What was your most heart breaking moment as a sports fan?

[Juicy 723]

Sheed leaving Robert Horry open for a wide open game winning 3 pointer when the Pistons were looking to repeat. Instead of being up 3-2 going to San Antonio they were down 3-2.

Officials calling a clean block by Trey Burke as a foul in the championship, against a Louisville team that turned the tide of the championship, that Louisville needed to vacate. 

Many Michigan losses to O$U lately, but the "the spot" game was especially brutal when the next play went for the winning touchdown. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Juicy

[usmc0331horn 942]

KU losing to Arizona in the 1997 Sweet Sixteen. Worst I've ever felt after a sporting event in a year most of us thought was a sured national title attempt. My teenage brain could not compute.

2003 KU loses to stupid Boeheim in the MNC

2014 Royals lose to Bumgarner in the WS

1997 Chiefs lose to Denver in the Divisional Round with home field advantage throughout the playoffs

Edited February 15, 2021 by usmc0331horn

[Tex48 840]

Dez caught it (mabye??)

Honestly us vs Okie St when we lost in 2018.

Stros losing Game 7 to DC

Clemens lasting only 2 innings in Game 1 of the 2005 WS.  

[bornbama1 106]

I pretty much just take the losses in stride today, but the one that still stands out in my mind is the 1980 Bama vs Miss State game. Bama was riding a 28? game winning streak, the score was 6-3 Miss St. Bama was down on the goal line about to punch it in at the end of the game

FB Johnny Davis who had never been held to no gain was stuffed twice for no gain, might have lost a yard. Bama ended up fumbling and lost the game. I was physically sick and my newlywed wife had just been through her first CFB season with me. I realized I couldn't allow a game to cause me so much negative behavior. I was physically sick over a game...for a few days. I don't allow them to bother me since.

Also I grew up listening to the Atlanta Braves baseball in the late 60s early 70s, they were always terrible but rarely was a game on TV so radio was all we had. all my friends and I were huge Braves fans. I said that to share how the Braves later affected me.

In the 90s when the Braves were good, went to the WS and won the first one I was elated. they went back several times losing them all. A great Dynasty that never was. 

I was so disgusted I quit watching Baseball till this day.

[Lidig8r 1,856]

4 hours ago, tantric superman said:

Old Man Syndrome.  It was better when the teams didn't change so frequently.  Three of the four Purple People Eaters were together for 10 years.  (Right when I started watching football).

Purple People Eaters were the defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. The term is a reference to a popular song from 1958, the efficiency of the defense, and the color of their uniforms. The motto of the Purple People Eaters was "Meet at the quarterback."^[1]

• Defensive tackle Alan Page, 9 Pro Bowl selections (1968–1976), NFL MVP (1971), Pro Football Hall of Fame^[2]
• Defensive end Carl Eller, 6 Pro Bowl selections (1968–1971, 1973–1974), Pro Football Hall of Fame^[3]
• Defensive end Jim Marshall, 2 Pro Bowl selections (1968–1969)^[4]
• Defensive tackle Gary Larsen, 2 Pro Bowl selections (1969–1970)^[5]

Larsen was replaced in 1974 by Doug Sutherland.^[6]

Alan Page went on to become the first African American Associate Justice to sit on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

[Wally Fairway 5,525]

20 hours ago, slorch said:

Not many UH/ NCState mentions.   Were you fuckers alive?  If you rooted for UH or Phi Slamma Jamma and Guy Lewis... it was just devastating.

That one should have been on my list - I moved to Houston in 1981, and if you tried  you could get tickets to Hofheinz and go see Phi-Slamma-Jamma, what a show. After the Cougars ran Louisville off the court in the Final Four game, everyone thought the title was coming back to Houston.
NC State winning with 54 points just shows how sports can give you crazy outcomes, hell UofH scored 58 in the second half against Louisville.

