What is your favorite family sports memory?
I was watching some clips on Youtube and they always show kids of athletes and coaches on the field and in locker rooms and that looks like it has to be an amazing experience. So it could be with your dad, with your son/daughter, a mentor, brother, mom, sister, aunt, grandparent...what has been one of your most cherished memories with someone close to you?
2006 ALCS, Magglio Ordonez blasts a walk-off home run to send the Tigers to the World Series after years of baseball BPONE. I was watching the game with my dad, brother, grandfather, a few uncles and cousins all crammed around an old TV, and afterwards the whole lot of us just ran around the neighborhood screaming and celebrating. One of my favorite sports memories ever.
Yep. That's one of mine too.
That was my 21st birthday. Dad and I drove out to Happy Valley and watched Michigan stomp Penn State; they stuffed all the Michigan fans in the corner by the loudspeaker. Someone in our section got a text saying that we were going to the World Series and our whole section went crazy.
Didn't have a single beer on my 21st and it was one of my most cherished memories.
1980 Gold Medal game. Went to mass, came home, mom made a huge breakfast and watched USA capture gold.
2nd is watching the 86 Masters with my dad.
Dad somehow got tickets to the 1984 WS for game 3, took the family. First MLB game that I remember, first time in Detroit. It was crazy enough after the Tigers won that day, I can't even imagine the scene after game 5.
with all the kids we have been blessed with some wonderful, memorable days, but i'll pick these:
1. oldest daughter's state hoops championship. down the whole game including the start of the 4th quarter and finally the whistle and the shots go the right way and they win it going away. that followed a double OT loss the year before in the finals, maybe the single most exciting (though disappointing) event i have ever witnessed.
2. last season's playoff football run for the high school-aged son was pretty magical, losing to the eventual champs in the semi's, but the year as a whole.
and one for me:
we won the states in hockey a couple of times, including my senior year playing juniors (that's the league name, not the age of the people we were playing for those not used to hockey terminology), after that game i walk out of the dressing room and the stadium is really crowded still, big deal for us at that age. my dad is there, and he and i had lived as bachelors for a couple of years since mom had died. i'll never forget he gives me a big hug in all that chaos and says in my ear, 'i know your mother can see us'. still gets me even to write that now, lo these 40 years later.
Love it. I was a goalie and one year was chosen as a starting goalie for the Michigan Selects (AAA travel team playing summer tournaments all over Canada and the US).
I played against the Russian junior national team (the U16s or U17s ... don’t remember) in the finals of a tournament in Toronto I believe ... we had a magical run and beat a few teams we had no business beating, but got smoked in the championship game. 6-0 or 5-0 or something. I faced something like 73 shots on goal. The game was more like a practice and we could barely get the puck out of our zone. One of their players skated over to me after the medal ceremony and gave me his stick and said I was the best goalie he’d seen. It still hangs on my wall in my man cave. Funny thing is it’s a wooden stick. They kicked our asses (and everyone’s asses) with outdated, heavy, clumsy equipment ....
My brother and I watching Michigan beat OSU in 2011. What a dandy day that was. It still remains the only win I’ve witnessed over OSU in my entire fandom.
June 7th, 1997. Whole family watching the Red Wings bring home Lord Stanley’s Cup for the first time in 42 years. Winning in the Joe made it sweeter.
Lidstrom scores with 30 sec left in the 1st period. With 7 min remaining in the second period, McCarty scores and we all knew it was over. Vernon was standing on his head.
Philly scored with 15 sec left in the game, but too little too late.
Hate to be "that" guy - but the pic is from 1998 when they won the cup in Washington, when they won in '97 vs Philadelphia they wore the home whites.
I know .... it’s the only pic I had on hand though
I was at that game in Washington. I bought 2 tickets to the game & 2 airplane tickets for me & my dad. He absolutely loved the Red Wings (& Tigers). If the game was on TV, that's what we were watching. He decided he couldn't do all of the walking & didn't want me to push him in a wheel chair. Took my wife instead & it was awesome. Huge contingent of Red Wings fans.
Also was in Pasadena for the big one earlier that year with my wife. What a year!
Hard to narrow that down. I have so many good memories with my dad, with my wife, etc.
I'll pick two representative highlights.
1. My dad was dying. His body was being consumed by cancer, and we knew he didn't have long. 2002 would be his last football season. He took me to at least a game every year as I grew up, and this would be the last. We attended the opener together, sat in seats that were, by request, right by an exit so he wouldn't have to climb stairs. He carried a tank of oxygen with him. As he used to drive me to the game and escort me around the stadium, so I was driving and escorting him.
