Bizarre with Mick Molloy and Titus O’Reily

With the America’s Cup donated to the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), Civil War would intervene before anyone could challenge for it. After the war, it would be the new NYYC Commodore James Gordon Bennett Jr, who would kick start the challenges.   Nicknamed “The Mad Commodore”, Bennett Jr was known for riding his personal horse carriage about the streets of New York city at brea...

In 1851, the yacht America, headed to England to take on the best of the British, stopping to pick up the finest French wines along the way. After defeating the English, the owners decided to entrust the trophy to the New York Yacht Club, as an international trophy to be competed for. They named it after their yacht, America and the America’s Cup was born. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy...

Forty years ago, on the 26th of September 1983, Australia II crossed the finish line in the deciding race of the America’s Cup, ending the longest winning streak in the history of sport, 132 years. Sports Bizarre with Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory with a special series exploring the history and rare facts of the America’s Cup. The series begins Mo...

In part two of our series, Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt begin their assault on the Le Mans 24-hour race. Signing with Jaguar, the 1953 seemed full of promise, only for them to be disqualified during qualifying on a technicality. Not to waste the evening, Rolt and Hamilton have a huge night out, only to find out they might not be disqualified after all. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy discuss...

As a baby, Duncan Hamilton crashed his pram down 38 steps. This proved to be just a precursor to him crashing cars and planes. Despite the crashes, he was fast, incredibly fast, becoming one of the great race car drivers of his era. Then he met Tony Rolt, a war hero who had escaped from seven German prisoner-of-war camps, and the two formed one of the great racing partnerships of all time. Titus O...

Bunker Spreckels became famous as a surfer, but he was born into the wealthy Spreckles family, a dynasty built on the sugar trade that gave us the term ‘sugar daddy.’ At five, Bunker’s mother remarried, and he suddenly had a new stepfather, Hollywood icon Clark Gable, who treated him as his own son. When Clark died, Bunker fled to Hawaii, where surfing took over his life. At 21 years old, Bunker u...

Before organised sport, there was mob football, where entire villages played against each other for days, with no rules, and the kings of England banning it, then legalising it and then banning it again. Like one of those prehistoric fish in the depths of the ocean, some forms of medieval football have survived to this day, still without rules. Organisers do say, ‘Unnecessary violence is frowned o...

In part two, Tex Rickard moves to Argentina to raise cattle. Instead, he ends up in the middle of a war between Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, with Argentina asking him to lead their army. Declining this, Tex returns to the United States, where he begins promoting a boxer by the name of Jack Dempsey, buys Madison Square Garden, and creates the New York Rangers. Titus O’Reily and M...

By his mid-twenties, Tex Rickard had been a cowboy, a Marshal, was friends with Wyatt Earp and had followed the gold rushes to Alaska. In Alaska he became friends with people with names like Swiftwater Bill, Deep Hole Johnson, Ham-Grease Jimmy, and the Chills and Fever Kid. He also discovered his true genius, promoting sport. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy examine the life of Tex Rickard, the...

Carlos Kaiser had one of the longest careers in Brazilian football, joining all the big four clubs Botafogo, Fluminense, Flamengo, and Vasco da Gama, plus stints in Mexico, Argentina and France. However, what made Kaiser’s career remarkable was not its length or being part of so many top sides but the fact that he never played a single game. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the gr...

Last week we left off with the two Dassler brothers splitting apart their shoe company after a vicious falling out. With the Second World War now over, the two brothers start building their new companies, Puma and Adidas, with the rivalry only getting hotter. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at how the two feuding companies took sports apparel, footwear and marketing to new heights, and ho...

In 1923, two brothers formed a new shoe company, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, or Geda. The company grew quickly against the backdrop of the rising Nazi party, and by the 1936 Berlin Olympics, top athletes, including Jesse Owens, wore the brothers' shoes. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at how the Second World War tore the two brothers apart, leading to the biggest feud in sports his...