Along with the '86 Astros loss to the Mets, the Oilers losing to the Bills, Thomas Hearns 1981 loss to Sugar Ray Leonard and too many MSU Spartan football games to list

Edited February 15, 2021 by Wally Fairway

[Al_4_ISU 12,409]

4 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

As an OSU fan, I probably have too many to count, but this one was definitely the worst.

I will never not believe that we wouldn't have beaten LSU in the national title game that year.

The thing about that game is you should have been in the national title regardless.

I feel a little bit bad for you guys that your worst sports memory is easily a Top 5 "most fun I've had at a game in my life" moment.  There were few nights I ever wanted to not end so bad.

The next day my little cousin was playing in the state finals at Northern Iowa's campus (about 1.5 hours from Ames).  I had crashed at a buddy's place in Ames after the revelry, and coaxed a buddy into driving me up to it.  We still had the gear we wore to the game on, and strangers were just high fiving us in the UNI Dome and yelling "go State!".  Just wild.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Al_4_ISU

[Horn80 6,075]

On 2/14/2021 at 11:12 AM, NAVY said:

I’m sure she got much better at having her legs up.

[DanTheHorn 4,902]

On behalf of all the aggy's I do not care to know I submit the following:

[CycleTex87 2,954]

I throw in this one: Craig Curry drops the punt in the Jan 2, 1984 Cotton Bowl.  I was a freshman at UT and nothing will sting as bad as that one after going 11-0 in the regular season. 

[smwhorn 481]

30 minutes ago, CycleTex87 said:

I throw in this one: Craig Curry drops the punt in the Jan 2, 1984 Cotton Bowl.  I was a freshman at UT and nothing will sting as bad as that one after going 11-0 in the regular season. 

I was a senior.  It hurt even worse after Nebraska lost to Miami that night.

[oSuJeff97 3,435]

1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

The thing about that game is you should have been in the national title regardless.

Totally agree.

It's extraordinarily rare that non-traditional/elite programs get a realistic shot at the national title in football.  This was probably OSU's best and only shot to actually win a national title in football in my lifetime.  I mean, sure I guess it *could* happen again, but I kind of doubt it.  That team legit was probably the best team in the country that year and I think we would have curb-stomped LSU in the title game.  We couldn't have asked for a better matchup. 

Honestly, Andrew Luck and Stanford was a much worse matchup for us in the Fiesta Bowl because they had elite QB play/offense to go along with a really strong defense. But that garbage offense LSU was running out there? We would have beaten them easily.

[Lidig8r 1,856]

7 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

As an OSU fan, I probably have too many to count, but this one was definitely the worst.

I will never not believe that we wouldn't have beaten LSU in the national title game that year.

One would think that the game could have been postponed another day ... or play it Monday night.

When your women's head basketball coach and assistant coach are killed 24 hours before that game...

And just 10 years after another plane crash which killed 2 kids on the men's basketball team and 6 members of the OSU broadcast team and coaching staff.

No way those kids were in the right mindset to play this game.

Oh, and fuck the system after it allowed Bama to play in the MNC that year.

[youdunnf'dup 2,147]

9 hours ago, Juicy said:

Sheed leaving Robert Horry open for a wide open game winning 3 pointer when the Pistons were looking to repeat. Instead of being up 3-2 going to San Antonio they were down 3-2.

Officials calling a clean block by Trey Burke as a foul in the championship, against a Louisville team that turned the tide of the championship, that Louisville needed to vacate. 

Many Michigan losses to O$U lately, but the "the spot" game was especially brutal when the next play went for the winning touchdown. 

This was easily one of my greatest sports memories haha. Fuck everyone who called that a boring finals (even though I’m sure it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing).  That game 5 was intense. That pistons team was the best team the Spurs ever played in the finals IMO, and if the pistons take game 5 they probably win in 6.

