My dad told me that playing basketball makes you taller. Basketball players are tall, so I believed him.

Anon

When I was 10 years old, I used to think the footie team Sheffield Wednesday was a bank holiday, Barry van Hire was a dutch soccer player and Muffin the Mule was a sexual offence.

Notty

When i was younger (a lot younger!) i used to wonder why, when watching tennis, the players didnt have a rest when they shouted "juice".I still cant watch tennis without giggling at myself now!

Becky

My brother used to play rugby and would always score trys. He always looked dissapointed however when he walked off the field as he thougt when the coach tapped him on the back and said "Good try mate" that he hadnt scored and that he would have better luck next time.

Anon

I grew up watching the Toronto Blue Jays. The first few seasons were kind of traumatic for me. Every time a guy struck out, or grounded into a double-play, I thought his career was over. These guys would walk back, dejected, to their dugouts, and I wondered where they would find a replacement. The announcers screwed me up - they kept saying the batter was "retired"! I was horrified every time a pitcher would strike out all three batters, and the announcer would scream that the pitcher had "retired the side"! Meanies...

eyeofthemonkey

One day, must have been around the New Year, I asked my Dad why the College Football Bowl Games had such crazy names: the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Gator Bowl, etc. He told me that they used whatever object was in the title of the game as a substitute ball. For example, for the Rose Bowl a rose was used, for the Orange Bowl a bag of oranges was used and for the Gator Bowl, a baby alligator was attached by its teeth to the players jersey who would then run up the field with it. As a child of 6 or 7 it sounded pretty logical to me. And the sad part is I don't think I realized he was pulling my leg for about 10 years after that!

Holli

You know the baseball team, The New York Yankees?....well i used to believe that they were the same as the colonial yankees and that an actual baseball team was fighting in the Revolutionary war! i also believed that the war wasnt fighting, but a big huge Sport-a-thon!.....at the time i was 6...well actually now i am a Huge Yankees fan and i know what really went on in the Revolutionary war!

Big Yankees Fan

When I was younger I thought that whenever the ball went over the goal line in football it was a corner, regardless of who kicked it out. This meant that instead of a goal kick, you had to cross the ball into your own box! I never let the ball run out for a goal kick because of this. Not great cos I was playing for the school team at the time!

chris bullen

I used to think that "Australian Rules Football" didn't actually have any rules.

Actually, I'm still not entirely sure on this one...

;)

American Guy

For baseball fans:

I used to think there was a ballplayer named Nicky Sasky. It was later that I learned his actual name was Nick Esasky.

A short time later I heard about a player with a similar name. But this time I figured I had it right because if there was a Nick Esasky it stood to reason that there would also be a Mack Esasser, right? Wrong. Macky Sasser.

Jayburd

In order to get my 3 year old son to eat a good breakfast before going out to fish we told him that the fish only took bait that had egg breath on it. After that he was reminding me to cook eggs, and every worm had to have egg breath blowen over it before it went into the water.

Marilyn

I used to believe that "Dr. J" was a nickname for Michael Jordan.

Matt Thiel

when I mentioned that (american) football fields looked so much bigger on TV, my dad told me that it was because professional football used 4-foot yards. I believed him until I was 16.. after all, there's a five-quart imperial gallon.

aaron

I grew up in the New York City area, where there were at least two teams in each of the major professional sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA). Because the Yankees and Mets in baseball were in different leagues and never played each other during the regular season (and never did until just a couple of years ago), as a little kids just starting to discover sports, I thought that was how all the New York teams in all sports were set up. So the Rangers would never play the Islanders, the Knicks never played the Nets, and the Giants never played the Jets. It just somehow made sense that way, and I was probably around 15 before I realized my error.

Lamont D. Sanford

The world can be so confusing when you're a kid! When my son, Mark, was 4 years old we were watching a pro football game on the T.V. that his aunt and uncle were attending. I told him to watch closely for aunt Teresa, after a few minutes of intense viewing he turned to me and ask "what number is she?"

Lynn

Another one for cricket fans, for a long time I beleived that the cricket ground Lords was the same place that The Virgin Mary appeared to St Bernadette.

UKJess

up until the otha day i used to believe that when u went to watch a sporting event live the commentray we get on tv was also given to all the people watching live :-S

naive 18 yr old

this is one that only people from the UK will get, but I did used to believe that international cricket matches were always played in Yeovil ....

NCM