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Mick Molloy and Titus O’Reily are always on the lookout for a bizarre story. The harder to believe, the better. Yet all these stories are true, even if many of them shouldn’t be. Every Monday they delve into the world of sport with Sports Bizarre, and every Wednesday they turn their eye to the Animal Kingdom in Animal Bizarre. From teammates who swapped wives to a crypto-investing hamster, one thing we guarantee if they are all bizarre. You can also become a member of Bizarre Plus and receiv ...
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Mick and Titus discuss the cat born with no anus and the tale of an Alaskan woman attacked by a black bear while sitting on the toilet. Plus, they marvel at the unathletic alligator who escaped and a plan hatched by ibises on the Gold Coast to evade animal control. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.…
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With the Channel finally crossed, the arms race for who could cross it the fastest kicked off, and in a shock for the media at the time, it would be the woman who would set the standard. Gertrude Ederle would set the pace, although her coach worked work against her. As time went on, the records became harder to set, until an eleven-year-old stepped…
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A lot is happening in this week's episode, from a Walrus who ruined New Year's Eve, lobsters getting high and animals getting revenge on humans. Titus has a live show in Melbourne on 7 June. You can get tickets here. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus …
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On 12 August 1872, Captain Matthew Webb stood on the English shore and covered himself with porpoise oil before setting off to attempt to be the first person to swim the English Channel. Webb swam breaststroke as no Englishman would be caught dead swimming the new 'freestyle' stroke. It was considered “violent and grotesque.” When Webb was just ove…
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Titus and Mick cross the animal kingdom in this episode from a two-foot-tall cow to raccoons who ruin a gender reveal party. They then pay a classy tribute to Mr Gox, the crypto-trading hamster who passed away unexpectedly. Titus has a live show in Melbourne on 7 June. You can get tickets here. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of …
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One of the most challenging athletic feats in human history is to swim the English Channel. It’s 34 kilometres of open sea between England and France, which also happens to be the busiest sea lane in the world, with water temperatures hovering between 14 to 18 degrees Celsius in summer. For your swim to be officially recognised, wet suits or any th…
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Mick and Titus pay their respects to Magawa the rat who dedicated his life to detecting landmines. Plus, they discuss the Bahraini seagulls that are too fat to fly; loud cicada sex parties and the monotreme with four penises. Titus has three live shows coming up in May in Melbourne. You can get tickets here. If you’d like more Animal Bizarre, becom…
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By the 1930s, SP bookies were everywhere, with investigations discovering that every pub had an SP bookie, and the rare one that didn’t wasn’t economically viable. After the radio had changed everything, the next bit of technology was about to change the life of the SP bookie in ways they couldn’t begin to imagine, the telephone. Titus has three li…
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In their first episode of Animal Bizarre, Mick and Titus discuss a bear that invaded a Japanese military base, penguins that get too cold and a woman breastfeeding a cat on an aeroplane. They then cover a man who while fleeing a swarm of bees jumps into a lake, only to be eaten by piranhas. Titus has three live shows coming up in May in Melbourne. …
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At the beginning of the 20th century, Australia decided to do something against its nature, ban gambling. The result was the rise of the SP Bookie, illegal bookmakers based in pubs, barber shops, pool halls and anywhere people wanted them. The result was a cat-and-mouse game between the police and the bookies; if the cats weren’t interested in capt…
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Mick and Titus are thrilled to announce a new show, Animal Bizarre, which will be released each Wednesday, starting next week. Sports Bizarre will remain the same, out every Monday. “From seagulls who are too fat to fly, drunk echidnas, a crypto-investing hamster, racoons hell-bent on disrupting a ‘gender reveal party’, and a bear who invaded a mil…
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With their first season at the top level in the bag, the Crazy Gang set their eyes higher, but not before a key member announces he is leaving. Before the season is over, the team will achieve something special, but it will also contain the seeds of their destruction. Titus has three live shows coming up in May in Melbourne. You can get tickets her…
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Unfortunately Mick was unwell last week, so we bring you one of our most popular episodes. Wimbledon will be back next week. On 4 June 1974, the Cleveland Indians decided to host a ten-cent beer night to attract fans; beer at the stadium normally cost 65 cents, so ten cents was a real incentive. The Indians were in a 30-year slump at the time, as w…
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In part two, Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang unlock their on field persona, tough, hard, and hated by opponents. As they push up the Football League divisions, a new young player joins the team, named Vinnie Jones, and the club begins their assault on the top division. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join to…
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In the mid-1970s, Wimbledon FC were an amateur football side that couldn't afford training cones, so they stole them from the nearby highway. But the club was going about to go on one of the greatest runs of any team in sport, rising from the bottom to the top, and they did it with a crazy owner, manager and a bunch of players who would become know…
