On this NCAA Tournament Eve, here’s a question I’ve been meaning to pose to my blog audience — or, more specifically, to the sports fans within that audience. What’s the most devastating loss you’ve ever suffered as a sports fan?
After the jump, my answer to this question. But I’m really curious about your answers.
For many Trojans, I imagine the Rose Bowl against Texas will be the
obvious answer, but I was in Maui on my honeymoon at the time, so it
was hard to be really "devastated" about anything. :) Besides, I had a
pretty philosophical attitude about it: the winning streak had to end sometime, and better that it should end against a truly worthy adversary like the Longhorns Vince Young than against some pipsqueak team like Oregon State or an archrival like UCLA or Notre Dame. So I was disappointed, but not crushed, by that particular loss.
For me, I’d say it’s a close call between two different 2006 losses
to UCLA, by two different teams I root for, in two different sports:
First there was the UCLA-Gonzaga basketball game in the Sweet 16, when the Zags,
a team I’ve been cheering for since 1995, utterly and inexplicably
collapsed in the final few minutes after dominating the entire game,
thus giving away their best-ever chance at a Final Four appearance.
(Many of you will recall this game as the day Adam Morrison cried.)
In terms of sheer, unfathomable in-the-moment devastation, this one may
take the prize, if only because the collapse happened so suddenly. My
thoughts in the immediate aftermath were pretty well expressed by this blog post.
Then, a few months later, came the 2006 USC-UCLA football game, when I watched the Bruins beat the Trojans
for the first time in my personal experience (USC’s seven-year winning
streak had begun the year I enrolled), and in the process denied USC a
shot at the national championship (indeed, I think we can safely say, denied them a national championship, given how overrated Ohio State turned out to be). Again, my feelings were summed up by a very articulate blog post immediately after the loss.
This particular bit of sports devastation was more of a slow burn than
the Gonzaga loss, as it was apparent all game long that USC was playing
like crap and might lose. But the actual significance of the loss was arguably greater, as it very likely cost the Trojans a third national title in four years (and a chance to have something truly undisputed to hang our hats on, with no asterisks courtesy of LSU or Reggie Bush). And of course, it was to our hated archrival.
I don’t know. It’s a very close and difficult call between those two. (Not coincidentally, both losses involved me losing bets
to Mike Tran.) I think I’ll give a slight edge to the Gonzaga game, in part because of the suddenness of the collapse, and in part because we all know USC will be back competing for national championships again, whereas with Gonzaga, who knows? That may have been their last best chance to make it to a Final Four — and that knowledge was a big part of the reason the loss was so horrible, as I expressed in my lengthy postmortem the next day. (Similarly to the USC-would-have-beaten-Ohio-State thing, I’m confident that Gonzaga would have beaten Memphis in the Elite Eight if they’d gotten past UCLA, given how poorly the Tigers played against the Bruins. Sorry, Jay.)
Both the 2006 losses to UCLA narrowly beat out the Red Sox
loss to the Yankees on Aaron Boone’s home run in 2003, in part because of the unique circumstances
in which I watched that game, which put a positive gloss on my memory of that otherwise horrible loss. (Why didn’t Grady take Pedro out?!? Take him out, you fool!!) Admittedly, I’m probably mentally
downplaying the attendant devastation a bit, because the
following year, the Red Sox got revenge 1,000 times over by rallying
from 0-3 to beat the Yankees and then win the World Series… so as
crushing as the ‘03 loss was, I’m 110% over it. :) But even measuring it by how crushed I was at the time, I think it falls a bit short of the ‘06 calamities. Maybe one reason is that I didn’t actually see Aaron Boone’s home run. I looked down at my portable TV, and he was already rounding the bases.
As I rack my brain, I can’t think of anything else that remotely approaches those three losses. I mean, I’ve been in attendance at some pretty gut-wrenching losses — USC-Stanford (football) in 2000, USC-Oregon (basketball) in 2002 with a Pac-10 title on the line, ND-Pitt (football) in 2004, ND-MSU (football) in 2005
– but none of them had the emotional impact of the 2006 losses to UCLA
or the 2003 loss to the Yanks, even though I watched those on TV.
