2001 Bears Clinch Playoffs (#8 Moment)

For Bears fans, 2001 was a season to remember. Noffke put the ridiculous OT interceptions by Mike Brown (just cut by Da Bears, coincidentally) at Number 8 on his all-time favorites list. For me, the standout moment of this particular season was the only game I got to attend. On December 16, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to Old Soldier Field for the next-to-last Bears game before renovation. The Bears were coming off a 17-7 road loss to the freakin' Packers at Lambeau, and had barely squeaked by the Bucs down in Tampa earlier in the season (this was before realignment).

The Bears stood at 9-3, solidly in the running for a playoff spot. The Bucs were 7-5 and riding a winning streak in what would be their last season under Tony Dungy. I was in high school, and my brother Tim and I got hooked up with our uncle's season tickets for this game. Needless to say, we were pretty excited. We filed into seats midway up the venerable Soldier Field grandstands and near the 10-yard line on the south end.

We were surrounded by men and women that, in all seriousness, looked just like this. It was a clear and sunny, but cool, December day. Any worries that we Bears fans had following the previous weeks' loss to Favre and the Pack quickly evaporated as Chicago, behind the legs of second round pick Anthony Thomas and the arm of old man Jim Miller, went ahead and crushed the living daylights out of Tampa.

Normally, close games have a better chance of becoming historic personal moments. This was not a close game. Though it was tied 3-3 early in the second quarter, a Miller-to-Marty Booker TD toss gave the Bears the lead, and they never looked back. Thomas ended up carrying 31 times for 173 yards and a late touchdown, but the best part of the game was the growing sense of elation as the clock wound down.

The Bears hadn't been in the playoffs since 1994, when muschachioed Dave Wannstedt was the coach. As Warren Sapp watched from under a towel on the sidelines, Da Fans (including us kids) felt the growing sense of inevitability and cheered and cheered as the Bears clinched their playoff spot and celebrated. It seemed as though the Super Bowl was just over the horizon for this unlikely Bears team (Jim Miller? Shane Matthews? Keith Traylor?!).

Well, it wasn't to be. The Bears, after winning the last four games of the season and sending Soldier Field out in style, went ahead and lost to Donovan McNabb and the Eagles 33-19 in their first playoff game. It had been a miraculous and unexpected season, and experiencing a part of it firsthand in one of pro football's classic environments on the shores of Lake Michigan is a memory I'll never forget.

GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!! (Noffke #7)

#7 UEFA Champions League Final: May 21, 2008: Manchester United vs Chelsea: Moscow

Soccer in the top ten? That’s un-American. Well to be fair, I wasn’t in America at the time.

I have always loosely followed Soccer, noting who played in the championship games but that’s about it. I do enjoy World Cup or Euro Cup games, mainly when two countries play each other. But I was over in Europe for a month and everywhere I went I heard about soccer. So a big group of us decided we were going to watch it in a bar and take in the atmosphere.
We were in Florence at the time and were lucky enough to find an English-speaking bar. I know you might say well, they speak English that hardly counts as getting the atmosphere, but the two teams featured in the game were from England so we knew plenty of English people would be descending on the bar.
We got to the bar roughly an hour before the game started; the bar was a two level bar with 3 big projectors broadcasting the game. The entire bottom section was reserved so we staked out some seats on the second level of the bar and quickly ordered a tower of Heineken (roughly 5 liters). By 10 minutes until kickoff there were barely any spaces left.
So the game featured Manchester United Red Devils and Chelsea Blues. These two teams just finished 1 and 2 in the English Premier League. Going into the game I knew who Christian Ronaldo was, one of the top 3 players on the planet, and the goalie was the German national goal keeper. So as you can tell I didn’t know much.
In Moscow it was pouring rain but that didn’t put a damper on all the cool pre-game festivities and traditions of soccer. The game got under way and you could feel the intensity of the game in the bar. The bar was probably about ¾ for Man U. Most of my group and I were in this majority.
Early on in the game, there was a nice pass into the box in which Ronaldo headed in for the first score and the bar erupted. Man U held onto the lead for roughly 20 minutes until Chelsea tied it up. The rest of the game remained tied at 1-1 with each goalie making some fantastic saves in big moments.
The game headed into overtime. They didn’t explain the OT rules on the TV so we weren’t sure how long the extra period would last or if it was sudden death. This just added to the anticipation and excitement as we didn’t know if the game could end at any moment. As this tension kept building the OT ended at the 30 minute mark and all was left was a shootout.
So the Red Devils were allowed to shoot first and each team traded goals their first two attempts. Then Ronaldo stepped up, and as I previously said he is one of the top 3 players in the world. So what happens? He misses. Both teams then go on to hit their next two attempts each. Chelsea now has John Terry, team captain, steps in to attempt their 5th and final shot, they hit this goal and they win the UFEA cup. MISS!!!! Man U is still alive!
Man U steps up, and hits their shot. Chelsea matches. Man U hits again. Chelsea needs this goal to tie, and the German goalie Van der Sar SAVES the shot and wins the title for Manchester United!!! The bar goes nuts!!! I am high fiving and hugging people I don’t even know and can’t understand a word they are saying anyways.
After hanging out in the bar for awhile longer watching and enjoying the celebration, we made our way to the streets where people everywhere are just as ecstatic as we were in the bar.
I now follow soccer a lot more regularly after this experience. I tried to watch as much Euro Cup as I could. Obviously with the time difference and the fact that I work it made it hard to watch. I still try and catch scores and games when I can; I just truly enjoy soccer more now.
If you ever get a chance to watch soccer in Europe I highly recommend it. I hear what I saw is nothing compared to World or Euro Cup where countries play against each other, but this was still an experience of a lifetime.

