Unpacking the origins of the sacred halftime oranges tradition in sports. Eating oranges at halftime has been a popular and long-standing tradition at junior sports in countries such as Australia , the United Kingdom and the United States . They are also regularly eaten by professional athletes in competitions such as the Australian Football League (AFL or Aussie Rules), as well as the National Basketball Association and National Football League (NFL) in America.
In fact, the NFL’s game operations manual states each home team must provide “three dozen sliced oranges for halftime” for the visiting team, as well as other things like ice, coffee and gum. But why do we do this? And how did it start?.
