There was something magical about the third year of a Notre Dame football coach’s tenure. Ara Parseghian and Dan Devine had each won a national championship in Year Three. Brian Kelly reached the BCS National Championship Game in 2012. The 1988 Notre Dame football team is a part of that third-year magic, winning a national title for Lou Holtz.
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year.
There were two great races in the 1998 MLB season. The one that captivated the nation at the time, the Great Home Run Race, has been marred by subsequent developments. There was another race—a furious three-team battle for the NL wild-card spot—that was mildly under the radar at the time, and has been all but forgotten by history. This is a race that deserves a better historical fate.
The 2004 Boston Red Sox were the ones that ended 86 years of baseball angst in New England and participation on that team continues to define the legacy of its key players. Ask current Dodger manager Dave Roberts, who is the continued recipient of gratitude from us citizens of Red Sox Nation simply for a […]
Prior to the two runs LeBron James had in Cleveland, the greatest era the Cavaliers had was from 1987-93. In that stretch, they won 50 regular season games three different times. The 1992 Cleveland Cavaliers edition was the best, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1976. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Start […]
The Utah Jazz had started coming into their own as a franchise in 1984, when they began consistently reaching the playoffs. Head coach Frank Layden handed off the keys to Jerry Sloan in 1989 and the postseason spots kept coming. The 1992 Utah Jazz produced the next significant breakthrough—they became the first team to reach […]
There are some award decisions you disagree with and others that simply leave you scratching your head and wondering if you just watched the same season as those that did the voting. The 2012 National League Cy Young Award is one of those for me. Johnny Cueto, then with the Cincinnati Reds, deserved to win […]
The city of Portland saw the best basketball in the Western Conference played in the early part of the 1990s. They reached the NBA Finals in 1990. In 1991, the Trail Blazers posted the best record in the West and reached the conference finals before losing to Magic Johnson and the Lakers. And the 1992 […]
1991 had been a breakthrough year for Michael Jordan, as he won the first championship of his career. The sequel was even better. The 1992 Chicago Bulls repeated as champs and were the best edition of the great Jordan squads in the early part of the 1990s. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Start reading today. It was […]
Larry Bird had been gamely fighting his declining body for four seasons and the 1992 Boston Celtics campaign would be his last run. The Celtics were no longer in the NBA’s upper crust, but they remained a competitive team and made sure Bird’s final season was a good one. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS Start reading today. […]
The 1982 NFL MVP award holds a distinction for strangeness. In a year ripped apart by a strike there were only nine games played and the honor went to Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley. I’m a Redskins fan and I hold Moseley in high regard, but this was…well, it was stupid. It’s time to set […]
The 1983 Milwaukee Brewers were a team looking to finish the job, after coming one game short of a World Series title in 1982. For five solid months they made a run at it, but a September fade portended a finishing of a different kind—the completion of the greatest era in franchise history. GREAT 1980s […]