Nor did this year’s Trojan loss to Stanford have a comparable impact, in large part because I didn’t actually watch much of it (I was in Denver,
you might recall, and was away from a TV for most of the game). And
Notre Dame’s season was too far gone by the time we played Navy to
really count that loss as "devastating."
I think I’d have to go all the way back to 1997, and the state
quarterfinal loss by the Newington High School girls basketball team — of which I was a manager — to top seed and eventual state champion
Norwich Free Academy in triple-overtime, to find something that
approaches those 2006 losses to the Bruins or the 2003 Aaron Boone game. But that’s not really the
same thing, since I wasn’t merely a fan, but a part of that team. And
this thread is supposed to be about devastating losses as a fan. So I’m going to say that the NFA loss doesn’t count.
Anyway, long story short: unless I’m forgetting something, I
think my Top 3 — ranking them in terms of sheer, in-the-moment
devastation, combined with long-term impact — would be:
1. Gonzaga basketball: Sweet 16 loss to UCLA, 2006
2. USC football: loss to UCLA, 2006
3. Red Sox baseball: Game 7 loss to Yankees, 2003
How about y’all?
March 19th, 2008 at 8:47:02 am
The Aaron bleepin’ Boone game, bar none. I was practically shaking from the ninth inning on. I actually wandered outside for a while after that game, asking myself if I would be a bad person if I raised my children to be Red Sox fans.
And the redemption the following year was oh-so-sweet.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:51:03 am
1998 NFC Championship game. 15-1 Vikings lose to the Falcons when Gary Anderson, who hadn’t missed a kick all season, misses a 37 yard FG with 1:40 left to go up by 10. And there was only 1:40 left because the Vikings kept stopping the clock idiotically!
March 19th, 2008 at 8:55:25 am
This one’s easy.
Stan Belinda giving up a hit to Francisco Cabrera sending Sid Bream on a bum knee scoring on Barry Bonds to beat the Pirates and make my in-hand world series tickets worthless. I’ve never heard my house quieter.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:03:57 am
Francisco Cabrera! I was so excited by that. The Braves were my second-favorite team (and my favorite NL team) back then, and Mark Lemke was my favorite player. Totally awesome.
Sorry, I know I’m not helping. :P
March 19th, 2008 at 9:12:56 am
The season after the “Aaron bleepin’ Boone game” mentioned above, perhaps, when the Yanks gave up their 3-0 series lead to the Red Sox.
But what was worse I think was Game 7 of the Yanks-Diamondbacks 2001 WS, soon after 9/11, when Mo Rivera had the easy out at 2nd base in the bottom of the 9th and tossed it into centerfield.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:14:33 am
Since I was born in Chicago and thus cursed with being a Cub fan for life, it is very difficult to narrow down the devastating losses, but here goes;
1. 84′ Cubs lose to Steve Garvey and the Padres after winning the first two games, then losing three in a row. I can still see the ball rolling between Leon Durhams legs.
2. 03 Cubs losing to the Marlins after leading 3-1. I know it wasn’t all his fault but I fucking hate Bartman.
3. My Alma Mater, University of Utah, losing to Kentucky in the 1999 national championship. They’ll never get back there again and they were up 11 with 5 minutes to go.
Now I’m really depressed.
Scott
March 19th, 2008 at 9:17:36 am
Now I’m really depressed.
LOL. Sorry. :)
March 19th, 2008 at 9:21:11 am
Ohh, good topic!
Mine has to be the 2003 Chicago Cubs. I was at Game 6 in Chicago, 5 outs from the World Series. Then the man who shall not be named reached out and took a foul ball away from Moises Alou. And though this started a chain of events that had me scratching my head, he certainly is not the reason they lost.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:26:08 am
That UCLA loss was so unbelievably horrible. It’s either that or the Broncos’ 1996 Divisional Playoff loss to Jacksonville.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:34:35 am
As a fan, and not as an athlete, right?