[Cruisrad 7]

This probably won’t resonate, but to me it was the Virginia tech sugar bowl. We were starting to be good again. I saved all my tips from waiting tables to be able to go. I was a poor college kid. Went to the game, was so excited to be in New Orleans for the first time, and even more excited to buy a mixed drink at agame. Then we lost. Was my first real sports heartbreak 

[Richard Kimball 1,492]

4 minutes ago, Cruisrad said:

This probably won’t resonate, but to me it was the Virginia tech sugar bowl. We were starting to be good again. I saved all my tips from waiting tables to be able to go. I was a poor college kid. Went to the game, was so excited to be in New Orleans for the first time, and even more excited to buy a mixed drink at agame. Then we lost. Was my first real sports heartbreak 

Live is worse than TV, especially when you are broke and spend all the money and then get heartbroken. 

[GopherRock 1,765]

1998 NFC Championship. Vikings lose to the dirty birds. 14 year old me was physically sick and broken of my love of professional football, and it remains one of only two times I've been physically sick after a football game. The other:

2003 Little Brown Jug. Chad Henne is still throwing screen passes. The Gophers best shot at Pasadena in the last 60 years, a Metrodome that was full of all Gopher fans, only to watch a 35-14 4Q lead vanish into thin air. Glen Mason never recovered from this fiasco, and one could argue that the Gopher program still hasn't. 

Honorable mentions include the Bountygate NFC title game, and the last Gopher game in the Metrodome (Iowa 55, MN 0). At least I was sufficiently drunk for the last one that the details of the rest of the night remain hay. 

[956 Worldwide 34,444]

Most of my heartbreaking sports moments are related to college and high school, but for pros--- it's easily the 1993 Oilers collapse against the Bills in the playoffs.  Earlier in the season, I had bet my football-crazy, Cowboys fan mother a dinner out that the Oilers would reach the Super Bowl. (Sucker bet, but I was only in middle school and her and dad thought it would teach me not to bet on sports).  So that stung, too.  

Second biggest heartbreak was Houston moving to Tennessee and that is what drove the nail home for me with pro sports.  College, high school, and national teams are never going to just pack up and leave. 

 

 

[Guest]

The Dez catch...and yes it was one, might have been the angriest I ever was after a game.

Highway fucking robbery that bullshit was...

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

5 minutes ago, slorch said:

The Dez catch...and yes it was one, might have been the angriest I ever was after a game.

Highway fucking robbery that bullshit was...

Yeah that was a catch, and one more nail in the coffin of my hating of the current NFL.  They don't even know what a catch is today.

[TexasPride10 573]

No contest for me...

[83Horn 1,638]

Anybody else here remember the 1980 SMU game?  Texas was 5-0 going into that game, ranked number 2 in the nation having just dispatched Oklahoma.  The 1980 season got off to a great start, with a nationally televised Monday night game against Arkansas, which the 'Horns dominated.  At this point, SMU was 3-2, the much vaunted "Pony Express" hadn't found it's giddy up yet, and they hadn't beaten Texas since about 1967, and on top of all that, Texas just didn't lose home games.  We were on our way to a national championship run...everyone in the stadium knew it.  Then the game was played.  Fucking Craig James, that hookercidal maniac (allegedly), couldn't be stopped, Texas' offense couldn't do anything, and we ended up not scoring a TD in our own stadium in forever.  Final score was 20-6, but the game really wasn't that close.  The rest of the season totally collapsed, and we finished 7-5, with a loss to Lawrence Taylor's Tarheel team in the Bluebonnet bowl.  That was the first time I learned to never get too emotionally invested in a game, or season...everything can change, instantly and with little/no warning.

To the OP...thanks for digging at the scab...asshole. 

[Guadaloopy 10,926]

I’ve already posted my list. After reading through this thread and being reminded of other fan’s heartbreaks, I honestly can’t imagine one more gutting than G6 of the 2011 WS.  

