I suspect that in 300 years either our descendents or replacements will be quite different from modern humans, and if they care about “sports” at all, they’ll be the sort that you need to have a cybernetic body and computer brain to play; or, civilization will have at some point collapsed and sports records will be a casualty of that.
Although in the former case, the answer may well be “all of them” since they have their brains hooked up to the World Data Banks and “remember” literally everything.
Sports moments worth remembering will continue to happen over the next 300 years There will be thousands of new, more relevant moments for the average person to remember, that haven’t even happened yet. So much more of history is recorded now, and will be recorded,compared to past eras, that people won’t have the time or use to remember any sports moments from today that don’t have a major impact on the course of world history.
The Kirk Gibson homerun: excerpt from Wikipedia page: The play has since become legendary in the baseball world, and is regarded as one of the greatest home runs of all time.[1] It was voted the “greatest moment in L.A. sports history” in a 1995 poll.[2] Many of the images associated with the home run, particularly Gibson pumping his fist while circling the bases, are often shown in classic highlight reels, usually accompanied by Vin Scully or Jack Buck’s call. Though not related to his World Series home run, Gibson would be named the 1988 NL MVP.
The Flu Game: (why I asked about “single game?” in my first line). Of all of Jordan’s games, I feel this one most epitomizes his career. In 300 years, I’m sure they will study Jordan, in much the same way we still remember Jim Thorpe.
The Immaculate reception: it was not merely a dramatic moment, but the controversy surrounding it led to a variety of changes in rules and thinking about the game, as well as cementing the legend of the 70’s steelers.
David Tyree’s helmet catch: In this superbowl, the giants went in as the 6th seed, and the Patriots were chasing the perfect 19-0 season, having gone undefeated during the regular season and two postseason games. This is also considered one of the biggest upsets in history.
Of all of these, because of Moneymaker’s direct link to major legislation, I think this one has the best chance of surviving and being referred to in law schools well past 300 years from now.
Let’s see. Looking back 300 years takes us to 1712. Can’t say I remember any “sports events” from then, though I have a vague awareness that people used to go ice skating on the Thames during the Little Ice Age. Um - and I can think of one sports event a little further back than that - the joust where Henri II of France was killed. And that’s only because, well, someone moderately historically significant died. I doubt if either of those things are really widely remembered these days, though I’m sure others will have their own similar vague recollections of similar events.
So the only contenders for three hundred years in the future would have to be those with some external significance. I think the closest you could come would probably be the 1936 Munich Olympics, and I doubt even that would have more than about 5% recognition among history buffs by 2400.
Or can we count Franz Ferdinand’s assassination as competitive target shooting?
This is the absolute truth and I say that as a great lover of sport and someone who loves all the history of great sporting events. But they are like gossamer - there to be enjoyed for a while but not really durable.
Check out the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played starring Shia LaBeouf as Francis Ouimet, the “father of amateur golf” in the United States, credited with helping to make golf popular in the US.
I’m sure Ouimet’s name means nothing to most fans, even golf fans, yet his true story is unbelievably inspiring. It contains elements that sound like Disney movie nonsense but turn out to be true. Pretty good movie too directed by Bill Paxton
I think it’s questionable as to whether or not this counts as a sporting event, but if we do count it, I think it’s more likely to be remembered than a lot of the things mentioned in this thread due to it’s significance in the history of computing.
Old events still remembered today:
Old olympics.
Gladiatorial games in Rome.
Classic chess games (Ruy Lopez circa 1500’s, Phillidor circa 1700’s, Paul Morphy circa 1800’s, etc.)
Just being a devil’s advocate here…I dunno. How many early “pioneering” computers can you name? I bet very few people could name any of them that ran on punchcards or had transistor tubes, or the first laptop.
This thread makes an interesting point about the long-term effect of what actually survives history and what doesn’t.
We know that firsts usually do, so how about:
Superbowl 1
First World Series
First MLB game played by Jackie Robinson
etc.
That’s why I specified educated layman rather than man on the street.
Off the top of my head, I can name the Babbage Difference Engine, the Attansoff-Berry Computer, ENIAC & Collossus. And later, the Xerox Alto, the Xerox Star, the PDP-11 & the Apple II.
What’s the first joust? What’s the first game of whatever sport that nobody even plays or remembers anymore that was played 300 years ago? Nobody’s going to remember superbowl 1 because nobody will play American football in 300 years.
Anyway, Eniac and the difference/analytic engines are extremely well known, the latter two being almost 150 years old.
Ok, this is ridiculous. You need to define “sporting events” . Chess is a sport? Gladitorial games were a bloodsport, and there were many gladitorial events. Which particular one do you know of, and why? Same thing with the ancient olympics – we know there were a series of games. Which specific event do you remember? Who won it?
Do you know who the Dodgers were playing in Robinson’s first game, who won, what the score was, how Robinson did
Oh yeah, you need to define “remembered”? Are you talking about records that can be looked up, or something more like “general knowledge among sports fans in a the culture”?
I have no doubt that there will be records that historians will pore through and write dissertations about. If this is what you mean, there will be far more events “remembered” than your lists suggest.
