by Allan Fish
A bit of a blast from left field, this is what I hope will be the first in a series of pieces on WitD contributors greatest sporting moments from their lifetime. I say from their lifetime in that these events must have taken place while you yourself were breathing and not before. In my case, this rules out anything pre 1973, from Pele’s Brazil to Arkle in full flow to Jim Laker’s 19 wickets in a test to Roger Bannister’s four minute mile. This list will doubtless be radically different to anyone else’s. Baseball, American Football and Basketball are completely absent and ice hockey only gets one mention – and that hardly needs an introduction. So let’s get that out of the way first.
30 – USA beat USSR, Olympic Ice hockey final, 1980, Lake Placid
Better and more knowledgeable writers than yours truly have already waxed lyrical about this, but I remember watching this at the age of 6 or 7, cheering on the States against the Russians and not really being old enough to take in the ramifications. You don’t need reminding, but here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuBcvNmsVvs
29 – Arazi wins Breeders Cup Juvenile, 1991, Churchill Downs
There are moments in sport that don’t just give one the emotional lift that seeing your country or team win at the highest level give you, they simply take your breath away. One such occasion came in the 1992 Breeders Cup Juvenile in 1991, when the French trained Arazi, racing on dirt for the first time in the States, and drawn uncomfortably wide and left way behind the pace early on, scythes through the field like Road Runner on speed to win in one of the most devastating performances ever seen on a racetrack. Sadly, he didn’t train on as a 3yo, but anyone who witnessed this will never forget it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX3AuOwSMAg
28 – Phil Taylor makes two 9 Dart Finishes in one match, 2010
The event was the Premier league final in 2010, and after years of no 9 dart finishes on TV, in recent years we have had a slew of then. It took the master Phil Taylor, the greatest tungsten tickler in history, to do 2 in one match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvnP2VwQb6E
27 – Borg beats McEnroe, Wimbledon final, 1980
While it would be easy to just pick that tie-breaker, how can one really single out one moment in such a match. Anyway, the link is to the start of that tie break. A final we thought would never be beat…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmfKbggEt5s
26 – Ronnie O’Sullivan makes a 147 in five minutes, World Snooker Championships, Sheffield, 1997
You’re in the World Championships. What better place to do a 147. There have been eight or nine there over the years, but no-one did one like this, a world record fastest maximum. Sheer perfection. Enough to make anyone who has held a cue in their hand, in snooker, billiards or pool, shake their head. One of those gasp moments, poetry in motion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btmB-p_0QFg
25 – The Try from the end of the World, France vs New Zealand in New Zealand, 1994
Only the French could score a try like this and against the All Blacks in their own back yard. Delicious. Magnifique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTwTi-UeQ7s
24 – Alderbrook wins Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham, 1995
You’ll forgive my indulgence of horse racing, my greatest sporting passion, but this was a moment I’ll never forget. Alderbrook was only a novice hurdler, running in only his third race over hurdles, only his second of the season. The conventional wisdom for novices is to run in the Novice Hurdle championship, the Supreme Novices Hurdle. Not Alderbrook. Against the best Champion Hurdle field assembled in the 1990s, he wins going away. But for injury and having legs like glass, he’d be acclaimed as one of the greatest hurdlers of all time. In my opinion, he still is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9wrkLRJIX0
23 – Steven Gerrard’s third goal for Liverpool against Olympiakos, 1995
While everyone remembers Liverpool’s win at Istanbul in that unforgettable 2005 final, for me the defining moment was in an earlier round, when Liverpool found themselves having to score 3 times in the second half to go through. They’d managed two. Minutes were slipping away when this happened…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9-P2UF9JIg
22 – Desert Orchid wins the Cheltenham Gold Cup in a bog, Cheltenham, 1989
A personal favourite. Not the greatest performance, but for sheer courage and emotion in ground that he loathed, impossible to beat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1lx3at2sH8
