Barry Switzer led the Oklahoma Sooners to national championships in 1974 and 1975 and nearly won another in 1977 before a stunning Orange Bowl defeat cost them the final #1 ranking. Expectations in Norman were that the beat would go on, and 1978 Oklahoma football was #4 in the preseason polls. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTSStart […]
Penn State produced unbeaten but uncrowned teams in 1968, 1969 and 1973. Much to the chagrin of the Nittany Lions, their rival Pitt was honored with a national title after a perfect season in 1976. After two years out of the major bowl picture, Joe Paterno’s 1978 Penn State football team was ready to return […]
Nebraska last won it all when they went back-to-back in 1970-71 with Bob Devaney as the head coach. Since Tom Osborne, Devaney’s offensive coordinator, had taken over, the Cornhuskers kept winning, but had a monkey on their backs out of Oklahoma. As if to affirm that Osborne had a black cloud following him around, the […]
The Montreal Canadiens are to the NHL what the New York Yankees are to major league baseball—royalty in the sport. And if you have any doubt, all you have to do is ask fans of either team (spoken like a true Boston sports partisan). The 1993 Montreal Canadiens were the last edition of the franchise […]
For over twenty years of existence, the Los Angeles Kings had been a non-factor. After their founding in 1968, they had never made it past the second of the playoffs. In 1989, the franchise made a splash for the ages when they acquired Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers. But even after four years with […]
The 1993 Phoenix Suns were a team looking to take the proverbial next step and were willing to make big changes to get what they wanted. Over the previous four years, under the coaching direction of Cotton Fitzsimmons, the Suns had been good. From 1989-92, they won 50-plus games and got into the conference finals […]
The 1993 Boston Celtics represented the start of a new era in franchise history, that of post-Larry Bird. The Legend had retired following the 1992 season. There was a good core of young talent that comprised a solid playoff team for the Celtics in ‘93 and there was reason for hope in Boston. But by […]
Near-miss had been the mantra of the Boston Bruins for three straight years coming into the 1993 season. The franchise lost the Stanley Cup Finals to Edmonton in 1990, then fell in the conference final to Mario Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992. The 1993 Boston Bruins continued the pattern of successful regular seasons […]
In 1992, Michigan’s freshman class took the college basketball world by storm. The quintet of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson reached the NCAA final before losing to Duke. 1993 Michigan basketball brought all five back to make a run at the program’s second national championship in five years. GREAT […]
Rick Pitino took over the Kentucky Wildcats for the 1991 season, after the program had crashed on the reefs of NCAA probation and had a bad year. Pitino quickly started winning again in ‘91, even if the team was ineligible for postseason play. In 1992 they nearly made the Final Four before losing one of […]
Mike Krzyzewski had already made history in the early 1990s. His Duke teams had made six Final Fours in the seven years from 1986-92. They had won the last two national championships, the first team to repeat since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty. The 1993 Duke basketball team was hoping to three-peat, in spite of losing […]
After North Carolina won the NCAA title in 1982, they went into what was—at least relatively speaking—a March drought. While Dean Smith continued to churn out national contenders and at least get to the Sweet 16, there were no Final Four appearances for a decade. But in 1991, UNC had broken through to get back […]
