This article offers a snapshot of 2005 sports, a year that saw a seven-game NBA Finals showdown, 6-seed magic in the NFL playoffs and some great pitching in baseball’s postseason. The year was marred by a NHL lockout that canceled the entire season, and the year was ultimately defined by two big showdowns for college championships.
In a previous edition of TheSportsNotebook’s tribute to which city had the best year in sports, we paid homage to Chicago in 1993. It’s the Windy City that again gets the nod for 2005, but with a different cast of characters. The White Sox, a bit player in ’93 as a division winner, are the star of the ’05 performance as they won their first World Series since 1917 and eradicated the “Black Sox Curse”, the eight players who were thrown out of baseball after fixing the 1919 World Series for gamblers. And while 1993’s year was carried by Michael Jordan’s Bulls, who won a championship and Lou Holtz’s Notre Dame football team, who deserved won, it’s a different pro and college team that steps up in ’05. The Illinois basketball team came within a basket of an undefeated regular season and within one win of a national title. And the Chicago Bears played a sound supporting role in winning the NFC North. So while the only fans in Chicago who can truly embrace all of this are South Siders (the good people of the North were still suffering with the Cubs), it was a great year to be in Chitown and TheSportsNotebook looks back on the year that was 2005…