That was Oklahoma State that blew out Wyoming in 1988. That year, the Sooners lost to Clemson in the Citrus Bowl<sniff>.
1981 Game Three Dodgers/Yankees World Series. My brother’s father-in-law worked for the Dodgers and, get this, got us free tickets the day of the game. The Yanks had taken the first two games and things looked dark for the hometown nine. But with Valenzuela on the mound and the dream infield (Lopes, Garvey, Cey, Russell) backing him up they got the job done in magnificent fashion. The game turned out to be the turning point of the series as the Dodgers did not lose another, taking the series 4-2.
I had always thought the phrase “the atmosphere was electric” was hyperbole, but now know better. The air fairly crackled for the four hours we were there. Unforgettable.
In terms of being into it and in the moment, it would have to be the 1993 Rose Bowl. It was my first year in graduate school at Michigan, there with all my good friends, living it up.
In terms of energy (and in the end, my terror of the crowd) it would have to be a Lehigh-Lafayette football game in the fall of '89 or '90 (can’t remember which). Oh my. That’s quite a rivalry, and the crowd got very unruly afterwards.
In terms of sheer fun? Without a doubt, the Indy 500. I think it was in 1994. It was just a damned good time, the whole event and the weekend that surrounded it.
:::Cyberhwk doesn’t live near a major sports team:::
Kip Bouknight and Pat Lynch pitch a perfect game for the Tri-City Dust Devils (the team I work for.) [sub]A-Short Season affilate of the Colorado Rockies.[/sub]
That and I saw Randy Johnson K 18 once.
1975 World Series, Cincinatti at Boston: Game 6
Possibly the best baseball game ever.
1988 World Series, Oakland at Los Angeles: Game 1
Kirk Gibson’s 9th inning ‘hobble-off’ homer to win it.
Well I guess the one for me would only be minor league compared to what has been mentioned. But back in … 92 or 93 we (U. of Arizona) were playing Washington in football and they were ranked number 1 and we were something like 16. My friends and I had front row seats on like the 30 yard line. And we won! Well there was like 30 seconds left, I think they had 1 play but couldn’t win. Everybody stood up and pressed us up against the fence in their excitement. Finally I jumped the fence to keep from getting crushed when a lot of other people started doing it too. We all rushed the field and tore down the goalposts. Good times.
I originally bought tickets real early to see Milw-KC so I could see Bo Jackson play baseball. He was out, but it was game #37 of Paul Molitor’s 39 game hitting streak. Everytime he came up cameras were going off, it was so cool.
I did see Bo take batting practice, and his legs were like tree trunks, so freakin’ strong!
Also the first RoseBowl for the Wisconsin Badgers in 30 some years in 1993. We brought about 70,000 fans there and it was right there in UCLA’s back yard, the stadium was practically all red. Oh yea, Wisconsin won.
I am NOT a sports watcher however, a couple do come to mind.
Last year, went to the UofM-MSU hockey game held at Joe Louis Arena. What a blast. Game ended up tied which was probably a good thing, what with the rivalry those two schools have.
Got a hotel room and watched the 1987 Ohio State v UofM football game. Good friend was a rabid OSU fan and I was a Spartan (MSU) but was rooting for UofM since any team from Michigan is better than a team not from Michigan. Anyway, he kept bragging how OSU was going to smear UofM. Yup, UofM won. Go Blue!