21 – Kauto Star wins King George VI Chase for record 5th time, Kempton Park, 2011
When Desert Orchid won his fourth King George in 1990, I remember saying to myself I’d never see his like again. Ye of little faith. But who could believe the greatest chaser in nearly 50 years would come along and win five, the last against the previously thought certainty Long Run, conceding him five years’ youth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcZ9ooQdzLo&feature=fvst
20 – Usain Bolt wins 100m and 200m, World Championships, Berlin, 2009
Need I say more? The Bolt is loaded…9.58 and 19.19. Michael Johnson’s 200m in Atlanta was unreal. This made even him gasp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By1JQFxfLMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EiPCfPROtE
19 – Brian Lara makes 400 not out against England, 1994
OK, so the pitch was flatter than Keira Knightley’s chest, but it would take me a week to score 400 runs. Most teams would take 400 between them, he did it all on his own and brought up the 400 in style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFLqVBR5SK8
18 – British Lions defeat Australia, Brisbane, 2001
The Australians were World Champions, invincible. Brisbane was their stamping ground. The British and Irish Lions came there and made history. Sadly, they didn’t win the series, but that win will live long in the memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJfj1rILtHo
17 – Mike Powell wins World Championship Long Jump, Tokyo, 1991
23 years after Bob Beamon sailed out to 8.90m in Mexico City, if you’d said that two jumpers would go further, I’d have marched you off to the funny farm. First Carl Lewis does it, 8.91 but with slight wind assistance so not a world record, then Mike Powell goes and jumps 8.95m. World record, Incredible. Lewis jumps four times over 8.80 and DOESN’T win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybEs3j_MmrA
16 - Ali beats Foreman, 1974, Rumble in the Jungle
Do we need any introduction here either. Even before documentary When We Were Kings this had been immortalised, now it just fills you with awe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10ZIxV9KWgY
15 – Liverpool 4-3 Newcastle, Anfield, 1996
The greatest Premier League match of them all. Unforgettable. They nearly matched it a year later with the same result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwCDYc-r3iI
14 – Jonathan Edwards, Triple Jump, 1995, Gothenburg, two World Records in half an hour
18.00 was always the greatest barrier in triple jumping. What better than to break it and the World Record in the World Championship final in the first and second rounds. Unbelievable. No-one’s come remotely close since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFt9Yzp484c&feature=related
13 – Nadal beats Federer, Wimbledon, 2010.
Nuff said. The greatest tennis match ever played between arguably the two greatest players of the modern era. Could anything beat the 4th set tie break from 1980. Er, yes…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN-WcXmn9gI
12 – Frankel wins 2,000 Guineas, Newmarket 2011
The greatest single performance in a British classic you will ever hope to see. 1m run like a sprinter. Astronomical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghUY0k4YX1k
11 – Marco Van Basten’s goal for Holland in European championships, 1988.
Again, words do not describe. For me the greatest striker I have ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eENUIMGq0LE
10 – Secretariat wins Belmont Stakes by a distance, 1973
In some ways this feels like cheating. I was 12 days old when this happened. But give me a break, there will never be anything like this seen in a Triple Crown race in US dirt. Stratospheric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18ui3Rtjz4
9 – George Weah, AC Milan versus Verona, 1996
Remember watching this on Channel 4′s Football Italia and spluttering out my coke. You don’t see this down the local park.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDuZpma_Oxs
8 – Ian Thorpe’s final leg to win the 4x100m Freestyle Relay for Aus against USA, Sydney, 2000
From an emotional point of view, Steve Redgrave’s fifth Gold medal in rowing was an undoubted highlight of the 2000 Olympics, but for sheer tongue hit the floor awesomeness, this takes it. Thorpe was a 200 and 400m swimmer, up against the fastest man in the world at the time over 100m and facing a deficit. He couldn’t, could he?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQQt0eTknxY
7 – Gilles Villeneuve against Rene Arnoux, French Grand Prix, 1979
