Your first sports memory

[AirwickWithCheese]

For me it was Notre Dame upsetting the UCLA clowns in basketball in 1974? Digger Phelps beating Wooden and the hippie Bill Walton. 

Then watching Maryland upset Notre Dame a few games later. I was a Maryland and Lefty Driesel fan all my life which made no sense living in Greenville. 

 

 

[Wilbur]

Harlem Globetrotters surprising defeat of the Washington Generals. 

[ChrisL]

When I was a kid my mom would drop my brother and neighbor kid off at the old Newport Theater and we would watch surfing movies like Endless Summer.  We longed to live the surfer life.

I also remember my BIL who was a White Sox fan take me to Angels stadium as a kid.

[Wilbur]

Lots of hockey stuff but the biggest embarrassment was Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean..

Biggest upset I remember people talking about, Leon Spinks defeat of Muhammed Ali. 

[Kirby]

Spending New Year's Eve with my grandmother while my parents went out and I stayed up after she went to bed and watched the 1973 Sugar Bowl with Notre Dame and Alabama playing for the national title.   I knew nothing of either team but by the time the game ended I was totally into it.  I mentioned it to my Dad the next day asking if he had heard of the game, only to find out he wished he could have just stayed home and watched the game, but my Mom really wanted to go to her friend's party.

[maddmaxx]

I think it was the 1958 NFL championship.  I remember some of the Unitas to Berry passes late in the game.  I was 12 years old and the TV I watched it on might have been black and white.

[Kzoo]

My dad giving me my first baseball glove an playing catch with me just a couple months before my 3rd Birthday.

[Kzoo]

Mazeroski’s home run in the ‘60 WS.  I was 5 and it was years before I became a Pirates fan.  

[ChrisL]

16 minutes ago, wilbur said:

Lots of hockey stuff but the biggest embarrassment was Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean..

Biggest upset I remember people talking about, Leon Spinks defeat of Muhammed Ali. 

My dad was a big boxing fan and I remember Leon Spinks vs  Ali.  Sugar Ray Leonard & Roberto “No Mas Duran” Tommy Hitman Hearns & Marvin Hagler.

I stopped following boxing after he passed in 1981.

[petitepedal]

2 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Marvin Hagler

Wasn't he Marvelous?

[BuffJim]

Cardinals Mets at Shea Stadium. 1967. Got an awesome souvenir baseball helmet that broke pretty shortly after. 

[BR46]

Having my picture taken standing next to Jim Hall at Road America when I was 5 years old. 

[ChrisL]

1 minute ago, petitepedal said:

Wasn't he Marvelous?

He was indeed!

[ChrisL]

Just now, BR46 said:

Having my picture taken standing next to Jim Hall at Road America when I was 5 years old. 

Oh we used to sneak in to the OC Speedway and watch the dirt track races as a kid. Bruce Penhall, Bobby Boogaloo Schwartz was my favorite.  We would come home splattered in mud!

[petitepedal]

Other than "All Star Wresting" on Saturday Nights.....HOCKEY..my older sister was in LOVE with Bobby Orr..so I recall watching lots of Hockey in the late 60's early 70's..Derek Sanderson, Gordie Howe, Gump Worsley, Bobby Hull, The Esposito brothers...yup I remember hockey...

[Page Turner]

2 hours ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

I was a Maryland and Lefty Driesel fan all my life..

...Dreisel was the BB coach while I was at Maryland.  That was the era of Tom McMillan and John Lucas. All the games were always packed at Cole field house, and the crowd was electric. Tickets were free if you were a student, so it was cheap entertainment. The girl cheer leaders at the time were very good looking.

[Page Turner]

...one of my earliest memories personally was of jamming my finger and breaking the knuckle playing B ball at the local playground.  That hurt for a long time.

[AirwickWithCheese]

22 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...Dreisel was the BB coach while I was at Maryland.  That was the era of Tom McMillan and John Lucas. All the games were always packed at Cole field house, and the crowd was electric. Tickets were free if you were a student, so it was cheap entertainment. The girl cheer leaders at the time were very good looking.

Lefty was the greatest. Your association with him is why I decided to tolerate you 3 years ago

[bikeman564™]

1984, Detroit tigers win the world series

[sheep_herder]

I don't have a clue of my earliest memory of sports. 

[KrAzY]

Watching the browns win football games with my dad sitting on the 50 yard line. It was a long time ago.. when you could bring food into the stadium.

[Randomguy]

Greg Pruitt took a handoff and was to the sideline in a heartbeat, and half a blink later he cut back in a magical way I didn’t know was possible and broke free for about 70 yards and a touchdown. 

He was almost Barry Sanders, but was the discount model that kept getting high ankle sprains.  I loved that guy. 

[JerrySTL]

Besides listening to Waite Hoyt call the Reds games on radio, seeing some rookie named Pete Rose playing for the Reds at Crosley Field.

[Zephyr]

72 Summit series, Canada vs Soviet Union.  They brought in TVs to school to watch the games, and we all wanted to be Paul Henderson playing road hockey.

I still wear a "Paul Henderson" style helmet when playing

[Page Turner]

 

...all the sports hero stories reminded me I got to go to a Senators game in the old Griffith stadium in D.C. once and watch Frank Howard play.  Guy was huge. He had to hit it over the wall because he was so slow running the bases.

[jsharr]

Standing in the outfield in my Edmond Road Runners jersey spinning in circles, sitting down and wearing my glove as a hat, picking dandylions and realizing at a young age the baseball was not my sport.    

[Road Runner]

I was 9.  My brother, who was 12, hit a game winning home run at one of his Little League baseball games.  I'll never forget the look of sheer joy and exultation on his face as he crossed the plate and was mobbed unmercifully by his teammates.  

[Road Runner]

15 hours ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

I was a Maryland and Lefty Driesel fan all my life which made no sense living in Greenville. 

Lefty was born and raised in Norfolk.  

[2Far]

UB home game circa 1960-61, beautiful fall day.

[MickinMD]

My earliest memory was when I was around 7 years old.

The bar at which my father tended bar part time occasionally had a lot of men born out-of-state who rooted for the New York Yankees - as I did before I was a teenager - and went as a group to the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore once a year when the Yankees were playing the Orioles.

We had cheap seats near the left field foul line and my hero Mickey Mantle, who had recently had two consecutive 50+ home run seasons and upper 300's batting averages, was having one of his many injury problems and was playing left field instead of center field. It was a thrill seeing him so close.  At the end of one of the innings, I knew Mantle was the first batter for the Yankees the next inning so, before he ran off the field I yelled as loud as I could, "Hit one out, Mick!"

He looked up at me and smiled and sure enough, he hit the home run! He was rested after that late-inning at bat, so I didn't get a chance to yell down to him afterward, but that didn't diminish the thrill!

I was taken to that stadium at earlier dates to watch the Orioles, Yankees, and Baltimore Colts, but the one with Mickey Mantle's home run was the first one I remember.