OT - Your best sports year as a fan
With alot of talk surrounding Michigan making it to the CFP, and with the Arizona Cardinals, my favorite NFL team, projected to go deep into the playoffs again, I got to wondering...
What has been the best year for you as a fan in terms of your teams having success?
I have never had a year when multiple teams of mine won the whole thing, but I can think of a couple years of great success:
1997 Michigan national championship - who cares what any other of my teams did that year!
2001 - Diamonbacks win epic 7th game in World Series against the hated Yankees, Michigan had a decent year finishing 9-3 (with all 3 losses coming by 3 points at UCLA, 1 point at Purdue, and 3 points at NW), but won against MSU, OSU, and beat Auburn in the Citrus Bowl. (Michigan's year was the 2000 season, with the bowl win in 2001 - maybe I cheated a little)
This year could top them all though if (when) Michigan wins the National Championship and the Cardinals win the Super Bowl!
1996-1997.
Michigan, Red Wings, Packers
exact same years/reasons, spilling into '98 though, including the ncaa men's hockey championship. and my friend greg robinson (YTGR) was coaching the broncos and won the super bowl that year too.
minus the Packers. Go Lions (unfortunately).
UM - one foootball and two hockey NCs (if you go back to 1996). So sweet.
Red Wings - First cup in forever. My dad cried when Stevie Y finally got to carry Lord Stanley's Cup around the ice for the first time.
No, they didn't win a playoff game, but they did make the playoffs. Also, Barry Sanders went 14 straight games with at least 100 yards (NFL record) and hit 2000 in a must - win against the Jets in the last week of the season. Between the Red Wings, Michigan and Barry Sanders I would vote for 1997.
and on top of it my son was born. 97 was truly a special year to me on many fronts.
'97 works for me.
Best sports year eve Woodson, National Title, Red Wings. Ever year since is an epic let down
The 96-99 timeframe --
MICHIGAN National Championship
Broncos back to back SuperBowl Champions - 97-98 (seasons)
Red Wings back to back Cups in 97-98
MICHIGAN Hockey Titles -- 96 & 98
I try and tell my 9yr old son that the Broncos winning the SB this year is in no way a guarantee that it will ever happen again in his life and to enjoy it! He was also born at the very end of the Carr era and through to today, he's probably more appreciative of M Football than many of us were as kids when they "always won."
That whole Series was crazy!
he listed his best years as a fan and then was commenting on my OP about the 2001 DBacks
Nobody seems to remember 1989, when the Wolverines won their only NCAA Basketball Championship and the Pistons won their first NBA Championship. Glad to see someone mention that year.
That would be my favorite. Rose Bowl, NCAA Championship, BAAAAAD BOOOOYS. Great year.
Also, 89 was great with my he NCAA Championship and our Rose Bowl win. I still have my "Triangle of Champions" shirt - a Michigan banner over a map of the US with points in Seattle, Pasadena, and Ann Arbor.
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Same here. My triangle was held together by a single thread by the time I was done with that shirt.
Watching the Tigers get off to a 35-5 start and finishing off the Padres with a huge Gibson blast off Goose Gossage in game 5. I was 14 and playing baseball all day everyday to come home at night and watch the Tigers on Pass or Ch. 4. Best year ever!
I think we all fell asleep to Ernie with a transistor radio in our beds - at least those of us that are old enough to have had the pleasure to do so. Hearing his voice automatically just takes me back to my childhood when life was so simple and so good.
I still remember having PASS scoring me major brownie points as a "friend" to some while growing up, but those broadcast teams were pretty memorable - George Kell and his unmistakable voice along with Al Kaline on WDIV and then Larry Osterman and Bill Freehan (later Jim Northrup) on PASS. Good times indeed when you combine that with Ernie and Paul on the radio.
thinking about it, as far as overall year, 2006 was pretty awesome. No major sports champion, but Michigan was 3 points from playing in the national title game, the Red Wings and Pistons made the WCF and ECF respectively, and the Tigers made the World Series. To top it off, my Richmond Wrestling squad was State Champion that year.
The tinge of disappointment at the end of most of those seasons will always haunt, in my opinion.
But being on a State Championship team would be pretty awesome and should not be ignored from the subjective standpoint of this thread. I can't argue with your choice.
March 30, 2016 - June 16, 1998
Red Wings win back to back Cups
Michigan football National Champs
Michigan hockey National Champs
That time frame blew my mind
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1997 for sure, followed closely by 2006. Fantastic football season and great to have the Tigers relevant again. Also my freshman year. That whole fall was just a non-stop thrill ride. I'll never forget it.
"1997 Michigan National Championship - who cares what any of my other teams did that year?"
That was definitely the best event of that year. But seeing the Michigan hockey team win the national championship and the Red Wings win another Stanely Cup was also pretty sweet.
Woodson winning the Heisman the same night as the basketball team beating #1 Duke for the third straight season? Love, love, love that year.
If we talk about the entire 97-98 school year, we also have Michigan winning the inaugural Big Ten Tournament in basketball, although the regular season and NCAA tourney weren't all that great.
1997-1997.
Barry Sanders was still playing and it didn't matter if the Lions won.
Michigan won.
Red Wings were great and seemingly every late-season football game that mattered, was unbelievable.
Just an awesome year.
The Lions actually won a lot, and Barry ran for 2000 yards. 1991 and 1997 are my two favorite years as a Lions fan by a wide margin, even without everything else.
Tigers defeated the Cubs in 6 in the World Series, after a heartbreaking loss to St. Louis's Gashouse Gang in 1934. Sweet redemption for Greenberg, Gehringer, and all.
Sincerely,
Herm
although '84 was great and '06 was fun from a competitive standpoint.
I also enjoyed '80 and '85 because I thought we were the best team in the nation at the end but they didn't have playoffs back then.
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Michigan wins National Championshiip in Basketball (thank you Glenn Rice - thank you pre-not nice guy Rumuel Robinson)
Michigan wins Rose Bowl 22-14. (PAC 10 forgets to send the cheating officials so Bo get to win one. FYI - they remember the following year and make sure to send the cheatingest cheater refs to the 1990 game)
Pistons finally ake home the title sweeping the vaunted Lakers (Bless you bad boys)
That was a damn good year.
A banner year.
forgot about all the good stuff, and i went to that rose bowl. you'd think i woulda remembered...
I was so young and naive back then, I thought all of my favorite non-Lions teams would be great all of the time. Alas.
Even the Tigers were decent that year, I believe.
They went 59-103 and Sparky had to take a leave of absense for depression because of all lthe losing.
Or are you talking about a different year?
I must be off by a year or two. Obviously they went from '87 to '06 between playoff appearances, but there were some good seasons in the meantime before the Trammell nucleus finally kicked off entirely.
Double posts are invariably posts that are barely worth posting once, much less twice.
And of course my research confirms that in 88 they were a game out of first, saw Cecil Fielder hit 50 in 90 (I was there for 49 with my Dad, it was great!) and of course stunk in '89. There you go.
I had an MSU friend who was from Boston. He died of cancer a few years ago, but had a hell of a sports decade before he died. Between MSU 2001 basketball championship and 2002 Patriots SuperBowl and then the Patriots again in 2004 with the RedSox winning the world series.
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