There’s a lot going on at TheSportsNotebook in the way of sports history articles, activity that’s not always—or even usually—visible on the home page. Here’s a breakdown of some of the highlights in our Sports Museum, and some of the additions currently taking place.
Over the last several years, LeBron James has become the NBA’s signature star, the consensus “greatest player in the world.” In that same timeframe, Dwight Howard has become synonymous with the word “diva”. But it wasn’t always so—in the 2009 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, “Superman”, as Howard modestly dubbed himself, trumped “King James” when Dwight’s Orlando Magic ousted LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
The development of the NCAA Tournament as a time of Madness had taken place in phases since 1975, a year that marked both the end of the UCLA dynasty and the inclusion of multiple teams from each conference in the event. The 1983 N.C. State basketball team represented the culmination of that development
…by rights, the Redskins-Raiders Super Bowl, should have been a battle royal. Only, like most Super Bowls through the 1980s, especially the Dark Ages of 1983-87, it didn’t work out that way.
The great fan base of the Washington Redskins had endured some heartache in both 1977 and 1978. Each season saw the Redskins miss the playoffs on the final week of the season, in the latter case after giving away a 6-0 start to the year. What the fans couldn’t have guessed, nor would they have wanted to, was that the 1979 Washington Redskins would lift the season-ending anguish to a new level.
The Buffalo Bills came to the end of the 1992 NFL season the same way they’d reached the previous two—as AFC champions. But the Bills yet to win the sport’s ultimate prize and the pressure was on in the 1992 Super Bowl to win their first title.
Editor’s Note: 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 1988 sports, a year that saw an epic college football clash with cultural overtones, an NBA guarantee made good and a great Super Bowl drive finally save face for America’s most popular sporting event.
Editor’s Note: 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 1987 sports, a year that saw Bob Knight, Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson all return to championship form.
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. The 2008 NCAA Tournament was the coming-out-party for three future NBA stars. We look back at how all three dominated their regionals and were honored with the Most Outstanding Player Award.
The year in 1979 sports carries a special place in basketball lore, as Michigan State’s Magic Johnson and Indiana State’s Larry Bird met in the NCAA final that drew the highest TV ratings in the history of that event and set the stage for a new era in the NBA. That’s fair enough as the prime story of the year. There are a few things that we shouldn’t lose sight of though.
The 1979 NCAA Tournament has a special place in college basketball lore. The championship game, featuring Michigan State and Magic Johnson against Indiana State and Larry Bird remains the highest-rated NCAA final to date and is rightly seen as a watershed moment for basketball at both the college & NBA level. But the 1979 NCAA Tournament deserves to be remembered for something else—the beginning of a phenomena that continues today and it’s the gutted bracket.
Monday Night Football was in Atlanta on October 30, 1978 and the up-and-coming Falcons were looking to make their mark. This was a franchise that had produced just two winning seasons since its inception in 1966 and never made the playoffs. But coming off consecutive wins, they were 4-4 coming into this game and were playing host to one of the traditional powers of the 1970s, the Los Angeles Rams. It was time for the 1978 Atlanta Falcons to take the next step.