We sometims forget in this turgid era that Formula 1 was once exciting. The documentary Senna reminded us of his legendary abilities and those of Alain Prost in the greatest rivalry the sport ever saw and which I grew up with, but for sheer drama and excitement, the last three or four laps of continual overtaking between Arnoux’s yellow Renault and Villeneueve’s red Ferrari in France would go down in legend. This is when drivers really were drivers…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kre35Pct0yA
6 – Andrew Flintoff’s over to Jacques Kallis, Edgbaston, 2008
While the euphoria of that incredible 2005 Ashes will live long in the memory, if anyone told me that Flintoff would bowl a better over than he did in 2005 to remove Langer and Ponting, I’d have laughed myself to death. Three years later, he did just that, against South African legend Jacques Kallis. He had him out once, but it wasn’t given by the umpire Aleem Dar. It only made him more determined.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-1oA29fWBo
5 – Barbarians vs New Zealand, 1973, Gareth Edwards try
Simply the greatest try ever scored, Cardiff Arms Park. Technically, I’m cheating, it was four months before I was born. But assuming I was breathing inside my mother’s womb…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwCbG4I0QyA
4 – Torvill and Dean Olympic Free Dance, Sarajevo, 1984
In all honesty, if asked which Torvill and Dean routine I prefer, in some ways the Mack and Mabel and Barnum routines of 1982 and 1983 win out, but for sheer artistry and emotion, beyond poetry in motion, there could only be one. Ravel’s Bolero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8obUdxnTlc
3 – Tiger Woods holes his 2nd shot at the 16th hole, US Masters, Augusta, 2005
One of those genius moments. You just have to stand back and applaud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMF2_LbrIsc
2 – Alex Higgins’s 69 clearance in World Championship semi-final, Sheffield, 1982
While Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 147 was pure perfection at pace, the greatest EVER break in snooker history surely came in 1982. Alex Higgins was losing 15-14 in the first to 16 semi-final. He couldn’t afford to miss a single ball. He compiled the most miraculous break you will ever see to clear up, win the frame, then the last and then go on to win the final. It’s the first 6 minutes in this clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIuTe5IGytg&feature=related
1 – 1973 Grand National, Red Rum overhauls Crisp, Aintree
It had to be a racing clip to top it, and so it is. Again, I was technically in mater’s womb when this happened. Red Rum would go on to win an unprecedented three Nationals, winning again 19 1974 and 1977 (and second in 1975 and 1976), but despite this, we still will Crisp on. The giant Australian beast who treated the Aintree fences that were then more like spruce roadblocks with utter contempt. He was carrying top weight of 12st. Red Rum was only carrying 10st 5lb, in receipt of 23lb from Crisp. Crisp was a 2m chase champion running over 4½m. What happened would go down in history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQggeLfUNF8
Anyway, the next entry will be from back across the pond. This Limey is going back to his films…
23. Gerrard’s absolute cracker.
I can’t believe this isn’t higher. I started becoming a fan of the EPL a few years before this, and was drawn to Gerrard (and his Liverpool) as my favorite side. Needless to say I watched this live as a burgeoning fan (I was a college student so various points of my day were free) and would still say it’s probably the greatest goal I’ve seen as it happened. Man did he strike that ball. For a while there he was probably the best midfielder in the world, something most would look past (but not Zindane).
And it wasn’t even Gerrard’s best goal. His Cup Final equaliser in 2006 was better and there was one strike against Boro in 2005 that was just unreal.
Oh, and World Cup goals, I recall watching this game and just being speechless.
Only people that have played soccer can realize how difficult that is, and the beauty with which he cradles that ball (a chip from about 40 yards no less) over his damn shoulder, goes around a defender in tight space and puts it home. It happened late in the game, tied, and in the knock-out stage. Just sublime. The Dutch are something else in regards to touch on the ball, they could play with raw eggs and no break them.
I’ll raise that Bergkamp with these two, from my youth…
and for sheer cheek…
Gerrard is a great midfielder though his generation has produced better in the long run like Xavi, Pirlo, Iniesta, Schweinsteiger, and Arjen Robben. Still he certainly belongs in that company and it would be hard to argue that for a year or two he might have eclipsed all of them in form.
