Great Sporting Memories

[siftasam]

I'm very interested in Age, Memory and the whole concept of Time.

Can you help me please and have some fun with your great sporting memories?

Can we 'kick off' like this?

What were your first 'genuine' sporting memories? That is real memories - in my case photos or stories from newspapers, or things seen on TV (B and W for me!), or cinemas newsreels, or that you heard maybe from your family?

 

I'm 75 years old and my family, Dad and 3 older brothers were all excellent local sportsmen and discussed it avidly. Mum was also a terrific fan of tennis, cricket and horse racing. I actually remember few things about my childhood, except sport!

 

I was born in May 1946 and I believe that these were my first sporting memories (they must have been 'great' in order to be remembered for such a long time!)

 

Soccer: the 'gobsmacked' reaction of Dad and the boys' to England's defeat by Hungary 6-3 at Wembley in 1953 - yes, it was that 'traumatic'!   Slightly later, Peter McParland breaking keeper Ray Wood's cheekbone with a crushing shoulder charge in the 1957 Cup Final (Villa beating Man U 2-1), Bert Trautmann breaking his neck in the 1956 Cup Final (Man City 3 Birmingham 1)

 

Cricket: Jim Laker taking his 19 wickets at Old Trafford in 1956

 

Rugby Union: Eric Evans captaining an England team including Dickie Jeeps, Ron Jacobs, Peter Jackson, the locks Currie and Marques, and my school's brilliant PE master Jeff Butterfield.

 

Rugby League: I'm not a Northerner, so I had to wait for TV and seeing those great wingers Billy Boston (Wigan) and Tom van Vollenhoven (St. Helens) (Tom's  great try in 1961 in the Challenge Cup Final)

 

Horse Racing: the great horse Ribot, winning the 'Prix de L'arc de Triomphe' (1955) and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (1956) (watching with Mum!)

 

Motor Racing: The British drivers, Peter Collins, Tony Brooks, Stirling Moss, and particularly Britain's ill-fated first world champion Mike Hawthorne (1958) and his death in a crash on the A3 Guilford Bypass in 1959. 

 

Motor Cycle Racing: Geoff Duke in the mid 1950's dominating the Isle of Man TTs

 

Tennis: Althea Gibson (remembered for two reasons!) winning Wimbledon in 1957 and Lew Hoad winning Wimbledon in 1957 (and then - shock horror! - turning professional)

 

Thanks for your earliest great sporting memories of any sport.  And some of you are older than me!

[Mac Mickmanus]

When referring to memories, I do feel that  a "memory" , it needs to be at least one week old .

  Nothing from last week counts as a "memory" IMO

[siftasam]

You're right there, sir!

 

You're not Mick McManus  'The Dulwich Destroyer' are you, sir? (!)

I remember your bout with Jackie Pallo in 1963 - watched apparently by 20 million people in Britain on TV. Kent Walton commentating...ah, those were the days!

 

Remember your 'caulies' - "Not the ears, not the ears!"

 

Sadly, Wikipedia tells me that Mick was 'counted out' in 2013.

 

Mick, Jackie (oh, those tight glitzy shorts!), Kendo Nagasaki and Mick's great opponent Vic Faulkner fondly remembered.

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

I don't actually remember the game itself (I would have been 7), but World Cup Willie sticks in my mind for some reason.

 

 

[siftasam]

A classic, Crossy!

 

I forgot Athletics: earliest memories were of Vladimir Kuts (double Olympic Gold and Olympic record holder 5000 and 10, 000 metres in 1956) under lights at the White City, and Britain's own barrel chested Derek Ibbetson (world mile record holder in 1957) and Gordon 'Puff Puff' Pirie! (Olympic silver medallist in 5000 metres in 1956)

 

Tragically, I have never been able fully to expunge from my memory Tamara Press, the Russian Olympic shot putt champion 1960. Woman, man, TV, ladyboy? 'The

ongoing debate rages'!Two 'balls' here anyway.

Quite put me off women - until Brigitte Bardot came along!

