The Chicago Bulls had rolled to championships in 1991 and 1992 that managed to shut up media types who pontificated that Michael Jordan wasn’t the type of player who could win a title (for younger readers, this really was a dominant media theme in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I trust those writers are hidden under a rock somewhere today). The 1993 Chicago Bulls faced a different challenge.
This is part of a series of sports history articles aimed at preserving the best moments of the modern sports era, from 1976 to the present. The focus is team sports—college & pro basketball and football, major league baseball and hockey.
This article offers a snapshot of 1993 sports, one that might be called the year of the walkoff. The NBA Finals ended on a walkoff trey, and the World Series ended with a walkoff home run.
1993 was a good sports year for Chicago in general and especially for the large elements of the Windy City fan base that root for Notre Dame football. Michael Jordan’s Bulls won their third straight NBA title, the White Sox won the AL West (this was the last year before realignment created a Central Division in each league) and Notre Dame rolled to an Orange Bowl victory and what should have been a national championship. We should probably even be more specific about where it was a good year for Chicago—you’d have to be on the South Side and in the Irish neighborhoods. The Notebook takes a look back on how the year unfolded.