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Albert Belle could hit a baseball. He could also hit a range of other objects when he got frustrated, from sinks to buffet tables. Joining the hapless Cleveland Indians, he was a big part of turning them around, but he also lost it at fans, teammates, and trick-or-treaters. Belle’s personality of being a jerk, even affected his chances of entering …
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In part two, Babe Didrikson turns to golf as her next sport to conquer, becoming one of the greatest of all time. She also meets her husband George Zaharias, a professional wrestler, known as the 'Crying Greek from Cripple Creek.' Together, they propel Babe to great heights, help form the LPGA, before Babe faces her toughest battle. If you’d like m…
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Babe Didrikson might very well be the greatest athlete of the 20th century. As a teenager she led her team to the National Basketball Championship, before moving on to the Olympics and became a two-time gold medallist. Baseball was next, playing against the men in the Major Leagues, and that was just the half of it. To make money, she turned to the…
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In 1977, the movie Slap Shot starring Paul Newman was released about the crazy exploits of a fictional minor league ice hockey team. The plot was so unbelievable the movie flopped but later became a sports classic, partly because all the crazy stories in it were based on a real team, the Johnstown Jets. All the characters in the movie were based on…
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In 2002, none other than Michael Jackson came to Exeter City's stadium to deliver a speech to the 7,000 fans in attendance. What followed was a rambling speech about curing AIDS, stopping poverty, and for good measure, ending racism. What made this even stranger was that Exeter City were at the bottom of Division Three at the time. Within weeks of …
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With Taylor Swift in Australia, we look at her impact on the NFL and examine other sport/entertainment relationships, like Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Posh and Becks, and Denis Rodman and Madonna. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today As a member, you’ll get: A weekly bonus podcast Access …
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After a few legal checks, we can now bring you part two of Fine Cotton, and we didn't even have to change it! When we left you, the horse was bright red, the race was imminent and it all looked like this slow-moving disaster was going ahead. Find out what happens next in this extraordinary tale. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of…
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Unfortunately, we can't bring you Fine Cotton Part Two today, we explain why in this pod, but it will be arriving soon. Instead, we present Frank Worthington, one of the wild men of English Football in the 1970s. A friend of George Best, he once famously failed a medical at Liverpool because he went on a bender the week before. What follows is a wi…
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We are back, and with the most requested topic we've ever had. In Australia, the two most famous racehorses are Fine Cotton and Phar Lap but for opposite reasons. When a handful of colourful racing types attempted to swap the poor horse Fine Cotton, for the much faster Dashing Solitaire, it all seemed so easy. What followed was an inept, sometimes …
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Titus sits down with The Ringer’s Editor-at-Large Bryan Curtis to discuss the wonderful world of Texas football. They look at high school football, the rituals and rivalries of college football and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans. Bryan discusses his beloved Texas Longhorns and how millions of dollars are poured into high school teams. …
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Titus sits down with comedians and authors Paul Nardizzi & David Barend who literally wrote the books on how to annoy Jets and Yankees fans. They discuss the Jets disastrous season and why non-Yankees fans hate Yankees fans. We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows in Melbourne in February at the Corner Hotel. You can buy tickets here: Tuesday 20…
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Titus sits down with Devin Gordon, author of So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin' True Story of the New York Mets. They chat about how Mets fans experience more pain than almost any other fans, and how whenever things look good, they go bad in the funniest way possible. We are doing two live Sports Bizarre shows on in Melbourne in February at the Corn…
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This week we look at people creating mayhem just for the joy of creating mayhem. First, we look at snooker legend Jimmy White, particularly when he teams up with fellow madman Alex Higgins. Next, we look at the total mayhem of mob football at the Atherstone Ball game. Lastly, we look at the player who never played, Carlos Kaiser and his brush with …
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This week we look at people who had too much money. Starting with F1 racer James Hunt, and his relationship with Lord Alexander Hesketh, a man who had money, and knew how to have fun with it. Then there’s J. William Oldenburg, who owned the USFL team, the Los Angeles Express, and got into a spending war with Donald Trump. Lastly, we look at James G…
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This week we look back at one of our favourite characters ever. Albert Griffiths, or ‘Young Griffo’ began life in the slums of Sydney, as leader of a local gang. This proved to be the perfect training for boxing, and before he was twenty he was the World Featherweight Champion. Moving to the United States, Young Griffo would go on to be one of the …
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While Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival was in full swing, news emerged of what could be Australia’s biggest Ponzi scheme. High on the list of victims were bookmakers who invested millions with an unassuming suburban lawyer named John Adams. Titus sits down with crime writer Andrew Rule to discuss the emerging story. Tickets to Titus’ five Melbour…
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Titus sits down with author Dan Liebke to discuss his new book, The 100 Funniest Moments in Australian Cricket. They discuss Rob Quiney's resurrection of a dead seagull, Shane Watson's LBW appeals, Dennis Lillee asking the Queen for an autograph and Jeff Thomson's speech at the Allan Border Medal. For tickets to Titus' new live show; Sport: The Una…
