Hinding Group builds any court – tennis, basketball, multipurpose, even ice skating rinks and batting cages! With over 1,000 courts installed, we have a wide range of products and services. 

This week, we’ve compiled a roundup of 50 interesting facts of the sports you can play on our courts to help you impress your teammates. 

1. The longest tennis match took 11 hours and 5 minutes to complete and was played between John Isnet and Nicolas Mahut. 
2. James Naismith, a teacher at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, is credited with inventing basketball in 1891.
3. Before games, hockey pucks are frozen to prevent them from bouncing during the game.
4. In pickleball, players are referred to as “Picklers,” and those who have lost did not “lose,” they have “Pickled”. 
5. The “toe pick,” a barely-visible serrated edge on the tip of their blades, allows figure skaters to pivot, stop short, and prepare for jumps.  
6. The New York Yankees have won 26 World Series titles, which is more than any other MLB team.
7. Usain Bolt holds both the 100m and 200m world records – 9.58 and 19.19 seconds respectively – and the last three Olympic titles in each event.
8. Pickleball was invented in 1965 by three fathers Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum from Bainbridge Island, Washington to entertain their kids. 
9. Kobe Bryant was the youngest player to start an NBA game at just 18.5 years old. 
10. Tennis was originally played with your hands, rackets were introduced during the 16th century.
11. At more than 300 revolutions per minute (RPM), figure skaters experience as much RPM as astronauts in centrifuge training when executing a spinning jump.
12. The base most stolen in a baseball game is second base.
13. Historians point to the first Olympics in 776 B.C. in Greece as the birth of track and field. 
14. The fastest slapshot on record is Bobby Hull’s, which registered 118 miles per hour.
15. Initially, dribbling was not allowed until the 1950s. Players would catch the ball, be allowed a few steps to slow down, stop, and then throw the ball from that spot.
16. Due to the inferior aerodynamics of the pickleball ball, (thanks to its large holes), pickleball balls travel approximately 1/3 the speed of a tennis ball.
17.  In tennis, if the ball hits a player’s body or any part of their clothing before it lands, it is their opponent’s point (even if it would have gone out).  
18. The United States is the overall medal leader at the World Figure Skating Championships. The US leads the way with 62 total medals, while Austria comes in second with 53. 
19. On May 1, 1920, a game between the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers lasted 26 innings, taking 3 hours and 50 minutes.
20. Today’s modern outdoor track is oval in shape and has eight lanes. The inside lane covers a distance of 400m.
21. Two leagues called the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged after the 1948-49 season to become today’s National Basketball Association (NBA).
22. The first year that yellow tennis balls were used at Wimbledon was 1986.
23.  Pickleball is named after creator Joel Pritchard’s cocker spaniel, Pickles, who enjoyed chasing the ball while his owners played.
24. Pitcher Nolan Ryan played 27 seasons in major league baseball and struck out more batters in his career than any other pitcher. 
25. Jackson Haines, an American ballet dancer from New York City, is known as the father of figure skating. 
26. NBA players run as much as four miles during a game.
27.  The Pittsburgh Penguins once had a live penguin as their mascot that was named Slapshot Pete.
28. Ivo Karlovic from Croatia hit the fastest serve ever recorded in Men’s Tennis in 2011. His serve was measured at 156 mph or 251 km/h.
29. In 1968, the African American Tommie Smith won 1 gold medal in the 200-meter dash. On the Olympic podium, he and bronze medalist John Carlos gave the Black Power salute to protest systemic racism in the United States.
30.  Frank Zamboni invented the first self-propelled ice-clearing machine, in 1949. 
31. Built 1912, Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark in the country.
32. As Pickleball became more known among different people in the world, it led to the creation of the International Federation of Pickleball. 
33. Figure skating debuted during the London Olympic Games in 1908, pre-dating the beginning of the formal winter games by 16 years. 
34. Basketball shorts were short until 1984 when Michael Jordan asked for longer ones.
35. Track and field were one of the original events to appear at the first Paralympic Games in Rome during 1960.  
36. The year 1968 marked the beginning of the open era in professional tennis. 
37. Wayne Gretzky holds 61 NHL records, the most by far of any player.
38. Pickleball has rules that allow teams with standing players and wheelchaired players to play each other.
39. The fastest pitch ever recorded in Major League Baseball was 105.1 MPH, thrown by Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds in 2011
40. During Olympic figure skating competitions the skaters are permitted to use music to accompany their routine if it is instrumental only.  
41. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and peach baskets and the first backboards were made of wire.
42. During a hockey game, a goalie cannot cross the center-ice red line with or without the puck.
43. The first women to play in the notorious Wimbledon tennis tournament wore full-length dresses
44. The most valuable baseball card ever is the 1909 Honus Wagner T206 baseball card, worth about $2.8 million
45. A couple of years ago, Pickleball was recognized as the fastest-growing sport in the US by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
46. The fastest mile was run by Moroccan, Hitcham El Guerrouj at 3:43:13 in 1999. 
47. The tradition of fans waving white towels during games was started when the Vancouver Canucks coach Roger Neilson waved a towel on the end of a stick at a referee during a game in 1982, as a sign that he was giving up after a number of questionable calls.
48.  A warm basketball is bouncier than a cold one because the molecules in the warm ball hit its inside surface at a higher speed.
49. Arthur Ashe was the first African American to win the US Open in 1968. 
50. Figure skating began in the 1850s when skaters began experimenting with different jumps and spins on the ice.

Are you interested in learning more about our sports courts? Contact us today!