opposing players, referees and coaches half into their graves. Socrates, as a sport analyst, is what the world needs and misses. He is an opinionated so-and-so that actually thinks deeply about sport and adventuring and likes nothing better than provoking others into deep thought. Socrates is the antithesis of the sporting jock or the West Sydney soccer supporter.

Support Sportsocratic

Thanks for reading this story! We appreciate your visit to Sportsocratic… and love providing alternative information, opinions and angles from the sporting world. The world of sport is so full of the same old stuff from the same old sources that it drives us nuts… and it makes our day giving voice to less orthodox views. If you appreciate our free service, give some thought to helping us out. It costs us big bucks to keep Sportsocratic going but, if our readers support us, our future is much more secure.

Help us to keep you entertained and informed… and enable Socrates to keep asking those big philosophical sporting questions.

Support Sportsocratic for as little as a $1 and we would love you to bits. It only takes a few seconds!

Support Us

Tagged With: angela merkel, barack obama, basketball, boris karloff, cate mcgregor, cec healy, cricket, ernie dingo, fitness, football, gym, hugh jackman, kerryn phelps, paul robeson, quizz, rex mossop, richard harris, rugby, Rugby League, sports trivia, swimming, tom switzer

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

SOCRATES’ RECENT TWEETS

Tweets by Sportsocratic

Secret Sports Person

Their sporting life – A journalist’s story

April 7, 2021 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

“Bill” could have been a great rugby player… but he was more interested in other things. Do people display characteristics of their personal and working lives through their performances on the sporting field? Socrates describes the sporting life of one of his favorite people, and shows how the skill and character of one of Australia’s best journalists was always on show, even as a young man, whether on the rugby field, the basketball court or even on a quiet country headland when threatened with fisticuff by a big bloke wearing a blue uniform. Get “Bill’s” story here. Click the pic!

Olympics Rugby Teams – Who are the greatest?

April 23, 2020 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

The rugby trivia question for the century! Which national rugby union team holds the record for the most Olympic gold medals in Rugby Union (the full-team fifteen a side game)?

Ethics and fairplay

Wallaby v France test – the moment that soared above all the others

July 20, 2021 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

There were many great moments in the final Wallabies versus France rugby test last week but according to Socrates, one stood our far above all the others. Was it a great try? A brilliant tackle? A perfect scrum or line-out? A fantastic bit of work at the break-down? According to the rotund Greek hooker it was none of those things. He reckons that the highlight of the game was a much quieter, simpler and more subdued moment. A moment that might have escaped the attention of millions of spectators. Find out about Socrates favorite moment of the test. Click the pic.

Never cheated in my life!

November 19, 2020 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

What is cheating? Is cheating a black and white moral issue… or are there shades of gray. Socrates spent twenty years in the engine room of the beautiful game of rugby… the scrum. He loved being a rugby hooker. He reckons that being slap bang in the middle of sixteen enormous, sweating blokes desperate to secure possession of the ball for their team taught him quite a bit about the fine art of cheating… what it is… and what it isn’t…. and how it can be done. Here Socrates lifts the veil on aspects of the workings of the 1970’s and 80’s amateur rugby scrum revealing some of its secrets. In so doing he shows that cheating is not a simple moral issue. he also claims to haver never deliberately cheated. Do you believe him?

matildas

Just six words…

May 20, 2021 By TIMOTHY EDWARDS 1 Comment

Have you ever wished that you could meet and have a conversation with someone you idolize? What would you say to your idol to convince them to want to stay in the conversation? What would they say in response to your brilliant social skills? How would the conversation go? How would it leave you feeling? An Australian ex-professional athlete who had played with and against some of the greatest basketball talent that this country has ever seen (Andrew Gaze, Ricky Grace, Shane Heal, Phil Smythe) once, by chance, had a meeting with possibly the greatest and most famous professional sports person that has ever lived. The superstar he bumped into, in a New York elevator, just happened to be the Aussie basketballer’s idol. How did the meeting turn out? Click the pic and discover the six most memorable words in this Australian point guard’s life.

Outstanding achievement

RITUAL: BEING CHAIRED UP THE BEACH

September 13, 2022 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

Why do we subject professional athletes to embarrassing and cumbersome rituals at times when they should be celebrating. Why do athletes agree to participate in rituals that make them look like nongs? Chas Smith makes the argument for banning the post-contest victory chair-up-the-beach. Click the pic to get Chas’ important advice to the world of contest surfing.

