May 10, 1970: Bobby Orr’s “flying goal” to win Boston’s first Stanley Cup in some 40 years.
I was at the game - Orr’s left leg was pointing at me as he flew through the air, already celebrating.
In 1982 I was in graduate school at UNC in Chapel Hill. I hosted a viewing party for the NCAA basketball championship at my place about a half mile from downtown. When the final buzzer hit we all ran outside and could hear the roar coming from up the hill. We wound our way into town and all the bars had emptied into the main drag. It was wall to wall people. There were naked people up in trees and people jumping up and down on the roofs of cars foolishly parked on the street. The next day classes were canceled as everyone had been up all night and were hungover. Michael Jordan became a god that night.
There are a few such events, but one that stands out occurred on the night of December 29, 1978. I was home in my living room watching the Gator Bowl on TV. Late in the game a Clemson player intercepted an Ohio State pass and came off the field on the OSU sideline starting to celebrate, when Woody Hayes punched him. I remember thinking WTF? and wondering why the announcer (Keith Jackson) was so slow to comment on what had happened.
I can remember many more examples where I was in whatever room my TV was in at that time, but that seems boring.
I lived in Miami when the Dolphins won the Super Bowl and went undefeated for the season. I think they still hold the record.
I can still sing the song that was being played non-stop after the win and again on the day the team came home to Miami. I was granted permission (I was a teen still) to go downtown to see the plane land. It was so much fun and it lifted my spirits in so many ways.
There was a ton of racial tension in the city back then, but not that night and it was magical.
I remember where I was for many great moments in sports history, including Kirk Gibson’s home run in 1988, the Giants blowing the 2002 World Series, and the other Giants saving the world from an undefeated Tom Brady season. I was sitting on my couch drinking beer.
My best story would be when the Cubs won the pennant. When they were leading the Dodgers in the 4th or 5th inning, I decided I needed to get on the train to Wrigleyville and join in the mayhem. All the streets for blocks around were full of drunken revelers. Some drunk guy decided I looked exactly like Joe Maddon (I don’t, really) and insisted that all his friends take selfies with me.
The 1982 Cal-Stanford football game that ended with the five-lateral kickoff return through the Stanford band. I had a seat on the 50-yard line, 69 rows up. The Cal student section was general admission, so I got there three hours early (to prevent what had happened to me two years earlier, when I got there about an hour before the scheduled start and the section was already pretty much full).
2017 Peachtree Road Race. This skinny 42 year-old Kenyan named Bernard Lagat came in fifth, overall, and first in the master’s division. I was a volunteer at the finish line, and I watched him come across. But where the other elite athletes headed down to their hospitality tent for drug tests and rubdowns, he ran down the banks of volunteers handing out water and bananas, stopped, and thanked each one for coming out. He also mentioned the volunteers and Atlanta Track Club staff in his award ceremony speech, and took selfies with everyone who asked (including me).
Not a huge sporting achievement - that would be next year, when he won the PRR outright - but it was an Olympian display of graciousness, humility, and class that I’ve never forgotten. Made me a fan ever since.
I picked the 49ers as a kid in Oregon, so one good thing about having to move to the San Francisco Bay Area as a teen was being close to my team. Unfortunately, the day of our long drive south was January 29th, 1995 - the day Steve, Jerry, Deion and the rest faced the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.
So my enduring memory of the last 49ers championship is listening to it on whatever radio stations we could tune into. We were in a two- car caravan on I-5 southbound between Eugene and Sacramento. The first TD, that came on the first play, resulted in arms waving out the windows and horn honking.
I still haven’t watched the game beyond a few highlights. We even had a VHS recording from my grandfather.
I remember exactly where I was when Nolan Ryan pitched his 7th no-hitter against the Blue Jays. I forever will remember that night, May 1, 1991.
My friend Scott invited me to his place. After a while, he said let’s go somewhere, meet some girls. So I ask where he has in mind and he wanted to go to a strip club. Not being that type, I said no but he insisted. We went and there were monitors showing the game. Being a fan, I check the score. Must have been the 7th or even 8th when I noticed the Jays don’t have a hit. So I peak more often what’s going on but basically have my eyes more on the game than the naked women on stage. That was the 3rd and last time I was at a strip club, strangely each time brought there by army buddies. The first time I had just turned 19 and memories of that day resurface anytime I hear “Betty Davis Eyes” as that was the song the young lady danced to as she took off the last bit of clothing.