[Al_4_ISU 12,409]

14 hours ago, GopherRock said:

1998 NFC Championship. Vikings lose to the dirty birds. 14 year old me was physically sick and broken of my love of professional football, and it remains one of only two times I've been physically sick after a football game. The other:

2003 Little Brown Jug. Chad Henne is still throwing screen passes. The Gophers best shot at Pasadena in the last 60 years, a Metrodome that was full of all Gopher fans, only to watch a 35-14 4Q lead vanish into thin air. Glen Mason never recovered from this fiasco, and one could argue that the Gopher program still hasn't. 

Honorable mentions include the Bountygate NFC title game, and the last Gopher game in the Metrodome (Iowa 55, MN 0). At least I was sufficiently drunk for the last one that the details of the rest of the night remain hay. 

Man, I remember how Iowa fans acted in the Metrodome pretty much every time they went up.  Just classless trash.

[bullzak 412]

Rangers only team in MLB history to be one strike away from winning it all. 

And they did it twice. 

No getting over that one especially with no real hope on the horizon. 

Still think if we had LaRussa instead of R Wash, Rangers win in five. 

[SwanderedTalent 5,761]

On 2/15/2021 at 11:43 AM, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Game 6 2011 World Series

that really might be the all-time, of any team, in any sport

I'm not a Rangers fan but I'd put it up there against anything else you can name. 

[Juicy 723]

15 hours ago, youdunnf'dup said:

This was easily one of my greatest sports memories haha. Fuck everyone who called that a boring finals (even though I’m sure it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing).  That game 5 was intense. That pistons team was the best team the Spurs ever played in the finals IMO, and if the pistons take game 5 they probably win in 6.

I was at the palace about 7 rows up from the corner that he shot it from, as soon as they kicked it over to him I am certain I went surrender cobra because everyone knew it was in. 

[Reynolds Woodcock 4,670]

23 minutes ago, SwanderedTalent said:

that really might be the all-time, of any team, in any sport

I'm not a Rangers fan but I'd put it up there against anything else you can name. 

Spurs Game 6 is the only one I can think of that is comparable, but they had already won several titles by that point, so I’m guessing the pain wasn’t nearly as bad.

[SwanderedTalent 5,761]

5 minutes ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Spurs Game 6 is the only one I can think of that is comparable, but they had already won several titles by that point, so I’m guessing the pain wasn’t nearly as bad.

That's part of what was underpinning it for me-- I immediately thought of the '72 Olympics basketball gold medal game, but the US had won the gold medal every other Olympiad prior to that and won it again in '76, and in '84, and every time since '92, so you know... not the same as a franchise getting to within a strike of its first World Series title and blowing a two-run lead with two strikes TWICE in one game.   

I mean, fuck. 

Edited February 16, 2021 by SwanderedTalent

[youdunnf'dup 2,147]

15 minutes ago, SwanderedTalent said:

that really might be the all-time, of any team, in any sport

I'm not a Rangers fan but I'd put it up there against anything else you can name. 

No question. Although I will say, the reason I had the Crabtree catch and the Ray Allen corner 3 ahead was for two main reasons. I know we were one strike away twice, but baseball is a weird sport with no clock. For whatever reason, I just feel like anything can happen in baseball a lot more often than any other sport. I never truly felt like we had it in the bag the same way I thought we had that tech game and that Spurs game in the bag.
 

I was past the point of counting my chickens before they hatched. I was counting my chicken’s chickens. Plus I was shit faced drunk for both of those games with a ton of people, so it just felt a lot more devastating for me. It lingered with me a lot longer 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

1 hour ago, SwanderedTalent said:

that really might be the all-time, of any team, in any sport

I'm not a Rangers fan but I'd put it up there against anything else you can name. 

Four Super Bowl losses by the Bills, that's a pretty tough one to beat

[SwanderedTalent 5,761]

59 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Four Super Bowl losses by the Bills, that's a pretty tough one to beat

Well, I'm sure, but three of those weren't particularly close. Hell, the last one, I doubt many Bills fans thought they'd win even when they were leading at halftime.

