OT - Most Memorable Sporting Event that YOU PLAYED IN
Mates,
Many of you will be home from work or in a nearly-dead office b/c of the storm so here's a topic to chew on if you're bored. This board is undoubtedly populated with a vast majority of jocks, male and female, even if some of us don't play much in the way of sports anymore (read: fossils like me don't move very fast). And while some of us might answer the question with something along the lines of 'I remember 3rd grade kickball, kicking the ball into the outfield once', I'm guessing there are some very good stories to share.
So the questions are:
1. Give the who, what sport, when, and where of your most memorable sport moment that YOU played in.
2. Tell us why or what made it so memorable.
Be safe in the snow and have fun.
XM
EDIT: Some great responses, even the ones who relate grade-school stuff. For those who read further down, you will find that Everybody Murders 'inadventently' revealed he is Charles Woodson. Who knew?
February 25th, 2016 at 12:35 PM ^
Played first base on the Cobham Yankees in a league that started post WWII. Team was guys from various oil companies(ages 30 and above) and the pitchers were HS age from the American Community School in London area. Also, played some warmup games against US Air Force base teams. Fun to go back to trying to jit a curve ball after many years of sofball games. We won the regular season and playoffs, but did not play in the European Championship because we were not British citizens.
February 25th, 2016 at 12:36 PM ^
My junior year at Kalamazoo Christian we were matched up against Hackett Catholic Central, our arch rival, in Jan. of 1991. We were down 17 at halftime and by 21 midway through the thrid quarter. Suddenly the tide turned and we got our press really working and hit some threes and ultimately sent the game to OT. We won going away in OT as they had their spirits broken. They had won round one on a buzzer-beater, so to win the second matchup (at their place, no less) was sweet. We later beat them in the distric finals and advanced all the way to state quarterfinals. Ah, the glory days!
February 25th, 2016 at 1:59 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 4:30 PM ^
I ran track too, but not the 300 hurdles and couldn't tell you how we did against HCC. I guess it wasn't as meaningful to me as bball. Congrats on the great race!
Were you at the game I mentioned? It was the loudest I've ever heard a gym. Even though it was at your place, the bleachers were about evenly filled by both teams' fans.
February 25th, 2016 at 12:45 PM ^
Fencing at Junior Olympics, 2002. I qualified three years in a row but this was the only time that I could afford to go (club paid for a small portion of expenses, parents made up the difference this one year). Got my ass kicked up and down the piste* except one bout, which I won, much to the shocked glee of my club's head coach. A moment of mixed pride and reality-checking: Coach is happy with me! Yay! Coach did not expect me to win a single bout! Shit!
*Shut up, that's what it's called.
February 25th, 2016 at 12:51 PM ^
Another one for me - representing UM on the table tennis team in a tournament at Ohio State. Mostly got my ass kicked but managed to beat a couple schools.
February 25th, 2016 at 12:53 PM ^
We were playing against Upper Arlington (D-1 Ohio HS) the year they won the state championship with Simon Fraser (the future Buckeye and Atlanta Falcon) on their team. He played both ways, and they kept their starters in the whole game, every game, even when they were blowing out opponents.
We were getting destroyed, so I got to see some garbage time. I played DE at 5'9 190 lbs. Fraser is 6'6 270. He was in auto-pilot and they were running the ball for the most part, except for third and long. On a 3rd and long, I took a jab step inside and beat him around the corner and put a good hit on their QB, knocking him to the ground. He completed the pass anyway and they picked up the first down. The next play, Fraser fired out of his stance like he wanted to kill me and he nearly succeeded, slamming me into the ground with ease. They threw the ball the next play; he waited for me to rush, then simply grabbed me inside the shoulder pads and tossed me to the ground like a rag doll. That was my last play of the game, thankfully, but I can say for one play I beat a future Buckeye and NFL player as a sophomore in HS...
February 25th, 2016 at 10:09 PM ^
haha nice. I played some d-line, d-end and linebacker on the scout team in 8th grade and one year in HS. The positions on the line are incredibly fun to play even if you are getting tossed around by bigger dudes. Wish I had played more - my biggest regret.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:12 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 1:18 PM ^
at an ice rink with my work colleagues in Brea, CA, circa 1985...
Having grown up in Michigan playing ice hockey in backyard rinks, I had acquired some average skills, but which made me look like a superstar among my California native colleagues. I easily stick handled my way through the whole opposing team and scored repeatedly with every type of shot: wrist, backhand, slap shot, you name it. Then out of the corner of my eye, here comes the office dick running at me to check me into the boards. I pivoted, stepped into him with my shoulder and knocked him clear over the boards into the bench area...haha!
