April Fools Day has existed for a long time. April Fools Day shares similarities with other days full of fools, tricks and merry-making. Some believe the day is celebrated in honour of the trickery Mother Nature plays on us this time of year with her unpredictable weather. Another possible connection is the Indian tradition of Holi. The day is celebrated on 31 March and practices the same foolery as April Fools' Day. So does the Roman festival of Hilaria which was celebrated on 25 March.
The earliest known reference to April Fools' Day is in Chaucer's 1392 Nun's Priest's Tale. Even so, the reference is so vague and possibly not even occurring on the first of April, leaving doubt as to whether it is the first reference.
Other scholars point to the reformation of the calendar by Pope Gregory and the Gregorian calendar we use today in the 1500s in France. The new year would take place in April, not January as it does now. The theory is that those who continued to celebrate the new year on 1 April were called Poisson d'Avril (April fish) and pranks would be played on them.
In 1582, France accepted the Gregorian calendar but reforms had already been taking place.
In Britain in 1776, there is a clear and reliable reference to April foolishness in an article in Gentlemans Magazine. Reference to a custom in the kingdom of making fools of people on the first day of April. It addresses the day being the culmination of an eight-day feast and the beginning of a new year.
Pranks are performed in all forms and professions. This includes sport. The majority of these involve the reporting of fake news. There are numerous examples to prove this.
A notice ran in Chicago papers advertising that on 1 April, at 13:00, a, "famous gymnast" would ascend the steeple of St. Paul's Church from the outside "and stand upright on the summit, returning the same way to the ground — all to be accomplished in the space of twenty minutes." At the time appointed, a crowd of over 300 people gathered, including reporters, pencils in hand. As the hours wore on, the truth gradually stole over the minds of the sightseers that it was, "All fools day," and, "the crowd suddenly discovered it was time to go to dinner, which they did with a rush." [Weekly Hawk-Eye (Burlington, Iowa) — Apr 20, 1858].
The Titusville Herald ran a headline across the top of its sports page declaring that the Pittsburgh Pirates (the Major League Baseball team) was moving to the small town of Titusville, Pennsylvania (population 5 000). The team reportedly was making the move because it was, "tired of battling the city fathers for a new stadium on Pittsburgh's North Side."
Players for the Pirates were said to be happy with the move, although reliefer, Roy Face, asked, "Where's Titusville?" The April Fool's Day announcement caused the first sell out of the Titusville Herald in many years, as people bought copies for their scrapbooks.
The Daily Mail ran a story about an unfortunate Japanese long-distance runner, Kimo Nakajimi, who had entered the London Marathon but, on account of a translation error, thought that he had to run for 26 days, not 26 miles.
The Daily Mail showed pictures of Nakajimi running and reported that he was still somewhere out on the roads of England, determined to finish the race. Supposedly, he had been spotted occasionally, still running.
The translation error was attributed to Timothy Bryant, an import director, who said, "I translated the rules and sent them off to him. But I have only been learning Japanese for two years, and I must have made a mistake. He seems to be taking this marathon to be something like the very long races they have over there."
In its 1 April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published an article by George Plimpton that described an incredible rookie baseball player who was training at the Mets camp in St. Petersburg, Florida. The player was named Sidd Finch (Sidd being short for Siddhartha, the Indian mystic in Hermann Hesse's book of the same name). He could reportedly pitch a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. The fastest previous recorded speed for a pitch was 103 mph.
Finch, Plimpton reported, had never played baseball before. He had been raised in an English orphanage before he was adopted by the archaeologist, Francis Whyte-Finch, who was later killed in an airplane crash in the Dhaulaglri mountain region of Nepal. Finch briefly attended Harvard before he headed to Tibet where he learned the teachings of the, "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa" and mastered, "siddhi, namely the yogic mastery of mind-body." Through his Tibetan mind-body mastery, Finch had, "learned the art of the pitch."
Finch showed up at the Mets camp in Florida and he impressed their manager so much that he was invited to attend a training camp. When pitching, he looked, in the words of the catcher, "like a pretzel gone loony." Finch frequently wore a hiking boot on his right foot while pitching, his other foot being bare. His speed and power were so great that the catcher would only hear a small sound, "a little pft, pft-boom," before the ball would land in his glove, knocking him two or three feet back. One of the players declared that it was not, "humanly possible" to hit Finch's pitches.
Unfortunately for the Mets, Finch had not yet decided whether to commit himself to a career as a baseball player, or to pursue a career as a French Horn player. He told the Mets management that he would let them know his decision on 1 April.
Sports Illustrated received almost 2 000 letters in response to the article and it became one of their most famous stories ever. On 8 April, they declared that Finch had held a press conference in which he said that he had lost the accuracy needed to throw his fastball and would therefore not be pursuing a career with the Mets. On 15 April, they admitted that the story was a hoax.
