All At Sea
The Boat Lover’s Sports Quiz
by Jack Connelly

If you like boats and sports you’ll enjoy this little quiz. Each answer relates both to sports and to ships and boats, and the men who travel on water. For example: What naval vessel indicates a player who may get into the game, but doesn’t rate a starting position? If you answer is “sub,” you can set sail with confidence; you’ve got your sea legs. Pipe yourself aboard. Bon voyage! And don’t forget to check on Your Sea Rating at the end of the test.

1. What hollow structures, designed for marine navigation, provide a last name for “Billy,” a hot running back from Oklahoma who joined the Baltimore Colts in 1956?

2. What word, indicating naval incarceration, is also the first name of “Owen,” who joined the Washington Redskins in 1966? A decade later he was recognized as one of the best defensive backs to have ever played the game.

3. These pirates plundered the coasts of Europe around the 9th century. The athletes who stole their name play for a certain team in the National Football League.

4. What sailing aid, or device, indicates a team’s most reliable bowler?

5. What material, used in the maintenance of boats or ships, would be a most familiar term to Dwight Gooden or Nolan Ryan?

6. In sports jargon, this is synonymous with “hot dog” or “grandstander”. The word names a particular kind of commercial sailing vessel, popularized in the South at the turn of the century.

7. What type of boat, made from relatively large trees by the Indians, names something of which there are two in every major league baseball park.

8. This is what one might be obliged to do on certain small boats; it’s also the last name of “Preacher,” a front line pitcher, mostly for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

9. What is your location if you’re on a platform extending horizontally from one side of a ship to the other? The term indicates where one waits to follow the hitter in baseball.

10. What word indicates the main body of a ship, and provides the last name of an all-time great hockey player from Chicago, names “Bobby”?

11. What might you expect football linemen without helmets to break? The word, spelled differently, refers to “light, narrow racing boats.”

12. “Those who gauge the depths of water,” or a team in North American Soccer League.

13. What word followed “daisy,” as used by early baseball announcers, to describe a ground ball that stayed very close to the ground? It’s also a medium-sized boat for rowing and sailing.

14. What naval rank, just below Rear Admiral, describes one who plays sports for Vanderbilt?

15. What powerful, small boat was also the nickname of Frank McGraw, the key relief pitcher for the world champion “Ya Gotta Believe” New York Mets?

16. What name, given to those who preyed upon American vessels on the high seas in the 18th century, designates a team in the National Football League which once had a prolonged losing streak, prompting disgruntled fans to adopt the slogan: “Go for O!”

17. What “means of propulsion” on some small boats is also the last name of former National Football League standout “Jimmy” and modern hockey great “Bobby”?

18. “To sail about, touching at a series of ports,” or, spelled differently, the last name of baseball’s “Hector” and Jose”.

19. What collective term for oarsmen and coxswain who man a racing shell is also a particular gang or group of a ship’s company?

20. What term, naming a support of iron or timber at a vessel’s side, used for storing boats and spars, matches the last name of former billiards champion “Irving”?

Quiz Answers

1. Vessels
2. Brig
3. Vikings (Minnesota)
4. Anchor
5. Pitch
6. Showboat
7. Dugout
8. Row (Roe)
9. On deck
10. Hull
11. Skulls (sculls)
12. Sounders
13. Cutter
14. Commodore
15. Tug
16. Buccaneers (Tampa Bay)
17. Oar (Orr)
18. Cruise (Cruz)
19. Crew
20. Crane

Your Sea Rating

0-4 You’ve met your Waterloo. Terra firma is your friend... don’t leave it. Perhaps you shouldn’t even go out in the rain. Watch “Sea Power” on television and visit a marina occasionally; soak up some sailors’ jargon.

5-9 You can take the boat out, but only in your swimming pool, with a friend standing watch. Content yourself with reading sea stories while dangling your legs over the side of the tub.

10-15 A passing mark. You’ll hold your head above water with your sporting friends. You can navigate small bodies of water and shallow streams. Learn seafaring terms (“Ship ahoy!” “Look out for the dock!”) and study water charts to prepare yourself for wonderful new horizons.

16-20 Expert! The world of water is your playground. Wear your sailor suit to all social functions and official gatherings. Practice that crooked smile. Sell your humble abode and shop around for a houseboat. Welcome aboard, Captain!