OT Best sporting events you have attended and why?
For me 2 events stick out.
Tommy Hearns winning his first title at Joe Louis Arena vs Pipino Cuevas in 1980. It was the most electric atomosphere for a sporting event I have ever witnessed, plus Hearns knocked Cuevas out so quickly the energy never subsided.
1997 Michingan vs OSU. The feeling of satisfaction I felt after that game cannot be put into words. I felt so good for that team and Lloyd Carr, and when the team came back out onto the field and sang "it's great to be a Michigan Wolverine", I was truly in football's Vahalla
in 2006. I sat up with all of the Michigan fans and sang the victors/We OWWWWNNN PSU and Zombie Nation WE OWN PENN STATE. It was the amazing.
that game was awesome. besides the fact that psu fan pulled a knife on one of my friends i still had a great time.
But my friend and I walked through the student section area decked out in maize and blue trying to find the Michigan section. Needless to say we had drunk students chasing us.
It was like a movie where the hot girl walks in and everything is in slow motion. I swear everyone stopped and stared at us thinking "who the hell are these guys"
Senior night at yost 2008. Kevin and Chad were both students of mine when I was a GSI that year and we had talked about how much playing at Yost and at Michigan means to them.
Me and one buddy sat in the state student section all by ourselves and got harassed horribly the entire game. When Manningham caught that last minute touchdown to Michigan ahead, you could hear a pin drop in the stadium with the exception of a few fans (including me) screaming! That walk out of that stadium was unforgettable. Just a bunch of assholes who were left speechless.
but was on MSU's campus before and after. The mood was equally grim, and I certainly loved Sparty's tears of sadness.
Easy. When Brian Griese (who was an acquaintance of mine in college) won the MVP, his dad getting choked up*, the national championship, that defense, good friends, my senior year... God, what a great, great day.
that too. I was there, but I was 9...don't really remember too much, just the Woodson pick in the endzone on the first drive.
Yeah, that one is a no-brainer for me. My brother was a senior and I had just received my acceptance letter about two weeks before the Rose Bowl. My dad getting handed two free tickets about 15 minutes before kickoff for him and my mom. That was an amazing day.
2008 Capital One Bowl. Witnessing M beat the Gators (who practically had home-field advantage), the beloved Tebow getting a facefull of dirt, and Lloyd Carr getting carried off the field for his final bow was one of the best things I've ever seen in person. Gives me chills to this day!
Wow! What a day. Two great teams. Huge suspense. Tight game. So much on the line. Monster kick off return. Wild Wild crowd. Good defeats evil. Best game ever.
Michigan v. MSU 10/24/04
why?
a) Michigan won in dramatic fashion
b) Braylon basically dropped his pants and asked the entire MSU defense if they had ever seen anything that huge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyUimlCCbXU&feature=fvw
cosigned.
Make that a triple signer. I was actually about to leave late in the fourth quarter because I had about lost hope of us winning and I probably needed to leave, but I stuck with it and it payed off. Wow did it suck to be an MSU fan that night.
Red Wings over Ducks, 2009 (Game 7 thriller)
Michigan football over Wisconsin, 2008 (Comeback, in the student section)
Michigan basketball qualifies for the NCAA tournament, 2009 (Crisler was a blast)
Lions over Bears, 2007 (Record-setting 4th quarter comeback)
Red Wings over Blackhawks, 2009 (Winter Classic)
fly over followed by devin hester returning the opening kickoff. probably the best clothed 5 minutes of my life
2004 Stanley Cup Game 7, Lightning over Flames
Ew. Not even the fact that it was a Stanley Cup-clinching Game 7 can save a contest pitting the Lightning and Flames.
There's nothing wrong with a Canadian team being in the Stanley Cup Finals. It just sucked that they faced a team from Florida.
IT WENT IN! FLAMES WON! DAMN YOU BETTMAN!
Michigan vs. Washington 2002
Michigan had missed three field goals before making one on the final play of the game to win it.
a gut wrenching game that was. I was in the opposite endzone to where they missed all those fiels goals. I'm sure Brabbs made that final field goal just because of all the cursing I was doing on the previous attempts.
