Welcome to TSE: Sports News Highlights of the Past
These are in no specific order...just
a collection of highlights gathered for your amusement and your
memories. There's no possible way to showcase all the great moments in
sports on a single page and these might not even be the top moments in
sports history...but...they were moments, and memorable ones at that.
Doug Flutie: it was November 22nd, 1984 and with only 6 seconds left to go Flutie threw a hail mary pass to Gerald Phelan which won the game for Boston College against the Miami Hurricanes ( 47-45 ) and landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Flutie also won the Heisman Trophy that year.
Rocky Marciano: retired from boxing as the undefeated heavyweight champ on April 27th, 1956 with a professional record of 49 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws, and 43 knockouts.
Pete Rose: baseball's all-time leading hitter, and wearer of 3 World Series rings, was banned from baseball due to gambling. Three years after he retired, in August 1989 Rose agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball.
Miami Dolphins: In 1972 they became the first undefeated ( 17-0 ) team, and went on to win the Superbowl that year.
Baseball Strike: In July 1994 the Player's Association approved of the strike date of August 12th...with no end in sight Bud Selig cancelled the World Series. The strike lasted 232 days. The now defunct Montreal Expos were having their best year ever ( 74-40 ), and might have won the World Series that year and possibly saved the franchise from leaving to greener pastures.
Mike Tyson: On June 28th, 1997 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Tyson getting frustrated by Holyfield decides, in round three, to bite Holyfields ear and tear a chuck out...but strangely the fight continues...and then Tyson does it again to the other ear tearing off an even bigger chunk...by this time bedlam had broke out and Tyson had, for all intense purposes, lost whatever mind he had left to lose.
Doug Flutie: it was November 22nd, 1984 and with only 6 seconds left to go Flutie threw a hail mary pass to Gerald Phelan which won the game for Boston College against the Miami Hurricanes ( 47-45 ) and landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Flutie also won the Heisman Trophy that year.
Rocky Marciano: retired from boxing as the undefeated heavyweight champ on April 27th, 1956 with a professional record of 49 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws, and 43 knockouts.
Pete Rose: baseball's all-time leading hitter, and wearer of 3 World Series rings, was banned from baseball due to gambling. Three years after he retired, in August 1989 Rose agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball.
Miami Dolphins: In 1972 they became the first undefeated ( 17-0 ) team, and went on to win the Superbowl that year.
Baseball Strike: In July 1994 the Player's Association approved of the strike date of August 12th...with no end in sight Bud Selig cancelled the World Series. The strike lasted 232 days. The now defunct Montreal Expos were having their best year ever ( 74-40 ), and might have won the World Series that year and possibly saved the franchise from leaving to greener pastures.
Mike Tyson: On June 28th, 1997 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Tyson getting frustrated by Holyfield decides, in round three, to bite Holyfields ear and tear a chuck out...but strangely the fight continues...and then Tyson does it again to the other ear tearing off an even bigger chunk...by this time bedlam had broke out and Tyson had, for all intense purposes, lost whatever mind he had left to lose.
Chicago White Sox: in 1919
eight players threw the World Series and let the Cincinnati Reds
win...traditionally called the Black Sox Scandal. Chick Gandil was the
lead behind it and recruited pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams,
Buck Weaver ( third base ), Shoeless Joe Jackson ( outfield ),
shortstop Swede Risberg, outfielder Oscar 'Happy' Felsch, and utility
player Fred McMullin. All were acquitted of criminal charges ( as
a result of missing transcripts ) but banned from baseball for life.
Wayne Gretsky: in the 1981-2 season scored a massive 92 goals and had 120 assists with the Edmonton Oilers. Over a career that lasted 20 years he managed to amass 894 goals, 1963 assists, several still unbeaten records, and 4 Stanley Cups.
US Hockey Team: Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980...the US Team defeats the Soviet Union and moves on to the finals...beating Finland 4-2. But it was the win over the Soviet Union that caused a mass out-pouring of patriotism throughout the US. Amazingly just prior the Soviets man-handled the Americans in a pre-Olympic exhibition game beating them 10-3. Sports Illustrated voted it the " greatest sports moment of the twentieth century ".
Cassius Clay: on February 25th, 1964 Clay, at the age of 22, defeats the seemingly unstoppable Sonny Liston...after round 4 Clay starts complaining that something was bothering his eyes making them burn...spends the 5th round avoiding Liston...by the 6th round his eyes back to fighting strength he regained command...by round 7 Liston had had enough, refusing to get off his stool, feigning a shoulder injury. Clay, realizing he had just defeated Liston, yelled "I'm the greatest" and "I shook up the world!"
Boston Red Sox: sold, after three seasons, Babe Ruth to the N.Y. Yankees on January 2nd, 1920 after his having a spectacular season in 1919 breaking the single-season home run record. The rivalry that ensued between the Sox and the Yankees ( dubbed the "Greatest Rivalry on Earth" ) was a very much one-sided affair...and the World Series drought the Sox experienced after the sale became the legendary ' curse of the Bambino '.
Lou Gehrig: gave his famous ' Farewell Speech ' at Yankee Stadium on July 4th, 1939 in front of 61,808 fans ( officially proclaimed "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" by the Yankees who on June 21st also announced Gehrig's retirement ), Gehrig suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( ALS...which became known as Lou Gehrig's disease )...which destroys the nervous system leaving the mind intact. Doctors gave him 3 years, or less, to live....and he passed on June 2nd, 1941.
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
The Farewell Speech
"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.
"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.
"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."
— Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939
Wayne Gretsky: in the 1981-2 season scored a massive 92 goals and had 120 assists with the Edmonton Oilers. Over a career that lasted 20 years he managed to amass 894 goals, 1963 assists, several still unbeaten records, and 4 Stanley Cups.
US Hockey Team: Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980...the US Team defeats the Soviet Union and moves on to the finals...beating Finland 4-2. But it was the win over the Soviet Union that caused a mass out-pouring of patriotism throughout the US. Amazingly just prior the Soviets man-handled the Americans in a pre-Olympic exhibition game beating them 10-3. Sports Illustrated voted it the " greatest sports moment of the twentieth century ".
Cassius Clay: on February 25th, 1964 Clay, at the age of 22, defeats the seemingly unstoppable Sonny Liston...after round 4 Clay starts complaining that something was bothering his eyes making them burn...spends the 5th round avoiding Liston...by the 6th round his eyes back to fighting strength he regained command...by round 7 Liston had had enough, refusing to get off his stool, feigning a shoulder injury. Clay, realizing he had just defeated Liston, yelled "I'm the greatest" and "I shook up the world!"
Boston Red Sox: sold, after three seasons, Babe Ruth to the N.Y. Yankees on January 2nd, 1920 after his having a spectacular season in 1919 breaking the single-season home run record. The rivalry that ensued between the Sox and the Yankees ( dubbed the "Greatest Rivalry on Earth" ) was a very much one-sided affair...and the World Series drought the Sox experienced after the sale became the legendary ' curse of the Bambino '.
Lou Gehrig: gave his famous ' Farewell Speech ' at Yankee Stadium on July 4th, 1939 in front of 61,808 fans ( officially proclaimed "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" by the Yankees who on June 21st also announced Gehrig's retirement ), Gehrig suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( ALS...which became known as Lou Gehrig's disease )...which destroys the nervous system leaving the mind intact. Doctors gave him 3 years, or less, to live....and he passed on June 2nd, 1941.
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
The Farewell Speech
"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.
"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.
"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."
— Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939
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