The Scott Norwood game though, ouch. Even given that it was a 47-yarder and he wasn't Morten Andersen or anything in terms of accuracy, it has to hurt to miss a game winner for all the marbles like that.

[BonzoMontreaux 1,033]

Put me down for 2011 Game 6, too.  Damn.

2001 Big XII championship.  Saw it person.

2008 - Texas Tech and the subsequent BS that followed still pisses me off.

The falls of Pete Rose and OJ Simpson... maybe suited for another thread - 'Innocence Lost aka - When did you realize your sports hero was just another fallible human being'

 

[shadow_operative 15,932]

most here know that basketball has always been my no.1 sport at UT, but the chasm between my love for UT basketball and my love for UT football increased dramatically after the Bama loss in the NC game. the 2008 Tech game crushed me like no game before it- i mean really crushed me. i was numb. after Colt went down against Bama i was done. to see Texas be the best team in the country in 08 and (arguably) 09 and come away with nothing just killed me. i pretty much stopped keeping up with CFB after that point. i didn't even realize it until i looked up in like 2015 and realized that i had stopped following the sport years ago. 

that said, nothing for me was more crushing than the implosion of the 2009-10 Longhorns basketball team. on December 22nd 2009 there was zero doubt that Texas had the best basketball team in the country, and Damion James was the early front runner for the fucking Naismith/Wooden Awards. Doj Balbay,  J'Covan Brown, Avery Bradley, Damion James, Jordan Hamilton, Gary Johnson, and a svelte Dexter Pittman, plus a talented and deep supporting cast, and we just absolutely imploded. easily the low point in Rick Barnes's career. he asshole'd the life out of that team, and the end result is just devastating for anyone who loves UT hoops. in all honesty the program has never fully recovered. 

 

[youdunnf'dup 2,147]

9 hours ago, slorch said:

The Dez catch...and yes it was one, might have been the angriest I ever was after a game.

Highway fucking robbery that bullshit was...

Demarco Murray is so happy the “Dez caught it” shit is what cowboys fans blame for that loss. His fumble on what would’ve been a breakaway td early in the 2nd half was one of the worst fumbles I’ve ever seen. He had nothing but green grass in front of him and he was carrying the ball like a fucking loaf of bread. If he scores right there (and he probably would’ve) it’s a completely different game.

[Longhornstampede 3,174]

Jackie Smith....not that I blame him...I was just a little kid and when that ball went to his hands, in the span of 0.5 seconds I went from total happiness to total sadness and it hurt to watch the disappointment on my dad's face as he is the biggest Cowboys fan Ive ever known and I know it hurt him. Just brutal.

[83Horn 1,638]

2 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

most here know that basketball has always been my no.1 sport at UT, but the chasm between my love for UT basketball and my love for UT football increased dramatically after the Bama loss in the NC game. the 2008 Tech game crushed me like no game before it- i mean really crushed me. i was numb. after Colt went down against Bama i was done. to see Texas be the best team in the country in 08 and (arguably) 09 and come away with nothing just killed me. i pretty much stopped keeping up with CFB after that point. i didn't even realize it until i looked up in like 2015 and realized that i had stopped following the sport years ago. 

that said, nothing for me was more crushing than the implosion of the 2009-10 Longhorns basketball team. on December 22nd 2009 there was zero doubt that Texas had the best basketball team in the country, and Damion James was the early front runner for the fucking Naismith/Wooden Awards. Doj Balbay,  J'Covan Brown, Avery Bradley, Damion James, Jordan Hamilton, Gary Johnson, and a svelte Dexter Pittman, plus a talented and deep supporting cast, and we just absolutely imploded. easily the low point in Rick Barnes's career. he asshole'd the life out of that team, and the end result is just devastating for anyone who loves UT hoops. in all honesty the program has never fully recovered. 

