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Timeless reads from the world of sport - legendary records, surprising curiosities, defining moments in history and the players who made them. Filter by sport below.

Featured · Soccer Pele: The King Who Crowned Football Three World Cups, more than a thousand goals and a nickname that became a synonym for greatness. Read article

Soccer

Pele: The King Who Crowned Football

Three World Cups, more than a thousand goals and a nickname that became a synonym for greatness.

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Soccer

Diego Maradona: Genius, Rebel, Icon

The hand and the head, the dribble of the century, and a bond with Naples and Argentina like no other.

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Soccer

Lionel Messi: The Magician Who Rewrote the Records

From hormone treatment as a boy in Rosario to lifting the World Cup in Qatar.

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Soccer

Soccer's Greatest Goalscoring Records

The most goals in a year, in a match, in a career - the numbers behind the art of finishing.

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Soccer

The Maracanazo: The Silence That Shook Brazil

In 1950 around 200,000 fans filled the Maracana to see Brazil crowned. Uruguay had other plans.

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Soccer

How the World Cup Was Born

A French visionary, thirteen brave teams and a long boat ride to Uruguay.

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Soccer

Curious Facts About Soccer You Probably Didn't Know

Why the ball has 32 panels, the cards born from traffic lights, and football's strangest truths.

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Soccer

Johan Cruyff: The Dutchman Who Changed How Football Thinks

Three European Cups with Ajax, a turn named after him, and ideas that outlived him.

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Soccer

Cristiano Ronaldo: Made, Not Born

From a small island house to the top of the game, through sheer repetition.

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Soccer

Zinedine Zidane: Elegance and Fury

Two headers in Paris, a volley in Glasgow, and a last act nobody saw coming.

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Soccer

Franz Beckenbauer: The Kaiser Who Invented a Position

The defender who carried the ball forward, and won the World Cup twice in different jobs.

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Soccer

Ferenc Puskas and the Mighty Magyars

The Hungary team that humbled England, and the left foot that never stopped scoring.

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Soccer

The Miracle of Istanbul: Liverpool's Impossible Night

Three down at the break, level within six minutes, and a goalkeeper with wobbling legs.

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Soccer

How the Laws of the Game Were Written

A London tavern, a row about hacking, and the seventeen laws that followed.

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Soccer

The Birth of the European Cup

A French journalist called the bluff of the English press, and Europe got its cup.

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Soccer

The Women's World Cup: From Doubt to Sold-Out Stadiums

A fifty-year ban, a late start, and stadiums that are no longer half empty.

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Soccer

Tiki-Taka: The Style That Took Over Football

Spain and Barcelona kept the ball until opponents gave up. Then everyone adapted.

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Soccer

The Ballon d'Or: Football's Most Argued-About Prize

How a French magazine's idea became the prize nobody can agree on.

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Soccer

The Penalty Shootout: Football's Cruellest Tiebreak

Before shootouts, a coin decided semi-finals. The cure is arguably worse.

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Soccer

Derby Days: The Rivalries That Divide Cities

Shared stadiums, split families, and matches that stop entire cities.

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Basketball

Michael Jordan: The Greatest of All Time

Six titles, the shrug, the flu game and the last shot - how Jordan became basketball's measuring stick.

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Basketball

Kobe Bryant: The Mamba Mentality

Eighty-one points, five rings and an obsession with greatness - the relentless genius of Kobe Bryant.

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Basketball

Chasing the NBA's All-Time Scoring Crown

From Kareem's sky hook to LeBron's longevity - the long race to become basketball's top scorer.

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Basketball

The Dream Team: The Greatest Team Ever Assembled

The 1992 Olympic squad of legends that conquered Barcelona and changed basketball forever.

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Basketball

The Night Wilt Chamberlain Scored 100

One player, one hundred points, and a box score that may never be matched again.

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Basketball

How Basketball Was Invented

Peach baskets, a cold gym and thirteen rules - how Dr. Naismith created a sport in 1891.

