Sports Bizarre

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.

Taylor Swift & the NFL 02/20/2024

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. /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/30031028

Stalin, Hitchcock and table tennis 03/12/2023

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. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/26200263

Jimmy "The Whirlwind" White 03/05/2023

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 living a lifestyle that involved month-long benders with Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy, UB40, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the career of one of the greatest snooker players of all time, a man who lost six World Championship Finals and once took his dead brother on a pub crawl. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/26129079

The very odd Marquis of Queensbury 02/26/2023

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 of Queensberry, whose main claim to fame, apart from his rules, is a high-profile dispute with Oscar Wilde which leads to Wilde's imprisonment. Titus and Mick examine the civilisation of boxing, the invention of boxing gloves and Hezekiah Moscow, a boxer/bear tamer who quit boxing to tour England as a comedy sketch artist in 1892. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/26048253

The unruly early days of boxing 02/19/2023

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 this world emerged the first heavyweight champion, James Figg who fought a total of 270 fights and lost only once. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the early days of boxing, the first ever rules, the invention of boxing gloves and the first championship "belt"—made of lionskin and sterling silver. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25976289

Chaos Agent John Daly- Part Two 02/12/2023

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 O’Reily and Mick Molloy finish off the series on John Daly, or as he is more commonly known 'Mick's Spirit Animal'. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25901859

Chaos Agent John Daly- Part One 02/05/2023

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 his impossibly long drives. Off the course, Daly racked up marriages, scandals and suspensions far faster than he ever won tournaments. In part one, Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine a man who once got into a fight on a golf course with another golfer and that golfer's entire family. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25832757

Somewhat important announcement 01/26/2023

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 Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25732680

The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Six 12/11/2022

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 and proves that when it comes to corruption, FIFA is on another planet. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy put the bow on this tale of money, football and people behaving like the emotion shame had never been invented. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25288182

The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Five 12/04/2022

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 stay one step ahead, but unbeknownst to him, one member of the FIFA committee has begun working for the FBI and is wearing a wire. And yes, that is true, not a made-up bit. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at how Sepp stays one step ahead, executing an escape that would have had Harry Houdini say, 'how did he do that?' Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25213563

The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Four 11/27/2022

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 then cover the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 Cup to Qatar and the delightful mess that was. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy then discuss how even Vladimir Putin went out of his way to suck up to FIFA executives, even providing content to one executive's travel blog. /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25138782

The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup: Part Three 11/20/2022

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 adopting corruption as the sole reason for its existence. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the rise of Blatter, from President of a pressure group encouraging women to wear suspenders, the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, to President of FIFA. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25073892

The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup Part 2 11/15/2022

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 O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the career of João Havelange, the man who taught Sepp Blatter everything. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/25016598

The dodgy road to the Qatar World Cup Part 1 11/13/2022

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 football' mark, could host arguably the biggest sporting event in the world. To kick off, Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the problems with Qatar and look back at the formation of FIFA. The next episode will be out later this week, so get ready for a festival of football and corruption. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24990768

Beer Plus Fans Equals Chaos 11/06/2022

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 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. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24918312

The man who invented the Melbourne Cup 10/30/2022

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 Commissioner of police, be a pallbearer at Robert O’Hara Burke's funeral, invent the Melbourne Cup, become a key player in the formation of the VRC and lead, very unsuccessfully, the hunt for Ned Kelly. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life of one of Australia's strangest characters, a man who paused the hunt for Ned Kelly while the weights of the Melbourne Cup were declared. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24843009

The Philadelphia Eagles wild man 10/23/2022

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, setting himself on fire and opening his mouth in a meeting to speak, only for a sparrow to fly out. After football, Rossovich would go on to be an actor and stuntman, appearing in "MacGyver," "Baywatch," "The Love Boat," "Knight Rider," "Charlie's Angels," "Remington Steele," "Soap," and "The A-Team." Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the life of a man who was once bored at a party, took all his clothes off, proceeded to pretend to hop like a frog and jumped into the birthday cake. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24770733

Good Old Bob 10/16/2022

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. Joining the army and fighting in South Africa at 16, Sievier would go bankrupt countless times, father seventeen illegitimate progeny and be involved in some of the highest profile cases of the times. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life of a man who once brought a libel charge against someone for calling him a thief, a card cheat, and a murderer, only for the jury to find these were probably all true. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24699474