- 2005 ND-USC has to be near the top because of the emotional ride from celebrating when it appeared the game was over after Leinart’s fumble; to the crash with the Bush Push.
- Like Scott, as another lifelong Cubs fan, it’s hard to pull out a single game, but Bartman in 2003 still has the painful feeling of recency
- Game 7 of the 1995 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers had finally beaten the hated Knicks in the conference semifinals (winning Game 1 of that series with Reggie Miller’s 8 point miracle in the final 8.9 seconds); then rallied from a 2-0 deficit against the Magic (winning Game 4 on a buzzer beater by Rik Smits) to tie the series 3-3 with a Game 6 blowout win. But for the second straight year, they would fall one win short of the NBA finals.
- 2005 Colts-Steelers divisional round playoff game. “He missed it.” This one hurts less after last year’s AFC Championship and Super Bowl wins, though.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:56:32 am
The Kansas City Chiefs, owners of a 13-3 record, have their season come down to Lynn “I can’t hit a field goal that matters to save my life” Elliot’s right leg.
Quicker than you can say, “Curse of Marty,” Lynn shanks the potential game winning field goal (did I mention the Chiefs were freakin’ PERFECT in overtime that year?) and has to leave Arrowhead Stadium under police escort as the Colts go on to the AFC Championship.
What makes this that much worse? Thanks to the Blizzard of ‘96, I was stuck in Houston and had to watch this from a hotel room. I got to spend the next 3 days contemplating my loss as every airport on the East Coast was closed.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:58:58 am
No question: Sid Bream, 1992 NLCS, Pirates Braves (as has been mentioned). I was 10, and a die hard Pirates fan. I remember the slow chugging Bream somehow making it to the plate to win the game. Even as a 10 year old, I knew this was the end. Bonds left that year, as did Drabek, and the team has never been the same - the Pirates have not had a winning season since then.
Thus, I hate the Braves. I was so excited the year they stopped winning the division. Yankee levels of hatred here. They were there to remind me that “oh yeah, your team stinks, but hey, the Braves win every year!”
The second horrible sports moment was the Super Bowl XXX loss to the Dallas Cowboys. I hated that Cowboy team already, and Steeler fans in general don’t like Dallas because of the Super Bowl rivalry we have going on with them. That year, we went from One for the Thumb to another AFC chump. Those ’90s Cowboys were so annoyingly cocky that you hated losing to them.
OK, there’s two more. I don’t remember the year, but my alma mater (well, my future alma mater at the time - it was the hometown university when I was growing up), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has come so close so many times. I remember one time when IUP was in the D-II championship game, only to lose. I listened to that on the radio, and was devastated when they lost. I was probably around 9-10. Then, the men’s basketball team lost after reaching the D-II Elite Eight, which was also not fun.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:06:07 am
Both the 2006 losses to UCLA narrowly beat out the Red Sox loss to the Yankees on Aaron Boone’s home run in 2003
Child. Let me recount my D’OH!-Sox moments: 1975 world series, the 1977 collapse/Bucky Dent play-in game, 1986 world series, 2003 ALCS — hello, Grady, they’re hitting Pedro pretty hard even if they result in fly outs and not home runs.
2004 made up for that.
On the college football side of things, I’ve come to the point where I’m happy when the Ags simply show up and don’t get embarrassed. Otherwise, they always find a way to not win some key game or other when they’re expected to, and somehow find a way to win games they shouldn’t.
I’m still unsure of college basketball as a partisan, but I still support my teams. The woman’s tourney may turn out to be my best bet for enjoyment this post season.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:06:21 am
2005 ND - USC. the year before I enrolled at ND, I watched this travesty with my best friend who had just graduated from USC. he still won’t let me forget it.
Also, the Oilers moving to Tennessee was pretty tragic for me, not that that counts for this thread.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:08:38 am
Funny, Hoosier, “He missed it” was one of my BEST sports moments. ;) Probably because of the rush of emotions from certain victory to “BETTIS FUMBLED!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!” to “BIG BEN TACKED HIM!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!?!?” to “HE MISSED IT!! HOW ON EARTH DID THAT HAPPEN!?!?!” One Steeler fan suffered a heart attack during that sequence - no joke. I think we were jumping around for about 5 minutes afterwards.