Well Zidane said this in about 2006, so all the guys you mention were nothing then. Robben, as a midfielder isn’t in Gerrard’s class either… unless you don’t consider a world class midfielder someone who plays both ways (Lampard is the better comparison to a a Robben type midfielder).
Oh and Schweinsteiger isn’t even the best German mid of his generation. That would be the creative worker Ozil.
Well Ozil (born 1988) is 8 years younger than Gerrard so I didn’t include him. Schweinsteiger being born in 1984 puts him in league with both.
Pirlo in 2006 had won the World Cup as the best field player on his team along with Cannavaro. His perfectly timed pass to Grosso doomed Germany in the Semi’s. He was also (rightfully) named Man Of The Match in the finals against France. In 2003 he won the first of his Champions League titles with Milan, and then a Serie A title in 2004. If winning 3/4 of soccer’s grand slam (the fourth being the Euro Cup) by 2006 is nothing than what in god’s name is something. He has since gone on to win another Champions league title and two more Serie A titles including one this year with an undefeated Juventus as the best player on the squad. Gerrard has one Champions League title in 2005. Before and after 2006, Pirlo is clearly the better player. Xavi/Iniesta clearly since 2007-08…
Nothing like shoving a square Italian peg into a circle peg discussion. lol. I know Maurizio, you like Italian football.
The rest you’re telling me Gerrard’s Liverpool sides have rarely (if ever) been top notch. Look at team salary levels, that isn’t a shocking statement. A shame he didn’t have more quality around him in his prime.
Yes its no secret that I like Italian football. But saying that Pirlo did nothing by 2006 is factually incorrect. By that point he had already accomplished more than Gerrard has in his whole career. Not to mention Pirlo has since won three more club titles since, (I usually ignore Italian Cups and Super Cups nonsense) as basically the best player every time out. I like Gerrard, but its not even close. Pirlo and Xavi/Iniesta are clearly the best of their generation.
I haven’t said a lick really about Pirlo. I’m merely relaying what Zidane thought about the state of midfield play in the mid-2000s. I think he knew a thing or two about the position…
Yes, but remember Maurizio, Gerrard stayed with his home club and didn’t move. Then it’s down to pure luck whether your home side is good enough.
‘Well Zidane said this in about 2006, so all the guys you mention were nothing then”.
Lick and a half lol…..
Well, I’ll rephrase then. I’ll take Zindane’s opinion on the position over a known Italian super homer.
Not moving is certainly a noble gesture. Francesco Totti has done it with Roma (perhaps hurting his career to some extent) so I can’t argue with that. And I don’t want to seem like a troll when in actuality Gerrard is perhaps my favorite English player along with Rooney (not a contradiction mentioning those two since I have no emotional affiliation with Premiership teams). I just think the facts speak conclusively.
A homer with clear cut facts. Something you can’t back up similarly. Besides I could swear The Guardian did a piece recently declaring Pirlo as the best midfielder of his generation.
By that rule, Maurizio, Pirlo is better than George Best. Pirlo doesn’t come within hailing distance of Zidane, Gerrard, Vieira or the great midfielders of the mid late 2000s. But he’s the perfect Italian midfielder, never goes beyond the halfway line, needs to have his passport stamped to go up for a corner. He’s just symptomatic of why people loathed Italian football teams.
How good a player you are isn’t judged by what you achieved. Does it make Ryan Giggs crap because he never won anything for Wales, as if he ever could.
Your ‘facts’ are conveniently all team accomplishments which we’ve readily conceded Gerrard’s sides (club and national team) haven’t been near world class status.
Ah George Best. What’s the saying? Maradona was good, Pele better, George Best.
