Michael Jordan won two titles at major events I covered before the six he won with the Chicago Bulls. (Getty Images)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
(One in a series.)
The Great Sports Pause of 2020 has created an obvious void in our daily sports conversations. It’s being filled by lists. Gobs and gobs of lists.
Instead of debating LeBron James’ chances of claiming an NBA Championship with a third team or calculating Frankie Lindor’s trade value after his latest three-hit game, we’re left with ranking the greatest games we’ve witnessed or most under-rated players named Joe.
With more than 40 years in the business of covering Cleveland sports, I feel qualified to compile some personal lists from my own archives. This is one of them.
Most Memorable National Events I’ve Covered
1. 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics
This is where sprinter Carl Lewis won four gold medals, Edwin Moses regained his superiority in the 400 meter hurdles at the age of 28, Greg Louganis dominated the diving competition, Evander Holyfield boxed to a bronze medal, gymnast Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman’s all-around gold medalist and one of the most popular female athletes ever, Mary Decker collided with barefooted Zola Budd in the women’s 3,000 meter run, and a team of U.S. collegians coached by Bobby Knight and led by Michael Jordan ruled the men’s basketball competition.
The opening and closing ceremonies were magnificent Hollywood productions. I was lucky to receive the assignment. But after 18 days of inhaling bus fumes transporting to various venues, I was light-headed and whipped.
Upon getting home, I was informed by an editor that he was making a change on sports beats. He asked if I wanted to cover the Browns. Yes, great. Three weeks later, I was back on a cross-country flight. My first Browns game was in Anaheim, CA, against the Rams. Talk about jet lag.
2. Jordan’s winning shot as a freshman
My first Final Four was Jordan’s first and only, too. As a freshman at North Carolina, Jordan hit the winning shot with 15 seconds left to earn coach Dean Smith his first national championship in 21 seasons as Tar Heels coach.
The thing I always remembered was Georgetown’s more-celebrated freshman, center Patrick Ewing, committing four consecutive goal-tending infractions to account for North Carolina’s first eight points.
Jordan was still known as Mike and played that season in the shadows of stars James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and Jimmy Black.
The morning after the championship, I joined friend and former Ohio University classmate Peter King, who covered the event for the Cincinnati Enquirer, at the Tar Heels’ departure at a small airfield in New Orleans. We saw Jordan, a freshman to the end, carrying the team film projector climbing the ramp stairs to the plane.
3. Down goes Phi Slamma Jamma
My second Final Four took me to one of the great college basketball venues – The Pit in Albuquerque, NM. When you entered at ground level, you stood at the highest point of the arena. The basketball floor was 37 feet straight down. The tunnel-effect made it incredibly loud when the 18,000 seats were filled.
By the misfortune of the seeding draw, the second game of the semi-finals doubleheader on Saturday was the marquee matchup of the tournament. And it lived up to the billing when Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler led Houston, a.k.a. Phi Slamma Jamma, over Louisville, a.k.a. the Doctors of Dunk, in a game played entirely above the rim.
The Monday night final was expected to be an anticlimactic coronation of the Houston Cougars as one of the greatest teams in college basketball history. Instead, it produced perhaps the event’s greatest upset, orchestrated by North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano.
In the final five seconds, Derek Whittenburg’s 30-foot air ball was put back on a dunk by Lorenzo Charles as an exhausted Olajuwon watched, resulting in a 54-52 win by the Wolfpack, a regional sixth seed, and Valvano’s iconic sprint off the bench in search of somebody to hug.
4. The perfect basketball game
In 1985, Ewing’s Georgetown team was the defending national champion and was making its third Final Four appearance in Ewing’s four years. At this time, the Big East was the dominant basketball conference in the nation.
Georgetown entered the tournament as a No. 1 seed, but so did St. John’s. Both made it to the Final Four, along with a surprise third team from the Big East, Villanova. And it was Villanova that completed a Cinderella story, toppling Georgetown in the final in a maestro coaching performance by future Cleveland State coach Rollie Massimino.
The Wildcats controlled the tempo and shot 78.6 percent from the field, winning, 66-64, in what was considered the closest thing ever to a perfect game in basketball. To this day, Villanova is the lowest seed to win the championship. They were an eighth seed.
5. The Gulf War Super Bowl
From Whitney Houston’s stirring rendition of the National Anthem to ABC cutting away at halftime for a special report on the latest developments of the Gulf War, Super Bowl XXV in Tampa was uncommonly tense and dramatic.
The Buffalo Bills’ “K-Gun” no-huddle offense, which was created out of necessity by coach Marv Levy in the second half of the previous season’s playoff loss to the Browns in Cleveland, led the NFL in points scored. The New York Giants led in defense.
This game would cement the “defense wins championships” argument for decades.
Giants coach Bill Parcells expertly played keepaway with a ball-control offensive game plan and his defensive coordinator, Bill Belichick, secured his genius label by holding the Bills to 19 points.
The Giants’ 20-19 win was finalized when Bills kicker Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal wide right with eight seconds to go. Nine days later, the 39-year-old Belichick was hired as Browns head coach.