We were worried about getting caught in a crush of people leaving at once, so as the end of the game drew near, we moved to the exit of section 18, a short move from our seats.
Phil Brabbs trotted onto the field. All prior field goal attempts had missed, badly. Now, there was one last chance.
Kick up. Kick good.
One last final football memory. Victory. Together. Dad died the following February.
2. After many years, I finally got a chance to take my girls to the Stadium. A generous mgouser gifted (!!) us the tickets, for which I will always be grateful. We tailgated with my mom and stepfather, walked past Almendinger park like old times. We sang with the band, cheered with the crowd, watched the game together. A dad and his girls.
In 1986 I was 11 and for the first time in my life I watched golf even though I wasn't being forced to by my dad controlling the tv. Jack went on to win the Master's at age 46 in maybe the greatest back 9 ever and my dad was still not home (he played every Saturday/Sunday morning at Genesee Hills CC which I think is no longer a golf course). Normally home by 2 or 3 at the latest it never dawned on me at the time that he was almost assuredly watching in the clubhouse with his golfing pals, probably drunk. When he did get home I met him at the door and told him "Dad I recorded the Master's for you but I won't tell you who won. You won't believe it!" He played it off like he didn't know and we watched Jack's historic back 9 together on VCR tape. He's never admitted to knowing ahead of time Jack won.
My son was born about 24 hours before the UTL 1. When my parents showed up to the pre-op room at the L&D where we were getting ready to go into the OR, my dad leaned in and said, "we're still going to the game tomorrow, right?"
We went. My wife wanted me to go. So I went on zero sleep. It made the experience that much more surreal.
Just being honest but you were probably thinking you made a huge mistake sometime in the third quarter, right?
Yeppp
BTW God bless your wife for that.
Yes, times a thousand. The best part is she doesn't hold it over my head or anything. I honestly expected her to eventually. But nope. She knows how important it is to me.
That is hilarious. I just envision his face being absolutely serious. Ha.
He was. Lol
I'm going to just break mine down into a couple of categories because why not:
Best overall - Hard to beat going to the title game in Atlanta a few years back with my dad and brother-in-law. The result wasn't the greatest, but it was a hell of a game and something I'll remember forever.
Loudest sports environment I can remember - A tie between UTL 1 and Game 7 of the ECF between the Flyers and the Lightning way back in 2004. UTL means more to me overall, but I just remember the arena being so effing loud at the end of the game. To the point where my ears actually started to hurt a little bit. I also got to go to Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals a week or two later, but it wasn't a clincher.
Most rewarding - My dad and I like to take trips either every year or every other year going to a new ballpark we haven't been to before. Did Fenway last year, was going to go to Coors Field with him a month ago and then everything went to shit with COVID. Over the years we've been to the Oakland, SF, St. Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, both Wrigley and Cellular, Arlington, Camden Yards, Tampa (the abomination that Tropicana Field is), San Diego, Phoenix, and then Old Yankee Stadium. Supposedly I went to Shea Stadium when I was a little kid but I don't remember it. Either way, its great father/son time and a cool way for us to experience new places.
Oakland’s stadium is the MLB equivalent of MSUs football stadium.
A giant concrete toilet ....
I don’t disagree. However, we were there when Canseco and McGwire were on the team together. I don’t remember who we saw them play, but I remember seeing McGwire hit a HR and thinking that ball just went for miles. That made the experience so much better.
Not a specific sports memory, but when the movie "42" came out in 2013, Marriott ran an associated promotion. You had to write a short essay on one of 4 themes and I chose to write about Baseball as America's Pasttime. I ended up winning about 40,000 points and, as a finalist, 4 tickets to any game - I chose my hometown Braves @ my adopted hometown Cubs; first time my kids had ever attended a pro baseball game and our first time as a family at Wrigley Field. I think their favorite parts of the that day were the L ride from Skokie Swift to Wrigley; the hot dogs; and walking through the crowds. And yeah, there was also a baseball game going on.
But that's not what I'm here to write about. I'll paraphrase the long-ish essay into a slightly shorter couple of paragraphs below [edit: okay, that was kinda long].
Baseball holds a special place in my life, not so much because I played baseball (I did for 4 years in Little League, but I wasn't any better than average), but because of what it meant for my family. My parents emigrated from S Korea to the US in the early 70s. As you can imagine, assimilating into a new culture was not always an easy thing. One thing I can remember from a very young age growing up in the Atlanta area is that my parents LOVED the Atlanta Braves. Ted Turner had called them "America's Team" because of games being broadcast on cable and my parents were all in on that. I remember getting in the car after church on Sunday and my dad turning on the Braves broadcast. He'd get so upset if they skipped or cut off the national anthem. It was an absolute affront to him! In short, it helped my family identify with a big part of American culture and make this country our home.