Oh, and Brendan, you just reminded me to check on my alma mater’s women’s team, which made the tourney in D-II. Lost in the first round at home. *Sigh* We do that a lot, although I expected a run to the final, at least, when we’d go to a neutral site for the Elite Eight. They made the final LAST year without hosting it. Oh, well. Darned upsets! I hate them! Unless it isn’t my team that was upset. ;)
March 19th, 2008 at 10:16:16 am
the 2005 ND loss to USC under Weis.
It was also devastating when I found out that one of Pete Carrol’s assistant coaches sold his eternal soul to Meelzebubkor for the late game turnaround.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:26:31 am
One of the benefits of rooting for the teams I follow is that, unlike USC or ND or the Yankees, the historical expectations are not that high. So I tend to be philosophical when my underdogs fall short (unlike your typical Red Sox fan… which is one reason why I can’t stand the Red Sox). Fortunately for my history as a sports fan, the years when my teams have been overwhelming favorites they’ve done well - I’m thinking of the Walsh-Montana Niners.
The memorable wins - like this year’s USC-Stanford game - are sweeter when your teams are not traditional powerhouses. And my teams have probably had more than their share of those kinds of upsets.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:28:39 am
Oops, somehow I deleted my actual list:
1. The Play
2. The Immaculate Reception
3. Kirk Gibson’s walk-off homer
4. The Warriors losing in the 1976 playoffs
March 19th, 2008 at 10:47:11 am
2 words - John Paxton.
92-93 NBA Finals. Suns drop 1st 2 games at home, then beat Chicago twice out of three games in Chicago (Including a triple OT classic).
Game 6 - John Paxton nails a 3 with a few seconds left to win the series for Chicago.
Serious, utter devastation. Hate that guy still.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:05:08 am
I win.
Because of my family’s itinerant nature when I was young, I somehow wound up a Yankees-Patriots fan. (And this is no bandwagonning. My love of the Patriots goes back to Jim Plunkett; of the Yankees, Bobby Bonds.) An as a USC alum, the Trojan football team rounded out my triumvrite (once again, no bandwagon: my tenure at USC was concurrent with Ted Tollner’s.)
Because of the Patriots-Yankees nexus, I’m guessing there aren’t 100 people in the country who share my three favorite teams. Meaning, there aren’t 100 people who suffered what I suffered: the three greatest stomach-punch losses of the decade.
2001 World Series, Game 7. D-Backs over Yankees.
2006 Vince Bowl.
2008 Super Bowl, Giants over Pats.
All three games had many gut-wrenching similarities.
All three dealt with history-making propositions. The Yankees would have won four World Series in a row (only happened once before, pre-free agency); USC would have won three National Championships in a row (in an era when TWO in a row is well-nigh mathematically impossible); the Pats would have gone 19-0.
All three had their Oh-wow-we’re-actually-gonna-win-this-thing moment. The Yanks: Soriano’s homer off of Schilling, giving the Yanks a one-run lead in the eighth with a rested Hammer of God (Rivera) in the bully. The Trojans: Leinart’s TD pass to Jarrett with seven minutes left, giving USC a 10-point lead. The Pats: Brady’s TD pass to Moss with 2 1/2 minutes left and a tenacious D ready to hold.
All three had their That-Didn’t-F—ing-Happen moment. The Yanks: None out in the ninth, the worst bunt in major league history two-hops to Rivera’s waist; given an easy double-play, his heave pulls Jeter off the bag and the Yanks get NO outs. The Trojans: fourth and two, Lendale. Pats: Eli breaks away from FOUR different sacks and completes third and long.
All three had the Kill Me Now moment. Gonzo’s hit, Vince on fourth and Five, Eli for the TD.
No, I win. I’ve been watching sports since I rooted for Bobby Orr’s Bruins when I was six. Who knew, at this point in my life, that my fandom would turn me into a 21th century Prometheus?