[Surelynot]

Lynn Davies, gold medal long jump, Tokyo Olympics 1964.

[Crossy]

For balance, a more recent memory.

 

 

[siftasam]

Ah, Lynn The Leap! Thank you. MBE and CBE.

 

Wikipedia reminds me that Lynn also won Gold at European Championships 1966 and two Commonwealth Games Golds.

 

All in the Long Jump - but he sprinted in the Olympics too (100 metres and relay)

 

Welsh national hero. Intelligent and good looking guy, sent female hearts a-jumping too!

[chickenslegs]

Coe v Ovett in the late 70's and early 80's, but especially in the 1980 Olympics.

[brewsterbudgen]

14 May 1988. The greatest FA Cup upset ever.  

[1FinickyOne]

Sift, you have more memories of early sport than I have of my entire childhood - 

 

I remember pretending to sleep [didn't want anyone to bother me as I listened] in the back of my dad's station wagon as Willie Mays hit his 4th homerun of the game... 

 

then shortly after, came puberty...

[Mutt Daeng]

21 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

14 May 1988. The greatest FA Cup upset ever.  

I think Sunderland beating Leeds in the FA Cup final on May 5th 1973 trumps that.

 

[CharlieH]

Never really been into sports as such but names came to mind reading the OP.

 

1966 world Cup

Arkle - Horse racing, Red Rum multi National winner

Maradonna"s handball ?

Stirling Moss , Michael Schumacker, motor racing.

Roger Bannister 4 min mile

Steve Davies, Ray Reardon, Alex Higgins - Snooker.

Billy Jean King -Tennis.

 

[GreasyFingers]

47 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Red Rum multi National winner

Just beat the Aussie horse, Crisp, who carried something like 2 stone more than Red Rum. But Red Rum proved it was no fluke when he won again with big weights.

[Nemises]

America’s Cup Yachting (the oldest trophy in world sport). 
 

2013 Final USA V NZ - First to win 9 races
 

Race # 10 (Team NZ leads the series 8-1 & needs just one more win to claim the trophy). NZ has a big lead. The finish line is in sight and she is only minutes away from crossing the line first…but the wind drops to nothing(!) and R10 is postponed to another day. 
 

USA win R10… and the next 7 races to retain the trophy 9-8!
 

Arguably the greatest comeback in sporting history. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by Nemises

[DJ54]

60s living in Miami my father took us to a NY Jets vs Miami Dolphins and Joe Namath was quarterback for NY..

[Zenwind]

I was born in 1950 in NW Pennsylvania.  On our black and white TV during the 50s, I watched the series, Lowell Thomas Adventures.  The episode that riveted me was the documentary of Mt. Everest’s first (proven) ascent, with Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norkay summiting in 1953.  I saw men struggling upward under heavy loads into wind and storm.  As a little kid, I thought, “Wow!” 

 

In the 1960s, my teenage years, I was into Boxing.  My early hero was Emile Griffith, a welterweight moving up into middleweight.  In 1963 My father and I watched his live fight on TV with an unknown fighter who knocked out my hero in the first round!  This unknown was Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.  Later, I admired the incredible boxing skill of Cassius Clay, but when he was stripped of his title for political reasons, I stopped following the sport. 

 

Auto Racing was also a sport I followed in the 60s.  My father told me stories of Sterling Moss, and we would listen to the Indy 500 race every Memorial Day on radio on our family picnic.  My Formula-1 hero, Graham Hill, won it in 1966. 

 

In the 1970s, returning from Vietnam, Mountaineering became my passion.  It was hard to follow closely because it is considered such a minor niche sport, thus not in the news much.  But I devoured the books and periodicals found in climbing shops, getting the slightly delayed news. 

 

Reinhold Messner was the Man.  When I was a beginning technical climber, he was THE inspiration to me with his bold solo ascents, and in his well-written personal accounts he articulated the psychological and physical training attitude required for extreme climbing.  Every year in the late-70s, several news items revealed his new record-breaking adventures in the mountains.  I would stumble down from a (rather humble) solo climbing expedition and go right to the nearest climbing store, heading for the book section.  Here is a new book by Messner:  he did what?!?  His pace of newer and ever more audacious extreme climbs was astounding.  Breathtaking. 

