The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
50 ways to remember the sports decade
They hugged each other and then they hugged their coach. Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck and Geno Auriemma stood there in a tight embrace with 1:46 left in their NCAA championship victory over Syracuse in Indianapolis on April 6, 2016.
Ten feet away, so close I could nearly touch them, I thought, “This is what history looks like.”
UConn became the first team in women’s Division I history to win four national titles in a row. Auriemma surpassed UCLA men’s coach John Wooden with his 11th NCAA championship. Yes, that culminating moment in the land of Hoosiers stands as my most memorable of a memorable decade of sports.
Here’s my list of 50. Enjoy. Feel free to disagree.
2. Kemba: The five wins in five days at the Big East Tournament is inseparable from the six NCAA wins that led to UConn’s 2011 national championship. It’s all one legend now and Kemba’s stepback jumper to beat Pittsburgh is, well, let’s put it this way: We still cannot find Gary McGhee’s ankles.
3. The Butler Did It: Why didn’t Marshawn Lynch run? Why did Seattle throw on second down from the 1yard line? All I know is Malcolm Butler’s interception at the end of Super Bowl XLIX was the most stunning play in SB history.
4. 283: Pats fans will never let you forget that score after the greatest Super Bowl comeback ever against the Falcons. Lots of early columns ripping Tom Brady — including mine — found the delete button.
5. Eli’s Coming: Just when you didn’t think he could do it again, Eli Manning found Mario Manningham for a spectacular 38yard pass along the sidelines in Super Bowl XLVI to beat the Patriots a second time. David Tyree Redux.
6. Storrs, Basketball Capital of the World: Less a moment than a fact after the UConn men and women both won the national title in 2014, duplicating their feat of 2004.
7. Jordan Spieth, 2017 Travelers: Playoff. Titleist 60degree wedge. 61 feet out of the 18th bunker. Bang! Earth shakes.
8. “This Is Our F…ing City.”
David Ortiz’s words to Fenway fans in April 2013 in response to the Boston Marathon bombings was the one time the fbomb was the perfect response. Boston Strong.
9. Papi’s Granny: David Ortiz swings. Torii Hunter lands on the rightfield fence at Fenway. Boston police officer Steve Horgan lifts his arms like a ref signaling a touchdown on an eighthinning grand slam that tied ALCS Game 2 en route to the Red Sox world championship.
10. Jalen Adams’ miracle 75foot shot to force a fourth overtime at the 2016 AAC Tournament. I was sitting close to where the UConn guard unleashed the shot and what remains eerily stunning was how long it stayed in the air. Forever.
11. Shabazz beats Florida, December 2013: Napier had so many heroic moments. We had to pick one.
12. Twin heartache. UConn’s run of 111 consecutive wins ended on Morgan William’s buzzerbeater in the 2017 Final Four. And then Arike Ogunbowale of Notre Dame duplicated it at the 2018 Final Four. Probably should be higher. In a generous holiday mood.
13. Aaron Hernandez: Murder. Suicide. The kid from Bristol once gave me a tour of the tattoos on his arms and all that they meant. To see those arms shackled behind him as the Patriots tight end was led from his home on June 26, 2013, is a sight you never forget.
14. Springer Dingers 2017: New Britain’s and UConn’s George Springer hit five homers, three doubles, going 11 for 29 as the Astros won it all and Springer won World Series MVP.
15. UConn women, led by Tina Charles and Maya Moore, go backtoback in 2010. Wild thing about this NCAA championship victory over Stanford is UConn scored 12 points in the first half.
16. Back To The Big East, 2019: Back Where UConn basketball belongs.
17. No Hope (Solo): That’s all Connecticut native Alyssa Naeher heard heading into the 2019 World Cup. Naeher silenced that stuff forever with a penaltykick stop on England’s Stephanie Houghton to save the
U.S.
18. Kevin Ollie fired for cause, March 2018: Many lawsuits followed. A cynic would say the cause is ‘cause Ollie stopped winning.
20. UConn Jesus Shuttlesworth: With the Spurs within a whisper and a popped champagne cork away from the 2013 NBA title, Ray Allen’s crazy corner 3 forced overtime in Game 6 of the Finals. Heat won. Heat won Game 7, too. Amen.
21. Lost In The Desert: Randy Edsall left UConn for his dream job after the 2011 BCS Fiesta Bowl in Arizona and it has been nothing but a freaking nightmare ever since. Will there even be UConn football by the end of the next decade?