February 25th, 2016 at 1:24 PM ^
Never played for any title. My most memorable game was when Chris Webber scored 50 against me in high school. It would be fair to say that I got seriously abused.
But as a head coach, my team won the Michigan Basketball State Championship in '98 (What divisioni you ask? Oh, the smallest, private religious school division that would be blown out by many "real" high school basketball teams... but we did win, and I will claim it!).
February 25th, 2016 at 1:25 PM ^
1975 State AAU wrestling tournament, Dayton, OH...I find myself in a precarious position on my back, about to be pinned in a first round match, when I went to my go-to move and chomped down on my opponents shoulder, resulting in a stoppage of the match while they tended to the fresh bite marks. No blood, no harm, no foul. I ended up pinning the guy in the third round, much to the displeasure of that young man and his coach. Ran thru the rest of the tournament until I met my match in the final, losing 4-3. 2nd in State, 55-lb, 8-year old division.
1982 Northern Lakes League (NW Ohio) championship game, good guys (Rossford Bulldogs) down 7-6 late in the 4th quarter, with the bad guys (Anthony Wayne Generals) driving. What the?.....here comes a perfectly good football flying over the middle, a perfect spiral headed right at me with not a soul around. I can still hear the bang as it popped my shoulder pads, and I wrapped my paws around it and took off. Never one accused of having too much speed, two steps later I was down, But it was on. We took the ball, drove the length of the field, scored to go up 12-7 with 2:00 minutes left on the clock (missed the extra point because our kicker couldn't get the "toe strap" tied to his foot in time, then banged one out into the corn field at a 65-degree angle from the intended target. Yes, we should have gone for two....sigh). AW gets the kickoff, runs a reverse to my side, and I'm toast. Long return puts them in great field position. Fell for it, AGAIN, after getting burned the week before. PENALTY. For some reason there's a re-kick. AW drives down to the 5-yard line, 4th down, 30-seconds left in the game, playoff bid hanging in the balance for the winner. Pass out into the flats, our star LB reads it, runs him down, and as I'm running down the goalline chasing, the ballcarrier falls exactly 6-inches short of the endzone. First championship in 10 years and a playoff berth. Game.
1984 NLL defacto championship game, baseball, good guys down big early, went in to pitch and turned out the lights for the next 5 innings. Clawed our way back, tie game 8-8, 8th inning, nice RBI single to go ahead 9-8. Bad guys (Bowling Green Bobcats) come to bat and I grudgingly move back to center field after having now pitched 12-innings in 3 days. With 2-outs, man on second, guy hits an absolute laser to left center, no chance. Took off in hot pursuit, thinking no possible way this is caught. The ball had traveled 340+ and was "still climbing" when at the last second I reached out with a backhand and it smacked square into the palm of my hand and stuck. Game.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:25 PM ^
In 1959, I represented Oberlin College in Epee at the nationals at the U.S. Naval Academy. It was one of the two times that I got my name in the NY Times (box score.) I didn't do very well but it did give me a national ranking. The other time I was in the Times was my daughter's wedding announcement in the society pages. My Michigan connection is Rackham.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:52 PM ^
The first "SuperMac", a 600 mile sailboat race in July 1975 from Port Huron to Chicago. We were 2nd in class at Mackinac Island in the Port Huron Mackinac race portion of the race, and then continued down Lake Michigan to Chicago. We were doing well against the other boats in our class until we were bacalmed for several hours about 15 miles from the finish in Chicago.
Suddenly a squall line came through and the winds blew up to over 60 mph. The boat was knocked over and pinned down, spray was blowing horizontally and the cockpit began filling with water. One of our crew members fell overboard and began floating away from the boat. I reached out over the rail, grabbed him and pulled him back in the cockpit. I can still picture that moment in my mind as clearly as if it happened yesterday.
We kept the boat going while we cleaned her up and straightened her out, and finished first in class about 2 hours later. I have won many boat races, but never one like that.
February 25th, 2016 at 1:57 PM ^
Playing football in college we had a road game in a small domed stadium. The place rocked and the fans got there early and packed the place. They would really lay into the opposing teams. I was out early, with special teams, returning punts and getting used to seeing the ball in the dome.
We were working on the end near the student section and they were all over us. So our FG kicker is practicing and we go over and talk with him and the holder. We said we need to shut these idiots up so we told him to move into extra point range and just blast a ball right into the student section. So he does it and it couldn't have gone better. The ball drilled a tray a guy was carrying full of beer and popcorn. It looked like an explosion as beer and popcorn flew everywhere and covered probabaly everyone within 20 feet of the guy. The student section went crazy and started throwing crap at us, we took off to the locker room laughing our asses off. We got in and the head coach asked what was happening out there. We just said not sure coach, but we are warmed up and good to go.
