Ask a baseball fan who was around during the 1950s about “the Catch,” and he or she will probably say something about the famous play involving Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays. On the other hand, NFL viewers who either fondly or reluctantly remember the 1982 NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys would probably think of something that occurred nearly three decades after Mays tracked the ball down in center field during the 1954 World Series. 

With the Niners trailing 27-21 in the fourth quarter of the game played in San Francisco, quarterback Joe Montana guided his team’s offense to the Dallas six-yard line. As 58 seconds remained on the clock, the signal-caller rolled to his right to avoid pressure from four would-be tacklers and lobbed a pass toward the back of the end zone that seemed headed toward the stands. Wide receiver Dwight Clark rose high above his defender, grabbed the ball, maintained possession, and landed both feet inside of the end zone for the game-tying score. The subsequent extra point gave San Francisco the slightest-of-margins victory. 

In 2016, NFL Films named Montana-to-Clark the second greatest catch in NFL history. After that play, the 49ers went on to win five Super Bowls between January 1982 and February 1995. 

Between 1933 and the start of 1984, the United States failed to host a single Summer Olympics. Four years before Los Angeles hosted the Games, the US led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, per The New York Times. According to the US Department of State, 64 nations followed suit and refused to participate in those Games. 

Thus, the Soviet Union and other countries from the Eastern Bloc elected to boycott the ’84 Olympics. According to the BBC, 14 nations skipped those Games. American viewers probably didn’t bemoan the lack of competition in multiple sports. The host nation earned 83 gold medals, a record at the time, and Carl Lewis became a hero in his home country after he won gold in four events. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also had millions of reasons to be happy following those Games regardless of the boycott. According to that organization’s official website, the ’84 Olympics “produced a healthy profit of USD 223 million and became the model for future Games.” 

Just 17 years after the “Miracle” New York Mets went from worst to first and won the 1969 World Series, fans of the Amazins again looked for assistance from the proverbial sports gods. The Boston Red Sox held a 3-2 advantage in the 1986 World Series when the visitors took a two-run lead in the top of the tenth inning of Game 6. All seemed lost for the hosts at Shea Stadium after New York’s first two batters of the bottom half of the inning went down quietly, but the Mets refused to die. After Ray Knight drove Gary Carter home, Mookie Wilson stepped up to the plate. 

Boston reliever Bob Stanley, brought on to replace Calvin Schiraldi, threw a wild pitch that allowed Kevin Mitchell to score the tying run and Knight to advance to third. Wilson then hit a slow roller toward first base that should’ve easily been collected by Bill Buckner, but the ball went between Buckner’s legs as Knight galloped home. 

Years later, Mets fans memorized Vin Scully’s legendary call of the game’s final play, which goes, “Little roller up along first. Behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!” The Mets went on to win Game 7 and the championship. Boston fans had to wait until 2004 for their beloved club to reverse “the Curse of the Bambino.”

In July 2012, CNN’s James Montague described the 100-meter men’s final at the 1988 Summer Olympics as “the dirtiest race in history.” In 9.79 seconds, Jamaican-born sprinter Ben Johnson, who represented Canada at those Games, crossed the finish line and earned the distinction of “fastest human alive.” As Montague wrote, Johnson later defiantly told reporters, “A gold medal — that’s something no one can take away from you.”

Johnson probably didn’t mean that as a challenge to the IOC. However, he was popped for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol, which was found in his urine during a drug test, and he was subsequently disqualified from the race, stripped of his record and his medal, and tossed from the Games. (And hey, that’s why you don’t cheat at the Olympics.) Johnson admitted wrongdoing, but as Montague explained, multiple athletes who competed in that final were eventually linked with performance-enhancing drugs. 

Per the CBC, Canadian television called Johnson’s crime “the biggest scandal in Olympic history.” Johnson attempted a comeback during the first half of the 1990s, but the International Amateur Athletic Federation banned him for life in 1993 after he failed another drug test. He never again competed in the Olympics or any major track and field event, and his reputation among Canadian and international fans never recovered.

As described by US Bets and Action Network, 42-to-1 were the odds offered for Buster Douglas to defeat Mike Tyson in the fight that occurred in Tokyo in February 1990. At the start of the decade, “Iron Mike” was the “baddest man on the planet,” a boxer who possessed terrifying punching power. He entered the fight versus Douglas with a record of 37-0, with 33 of those victories coming by way of knockout. Douglas wasn’t only a massive underdog — many wondered if he’d remain on his feet for all of the first round. 

Douglas did more than survive a few minutes inside of the ring with the reigning heavyweight champion of the world. Tyson’s left eye was swollen by the end of the fifth round, according to Newsday, and the overwhelmed champion looked emotionally defeated after Douglas recovered from an eighth-round knockdown. Two rounds later, Douglas finished Tyson with an impressive combination to record the biggest upset in the history of heavyweight championship boxing. 

Douglas’ title-winning celebrations were short-lived. In October 1990, a heavy and out-of-shape Douglas proved no match for Evander Holyfield, as the “Real Deal” dominated the opening two rounds of the bout before he knocked Douglas out in the third. 