Faulty logic Fish. Pirlo has done it for club and country. Gerrard unlike George Best plays for England during their “Golden Generation” and won nothing. He also plays for Liverpool who have a sterling history. In many ways he’s like Don Mattingly of the Yankees, great player that didn’t win partially due to luck. But also because he can’t elevate a team by himself… Juventus shaped a squad around Pirlo this year and he put 22 other players on his back and rode them to an undefeated season. Very similar to what Nowitzki did with the Dallas Mavericks last season. Some players have that extra something, and some do not. And Pirlo actually takes every corner….
Also, as usual Paul Scholes is let out in the cold for no discernible reason.
They are team accomplishments certainly, but with Pirlo always as the focal point and best player within that criteria. This is the measurement of team sports and the best athletes within that system… not some random goal on some random day.
Now the Yankees are in the discussion? Jesus, a walking Italian-American stereotype. LOL. We’ll agree to disagree on Gerrard and the rest. No biggie.
Scholes is pure class.
Its best to just laugh it all away with a stereotype remark when nothing weightier is possible to counter me with lol. Gerrard is great, Pirlo/Xavi are better. The facts are indisputable. Only a real homer would see it the other way, truth be told.
Truth be told, only a loony would desire his comment that compares Steven Gerrard with Don Fucking Mattingly to be taken seriously. Hell, go back one move… only a loony would desire his comment that introduces Don Fucking Mattingly into a discussion on world class football midfielders be taken seriously.
Don Mattingly was just a minor point in a bigger discussion. The more important factor is that you have no logical way of arguing that Gerrard is better than Pirlo. Thus you stoop to insults… though loony is mild I admit lol. Diversions in topics will not work with me. I will stay on point and request that you provide anything approaching substantial evidence other than a comment from Zidane (great player who is no authority, as someone like Pele has proven recently) to argue your belief.
Well the Yankees do have Ruth’s 60 home run season in 1927 and Di Maggio’s 56 game hitting steak that are worthy candidates to make a sporting moment list methinks. They deserve to be at least considered.
This is what I can provide….
Andrea Pirlo: World Cup 2006. Champions League 2003, 2007. Serie A titles 2004, 2011, 2012.
Steven Gerrard: Champions League 2005.
Both are considered the best players on their respective teams and the influential talisman for their squads (though Rooney might factor more in England’s national team). Both have received countless accolades from peers and soccer experts on individual skills outside of team accomplishments. Both are routinely considered among the best midfielders of their generation. Since individual attributes are beyond reproach, the above is where the separation is most obvious. One guy can elevate his team to greater heights than the other….
But Maurizio the ‘facts’ you keep spouting are irrelevant (and oddly enough, do you think Zindane—who made the original point—wasn’t privy to them?). This isn’t singles tennis. Pirlo has played on better sides then Gerrard has, thus his resume will be better. No argument.
To move again to baseball, it’s akin to saying that countless players were better than Ted Williams because they have more team championships on their resumes. Yes you can add the caveat of ‘they were the team leader’ so how the team plays and what is accomplishes reflects its leader, but if you’ve ever played a team sport you know a chain is only as strong as its weakest—not strongest—link. (speaking of Teddy ball game, who has read ‘Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams’ You can read it in an hour or two, and should).
I doubt Zidane would say the same thing now. If the resume’s were somewhat closer then, they are not anymore. Pirlo is not just the team leader, but the best player (and as his nickname suggests the architect) of what every team he plays on does. Juventus was basically molded to fit his skill set and they went undefeated. Are his sides that much better than Gerrard’s throughout their careers? Is Italy in 2006 that much better than England talent wise? Or those Milan teams in the middle of 2000′s when compared to Liverpool (who actually beat them in 2005)?
I do think Pirlo is/was better than Gerrard, but that’s got little to do with what their teams have won. I’d rank the midfielders mentioned above thus:
Zidane
Xavi
Pirlo
Scholes
Gerrard
I can’t argue with your rankings Stephen. Zidane is at least 8 years older than Pirlo/Xavi/Gerrard so not really from the same generation (soccer wise). Still no one would argue that he’s not better than the other four you mention. Xavi over Pirlo is certainly understandable and a position I wouldn’t disagree with.