 

I assume you're too young to remember the implosion of the 1981-82 team.  Started off something like 14-0, rose to a top 5 ranking, and were not just beating, but destroying everyone they played, and that included Arkansas and a Houston team featuring Hakeem Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler that made it to the final four at the beginning of the Phi Slamma Jamma  years.  Then we play Baylor, and our starting forward, Mike Wacker, who was an absolute stud, destroys his knee ending his season, and there was nobody else to pick up the slack.  Lasalle Thompson could do only so much on his own.  Team finished something like 15-15, Abe Lemons was fired, and the Bob Weltlich era began.  Dark days for UT BBall.

[shadow_operative 15,932]

1 minute ago, 83Horn said:

I assume you're too young to remember the implosion of the 1981-82 team.  Started off something like 14-0, rose to a top 5 ranking, and were not just beating, but destroying everyone they played, and that included Arkansas and a Houston team featuring Hakeem Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler that made it to the final four at the beginning of the Phi Slamma Jamma  years.  Then we play Baylor, and our starting forward, Mike Wacker, who was an absolute stud, destroys his knee ending his season, and there was nobody else to pick up the slack.  Lasalle Thompson could do only so much on his own.  Team finished something like 15-15, Abe Lemons was fired, and the Bob Weltlich era began.  Dark days for UT BBall.

my dad has told me so much about this season and that injury. from what i recall, my dad said that Wacker essentially tore half of the ligaments in his knee on his way up, and that he shattered whatever was left on his landing. my dad was the SID at the time, and i'll never forget him telling me that the doctor said, "you could not have done more damage to his knee if you had taken a sledgehammer to it."

the story of Wacker's recovery and his determination to finish his career is beyond inspiring. the last time I saw Wacker was years ago, when his underdog Judson team was just taking dominating former UT PF Mike Murphy's Pflugerville team in the 5A playoffs. It sucks that Wacker missed out on a professional career because of a gnarly freak injury, but he seems to have found his calling as a coach.

[SwanderedTalent 5,761]

14 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

to see Texas be the best team in the country in 08 and (arguably) 09 and come away with nothing just killed me.

this isn't a heartbreak per se, but along those lines-- the fact that neither Vince Young nor Colt McCoy won a Heisman but OU's had four QBs win it in the past 15ish years and A&M had a freshman QB off a team that didn't even win its division win it completely killed the Heisman for me, and where I grew up that trophy was a big deal. 

[Wade 463]

1989 Flyin' Illini loss to Michigan in the Final Four.  They were a dominant group of 6-4 to 6-6 guys who got up and down the floor, dunked, and blew teams out.  Just a huge amount of fun to watch, and grew to love that team.  They scored 127 points of Dale Brown's Tigers and he thanked Henson for not running up the score (and wasn't being sarcastic).

They lost 4 games in regular season because Kendall Gill broke his wrist, otherwise would have had one loss tops.  Handily beat Michigan both regular season games including blowing them out on the road the last game of the regular season.  Defeated a loaded Syracuse team in Final Eight in a war.  Final Four game was intense back and forth with 33 lead changes.  Tied with seconds left, Nick Anderson had proper position but inexplicably didn't jump for a defensive rebound and let Sean Higgins jump over him for a put-back with two seconds left.

That one crushed me as was a big Illini fan back then, and they hadn't won a title to date nor have they since.

[Slacks 6,791]

Did not have a dog in this particular fight, but somehow Derek Redmond at the '92 Olympics is both the most heartbreaking and inspiring sports moment I've ever seen.

I still watch that video. I've connected with him on LinkedIn. One of my goals in life is to be like his father should my sons ever need me to hold them up at a moment when everything they've ever trained, worked, sacrificed, and hoped for seems impossibly lost.

Who is cutting onions right now?

And the opposite of that is the 2001 BXII game against CU. I was more angry as a drunken old man than I should have been.