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Basketball

Curious Facts About Basketball

Why the ball is orange, the tallest and shortest players ever, and other hardwood oddities.

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Basketball

Bill Russell: Basketball's Ultimate Winner

Eleven championships in thirteen seasons, a defensive revolution and a man who refused to stay quiet.

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Basketball

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Shot Nobody Could Block

Twenty seasons, six MVP awards and a hook shot that nobody ever found a way to block.

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Basketball

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird: The Rivalry That Rescued the NBA

Two rookies arrived in 1979 and pulled professional basketball out of its worst decade.

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Basketball

Hakeem Olajuwon: The Footballer Who Became a Centre

A goalkeeper from Lagos who picked up basketball at fifteen and perfected the footwork of the position.

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Basketball

Shaquille O'Neal: The Problem Nobody Could Solve

Four titles and a decade in which opponents stopped defending him and simply fouled him instead.

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Basketball

The Twenty-Four Seconds That Saved Professional Basketball

A 19-18 final score, a bowling alley owner and the twenty-four seconds that rescued the sport.

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Basketball

The Three-Point Line: From Gimmick to the Whole Game

Dismissed as a gimmick, adopted by a rival league, and now the shot that shapes every possession.

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Basketball

The ABA: The League That Lost and Won Anyway

A red, white and blue ball, the first dunk contest and nine loud seasons that reshaped basketball.

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Basketball

The Harlem Globetrotters: A Comedy Act That Changed the Sport

A comedy act that was also one of the best teams in the country - and helped open the professional game.

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Basketball

Oscar Robertson: The Man Who Averaged a Triple-Double

A full season averaging double figures in three categories, and a lawsuit that changed player pay.

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Basketball

The Slam Dunk: The Shot That Was Once Against the Rules

Banned in college for nearly a decade, blamed for broken backboards, now the sport's defining image.

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Basketball

Women's Basketball: From Smith College to a Global Game

Adapted for women in 1892, then a century of fighting for courts, crowds and a league of its own.

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Basketball

Basketball at the Olympics: Mud, Boycotts and the Three-Second Final

A final played in the mud, the most disputed three seconds in Olympic history, and a game that went global.

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Football

Tom Brady: From Sixth-Round Pick to GOAT

Seven Super Bowls and 199 players drafted before him - the unlikely rise of the greatest quarterback.

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Football

Jim Brown: The Unstoppable Force

A running back so dominant he led the league almost every year - and walked away at his peak.

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Football

The NFL's Greatest Records

Most touchdowns, most yards, longest streaks - the marks that define gridiron greatness.

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Football

The 1972 Dolphins: The Only Perfect Season

Seventeen games, seventeen wins - the one flawless season in NFL history.

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Football

How the Super Bowl Became America's Biggest Game

From a merger and a modest first title game to an unofficial national holiday.

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Football

The Ice Bowl: Football's Coldest Classic

Minus 13 degrees, a frozen field and a final-second plunge into legend.

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Football

Curious Facts About American Football

Why it's called a football, the story of the laces, and the game's quirkiest facts.

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Football

American Football Explained: A Guide for the Rest of the World

Downs, yards, touchdowns and why the clock keeps stopping - the sport explained from zero.

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Football

How Television Built the NFL

Shared broadcast money, an act of Congress, and a sport quietly redesigned for the camera.

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Football

Jim Thorpe: The Athlete Who Gave Pro Football Its First Star

Olympic champion, Carlisle halfback, and the first name professional football could sell a ticket on.

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Football

Johnny Unitas: The Golden Arm That Modernised the Quarterback

Cut without playing a down, he came back to make the two-minute drive the sport's defining skill.

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Football

Red Grange: The Galloping Ghost Who Sold Pro Football

Four touchdowns in one quarter, then a winter tour that dragged pro football onto the front page.

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Football

The Army-Navy Game: Football's Most Serious Rivalry

Played since 1890, attended by presidents, contested by players who will never turn professional.

