Since our nation was first conceived, Canadian athletes have been involved in some of the weirdest moments in sport. Learn facts that will astound, confuse and make you laugh: * The Great One himself is afraid of flying * Semi-professional baseball team, the Guelph Maple Leafs, beat the Ku Klux Klan in an exciting but strange final * The worst way to defrost a football field from the grounds crew of the Calgary Stampeders was to set it ablaze--they still went on with the game * Golfer Andy Bean lost the Canadian Open after forgetting to follow the rules * Discover lesser-known sports that Canadians have been playing for years, from rattlesnake hunts to horse apple hockey * A sliced-up lacrosse ball and a rink superintendent's need to save on window glass prompted the creation of the rubber hockey puck * Steve Durbano grabbed Bobby Hull's toupee during a World Hockey League game * At the 1998 winter Olympics, snowboarder Ross Rebagliati almost lost his gold medal when he tested positive for marijuana * And many more strange tales from Canada's best and worst.

Arpon Basu had said since the age of eight that he would one day make the National Hockey League. Any chance of that happening, came to a crashing halt when, at 15 when he realized he was completely devoid of any talent. He earned a graduate journalism degree from Concordia University and went straight to a sports-writing job with the Canadian Press. The first time he walked into the Montréal Canadiens dressing room as a giddy cub reporter, Basu nearly fell over as it dawned on him that, despite his ineptitude on the ice, he had in fact been telling the truth as a dreamy-eyed eight-year-old.Basu covers sports for the Canadian Press in Montréal and writes a weekly sports column for the Montréal Gazette. He is also editor of Montréal’s South Shore, The St-Lambert Journal.

J. Alexander Poulton's profile page