Capturing The Essence of Sport Dubai Sports City

History Of Sport ... Sports that are at least two and a half thousand years old include hurling (similar to field hockey) in Ireland, harpastum (similar to rugby) in Rome, cuju (similar to association football) in China, and polo in Persia... It was predictably in Greece that sports were first instituted formally, with the first Olympic Games recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, where they were celebrated until 393 AD... the Panathenaia of Athens, included musical, reading and other non-athletic contests in addition to regular sports events...

Variations Of Basketball ... Roster sizes above five players per team are uncommon even in informal games, as the court generally becomes too crowded to allow movement and space to develop between players. Six-on-six basketball was a form of basketball played in the twentieth century mainly among high school girls...

History Of Baseball In The United States ... In 1828, an article published in a Hagerstown, Maryland, newspaper briefly describes a young girl who's drawn away from her daily chores to play a familiar game with her friends. In "A Village Sketch," author Miss Mitford wrote: "Then comes a sun-burnt gipsy of six, beginning to grow tall and thin and to find the cares of the world gathering about her; with a pitcher in one hand, a mop in the other, an old straw bonnet of ambiguous shape, half hiding her tangled hair; a tattered stuff petticoat once green, hanging below an equally tattered cotton frock, once purple; her longing eyes fixed on a game of baseball at the corner of the green till she reaches the cottage door, flings down the mop and pitcher and darts off to her companions quite regardless of the storm of scolding with which the mother follows her runaway steps." The first team to play baseball under modern rules were the New York Knickerbockers...

Professional Golf Tours ... Golf is one of the more lucrative sports in the world for both men and women, but it has a very different structure from other sports, especially team sports...

Australian Rules Football ... The objective of the game is to score points by passing the ball through the opponent's goal. The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the two major goal posts...

Canadian Football ... Rugby football in Canada had its origins in the early 1860s, and over time, the unique game known as Canadian football developed. Both the Canadian Football League (CFL), the sport's top professional league, and Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1884 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union...

Bowl Championship Series ... The BCS relies on a combination of polls and computer selection methods to determine relative team rankings, and to narrow the field to two teams to play in the BCS National Championship Game held after the other college bowl games. The American Football Coaches Association is contractually bound to vote the winner of this game as the BCS National Champion and the contract signed by each conference requires them to recognize the winner of the BCS National Championship game as the official and only Champion...

Football ... In the twentieth century, the various codes of football have become amongst the most popular team sports in the world...

Names For Association Football ... The term association football has never been widely used, although in Britain some clubs in rugby football strongholds adopted the suffix Association Football Club (A. F. C.) to avoid confusion with the dominant sport in their area, and FIFA, the world governing body for the sport, is a French-language acronym of "Fédération Internationale de Football Association" – the International Federation of Association Football. "Soccer football", is used less often than it once was: the United States Soccer Federation was known as the United States Soccer Football Association from 1945 until 1974, when it adopted its current name...

History Of Association Football ... During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various football games that were played in the public schools as well in the industrial north under the Sheffield Rules. In 1862, J...

Official (basketball) ... Officials are usually referred to as referees, however generally there is one lead referee and one or two umpires, depending on whether there is a two or three person crew. In the NBA, the lead official is called the crew chief and the other two officials are "referees"...

Origins Of Baseball ... Americans played a version of the English game rounders in the early 19th century which they called "Town Ball." In fact, early forms of baseball had a number of names, including "Base Ball," "Goal Ball " "Round Ball," "Fletch-catch," "stool ball," and, simply, "Base." In at least one version of the game, teams pitched to themselves, runners went around the bases in the opposite direction of today's game, and players could be put out by being hit with the ball. Like today, a batter was called out after three strikes...

Basketball ... A regulation basketball ring consists of a rim 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high mounted to a backboard. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play...

Winning Isn't Everything; It's The Only Thing ... In 1955, in a Sports Illustrated article preceding the 1956 Rose Bowl, he was quoted as saying "Sure, winning isn't every thing; it's the only thing." This credo has served as counterpoint to the well known sentiment by sports journalist Grantland Rice that, "it's not that you won or lost but how you played the game," and to the Modern Olympic creed expressed by its founder Pierre de Coubertin: "The most important thing ...

Association Football ... In general play, the goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms, while the field players typically use their feet to kick the ball into position, occasionally using their torso or head to intercept a ball in midair. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins...

Sportsmanship ... Sportsmanship can be conceptualized as an enduring and relatively stable characteristic or disposition such that individuals differ in the way they are generally expected to behave in sport situations. In general, sportsmanship refers to virtues such as fairness, self-control, courage, and persistence, and has been associated with interpersonal concepts of treating others and being treated fairly, maintaining self-control if dealing with others, and respect for both authority and opponents...

Sheffield Rules ... The city was home to a number of sports clubs and the popularity of cricket had led to the chairman of Sheffield Cricket Club to suggest the construction of Bramall Lane...