(I did indeed google this first, and did NOT get an answer, so it’s no, Google was NOT my friend this time! )
Okay, first for those not-familiar with sports, a hat trick is when a particular player (usually hockey or soccer) gets three goals in a single game. (There are a few theories as to the origin of the term, I’d rather not get into them in this thread, okay?)
Now, when this happens in hockey, fans throw their hats out onto the ice. And I was wondering if soccer fans throw their hats when a player scores a hat trick.
(As for what happens to said hats, it depends on the franchise. Some throw them out, some donate them to charity, some put them on display, etc.)
The usage orginated in cricket, according to the OED. A bowler who took three wickets with successive balls was considered to be entitled to be presented by his club with “a new hat or equivalent”. From cricket it spread to other sports. I’n not aware of any tradition of soccer fans throwing their hats when someone scores a hat-trick. Most people attending a soccer game are not wearing hats, nowadays and, given the outrageous prices charged for team merchandise, those who are wearing hats would probably be reluctant to through them away. Plus, throwing anything onto the field of play is likely to get you a stadium ban.
Whether the hat presented for a hat trick is connected with the caps presented to and worn by players selected for representative teams, I can’t say.
I don’t believe it’s even possible for an entire team to score 3 goals in one game in a soccer (football) match, let alone one player. I’m being snarky, of course, and I don’t know how to Google it, but there’s probably been only like 6 soccer players in the history of the world who have scored three goals in one professional game.
In sports, a hat trick was originally a term in cricket, referring to the feat of a bowler taking wickets off three consecutive balls. The earliest quote in this sense in OED is from 1882, and OED gives the origin of the term as the bowler being given a new hat by his club.
And the strict definition of “hat trick” in cricket allows for the possibility of a bowler taking one in which none of the batsmen involved is out for 0 - or one which features the same batsman twice.
a) With two batsmen already in and with runs to their name, the bowler dismisses one who is out “caught”, and the catch is completed only after the two batsmen have started to run and have “crossed”. The run doesn’t stand, but the not-out batsmen continues to the wicket he was running to. The bowler then dismisses him next ball, which is the last of the over. He then takes a wicket with the first ball of his next over, the batsman having scored in the interim. It’s three wickets in three consecutive balls from the bowler’s perspective, which meets the accepted definition.
b) The bowler takes the last wicket of one innings, and the same batsman is batting again when the bowler next comes on to bowl in the next innings.
Indeed, and given it’s possible to spread a hattrick over more than one game, it’s possible to contrive situations where a hattrick can involve getting the same batsman out three times.
Given that the headgear in question would almost certainly be lost, did anyone ever, outside of movies, actually throw their hat in the air at a sports match?
I don’t have the book to hand, but Amol Rajan’s Twirlymen, (which is a history of spin bowling which I would thoroughly recommend to anybody interested in cricket ) includes the source of the phrase.
Soccer fields are a lot bigger than hockey rings, most of the people in attendance would just be throwing their hats at the people a few rows in front of them.
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