…is on ESPN Classic right now, Foreman-Ali.
Among heavyweights, maybe…but Hagler-Hearns was just plain awesome.
Boxing? That’s hardly a sport.
It’s an art.
After Foreman-Ali, I’d have to take the 1991 World Series, the 1980 Miracle On Ice, and… hmm, can’t think of any non-baseball candidates.
I think the greatest sporting event ever was a bombardment contest I participated in during elementary school. If you never played, bombardment is a game where the class is divided into two teams and we try to eliminate people on the other team by throwing a large rubber ball at them really hard. Well, actually, the big kids do the actual throwing while the rest of us scurry about like frightened rats. Anyway, during this particular bombardment contest, I stood my ground when one of the hardest throwers in the class drew a bead on me – since there were only three people left on my team, there really wasn’t anyone to hide behind – and I caught the red-hot fastball he fired at me.
That eliminated him and enabled all of my fallen comrades to re-enter. I was a hero.
Sadly, that was the last year of bombardment. Despite the fact that there were no reported deaths, the school’s higher-ups decided to ban it. We then began playing vbb, a confusing mixture of volleyball and baseball. It wasn’t the same as taking a large rubber ball to the stomach.
Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux battling it out at the Dijon race track in 1979. Right-click here to download the MPG file. Now THAT’S racing! Complete with fantastic Murray Walker commentary.
There are many other sports events and moments that would qualify, but this fierce battle for second place, even, was the first thing that came to mind.
** Baltimore ** Colts win the Super Bowl in an upset (over Giants, right?) in what has been durn-near-officially-declared “greatest football game of all time”.
The Greatest Sporting Event of All Time was the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinatti Reds. A clash of the Titans.
I know you americans on this board won’t care much for this but I’m gonna talk about football (the real kind - not american football 
).
There are so many great matches out there. Even though I’m irish I still think that the 1966 World Cup Final was the best final ever. Engalnd won 4-2 over West Germany after extra time (‘they think its all over etc…’).
Probably the best football match in recent times (but probably not best sporting moment ever) was the Arsenal vs Manchester United FA cup semi-final replay (the last one ever and what a way to finish it) in 1999. It had everything, goals, a missed penalty in the last minute, a sending off and probably the best goal ever in the world by Ryan Giggs in extra time. Man. Utd. won it (you don’t know how much it pains me to say it - I support Asrenal).
Then there’s Man Utd.'s European Champion’s League victory in the same year. 1-0 down to Bayern Munich in injury time at the end of the match they scored two goals in quick succesion to win their first European cup in 30 years.
As I said, you americans on the board won’t care but please all European football lovers out there, back me up !!!
You got MY backing, blokey. Although I’d add the following match:
Hamburg, 23 June 1988
Half Finals European Championships
The Netherlands vs. Germany
2 - 1
Winning goal scored in the 87th minute, by means of a sliding, by Marco van Basten.
One of the most exciting moments of my life, I’ll tell you that.
ohhhh…I forgot one match.
Holland 2 - 2 Ireland last month - It was great, even more so coz I was at it. It was my first ever Ireland away match and I loved every minute of it.
I’ll shut up about football now.
*mumble mumble stupid foreigners not playing football the real American way *mumble not enough bone-crunching mumble
Where the hell are my fellow Canadians here?
The Canada-Soviet hockey series of 1972! The anniversary of Paul Henderson’s winning goal is tomorrow (September 28.)
I would agree with Pipeliner that the Henderson goal was one of the greatest sporting events ever. Of course one of the best parts is that Al Michaels doesn’t say “Do you believe in miracles? Yes.”
I would also like to nominate the 1989 Grey Cup which the Saskatchewan Roughriders won with a late field goal by Dave Ridgeway. That game had more great moments then the first thirty Super Bores combined.
Keith
Maybe it’s because I wasn’t alive in '72, but I think the 1988 Canada Cup was the best sporting event ever. Gretzky and Lemieux were at the top of their game. We still hated the Soviets (and they were a damn good hockey team, to boot). All three games in the final ended with a 6-5 score. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Blokeyperson
Since this should rightly become a soccer thread as all the greatest sporting moments are contained in that game my I add to your nominations and include the -
Liverpool v Arsenal FA cup final where it finished 4-3 I think, where the lead kept changing until nearly the last kick of the match.
(to the tune of Amazing Grace)
Six-nil, Six- nil, Six-nil, Six-nil.
Six-nil,six-nil, six-nil…
Suck on that Turkey were coming to get ya!
And I’m so not sorry for Man U keep - it up PSV do 'em again.
[Edited by slythe on 09-29-2000 at 08:21 PM]
A hearty second to that motion, Pipeliner!
Gotta add - every time Ken Read and Steve Podborsky burst out of the starting gates. Those were the deffinitive Crazy Canucks!!!
Another Canadian checking in. And I’ll also vote for the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series.
Heck, I can still take you to the exact spot where I was watching the game when Henderson scored. It’s easy to do now; the building has long since been torn down and the land is still vacant.
But what a perfect ending to a great series! Henderson’s goal, with Foster Hewitt calling the play. I’ll never forget that one.
The first and last installments of the Ali-Frazier trilogy are the most brutal and terribly beautiful displays of sport I believe I have ever seen; The first one was almost operatic. There was so much subtext to both fights; Black Pride (Ali) vs. Uncle Tom (Frazier), the butterfly vs. the gorilla, the dancer vs. the bomber. In the first fight, Frazier broke Ali’s jaw and threw a punch in the 15th round that literally lifted Ali off of his feet. Ali would later say that it was the closest he had ever come to dying in a boxing ring. To look at Ali now, I wonder if it was worth it, but those fights were human competition reduced to its essence: me vs. you. Hard to top that, IMHO.
Gotta agree. The 1972 Canada Cup was a defining historical moment, but the 1987 (not 1988) Cup was a much greater sporting moment. It might well have been the greatest hockey that has ever been played.
I’d still take the 1991 World Series over the much-overrated 1975 World Series. The '75 Series has a disadvantage in that the big moment (Fisk’s home run) ending up meaning nothing, since the Red Sox lost the World Series (of course.)
But the great Ali fights - nothing touches them.
I’m predicting Canada will defeat the U.S. Dream Team is this year’s Olympics basketball final, and then that will become the all-time greatest sporting contest.