When sports are relegated to re-runs, or at least past sport events we may not have watched previously, one’s mind can turn reflective.
Something sports fans are always apt to be involved in are discussions around their top-10s, be that best players at a position, favourite sport movies, or in this case the most memorable games.
Over the next two weeks I will offer up the 10 sport events which I view as my most memorable.
Before I get into the list, I will note that this is for pro sports, so I won’t be including the Yorkton Terrier RBC Cup win in 2014, although having been in attendance to watch the late goal to tie the game, and the championship win in overtime is hugely memorable.
I also want this to bring back good memories for readers, so the fabled 13th man loss by the Roughriders in the Grey Cup, the Tony Gabriel catch to cost the ‘Riders another Cup, the Ben Johnson fiasco and similar disasters are not being factored in.
As always in making a top-10 that extends over some 50-years of memories across all sports, it’s hard to determine what makes the list and what misses out.
So, here are a few quick honourable mentions for games that just don’t make the cut.
There is the first game by the Toronto Arrows in the new Major League Rugby loop in 2019. I love rugby so a pro team in Canada is huge and their debut always a good memory.
The Saskatchewan Rattlers, the province’s third pro franchise, winning the Canadian Elite Basketball League crown in the league’s first season was great.
While not an outdoor soccer fan, I did watch, and appreciate Toronto winning the first title by a Canadian franchise in Major League Soccer in 2017. The reaction of fans and interaction with players postgame in particular stick with me.
There are also a number of World Junior Hockey Championships won by Canada that had my consideration, but were passed over.
So what does make the list?
At #10 is a tie, with the Toronto Blues Jays second World Series win in 1993, and the Toronto Wolfpack winning last year to climb to the top level of Rugby League.
As a huge baseball fan the second win, this over the Phillies was of course big, and I scrambled to a coffee shop to watch the Wolfpack game because of issues in home area with TV that day, so it will stick with me.
At #9 is Canada Cup 1987, which had Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux on the same line, who combined on the game-winner in game three of the best of three final with the Soviet Union, capping one of the great international events of hockey.
The Raptor win in 2019 sites at #8. If I were a bigger basketball fan it would no doubt rate higher. The rules of the game allow the last seconds of a game to drag too, which sucked the energy from the amazing win, leaving the parade almost bigger than the final game.
As a Calgary Flames fan I slot their lone Stanley Cup win back in 1989 at #7. Lanny MacDonald, famed moustache and all, hoisting the cup is iconic for me.
The 2014 gold medal win by Canada over Sweden 3-0 in Sochi at the Winter Olympics sits at #6. The game was not exactly a classic, but I rose early on game day, very early, along with my better half, so we could meet up with my son at a local watering hole for pancakes and to watch the game. Often who you are with helps sharpen a sport memory.
And #5 goes to Canada winning the gold medal in men’s hockey at the 2010 Olympics held on home soil in Vancouver. Sydney Crosby scored the game-winner on a feed from one of my favourite players at the time; Jerome Iginla. The winner was an overtime effort to defeat the rival Americans 3-2.
Next week the top-five.