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Football

Canton, 1920: How the NFL Was Born

A car showroom in Ohio, a hundred dollars a franchise, and a league with no schedule at all.

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Football

The Forward Pass: The Rule Change That Created Modern Football

Football was nearly banned for killing players. The rule written to save it created the modern game.

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Football

The Four Horsemen and College Football's Golden Age

One paragraph of sportswriting, one photograph on horseback, and four small men who became legend.

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Football

From Leather to Carbon: The Story of the Football Helmet

Optional for fifty years, then compulsory, then a weapon - the helmet changed the game twice.

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Football

Vince Lombardi: The Coach Who Became the Trophy

He took over the worst team in pro football. His name is now on the Super Bowl trophy.

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Football

Walter Camp: The Man Who Wrote American Football

The scrimmage, the system of downs, eleven men a side - the rules one Yale man argued into existence.

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Football

Why America Plays Football on Thanksgiving

A tradition older than the NFL itself, built by college teams, a radio station and a lot of turkey.

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Tennis

Roger Federer: Elegance Personified

Twenty majors and a game like calligraphy - the artistry of Roger Federer.

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Tennis

Serena Williams: The Queen of the Court

Twenty-three Grand Slam singles titles and a reign that redefined the sport.

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Tennis

Rafael Nadal: The King of Clay

Fourteen French Opens and a will of iron - the relentless warrior of the baseline.

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Tennis

The Greatest Records in Tennis

Most majors, longest reigns at number one, and the rare true Grand Slam.

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Tennis

The Longest Match in Tennis History

Eleven hours, five minutes and a final set of 70-68 - the Isner-Mahut marathon.

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Tennis

How Wimbledon and Modern Tennis Began

Lawns, whites and strawberries - the origins of the sport's oldest championship.

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Tennis

Curious Facts About Tennis

Why scoring goes 15-30-40, the quietest crowd in sport, and other tennis curiosities.

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Tennis

Rod Laver: The Only Man to Win the Grand Slam Twice

Two calendar Grand Slams, seven years apart, with five seasons of exile in between.

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Tennis

Billie Jean King and the Fight for Equal Pay

A breakaway tour, a threatened boycott and the night that changed women's tennis.

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Tennis

Martina Navratilova: The Serve-and-Volley Machine

A defection at nineteen, a total physical reinvention, and a decade of attacking the net.

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Tennis

Borg vs McEnroe: Ice and Fire at Wimbledon

Two temperaments, one net, and the fourth-set tiebreak that people still argue about.

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Tennis

Arthur Ashe: The Quiet Revolutionary

Major titles, a life of argument, and a legacy that outgrew the sport entirely.

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Tennis

Steffi Graf and the Golden Slam

Four majors and Olympic gold in one calendar year - the only Golden Slam in tennis.

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Tennis

Novak Djokovic: Built to Return

The best return of serve in the game, and a body rebuilt to use it.

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Tennis

From Wood to Graphite: How the Racket Changed Tennis

Wood, steel, aluminium, graphite - how the frame in your hand rewrote the sport.

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Tennis

Grass, Clay and Hard Court: Why the Surface Decides the Match

Same rules, same players, three different sports - what each surface does to the ball.

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Tennis

The Tiebreak: The Invention That Saved Tennis from Endless Sets

Before 1970 a set had no ceiling. One man decided that was a problem worth fixing.

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Tennis

The Davis Cup: Tennis's Oldest Team Competition

A silver bowl, a student's idea, and a hundred years of the loudest crowds in tennis.

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Tennis

Hawk-Eye: How Technology Ended the Argument on Court

Cameras, challenges and the slow disappearance of the line judge.

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Tennis

The Australian Open: The Slam That Had to Win Players Over

Too far, too hot, at the wrong time of year - and now one of the best-run majors in tennis.

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Hockey

Wayne Gretzky: The Great One

Records that may never be broken and a vision no one else had on the ice.

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Hockey

Bobby Orr: The Defenseman Who Flew

He reinvented his position and scored a goal frozen forever in mid-air.

