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

Anon

when i was in primary school i was told thats the school had bats flying around the place. At the time i thought they meant wooden rounders bats that had wings and could flyand thought it rather strange. Years later i remembered this and realised how stupid i was.

Martin

For years I didn't realise that "soccer" was football (i.e. English Association football). I thought the word was pronounced "sosser", and for some reason thought it was a game like throwing a frisbee.

Ray

I live in Colorado and went to my first ski lesson at about 6 yrs old. My brother told me about the chair lifts -- that you "jump off" when you get to where you're going. I thought he meant you jumped from the chair wherever you wanted on the hill. I was positively terrified going to my lesson, sure I would die from a the fall from 30 feet up. I was very relieved when the instructor told me you "jump off" at the top, when you skis touch the ground again.

Kim

When I was little I used to be a huge wrestling fan. This was back when Gordon Solie and Freddie Miller were popular announcers. Sometimes when a wrestling match would start they'd introduce a wrestler and say he was from "Parts Unknown". When I was little I thought they said something like "Partsanon". I remember asking my mom several times where "Partsanon" was. LOL.

Anon

my sister told me that bunkers on golf courses were for children to play in while their dads played golf.

Julie

I used to believe that all the men in the world used to go to a massive garage on "Boxing Day" and have a big boxing match!

Rose

I used to believe Rimming was an actual person that played on every basketball team. When a player would shoot the ball and it would hit the rim, the sports announcer would say “rimming, no!” I would look for the person on the court with that name, always bewildered that I couldn’t ever find him, seeing as how he was in every game I was watching.

Benjamin S

When I was at primary school, a lot of my friends used to think that the number on a footballer's shirt told you how old he was. The goalkeeper wears a number 1 shirt, so they must have thought all goalkeepers were big babies!

Alan, Sheffield

When I was really little and watching the Olympics opening cerimonies (sp?) for the first time, my mother explained to me that flame had been carried by an athlete on all continents. I pictured some poor runner carrying the torch all the way across his or her continent, and also thought they had to use foot-powered paddle-boats (like the kind we rented at City Park Lake) to get it across the oceans. It never occured to me to wonder how they ever started the the Olympics on time. I thought that was why it was only every 4 years.

Still not an athlete

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

when i was younger i thought the Cleveland cavaliers were just called caves and i thought it was caves as in baby cows. i was really confused why you'd name a team after baby cows and the old colors were blue and orange and i wanted to know how you got blue and orange from baby cows.

S.J.

When I was little, I used to watch hockey games with my parents. When the announcer said He shoots, he scores! I thought he said Shootsky scores. I thought Shootsky was Wayne Gretzky. But for some reason I never wondered why he was on every team and scored all the goals. I also believed the Leafs could win a Stanley Cup. I still do... :(

Hockey Gal

I used to think that in basketball, with baskets at both ends of the court, a player could shoot a basket into either goal, and it would count for his team, that neither basket applied specifically to one team. In fact, when I saw some gyms with up to six baskets around the court, I thought a player could score a goal for his team by throwing the ball into any one of the six baskets.

Wendy

My dad watched a lot of football when I was little. Although it didn't interest me much, one phrase stuck in my mind. Whenever the Dolphins were playing, I always wondered why the announcer kept talking about his "ammie". "My ammie scored a touchdown". "My ammie fumbled". Etc. I wondered if this was a nickname for his grandmother, and what she had to do with football.

Joe

I desperatly wanted to bungee jump as a kid. I never thought that you would need a special rope, so decided my dressing-gown cord would be just as good. I tied it round my bed and jumped. And fell. That taught me!

Only got a couple of bruises!

When I was about 6 , I had a Mary Lou Rhetton gymnastics outfit, and I believed that if I practised hard enough with it on, that somone might see me through the window and let me compete in the olympics someday . I don't why it involved the window but it was very important.

erika24

I used to believe that in football (soccer) the object of the game was to get the goalkeeper to fall down. Needless to say I wasn't very good at it then!

opinionata

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

Anon

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