Answer Requires a Leap of Faith

The dunk is basketball’s signature play. But where did it come from, and when?

John Isaacs, who played for the New York Rens, an all-black barnstorming team during the 1930s, told the New York Times, “We could all jump high enough. But we never envisioned doing anything like dunking the ball.”

Isaacs, 88, said the first person he ever heard of dunking was Jackie Robinson, who was only 5 feet 11. But he was the 1940 NCAA broad jump champion at UCLA, winning with a mark of 24 feet 10 1/4 inches.

“Guys would talk and people said that out in California, Jackie was the first one to elevate and go over the rim,” Isaacs said.

Trivia time: The Calgary Flames relocated from what U.S. city and in what year?

Colorful story: Marilyn Bailey of Westlake Village, along with her husband, owned a sporting goods store in Westchester in the late 1960s that supplied items to the Lakers.

In an e-mail to Laker memorabilia collector David Kohler, she said she was asked to dye the Lakers’ wristbands gold. One day she got bold and threw in an athletic supporter as well.

“Wilt Chamberlain happened to be in the office the day I took an order to the Forum and I told him he might enjoy the item on top,” Bailey said. “He was wearing the gold jock strap when he suffered a knee injury and had to go the hospital.”

Bailey says she has always wondered how the nurses reacted to seeing that.

It was a stretch: The lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” were written by Broadway headliner Jack Norworth in 1908.

Norworth said in an interview in 1958 that he wrote the song in 30 minutes on an old envelope while riding the subway. He was inspired after seeing a subway ad that read, “Baseball Today -- Giants at the Polo Grounds.”

According to Phil Elderkin of the Christian Science Monitor, Norworth was no baseball expert.

“He knew as much about balls and strikes at the time as a rookie kitchen boy knows about crepes suzette,” Elderkin wrote.

No household name: Boston Red Sox Manager Terry Francona told the Hartford Courant about this exchange with a fan at a Boston clothing store:

“He says, ‘You used to manage the Phillies and now you’re with the Red Sox,’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’

“The guy says, ‘Gene. Gene Mauch.’ He was dead serious.”

Hair apparent: The Red Sox’s Johnny Damon had his beard shaved off, but the mop of hair remains. Says Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: “Steroids. They need to test Damon for Rogaine.”

Say Hay Fever Kid: From Randy Hill of foxsports.com: “A double sneeze [his own] has put Cub slugger Sammy Sosa on the DL. According to witnesses, Sosa became vulnerable after falling behind in the pollen count.”

Trivia answer: Atlanta, in 1980.

And finally: Bill Walton, asked by CBS’ Craig Kilborn about reports that Britney Spears had a crush on his son Luke, said, “Isn’t she married?”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.