What are sports’ greatest superstitions? Do superstitions matter? These people seem to think they do.
Norm Smith – green socks
Collingwood was given no chance of winning the 1958 VFL grand final – they had only won two of their previous six matches heading into the decider and hadn’t beaten their opponents Melbourne in the last ten games.
The Demons were in pursuit of a record fourth-straight premiership.
Speaking in the documentary Red and Blue in 2005, Collingwood’s captain Murray Weideman conceded, “They were a much better side. Deep down in my own heart, I knew we couldn’t beat them. There was no hope in the world of beating them.”
However Collingwood coach Phonse Kyne pleaded beforehand, “Today I want you to bleed for Collingwood.”
The Magpies produced a stunning upset to win by 18 points.
Later, Melbourne coach Norm Smith said he didn’t have his lucky green socks on and joked this was the reason for the defeat.
Smith had worn green socks in the 1955, 1956 and 1957 grand final wins, but in 1958 the socks were in the wash.
Goran Ivanisevic – do the same thing
Goran Ivanisevic was a big-serving, big-mouthed Croatian tennis player who famously won Wimbledon in 2001 as a wildcard, defeating Australia’s Pat Rafter in five-sets in the final.
Ivanisevic had quirky superstitions to say the least!
During a match he would always try to be the second player up following a break and avoided stepping on the court lines. He would often serve with the same ball, if the result of the previous serve was a good one.
Away from the court, however, things were even more strange.
If he won a match at a tournament, he would repeat everything he did the previous day, such as eating the same food at the same restaurant, talking to the same people and watching the same TV programmes.
This meant he had to watch Teletubbies every morning during his famous Wimbledon campaign.
Jack Russell – cup of tea
Cricketers are noted for being more superstitious characters than most. Arguably the most superstitious of them all is former England wicketkeeper Jack Russell.
The artist always used one teabag to make all his brews during a five-day Test match. He would hang the bag on his peg to dry out between cups.
He also ate two Weetabix for lunch everyday and refused to change his hat or wicket-keeping pads throughout his career, which lasted 54 Tests and 24 years as a first-class cricketer.
Michael Jordan – North Carolina shorts
While at the University of North Carolina in 1982, Michael Jordan hit the winning shot in the NCAA National championship game.
During his stellar NBA career, Jordan wore North Carolina shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls shorts for good luck.
The secret apparel worked – Jordan won six NBA championships and still holds the record for most points in the playoffs with 5,987.
Wayne Gretzky – baby powder on stick
‘The Great One’ in the NHL had a number of routines or superstitions he adhered to. Gretzky always put on his uniform in a certain order, fired the first shot of warm-ups wide right of the net, and would drink a Diet Coke, a glass of ice water, a Gatorade, and another Diet Coke in that order prior to game time.
The last thing he would do before stepping on the ice was apply baby powder to the blade of his stick.
When asked why he put baby powder on his stick Gretzky once said, “I think it’s essentially a matter of taking care of what takes care of you.”
Richard Migliore – wearing underwear inside out
Richard Migliore was a champion jockey in the USA. He won 4,450 races and $160,205,725 in prize money.
The key to his success? Wearing his underwear inside out. Before every race Migliore would adjust his underwear.
Once he even had a trainer preform an exorcism to rid a barn of an evil cruise.
Barry Fry – pee on the field
Barry Fry used to be the manager of the English Football Club Birmingham City. His record was modest – in 143 games from 1993-1996 he had 57 wins, 43 draws and 43 defeats.
Believing there were evil spirits living in their home grounds of St Andrews, Fry went to all four corners of the field and peed on them. This act was done to ward off the evil spirits!
Oliver Merle – last minute shoes
Oliver Merle was an uncompromising lock who played 45 Tests for France. He is infamous for head-butting Welsh prop Ricky Evans in an incident in Paris that caused a ruck to collapse and resulted in Evans breaking his ankle. Evans later sued successfully in the courts for damages.
Teammate Thomas Castaignède, a colourful fly-half, once revealed another side to Merle.
“He (Merle) would never put his boots on until the very last minute before an international, and would always warm up in trainers during the week.
“One of the props, Christian Califano, put a banana in his boot on the Monday before we were to play Scotland in the last game of our Grand Slam in 1998. His boots are like canal barges, so he never saw it.
“You can imagine how the banana was when the Saturday came – nice and mature.
“He put the boot on at the last minute, really focused for the game, with no idea what was in there.
“Califano began laughing, and Merle chased him round the changing room yelling that he was going to kill him.
“Fortunately for us, Califano was a faster runner.”
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