March Madness, Yogi-Style (#9)

It stands to reason that at least one of my Top Ten Memories had to take place at Yogi's in Bloomington, where we wasted so many wonderful hours watching sports over the years. The day was March 21th, 2008, the first Friday of last year's March Madness. Noffke and I (and a revolving cast of many others, notably Mark Hajduk, aka The Fairy Godmother Bear, Timmy Shark Transon, Alli, Jamie, what felt like dozens more) had the brilliant idea of watching every game of Friday in what would no doubt become a marathon drink-and-ball festival. We posted up at a table by the front bar, ordered food and pitchers, and dug in for a long, long day. Sixteen games, culminating in Indiana vs. Arkansas and a chance for Dan Dakich and DJ White to save our heartbreaking season. Well, that didn't exactly work out. But there were so many exciting moments along the way that the final body blow in a season full of them didn't hurt quite so bad when it inevitably came. Maybe thanks to all that beer, now that I think of it.

I'm leaning on this ESPN scoreboard page to help my poor Swiss-Cheese brain recall everything that went down. Well, everything but this One Shining Moment here. This, I will never forget. Ty Rogers buried a deep three as time expired in OT to give his Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and their hilarious, fantastic mascot (seen above in all his glory) a 101-99 victory over fifth seeded Drake, ending their excellent season. It was a back-and-forth nailbiter from start to finish, as the two teams traded the lead and showed off some serious lights-out shooting. There were other great games as well. Stephen Curry exploded onto the national stage as Davidson beat Gonzaga early on in a close one. He wasn't the only stud scorer to go off that day. Jack McClinton dropped 38 on St. Mary's to pace his Miami Hurricanes to a first-round win. Sonny Weems piled it on against poor, unfortunate Indiana, scoring 31 and barely missing all night, which was a stark contrast to Eric "It's My Party and I'll Shoot Every Time If I Want To" Gordon going 3-for-15. Have I mentioned that I still can't watch Gordon without grinding my teeth? And the Hilltoppers weren't the only 12 seed to pull an upset. Villanova and Clemson went down to the wire, with the 'Nova boys emerging as victors. Western Kentucky and 'Nova won as 12-seeds, but there was even more madness on this very special day.

Down in Tampa, where both of those 5-12 games took place, Siena was a 13-seed going up against a fourth-seeded Vanderbilt squad, and they absolutely crushed the Commodores. It wasn't even close. The same could not be said for the other 4 vs. 13 game, between San Diego and perennial power UConn. This one went to OT, with a final score of 70-69. Good game, right? Scary one for Jim Calhoun and his boys, right? Uh, San Diego won?! It was just a bracket-bustin' kind of day, I guess. Two 12s and two 13s on to the second round. That's why they call it March Madness.

By the time the late games rolled around, we had run up a pretty ridiculous tab on food and beverages. And then there was our side-betting to consider. At the start of the day, we all grabbed a bunch of quarters and decided on some rules. Basically, anyone could holler out any bet on any game going on. For example, "Drake's goanna shoot a three this time down." And then anyone that wanted to call the bet would throw down a quarter to match yours, "Nope, it'll be a deuce", with the winner taking both quarters, and the bet continuing to the next possession in the case of a push. With three or four people playing at once, and four games on at a time, and many bets being carried over... it was absolute madness, which seemed appropriate, given the day! I don't even remember who ended up walking with the most quarters, but we made literally hundreds of bets over the course of the day and night. (note for purists/legal agents, these 'quarters' were of course wooden. Not real money. Yeah.)

