Your most bittersweet M sports memory/day is...

Submitted by mi93 on

Today was quite the day in Michigan sports.  Red and Fisher retire.  Two MBB players declare for the NBA draft (but won't hire agents).  And the blog posts an agonizing "what if" exchange.  The latter clearly all just bitter, but the other two sets of items are definitely bittersweet - Red's restoration of M hockey, but the late fall; Fisher's NC and 2 NRU teams, but then that happened; 2 great young men take a chance to follow their dreams after helping take MBB on another exciting run.

So, what's your most bittersweet M sports moment?  A game we lost, but shouldn't have been in it?  A player that left early, but you couldn't fault them for getting theirs?  The coach that almost came to Ann Arbor but thankfully didn't now we know he staffs out recruiting to local ladies of the evening?

For me, I vote Derrick Alexander breaking his leg against BC in 1991. Bitter: If he's healthy, do we stand a better chance against FSU?  Or Washington?  Sweet: Does Howard make 'the catch' the next week against ND?  Or win the Heisman?  Thankfully Alexander went on to finish a great M career followed by a solid pro career, but 1991 could have been even more special.

Wolverine Devotee

April 10th, 2017 at 11:02 PM ^

.........

How is this bittersweet? How is this anything other than sad/heartbreaking?

Unless I just don't know what bittersweet means, apparently.

uminks

April 11th, 2017 at 1:09 AM ^

As coach, Bo brought Michigan back from the doldrums of the late 50s and most of the 60s where the luster was wearing off of Michigan being a national power. In his first season Bo switched our program back to being a national power and had a great run through the 70s and 80s. Bo left Mo and Carr a power house program and Carr was able to win a national championship. The bitter would be Bo retiring, though he earned the honor of being one of our best coaches. The worse bitterness is death but he had a great life getting to do what he loved, coaching and we were lucky Don hired him breaking the cycle of just hiring Michigan men. Even though Bo became one of the greatest Michigan men ever!

bacon

April 11th, 2017 at 7:28 AM ^

This borders on religion, so I'll qualify it as I'm just pointing this out, not saying someone should believe one way or another. I guess this is all in how you interpret death. Some might believe that Bo went to a better place after death (Heaven, Valhalla, etc.). Some might not. If you're in the former group, his death might be bittersweet.

1974

April 11th, 2017 at 6:27 AM ^

Can a moment extend several years (from the mid-'90s to 2007)? If so, my bittersweet "moment" is Lloyd Carr's term. (As with many others here, I'll go with his last game if I have to choose one.)

On the bright side:

- Despite what the "coaches poll" said, national championship. Obviously.

- Great recruiter.

- Great man who understood that football was only part of life and handled his players with that in mind.

- Multiple Big Ten championships and no really lousy seasons.

On the other side:

- Produced Top 25 finishes many years with Top 5 talent. (Michigan used to be considered an NFL factory. It seems to just now be getting back to that.) I still think an elite coach could've coaxed at least one national championship out of his early teams.

- Often went to battle with a medicore coaching staff. His coaching tree is almost nonexistent. Compare it to Bo's.

- As was famously noted here, there was an interval where taking a lead into the 4th quarter was a *bad* predictor.

Eastside Maize

April 10th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^

I left there and went to play softball with my coworkers. It was an old school/new breed game. People kept talking to me about the game and the old timers beat the hell out of us...rough day.

MaryStreet

April 10th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^

Most recent bittersweet memory for me was the first half of The Game in 2014. Man what a game we played in the first half, especially Drake Johnson.

While we couldn't hold on in the second half, I still often wonder what could have been if Drake didn't get hurt. He was on fire.

Wolverine Devotee

April 10th, 2017 at 10:45 PM ^

The Hoke era not working out and blowing up into pieces in 2014 at the same time Jed York forced Harbaugh out. 

Even if we managed 9-3 and 7-5 in 2013 and 2014, we're better off in the long term now I think you could say. 

ElBictors

April 10th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^

Webber's shot rimming out vs Duke in Dec 1991 resulting in OT ....
OT v UNC
2006 in Columbus - my son 4days old and born into MICHIGAN fandom for a heart breaker like that ..
Coming up short going for 2 vs osu with Gardner's broken foot

Bando Calrissian

April 10th, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^

2006 Ohio State. That was the moment. I was there, and it was as big a gut-punch as I've ever had.

I'd also add the 1995 Frozen Four loss to Maine. Felt like that team was the one, and they came up just short. Turned out to be off by a year. 

corundum

April 10th, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^

I really wanted to beat the shit out of Texas in the 04'/05' Rose Bowl. A bunch of my friends were bandwagon Longhorn fans because of Vince Young. Breaston had a spectacular game but as what is all to familiar now, we had no chance of stopping the mobile QB. It was a great game with a terrible ending.

Also, my first Michigan road game was the 2000 spreadapalooza at Northwestern. The Anthony Thomas fumble was one of the most devastating sports moments of my life. Randy Walker was a great coach though, and it's a total bummer he passed away so young.

