All-Time Greatest Games - Any Spectator Sport (1 Viewer)

[Carabimero]

I've been watching TCU Football games for more than thirty years. I have seen more than 300 games. Last night's bowl game against the Oregon Ducks has to rank in my top five, if not my top three. There was the Frog's Rose Bowl Win in 2010, their Peach Bowl blow out last year, The Sun Bowl in 1998, beating Utah in 2009, but beating the Ducks last night after trailing 31-0 has to be the most satisfying, given everything that happened off the field (and on the field in the first half: we block a punt on their end of the field and they get a freak bounce and a first down, and on and on).


We lost our starting QB and then so did the Ducks. But if TCU had lost that game, everyone would have been talking about how one player let the whole team down, the whole city, and all the TCU fans down. But now we're all talking about what a great team victory it was. I can't remember any feeling quite like it.


I think it has to rank as my #2 victory all-time behind the Rose Bowl victory (I wasn't alive when they won the National Championship).


What are some particular games, any sport, that you remember fondly, and why do they mean so much to you? It could be a Super Bowl, a game you played in as a youth, or a game your kid played in last week....

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Just including events that I've attended in person. . .

Wide Right II at the old Orange Bowl in '92. A sea of humanity, strangers hugging, that pointless joy that only nutty college kids can experience.

Then there was MSU taking down top-ranked Michigan at Michigan in '89. Been an MSU fan ever since.

I've been making a conscious effort to not pay attention to college football anymore, though. Too time-consuming. I just follow the U and that's it.

But best of all was the time my son scored six points in the final minute of a playoff basketball game to win 21-20. (Note that for third-graders, that was essentially Reggie Miller Time.) I felt bad for the other team, but it was cool to see the OTHER kids' parents all rushing onto the court to hug MY kid.

 

[bmasters9]

One I remember very well happened when I was 3, and it was the great Hail Flutie game (B.C./Miami) where Doug Flutie of B.C. threw that big TD pass on the last play to beat Miami.


Here's video of the last drive from the CBS broadcast of that game on 11/23/84 (Brent Musburger, Ara Parseghian and Pat Haden called it).

 

[Kevin Hewell]

The "Sid Bream Slide" from 1992

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The most memorable event for me was the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's win over the USSR at Lake Placid in 1980. A truly shocking upset, and I still get choked up whenever I watch a replay of the game.


While I remember Flutie's pass against Miami that was mentioned above, a bigger one that I watched, with more meaning to me since I was a Steelers fan even then, was the Immaculate Reception by Franco Harris to beat the Raiders.


For games I have actually attended, I was sitting in the center field bleachers at the old Tiger Stadium when Kirk Gibson hit a home run over the right field roof. It was something to see a ball hit that far -- it just sailed past us, when you were used to everything falling in front of you.


I also witnessed an amazing display of goaltending at the major junior hockey level a few years ago. Scott Wedgewood of the Plymouth Whalers (Ontario Hockey League) stopped 71 shots in a playoff game against a powerhouse Windsor Spitfires team that went on to win back-to-back Memorial Cups. Almost the entire game was played in the Plymouth end, and Wedgewood came within about 30 seconds of winning the game singlehandedly until the Spits tied the game and then won in overtime. It was the final game of the series, and the entire crowd (including the Windsor fans) stuck around for the three stars announcement just to give him a standing ovation.

 

[Tony Bensley]

For me, it was Joe Carter's Walk Off Home Run in the 1993 World Series, that won it for the Toronto Blue Jays:





Though it wasn't what I'd heard at the time, the late Tom Cheek's "Touch 'em all Joe" call is what resonates!


CHEERS!

 

[Carabimero]

I had just moved from Texas to Los Angeles at the beginning of 1988 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. I was a lifelong Texas Rangers fan but back then you couldn't follow out-of-state games like today, so I had no way to keep up with the Rangers anymore except the newspaper. When Gibby hit that home run in Game 1 of the '88 series off Eckersley, Vin Scully said, "The impossible has happened!"


He was right. It had been building all season with their improbable team, then seeing them crush the mighty A's, manufacturing runs with "small ball," I was a Dodgers fan.

 

[bmasters9]

I had just moved from Texas to Los Angeles at the beginning of 1988 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. I was a lifelong Texas Rangers fan but back then you couldn't follow out-of-state games like today, so I had no way to keep up with the rangers anymore except the newspaper. When Gibby hit that home run in Game 1 of the '88 series off Eckersley, "Vin Scully said, "The impossible has happened!"


He was right. It had been building all season with their improbable team, then seeing them crush the mighty A's, I was a Dodgers fan.

Quite so! That was a big homer, and for good reason one of the great moments in MLB history. Also, after Kirk hit that homer, Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity, allowing NBC viewers to take in the scene as if they were right there at Dodger Stadium, and to celebrate along with the fans. It's something that has been lost to today's practice of talking over the big moments.

 

[Carabimero]

Quite so! That was a big homer, and for good reason one of the great moments in MLB history. Also, after Kirk hit that homer, Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity, allowing NBC viewers to take in the scene as if they were right there at Dodger Stadium, and to celebrate along with the fans. It's something that has been lost to today's practice of talking over the big moments.