If the standard is something you saw as it happened my own list would include both the 1973 Belmont (one of my earliest sports memories, after the 1972 Olympics) and the 1978 race with Affirmed fending off Alydar one more time; from boxing, Buster Douglas’s knockout of Mike Tyson, an event cinema could not have scripted better; and from NFL football, a scene that appeals to my taste for heroic failure, the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV, when Mike Jones of the Rams grabs Kevin Dyson of the Titans by the legs and brings him down with the ball one yard short of the tying touchdown.
I have to make a special mention of the 1994 Olympic hockey final between Sweden and Canada. I happened to share a dorm with mostly international students and was watching the gold-medal game with some Swedes who went quite ape when their compatriots won. The sight of them dancing through the TV room chanting “SVERIGE! SVERIGE!” makes that one of my most memorable sportswatching experiences.
Not surprised, Sam. Racing will always dominate for me in every way.
If you liked Secretariat, Samuel, be sure to check out no 12. And while it’s not the flat, no 1, too.
Great list Allan. Though I wasn’t born yet, Secretariat’s obliteration of the field at Belmont to win the Triple Crown would probably be my number one. I’ve watched the Youtube clip many times as he gallops down the track like a “Tremendous Machine” winning by 30-32 lengths. While human athletes can usually be judged as much on their mental attributes as well as their physical athletic gifts, animals can only be graded on the latter (at least until animal psychology advances further). Secretariat’s run was pure athletic domination.
Yes, he was awe-inspiring. But as I have said, American racing is more two dimensional with everything about time clocked and run on absolutely flat tracks like athletics tracks (two straights, two sharp bends at either end) and nearly always left handed. I’d love to have seen Secretariat mix it with the best on grass on undulating tracks of different stature, but you can’t take it away from him, he’s the best America will ever see.
I’ll say it now, say it again, the jumpers are the real Gods. The flat horses you just admire. The top jumpers are adored and are greeted like titans by the crowds. On the flat it’s just polite applause and occasionally a gasp, but not adoration.
Alan this list is an insult to many of the under darkness readers. You have forgotten to name Joe Namath beating the Colts or Willie Stargel winning the World Series what about Mike Tyson biting off Randall Holyfield’s ear? Everybody on the site likes Rocky one and probably at least one of the others so why would you overlook Mike Tyson? I propose that Sam amend this list and consult with his cousin Douglas to make it more American friendly. You are running a big risk here of alienating a lot of the American readership. I’m shocked and ashamed by what you have done here although I support your right to like things but you should try to be a little more well rounded in the future. Or maybe call your list “The Top 30 Sports Moments According to a Guy Who Likes to Put Down American Sports.” Peace and Blessings.
I nominate this post for Top Troll post for this month.
may we go out and just put it at the top of the year?
Jaime, if you say so, sure why not. lol. Can’t imagine the level of mind that has enough time to create false identities for trolling, then actually drafting trollish posts. Get a hobby know? To quote the English band James, “go and read a book, it’s so much more worthwhile…”
I’m going to drop a bombshell (and I do not have any inside information) but I think Jack Marsh is actually Sam Juliano. He gave away a giant tell (in poker parlance) during one of his past comments that only our esteemed leader would of mentioned/uttered. Come out now Sam…. the party is over.
If this is true I’m extra pissed/depressed. I know books I’ve mentioned to Sam (and Allan is always harping on unwatched films) that he’s said he doesn’t have the time… if idle time is spent cooking up troll persona’s what can I say…
He isn’t Sam.
If not Sam (and I’ll respect Allan’s declaration) than it must be either Andrei Scala or Pierre De Plume.
This is becoming like a cyber game of Clue.
Andrei is who I’d bet, but then I thought that was a troll persona too. You mean he’s real? Jesus, keep the kids behind locked doors…
I just wish Sam would end this game of Cluedo and admit who it is and tell them to cease. It’s just not funny. It’s like having the smelliest village idiot this side of the Danube keep crashing your wedding.
