Re: Serena, I’m not sure her first Grand Slam at a young age really quaifies as I imagine she had a successful junior career before that. And with her consistent and amazing success after, the first win seems to me as just sort of an inevitable stepping stone. She was big news since she sued to play as a pro at a young age. She won doubles titles at majors the year before, and several individual pro singles titles before winning the US Open in 99.
Re: Buster - I guess he enjoyed some big paydays after being in the right place at the right time to beat a horribly out-of-shape Iron Mike. I’m having a hard time figuring out how much his life was changed for the better or worse. He has always stricken me as a rather tragic figure. Of course, the same could be said of most boxers…
For those who are trying to understand the golf references
He shot a 40 on the first 9 holes, which translates to a round of 80. That’d be good for an amateur, but it’s 8 over par, and a horrible score for a pro.
Despite his horrible start, he won by 2 strokes over the runner up. Quite a turnaround!
That should be pretty self explanatory. This was a very tight tournament…anybody could have made a run and won!
Again, pretty easy to understand. The top of the leaderboard dropped like a stone!
The U.S. Open is notoriously hard. The winner is usually at or below par. This round got delayed by a rainstorm.
Years ago, there was a weekly show on ABC, I believe, called “The Wide World of Sports”. In the intro sequence, there was a skier who had a tremendous fall coming down the ramp for his jump. It became famous, and he became famous along with it. From what I read, he did many appearances on prestigious talk and sports shows and earned a living that way.
this is the answer I think, at least from a financial perspective. Beating Tyson allowed Douglas to earn a truly staggering $24M for his first and only title defense.
Matt Flynn was a backup quarterback for the Green Bay Packers; he had been a seventh-round draft pick, and became Aaron Rodgers’ backup. Through his first three seasons, he’d started one game, and thrown 83 passes, most of them in mop-up duty late in games.
In the final game of the 2011 season, against the Lions, the Packers went into the game 14-1, and had nothing to play for (having locked up the #1 playoff seed), so they rested many of their starters, including Rodgers, and gave Flynn the start. Flynn had a game for the ages: 31 out of 41 passing, for 480 yards, and six touchdowns (both of which were team records).
Flynn was a free agent after that season, and based on that performance, he was able to sign a $20 million, three-year contract with Seattle (with $9 million guaranteed), who intended for Flynn to be their starter. It didn’t work out that way, as rookie Russell Wilson beat out Flynn during training camp, and Flynn spent the rest of his career as a backup, including going back to Green Bay for two years, to again back up Rodgers. But, he managed a big payday (and, ultimately, an 8-year career in the NFL) based on one improbable game.
I wonder if Flynn purposefully audibled out of some run plays and changed them to pass plays. With it being a de facto audition for an NFL starting job, this was his once-in-a-lifetime chance to air it all out.
IIRC, Aaron Rodgers was calling the offense that game, and it wasn’t like the Packers were blowing out the Lions: the game ended 45-41, with Stafford going off for 520 yards as well. Just an entire game of fuckit-chuckit.
Indeed; the Lions were leading the game, 34-31, at the end of the third quarter, and the lead changed hands three times during the fourth quarter. The Packers took the final lead on Flynn’s sixth touchdown pass, with just over a minute remaining in the game.
The Spinks brothers were in a much different postion than Buster Douglas. Both were very well known in the boxing world before their championships. (Leon beat Ali, Michael beat Larry Holmes) I knew who they were even though I was just a kid because both won gold medals in the 1976 Olympics. And that was a time that Olympic boxing got a lot of exposure on TV. Now it’s barely shown in the U.S.
I thought it was the reverse. Vinko retired from ski jumping, then got a job in a factory or warehouse, or something, not knowing about the whole “agony of defeat” thing. Then ABC decided to have a big gala celebration for the 25th anniversary of Wide World of Sports, so they tracked Vinko down and flew him to New York City. He got a standing ovation at Radio City Music Hall, Muhammad Ali asked for his autograph, and he was the toast of the town. Then he went home and back to his job.
I did a web search for him a few years ago. He took up painting after he retired. I kinda like his work; might buy one if I got the chance.
“Chapman was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by pitcher Carl Mays and died 12 hours later. He is, as of 2025, the only player to die directly from an injury received during a major league game.” - Ray Chapman - Wikipedia
Peter was an Australian sprinter who went to Mexico in 1968 for the 200m.
He posted a (briefly) Olympic record time in the heats and progressed to the final where the favourites were the USA’s Tommy Smith and John Carlos.
Smith ran a then world record 19.78 to win while Norman tipped Carlos with a national record time of 20.06 which stood until Dec-24.
During the medal ceremony Smith and Carlos gave the Black Power salute while Norman, who was aware of their intended action wore an OPHR [Olympic Project for Human Rights] in support. The action brought the cause to heightened awareness in Australia and caused his achievement to be denied due recognition. Whether it impacted his athletics career is disputed. Though never running as fast in competition, he did represent Australia in the 1970 Commonwealth games but missed the 1972 Olympics although arguably he had met the qualification.
Norman died after a heart attack in 2006. Both Smith and Carlos attended, gave eulogies and were amongst his pallbearers. His funeral on 9 October 2006 was proclaimed as Peter Norman Day by the US Track and Field Federation.
