Happy 4th of July! To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, the TOC Staff wanted to share what we felt are the most iconic sports moments in our nation’s history. We hope you enjoy our lists. And we look forward to seeing your lists in the comment section.
O Basse
1. Babe Ruth calling his shot in the 1932 World Series, then hitting a homerun. This gets on the list because 96 years later, people still replicate the pose in all manners of situations, making this a part of pop-culture even beyond sports,
even if what really happened is still up for debate.
2. Joe Louis winning the heavyweight championship in boxing in 1937. While he is the 2nd black boxer to win the heavyweight belt, he surpassed the first (Jack Johnson) in fame and is often cited as being the first African-American to be a national hero thanks to his later victory over Nazi Germany’s Max Schmeling in 1938.
3. Michigan State defeating Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA Championship. The game famously pitted Magic Johnson against Larry Bird, foreshadowing a rivalry that would dominate the NBA for the next decade. Amazingly, despite the growth in the U.S. population from 225 million in 1979 to over 340 million today, this game remains the highest watched college basketball game in history with over 35 million viewers.
4. Hulk Hogan body-slamming Andre the Giant, billed at 7’4″ tall and 520 pounds, in the main event of Wrestlemania III in 1987 at the Pontiac Silverdome. Two larger than life athletes who each transcended their sport were responsible for the moment that brought pro wrestling from the fringes to the mainstream.
5. “He has trouble with the snap!” Michigan State beats um in their 2015 football matchup on one of the flukiest endings of all-time. This makes the list not just because I want to relive this play as often as I can, but also because it largely helped bring the term “Surrender Cobra” to the American vernacular.
Mike Homes
1. 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals in Track & Field and the ‘Boys in the Boat’ men’s 8 crew comes from behind to defeat Italy and Germany for gold in front of Hitler.
2. 1980 Miracle on Ice. Herb Brooks leads college kids to victory over the mighty Red Army team in the Lake Placid Olympics. The USA goes on to win gold.
3. USA Women’s Gymnastics wins their first ever team gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Kerri Strug nails a vault on a badly injured ankle to seal it for the USA.
4. The US Women’s National Team wins the 1999 World Cup in the Rose Bowl, doing wonders to elevate women’s sports in America. It goes to penalty kicks and Brandi Chastain’s goal is the difference.
5. American wrestler Rulon Gardner defeats Russian Aleksandr Karelin, who hadn’t lost in 13 years or given up a point in 6 years, to win gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Steve Neumann
1. 1980 Miracle on Ice. I mean they were college kids playing way out of their league and with the Cold War. Unbelievable! (video above)
2. Jackie Robinson’s MLB debut. Changed the game forever by including athletes of color. Some of the greatest of all time were finally given the chance.
3. Bulls two three-peats with the only miss of an 8-peat due to Jordan’s MLB moment. This also included the 72-10 season.
4. Muhammad Ali defeating Liston and saying “I must be the greatest.”
5. Secretariat. Winning the Triple Crown in pure dominance. I mean when they make a movie about you, it’s legendary. Everyone on this list has been Hollywood-ized.
Robbie Bettelon (with a slight bias)
1.The Detroit Pistons beat the heavily favored LA Lakers in 2004 to win the NBA championship in a 4-1 series. Detroit was one of the few teams to win without a bona fide superstar and the “Goin’ to Work” team went down in history as one of the greatest defensive teams ever.
2. The Detroit Lions making it to the NFC Championship game in 2023 for the first time in 32 years. On the way, they beat the Los Angeles Rams and Matthew Stafford as he returned to the city that drafted him just for Detroit to end the longest active playoff-win drought against him.
3. Magglio Ordóñez’s walk-off homerun to win the 2006 ALCS sent the Detroit Tigers to their first World Series since 1984. Magglio launched the ball to left field as the crowd went nuts to the famous words “THE TIGERS MARCH TO THE WORLD SERIES!”
4. One of the greatest regular season hockey games was played on March 26, 1997 – Fight Night at the Joe. The Detroit Red Wings hosted the Colorado Avalanche where Darren McCarty got his revenge on Claude Lemieux after his dirty hit on Kris Draper, Patrick Roy fought Mike Vernon, and a total of 18 major penalties for fighting. McCarty buried the overtime winner to give Detroit a 6-5 victory.
5.Back in 2014, Michigan State football beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl 24-20 for their first Rose Bowl win since 1988. Kyler Elsworth made the game-saving tackle after the surprise Max Bullough suspension and this game put Michigan State on the national stage. I was a senior at MSU at the time and it’s a game I’ll never forget.
Give us your favorite moments, TOC – we want to read them!
Go Green!