[IDIOTsavant 8,451]

3 minutes ago, Snacks said:

Who is cutting onions right now?

That and "Dad, wanna have a catch?" are the only two things that get me every damn time.

[TreatyOak 16,150]

18 hours ago, SwanderedTalent said:

That's part of what was underpinning it for me-- I immediately thought of the '72 Olympics basketball gold medal game, but the US had won the gold medal every other Olympiad prior to that and won it again in '76, and in '84, and every time since '92, so you know... not the same as a franchise getting to within a strike of its first World Series title and blowing a two-run lead with two strikes TWICE in one game.   

I mean, fuck. 

Actually, your statement about the US winning every Olympics since ‘92 is incorrect. We sent the scrubs to the 2004 Olympics in Athens and lost in the semifinals to Argentina and settled for the bronze. I can’t recall why the NBA stars didn’t attend that year.

[SwanderedTalent 5,761]

59 minutes ago, TreatyOak said:

Actually, your statement about the US winning every Olympics since ‘92 is incorrect. We sent the scrubs to the 2004 Olympics in Athens and lost in the semifinals to Argentina and settled for the bronze. I can’t recall why the NBA stars didn’t attend that year.

shows how much attention I was paying to anything NBA related by then

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

47 minutes ago, SwanderedTalent said:

shows how much attention I was paying to anything NBA related by then

Or the Olympics...

[closetohumping 17,404]

*Oilers blowing that 30 point lead in Buffalo.  I think they even asked Bill Cowher how he was gonna stop the run n shoot next week and he said "well, game ain't over but"

*Blake Gideon's drop.  Honestly think Mack would still be here if Blake caught that.

[youdunnf'dup 2,147]

On 2/16/2021 at 8:30 AM, TexasPride10 said:

No contest for me...

Fuck, man. That one might be the worst. Completely forgot about that.

[orangecat92 306]

On 2/16/2021 at 10:47 AM, SwanderedTalent said:

that really might be the all-time, of any team, in any sport

I'm not a Rangers fan but I'd put it up there against anything else you can name. 

I lived in McKinney at the time.  Either this year or the year before, probably the year before, one of the sports radio stations stayed up with the post-game show all night long, when the Rangers won the pennant.  I couldn't believe the station stayed on the air all night long.  With the talent on the team, winning a world series was going to happen.  It had to happen..until it didn't.   The Nolan Ryan aura, the nuns in the stands who were lifetime fans, Arlington so bitter about the JerryWorld thing.  It was destined to happen.  

[orangecat92 306]

On 2/16/2021 at 5:07 PM, shadow_operative said:

my dad has told me so much about this season and that injury. from what i recall, my dad said that Wacker essentially tore half of the ligaments in his knee on his way up, and that he shattered whatever was left on his landing. my dad was the SID at the time, and i'll never forget him telling me that the doctor said, "you could not have done more damage to his knee if you had taken a sledgehammer to it."

the story of Wacker's recovery and his determination to finish his career is beyond inspiring. the last time I saw Wacker was years ago, when his underdog Judson team was just taking dominating former UT PF Mike Murphy's Pflugerville team in the 5A playoffs. It sucks that Wacker missed out on a professional career because of a gnarly freak injury, but he seems to have found his calling as a coach.

Did your dad ride with the team after games?  Supposedly, in Mike's recovery, and we're talking probably two years later, the team bus would ride back from wherever and Mike would occasionally be trying to get his leg comfortable and would shriek in pain.  

There should be a book written about the season and Mike's recovery.  Mike should write the book.  Incredible comeback story that took waaay too long to recover, but he did.  I don't remember if he ever started again, because the damage was so great.  

[shadow_operative 15,932]

On 2/17/2021 at 2:13 PM, youdunnf'dup said:

Fuck, man. That one might be the worst. Completely forgot about that.

it denied Jeff Fisher a Super Bowl win, so this one goes down as a win in my book.