I remember Pat Summerall calling NFL games. I always thought he was among the best. Brevity made him great: "Aikman. Irvin. Touchdown."


I agree, most of the time, the action speaks for itself.

 

[bmasters9]

Dick Stockton (then of NBC) calling Carlton Fisk's classic sixth-game winning homer for Boston (bottom of the 12th) in the 1975 World Series against Cincinnati

 

[Carabimero]

I love great MOMENTS in sports, but would love to hear what some of you think are great GAMES; that is, a game not defined by one moment but the totality of the game. For example, despite my Cowboys losing, Super Bowl 10 was a great GAME because it lived up to the hype. They lost once more in Super Bowl 13 but again, it was a great game and, to this day, many believe it is still the greatest Super Bowl.


I remember there for a while, whoever won the NFC would win the Super Bowl, but in recent years, the Super Bowls have mostly been very good, if not great, games.

 

[Dheiner]

Ice Bowl.


duh.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

For me, it was Joe Carter's Walk Off Home Run in the 1993 World Series, that won it for the Toronto Blue Jays:





Though it wasn't what I'd heard at the time, the late Tom Cheek's "Touch 'em all Joe" call is what resonates!


CHEERS!

GRRR!

 

[bmasters9]

For me, it was Joe Carter's Walk Off Home Run in the 1993 World Series, that won it for the Toronto Blue Jays:





Though it wasn't what I'd heard at the time, the late Tom Cheek's "Touch 'em all Joe" call is what resonates!


CHEERS!

That is indeed one of the great calls in sports-- "Touch 'em all, Joe-- you'll never hit a bigger one in your life!"

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I love great MOMENTS in sports, but would love to hear what some of you think are great GAMES; that is, a game not defined by one moment but the totality of the game. For example, despite my Cowboys losing, Super Bowl 10 was a great GAME because it lived up to the hype. They lost once more in Super Bowl 13 but again, it was a great game and, to this day, many believe it is still the greatest Super Bowl.

I remember there for a while, whoever won the NFC would win the Super Bowl, but in recent years, the Super Bowls have mostly been very good, if not great, games.

I will still go with my first answer of the USA's ice hockey victory over the Soviets in 1980. It was such a monumental upset, and happened during a turbulent time. It always stands out in my mind as the biggest game I witnessed in my lifetime.

 

[Carabimero]

Ice Bowl.


duh.

I was too young to remember the Ice Bowl. The first NFL game I remember watching was Super Bowl VI, when the Cowboys crushed the Dolphins.


But I have seen all the extant footage of the Ice Bowl. From what I can tell, it was a GREAT game. It's those last drives that will always gnaw in my gut: the last Packer drive when the Cowboys couldn't stop them; then some 15 years later, the last 49ner drive when the Cowboys couldn't stop them, resulting in The Catch (I'll always believe Montana was throwing the ball away, but they made the play, so I have to give them credit).


I do think the 1992 NFC Championship when the Cowboys beat the 49ners was a GREAT game, because it featured the two best teams in football (and it finally healed my open wound left from The Catch).


I remember a Cowboys/Redskins game in 1979 that ended up 35-34 Cowboys, and I think that would have to be the greatest game in that rivalry I ever saw. Roger the Dodger had one of his best 4th quarters ever, and he had some great ones.


I remember a game against the Giants when Emmitt ran like crazy with a separated shoulder. That was a good one.

 

[atfree]

The game that began my love affair with the NFL:

On Christmas Day in 1971, the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Divisional playoff game which the Dolphins won, 27-24, in double overtime after 82 minutes and 40 seconds of play. Four decades later, that game remains the longest NFL game ever played.

I was 8 years old and I was, and still am, hooked.

If memory serves, it was Curt Gowdy on play-by-play with Al DeRogatis as color commentator.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The game that began my love affair with the NFL:

On Christmas Day in 1971, the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Divisional playoff game which the Dolphins won, 27-24, in double overtime after 82 minutes and 40 seconds of play. Four decades later, that game remains the longest NFL game ever played.

I was 8 years old and I was, and still am, hooked.

If memory serves, it was Curt Gowdy on play-by-play with Al DeRogatis as color commentator.

I remember watching that game, too. A true classic.

I am not as nostalgic regarding baseball, since I stopped following the sport after the 1994 strike/lockout. However, Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between Cincinnati and Boston was the best baseball game I ever saw. Carlton Fisk's home run off the foul pole completed a game just filled with drama.

 

[Tony Bensley]

GRRR!

That was my reaction to the Blue Jays getting beat by the Royals in last year's ALCS, but no doubt, many Astros and Mets fans did the same!


CHEERS!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I will still go with my first answer of the USA's ice hockey victory over the Soviets in 1980. It was such a monumental upset, and happened during a turbulent time. It always stands out in my mind as the biggest game I witnessed in my lifetime.

There are those who say that the Squaw Valley game twenty years earlier was an even bigger Cold War upset, but of course sports in general were not as big a deal at the time. I'm not sure that much footage of that game exists.