Hasn’t a law been passed to the effect that ‘Mr Marsh’, who doesn’t exist, be euthenised. It wouldn’t even be murder, it’d be pest control. Only the people who knew the real Jack Marsh get the joke, which is a readership of about 3. It was funny once, now it’s about as funny as a gangrape at a grade school.
Just give the world what it wants, Jack. Walk off a cliff…slowly…backwards…
You people wouldn’t make it long in a democracy. I like British things, music and the Beatles are my favorite band and just because I also like American things people say I’m a trolley. I have known Sam for a very long time, I used to babysit the children and I was with him when he saw many of his favorite movies like Further From Heaven and Gallactica. I have been inspired and encouraged by people like Pierre and DeeDee and their comments have been nice. If you don’t agree with me I give you permission to disagree with me but to say I should be killed I think takes things too far and puts wondersinthedark in a position for if something did happen coincidentally people might consider someone who said I should be murdered a suspect. I am in the first oscar video and Dennis says not so nice things about me but I am there as much as anyone and I think I have the right to be on here because America is still free and we stopped listening to the British people a long time ago and I think that’s why Alan is mad because we don’t like soccer as much as Britains do. Peace and Blessings.
For God’s sake, baseball and American football are not only ignored in Britaih, Mr Marsh. They’re ignored the whole planet over, except in places where US troops have stayed long enough to get the locals interested.
Please, give it up. I know who Jack Marsh is and can’t reveal due to Sam’s ridiculous orders, but I’m close to finding a way to get him barred from commenting. It’s getting puerile.
Well Fish one could argue the reason soccer, err football is a global sport is due to a bit of soldiers staying/imperialism from the Queen a few hundred ago…
Worked for Cricket, too.
A very interesting list, though many of the sporting events are foreign to say the least. My own list would be very different but that’s because I wasn’t around during many of the great sporting moments in history. I can however say I was alive to watch some of the greatest sports figures ever in their prime. Watching the dominance of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, a little of Wayne Gretzky, and Jerry Rice. Each of those athletes will be considered the greatest of their generation and to see them play means something.
My favorite sporting event I lived through, and this is insanely bias, was watching my VCU Rams make their improbable Cinderella run to the Final Four just couple years back. That was extra special because I was in VCU and watched every game. It was huge.
I have to also agree with Sam Wilson on both Buster Douglas’s knockout of Mike Tyson (while also asking whatever happened to Buster Douglas?) and Super Bowl XXXIV. I remember watching that Superbowl and being on the edge of my seat the whole game through. I still watch the highlights of the game and think Dyson will make it. The lose was both crushing and awe-inspiring. However, I believe the biggest Superbowl I’ve watched in my lifetime would be XLII, or Giants Patriots part one. Not the best game ever, personally I believe XLII between Steelers and Cardinals was a much better a game as was XXXIV, but one can’t overlook the stakes. The perfect season was on the line, one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports, and also writing a new chapter in the rivalry between New York and Boston.
Also for the hell of it, my top five of sporting events I didn’t live through:
5. Wilt Chamberlain Scores 100 – Something we wont see in the pros ever again
4. 1912 Summer Olympics – Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest athlete of the 20th century, wins Gold Medals in Pentathlon and Decathlon
3. Super Bowl III – Namath guarantees a win and makes
2. Ali knocks out Foreman – Speaks for itself
1. Jesse Owens in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin – I’ll argue the greatest sporting moment of the 20 century.
5. We won’t see it again, and we didn’t see it then. No video of that game exists. Crazy to think about.
For me, I’d have a Montana game or two, the Eric Metcalf Browns/Steelers game where he took two punts back, Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs. Tommy Hearns that was only three brutal rounds (what other great boxing match can fit into a time restricted youtube video [under 10 minutes] and you don’t miss a second?), etc.
I mean, seriously:
Jesus.
Hagler-Hearns is awesome to behold, but the answer to your question depends on your definition of great. There’s something great about Foreman’s destruction of a hopelessly game Joe Frazier (“Down goes Frazier!” Cosell cries) that can be captured within those time constraints, but it is rather one-sided — perhaps the 1973 Belmont of boxing.
