My friend Mike is WAY smarter than me; here are his 13 top sports moments, in chronological order:
1936— Jesse Owens winning four gold medals in the Berlin Olympics.
1947— Jackie Robinson’s first major league baseball game.
Robinson’s brother Mack Robinson finished 2nd to Jesse Owens in the 200-meter race in the ’36 Olympics; both of them broke the existing Olympic record.
1956— Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.
Two years before that perfect game, Larsen went 3-21, 4.37 pitching for the Orioles. He is probably one of the few people to play for both the St Louis Browns and Houston Astros.
1958— Colts 23, Giants 17 (OT): NFL title game that vaulted the NFL into a national sport.
— Frank Gifford scored a TD, Pat Summerall kicked a FG for the Giants.
— Colts blew a 14-3 halftime lead; they outgained the Giants, 452-266
— Raymond Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards; 27 years later, he coached the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
1971— The first fight between Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier; it was the first time that two undefeated boxers fought each other for the heavyweight title.
Frazier won a unanimous decision, but lost the next two meetings.
1973— Secretariat wins the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, taking the Triple Crown. 31 lengths is roughly 248 feet, according to Wikipedia.
1980— USA 4, Soviet Union 3— Semi-final game of the Olympic Games.
One of the great upsets in sports history; Russia had beaten the Americans 10-2 in an exhibition game in New York City a week or two before this.
1984— Boston College 47, Miami 45— Flutie-to-Phelan 48-yard TD pass on the last play of the game provides one of the greatest endings in college football history.
— Flutie passed for 472 yards, Bernie Kosar threw for 447.
— Coaches: BC: Jack Bicknell, Miami: Jimmy Johnson
— TV announcers: Brent Musberger, Ara Parseghian, Pat Haden
1986— Jack Nicklaus wins his sixth Masters title at age 46, 23 years after his first title.
1988— Steffi Graf’s tennis calendar:
— won Australian Open
— won French Open
— won Wimbledon
— won US Open
— won an Olympic gold medal
1992— Duke 104, Kentucky 103 (OT)— East Regional final is Philadelphia is remembered for Christian Laettner’s game-winning shot after a 70-foot inbounds pass from Grant Hill.
— Duke shot 65% from the floor, 72% inside the arc.
— Kentucky shot 12-22 on the arc, 58% inside it.
— Duke was 28-34 on foul line, Kentucky was 17-23.
— Laettner scored 31 points; Jamal Mashburn scored 28.
— Bobby Hurley scored 22 points, had 10 assists.
— Grant Hill played 37:00 off bench, scoring 10 points.
1993— Bulls 87, Jazz 86— Chicago wins its third NBA title in a row, and its sixth in eight years.
— Michael Jordan scored 45 points, going 12-15 on line.
— Bulls were +16 with Scottie Pippen on floor, -15 with him off it.
— Steve Kerr played 24:00 for the Bulls, had 3 assists, but didn’t take a shot.
1999— USA Woman’s soccer team beats China to win the World Cup.