I haven't even mentioned Oregon-Mississippi State, a great game with a big Bulldogs rally, and St. Joes-Oklahoma was a good one too, if I recall (which I might not, come to think of it.) So even though we stumbled out of Yogi's at the end of the night with our hearts in our stomachs after watching the ignomonious end of DJ White's heroic IU career, we did so with full bellies (and bladders), and very pumped for the remainder of the tourney. This was the kind of night that made me want to write about sporting events and the watching thereof. This was the kind of day that legends are made of. I demand that we do it again this year. Chicago? Bloomington? Somewhere in between? You call it, and I am there. And, happily, Eric Gordon won't be joining us.

The Second Greatest Month of the Year (Noffke #9)

I always tell my friends that March is my second favorite month of the year. Why is that, one reason March Madness, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. From the conference tournaments (still props for the Ivy League for not selling out and having one) to the national championship game (yes in April) I would spend countless hours watching it and soaking it all in. Also, it always seemed like there would be an institute day on that first Friday of the tournament meaning if you could make it through school till 3 o'clock not watching any games, you could stay up late and watch Thursday's late games and then you were good for the weekend. My first pool was 1993 with just my mom, dad and sister. I picked UNC over Michigan in the final. Guess what happened? That was the best I ever did. Guess how much $$$ I won? 1 dollar!!! Yes. But honestly is there anything better then filling out the brackets (Editors note, Steve has a theory on picking brackets and is working on a statics breakdown of it right now. This piece will be coming out after the countdown of top ten moments) from doing the dumb who has better colors, which mascot is would win in a fight, who has the shortest names to my stubbornness and putting Kansas in the final four every year since 2000; I love it all. I do have a dilemma this year, now that Kansas has finally won it do I keep putting them in the final four? Only time will tell.
So kind of like the draft this gets a lifetime’s achievement award for making my top moments. But since this is a top moments list, I had to pick one moment and I am going to go with 2007 just barely beating out 2008 and the all day drink fest at Yogi’s.

2007 Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament: March 2007; Various Cities and location USA.
This one stands out for one main reason. This was the first year I joined my dad in Game NCAA Collegiate Basketball Draft Game . This is basically like fantasy football. Everybody drafts a team of 25 players from the teams that made the NCAA tournament. Whoever players score the most points wins the game. Pretty simple right? Well some strategy goes into it, like should I pick player X who scores 20 a game, but won’t make it out of the first round or should I take player Y who will see about 5 min a game for the number 1 seed.

The Draft itself take place at my Dad’s Fraternity Brother’s house. He has DirectTV which is hooked up to 5, that’s right 5 TVs in his basement. We had all sorts of action going one will drinking beer eating Italian beef, pizza and all other types of great food. The first day of the tournament that is where I watched the games. Fantastic place.
Our team was pretty good. We had a couple of Tennessee and Memphis players who did extremely well for us. We were leading after the first round, and a bigger lead after the second round. The big problem was we were starting to lose a bunch of players. We still had the lead after the second weekend, but going into the final four; we had no players left. Can you say LET’s GO DEFENSE!! Going into the title game our lead was just six points. Obviously we didn’t win. But now that I did this once I am addicted. And will continue to do this for years to come.
A couple of other things that made this year memorable.
I was reading Sports Guys running diary in real time. Here I just couldn’t stop laughing
Also in this year, Indiana beat Gonzaga for a round one victory but did end up losing to eventual runner up UCLA in the second round.
So now you might be asking. What is the greatest month of the year you ask? Clearly December. My birthday starts off a month that includes Christmas, New Years Eve, has football, basketball, and hockey in full swing. Everybody still likes the snow. It's just easily the best month ever.

My Number Ten Moment

I'm kind of playing these by ear. Made a list of thirteen or fourteen great memories yesterday, but haven't gone through and ranked them all the way just yet. Still, this one is a good fit at Number Ten.