George Plimpton actually left an obscure hint that the story was a hoax within the article itself (the non-obscure hint being that the story was absurd). The sub-heading of the article read: "He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga —and his future in baseball." The first letter of each of these words, taken together, spells "H-a-p-p-y A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l-s D-a-y."
In an odd follow-up, a baseball team in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, after reading the Sports Illustrated article, tried to invite Finch to its annual banquet. They received a reply that read, "The challenge is reaching the Eightfold Path of right belief or the ninth inning with the proper relief. May you have peace of mind." They announced that they interpreted the reply to mean that Finch would be attending their banquet. It is not known whether Finch did attend.
The Soviet newspaper, Izvestia, reported that the Moscow Spartak football team was in negotiations with Argentine star, Diego Maradona. On the table was an offer of $6 million for him to come play for them. If all went well, he would join the team within a year. The report was met with astonishment around the world — not because many people believed it, but because it was the first time the normally very serious Izvestia had ever published an April Fool's Day hoax. Frivolity of this kind had previously been frowned upon by the Kremlin.
New York City Comptroller, Harrison Goldin, called a news conference at which he announced that the city was purchasing the professional football team, the Green Bay Packers. City retirement funds would be used to make the purchase and the Packers would replace the Giants and the Jets. Reporters had already phoned the story into the New York Post and Daily News when a press representative in Golden's office announced that the news was an April Fool's Day joke. The Post complained that they had almost put the story on their front page, a mistake which would have cost them $100 000 to correct.
In 2005, Sports manufacturer, Dunlop, announced plans to offer a golf ball designed specifically for left-handed players. Dunlop CEO Chris Ronnie explained:
"The idea came from a research project we undertook to better understand today's golfing market. The results showed that many naturally left-handed players have learnt to play golf right-handed. Up until only a decade ago it had been difficult to get hold of left-handed golf equipment.
Left-handed golf clubs are now commonplace, but no company has yet produced a left-handed golf ball. Dunlop’s revolutionary move is set to hit the shelves next month, just in time for The Daily Telegraph Dunlop Masters, which tees off on May 12 at the Marriott Forest of Arden and may see the first professional golfer trial the Dunlop Lefty.
Many golfers mark their ball with an ink image or even a printed logo to help them focus on the ball at the position of address. The Dunlop Lefty will assist left-handed golfers with a strategically placed, ergonomically designed Dunlop arrow, which points from the left-hand side of the ball to the right, thus indicating the correct position of ball focus for the player."
In 2009, The Sun revealed that during the World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine, English fans would have to stand as the world's longest national anthem played, the six-and-a-half minute version of Oi Ukrainy. Any fans who sat down during the anthem would be ejected from Wembley stadium. The anthem would be sung by the folk star Furstov Aprylova.
Liverpool legend, Ian Rush, would never have signed for Everton. However, on this day in 1989, the Reds forward was involved in an April Fools prank that saw him on the cover of Shoot magazine supposedly having done just that.
"Rush Signs For Everton" was the, "world exclusive" on the cover with a picture of Liverpool's prolific striker wearing an Everton shirt. He was posed with fists clenched and a look of satisfaction and glee.
Rush wasn't the first-choice striker at Anfield after his season at Juventus — fellow legend John Aldridge had assumed the striking role when he was gone — but the Welshman was still only 27. This 'story' was a big one.
Tiger Woods played a cruel joke on those disappointed by his absence in the Masters on Tuesday, using April Fools’ Day as a way to troll fans over his most recent injury.
Earlier this month, Woods announced that he had undergone, "minimally-invasive" surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon, which he noticed while training for the first major of the year. "As I began to ramp up my own training and practice at home, I felt a sharp pain in my left Achilles, which was deemed to be ruptured," he said in a statement on social media. "I am back home now and plan to focus on my recovery and rehab, thank you for all the support."
"I can’t believe I am saying this, but a few weeks after rupturing my left Achilles, the sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber plus the explosive lifts my doctors and trainers have me ready to play the Masters next week! Can’t wait! See y’all on the course," he said in a post on X.
But before fans could get too excited, the 15-time major winner revealed his prank. "P.S. April Fools my Achilles is still a mess :)"
Despite the heartbreak, fans on social media responded well to the joke. "I’m glad you still have a sense of humor… even though you’ve crushed many dreams this morning," one user wrote.
"Walked right into this one. Nice shot Tiger," another added.
April Fools Day can be amusing. However, as seen above, it can be extremely annoying to sport writers. We see news and we immediately believe that it's true. Even today, I have seen articles that seem a bit fishy and find hard to believe. I suppose pranks should be done carefully and not create some form of deception.