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| 1981 AFC divisional playoff: San Diego Chargers at Miami Dolphins Do you really need me to opine about this game? It's the greatest sporting event on tape, period. If you don't have it, I suggest you trade for it today. A story, though: After San Diego blitzed to a 24-0 first-quarter lead, I thought the game was in hand and went out to play basketball. I came in at halftime, and my stepfather told me what I'd missed: "It's 24-17, and the Dolphins scored just before the half on one of the most incredible plays I've ever seen." For the rest of the game, I ran the gamut of emotions in front of the TV, finally exhaling when Rolf Benirschke's winning kick sailed through in overtime. |
| 1979 MLB All-Star Game Perhaps the best Midsummer Classic ever, the 1979 contest is how the All-Star Game should be. What I love most about this game is not how intensely it was played, but how it was managed, especially by Tom Lasorda of the National League. He double-switched, made mid-inning pitching changes to get lefty-vs.-lefty and righty-vs.-righty matchups, and did what all All-Star skippers should do — manage to win and not worry about getting everyone in. I watched this game live as an 8-year-old, and my biggest memory was the thunderous ovation Seattle hometown hero Bruce Bochte received during pregame player introductions. But for most, the enduring image is of Dave Parker's cannon arm and Brian Downing getting nailed at home plate. |
| 1979 Holiday Bowl: Indiana vs. Brigham Young When I got into tape trading, this was one of the games I had to have. The 1980 Holiday Bowl, thanks to BYU's furious comeback and its spectacular last-play touchdown, is often cited as the most exciting bowl game ever. But, from first play to last, the 1979 contest — won by Indiana, 38-37, when the Cougars missed a field-goal attempt in the final seconds — was better. The Hoosiers, by the way, were led by a colorful coach whose later work from behind a microphone would impact college football more than anything he did on the sidelines: Lee "Not so fast, my friend" Corso. |
| 1979 NFL regular season: Pittsburgh Steelers at San Diego Chargers This was the game that made me, for better or usually worse, a Chargers fan. In '79, the Steelers were all the rage, coming off their third Super Bowl win in five years, when they went to San Diego for a November showdown of the AFC's top teams. Young and still searching for an NFL team to root for, I watched the game live and saw Air Coryell overwhelm the Steel Curtain, 35-7. At that moment, I decided that I wouldn't cheer for Pittsburgh like almost everyone else did at that time. I would be a Lightning Bolts supporter, and although there have been no titles to celebrate since then, there have been plenty of thrills. And at the top of that list is, of course . . . |
| 2001 World Series: New York Yankees vs. Arizona Diamondbacks I haven't watched much of these games since the Series, but as the years pass, I'll be glad they are in my collection. I was lucky enough to attend each contest of the 2001 Fall Classic. Though I had no rooting interest for either team, it was easy to get caught up in seven games' worth of emotion — the spirit and resiliency of New York in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Yankees' dramatic late-inning home runs in Games 4 and 5, the scintillating Arizona comeback off Mariano Rivera in Game 7. One part I have watched a few times is the ninth inning of the deciding contest. Against the sport's premier closer, the Diamondbacks not only get a run to tie the score, but another run to win the championship. I still can't figure out how they did it. |
| 1994 San Diego Chargers After years of pre-Bobby Beathard ineptitude, it became great to be a Bolts fan. For sheer drama and excitement, the 19 games San Diego played in this season are tough to top, with two come-from-behind victories in the AFC playoffs providing the climax. I've never been more emotionally spent after a sporting event than in the moments following the divisional playoff against Miami and the AFC title game at Pittsburgh. Not even a lopsided loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl spoiled the season. There's simply too many thrilling games to look back on. And judging from the interest I've received in these games, a lot of other traders agree. |
| 1980 and '81 Orange Bowls: Oklahoma vs. Florida State Almost every New Year's Night in my youth was spent begging my parents to let me stay up to watch the Orange Bowl. These back-to-back Oklahoma-Florida State matchups are terrific games to revisit. The 1980 game was much closer than the score (a 24-7 Sooners win) indicated, and the '81 contest (an 18-17 Oklahoma triumph) was decided by an OU two-point conversion in the final minutes. As a sports broadcast enthusiast, I love how the NBC presentation in both games seemed to be "ahead of its time." These broadcasts feature moving graphics, miked coaches and referees and locker-room footage (thanks to the access given by Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden) that game telecasts of that day didn't have. |
| Starrcade '85 Before Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation ruined professional wrestling, a number of quality regional promotions ruled the roost. The highest-profile one (thanks to a weekly WTBS time slot) was Jim Crockett's World Championship Wrestling, part of the National Wrestling Alliance. Each Thanksgiving night, Crockett put together the Starrcade cards, where many titles changed hands and feuds were settled. The best of them, in my opinion, was the 1985 event that featured Dusty Rhodes' controversial NWA title match against champion Ric Flair and Magnum T.A.'s famed "I Quit" cage match with Tully Blanchard. No scantily-clad women, snakes or other McMahon-style shenanigans. These matches are a fond reminder of the days when wrestling needed little more than a believable script and a few razor blades to put on a good show. |
| 1987-89: A trio of great Grey Cup games Like most Canadian football fans in the U.S., I got hooked on the league when the games were on ESPN in the 1980s. In the latter part of the decade, the CFL — unlike the much more vaunted pro football league to the south — always put on its best show in its championship game. The Edmonton Eskimos in 1987 and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in '89 got last-minute field goals to win back-and-forth, high-scoring games. Sandwiched in between is the '88 game, which the Winnipeg Blue Bombers took thanks to a great late defensive stand. Three title games decided by a total of six points — a thrilling brand of football that very few Super Bowls can match. |
| NBC Saturday Game of the Week/ABC Monday Night Baseball In the days before the proliferation of televised games, a network baseball broadcast was considered special, and I tried to catch as many as possible. Like many fans, I have vivid memories of spending Saturday afternoons with the Game of the Week. On summer Tuesday mornings, my grandfather often took me fishing, so I'd spend the night on Mondays. That was also my grandparents' Bible study night, so while the adults were hitting scripture, I would be downstairs, watching Monday Night Baseball while downing Coca-Cola in longneck bottles. I've never enjoyed the national pastime more than on those Saturday afternoons and Monday nights of long ago. |
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| "Morganna The Kissing Bandit" plants one on George Brett during the 1979 All-Star Game. |
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| Dan Fouts had many big games in 1979, throwing for a then-NFL record 4,082 yards. |
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| San Diego Chargers tight end Kellen Winslow is helped off the field after his yeoman effort in the 1981 AFC playoff against the Miami Dolphins. |
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| The play of quarterback Stan Humphries was vital in the San Diego Chargers' drive to the 1994 AFC championship. |
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| Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes . . . Hey, you knew it was fake, but it was fun. |
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| The victorious Saskatchewan Roughriders hoist the Grey Cup in 1989. |
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| Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Luis Gonzalez celebrates after the floating single that gave his team the 2001 World Series title. |
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| MY FAVORITE GAMES |
| One tape collector's celebration of vintage televised sports |
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| Indiana receiver Mike Friede and Brigham Young defensive back John Neal prepare to battle for the ball during the 1979 Holiday Bowl. |