March 19th, 2008 at 11:07:27 am
Right on, B. Minich — an incredible string of improbabilities (the missed kick being the least of them) was a roller coaster that had to end badly for somebody!
I need to add ND-BC in 1993 — David Gordon’s field goal, after the Irish had mounted a 3-TD rally in the 4th quarter. A devastating defeat, coming one week after they upset #1 Florida State and their obnoxious QB/PG to take over as #1.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:16:27 am
A Yankees and Patriots fan wins for having the most heartbreaking losses? Is this some sort of parallel universe?
Try being a Cleveland sports fan for a few seasons. Our entire make-up is shattered dreams and never winning the whole thing. Just a quick overview of some of our most devastating moments.
Browns - No championship since 1964. The Drive. The Fumble. Red Right 88. The Move. Coming back to the league and sucking it up big time until this year. Oh, and even after winning 10 games this year, not making the playoffs.
Indians - No WS win since 1948. Jose Mesa’s blown save in game 7 of ‘97 WS. Being so close in ‘08 only to have Beckett and the umpires ever-changing strike zone in Game 6 ruin it.
Cavaliers - No championship ever. Jordan. The Shot.
I’m sorry, but just since the mid-90’s a Patriots and Yankees fan has 7 championships, yet a fan of all Cleveland sports has zero in the last 44 years. With all due respect, I win.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:21:31 am
Denverdem:
You just don’t know what it’s like to suffer at such a wondrfully high level.
You’re a Cleveland fan. You’ll never win. Not even at this.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:35:50 am
How about Wide Right? If I think about that hard enough, I will start crying. Stupid Scott Norwood. Stupid Giants. Stupid Bills losing four damn Superbowls!
And er, the Sabres No Goal game in the Stanley Cup Finals was pretty gruesome too.
But USC losing to UCLA after 7 years of victory…that was horrible.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:35:55 am
You took the words right out of my mouth, Brendan. Gonzaga/UCLA game. Definitely the most gut-wrenching loss that I never personally played in.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:49:58 am
I just thought of another one from high school, where I was just a fan (not a member of the team), that might well make my Top 5, if not my Top 3.
First, some pertinent background. The whole time I was at NHS, we had a bunch of really good sports teams, but never quite good enough to win state championships. We had conference champs, we had state quarterfinalists, we had teams — like the aforementioned ‘97 girls basketball squad, and the ‘98 boys soccer team — that, if only they’d been able to win one really close tournament game against a high-level opponent, would very likely have won it all. But never a state champion.
Then, in the spring of 1999, my final sports season at NHS, we finally had a team that truly look poised to win it all. The softball team (which I had a bunch of friends on) went 20-0 in the regular season, including two wins over Newington’s archrival, Southington — whom the softball team had NEVER beaten before, in the entire history of the program. And we beat them TWICE, once at home and once on the road. We were ranked #1 in the state, #2 in the New England and #25 in the country — the latter being pretty much unheard-of for a Connecticut team, in any sport.
So, into the state tournament waltzed the 20-0 Newington Indians. I thought this was finally my chance to celebrate an NHS state title, finally my chance to publish my long-envisioned Living Room Times banner headline, “WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.” It was gonna happen.
And then what did the #1-seeded Indians get stuck with, but a quarterfinal matchup at a neutral site against the #8 seed, Southington. Yes, that Southington. The Southington that had had Newington’s number for 20 years, the Southington that we’d managed to gut out two wins over during the regular season, the perennial powerhouse Southington that never lacked for talent or good coaching. To win the state title, we would have to beat them a third time. Three times in one season. Everybody knows how tough that is.
I rode the team bus to the game, the embedded reporter with camera and notebook in tow, ready to write up the story of the triumphant victory. But I think you can figure out how it turned out. Newington lost a heartbreaker, and Southington went on to win the state championship. I never got to publish that headline. And to this day, NHS still hasn’t won a state championship in any team sport since 1994, the year before I enrolled.
