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If you could have watched any historic sporting event when it happened

Aug 11, 2004
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what would it be? Witnessing Roger Maris hit his 61st homeun would be neat. Maybe seeing Wilt Chamberlian"s 100 pt game. Thoughts
 
Even though it's a rough memory, I would have loved to been in the spectrum for the 1992 UK-duke game
 
Wilt because it was not on TV. Most of the other events were.​
 
For college basketball (not including the obvious which I'm shocked was mentioned by a UK fan), I'd say the Indiana State/Michigan State title game featuring Bird and Magic or maybe the UTEP/UK game.

Pro sports, I'd have to go with Kirk Gibson's HR off Eckersley in the '88 World Series since I'm a Dodger fan. Although Wilt's 100 point game or Jordan's last shot in a Bulls uniform would have been cool to see in person as well.
 
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Any of the 1978 Triple Crown races between Affirmed and Alydar.
 
I would have loved to have been at that 1975 Regional game against Indiana and as far as I know, it wasn't televised.
 
I would have loved to have been at that 1975 Regional game against Indiana and as far as I know, it wasn't televised.
It was televised. I still have the VCR tape of the game. Very low quality, but watchable
 
1980 US Hockey vs. Russia
1982 St. Louis Cardinals NLCS.
1948 UK title game.

And I wish I hadn't been so drunk for the 2012 NCAA title game.
 
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It was televised. I still have the VCR tape of the game. Very low quality, but watchable
Yep. I watched it with pals from a hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale on spring break. Remember it vividly.

If you ever get that VCR tape converted to a DVD, and somebody can boost the quality a bit, you'd really have something you could bootleg and make a few bucks.

Because NBC doesn't have the master anymore, as incredible as that is to believe. Around the year 2000, I had a friend who was a producer with ESPN Classic. I bugged him to find that game. He tried, but was told by NBC that in those days they taped over all games except the Final Four games.

I'd like to have been behind the Duke bench for the 1998 Regional Final.
 
wow, great question, OP. Some awesome answers too. I'd have liked to see the 1978 NC title game. Would've loved to been at the 1994 Mardis Gras miracle vs LSU game as well. And Jodie Meeks' 54 pt performance vs Tennessee.

Here is the highlight video of the Mardis Gras Miracle



also have to add, this game vs LSU is the ONLY game I have EVER turned off before it was over. I was so positive that we had lost - and was sick about it. When hubby got home from work I asked him if he knew how badly we lost, and he told me we actually came back and won it. It was years before I was able to see a replay of the game. But now, no matter how bad it gets, I won't turn off a UK game, because you never know for sure how it will turn out.
 
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How many other race-horses throughout history could have spotted the rest of the Preakness field the entire first quarter of the race before deciding to go from last to first-place, then have run a time which, since 1973, still has never been equalled? Sure, everyone remembers Secretariat's freakish 31-length Belmont victory, but me: I would've loved to have traded places with jockey Ronnie Turcotte during the '73 Preakness, when Secretariat seemed to say to all the horses, "LoL, Hey everybody, where do you think YOU'RE going, LoL??? THIS is how you set a world record, without even really trying the first quarter-length...."

It's kinda funny -- at the end of the broadcast, the TV announcer said (paraphrased), "Come to think of it, Secretariat's jockey never even whipped him today (urged him on)", yet, as I said, Big Red basically spotted the rest of the field the first 1/4 of the race (then kinda woke up), then, after he passed the other horses -- passed them on the OUTside of the turn, mind you -- still set a still-world record. (Sham [an opponent there] was actually a GOOD horse.)




Some of you may know: The crowd that day had overflowed onto the field and had accidentally stepped on the timing system wires, disabling them. Video evidence is what now proves that race was the fastest Peakness ever. Forty-two years later, and Secretariat still holds all three Triple Crown records. (No big deal. Whatever.)
 
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wow, great question, OP. Some awesome answers too. I'd have liked to see the 1978 NC title game. Would've loved to been at the 1994 Mardis Gras miracle vs LSU game as well. And Jodie Meeks' 54 pt performance vs Tennessee.

Here is the highlight video of the Mardis Gras Miracle



also have to add, this game vs LSU is the ONLY game I have EVER turned off before it was over. I was so positive that we had lost - and was sick about it. When hubby got home from work I asked him if he knew how badly we lost, and he told me we actually came back and won it. It was years before I was able to see a replay of the game. But now, no matter how bad it gets, I won't turn off a UK game, because you never know for sure how it will turn out.
Games like that are the reason I love sports. I don't turn games off for that same reason.
 
