Where were you?

We all have moments in our lives that we always remember just where we were, what we were doing and what we were feeling. The first time you heard that certain song on the radio, the first time you saw that unforgettable movie, especially something as intense as a world stopper like the Twin Towers falling. For me, this is also true in sports. I am the first to acknowledge that this list is not without omissions. Clearly there are dozens, even hundreds of sports moments that are worthy of recognition. So forgive me if I failed to mention the likes of Buckner, Bartman or Boone. I apologize for not adding the Drive, the Catch or the Play. I cannot help that I was too young to remember Mike Eruzione, Lorenzo Charles or Doug Flutie. Nor was I born to see the likes of Franco Harris, Carlton Fisk or Hank Aaron. I am also not against female sports, so pardon me for not including Billie Jean King, Kerri Strug or Brandi Chastain. That being said, here is my list of moments that stick with me to this day, moments that transcended the sporting world:

January 4, 2006

It was the clear cut #1 vs #2 in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship. But it was more than that, it was USC with 2 Heisman Trophy winners, coming off back to back championship seasons (now forfeited) and a 34 game winning streak. Texas had their Heisman hopeful, runner up Vince Young, who was the Rose Bowl MVP just a year prior. I was in Sacramento at my girlfriend’s house (girlfriend at the time) trying to explain to her the magnitude of this game. She never did understand. Because of Vince Young’s super human performance, 267 yards in the air, 200 on the ground and 4 TDs, Texas ended USC’s mini dynasty in what many call the greatest college football game ever. Where were you?

January 27, 1991

The best games are usually between contrasting opponents. This was never more evident than Super Bowl XXV between the run-and-shoot high powered Buffalo Bills vs the Parcells/Belichick defense and ground game of the New York football Giants. In the background, but also in the back of the minds of Americans, was Operation Desert Storm. America united behind Whitney Houston’s perfect rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and saw the Giants outlast the favored Bills 20-19. Most remember the wide-right game-winning field goal attempt by Scott Norwood. I remember this at my grandparents’ house as the closest Super Bowl yet. Where were you?

March 28, 1992

The Duke Blue Devils were the defending champions and were ranked #1 the entire season. They had a relatively easy first 3 games in the tourney until they reached the Elite Eight against Rick Pitino’s Kentucky Wildcats, a program on the rise from probation a couple years prior. This would be the Kentucky team that would set the trend of success for the Bluegrass State. However, Christian Laettner had other plans: A perfect 10-10 from the field and 10-10 from the foul line, 30 points, his last 2 in OT on a full court baseball pass from Grant Hill. With 2.1 seconds to go and down one, Laettner caught the pass, dribbled and faded from 18 ft for the win and a trip to the Final Four. I was just home from a family barbecue, missed the entire 1^st half but caught one of the most amazing games in college basketball history. Where were you?

June 17, 1994

My family and I had just got back from a weeklong vacation in Mammoth. All we saw on the TV and in the newspapers was the killing of OJ Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman. I had no idea what was going on and could not expect what happened later that evening. While watching game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, NBC’s coverage was interrupted by this white Ford Bronco in a chase. Driving the Bronco was Al Cowlings, who was chauffeuring a despondent OJ Simpson, supposedly holding a gun in an apparent suicide situation. Following them was the LAPD in full force and the rest of the nation learned just what the 405 freeway was all about. The chase finally ended sometime around 8pm that evening at Simpson’s house in Brentwood. Where were you?

June 23, 2010

There are plenty of Americans who claim that soccer is not a real sport. However, I bet most of those Americans remember where they were the moment Landon Donovan scored in stoppage time, advancing the US men’s soccer team into the knockout round. I was getting ready for work and found myself unable to leave the living room. With today’s technology, we can enjoy this moment on YouTube and watch the reaction of Americans in bars and other social settings around the country. Thankfully I DVRed it. Where were you?