Hell, that might be #3 on the list. Sorry, Aaron.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:02:39 pm
1. The Sacramento Kings’ loss to the L.A. Lakers in the 2002 Western Conference Championship, with special emphasis on the dagger-to-the-heart buzzer-beater by Robert Horry in Game 4. I still have nightmares about that one every now and then.
2. The Giants blowing the World Series to Anaheim in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. It makes my extemities numb just thinking about it.
3. The Raiders losing on the immaculate reception. I was 12 at the time, and cried like a baby for an hour.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:07:08 pm
Being from Buffalo like Becky we have suffered more than any other fan base, Becky touched on the Sabres “No Goal” and also Super Bowl 25 and “Wide Right”, the Bills were the better team in that game but got outcoached by Bill Parcells, with Buffalo’s amazing K-Gun offense that year, Parcells played a clock control game and had a 42 to 18 min advantage in time of possesion, that was an amazing game plan.
But the most devastating loss for me personally was the “Music City Miracle” game, a Wild Card Playoff game that nearly ended my grandpa’s life on the spot. We had the game won with 15 seconds left and then a announcers call ill never forget. So nobody has anything on devastating losses more than Buffalo sports fans.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:08:57 pm
ND-USC 2005
March 19th, 2008 at 12:21:04 pm
USC at ND, 2005. No question.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:57:22 pm
Oh, yeah, how could I forget this:
Penn State, the year they went 11-1! The year that their only loss was to Michigan. The Lions were winning in the Big House, with time expiring, when the officials give Lloyd Carr 10 extra seconds, after he argued that he had been signaling for a time out before he was spotted (bogus!). Since Michigan scored the game winning TD with about 7 seconds left, this naturally didn’t sit well with Penn State fans. Anyway, that was a heartbreaker, and ruined an otherwise spotless season.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:18:22 pm
I’m not a super sports fan - but my worst “loss” was not one loss - it was watching the slow motion collapse of the Mets last year.
I’m a cursed sports fan - I’m of that perfect age that the first year I can remember following sports was 1969, and I lived in Flushing - Both the Mets and Jets WON - wow - it was going to be that way all the time (or at least common)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA
March 19th, 2008 at 1:22:50 pm
- 2005 Colts-Steelers divisional round playoff game. “He missed it.” This one hurts less after last year’s AFC Championship and Super Bowl wins, though.
Yeah, what Anonymous Hoosier said.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:45:47 pm
1. USC-ND 2005
2. Super Bowl XL - It’s bad enough when your team loses the Super Bowl, but it’s 10 times worse when you’re actually at the game.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:11:00 pm
My stories aren’t as great because I don’t follow pro sports as closely, but here they are:
Basketball 1: Michigan State 75, Iowa State 64, 2000 Elite Eight. The only 1 and 2 seeds left in the tournament. Whoever wins this game will win it all. Officials dictate the game’s ending and eject Larry for good measure.
Basketball 2: 15-seed Hampton 58, 2-seed Iowa State 57, 2001 first round. Nuff said.
Football 1: Alabama 14, Iowa State 13, 2001 Independence Bowl. Game-winning field goal was ruled no good because it sailed “OVER” the upright. Made worse by the fact it was in Shreveport.
Football 2: Florida State 38, Iowa State 31, 2002 Eddie Robinson Classic. Seneca Wallace was IN that end zone, darn it. Of course, it didn’t matter after the collapse in the second half of the season, unless it would have prevented being banished to Boise.
Baseball: Cubs-Marlins Game 6, 2003 NLCS. I jinxed them because I was creating a centerpiece for a Cubs victory.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:30:47 pm
Baseball–Aaron Boone hitting the game-winner off of Pedro Martinez in the ‘03 ALCS. Redemption came the next year in 2004.
Basketball–Duke beating Maryland in 2001 after Maryland had a 10 point lead with 1 minute left in the final regular-season game. At home. Redemption came the next year in 2002 when the Terps beat Duke during the regular season, for the ACC championship, AND during the Final 4.
Football–Maryland has blown so many big leads lately that there are too many to list. I’ll just say the 45-3 drubbing Florida handed us in the Orange Bowl in 2002.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:34:14 pm
ND-USC 2005. Don’t need to say anything more then that.