Many years later when I was a sophomore in high school, my mom was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS - better known to many as Lou Gehrig's disease or the Ice Bucket Challenge disease. It progressed slowly, but I recall coming home from UM summer after freshman year to find that she could no longer drive. The following summer, I came home to find that she was now in a wheelchair. She could still stand and walk slowly, but her ability to do so was deteriorating and it was just safer to be in a chair. My older sister, also a UM alum, graduated 3 years ahead of me and moved back home for work. After I graduated, I moved to Chicago for 2 years. However, my mom wasn't getting any better and my sister had just gotten engaged. I decided (with help from my then-girlfriend, now wife of 14 years) to move back to Atlanta to help take care of my mom.
Aside from the fact that she was the most joyful and strong woman I knew, she still loved watching sports, especially our beloved Braves. She would sit in her chair and watch baseball, football, and basketball. Many times, I'd watch with her. I remember one time, she was lying down and we were listening to the Braves pre-game show (probably around 2002) with Skip Caray (son of Harry Caray, father of Chip Caray, and long-time Braves play-by-play guy) and Don Sutton and they had asked if anyone could name all 30 current baseball stadiums. We started going through the list and, I have to admit, my mom got more than my because she remembered the NEW names of some parks (I couldn't remember the new names for Jack Murphy and Candlestick - she did). We had a great laugh over that.
It's things like spending those precious moments with my mom as she was dying, our first Braves game as a family, the time my parents went to a ballgame on a date and my mom presented me with the foul ball she caught, sitting in front of the TV and cheering on the Braves in their multiple World Series, jeering at Kent Hrbek for lifting Lonnie Smith off first base, going mad together when they finally got over the hump against Cleveland that makes those days, and Braves baseball in particular, special to me.
I'll go with my top three, in no particular order...
1 - 2005 Michigan-Penn State; Watched Manningham catch the game winner against PSU with my dad at The Big House
2 - 7/31/11 Tigers-Angels; Most Tigers fans remember this as the game where tempers escalated during a duel between Verlander and Jered Weaver; Weaver threw at Carlos Guillen, Erick Aybar bunted during a no-hitter in the later innings (8th inning, I think?; the game was close, so this doesn't bother me like it does most; My dad took me to that game for my birthday
3 - Watching Armando Galarraga get robbed of a perfect game with my brother. Watched the end of this one on TV, and I remember us both being speechless when Jim Joyce botched the call at first base.
Scene: State Lacrosse Class A championship game 2001.
Son: Goalkeeper
Team: Lost 6-5
Tired Sports Cliche: Too bad one team had to lose.
What a hard, heart fought game. I so admired the grit and determination of all the players. Sports at its best.
Oh yes, son was the game MVP in a losing effort ?
Ernie Harwell’s radio broadcasts of the Tigers in the summer evenings of the late 60’s on our farm near Bellaire MI with my dad and my brother Pete.
oh man, that was magic in the air. earnie is #1, always and forever. love ufer, but earnie was it.
My dad is a small-town guy and he doesn’t have much use for attending big time sporting events. His main problem is crowd size and the inconvenience with it. Despite growing up a little over an hour from Ann Arbor, by the time I was 17, I had never been to a Michigan football game. On a random Thursday in the fall of 05, the secretary of my high school approached me trying to unload their two tickets in the end zone. She asked if we wanted to buy it. My mom worked at the school so I quickly went and asked her. She noted my sister had something going on so it would be up to my dad. Shockingly, later in the day, my mom flagged me down to tell me he said yes, buy the tickets! Ecstatic, I went to tell the secretary who said she would bring the tickets in the morning.
The next day, I saw the secretary and she was about in tears. She had gotten her signals crossed with her husband, who had intended to buy two additional tickets, not sell the two they had. Crushed but understanding, I went along with my day. The following Monday, I saw the secretary again. This time, she was crying as she felt worse than she did on Friday. Why? Well, they had good endzone seats and got an up close look at Manningham’s game winning catch against Penn State. Looking back, it probably would’ve been one of the best things I would’ve witnessed with my dad.
Since I didn’t, and my mom passed away 3 years ago, I’m glad I was home for the weekend from college when Mags hit that walk-off homer against the A’s in 06. She loved the Tigers and I’ll be able to treasure that memory of us being so excited along with a restaurant of other fans freaking out.
Was over at my grandpa's house working on his computer while the 2010 US World Cup game against Algeria was happening. Tim Howard > Donovan > Altidore > Dempsey > Donovan > mayhem.
