When I was a child, my father always watched hockey games on T.V. When there were fights during the game and a player was in the penalty box, it was called the "man advantage," for the team without the penalty. I always thought it was called the "mad advantage," because the players were so mad they would fight each other.

Cathy

Once told by my sports-loving father that football games were filmed from a blimp, I believed that the games were actually played INSIDE a blimp! I used to scan the skies for stadium-sized blimps, wondering why I never saw any...

Tabby

I used to think when a baseball player got a "walk", it meant he had to walk instead of run when he hit the ball, thereby increasing his chance of getting caught out.

Brandon Campbell

I used to think when a baseball player stole a base, he literally picked up and carried the base with him, so when the other team was at bat, they wouldn't be able to stop there and they would have to try and keep running to the next base after that, thereby increasing their chances of getting tagged out.

Brandon Campbell

i used to beleive that there were little elves inside basketballs that would jump when it hit the ground and thats what made it bounce.

smartyparty

I grew up in South Florida, where the sport Jai Alai is played a lot. When I was in kindergarten, they passed out subscription cards for Highlights for Kids magazine, and I was totally scandalized that they would sign kids up for such a dangerous sport. I told everyone who would listen that Highlights was too dangerous for children.

Katie

Have you ever seen women playing tennis? Well I saw them doing it a lot at our tennis club. The ladies always wore skirts, but they put there tennis ball up there! I honestly thought they were putting the tennis ball in their knickers.

Of course later I found out that there is a pair of shorts underneath with a pocket in them. In most of them anyway, I was saying it to my mom the other day. She puts hers in her shorts! Now I'm not quite sure what to think. :(

Toto

I used to believe that American football was just men racing each other back and forth on a field and the numbered lines told them where to stop. I figured they threw the ball around to each other so they wouldn't get bored just running back and forth all day.

Carrie

My mom used to believe that the San Francisco Giants baseball team were actual giants.

Anon

I used to believe that there was only one cheerleader on a cheerleading team, because there was only one leader. So I was very impressed when a lot of my friends told me they were cheerleaders. I just supposed the other people on the team were cheerers.

Anon

I used to tell people my grandfather played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 70's because the den in his house had a bunch of Steeler posters and pennants. Turned out he was just a big fan.

Rob

I thought all baseball umpires were named "Al." It seemed unfair that, while the players had their last names on their jerseys, the umpires had to have their first names on their hats.

Anon

I'm from Milwaukee. In the mid to late '70's the Milwaukee Brewers had a rightfielder named Sixto Lezcano. I was about 5 or 6 at the time. My older brother convinced me that Sixto had 6 toes, thus his first name.

Anon

I thought that every goal scored in Australin Rules football was scored by Neil Kerley (a well known S. Aust. football player) as I believed he was the goal umpire at every game and at both ends of all games.Only Australians will understand how this would screw the whole scoring system

Fiona

I used to believe that Niki Lauda and Claudia Comaneci both where italians

Piero

I used to believe that the winners of big sporting events like the World Series or Superbowl were actually "World Champions" and were somehow bestowed some type of high level political power like a seat at the United Nations or something like that. They worked in conjunction with winners of other events like Miss Universe to make sure the world was in order.

Sammy

I use to believe that the players on professional sports teams actually were born and raised in the towns whose team's they played for. I also believed the teams were owned by the towns.

Anon

I used to believe that the Soccer Wordl Championship "Italia 90" was called so cause a game lasts 90 minuts, and not because we were actually on the year 1990.

ceskita

When I was a kid, my older sister told me about a friend of hers that was taking fencing. I asked "like, wooden or chain link?"

Tim

I used to think the Super Bowl was a huge bowling tournament.

Anon