Your best sports memory

We probably all have stories like that. Mine was the 1994 LSU vs. Mississippi State football game. My freshman year of college, and I left the game about halfway through the third quarter with some friends. The game was a meaningless blowout (LSU won 44-24 for one of their few wins in a dismal season), but because I left early I missed this play — a remarkable play that I've only even seen on video a handful of times in the past 26 years:

Because of that, I vowed never to leave a game early again just because you never know what singularly great thing you might see even in a shitty game. It paid off a few years later.
LSU was playing Houston in 1996, and getting the shit beat out of them. They were down 34-14 heading into the fourth quarter and playing like absolute ass. My friends wanted to leave at the end of the third quarter, but Houston was punting it back to LSU to start the fourth so I convinced them to stay for one more drive. Kevin Faulk returned the punt for a touchdown, so we stayed. LSU scored on its next two possessions to take the lead, and outscored Houston 21-0 in the fourth quarter to win 35-34. LSU also had the ball inside the 5 when the clock ran out. It was one of the most dominant quarters and stunning reversals of fortune I've ever seen. Faulk, who was an absolute beast in college, had about 375 total yards which might still be either a school or SEC single-game record.
That made me feel good. I paid the money. I'm getting my money's worth. You never know what you might see.

 

My 4 TDs for Polk High in the 1966 city championship game.

 

That nanosecond in Game 7 of the 1968 World Series when everyone -- including a 10-year-old Tiger fan who rushed home from fifth grade in Boca Raton, Fla. just in time to see it on TV -- realized Curt Flood wasn't going to catch Jim Northrup's fly ball. The Tigers were somehow going to beat the unbeatable Bob Gibson!

After the game, I was allowed to call long distance -- during the expensive hours -- to Detroit to chat with my maternal grandfather, who took me to my first game at Tiger Stadium. He was in attendance at Navin Field in 1935 when Tommy Bridges allowed a ninth-inning lead-off triple to Stan Hack in Game 7, but somehow kept the Cubs from scoring. Then Goose Goslin drove in Mickey Cochrane with two outs to break the tie and win Detroit's first world's championship.

Gibson's upper-deck blast off Goose Gossage in Game 5 in 1984 was the exclamation point on the 35-5 start. And Magglio Ordonez's bomb off Houston Street in 2006 was sweet revenge for the disappointment of seeing my heroes fall to the hated A's in 1972.

But I can watch that Northrup triple over and over and still feel the same elation I did 50 years ago.

 

David Freese, Game 6, 2011 Series.

Patrick Mahomes.

 

Game 5 in 1968
We had seats behind home plate and I could clearly see Bill Freehan block Lou Brock, whose foot landed aside the plate, and tag him out

March 26, 1997
Wings 6, Avs 5 (OT)

The Flutie game — Boson College over Miami

At the Series as a 13 year old fan
Covered the last two
I am very fortunate

 

As a fan watching TV, probably this. All the 1995 Mariners stuff on MLB recently brought it all back. Saw it in a bar in Microville. A friend and I started watching in the second or third inning, we were the only two. As the game went on more and more people started watching, by the end the place was overflowing and then absolute pandemonium broke out when Edgar hit his 2B.

The day before I was in Pullman covering a FB game (drove home back early Sunday), and was writing my story in the postgame at the SID offices near old Bohler Gym. WSU was playing someone in VB across the hall in the gym and for no reason, in the middle of a point, the whole place went crazy and we rushed outside to see what happened. Edgar had just hit his grand slam in Game 4, half the crowd was listening via transistor in those pre-internet days.

In person, so many. Gerry Meehan's Easter Sunday goal with four seconds left to knock the Flyers out of the 1972 playoffs. The Aud went nuts. Seeing UR crush WVU in 1973. UR defeating soon-to-be NIT champ VPI in double-OT in 1973. The 1998 football Civil War. Gary Payton scoring 58 vs. USC; Loyola Marymount 117, OSU 113, a classic. OSU beating No. 3 USC in 2006 and No. 1 USC in 2008. I've been a very fortunate fan/reporter.

 

Giants win WS for first time in my life in 2010, I waited 47 yrs thinking never gonna happen after 2002. Got to share it with my wife and two boys.

 

That will trigger a whole bunch of Doc Osterman stories.
The best is the time it was raining and he started calling track coaches to see if they had their event. "Coach, did you get your meet off ... or was it too wet."
Another is when he wrote about a veteran swimmer who "had a lot of experience under his trunks."

 

My dad and I were sitting in the LF upper deck:

 

1996 Olympics, men's soccer semifinal between Brazil and Nigeria. My dad and I were sitting at midfield about 10 rows up, surrounded by folks from all over the world. Brazil was up 2-0 at the half and Nigeria came back to win 4-3.

We'd been in that stadium many, many times for Georgia football games but this was something so different and so special. I'd actually love to see a replay of it.