SPORTS COMEBACK, THE GREATEST ACCORDING TO TWITTER

The question of greatest sports comeback came up after Super 70s Sports, @Super70sSports on twitter, asked their half a million followers for their comeback memories.

And they answered with enthusiasm.

So did I.

What is the greatest sports comeback?

My call was Dave Wottle.

Dave Wottle, ’72 Olympic finals in 800 meters.

With all of the team comebacks mentioned, my guy stood out.

Part of twitter engagement is the extra information provided.

1972 Olympic Trials, Eugene Oregon

Oregon had a presence on the ’72 Olympic Team with Steve Prefontaine, Kenny Moore, and others.

I got a ride to Eugene with North Bend teachers, coaches, and brothers Dick and Howard Johnson and their wives. I was a high school junior.

Kip Bellah and I spent the weekend sneaking into the trials with big groups. The security was more relaxed back then.

We went to Hayward Field to watch runners and throwers and jumpers compete against one another. I’d seen world class athletes before at open class wrestling tournaments, but not like them.

From the muscled up sprinters, lanky distance guys, and shot putter Brian Oldfield competing in a Speedo, it was a big show.

Most Notorious Sports Comeback

The worst sports comeback in the history of sports also came at the Munich Olympics when the Russian basketball team lost to the Americans. Twice.

Then they won?

With three seconds left, Doug Collins hit two free throws to give the U.S. a 50-49 lead. As the Soviets inbounded the ball, assistant coach Sergei Bashkin rushed to the scorer’s table, insisting his team had called timeout. The Soviets were allowed to inbound again, though no officials noticed the game clock had not been reset to three seconds. The Soviets’ pass went astray, and the Americans celebrated their apparent victory. But because of the clock error, officials ordered another restart. This time, the pass successfully reached Alexander Belov as two Americans fell, and he made the winning layup. (Belov died in 1978.)

The video still looks unreal. If Belov hadn’t died in 1978, and America was still ahead, they’d still be playing those last three seconds.

The Russians won the gold, if that’s what winning means. The silver medals for the Americans? They are in a Swiss vault.

That an international competition could devolve to the level of a driveway basketball game with the home-dad on the clock until his kid won is an embarrassment.

Why is Doug Collins still angry?

He was the player who sunk the winning free throws after getting chopped and dropped going in for a winning layup. Instead, he won the game like an Olympic hero wins games, like sports legends.

He took a hit, got up, dusted off, and finished.

Then the late timeout call, the clock tricks, the second win, and finally a defeat that still stinks and shows the level of sportsmanship. The Russian team should have rejected their medals, too.

It’s an irony that Dave Wottle won his gold medal over a diving Russian runner at the finish line. Check the guy on the right in the top image.

Here’s the dive. I think he launched a little early.

What’s it all mean?

Let’s ask the famous sportscaster Charles Dickens.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Coach Scott Fitzgerald has a few words for the ’72 team:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Could it be any more true today than it was in 1972?

Or 1925?