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Hockey

The NHL's Most Untouchable Records

894 goals, 2,857 points, 92 in a season - the numbers that defy belief.

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Hockey

The Miracle on Ice

A team of American college kids takes on the mighty Soviet machine in 1980.

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Hockey

The Stanley Cup: Sport's Oldest Trophy

The oldest trophy in North American sport and the stories engraved on its silver.

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Hockey

The Original Six Era

Six teams, one league and decades of rivalry that built modern hockey.

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Hockey

Curious Facts About Hockey

The frozen puck, the hat-trick tradition and other quirks of the coldest game.

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Hockey

Bobby Hull and the Rise of the Slap Shot

A curved blade, a shot nobody could see and the signature that legitimised a rival league.

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Hockey

Gordie Howe: The Man They Called Mr. Hockey

Five decades of professional hockey, two sons on the same line and a nickname nobody disputed.

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Hockey

Hockey Rules Explained: Offside, Icing and the Power Play

Offside, icing and the power play - the three rules that explain most of the whistles.

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Hockey

How an Ice Rink Is Made

Kilometres of pipe, a heated foundation and fifty thin layers of frozen water.

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Hockey

Ice Hockey at the Winter Olympics

From a summer tournament in Antwerp to a permanent argument about who may play.

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Hockey

Jacques Plante and the Night Goaltending Changed

He took a puck in the face, came back wearing a mask and refused to take it off.

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Hockey

Maurice Richard: The Rocket Who Carried Montreal

Fifty goals in fifty games, and a suspension that emptied Montreal onto the street.

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Hockey

The Red Machine: How the Soviets Built a Hockey Power

Gymnastics, chess and ballet turned a country with no hockey tradition into its dominant force.

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Hockey

The Birth of Ice Hockey

Frozen ponds, borrowed stick-and-ball games and the Montreal night the ball was flattened.

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Hockey

How Goaltending Became a Science

Once a test of nerve, now the most technically coached job on the ice.

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Hockey

The History of the Hockey Stick

From carved hornbeam to a carbon tube engineered to bend in exactly one place.

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Hockey

The Summit Series of 1972

Eight games that began as a formality and ended with thirty-four seconds left in Moscow.

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Hockey

The Long Road of Women's Ice Hockey

Women have played since the 1890s. The history is about being allowed to continue.

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Baseball

Babe Ruth: The Sultan of Swat

The pitcher who became the greatest slugger and changed how baseball was played.

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Baseball

Hank Aaron: Grace Under Fire

715 home runs and the dignity to break a sacred record under enormous pressure.

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Baseball

Baseball's Most Hallowed Records

DiMaggio's 56-game streak, 511 wins, a .366 lifetime average - the untouchable numbers.

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Baseball

Jackie Robinson Breaks the Barrier

The day a rookie second baseman changed baseball - and America - forever.

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Baseball

How Baseball Became America's Pastime

From sandlots and myths to packed stadiums - the rise of the national game.

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Baseball

The Curse of the Bambino

Eighty-six years of heartbreak after one fateful trade - baseball's most famous curse.

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Baseball

Curious Facts About Baseball

The seventh-inning stretch, the mud rubbed on every ball, and other diamond oddities.

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Baseball

Honus Wagner and the Most Famous Card in Sport

The finest shortstop of his age, remembered for a tobacco card he may have refused to appear on.

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Baseball

Lou Gehrig: The Iron Horse Who Never Sat Down

2,130 games in a row, and the most famous farewell speech in American sport.

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Baseball

Satchel Paige: The Long Road to the Major Leagues

Twenty years as the biggest draw in Black baseball before the major leagues would have him.

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Baseball

The Art of Pitching: Fastballs, Curves and the Knuckleball

Sixty feet six inches, a handful of grips, and the physics of making a ball disobey.

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Baseball

The Black Sox Scandal: The Series That Nearly Broke Baseball

Eight players acquitted in court and banned from the sport for life the next day.