In part two of our look at the LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger, Greg Norman is now CEO of LIV Golf, unleashing a civil war in the sport. Money is thrown around like a loose bucks night, as golfers make hundreds of millions of dollars by swapping sides. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy then ask they question, after all the unpleasantness, why the sudden change of heart? If you’d like more Sports...

We have a treat, two episodes this week, on the LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger. The second episode will be out Wednesday unless you’re a Bizarre Plus member, then you’ll have both today. In this episode, we trace the history of breakaway leagues in golf.  The first being the PGA Tour splitting from the PGA of America, caused by a dispute between Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. Then look at...

In our final episode on the USFL, the league’s final season is overshadowed by the showdown court case between the USFL and the NFL. In one of the strangest cases of all time, Donald Trump takes the stand, the jury doesn’t understand how their job works and the court's decision makes no real sense to anyone. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy watch the sun set on the beautiful chaos o...

Following the first season of the USFL, the most incredible offseason in sports history commenced. New teams were created, teams traded their entire playing lists, Donald Trump purchased a team, Andy Warhol selected cheerleaders, and a new honour set a high bar for erratic behaviour. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy are excited to announce the launch of Bizarre Plus, the new Membership program for ev...

On March 6 1983, the new United States Football League (USFL) season kicked off with a plan to bring American football to springtime. What unfolded was a wild tale of early success, crazy players and crazier owners, and the undoing of the entire league by a little-known property developer from New York, Donald J Trump. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy begin their three-part look at one of the wildest...

Few players have burned so bright and fallen so far as Detroit Tigers Denny McLain. In 1968, 'The Year of the Pitcher', Denny would win 30 games, a World Series, release a record through Capitol Records, Denny McLain at the Organ and drink 24 bottles of Pepsi daily. The fall was fast; it involved fraud, the mafia, his house burning down, and jail time. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy looked at an at...

Athletes get injured; it comes with the territory, but a lot of them get injured in weird ways. From damaging a tooth eating a microwaved chocolate doughnut, having your own dentures bite you, to falling asleep in a sunbed. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the weirdest sport injuries of all time, and wonder how exactly you injure yourself by running into a moose. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy...

In the final of our series on James Hunt, we look at his 1976 battle with close friend Niki Lauda for the World Championship, the greatest season of F1 ever. We then look at his commentary career, where he once said French driver Jean-Pierre Jarier had  “a mental age of 10”  and should be given a short suspension for poor driving before adding:  “for being himself, he should receive a permanent su...

When Lord Hesketh started Hesketh Racing team, he needed a driver, and he found the perfect one, James Hunt. Everything about Hesketh Racing was fun. “We had failed in both Formula 2 and Formula 3, so Formula 1 was the only logical place to go, said Lord Hesketh on entering the big leagues. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molly continue their series on James Hunt, covering his time at Hesketh and his inter...

Perhaps no other Formula One Driver has captured the imagination of racing fans as much as James Hunt. For a man who said, “my first priority is to finish above rather than beneath the ground," he spent an enormous amount of his early career crashing. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy begin looking into the life of James Hunt, race car driver, international playboy and keen breed of budgerigars. Titus...

In the late 19th century, one sport stood above all others in terms of popularity, pedestrianism. That's right, walking.  Tens of thousands of people would come to watch the top pedestrians walk for five days. Arguably the greatest was Edward Payson Weston, a man who walked wearing a costume of 'black velvet, white silk hat, blue sash, white kid gloves, top boots reaching to the knees on the outsi...

Sport is fun, but it's a lot of effort to organise, run a whole competition, and then fix the result so you can win a lot of money through betting. The simple solution is to run your own event, or even better, just convince people you ran one and take their money. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at some of the greatest sporting events that never happened. From one of the great scams of all time...

In 1932, with the world going through the Great Depression, Brazil had no money to send its Olympic team to Los Angeles. Then a government official had an idea—load a ship with 50,000 bags of coffee, and have the Olympic team sell the cargo to fund the entire trip. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at a strange trip which included pretending the ship was a warship, and civil war breaking out. Tit...