 

E.g.:  As a training climb, Messner, with Peter Habeler, did record time climbing the North Face of the Eiger.  In 1978, he and Habeler were the first to climb Mt Everest without supplementary oxygen.  (Messner never used oxygen, ever.)  In 1980, he was the first to climb Everest solo, bottom to top with no support.  He was the first to climb all 14 of the highest mountains in the world (all over 8,000 meters).  Many climbers since – most of them inspired by Messner – have set newer records.  But in those days when I was learning the craft, I saw him as the most incredible sportsman on the planet.  He astonished me like no other athlete. 

 

-Zenwind. 

[robblok]

I must be an outlier, never ever watched sports on TV. I find them boring. Sports is something I do myself and can't say that i excel that much that i have great memories from it. Maybe just the one time when i participated in a regional weightlifting contest and came out second. But I only just remembered that because i read this article.

 

Have watched some tennis and soccer matches locally when friends played but that is about it. I think im the only one in my family (mom excluded but that is normal). Dad would to turn on sports, soccer, tennis, ice skating, formula one ect whenever he got a chance. I hated it as a kid as cartoons and other stuff were more my thing. That dislike must have gone with me when older.

 

I also never got the craziness of Dutch supporters of soccer and so on. Anyway fun to see that people actually remember sport events from that long ago and cherish the memories. 

[Hanuman2547]

The New York Jets, led by quarterback Joe Namath, rocked the sports world and the USA on Jan. 12, 1969, by becoming the first American Football League team to defeat an NFL team with their 16-7 Super Bowl III victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts at Miami's Orange Bowl.  I wanted New York to win even though no one gave them a chance against Baltimore and the QB Johnny Unitas.

[siftasam]

Great memories, guys! Keep them coming.

 

My childhood was 'odd' which is why I remember sports things clearly. I never saw one 'granny', saw the other one only once (never heard her speak). Saw one 'gramp' only once (never heard him speak) and saw the other 'gramp' only twice. He's the only one whose voice I remember!

I had 3 elder brothers - the eldest two I first remember when they came out of the Army! Mum was 39 when I was born. The third brother (7 years older) was always out playing sport or with his gf. Mum and Dad were working much of the time to support us.

I'm no 'scientist' but I'm sure the Brain forces us to remember things from our childhood (whether we want to remember them later in life or not!). We're 'conditioned' because using the memory is so important to us in our lives - or used to be! Are we encouraged or compelled to use it so much now? Is that a major reason why it can go so wrong?

You will probably have many family memories. I do not.

Love of Sport was the one thing that in my youth brought my family together. I am indebted to it.

 

Oh I forgot boxing!

Particularly, Terry Downes, the 'Paddington Exprerss'  winning the World Middleweight crown in 1961. Dick Tiger, the superb fighter from Nigeria and Liverpool, who was World Middleweight and Light-Heavyweight Champion   and Terry Downes's epic 'fistfests' with Scotland's John 'Cowboy' McCormack! Carnage!

And the extraordinary 'Massacre at Porthcawl' when Dick Richardson 'defeated' Brian London - the main action being after the end of the fight! Such fun! You must watch the Pathe News Clip on YouTube 'Big Fight, Big Brawl 1960'. British Heavyweight boxing at its finest!

[Sparktrader]

On 7/14/2021 at 12:40 PM, Mac Mickmanus said:

When referring to memories, I do feel that  a "memory" , it needs to be at least one week old .

  Nothing from last week counts as a "memory" IMO

Some cant remember more

[StreetCowboy]

On 7/14/2021 at 10:40 AM, Mac Mickmanus said:

When referring to memories, I do feel that  a "memory" , it needs to be at least one week old .

  Nothing from last week counts as a "memory" IMO

My dear late grandmother was the same.