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Baseball

The Box Score: How an Englishman Taught Baseball to Count

An English cricket writer invented the box score and taught baseball to count.

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Baseball

The First World Series: How 1903 Settled a Baseball War

Two owners wrote to each other, agreed a nine-game series and invented an institution.

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Baseball

The Baseball Glove: From Bare Hands to Engineered Leather

Fielders once caught everything bare-handed and mocked anyone who did not.

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Baseball

The Negro Leagues: Rube Foster and the Game Built Alongside

Shut out of organised baseball, Black players built leagues of their own.

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Baseball

Fenway, Wrigley and the Ballparks That Refused to Die

Two parks from the 1910s are still in daily use, and their odd shapes changed the game.

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Baseball

Ty Cobb: The Georgia Peach and the Fiercest Era of Baseball

The highest career batting average in history, won with spikes, study and a permanent grievance.

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Baseball

Walter Johnson: The Big Train and the Fastest Arm of His Age

Twenty-one seasons with one weak team, and the fastest arm nobody ever measured.

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Baseball

Women in Baseball: From the Bloomer Girls to a League of Their Own

Travelling women's teams beat men for money in the 1890s. A professional league followed.

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MMA

The Rise of the UFC

From a no-rules spectacle in 1993 to the world's biggest mixed martial arts stage.

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MMA

Anderson Silva: The Spider

The longest title reign in UFC history and striking that looked like art.

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MMA

Khabib Nurmagomedov: The Eagle

Twenty-nine fights, zero defeats - the smothering dominance of an undefeated champion.

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MMA

Ronda Rousey and the Rise of Women's MMA

The judoka who forced the UFC to open its doors to women - and drew millions in.

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MMA

The UFC Record Book

Longest streaks, fastest finishes and most title defenses in the octagon.

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MMA

How the Rules of MMA Were Born

From style-versus-style chaos to the unified rules that made MMA a real sport.

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MMA

Curious Facts About MMA

The octagon's origin, the lightest and heaviest fighters, and other cage curiosities.

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MMA

How Jiu-Jitsu Travelled from Japan to Rio

Old Japanese schools, a judo master who kept travelling, and an art rebuilt around the ground.

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MMA

How an MMA Round Is Actually Scored

Three judges, ten points and a short list of criteria - and endless argument.

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MMA

How MMA Drew Its Weight Classes

The first tournaments had no divisions at all. Everything since has been drawn by regulators.

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MMA

The Logic of Leverage: How Submissions Work

Chokes and joint locks are not strength. They are small mechanical arguments.

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MMA

Judo in the Cage: Grips, Throws and What Gets Lost

Judo produces the cleanest throws in combat sport - until the jacket disappears.

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MMA

Stance, Range and Footwork: Striking in Mixed Rules

Not boxing with smaller gloves: the threat of a takedown rewrites everything.

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MMA

Muay Thai: The Art of Eight Limbs

Fists, elbows, knees and shins - and a clinch that works like wrestling standing up.

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MMA

Pankration: Mixed Fighting at the Ancient Games

Boxing and wrestling combined, contested in a sand pit with almost no rules.

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MMA

PRIDE and the Japanese Era of MMA

Different rules, a ring instead of a cage, and for a decade the centre of the sport.

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MMA

Royce Gracie and the Nights That Proved Jiu-Jitsu

A slight man in a white gi, a tournament with almost no rules, and an argument settled in public.

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MMA

Sambo: The Soviet Art Behind Modern Grapplers

A jacket, a set of leg locks and a name that is an acronym for self-defence without weapons.

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MMA

The Takedown and the Sprawl, Explained

The shot, the sprawl and the scramble: the hinge of most fights, explained plainly.

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MMA

Why Wrestling Is Still the Strongest Base in MMA

It rarely finishes a fight on its own, but it decides where the fight happens.

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Athlete photos from Wikimedia Commons under their respective licenses — full credit on each article. Other images via Pexels.