Induct Yourself Into This Sports Halls of Fame Quiz

Ford C. Frick progressed from sportswriter to president of the National League to MLB commissioner, and in his tenure as an executive, he was credited with helping to build the relationship between baseball and radio. He played a major part in making the Baseball Hall of Fame a reality, and his namesake award is given each year to one broadcaster. The first recipients of the Ford Frick Award were Mel Allen and Red Barber in 1978.

When a player is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, they select one team to be represented on their cap on the plaque in the Hall of Fame — or they can choose to have a blank cap instead of picking one team over another. With 27 championships, it’s not a surprise that the Yankees are the most well-represented team in the hall (21 individual caps), but the Giants are second with 15 plaques. It probably should be even more; Mel Ott is in the hall with a blank cap, and Barry Bonds would likely be wearing a Giants cap if he were to enter the Hall of Fame.

There have been other people inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, but Bill Russell has the unique position of serving simultaneously as a player and coach for the last three years of his 13-year career with the Boston Celtics. The five-time MVP won 11 NBA championships, winning the last two titles when he was a player/coach. Russell was inducted as a player in 1975, and as a coach in 2021. The others to be double inducted are Lenny Wilkens, John Wooden, Bill Sharman, and Tommy Heinsohn.

The 1980 inaugural class of the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame included the likes of Babe Didrickson Zaharias (track and field, golf), Wilma Rudolph (track and field), and Billie Jean King (tennis), as well as a surprise pick under the title of “aviator” — Amelia Earhart. This first class also honored race car driver Janet Guthrie, multi-sport athlete Althea Gibson, swimmers Gertrude Ederle and Eleanor Holm Whalen, and golfer Patty Berg.

The NFL All-Decade Team is chosen by the Pro Football Hall of Fame every 10 years, and in the history of the league, only 29 individuals (including coaches) have been chosen to more than one All-Decade Team. Of these legends, Tom Brady is the only quarterback to make two such teams, having been named to the all-2000s team and the all-2010s team.

The Baseball Writers Association of America is one of the toughest voting blocs in sports. In the very first Hall of Fame class in 1936, 226 writers cast their votes, and 11 voters decided NOT to vote for Babe Ruth. Jackie Robinson received 77.5% of the 1962 vote — nudging past the 75% threshold for induction. Derek Jeter missed unanimous induction by one vote in 2020, but his teammate and greatest closer of all-time Mariano Rivera managed to earn a full 100% of the writers’ approval in 2019.

With its snowy climate and high altitude, Colorado has long been one of the most popular training locations for U.S. Olympic athletes, which makes Colorado Springs a fitting location for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame, opened in 2017. Inductees may be either teams, such as the 1960 Men’s Ice Hockey Team, or individuals, such as short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and three-time Paralympian Erin Popovich.

Every summer, NFL greats gather in Canton, Ohio, to honor the newest Pro Football Hall of Fame class. After the new inductees receive their gold jackets and give their speeches, the weekend concludes with an exhibition game at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Named for New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, the stadium holds 23,000 and has hosted the first exhibition game of the year every season since 1962.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is the only one of the four major North American professional sports league halls of fame to include the name of the sport's inventor in the title. James Naismith was a Canadian American doctor who is credited with conceiving basketball at the Springfield YMCA in 1891. Naismith also wrote the first rules of basketball and founded the University of Kansas basketball program.

Opened in 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is the youngest of these leagues' halls. The museum was established in Canton, Ohio, on George Halas Drive, a street named after one of the founders of the NFL. Halas also founded the Chicago Bears, who have more Hall of Famers (30) than any other team. The oldest of these halls of fame is the Baseball Hall of Fame, which was founded in Cooperstown, New York, in 1936.