February 25th, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^
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February 25th, 2016 at 2:27 PM ^
A game between two, now non-existent private schools:
High school senior homecoming. Up 18-13, late in the 4th. Opponent driving, getting 1st down after 1st down, mostly by passing. With about a couple minutes left the opposing QB throws a pick, we will have the ball on our 3 yard line.
Next play, a run play is called, running right behind me. I’m playing right OT - I’ve got to block an LB on this play. Ball is snapped – where’d the LB go? I block no one, next thing I know our RB is running downfield for a (school record) 97 yard TD and the 24-13 win.
When I watched the tape of the game I found why I never saw the LB - the DT in front of him stayed on all fours deliberately, didn’t move at all at the snap. The LB blitzed and used the DT as a jumping board to launch himself into the backfield. Instead of making a flying tackle on our RB he missed entirely, and our RB went untouched for the 97 yarder.
February 25th, 2016 at 2:38 PM ^
210 hits to buy in on your good idea to let a lot of frustrated jocks share their glory days/moments and create an island in the sun on a routine winter day.
Thanks for your post.
February 25th, 2016 at 2:55 PM ^
I am going with the hockey game. Set the scene. Midget A Travel Championship game Taylor vs Southgate. Standing room only at the Ice Box in Brownstown, winner take all in a best of three series. Final score Southgate 3 Taylor 1 low scoring but a hard fought game (emphasis on fought). We really got to hate one another from 4 other games throughout the season not including the 2 previous 1 goal differential playoff games. In this last game winner take all I had 2 goals. The first goal of the game and the 3rd. They had six men and of course the puck was in our end as soon as I seen my close friend a defenseman get control of the puck I called for him as I was splitting the defense he saw me and immediately snapped a pass right on my stick just before the red line would have made it a two line pass.
So yes, I had a break away facing an empty net with the defenseman trying to get his stick up under my arm from behind me. The entire place on their feet. I just slid that puck on the ice right in the center of that net and as they say it was all over except the pandamonium that broke out after that game. That was the end of my hockey career Midget A travel. So I scored two goals in a three goal championship game. After that I was recruited to play for a Junior A team that was out of the Ice Box. So I had to make a decision. Was my losing my teeth going to be worth it even if I could not make a career out of hockey. Not to mention paying for ice time, sticks, gas because travel in the Jr's was scrimmages and league games inToledo, Lincoln Park, Garbage City, Port Huron, Flint, Livonia, Trenton, Lansing. To me the answer was a gimme. I went to work as soon as I graduated, at Great Lakes Steel but I left that place after 2 years with an opportunity to become a tool maker on the north end of town. Then as they say the rest was history.
February 25th, 2016 at 3:04 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 6:29 PM ^
My last year playing club soccer (U17 or U16) was uninspired. Soccer moms had taken over our club and ran out the founder who went on to form a premiere league. I was playing on the B team, and we lost every game that year during the regular season. It was frustrating as our coach wouldn't let us play in the formation we wanted to play in, and our goalie was horrible, discounting a decent amount of talent on the field.
This all continued until our last game of the year when neither the coach or the goalie could make it, so my dad let us play our 3-5-2 formation with one of our players stepping in at goal. With 11 players we played well and tied our last game.
We went to our first tournament of the season in Saginaw and didn't expect much. 16 teams with 4 pods playing round robin with a semi and final game if you advanced. The only difference was that we were able to grab the premiere team goalie, and our coach, after hearing how well we played, agreed to let us play the formation and positions we knew.
We stormed out of the gate, demolishing the first two teams 4-0 and 2-0 (I had a couple goals), and needed only to tie to advance. The third game was a brutal contest, as the team we played was very good. We held our own though, playing to a 0-0 tie and advancing to the semi's.
Our club's A-team had been beaten pretty good, but confirmed to us that we only advanced because our pod was bad and we'd get smoked by the team that advanced from their pod. We ended up outplaying their team, however, with an almost 2-1 shot advantage. Unfortunatelly we ended up knocking 3 shots off the posts, and they were able to hang on for a 2-2 tie. We ended up losing in a shootout, which sucks when you outplay the other team. I think with a different shoot out line up (Again, the coach did not know our team at all), we could have advanced to the finals.
It was a great end to a lackluster season, and validated a lot of good players. Unfortunately we ended up with our goalie again for the next two tournaments, and he continued letting in everything. Still, one of my favorite sports events I've been part of.
February 25th, 2016 at 6:01 PM ^
....IIRC the winning 2 point conversion was scored on me in the corner of the endzone. We answered their TD with a TD of our own and then failed on the 2pt conversion with a HB who at the point was fully concussed and had no idea who he was on the bus home.