Mariners loss in the AL Championship series to Indians in 1995
March 19th, 2008 at 3:16:22 pm
As a cubs fan, the 2003 collapse hurts (although I don’t blame Bartman at all, if Alex Gonzales had made the routine double play on the next batter, the inning would have been over).
My worst sports memory of all time was the 2005 MAC basketball title game…… UB up 19 at one point, Ohio manages to take it to Overtime, the last second Ohio tip in. We sat there for about 10 minutes in disbelief, at which point I got up with out saying a word and just started wandering the streets of downtown Cleveland. It was the first time in my life that I was too depressed to go drinking.
The Bulls made the NIT and had a first round home game(won over Drexel), it was just heart breaking to even be in the building however.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:35:46 pm
Yeah, as Becky and fezafou have pointed out, being from Buffalo means nothing but suffering. The worst of the Sabres defeats for me, though, would probably be the 2006 Eastern finals, when Buffalo lost Game 7 to Carolina on a fluke penalty. We’d managed to fight our way through a massive run of injuries to defensemen and should have won the Cup that year. There’s also the infamous goal that the Philadelphia Dirty Thugs scored through the side of the damn net in 2000.
Now, toss on top of that being a St Louis Cards fan old enough to remember ‘85 but not ‘82 and for whatever reason being a Jazz fan watching in horror as Jordan slammed Bryon Russel to the floor in the 98 NBA Finals. What I’m saying is that, there’s a reason I expected LSU to botch kneeling the ball out against Oklahoma.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:40:18 pm
That’s easy. Game 6 1986 World Series. Sox about to win. Wild pitch by Stanley. Ball through Buckner’s legs. And then the Sox blow a lead in game 7.
2. Bucky “X&*&*&*&” Dent, 1978 AL East playoff.
3. Aaron “X&*&*&*&” Boone, 2003 ALCS vs. Red Sox
4. Canadiens OT goal beats the Whalers in game 7 of 1986 Stanley Cup quarterfinals
5. Trading Ron Francis to the Penguins and beginning the end of the Whalers
March 19th, 2008 at 4:37:25 pm
Lakers losing to the Pistons in the NBA Finals in 1989. After becoming the first team to sweep the playoffs, Byron Scott suffers a season ending hamstring pull in practice before Game 1 of the finals and then Magic Johnson pulls his hamstring in Game 2 and is out for the season, and Laker fans knew we were sunk, but wait James Worthy steps up and scores 40+ points per game to pick up the slack in each nail-biting game, but the Lakers get swept anyway. The 3-Peat dream is over, the hated Pistons win, Kareem goes out a loser, and the Laker Dynasty sees it’s last championship for the next decade.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:42:49 pm
Oh yeah, I forgot the 2000 NBA Western Conference Finals. Portland blew a 15-point lead with 10:00 to go in the fourth quarter of Game 7. I hate the Lakers, and most of LA.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:49:21 pm
2. Super Bowl XL - It’s bad enough when your team loses the Super Bowl, but it’s 10 times worse when you’re actually at the game.
Especially worse when the loss isn’t because of what happened between the two teams…
March 19th, 2008 at 5:42:11 pm
Where to begin and how to prioritze?
Of all the Buffalo Bills’ Superbowl losses, the first was the worst.
Buffalo Sabres 1999 Stanley Cup hopes dashed by officials worn down by overtime.
Cubbies 2003.
Boston Red Sox World Series (ex-Cub factor) in 1986.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:36:08 pm
I’m a North Carolina grad, so surprisingly, my #1 disappointment is NOT a basketball game…it’s the 1996 football game at Virginia. We were #6 in the country, 8-1, with the only loss at FSU, who later played Florida for the National Championship. We were likely to go to either the Fiesta or Orange Bowl, if we could just finish the season by beating Virginia and dook. We led UVA 17-3 late in the third quarter and had first and goal on the UVA 8. After two runs, on third down, we ran a timing pattern into the corner of the end zone. Our receiver broke the wrong way, and a UVA corner picked it off and ran it back for a touchdown. UVA scored 10 more in the fourth quarter to win 20-17. We wound up in the Gator Bowl. The next season, we finished 10-1, with the only loss to FSU. After we got another lousy Gator Bowl bid, Mack Brown decided that he’d have to move on if he really wanted to have a shot at the big bowl games, and he took the Texas job.