War of the Crawfords
Who in their right mind would tailgate college basketball games in the Midwest? Well, nobody. But that didn't stop five or six of us with season tickets for last year's ill-fated IU Basketball team from showing up hours early for several games before it all fell apart. Noffke, Alli, Tim 'Shark' Transon, Zach 'Sandman' Sandler, and myself (note: not sure if anyone else was there, if I missed you, be sure to yell at me) arrived at Assembly Hall in some fairly cold early-December conditions with delicious crock-pot chili and lots and lots of libations. We played hillbilly golf. We drank from Solo cups. We debated whether an IU squad missing both starting guards, Eric Gordon and Armon Bassett, could handle Kentucky and Patrick Patterson. As game time rolled around, we made our way in to a packed Hall (I narrowly avoided being flagged down by several police officers wandering around the main concourse looking for drunks) and to our 8th row (!) seats by the south end goal. I think Noffke and Co. were farther up. It's all a little hazy.

Anyway, the crowd was very seriously hyped by the time this one tipped off. And for 15th ranked IU, what a game it was. Freshman Jordan Crawford matched up against his senior brother Joe for the first and last time, and all by his lonesome, the kid showed everyone which Crawford was indeed the real deal. Jordan dropped 20 on big bro, and the crowd loved it, howling "JOR-DAN'S BET-TER" over and over as their family looked on and Joe seethed on court. He was seriously pissed off - at one point the bro's went at each other. This was not a close game. IU, which at this early point in the season was looking like a shoo-in for at least a 4 seed in the tourney, crushed Kentucky 70-51. Beloved Indiana superstar DJ White went over 1,000 points for his career with yet another double-double. Between his play and Crawford's, it might have been the most enjoyable game of the season for me personally. No Eric Gordon crashing into the lane to be double teamed and either fouled or turn the ball over? Oh yes. I can't tell you how many times I watched this happen. But not this game. This game was perfect. Most of what I remember is jumping up and down and hollering at top volume. I was hoarse for at least a day.

Sadly, this season ended up going seriously downhill. Thanks, Kelvin Sampson. But for a few shining months, we got to experience Hoosier Basketball at its finest. And oh man, was it great.

EDIT: About to head to the Iowa-Indiana game. $5 Balcony Seats, sweet!

Top Ten Moments (Noffke #10)

So on armchairsuperstar we are doing a top ten countdown of our favorite sports moments over the next ten days.

Before we get to my top ten let’s take a look at moments also receiving consideration.

Broncos at Bears: November 25, 2007; Solider Field, Chicago IL. I was at this game. Devin Hester becomes first player to return a Kickoff and a Punt for a touchdown in a NFL game. Game goes into Overtime and the Bears pull it out.

North Carolina at Notre Dame: Love them or hate them, first game at Notre Dame Stadium is pretty cool.

Downers Grove South High School vs Naperville Central High School: November 24, 2001; Memorial Stadium, Champaign IL. Played in state title game. Would have made the list had I seen significant playing time or had we won.

Game Day and Michigan State at Indiana: February 17, 2008; Assembly Hall, Bloomington IN. Game Day comes to IU, they spend most the day talking about the Sampson scandal. Get to see Erin Andrews in person. DJ White gets named to Game Day’s “All-Star” Squad. DJ gets hurt in the game. Eric Gordon plays big and IU Rolls

Connecticut at Indiana: February 4, 2006; Assembly Hall, Bloomington IN. Number 22 Indiana hosting Number 1 UConn. I had tickets on the floor behind the basket. Unbeatable view of a fantastic game.

And on to the top ten

#10 2008 NFL Draft

NFL Draft as a top moment. I know it sounds a bit odd, but as my colleague Mr. Fodor calls it Christmas II or Christmas III. I have always watched the draft, many times way too long, but I have always enjoyed it.

This particular year stands out for many reasons.

First off, the best decision the NFL Draft has ever made, shortening the draft clock from 15 min, to 10 min. This made the down time between each pick go by so much faster even if it was only 5 minutes left.

Fodor and I along with a few other friends got together and decided we were going to watch the draft; we got together a plethora food and drinks to devour over the course of the draft. We decided we would wager a dollar on every pick. We flipped a coin and Fodor got the first choice. Of course he took Jake Long leaving me to take Chris Long and well Fodor won my dollar relatively easily. After that we went back and forth guessing which player each team would take. We got a surprising 9 out of the first 10 right between the two of us. After that we kind of struggled and switched to positions and did well again. The bragging rights alone would make it fun, and to see how well we did was even better. I do not claim to be a draft expert I will leave that to Fodor.

Another reason I enjoyed the draft so much was there were two highly rated IU players that ended up getting drafted high #40 Tracy Porter and #41 James Hardy. Seeing them go off the board after watching them play 3-4 years at college was awesome.

Lastly, it was a beautiful day outside which just made the day that much better.

Stayed tuned to tomorrow, if you want a hint it deals with Fodor’s other Christmas.