What is a hat trick?

A hat trick is three goals scored by the same player in one game, used most commonly in hockey and soccer and adopted across other sports for any three-of-something achievement. In hockey the tradition is for fans to throw hats onto the ice when it happens, a practice that delays the game and that arenas tolerate cheerfully. In soccer the scorer traditionally keeps the match ball. A perfect hat trick in soccer means one goal with the left foot, one with the right, and one header, and a natural hat trick means three consecutive goals without any other player scoring in between.

The origin is cricket. In the 1850s, a bowler who took three wickets on three consecutive deliveries was, by custom, presented with a new hat by his club, an expensive and prestigious gift, and the feat took the name of the reward. The phrase migrated to other sports through the late 19th and 20th centuries, loosening from consecutive to merely three in a game. It has since spread well beyond sport into general usage for any three-fold accomplishment, which is why you will hear it in politics and business, usually by people who have no idea they are referencing Victorian cricket haberdashery.