I was sitting in a house in the U-District with about 20 Husky fans thinking there was no way Brabbs was going to make it. I was the loudest voice in Seattle when he did though.
My Dad took my little brother and I to our first UM game, when I was 7. We watched our Hometown's (Flint SW) Rick Leach play QB as a True Freshman. Leach threw an 86 yard bomb to JIm Smith.
this is an odd selection but right now i'd have to say the 2006 tOSU game. OKAY we lost, that was horrible. Everything about that was horrible, especially the long and torturous walk back to our car. But everything about that game, #1 vs. #2, Bo passing away the day previous, the Big Ten title on the line and whoever wins goes to the national championship.
Again, we lost so that sucked but it was still an incredible experience. And i've said this before, but I believe every Michigan fan should experience a mich-tOSU game at least once in C'bus to get the full feel of the rivalry.
2008 michigan wisconsin. really exciting game and i was proud of the team and also the fans (in the second half who didn't leave). i even heard wisconsin was having trouble getting the signals because of the noise! SEE! we gotta yell our asses off this season and get some home field advantage!
2005 ALCS (White Sox/Angels) Game 2, the infamous AJP dropped third strike game. 15, 20 minutes after the game was over and still almost no one had left the stadium.
Others include the 2006 NFC Championship (Bears vs. Seahawks), the first OT game at Michigan Stadium (win over PSU), 2008 AL Central one-game playoff, and the Hawks playoff game the last year of Chicago Stadium where Tony Amonte scored four goals. The 2002 UM/Washington game with Phil Brabbs last second FG to win (it was a miracle he made it, hell would have been a miracle if it was within 10 yards of the goalposts the way he kicked) was fun too.
Still mad I missed Thome's 500th HR, my parents had an extra ticket but I had to work.
The 1992 Lions playoff win over Dallas...it's a very rare occurance and the Silverdome was literally shaking from crowd noise.
or
1977 Tigers opening day, with Mark Fidrych throwing a complete game and giving up only 5 hits. The stadium was packed.
game in 1992. That was the loudest I have ever heard a crowd at a Lions game. I was sitting on the third deck and it felt like an earthquake was going on.
I was in the second row of the upper deck, so I was near the edge of the cantilever. I couldn't believe how much the stands were shaking...the beer might have also contributed to the sense of motion :)
I was at that Lions game as well, Barry as usual was fantastic
game 4, the Wings won the Stanley Cup and the team wheeled Vladimir Konstantinov on the ice to help celebrate. That was very cool.
game 2 of that same series was intense, we were down on 3 separate occasions down 2 goals in the last 10 mins of the game. Dat bastard dougie brown tied the game with 4 mins to go and our section threw this guy in the air. college.
In ascending order:
1990 - Michigan vs MSU football - despite the outcome, a great game
1994 - Michigan vs Colorado football - ugh; it still hurts
2008 - USA vs Italy World Cup - we didn't lose! You haven't experienced pandemonium until you've cheered with (or against) European soccer fans
2006 - Michigan at OSU - great game; bad outcome
EDIT: 1996 - Michigan vs BU hockey (Frozen Four semifinal) - the most dominant performance by that team that year. It got us over the hump and made me believe we could win the whole thing
1997 - Michigan vs OSU - schwing! Actually, it was a good game, not a great game, but the impact was the best
Not to tell you your business, but the World Cup was '06.
Thanks. Too late to edit it.
1997 - Michigan @ Penn State football - perhaps the most epic of beatdowns I have seen in person, especially considering Penn State's then-current ranking and what the win did to ours
1996 - Michigan @ Duke basketball - down by (about) 10 with (about) six minutes to go in second half at Cameron, but we pull it out with a Traylor dunk with five seconds left.
Echoed. The student section was so loud that day I couldn't hear myself screaming.
Any game at Lambeau is unbelievable. The entire city stops on game day.
Rose Bowl 2007: Sucks that we lost, but still awesome to be able to go to a Rose Bowl.