Three immediately come to mind:
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Detroit Pistons winning their second-straight championship in 1990, against the Portland Trailblazers. The championship game was in Portland, so my dad and I watched it at the Palace on Palace-Vision. It was the last day of my freshman year of high school. The Pistons were down with about 5 minutes to go, so my dad suggested we head out to beat the traffic. I said, “Nope, we’re staying.” With 0:00.7 left on the clock, Vinnie Johnson hit the winning basket. The place went nuts!
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September 10, 2011. The first game under the lights at Michigan Stadium. Michigan vs. Notre Dame. Greatest ending to a football game I’ve ever seen. The see-saw lead changes in the final minute or so were amazing. Michigan was down 24-7 late in the third. They came back to 24-21. With 1:22 left, Michigan goes ahead 28-24. The Irish then march back down 61 yards to score again, 31-28. Michigan has 30 seconds to go 80 yards, they get down to within field goal range. With 8 seconds on the clock, the could’ve kicked a field goal to tie, but went for the touchdown, which they got, to ultimately win the game, 35-31. I remember the date because it was my brother-in-law’s wedding day. Everyone else went to bed because they’d been drinking for hours. I was the only one up at my in-laws’ house, so I had to watch this incredible ending alone, in silence, lest I wake anyone up.
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Armando Galaraga’s perfect game that wasn’t. I was watching from a hotel room (don’t remember the city, it was probably somewhere in Ohio since I was able to watch it on TV; don’t think it was a national game). Man, I just watched that again on YouTube, and it makes me sick to my stomach to watch almost 13 years later. If I recall correctly, Ken Griffey Jr announced his retirement that day, only to have his big news overshadowed by Jim Joyce’s blown call.
October 17, 1979, the seventh game of the World Series. I was in my first semester of college and we had to borrow someone’s 12 inch black and white TV to watch it in my room. I was a huge fan of the Orioles in that era, and was quite bummed out by the result (spoiler alert: Pirates won)
August 15, 2012 Felix Hernandez’s perfect game. It was a day game, I left work early and was driving home listing to it. I pulled into my driveway in the 9th inning and listened to the last outs on the radio.
I have a friend who was at the very first Mariners game in the Kingdome, so I asked him if he had tickets to the last one, and he said “yeah, I better do that” (which he did).
Wow, that was something!
I remember watching the US hockey team beat the Soviets.
I was at that game. At work the day before a co-worker offered to sell me 2 tickets to the game, he didn’t know it was a day game when he bought the tickets. I bought them ($10 each) and I took my then girlfriend (now wife) to the game. We had front row seats in the 200 level above the Mariner’s dugout.
Another happened on February 18, 1990. I woke up that morning anticipating watching the Daytona 500 on TV. I tuned in to the Speed Network about an hour before the start of the race to watch the prerace activities. At 10am local time, I went over to my local CBS station to watch the race. Instead there was a Seattle Super Sonics vs Charlotte Hornets basketball game. I thought what the hell. I called the station a couple time and got nothing but a busy signal. About 10:15 a message scrolled across the bottom of the screen, "The Daytona 500 will not be shown today, please enjoy the Seattle Super Sonics basketball game. I called a cousin of mine, he was heading to Everett to listen to the race on the radio, a small station up there was broadcasting the race. I immediately headed to Everett, the race came in about Lynnwood so I pulled off the freeway and stopped at a Burger King. I sat in the parking lot for the next hour or so and listened to the race. The winner of the race was Derrike Cope, a local driver from Spanaway. I was thinking the people that run the local CBS station must feel like fools for not showing the race. The station showed a tape of the last half of the race that afternoon. At the start of the 5pm newscast, an executive from the KIRO tv apologized for not showing the NASCAR race but said they had a contract with the Sonics to show the game. He promised that would never happen again.
One more I remember: June 12, 2007. I was driving to Michigan (where I was moving) from Chicago (where I was living and working). My wedding was the upcoming weekend. I was listening to the Tigers’ game on the car radio. Verlander was throwing a no-hitter. I called my then-fiancée to turn the TV on and watch the game because something special was happening. She said she couldn’t because she was too busy doing wedding prep with her mother. It was annoying too, because I kept having to find a new station to listen to as I kept driving east.
My favorite seats!
My memory of that is very similar.
I remember just getting to our shore house for vacation when we heard the news that Thurman Munson was killed.
I remember watching the Munich Olympics and seeing the terrorists in their masks. I was too young to understand anything.
A friend of mine was in that Olympics (took 3rd in the 100 meter butterfly.) Luckily he had left Germany before everything went to shit.
I don’t think we need spoiler alerts for the results of a ballgame from 44 years ago 