What game's origins are described in the excerpt at left?
The path to the modern version of this game winds through Canada and Scotland. It is now widely played at U. S. high schools and colleges; there are more NCAA teams playing the women's version than the men's version.*
Hint
The Canada connection explains why this game is known in English by its French name, which (with a space added) is also the name of a Wisconsin city.
* Correction: When first posted, this puzzle said that the women's version was more popular than the men's version. On further research, that isn't true in terms of number of players. Oops!
OK, I know, sports trivia isn't a strong suit for most Proofniks. It isn't a strong suit for me either. But perhaps that won't stop you from telling me what sports these athletes are best known for?
1. Usain Bolt
2. Margaret Court
3. Prince Fielder
4. Tim Duncan
5. Diana Nyad
Bonus Question
What position did Grant Balfour play? He was better at it than you'd think.
Solution
These athletes all have highly appropriate names. Usain Bolt is a sprinter, Margaret Court played tennis, Prince Fielder played baseball, Tim Duncan played basketball (get it, dunkin'?), and Diana Nyad is best known for swimming (a naiad is a water nymph).
Grant Balfour, however, had a rather inauspicious name for a pitcher. On "ball four", the batter earns a walk.
Congratulations—with a trophy for 5/5 + bonus—to yesterday's solvers Leo S., Jacob C., Yapa, Maddy🏆, Peter M.🏆, Newton🏆, Inca🏆, Lemonade, Nicholas, Nico, Yana, Kate, Dr. Yetman, and Mr. Gregg🏆 (who knew most of them without bothering about wordplay). Thanks to everybody who made a guess!
Though he now teaches mathematics, Dr. (né Mr.) Shapiro's first job in a K–12 school was as a lunch monitor in Davis, CA. It was there that he originated the Puzzle of the Day, even rewarding correct answers with tickets in denominations like "15 points" (though without a clear idea of how he'd ultimately redeem these). Dr. Shapiro's favorite puzzle from this pre-professional era was "Tell me the location of the beehive on this campus."
Ten years later, Dr. Shapiro revived Puzzle of the Day at Proof School, writing each day's puzzle on a name tag. After 600 puzzles or so, he was just starting to feel normal about students reading his chest all the time when campus closed and the puzzle, like the rest of our lives, moved online. New puzzles are posted daily on school days.
Want to catch up on old PotDs? There's an archive currently containing puzzles from March to June 2020.