Records are bound to be broken during Super Bowl XLIX.
And that should come as no surprise. No, it’s not because of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Legion of Boom, but rather because the cities of Seattle and Boston are no strangers to record breaking.
While we eagerly await Sunday’s kickoff to see if history will be made, let’s take a look at some of the record breaking done by both cities -- off the field.
BOSTON
Boston is a city where sports records are broken pretty regularly with such storied franchises like the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox and Patriots. Records extend well beyond the sports arena in this historic American city.
Largest pair of socks
We all learned in the movie Fever Pitch just how obsessive Red Sox fans can be. One man, Michael Roy Layne, took his fandom to the next level when he created a pair of long nylon socks, measuring 45 feet from top to toe and 10 feet in width, and hung them outside City Hall to celebrate the Red Sox pennant victory in 1986. Sadly, the record-breaking socks didn’t bring much luck to the baseball team as we don’t need to remind anyone from Boston how the World Series played out that season.
Least valuable art collection in a public museum
Pic: www.circumnavacation.com
Boston is a city full of cultural sites from the Freedom Trail and Boston Common to Boston Harbor and the Museum of Fine Arts. All are worthy destinations for any tourist. The Museum of Bad Art, however, could maybe be one site to miss. That is unless you want to see the least valuable art collection in a public museum. MOBA houses 573 works that total just $1,197.35, which for you math whizzes at home, averages just $2.09 apiece.
When watching Sunday’s Super Bowl, imagine if the entire field was one large Pinewood Derby Track. Well, tack on 20 more feet and you would have the world’s largest, which was set by the Boston Minuteman Council and the Boy Scouts of America. This 12 lane track was constructed to resemble the cable-stayed Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, a popular Boston landmark that spans the Charles River.
Other Boston records
The Atlas robot by Boston Dynamics (USA) is the most agile humanoid robot, able to run over rocky terrain and, as demonstrated in a video released in October 2013, stay balanced when hit with a 9-kg (20‑lb) medicine ball.
Juan Pedro Carrillo (USA) achieved the most consecutive turns skipping with a rope on a high-wire with 1,323 at the Big Apple Circus Big Top, Bayside Expo Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 26 April 2004.
The largest toast at a single venue consisted of 32,904 participants organized by the Boston Red Sox to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 20 April 2012.
SEATTLE
When people think of Seattle, they probably think of grunge music, Starbucks and the rain. Well, maybe it is time to start associating the city with a few other things like rubber ducks, snowball fights and hot dogs.
Longest line of rubber ducks
Did they expect all of the rain to lead to a flood (or a really big bath time)? Maybe they were hoping to lure Bert and Ernie to move away from Sesame Street to the Pacific Northwest. No, Cozi, a family calendar startup, just wanted to encourage Seattle families to get their ducks in a row during the summer of 2011. And they did just that in Magnuson Park with 17,782 rubber ducks all lined up in a row that stretched one mile in length.
Largest snowball fight
Sure, Sunday’s Super Bowl showdown is going to be a slugfest. But Seattle knows a little something about fights as shown in their 2013 record for the largest snowball fight. With proceeds benefitting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Seattle, 5,834 people turned out to pelt snowballs at each other and earn their place in the record books. Finding more than 5,000 people to show up was the easy part. Finding enough snow for each of them proved to be the real challenge. More than 30 truckloads of snow was delivered to the event!
Most expensive hot dog
There will definitely be plenty of hot dogs consumed in the stands during Sunday’s game. None, however, will come close to the Juuni Ban that was sold at Tokyo Dog in February 2014. No ketchup, mustard or relish was found on this delectably decadent dog. The Juuni Ban was made with smoked cheese bratwurst, butter Teriyaki grilled onions, Maitake mushrooms, black truffles, caviar, Japanese mayonnaise, Wagyu beef and foie gras on a brioche bun. This hot dog will set you back a pretty penny with a price tag of $169, but that is what costs to take a bite out of history.
Other Seattle records
The largest fan dance consisted of 252 participants and was achieved by BurlyCon (USA) in Seattle, Washington, USA, on 2 November 2012.Ed Brassard of Seattle, Washington, USA has a collection of 3,159,119 matchbook covers.
Pico Computing, based in Seattle, USA, build the world’s smallest and cheapest code-breaking supercomputer. Used in the field by military and government agencies, their $400 mini supercomputer uses a revamped version of a difficult-to-program silicon chip that is decades old and yet arrayed in such a way as to make it more powerful and efficient than anything found within much larger and vastly more expensive supercomputers.
