The 1978 NLCS was a rematch between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Just as they had the year before, the Dodgers won the pennant in four games (of what was then a best-of-five round), jumping on Philadelphia quickly and then winning good Game 4 to clinch.
The New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals had waged epic battles in the American League Championship Series of 1976 and 1977, with the Yankees winning each in the ninth inning of the deciding fifth game (this round was best-of-five from 1969-84). The Yankees and Royals met for a third straight year in the 1978 ALCS. This one didn’t go down to the final inning—or even the final game. But it still had memorable games and a familiar result as the Yankees again advanced to the World Series.
Tom Lasorda had made a big splash in his first year as manager in Los Angeles, winning the pennant in 1977. The 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers made the new skipper 2-for-2, pulling away to win the NL West on the strength of a dynamite September.
The 1985 Boston Red Sox showed the flashes of hope that would ultimately manifest themselves into a pennant a year later, but the ’85 team was done in by an August collapse
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It was a fresh start for football in South Bend, as head coach Ty Willingham came over from Stanford to coach the 2002 Notre Dame football team. Willlingham had taken the Cardinal to a Rose Bowl in 1999, and a strong first year—including briefly sniffing a possible national championship—raised hopes that Notre Dame finally had the right man.
The Minnesota Vikings had come into the NFL in 1961, and were waiting for their first trip to the playoffs. The arrival of new head coach Bud Grant in 1967 put the team on a solid footing. And the 1968 Minnesota Vikings, while far from a great team, were able to give the Twin Cities playoff football for the first time.
The arrival of George Allen in the nation’s capital had brought winning football for the first time since World War II, as Allen led the Redskins to the playoffs in 1971. But Allen had still never won a playoff game, either here or in an otherwise successful run with the Los Angeles Rams. The city of D.C. was thirsting for more. The coach and the fan base got more, when the 1972 Washington Redskins became the first team in franchise history to reach the Super Bowl.
The first three years of the Bob Davie era at Notre Dame hadn’t gone well, and they hit a low point in 1999 with the program’s first losing season in fourteen years. Davie turned things around immediately and answered with his best season in South Bend. But even though the 2000 Notre Dame football team made a major bowl game, the warning signs continued to abound.
The 2001 San Antonio Spurs spent the regular season and two rounds of the postseason looking like they were ready get back on top of the NBA world. In the end, they ran into a historic steamroller in the conference finals, but the Spurs continued to establish themselves as a permanent fixture in the NBA’s elite in 2001.
The first half of the 1980s are generally not seen as a high point in the history of the Boston Red Sox, and that characterization is, for the most part, fair. There were no division titles, nor even a noteworthy near-miss. But there were examples of some overachievement and teams that deserve to be remembered well. The 1984 Boston Red Sox were just such a team.
George Allen was an established winner as a coach. Allen had been the defensive coordinator for George Halas and the Chicago Bears’ 1963 NFL champs. Allen got his opportunity to be a head coach for the Los Angeles Rams and from 1966-70 he went 40-13-1. But a power clash and playoff losses left him without a job. The Washington Redskins had a franchise on hard times and needed a coach