I only usually watch soccer during the big tournaments like the Gold Cup and the World Cup but I know enough to be dangerous. My grandpa couldn't have cared less but was just watching because it was obviously a big deal. We watched that happen together and I high fived him and said, "Grandpa, this is one of those moments I will never forget. I'll always remember where I was when Landon Donovan scored that goal and I'm so glad I got to spend it with you."
He passed a couple years later and I have just cherished that memory.
It’s hard to chose. Watching my kids play is always a highlight, but to pick one of those, the 2015 D2 state final in girls soccer. My daughter was a young Sophomore (only 15 at the time) and the starting goalkeeper for her high school. They made a state final which is a first for any team at her high school since 1992 I believe. School was out but students were bussed to MSU. The entire community came out and they were loud. It was incredible to see the support.
The team beat some insanely talented teams on the way and drew the 2 time defending state champs in the final. Her 10 saves, including a PK save with about 18 min left in the match kept it 0-0 through 2 overtime’s. They unfortunately lost 1-0 on PK’s, but she stood on her head that game, notching her 15th shutout of the season and 6th in 7 playoff games. In fact, the only non-shutout was a 1st half PK in the District Final. Couldn’t have been more proud of her.
I took my dad to the Lions playoff win against Dallas in 1991. He has since passed. It had been 34 years since their last playoff win in 1957. I had watched that game with him on Channel 6 WJIM TV. We used a booster antenna at my uncle's house. All NFL home games were blacked out in those days, sellout or not. Now it has been 29 years since beating Dallas. So if you're counting, that is 1 singular playoff win in 63 years. So great to be a lions fan.
I have two as a spectator:
- My first Michigan game with my Dad (50-yard line season tickets) ... Ron Johnson rumbled for 347 yards & scored 5 TDs against Wisconsin in 1968. I was 10 years old.
- Watching my son compete in his high school State championship game as the starting QB ... reminded me of a right-handed Rick Leach running the option. Proud moment in 2014 for the entire family who attended.
my 3 Bros and I were lucky enough to go to many Detroit and UM games, but here are a few:
1.) 1995 UM v OSU sat with my dad in his season tickets he still holds to this day Sec 11 Row 45. One of the best games and one of my earliest UM football memories.
2.) 2013 UM v Az b-ball. Not the result we had hoped for, but my mom surprised me and my brothers with tickets as cancer was winning her battle. She passed about 3 weeks later, but a game and memory that will live with me and my bro’s forever.
3.) UM home football games until about 2000 when I got too old to solicit autographs from the players. I don’t recall many of the actual games, but it was always exciting and memorable waiting outside the tunnels to get a program or football signed by the players. I still have the vast majority of the signed stuff from 1992-2000
Winning a couple state wrestling titles on a team I am an assistant for. My cousin is also an assistant and another cousin an athlete and now coach with us. My brother, sister, parents, various aunts and uncles being in the stands cheering us on. Those are memories that’ll never go away
Ours is a sports family so narrowing it down is tough. I couldn’t possibly rank these so in no particular order
Dad - he took me to my first game when I was 4 years old (1971 against UCLA) and we’ve been to at least one game per year ever since. I remember holding his hand and walking through the tunnel to section 42, row 31, seats 11&12. Everything about that day was magical
Older son - His last game of hockey. They lost in 2OT in the regional championship. He was a good, not great, player but he loved the game. After the handshake line, hugging his teammates, etc. he couldn’t force himself to leave the ice. The Zamboni driver patiently waited as he circled closer to the door. He bent down and rubbed the ice one last time. About seven or eight of us dads were clearly chopping onions or something
Daughter - she was an excellent swimmer but swam for a club team that placed swimmers at Auburn, Virginia, Arizona, etc. She was always a fraction behind the “big girls” and desperately wanted to achieve the things they had. She ate right, slept right, trained right for more than two years. At the state meet in a qualifying heat she posted her junior national cut. She would be making the trip to Seattle. The look on her face...fierce pride, overwhelming joy, relief, all mixed together was something I’ll never forget
Younger son - lacrosse his senior year. He had never beaten this team nor the first team all state long pole defending him ever, not once since they started playing against each other in 5th grade. He forces OT with a late goal to tie it at 7-7. He had 3 goals and 2 assist. His team gets possession first and he calls for the ball. He beats his defender and draws a second man in. He sends a perfect pass to his teammate standing 10 feet from the goal for the game winner...except the kid misses the pass and the other team wins on a transition goal. He sees his buddy on his knees in tears and goes over to him. Literally picks him up and walks arm in arm to shake hands with the other team. I’ve never been prouder
Being in my backyard as a kid with a 5 wood hitting balls towards the house because I couldn't possibly hit it that far.
