That was the weekly question on an SF Chron's website. Most of the respondents had gory football or baseball stories, of course, but one of us got in!
<<* I ran cross-country in high school. I wasn't really very good at it, but chicks dig the athletes. After one meet I threw up so hard I broke a rib. Chicks don't dig heaving. It was my last meet. -- Bill M.>>
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What's The Worst Sports Injury You've Ever Had?
31 posts
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What's The Worst Sports Injury You've Ever Had?
Tackled a guy in rugby and we went flying into the bare rugby poles, with me dislocating my shoulder and spending 2 months in a sling. Funny thing, 2 weeks out of the sling I threwa shot PB and broke 50 feet for the first time.
physical- 10 years old, wrestling on lawn for fun. inside knee pushed beyond its range until ligament ripped in half. ouch!
emotional- besides first girlfriend. i got injured last nite while i was sleeping. i stretched out like in full stride and felt my hamstring go. i got up to make coffee and it hurts to walk. i just realized at 52 years old i am so fragile that im getting injured sleeping. very depressing. 
Most unnerving occurred just past my 40th birthday. While training for the long jump, I redefined the meaning of "bad landing". I stuck the landing more like a gymnast than a jumper and looked down to see my right knee bending from right to left. Tore two ligaments completely (in fact I looked down and watched as my lateral collateral ligament wiggled down my shin like a worm beneath the skin), tore the meniscus, and stretched out the peroneal nerve so far that I ended up with drop foot.
Most unusual was when I damaged my left rotator cuff during my sleep. Took 4 months before the pain went away. 
Plantar Fasciitis---still bothers me after 30 years, stopped running for the most part, except last year when a buddy challenged me to get into shape to finish Army 10 Miler. Swim and bike now.
Dude, at least I got the bad hammy the old fashioned way. Now you've got me worrying about sleeping.
as we age we eventually dislocate our shoulders anwsering the phone. but its cool because now that im injured and cant run i am having a "PITY PARTY" and everyone is invited! there will be plenty of pizza and beer. if im gonna be miserable i might as well be happy.  
Playing volleball, came down on the outside of my foot and my ankle went straight to the ground. Horrible sprain. It looked like somebody had shoved a baseball under my skin. On crutches for two weeks, and about five years later, the ankle is still fairly weak.
As for that sleeping rotator cuff injury, I'm currently suffering the same problem. My doc gave me steroids which had me feeling fine for about a week, but it started hurting again this morning. Growing old sucks.
Playing goalie in a soccer game, I dove to grab the ball, just as a guy came on to kick it - he kicked my jaw instead, fracturing it. Had my mouth wired shut for a month and could only drink through a straw. Went from 165 to 148 just like that, but don't recommend it as a diet.
This sleeping business is dangerous stuff. I slightly mal-adjusted one of those vertebra thingees in my back about five years back while sleeping on my stomach. After suffering for about six months I was finally convinced that chiropractic care would fix this. Got hooked up with a herk-and-jerk bone cruncher at first – hated that. Then I found a woman who massages my back for about 10 minutes, and then uses some tapper tool to tap the offending vert back into place. It took about a year (and about eight treatments) for it to stabilize. Haven’t had a problem for about three years now. (And I don’t sleep on my stomach anymore.)
Funny thing is, my track career was blissfully injury-free, other than a mildly pulled hamstring in college that cleared up within a week. Since then, I've fallen to pieces: weird toe problems that pretty much ended my post-college running, a blown-out hip and troublesome hamstring (possibly related to the toe), the aforementioned weak ankle, a bad knee, a bulging disc in my neck, and now a bad shoulder. And I'm only 37. And then I see guys like Jerry Rice still playing in the NFL and wonder if I'm just being a wuss.
Not worst, but most painful was when I sprained my ankle while doing weights. It was at the New River Stadium in Haringay in 1979. Mike Mcfarlane and I were doing cleans and snatchs on a 2" raised platform. After completing a lift I trod on the edge of the platform and completely turned my ankle over. I'd had loads of sprained ankles before but this time a lump the size of an egg came up literally within 5 seconds. Hurt a lot but I'd had that before. Went straight to a new physio who taped my ankle with the foot at 90 degrees - when I say taped I mean taped; totally imoveable. I lived alone at the time, hobbled home and then experienced unbelievable pain as the swelling continued under the tape. Ended up almost in tears before calling my Dad convinced I'd broken the ankle.
Weirdest I've seen was again during a weight session. I was with a college LJ-er and we were doing step ups with about 250lbs. He stepped up but didn't have his foot fully on the bench and it tipped back. He ended up bent over double and the weight came flying over his head; I was in front of him so couldn't assist but got covered by a stream of blood as the bar came over his head. He stood up, in shock, and I went through his scalp looking for what we assumed was a cut on his head - then we noticed - the bar had caught his fingernail, ripped it off with most of the flesh off the tip of his finger, the bone was protruding. I found the end of of his finger on the floor, put it on a windowsill before finding some ice to put it in. (By coincidence I also have a rotator cuff injury, again caused in the weight room. Was doing lat pulldowns about 8 years ago, decided to try doing them to my chest, instead of neck - for the first time ever - and tore my RC on the first attempt. Slept on it too long last night; Lani tried to have a cuddle before getting this a.m. and I had to decline as it hurt too much, said words to the effect, " F*** I'm getting old, even sleeping hurts"...
Never had any injuries of any consequence running or HJ'ing.
At age 13, broke my right arm playing sandlot football, both radius and ulna, clean through. Healed up fine after 13 weeks in a cast.