By the way, Carolina had not - and still has not - won in Charlottesville since 1981.
Second place - Braves loss to Yankees in game 4 of 1996 World Series. Braves won first two games of series in NY, and had 6-0 lead in game 4 before choking it away (#$%&ing Jim Leyritz!)
March 19th, 2008 at 9:45:52 pm
Well, this is a great question. I suppose for me personally was my junior year in high school. I was a bench player on our high school hoops team that went 22-1, then we reached the state tourney regional finals and we lost in 4 OT’s to Battle Creek Central. They had a guard who never went on to play D1 hoops but I witnessed him get a look in his eye in the 4th OT and he put on a one man show to put us away. It was devastating seeing all the seniors who truly planned on beating Detroit Southwestern (who we had beaten handily at team camp the summer before) for the state title.
As a fan, for me it is the ‘93 loss to Boston College by the ND football team. I had the blessing to be sitting in the North end zone next to the students for the Florida State victory. I was a newly wed with a newborn and passed on tickets for the BC game since I figured it was a forgone conclusion that we were headed for the national title. I was so confident, I was listening to Tony Roberts on the radio while raking leaves and making my wife happy that I wasn’t wasting another Saturday standing in a parking lot and sitting too close to 57,000 other freaks. (This was pre-remodel to the stadium) I truly felt this loss was my fault since I passed on the tickets and I had somehow let the team down. How sad is that?
In recap:
1. B-ball state regional finals loss in 4 OT.
2. ‘93 loss to BC by ND football.
Jeff
March 19th, 2008 at 10:06:42 pm
This is easy: USC losing to Texas in the 2006 Rose Bowl. I was with a bunch of Trojans at the Downtown LA Athletic Club, cheering loudly and crazily the whole game, right up past the 4th-and-2 stop, through to VY’s 4th-down run… and then we all fell silent. Everyone sat on the edge of their seats to see if Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush could get us back into FG range, but alas, it was not meant to be. As dozens of us Trojans filed out the door and into the street, nobody said a word, and everyone looked like they had just been handed divorce papers. I didn’t speak until the next day, riding the metro silently all the way back to my condo in Long Beach, and then going straight to bed. It was just awful.
The loss to Stanford was shocking, but not nearly as tough to stomach. After watching Booty throw all those ridiculous INTs, and seeing our offensive line get absolutely no push for the running game, the stunning loss just made me angry.
As for 13-9, that was tough to stomach as well, but my reaction to that was, “What the hell?” I still can’t figure that game out — it stands alone in the Pete Carroll era as the single most unexplainable performance by the USC Trojans.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:25:29 am
Hokie fans are prone to horrific losses. We’ve also never won a national title in anything. Which makes most of our horrific losses related to times we’ve been close.
1- 2000 Sugar Bowl (VT v. Fla. St.). When VT took the lead at the end of the 3rd Quarter, we believed it was our year. Then Peter Warrick happened. I still can’t stand Warrick.
2- 2007 Soccer College Cup Semis v. Wake Forest. We hit every post and crossbar at least twice, had about three breakaways and couldn’t score. The other semi was weak and whoever won this was going to be champ. I felt like a zombie walking back to my car after this one.
3- 2008 ACC Tourney semis v. UNC. Just because we’re going to see that shot during the NCAA Tourney like 6 gazillion times. I turn the channel when they show it. Too painful.
4- Dockerty (Duke) half oourt shot to win in 2005. My South American roommate was depressed after that one and he doesn’t even like basketball. They still show this shot when we play Duke. I now know how Kentucky fans feel when they see Laettner.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:48:20 am
USC’s loss to Texas in the championship game, followed by USC’s loss to UCLA in 2006. Both were followed by stunning silence (which is hard for me to do–be silent).