The 1992 Summer Olympics provided fans with the first Olympic basketball tournament that featured NBA players. In response to this rule change, the United States assembled what outlets such as ESPN and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame called the greatest basketball roster ever formed. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, and a kid named Christian Laettner represented the Red, White, and Blue that summer. 

As you might expect, the 1992 Dream Team had zero competition. Per USA Today, the US routed opponents by an average of 43.8 points per game. In fact, the team’s best competition came in inter-squad scrimmage. As Mark Starr of Public Radio International wrote in 2010, the first Dream Team did more than cruise to a gold medal. It changed the basketball world for the better. Countries humiliated in box scores and on scoreboards improved their programs, and it took only a decade before US teams featuring NBA All-Stars had to battle and play their best to win tournaments. One can only guess if men such as Dirk Nowitzki or Luka Doncic would’ve played in the Association had the Dream Team never existed. 

A few paragraphs can’t do justice to the soap opera saga involving American ice skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in early 1994. Kerrigan, a favorite to medal at the ’94 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, suffered a brutal attack in January of that year when an assailant clubbed her right knee with a baton. Jeff Gillooly (Harding’s ex-husband), Shawn E. Eckardt (her bodyguard), and two of Eckardt’s acquaintances were eventually linked with planning and executing the attack. Harding denied her involvement in the knee-strike heard around the world, and both she and Kerrigan competed in the Winter Games. 

However, Harding’s Olympic dreams crumbled on the ice, as a forgettable performance that included a broken skate lace kept her off the medal stand. Kerrigan, meanwhile, recovered and won a silver medal in Norway. Even before that achievement, society had deemed her a superstar, and her post-Olympic appearances involved participation in a Walt Disney World parade and a spot hosting Saturday Night Live. 

Harding’s competitive career ended that year, and her many attempts to remain in the spotlight through the 2000s made her a public laughingstock more than an embraced celebrity. In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter explained she was “doing landscaping and deck-building work” at that time. Of course, she’s the one who got her own biopic starring Margot Robbie, so there’s that.

As long as American television airs Summer Olympic competitions, the highlight of Kerri Strug completing a vault on one leg to help the United States women’s gymnastics team win gold at the 1996 Games in Atlanta will be replayed time and time again. That July, Strug, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, and Jaycie Phelps entered the Olympics as favorites to compete for the first all-around team gold in the history of US women’s gymnastics. On the second and final day of the team competition, the United States held a firm advantage over Russia as Strug prepared for her squad’s last vaults of the event’s closing rotation. 

But of course, Strug suffered one of the most frightening Olympic mishaps in history when she injured her ankle on her first attempt. Many fans in attendance (the event didn’t air live in the United States) wondered if she’d be able to complete a second vault. Even though the US would’ve won gold had she declined, she heroically landed the try before she collapsed to the ground in pain. The Americans finished atop the leaderboard in front of a raucous crowd, and coach Bela Karolyi carried Strug to the medal podium. The team, as a whole, became America’s sweethearts for a figurative 15 minutes. And for a few weeks in August, Strug may have been the country’s most popular athlete. 

History will say that the majority of people who became nightly trackers of the home run record chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during the summer of 1998 probably should’ve known that race wasn’t on the level. Baseball fans and those who fell back in love with the sport following the work stoppage that caused the cancellation of the ’94 World Series and that lasted through the spring of 1995 would retort they didn’t care what McGwire and Sosa put into their bodies that memorable season. 

The two sluggers traded bombs back and forth throughout the campaign and early September as they neared Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs blasted in a single season. On September 8, 1998, the St. Louis Cardinals hosted the Chicago Cubs, meaning Sosa had an outfield seat when McGwire stepped to the plate in the bottom of the fourth. McGwire’s line drive to left field hit off Chicago pitcher Steve Trachsel barely cleared the wall, but it was enough to earn him the 62nd home run of the year. McGwire finished the season on 70 homers, while Sosa fell four shy of tying that mark. 

Years later, Sosa tested positive for PEDs, and Big Mac admitted to using steroids. Think whatever you will of the records they set in ’98. For at least a few months, they made baseball America’s pastime once again. 

Swimmer Ian Thorpe was the perfect star for the 2000 Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia. Born in October 1982, the Australian was only 17 years old at the start of the games. Still, he had a cool nickname (“the Thorpedo”), and he wore a unique swim suit that attracted criticism and outcry from swimming traditionalists. He also won in the pool. By the end of the Games, Thorpe possessed three gold medals and a pair of silvers. Australia chose him to carry the home nation’s flag at the closing ceremony. 

Those who watched Thorpe swim to victories in Sydney couldn’t have known he was dealing with anxiety and depression even before the Olympics. As explained by The Daily Telegraph, Thorpe reportedly didn’t look at those medals for a decade. Per The Sydney Morning Herald, he admitted in 2014 that he contemplated publicly coming out as a gay teenager before he swam in Sydney, saying, “I didn’t know if Australia wanted its champion to be gay.” Following his retirement, he became a public activist for same-sex marriage equality in Australia.