Most shocking sports moment you've covered?

Mickey Owen revisited:
This was a high school sectional semifinal, big schools, great programs, winner goes to the major league stadium for the finals.
Home team winning, 6-3, top of seventh (last) inning, two outs.
Batter strikes out, catcher misses ball, batter reaches first.
Pitcher gets pissed. Walks next guy, hits next guy. Pitcher is REALLY pissed. Walks in a run. Walks in another run, it's 6-5.
Coach finally pulls pitcher. Reliever gets the next batter to hit a routine grounder to shortstop. Ball goes through the fielder's legs. Two runs score. Visiting team now leading, 7-6. Relief pitcher now pissed, walks three more in a row. Visitors lead, 9-6, going into bottom of seventh. Six runs on no hits.
Home team gets a guy on followed by a homer, 9-8.
Visitors get two outs but another guy reaches base. Up comes the original Home team pitcher, who had homered earlier in the game. He hits one that the left fielder catches up against the fence.

 

Indiana State had the nation's longest football losing streak going into its final game of the 2008 season against Missouri State, but scored a touchdown with under a minute left to take the a seven-point lead.

A bad kickoff gave MSU the ball in good field position and an (inadvertent) face mask got them within Hail Mary range.

Indiana State forces fourth down with :02 left. Fans are on the field ready to celebrate the end of what was then, uh, I can't even remember how long the streak was at that point ... 26 games?

Missouri State's QB rolls right and completes a Ben Roethlisberger-style completion into back corner of the end zone. There were three Indiana State DBs in the vicinity, but none could knock the pass down. One fan was actually on the field celebrating when it happened.

Game goes OT and Missouri State flattens the Sycamores for an easy OT victory.

Game over. Season over. Losing streak is carried into another season. I have never in my life seen such a devastating loss. You felt like shooting them all in the head to put them out of their misery.

After losing to ... ugh ... a Division II team in their home opener, which damn near got the program canceled, the streak finally ended at 33 in late October last season with a win over Western Illinois. One that played out much as the Missouri State game did the year before without the el foldo in the final minute.

 

I didn't cover it, but...

Was in 1994. Texas HS football championship game. Team rallies from 41-17 deficit in last 3 minutes to take lead, only to lose on KO return as time expires.

unbelievable.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to word this so I don't reveal who I am to those who don't need to know, but this is my moment.

Big, huge championship football game last year. For the sake of having a way to tell the teams apart, I'll call the favored team No.1 and the underdog No. 2.

It was a back-and-forth game. No. 2's worked itself back into it but No. 1 still led 26-24 with about 1:30 to go. No. 1 couldn't move the ball and had to punt. All No. 1 has to do, really, is just avoid punting it right to the return man. Make it bounce a couple of times in front of him. Boot it over his head and through the end zone. Do whatever is necessary to avoid the big return. No. 2 will have to drive a long way just to get into field-goal range and doesn't have time outs.

Anyway ... the punter kicked it right to the return man. 84 yards later, No 2's earned the right to be No. 1.

What makes it even better: A kid in the press box asked no one in general just before the kick if No. 2 still had a chance and I said, "They're pretty much going to have to return this for a touchdown."

Better still: Return man said after the game he was supposed to run a reverse. But the other return guy didn't get into position, so return man took it himself. He was never touched.

 

Since we're doing preps... here's the best high school game I've ever seen.

State football playoffs. Local team takes a 17-0 lead into the half. Just dominates the first two quarters. Non-local team starts clawing into the deficit... it's now 20-14 midway through the fourth quarter and non-local is driving... and then the craziest play I've ever seen live occurs.
They're facing 4th and 20 or so, QB drops back to pass, is sacked and fumbles. The biggest guy on the field, 6-foot-7, 280 or so, picks up the ball and starts chugging to the end zone. Two guys from Non-local catch him at the 1... he fumbles THROUGH the end zone for a touchback. Non-local gets a new set of downs, one play after a 4th-and-20. They eventually score to tie it at 20-20... kid lines up for the go-ahead XP... shanks it.
Local team gets ball back with chance to win (their kicker had booted two FGs of close to 40 yards already), so they only need 50 yards or so. Except the Local QB throws a pick... Non-local gets ball with a few seconds left, and the kid who missed the extra point hits a 36-yard FG to win it.
Absolute bedlam on the field. I had never seen so many crying kids in my life from Local team.

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple...

US beats Columbia in soccer (1994 World Cup)
Texas vs. USC for the national title
2002 Western Conference Finals
Missouri vs. UCLA second round NCAAs
Missouri vs. Nebraska football
Raiders vs. Patriots (tuck rule game)
Falcons vs. Vikings NFC Championship game

 

If you're talking about who I think you're talking about, I went to school with one of them and lived about five minutes from him. My grade school was also shut down the day of their funeral as it was being held at their church and the amount of people there was insane.

I could be completely wrong on this, but the circumstances seem strikingly similar enough.

 

Kentucky-LSU, the other Bluegrass Miracle when UK actually held on the beat No. 1 LSU in triple overtime. Great game, right there when Braxton Kelley got the tackle for loss on 4th-and-1.

My other would be a state football final couple of years ago when city high had miraculous rally to take lead, then completely crapped down their leg and blew it late in the fourth against Uppety Catholic High, a school I've held a grudge against for years as a district foe when I played. As shocking a rally, then subsequent choke job as I've ever seen.

 

A couple years back, the area's best two football teams meet for the conference opener everyone knows will also decide the conference championship.
Great game the whole way, and Bumfuck leads Podunk by four with 30 seconds remaining. Podunk has the ball on its own 25 and having to throw for the first time all season (wing-T). QB throws an out on third-and-eight and the Bumfuck corner goes for the pick. WR catches the ball and turns up field to see total daylight. He's sprinting down the field, on Bumfuck's sideline, and you can see Bumfuck's body language just turned grim.
But the Bumfuck safety on the other side of the field is coming. At the eight-yard line he grabs the WR and reaches across his body, punching the ball out. Bumfuck recovers. Ballgame.

 

I covered the Jackie Smith Super Bowl, but the ball was thrown a little behind him, too.

I attended a high school basketball game where our great team, all seniors who could shoot lights out and lost in the state semifinal only when their star got hurt right before halftime, made up a 25-point third-quarter deficit to win at home. I'll never forget that; it's only 38 years ago.

But purely professional, Jackie Smith's dropped pass. I was at the Doug Williams Super Bowl, too, and that quarter was pretty shocking as well.

Oh, wait ... covered a high school team that won every game 102-77 by doing nothing but running ... South Beloit (Ill.) High School. They lost twice, to five 5-11 white guys who played a four-corners type offense and could shoot from everywhere and made all their free throws.

First time, we figured it was a fluke and figured the rematch would be a rout. Second time was in the sectional final, and the same damn thing happened. It was like 59-57. There are kids from that team and then-adult fans and everybody else who to this day can't believe it happened twice.

 

Last fall, state girls soccer final. The top-ranked team in the nation played a team it had beaten 3-0 around midseason.
The other team came out aggressively and scored an early goal, then hung on for the 1-0 victory. The best player on the losing team (a first-team All-American and member of the U17 national team) left the game with about 10 minutes left. The coach took her out after she received a yellow card for disent.

 

Iowa-Northwestern State, 2006 NCAA tournament. And yet, after seeing plenty of Alford-coached teams crap the bed over the years, it shouldn't have surprised me.