Proceeding to rip the first one right through the porch window with the glass shattering at my mother's feet. The next 5 seconds went like this:
"Holy shit I killed that one! Holy shit I'm dead"
But really, it's being in a bar next to the Q downtown for Game 7 against the Warriors with my brother and best friend. I will never forget the entire city of Cleveland pouring into the streets to celebrate, must have hugged 300 strangers.
I've never been much of a sports fan until actually attending Michigan, and since then it's been slim pickings.
What I'm most excited about is my 6 year old's straight up dominance in his basketball and football leagues. Too many highlights to share, but almost every game we have, refs, other coaches or other parents come up to us and tell us how awesome he is and he's not even the biggest kid out there by far. Surreal since his mom and I weren't athletes. He can literally throw, pass, catch, and shoot (everything but outrun) his 13 year old big brother.
For me it was my first game at Tiger Stadium in 1983 or 84. I Went with my dad and grandfather. I still remember seeing the field for the first time and Ben Oglivie standing there playing catch. I had only seen these guys before on TV or baseball cards and there they were in person. I also came home with a Larry Herndon mini Louisville Slugger bat, which I still have today.
I remember the smells, the vendor yelling out “Get your jumbo hot pretzel heeeYAH!” Such a great day.
Also last May went to Fenway with the father in law. My wife was pregnant with our first child who was due in June. I got the “red” seat out in right field, which was really cool. Just a great day of baseball and conversation before a lot of was about to change.
Nothing like the generational fandom of baseball.
Attended a Tiger game as a little guy with dad, gramps AND great-gramps. Heard stories about Cobb, Ruth, Greenberg, Mantle and Kaline.
Barely remember it, but that little synapse in my brain is happy.
That's a nice memory. My dad never took me to a braves game (or any game for that matter). First time I went to one was for a babysitter's kid's birthday and I never even knew the game had started until we were leaving the stadium. I thought they were practicing/warming up the whole time.
Haha! Been to a lot of Braves games over the years. At Fulton County & The Ted. So many fun nights and Sunday afternoons in the Chophouse.
I moved before they opened up SunTrust but would love to get back to see a game there.
That’s awesome my man.
My parents allowing me to stay up late in elementary and middle school to watch the 2002-2009 Pistons and Red Wings Playoff runs. The 2004 Pistons title was the pinnacle of sports happiness as a kid
Not our family's favorite memory, but one that will always be etched in my mind. Winter, 2013. My son was a pretty decent college D3 diver, despite being 6'1". Final home meet, against his college's arch rivals. I often made the 5-10 hour drives for his meets around the northeast, but his mother rarely did. However, it was senior night, so she came along. He set personal bests on both boards and a pool record on the 1m, just missing a pool record on the 3m. After the meet we took him out to dinner and told him his mom had breast cancer and had just started chemo treatments. Bittersweet weekend. He was on track for going to the D3 nationals, after just missing out his junior year, but with his coaches' blessing he opted not to compete in the regionals and instead spent his spring break home with his mom.
My first live baseball games with my father at Tiger Stadium:
Mickey Lolich
Bill Freehan
Norm Cash
Dick McAuliffe
Ed Brinkman
Aurelio Rodriguez
Willy Horton
Mickey Stanley
Al Kaline (Yes, I'm old.)
I'm older, and here's the proof.
Summer 1967. Dad takes me to my first Tiger game, a night game against the White Sox. Sitting on the 1st base side, lower deck. The stadium lights made the green grass of the outfield glow. Couldn't believe that was really Norm Cash right in front of me.
Some leather-lunged woman several rows behind us kept yelling at Eddie Stanky, the Chicago manager. But I was only 7 and didn't know who he was, so every time she yelled "Stanky!", I thought she was telling him he smelled bad. (The logic of a small boy at work.)
Fast forward to September 1999, Tiger Stadium's last season. Went to one last game at the old ball yard. At the end of the game, I borrowed a Magic Marker and wrote this on one of the blue stadium seats:
" First Game, 1967 vs Chicago White Sox. Thanks Dad."
I believe it was 2002, first ever OT game at Big House against PennState. My not quite two year old pumping his fist to the Victors all day. Passed out before the OT started and didn't flinch at the thunderous applause as we score and won. Great memory, very sore arms carrying him all the way back past Pioneer lot. Wouldn't trade it for anything!!
Summer of '97. My Mom scored middle row tix to see Buddy in his debut film, Air Bud.
Goddamn, that was one helluva summer.