22. Battle of Whitney Avenue: Yale and Quinnipiac stand only 8 miles from each other. They skated against each other in Pittsburgh for the national championship at the 2013 Frozen Four. Yale won.
23. Deflategate. Tom, tell us you didn’t lie.
24. The Decision, July 8, 2010: Who knew the Greenwich Boys Club would be the center of the sports universe for one night? There, LeBron James infamously announced on ESPN he was leaving his hometown Cavaliers to “take my talents to South Beach.”
25. Newtown, 2019. Jack
Street’s touchdown pass to Riley Ward as time expired gave Newtown High the state championship over Darien on the seventh anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings. Street was a fourthgrader at Sandy Hook that day.
26. Game. Set. Match. Connecticut Open closes.
27. O Captain! My Captain! Derek Jeter’s walkoff single in his final atbat at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 25, 2014. Insideout swing to right field. “Where fantasy becomes reality,” Michael Kay said. Suzyn cried.
28. Hurley hiring, March 2018. Just win, Dan.
29. Calhoun, retiring, unretiring. UConn, St. Joe’s, DI, DIII, we always knew he’d go the full 15 rounds. Got to say seeing him shake my kid’s hand in the line after a game with Lasell blew my mind.
30. YaleWesleyan lacrosse, 2018: DI and DIII natties on one weekend at Gillette Stadium. We have seen the future of sports.
31. Too Quick For Gotham: Hamden native Jonathan Quick won the Conn Smythe as NHL playoff MVP in 2012 after the LA Kings’ Stanley Cup triumph over the Devils. He led the Kings to a second Cup over the Rangers in 2014.
32. MSG Sunday: Don’t forget Ollie beat Phil Martelli, Jay Wright, Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan and John Calipari on the way to the 2014 national title. I remember sitting there at the Elite Eight, UConn vs. Michigan State, Magic Johnson in the crowd, a New York Sunday afternoon and thinking man, this is the big time.
33. Transgender questions: With high school track stars Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell and Terry Miller of Bloomfield, Connecticut has become an international focal point of one of the fiercest debates in athletics.
33. Exit Sandman: Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter walked to the mound on Sept. 26, 2013, to take Mariano Rivera out of his last game. Suzyn wept.
34. Philly Special: Patriots can’t win every Super Bowl.
35. The Mind of Bob Diaco: From cranberry pants to fish cakes to the Civil ConFLicCT Trophy to “Molotov cocktail of ugliness” to “Let’s broadcast games on Nickelodeon” — Lord, I miss that man.
36. American Pharoah, 2015: After nine excruciating nearmisses in 18 years, finally the ride from Connecticut to Belmont meant a Triple Crown.
37. Andre Drummond’s surprising commitment to UConn and oneanddone. Middletown kid. Selfproclaimed best rebounder ever.
38. Jeff Bagwell, Baseball Hall of Fame 2017. The Killingworth kid swears he didn’t juice.
39. Joel Q: A personal one. Chicago scores two goals in final 76 seconds of Game 6 of the 2013 NHL Finals to erase a 21 Bruins lead to win the Stanley Cup in the most crushing way imaginable for Boston. Ecstatic Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, whom I’ve known since his Whalers days, spots me in the hallway on way to the postgame news conference and screams, “Scoop! Can you f***ing believe it?” I couldn’t.
40. Bruins win first Stanley Cup in 49 years. Vancouver riots like stupid Americans.
41. Odell Beckham’s unbelievable threefinger catch, 2014. So why does he pretend to be a dog peeing celebrating a TD?
42. UConn field hockey’s three national titles.
43. Connecticut Sun, 2019: WNBA Finalists. Suggestion: Don’t turn into the Buffalo Bills.
44. Quinnipiac women, 2017: A 12 seed? Sweet Sixteen? Bravo, Tricia Fabbri!
45. Yale’s backtoback Ivy League football titles.
46. Serena. No decade list is complete without her.
47. Kaepernick. Because Connecticut is one star on the flag he wouldn’t stand for during the anthem.
48. Bobby V. 2013. A champion ballroom dancer, inventor of the wrap and manager of the 2000 Subway Series Mets, but his one year as Red Sox skipper was comically disastrous.
49. Linsanity! Had us all for three weeks in 2012.
50. The Haters: Funny, cruel, stupid, they’ve proliferated like red ants on social media. With Boston and New York surrounding UConn Nation, there’s a unique threemarket confluence of Nutmeg hate. Just remember, Tyler Olander has more national championships than Jim Boeheim.