Michigan vs. ND 1990/91?: I don't remember the exact date, but it was the game Desmond made the diving end zone catch. It was my first Michigan game and have been in love the the Maize and Blue/Desmond ever since.
2006 Big East Championship game in the Garden. It was the year Jerry Mac went off and Syracuse played its way into the tournament. Got free tickets and got to see the Garden.
I was at the Michigan ND game when Rocket returned those 2 kickoffs for TD's in a pouring rain. I think Elvis Grbac made his debut that day
Michigan lost to Wisconsin in OT. At the old Olympia Stadium. Mini-bands duelled throughout the game. Seating was completely random -- no defined cheering sections for either team. Just a joyful, clean, friendly and obviously competitive event
Also...
Par Three tournament at the Masters. Most beautiful place in the world other than the joint at Stadium and Main.
Sarah Hughes shocking Gold Medal performance and the Canadians winning the Gold Medal hockey game, both in Utah, 2000. The fans starting singing O Canada with about a minute left and the win in hand. Tear-rending.
06 Penn State. 97 Colorado.
For four reasons:
(1) My dad and brother were in the student section with me
(2) It was my senior year.
(3) I was at the Notre Dame game the year before and had to put up with all the shit of losing in South Bend, and
(4) We shellacked them that year.
I remember tyrone willingham said "we're gonna whoop 'em at the big house next week" the week before. i was there but for some reason i don't remember much of it.
Definitely the Yanni concert, March 2003, MCI Center. What an upset.
Even though we lost that was a great game. Steve Breaston was unbelievable.
Let's see - in no particular order....
Michigan vs. MSU, 2004. People say the Big House is too quiet, but I swear I literally went temporarily deaf in my left ear when the student section exploded for Braylon's winning catch.
Steve Yzerman's number retirement ceremony. Actually the game wasn't that great, I think it was because the players warmed up and then sat on their butts for an hour while the ceremony went on. But the Wings did win. Loudest cheers were for Stevie, Vladdy, and Probert. And Scotty, too. Just a terrific night.
Game 3, 2002 Stanley Cup Finals, Wings-Canes. OK, OK, OK. It was Joe Vision, not the actual game. Doesn't matter to me. Same atmosphere, basically, except for there's no game in front of you. Place sounded like a bomb went off when the Wings scored the winning goal.
What we at UVA still call the Hook and Ladder Game. 2002 vs. Georgia Tech. It was a pretty standard, boilerplate football game as far as impact on the season went - Tech went to a slightly worse bowl game because they lost and we didn't go bowling at all. But picture a game that's three quarters of lame, uninspiring offense, followed by a fourth quarter where the teams combine for seven touchdowns, and add to the drama by going 0-for-7 on two-point conversions. The final score was a UVA hook-and-ladder from Spinner to McMullen to Pearman and it was just nuts. First time rushing the field at Scott.
UVA vs. Duke, 2001. Adam Hall gets the rebound and hits a short jump shot off the glass for the winning bucket, 91-89. I can still see the ball on the backboard.... Obviously, a court-rusher.
Larionov scored the game winner. That was probably second on my list.
'03 Michigan vs OSU - Biggest Game Ever.
'08 Game 2 Stanley Cup Finals... everything went right that game.
God many different ones...
Baseball: Tigers vs Yankees when Roger Clemens went for 300 wins and the game ended up going about 20 innings.
NFL: Lions vs Cardinals when Joey Harrington threw two TD's to Charles Rogers and it looked like things were finally going to turn around.
NBA: Pistons vs Trail Blazers in the 1990 NBA finals... one of my first sports memories. The Blazers won in overtime and I was really upset at the time.
NHL: Wings vs Sharks in the 1995 Stanley Cup playoffs. Wings won 6-0 on the way to the Finals.
Soccer: US vs Switzerland at the 1994 World Cup at the Silverdome. My dad's company had tickets and it was one of the first times I'd been exposed to the game. I loved it.
NCAA Football: Michigan vs Ohio State in 1999. My first time going to the OSU game, we won and it was awesome.
I had tickets for game 6 Blazers Pistons, it took a bit of the thrill away for me when Vinnie hit his winner in game 5