The Cats' 25th national title in basketball... I wanna make sure I'm around for a while.
 
Yep. I watched it with pals from a hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale on spring break. Remember it vividly.

If you ever get that VCR tape converted to a DVD, and somebody can boost the quality a bit, you'd really have something you could bootleg and make a few bucks.

Because NBC doesn't have the master anymore, as incredible as that is to believe. Around the year 2000, I had a friend who was a producer with ESPN Classic. I bugged him to find that game. He tried, but was told by NBC that in those days they taped over all games except the Final Four games.

I'd like to have been behind the Duke bench for the 1998 Regional Final.
The game is on youtube with the radio call. It's only about 40 minutes long because they cut out a lot of the stuff, but still fun to watch.
 
what would it be? Witnessing Roger Maris hit his 61st homeun would be neat. Maybe seeing Wilt Chamberlian"s 100 pt game. Thoughts
Wilt scored 100 point in Hershey, PA, which is about 15 minutes from my house.
 
The original Olympic games, because everyone would be all Γαμώτο , κοίτα πρόστιμο κύριος φορώντας παντελόνι εκεί πέρα !
 
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Great question. A few the come to mind:

- Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run for the Pirates to beat the Yankees.

- 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Jesse Owens winning 4 gold medals in front of Adolph Hitler.

- 1975 Reds-Red Sox Game 6. Fisk waving the ball fair to force Game 7.

- 1983 Pistons-Nuggets. 186-184 3OT game. Highest scoring ever in NBA history. Had to be insane to watch in person.

- 1951 Sugar Bowl. Kentucky 13, #1 Oklahoma (riding a 31-game win streak) 7
 
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Miracle on Ice and it isn't close.

What he said x10.

When a modern day Mr Peabody invents his Way Back Machine and offers me a ride....February 22,1980 Lake Placid New York 5:30 pm.....that's where I'm going.
 
To this day, that is the only hockey game I have watched from beginning to end. That trend will continue for the rest of my life.
 
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I'd probably follow all 4 rounds of Tiger's 15 stroke win at Pebble in the US Open. I'd like to see what perfect golf looks like in person.
 
I would have loved to have been at that 1975 Regional game against Indiana and as far as I know, it wasn't televised.

Remember it like it was yesterday. The whole family huddled around the fire while Gronk made drawings on the cave wall for game updates. Afterwards, we went out to celebrate the win with some Brontosaurus burgers and Stegosaurus steaks.
 
1995 Rugby World Cup final. Below is from Wikipedia. Sorry for the copy and paste, but this is a very thorough write-up on why this event was so important.


The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country.

The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in South Africa following the end of apartheid. It was also the first World Cup in which South Africa was allowed to compete; the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB, nowWorld Rugby) had only readmitted South Africa to international rugby in 1992, following negotiations to end apartheid. The World Cup would also be the last major event of rugby union's amateur era; two months after the tournament, the IRFB opened the sport to professionalism.

In the final, held at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 24 June, South Africa defeated New Zealand 15 – 12, with Joel Stransky scoring a drop goal in extra time to win the match. Following South Africa's victory, Nelson Mandela, thePresident of South Africa, wearing a Springboks rugby shirt and cap, presented the Webb Ellis Cup to the South African captain François Pienaar. Mandela and Pienaar's involvement in the World Cup is the subject of the John Carlin bookPlaying the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, its 2009 film adaptation Invictus, and theESPN TV documentary The 16th Man in 2010.
 
Another vote for Miracle on Ice

But I would have loved to have been at this year's Belmont, to see Pharoah finally pull off the Triple. Tom Hammond said the stretch drive and the aftermath was the longest loudest cheer he has ever broadcast at any sporting event he has worked.
 
what would it be? Witnessing Roger Maris hit his 61st homeun would be neat. Maybe seeing Wilt Chamberlian"s 100 pt game. Thoughts

I actually did see Roger Maris hit A homerun in the 1961 World Series at Cincy, which is the year he did hit 61 home runs, which is close. And Ironically before I read your post I would have mentioned the Chamberlin 100 point game as the event I would have loved to have seen also.
 
Seconds before it happened knowing what I know now, just to be in range of where my voice would possibly change the outcome, I would be loud and authoratative and would witness the opposite of what I hated happening not happen, but then again I like everything the way it is now, the misfortunes of the past make the prospect of future fortune more prolific
 
The three triple crown races of Secretariat, for sure. That horse was other worldly on the track.

Second would be all of the final fours that UK won.....
 
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