Balls.
Highest Scoring Overtime Games
139 - Tawas 70, Shepherd 69 (4 OT) (11-1-2002)
February 25th, 2016 at 6:06 PM ^
1991 Class B Michigan High School Baseball finals. I had some solid defensive plays, but not much at the plate.
February 25th, 2016 at 6:48 PM ^
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February 25th, 2016 at 6:52 PM ^
My Dad, brother, and I played out of our minds and won a golf scramble. Dad wasn't much of a player but he rolled in 3-4 putts, and he was so excited. He died two year later on that date, and my brother and I still talk about it. (June 17, 1994 -- same day as the O.J. Bronco chase)
February 25th, 2016 at 7:57 PM ^
The apex of my competitive sports career was playing IM Sports at U of M. I was lucky enough to walk away with 4 championships.
- 1997 Spring Term 3-on-3 Basketball
- 1997 Co-ed Basketball (AA)
- 1996 Men's Flag Football (BB)
- 1995 Men's Soccer (BB)
Granted, a couple of the 'ships were in the lowest bracket, but I cherished each t-shirt equally.... and each championship was memorable. 3-on-3 was played at the Elbel courts, which no longer exist. I played a lot of ball on those courts. Good times. In co-ed hoops, we had to go through a team that had a couple of ex-varsity walk ons in the semifinal. The last game for flag football was played in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. And the soccer 'ship almost didn't happen. IM soccer was played 9 on 9 on slightly smaller fields. Several of our guys didn't show up and we had to play 7 on 9 in the semis. I want to say we won in sudden death OT, but my mind might be trying to make it cooler than it really was.
I do have one non IM sports "moment." I played competitive rec soccer in the summer's at Fuller Park across from the IM fields. I played in the Premier League one summer in the late 90's. Our team was a bunch of random guys thrown together..... and we ended up winning the league playing against sponsored travel teams. The highlight was beating a team consisting of players from U of M's club team, which is a bigger deal than it might sound considering they didn't go Varsity until 2000.
February 25th, 2016 at 8:17 PM ^
I was a decent swimmer and rower, but I sucked at lax and pretty much anything else involving a ball (I was OK at water polo). So, I didn't play baseball, but we had a law firm softball team that I was on. I hit a softball so hard one time it went to the opposite field's pitching circle (or so I was told), and I remember that the other team didn't even get the ball back in to our field until I was home. Pretty sure I struck out the rest of my at-bats.
February 25th, 2016 at 8:18 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 8:48 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 9:15 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 9:30 PM ^
I had the greatest moment of my athletic life as a coach, not as an athlete:
In my last year as an assistant wrestling coach, our team made it to the regional finals against a rival team. The dual mostly went as planned, except for a couple dominos falling down the wrong way, making it look like we would be eliminated. In the last match of the night, our 125-pound freshman first-year wrestler was up against a state-ranked kid. Our kid was very athletic, but didn't really know what he was doing. Unfortunately, that's not usually a good situation in wrestling. Anyway, he wrestled the match of his life and secured us a 2 point victory to send us to the state tournament. The previous year we had beaten the same team in a similar close manner, and those two duals probably resulted in more adrenaline than I've ever experienced before.
February 25th, 2016 at 9:33 PM ^
I played for a VERY small Chrisian school, and we were in a preseason holiday tournament around Thanksgiving. We were playing a school twice our size, and I was given the task to guard their point guard, whos was averaging 20pg, 10 as, 8 rb a game triughout the tourney. I shut him out, he left the game scoreless and I scored 14 and we won. I got all tourney team from that performance.
February 25th, 2016 at 9:46 PM ^
1995 7th grade basketball all star game. Didn't score any points but swatted one kid's shot high off the wall and the crowd went 'Oooooooh'.
1993 soccer cleanly slide-tackled this kid in the rain and he rolled through a puddle and water shot up everywhere like a freaking log flume ride.
But really - 2002 played against the USA National Men's Lacrosse team. Stripped Mikey Powell, Syracuse All-American & Tewaaraton winner twice and stripped Josh Coffman, 3x All American for Syracuse in the same game.
February 25th, 2016 at 9:55 PM ^
February 25th, 2016 at 10:04 PM ^
He may not admit it, but golfing with me that beautiful July afternoon in '93 may have been his favorite sporting event.
I enjoyed it too. Even after Harbaugh hit me with a "high infinity" five after I snaked in an extremely long putt for eagle!
Picture or it didn't happen...
View post on imgur.com
(No, the little guy isn't me. That's former Lions/Navy coach Rick Forzano.)
February 25th, 2016 at 10:14 PM ^
February 26th, 2016 at 1:32 AM ^