I always try to watch the NFL Films account of SB XXXIV, which really manages to capture the desperate drama of the final failed drive. That final play is prefaced by Titans QB Steve McNair’s mind-boggling escape from the Rams’ defense and a completion that put Tennessee on the St. Louis 10 for the final try. NFL Films, by the way, is a mighty institution that I grew up on in the days when they did a Game of the Week program and a weekly review. Major League Baseball had nothing like it. Kubrick is on record as an admirer and who am I to argue? The other great NFL event I watched while it happened, apart from Super Bowls, was the famous AFC playoff between San Diego and Miami from January 1982, with Kallen Winslow’s epic performance on offense and special teams amid other marvels. The college game has its moments, too, many of them during the 2005 season as USC won epic games with Notre Dame and Fresno State before falling to Texas in an incredible Rose Bowl. NFL football is the most dramatic of the major American sports in my view, but I can understand if it seems less dramatic from the perspective of “soccer” fandom, just as I’d need to immerse myself more in the pace and psychology of the global game to appreciate what’s been shown and mentioned here on more than an intellectual level. At least I can say I do appreciate it, unlike many of my fellow Americans, though the hostility toward the game some of you may perceive is concentrated more among sports reporters than among sports fans.
My love for the film medium and aesthetic stems from nfl film. Watching so many of the great moments, from the Immaculate Reception to the Hail Mary, in all their grainy and cinematic beauty helped bridge my love for sports and cinema.
Just to let everyone know, due to demands at school, where I was the subject of my annual tenured evaluation, I have not had a chance to visit the site until just now.
I am rather taken aback by the suggestions that I am “Jack Marsh” or in fact would ever place a comment at the site under any name but my own.
Fish was quick to respond that it wasn’t you Sam, do not worry, we are sure of who he really is.
I would pose to add Joe DiMaggio’s record 56 game hitting street with the Yankees’ Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points scored in a single basketball game, and one of the Ali-Frasier boxing matches as possibilities.
DiMaggio’s record 56 game hitting streak is a great record though I’ve always thought Johnny Unitas’ touchdown streak in 47 straight games is more impressive. Even if the record gets broken (and it looks like it will next season by Drew Brees) the era in which the record was broken, plus how long it’s lasted, make it one of the greatest.
Joe Montana had so many great games it’s hard to single out one. His five touchdown performance in the Superbowl stands out the most, though there are a few performances during his late career with Chiefs that really defined his greatness for me: Beating the Oilers and Buddy Ryan’s defense in the 93 playoffs, Out-dueling Elway on Monday Night, and of course, beating Steve Young and the 49ers. Eric Metcalf’s two returns is one of the great forgotten performances in NFL history. For me though, there were really 3 football games to choose from. Super Bowl III, The Colts and Giants in the 1958 Championship Game (The Greatest Game Ever Played), or the 1981 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between Miami and San Diego (I think Kellen Winslow’s performance that day may be the greatest ever in football).
Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns is a hell of a pick. As brutal as any UFC fight
The Colts-Giants game is a terrific choice Anu.
Montana you just need 2 minutes and 46 seconds, or 92 yards however you want to state it. Super Bowl XXIII. Pure class, as a boy it just drove me nuts that he actually pointed at the receiver he was throwing to, a fact most don’t know about his throwing mechanics. See the pointing here:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/gallery/2011/07/15/montana_joe_gal_640.jpg
I was tipped off at this when he confessed it in one of the 5 or so books of his I had as a kid.
Yes, very nice list. You’re clearly a bit older than me, Allan, but quite a lot of these would contend for my own greatest moments. Some I’d forgotten about.
That long jump final was unbelievable. It goes to show that, like in an auction, you only get top results with proper competition. Likewise with the standards Nadal and Federer pushed each other to (and Djokovic, latterly).
As for Weah’s goal, I ‘d left the room for a second and missed it live. Still annoys me.