illiteracy in sports..

i recently came to a conclusion in regards to sports....i don't understand how so many people (people of the female variety especially) that know absolutely nothing about any sort of athletic endeavor...I can somewhat understand being disinterested...i am personally not interested in baseball...but at least i know who Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth are...but when it comes to people (like a girl in class last semester) who ask absurd questions like, "isn't Michael Jordan was that one black swimmer guy?", i feel that there is some kind of intervention needed..really, have you been living under a rock for 19 years? you don't have to know about sports to know the greats..or to even appreciate the athletic talent that sports take...but if you don't know the most iconic basketball player possibly ever, i get the feeling that there is obstinate ignorance at work here....that or this girl had legitimately no contact with the outside world for 19 years...i also met a girl that asked me what sport the world series was...you might go ask well go ask someone the function of a steering wheel...i may not know who won the Stanley Cup in 1996, but i at least know that the Stanley Cup goes to the winner of a hockey game..and when i go to a football game with girls, i'd rather not have to explain that "offense" is "the guys with the ball"..and "defense" is "the guys trying to stop them"...there should be a mandatory sports 101 class in high school to save me from questions like these..i feel like that would be more functional than Home Ec.