Like others, my track career was remarkably injury-free (maybe I didn't try hard enough!). The worst was a stress fracture in my third metatarsal. This one put me out for my freshman year. But on the upside, I had a bone scan, and ended up missing my physics lab that week, because we were studying radioactivity and I was more radioactive than the lab material!
Another year, we were doing some odd exercise jumping over medicine balls. Didn't clear the ball on one occasion, and my foot dropped right on top of the ball, which rolled sideways and snapped my ankle with it. Not a break, but a very painful sprain. The worst part was that the student trainer who wrapped it afterward wound the gauze too tight. I woke up in the middle of the night in extreme pain, due to my foot lacking blood. Probably would have had to amputate if I didn't cut the wrap off. During relay practice once, someone threw the baton and it hit me on the head with a hollow "klink!" -- which I assume came from the baton. This wasn't really an injury, just amusing. 
I have the best sports injury story of all time.
I want my TAFNY upfront, though.
OK, I set one aside with your name on it (well, your initials - the TAFNY ain't THAT big), so this had better be good!
not that big!?!! only big enough for initials? what did you do, spray paint a thimble gold and call it a award? this is an outrage!
I knew that this topic had great potential from the very beginning. Given the demographics of most posters here, and the fact that we have quite a bit of experience athletically, injuries are very common. And colorful ones, too! So far, my favorites have been the sleeping related ones.
I did once suffer a very painful (and distracting) calf cramp while spending some "quality time" with my girlfriend in the front seat of a Ford Pinto. My reaction was to groan loudly and convulse. Bless her heart, she thought she had really put on a show..... Never had the heart to tell her the truth.
Give me until Monday, tafnut. It needs to be re-typed and I'm going out of town for the next few days. I'll probably have to throw in some big Latin words to impress all the old fogies who post on here.
Not the worst sports injury story. The best sports injury story.
i cant wait till monday, ya big tease!!
Finger salute
While wearing the tools of ignorance as a preteen I shattered the radial side of the proximal interphalangeal joint of my right middle finger requiring a cast/splint thingy. Thought it was cool to raise my hand in class with the FU finger...........did not heal and had to have it reset and resplinted for an other month. Then osteomyelitis set in so I spend the better part of my 11th year with my finger sticking out. From cool to cruel.
If you ran at 168 ST Armory and went down you got up with splinters,once so bad I had to visit the hospital across the street to have them removed by a not so cute nurse with a mustache and dog breath...........insult to injury
in highschool we ran a cross country meet at another school and the coach of that school thought it would be a good idea to have hurdles in the race. these hurdles had curved bottom supports so if they were knocked down they would snap back up. a runner in front of me knocked the hurdle down. so im running towards a hurdle which is down and how do you jump over something that doesnt exist. well you cant and i didnt. as soon as i got over the fallen hurdle it popped up. i hit it with my shin and fell to the ground. i popped up and finished the race with blood running down my leg. made me look tough.
Re: Finger salute
You lost me at 'thingy' 
my only track related injruy occured about a year ago,while at work.In another life I hurdled and sprinted a bit. of course, i did so collegiately many moons ago(frosh in 83\84), many pounds ago too.One of my co-workers had been runnin his mouth about his superior conditioning and strength,so I raced him.I tried to hit those jets about four strides into the race ,and at that time I noticed that I was 39ys old.Pulled my ham(hurt too).Really wounded my pride,(i'd have destroyed his butt in my competitive days)I did beat him doing push-ups and dips! I really wanted the race though.That was my first,and only ,ham string pull.Needless to say,I won't be racing(outta shape) any time soon!
Re: What's The Worst Sports Injury You've Ever Had?
Where do i start, let's see. Ran sophomore (1999) with an abdominal strain, coaches and trainers kept telling me I was out of shape It hurt when I walk, and I lived upstairs.
2001 Pulled my hamstring in Big 12 indoor 200m, fell down a flight of stairs same night because good leg cramped up and I couldn't support myself. Teammates stepped away as i fell and laughed as I continued down the steps, Then to top it off I had to walk down an icy street bakc to hotel. I think they had side bets if i was going to fall again.
In HS and college, aside from the occasional "charley horse" or heel bruise, I never had a serious running related injury. I did snap the fifth metatarsal in my left (non-take off foot) in a HS meet but they just taped it and sent me out to run the mile relay. Forty years later, I stepped on a dirt clod while running and snapped the same bone in my right foot. Again, the doc taped it and subsequently I was able to jump from that foot with no problem, except I had lost a couple of meters distance in the intervening years.
It didn't seem so bad at the time but the worst ( read disastrous) sports injury I experienced was my inagural attemp to water ski. I had some modest success as a sprinter/jumper in masters track and in July 1981, as I approached my 50th birthday, I was probably in the best condition of my life. I had my unannounced sights set on the masters age group 400 meter record, maybe even break 50. Two weeks prior, my 25 year old son paced me in a 51 flat match race staged by our local running club. I figured adrenalin to take care of that last second when the time came in August. I fell a couple of times getting up to ski. Nothing hurt but two days later, I could not straighten my left leg if it was bent or bend it if was straight without pain. It didn't get better and in Feb 82 the docs prescribed arthoscopic menistectomy (sp?). I understand technique has improved but in those days they just cut it all oul. After painful rehab, in Oct 82 I ran a 10:46 two mile (not my event) at age 50 on about two months training. I continued to run masters track with diminished success for several years until I hyper-extended the knee long jumping at national masters.. after which the knee was diagnosed arthritic.. I continued masters competition for another ten years but eventually bone on bone reduced me from runner to jogger to walker to biker. I have not been water skiing since.
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