ElBictors

April 11th, 2017 at 11:12 AM ^

LMAO ...nice edit work, Walmart.

 

posted Shazor but then changed when I mentioned it was Burgess.  LMAO!!!!

 

 

 

you're such a dork and what, 10yrs old when that game was played?!  I'm sure you were just going from memory and didn't have to Google anything ...  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

uminks

April 11th, 2017 at 1:24 AM ^

I was bummed after RR first season with only 3 wins. I never thought Michigan would ever have a sub .500 season in the B1G. I think if he would not have went totally to the spread, we would have won at least 6 games. The defense was fairly good that year. Our OL was a mess but we did not have the offensive players to go all spread. Overall I'm glad things went the way they did and we ended up with Harbaugh. Michigan football is so much fun to watch now. It may take a couple more season for Harbaugh to get Michigan to a national championship level. Even if we have a few less wins this season, it will still be exciting to watch this young team grow.

Michigan Arrogance

April 10th, 2017 at 11:09 PM ^

Drew Henson signing with the Yankees. Obviously I'm a Yankees fan and couldn't blame him for take 17M or whatever to be groomed as the next Yankees 3rd baseman. Of course the bitterness is also obvious.

Was hoping he'd turn into as all star but it turns out hitting a curveball slider cutter and chafe up is hard.

WolverineHistorian

April 11th, 2017 at 12:18 AM ^

Ugh. That one will never stop hurting. The way he broke Buckeye fans hearts at the Horseshoe with all those amazing passes and running the bootleg in for the clinching score will always hold a special place in my heart.

Even with the loss of Terrell, I don't think Henson misses a beat if he comes back in 2001, throwing to Marquise Walker, Ronald Bellamy, Germaine Gonzales and a freshman Braylon Edwards. And Tresell's promise that Buckeye fans would be proud would just be more OSU talk that they couldn't back up on the field as was the case the during the previous 13 years.

Excuse me, I have to go find a tissue.

George Pickett

April 10th, 2017 at 11:14 PM ^

Carr's last game. It was a bitter glimpse into what that team could've been with better health and coaching, but beating Meyer and Tebow was certainly sweet. 

translator82

April 11th, 2017 at 12:25 AM ^

A lot of the usual suspects already posted above, so to be different I'd say Frozen Four 2008 in Denver vs. Notre Dame, where we were the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament and ND was the underdog as the No. 4 team in the West region. We got smoked out of the gate down 3-0 after the first period, but crawled back to tie the game, only to go down a goal again before forcing OT. I really thought we'd win that game once we got into OT, but we lost 5-4. I had to witness a ND vs. BC championship game live which was ehh for me and my friend from BU.

 

 

stephenrjking

April 11th, 2017 at 12:30 AM ^

This isn't a thread for the worst moment or the biggest gut-punch, this is a thread for bittersweet, where there is happiness tinged with sadness or heartbreak tinged with good feelings. 

Lloyd's last game is mentioned often here and seems pretty dead-on. A thrilling game, a beautiful exhibition, a final validation of the coach and the team and the players; also, a maddening demonstration of what could have been.

Kinda like the loss to Oregon this year; gutted that we lost, proud of the team and thrilled that we got there. I feel that way about the Louisville loss in 2013, too.

The most bittersweet times for me are ones that are affected by personal sadness, though. The 2000 UM-MSU game that I attended with a hoard of friends both Michigan and MSU fans, a Michigan win at home. Sweet, yes, but then my best friend, who was only in town from college for the weekend, came with me and we visited my dad who was in the hospital just recently diagnosed with cancer.

The last game Dad and I attended together was in 2002, against Washington. Phil Brabbs. That memory is bittersweet, too.

xtramelanin

April 11th, 2017 at 7:55 AM ^

 

Definition of bittersweet

  1. 1:  something that is bittersweetespecially :  pleasure accompanied by suffering or regret… the bittersweet of their long separation

 

i left out the part of the definition about the poisonous vine in europe.  that didn't seem to be a problem for any of us posters. 

Wolfman

April 11th, 2017 at 7:21 AM ^

and the world makes sense to you again. Simply wanted to apologize for placing a half written post on the thread. When I changed over to Windows 8 and now 10, it was not unusual to lose full pages of work simply, it appeared at times, by merely waving your hand close to the built in mouse. Today while writing the post, as I said I hit a key, unintentionally, and if I could tell you which one, it would not have been touched. But the second i hit the key, my post disappeared which did really not bother me, but when I saw it appear in the thread, half done and guaranteed to cause a hell of a lot more confusion than what you experienced, I thought the correct thing to do would be to inform the users said post was an accident and not meant to as a sharing of my most bittersweet moments. I am constantly surprised at the number of people on site who spend a considerable amount of time attempting to figure the meaning of a post produced in a like manner. I wanted to save them the waste of time, if possible. I do apologiize if it caused you to think about the poet. i agree; I don't care too much for his work either. 

And yes, I am fully aware your post was intended to be sarcastic, and Hell No, not offended at all. Lots of us here so guaranteed to be lots of differences.