July 19, 1996

I’m not sure who was in the hotel room with me, and it doesn’t even matter if I never remember. What I do remember in that hotel room in Fort Myers, FL was the self-proclaimed “greatest of all time,” Muhammed Ali, capping off an opening ceremony with lighting the cauldron at the Olympic Stadium of the Atlanta Summer Games. When Bob Costas uttered the words, “but look who gets it next!” I got chills and still do when I see the replay today. Where were you?

August 8, 1992

There was no drama, no game-winning shot, and no individual excelling over his peers. It was simply one unit so far above the rest of their competition. For the first time, professional basketball players were allowed to participate in the Olympics. Dubbed the Dream Team, the US squad, featuring Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (who was by this time in retirement due to the HIV virus), took Barcelona by storm. They created an atmosphere that was like a rock-and-roll band touring the world. The growing popularity of basketball around the globe began with this two week extravaganza. The event ended with a punishing 117-85 gold medal win vs Croatia. I was in the living room with the rest of my family when Marv Albert proclaimed, “this is the greatest team ever assembled.” Where were you?

August 9, 1988

They called it the trade of the century. At least that’s what Kings’ TV play-by-play man Bob Miller called it. Wayne Gretzky had come off a season that saw his Edmonton Oilers lift the Stanley cup for the 4^th time in 5 seasons and saw him win 8 of 9 Hart Trophys as the NHL’s best player. This would be like Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan or Jim Brown being traded in their peak and to a team in another country, within the same division. I remember as a 9 year old boy growing up in Los Angeles, seeing the “Great One” cry at the press conference. I had an instant interest in hockey. The city on the beach had a star on ice. Where were you?

September 26, 1999

I was at my girlfriend’s family’s house (yes, another girlfriend) for her birthday. She just had her tonsils removed so she was in no mood to celebrate. In fact, everyone in the house was pretty quiet the whole day until the 17^th hole at Brookline. The United States was in the midst of the greatest comeback in the history of the Ryder Cup when the struggling Justin Leonard sank a 45 foot birdie putt, ensuring a point and giving the US a dramatic victory. As the putt went in, I yelled something like, “He made it, I can’t believe he made it.” And yes, I was yelling, which is what shocked and surprised the rest of her family as they had very little interest in golf or whatever tournament they had to watch because of me. Where were you?

October 15, 1988

In the land of Hollywood movie endings, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a season of dramatic endings in 1988. I was at a birthday party with some friends from school watching game 1 of the 1988 World Series. However, when Jose Canseco’s grand slam gave the powerful Oakland A’s an early lead, my friends left the TV to go play football outside. I stayed and watched, and was joined by the birthday boy’s father sometime around the 5^th inning. Not a word was said between us, not even when we saw a hobbled Kirk Gibson emerge from the Dodger dugout to the on-deck circle and then limp to the batter’s box. But when Dennis Eckersley’s full-count offering was lifted into the right field pavilion, we both started yelling in jubilation. I raced out the front door yelling, “Gibson won it, he homered, they won it!!!” Where were you?

October 23, 1993

It started out as a bad day, a day that I felt awful. I was actually just sick, but sick enough to stay home from school. As game 6 of the 1993 World Series began, I was still very much under the weather in the living room of my grandparents’ house. In a back and forth contest between the defending champion Blue Jays and the rag tag Phillies, Joe Carter delivered in a moment that we as kids all dream of, winning the World Series with a homerun in the bottom of the 9^th inning. As Carter was about to touch home plate, CBS play-by-play man Sean McDonough said it perfectly, “The winners and still champions, the Toronto Blue Jays.” Where were you?

November 7, 1991

My mom picked me up from soccer practice on a Thursday afternoon and took my sister and me to my grandparents. I turned on the TV and there it was, plain as day. “Because of the HIV virus that I have attained, I will have to retire from the Lakers, today.” At that point, it was perhaps the saddest day of my life. My favorite basketball player was not only retiring, but he was going to die, at least that’s what a 12-year-old kid thinks when he hears that someone has the HIV virus. Yeah, we saw Magic Johnson play in the All-star game, the Olympics and also in his brief return to the NBA in 1996, but the curtain had closed on Showtime. And the smile was gone. Where were you?