New surfing podcast

One of Australia’s greatest ever surfers – one of surfing’s greatest story tellers – “Rabbit” Bartholomew – talks to award winning journalist Tim Baker about life, surfing and stuff. Perfect listening for lockdown entertainment.

professionalism

To smash or be skillful? Can good defense be coached or are accidents like the Latrell Mitchell and Joey Manu incident inevitable?

August 31, 2021 By SOCRATES NEWS DESK Leave a Comment

In a tough body contact sport are occasional horrible accidents inevitable? Possibly. But probably not with the frequency that many former elite players and expert analysts argue. Socrates believes that good coaching and hard work from highly skilled players can prevent many potentially dangerous tackles and that accepting the horror accidents as inevitable and high level skills as “uncoachable” sells athletes, professional sports and coaches short. Get the story here. Click the pic.

wisdom

Its just a job. Grass grows. Birds fly. Waves pound the sand. I beat people up. – Muhammad Ali

sport at mardi gras

Athletes in the LGBTQI Mardi Gras

March 12, 2019 By SOCRATES 2 Comments

Twenty-one different sports teams marched in this years Sydney Mardi Gras. That’s twenty-one groups of out and proud queer athletes. The LGBTQI community need to be “fearless” and queer athletes are no exception. Check out these fearless sporting clubs living it up on their night of night!

A life with horses

A life with horses – or Lulu in wonderland

August 8, 2018 By TIMOTHY EDWARDS Leave a Comment

It’s well known that playing sport can be a life-changing experience. For one mum, adventurer and businessperson, having a sporty pastime was more than life-changing. Lulu’s friendship with her horses has touched her and her daughter’s lives in a million ways and created a whole new life in an ever-changing wonderland for them both. But don’t think for a moment that their horses are the purpose built catalysts for their ideal lives! Its way more complex than that… and more respectful. Read on! It’s worth it!

wisdom

“Pressure? Pressure is a Messerschmidt up your arse. Playing cricket is not!”

Keith Miller

One of the greatest cricket “all-rounders” of all time, Keith Miller was not only an exceptional performer in multiple elements of test cricketing (batting, bowling and fielding) but he was also gifted in numerous other aspects of his life. Witty, entertaining, handsome, a renowned war time pilot and gifted Australian Rules Footballer, Miller was famed for calling a spade a spade and acknowledging that there was much more to life than elite sports. Having flown fighter bombers in the Second World War under life threatening circumstances he was not one to take the “pressure” of high level sport too seriously!

trivia

Here is a cracker of a trivia question.

Who was the college recruiting scout talking about when he said the following to his head coach.

“I’ve just seen a fat guy… who can play like the wind!”

Yup. The same guy who told people that just because they had shoes like his, it didn’t make them like him in any other way. Charles Wade Barkley.

Etymology

Postecoglou coaching pointers

March 8, 2023 By SOCRATES Leave a Comment

Celtic football coach Ange Postecoglou’s post League Cup interview avoided the normal “we knew we had to…”, “full credit to the boys…” and “we talked about blah blah blah during the week…” bollocks that is so common in post-match player and coach chats with the media. The coach actually revealed important insights into the way great coaches think and how they seek to get the best out of their players. Any coach aspiring to become a great coach, no matter what sport they teach should listen to this interview. Postecoglou is the real deal. There are few coaches better at getting the most out of their team.

What does it mean?

What is Elvis leg?

Admit it. You’ve never heard of “Elvis leg,” have you? What the blazes is “Elvis leg?” As is the case with every other “What does it mean…” story we have ever posted, the answer is not directly related to the name itself. It is indirectly related to Elvis, though. Have a guess what the relationship is… then click here and check out whether your were correct. Find out for certain which sport uses this term and what it means.

What is a liberator?

Of course most you aviation buffs will think that a liberator is an American WW2 heavy bomber. Fair enough. But in a sporting context does it have a completely different meaning? Indeed it does. You are going to have to click here to find out what a liberator is and does in the world of sport.

Aphorisms, insights and wisdom

“The thing that’s depressing about tennis is that no matter how good I get I will never be as good as a wall.”

More perceptive sporting analysis from Mitch Hedberg, comic genius.

 

ebook

Phillip has returned to the south of India after eighteen years. But who is the young girl staying in his hotel? And what will he learn about his estranged brother through Inez, the Spanish backpacker?

To buy The Bangalore Test, John Campbell’s new ebook novella, just click the link.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

©2019 Sportsocratic