The Weirdest Contracts in Sport 10/09/2022

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 free sushi at all times, a demand a player ate sheep's testicles, a ban on extravagant haircuts and a bonus for growing a moustache. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy examine the weirdest contracts in sports, from the ones that saw enormous financial windfalls to the clauses that saw players demand everything from bulldozers to horses. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24630114

Dock Ellis, LSD and other adventures 10/02/2022

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 spokesperson on a range of issues from free agency to racism while devoting his life to combating alcohol and drug abuse. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the complex career of one of the most interesting athletes of all time. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24560385

The 2000 Spanish Paralympic team 09/25/2022

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 intellectually disabled but who could act like they were? Surely that would make it easier to win? Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at one of the most outrageous cheating scams in history and how a massive twist undid it all. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24480009

The 1900 Paris Olympics 09/18/2022

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, while the long jumpers turned up to discover they had to dig their own pit. As well as standard Olympic fare, there was cannon shooting, hot air ballooning, pigeon shooting, kite flying, driving a mail carriage and fishing. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the most shambolic Olympics ever, an event that saw kids press-ganged into competing and the marathon ended in a twelve-year legal battle. This episode refers to another episode, , which is another bonkers story. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24408570

The Monkey Testicle Doping Scandal 09/11/2022

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 between Wolverhampton and Portsmouth became known as the ‘Monkey Gland Final’. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy, look back at arguably the strangest doping scandal of all time and the coaching career of Major Frank Buckley, who trialled the treatment at Wolverhampton. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24338286

Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un 09/04/2022

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 does know well, North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Between 2013 and 2018, Rodman made numerous trips to North Korea, calling Jong-un a ‘friend for life’. At one point, Rodman was one of only two men in the world who had met Kim Jong-un and then President Donald Trump. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy discuss the strangest relationship in international politics and look at claims Rodman was an intelligence officer working for the Central Intelligence Agency or just a useful idiot for the North Koreans. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24265455

The Curse of Colonel Sanders 08/28/2022

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. Attempts to lift the curse have included fans apologizing to KFC store managers and making offerings to the statues of the Colonel outside of restaurants. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the Curse of the Colonel and another curse that set back Birmingham City decades, with the Nazis bombing their stadium, only for the National Fire Service to then accidentally burn the stand down a year later. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24185238

The Rise of John Wren 08/21/2022

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 class fighting back against discriminatory laws. In its twenty years of operating, the police attempted to raid the tote so many times and failed to the point they gave up completely. Instead, the establishment banned Wren’s horses from racing in the Spring Racing Carnival. In response, Wren set up multiple alternative racecourses and significantly hurt their finances. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the rise of John Wren, a man who took on the establishment and built up a sporting empire that crossed horse racing, cycling and boxing. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24124152

The Battle of Montevideo 08/15/2022

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, the game still went ahead with a very nervous backup keeper. Reuters described another match as "a bar-room brawl with soccer skills abandoned for swinging fists, flying boots and blatant body checking". The series would result in the ‘Curse of El Cilindro’, when opposition fans buried the bodies of seven black cats at Racing’s home ground, Estadio Juan Domingo Perón. Decades of bad luck followed, leading to even the Catholic Church getting involved in an attempt to end it. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look back at the ‘Battle of Montevideo’, one of the most hostile sporting encounters of all time. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/24050985

Young Griffo 08/08/2022

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 States, Young Griffo would become one of the greatest boxers of all time, despite never training and rarely fighting sober. In a career spanning 232 fights, Girffo would lose only nine, despite multiple arrests and stints in bot jail and various asylums. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at one of the greatest boxers of all time, whose life which was stranger out of the ring than in it. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/23986605

The Worst Event in Olympic History 07/31/2022

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 would be the biggest mess; competitors were refused water, runners were chased off course by dogs, there was cheating, several near deaths, and the first recorded case of doping in Olympic history. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look back at the worst event ever held at an Olympics and find their favourite Olympic competitor, a Cuban named Félix de la Caridad Carvajal y Soto. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/23915631

Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding 07/24/2022

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 men as behind the attack, all linked to Kerrigan’s main rival, Tonya Harding. Titus and Mick look back on the motley crew that carried out the attack, how they managed to botch almost every part of their plan and left a trail of clues so wide that anyone on the planet could have solved the case. Follow Sports Bizarre on: /episode/index/show/0ccd7ed5-6c38-43b5-b394-d28ab4d89939/id/23842337

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