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In 2023, we found plenty of athletes who were unlucky in love. In this best of, we look at John Daly's interesting marriages, Jese Rodriguez interesting way of gaining revenge on an ex, and James Hunt's creative end to a marriage. For tickets to Titus' new Show; Sport: The Unauthorised History click here. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a…
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Following the war, Keith Miller dazzled England in the Victory Test and returned to Australia a star. Debuting for Australia, Miller would dazzle crowds around the world, while also clashing with Don Bradman on a regular basis. Miller’s on-field antics were matched by the intense interest in what he did off-field. He was rumoured to have had an aff…
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When it comes to cricketers, there have been many as exciting on and off the pitch as Keith Ross Miller. Miller played VFL, flew fighter planes in the war, and was one of, if not the greatest, all-rounder of all time. Miller combined movie star looks and incredible charm off the field, with a dark side few got to see. If you’d like more Sports Biza…
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In the second part of our Lucky Baldwin series, Lucky had just escaped death after being shot by a jilted lover. He followed that up by being shot by another lover almost immediately, which is careless. Lucky also managed to create a new town, which the Los Angeles Times described as a “gambling hell and booze pleasure park.” If you’d like more Spo…
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The Santa Anita Park is one of the most famous racetracks in America, a regular host of the Breeders' Cup, but its founder is little known. Elias 'Lucky' Baldwin was a self-made millionaire, who left behind him a trail of wives, mistresses and unhappy business partners. In business, he was lucky and shrewd, and his biography starts with the line, '…
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In 1964, one of Australia’s leading javelin throwers, Reg Spiers, was training in England when he failed to make the Australian Olympic team. Things got worse when his wallet was stolen, leaving him completely broke. He was stuck in England with no way to get home. Reg, however, was an out-of-the-box thinker. Perhaps there was a way to get home tha…
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The MacRobertson Air Race got underway in spectacular fashion, with a pilot trying to take off but forgetting to release the brake. Once in the air, things got only more confused, with emergency landings, crashes, and pilots getting arrested by Benito Mussolini’s men. Soon the first planes would arrive in Australia, and the people of Albury would p…
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In 1934, the 100th anniversary of the founding of Melbourne was celebrated by what was at the time, the most dangerous and ambitious race in world history, flying from England to Melbourne. The race would see wooden biplanes go up against the first metal airliners and was funded by an Australian Willy Wonka, Sir Macpherson Robertson, inventor of Fr…
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On October 26, 1863, at the Freemason’s Tavern in Great Queen Street, London, representatives of various football clubs from across England met to try and figure out a universal set of rules for football. This optimistic project fell apart over differences over whether you could run while holding the ball, and if you could kick an opponent in the s…
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In 1823, William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a school match creating the "rugby" style of play. Except he didn’t, and the true story of how rugby emerged involved school uprisings, broken shins, and the invention of an origin story. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre Plus. Click here to join today…
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On the 26th of September 1983, forty years ago, Australia II crossed the line to end the New York Yacht Club's 132-year-long winning streak. To celebrate the anniversary, Mick and Titus sat down with winning skipper John Bertrand to learn more about what it took to win the America’s Cup. If you’d like more Sports Bizarre, become a member of Bizarre…
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In 1983, Alan Bond would go all in for the Cup, bringing together John Bertrand and Ben Lexcen in an all-out assault on the New York Yacht Club. The Australians would bring their winged keel, and perhaps more importantly, their mind tricks, as they fought the Americans in court and out on the water. Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy recount the year th…
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With the British trying and failing for 100 years, the Australians now entered the fray, with Sir Frank Packer launching a challenge. When Sir Frank was asked why he decided to challenge, he replied, "Alcohol and delusions of grandeur." With the passing of Frank Packer, another Australian would pick up the mantle. He was from Western Australia, and…
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By the end of the 19th Century, the America’s Cup had become a plaything for the rich, with men like J.P.Morgan and William K Vanderbilt controlling the New York Yacht Club. Challenging them from Britain was Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, founder of Lipton’s tea, who would challenge five times for the Cup. In one practice, no less than King Edward II…
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With the English accusing the New York Yacht Club of ‘unfair and unsportsmanlike proceedings’ it fell to the Canadians to launch the next challenges. The Canadians were so unprepared that the crew were still nailing down her deck as their ship set sail. The English would pick up the mantle again, with the challenge of William Henn, who raced with f…
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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…
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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 w…
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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 rar…
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