Putting Basketball on Ice

It's inevitable! I mean, it was bound to happen. There's just no way around it. It's just the natural progression of things. Some things just cannot be stopped, right?

It's basketball! I love basketball. I've played my entire life. That is, until the winter of 2023-24. That's when my basketball and shoes sat in the back of my closet, unused, for the first time.  

So why would the day come that I would not play basketball anymore? Well, old age, a bum knee, arthritis, a lack of desire or some other physical limitation, right? I mean hey, I did turn 61 my last birthday. From looking at most other guys my age I know, that's way past the time of such activity. But I don't feel that way at all. I revel in being the old guy out there keeping up with the younger guys. In fact, it's great motivation. For all I care, that recliner can sit in the corner unused for a few more years anyway. I've still got decent stamina. My body, despite shoulder surgery a few years back, is in pretty good shape. 

So why did I quit playing basketball? Attrition. No, not me but others. I'd been playing pickup basketball with the same core group of guys for the last couple of decades. True, guys came and went but we kept playing. We would play once or twice or even three times a week when I lived in Lolo. Even after moving to Frenchtown, I kept making the 25-mile drive back to Lolo for a couple more years. Maybe that's because I was the guy who hung on to the church gym key and kept messaging the group to make sure we had enough to play. But the drive got old so I invited the guys to come play in Frenchtown, which we did for another five or six years. 

During that same time, I was invited by a softball teammate to join a nondenominational group of Christian guys playing at a high school gym in Missoula. They were a bit younger, more skilled and competitive - all things that really drive me. And yeah, I was the old guy in that group too. It was great - basketball on Frenchtown's short court on Thursday nights and again Saturday morning on the sweet, wooden full court in town. 

But then COVID-19 hit and things were never the same again. The high school gave us the boot so that group shifted to a church in Missoula. It was still a full court but the floor was tile on top of concrete and after two hours of running and gunning, my joints (for the first time ever) were yelling at me to stop playing there because of the pounding they took, so I did. We struggled to get enough participation to keep playing in Frenchtown. We just could not consistently get six or more people to commit to at least 3-on-3 basketball on our short court so that was that. Still, I found out about another group of guys playing full court in Missoula. That went on for a year but that, too fizzled out. I was so disappointed. I could no longer be the old guy playing with the young 'uns. I did have occasional trips to visit my son in Spokane to play pickup hoops there, but those also fizzled out this past year, not because they're not playing anymore but because they were playing tournament games when I visited and I was an out-of-towner. So I would go to support him and became the designed scoreboard operator. (Hey, if you can't play at least you can support others doing so, right?)

Manning the scoreboard with my grandson

So the dilemma remains, what's an older guy like me who still has wants to play to do? Here's the silver lining. I attended a play with family this past winter where I noticed a familiar name, Patrick Nicklay, in the program. Afterwards, I ran into him in the lobby and we chatted. Patty was an old linemate from back in my hockey playing days 20 years ago. He said he recently started playing hockey again, was having a blast and urged me to do sign up and join his team. Hockey huh? Hmmm, no doubt about it. I do love hockey. It had been a while but why not? I started playing ice hockey shortly before my 41st birthday and had a great seven to eight-year run before stepping away 12 to 13 years ago because the game times conflicted with my work schedule when I was a second-shift-working broadcast journalist.

The longer 2023-24 winter hockey season was ongoing so I looked forward to the 2024 spring league. Unfortunately, I waited to long to register and could not get into Patty's league so the commissioner suggested I play in the novice league. 

So excited for this!

Perhaps Mark Twain said it best: "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." I'm with you Mr. Twain!

Sifting Through My Past

It's kind of an honor yet not very pleasant at the same time. First, my dad passed away a number of years ago and then, several years later, I helped my mom sort through reams of stuff to clear out the house where they lived for some 45 years so it could be sold. That "stuff" included old personal items, keepsakes, journals and other memorabilia. 

That got me thinking about my stuff. I had a couple of boxes of things I accumulated over my 60-plus years so why not thin it out now to make it easier for my kids, or whoever, to finish the job whenever that happens? 

Below are some examples I wanted to digitally save ranging from my early elementary school days to high school.

Pencil holder & "Mark Holyoak" rubber stamp (junior high)

Sleigh made in welding class (high school) - We were given five basic shapes and asked to make something out of them using basic welds

Mold & belt buckle made in metals class (junior high)

Oven-baked creatures (elementary school)

Not sure what this is

Holiday season artwork

My art does not improve with age but only thanks to good tracing

Fred

Lots of Freds

The "Holyoak Boys-Only Club" (Plus Mom)

Mark

I'm a sucker for a good, warm flannel shirt. I've always liked them dating back to my teenage years. They're just so cozy. Unfortunately, I couldn't really use for them during my days as a broadcast journalist. However, when I left TV and took a job at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, I was thrust back into the wonderful world of flannel shirts, fleece vests, boots and blue jeans. That's pretty much what I wear on a daily basis, especially during the winter months.

ßI first came across this sweet black and green flannel shirt during the early winter months of 2023. I saw a now former coworker wearing it and asked where he got it. He said it was an RMEF shirt available in our visitors center. It's thick, almost like a light jacket. I liked it. I went right downstairs and bought my own.

Fast forward to nine months later when a work email landed in my inbox. It said some customers who bought the shirt online were having issues with it unravelling. Because of that, the decision was made to not sell them anymore to the public. But a new shipment had just arrived so we employees were notified that any of us who wanted a shirt, or a bunch of them, could go next door to the distribution and take what wanted for free. There were about five big boxes but I didn't feel I could just scoop up an armload so I reached out to each member of the Bugle magazine staff that I supervise to see if they had interest. All but one did, so I hooked them up.

Mom

Later that afternoon, I again wandered next door and they had definitely been picked over but there were still a lot of them, especially XLs. And that's when the idea came to me. I'll get one for all the Holyoak men in my life - my son, brothers and sons-in-law. Mom was staying with us at the time so I texted and asked if she wanted one as well. She said "yes," so I grabbed one in her size too. But when I went back the following morning to grab more for the Holyoak women in my life, just about everything was gone, especially those in their sizes. Oh well.

While I was at work one day shortly thereafter, Mom got out her scissors and sewing machine and got to work. You see, her sleeves were too long so she cut off the cuff and then removed a lower section of the sleeve, sewed it back together and she was good to go. Here's to you, Mom! It looks great on you!

All of the guys would receive theirs as a Christmas present. Since Alan and Connor visited our place during Thanksgiving, I gifted them theirs at the same time - twinsies! A couple of weeks later, as we got closer to Christmas, I took an evening and boxed up shirts for Jace, Kerry and Matthew and shipped them out. I would give Kenny to him since we were to spend the day with his family.

As Christmas day rolled around, one by one, all the guys opened their presents. Matthew said his was a little tight (sorry Matthew) and his visiting dad was more than dropping hints that he would take it back home with him. I was with Kenny when he opened his. He said he liked it. And so it went. Below are photos of the entire gang except for Connor because well, there's just more to the story there.

Kenny

Alan

Jace

Kerry

Matthew

As for Connor, either he or Hallie forwarded a Christmas Day video of him wearing the shirt I gave him at Thanksgiving while opening yet another present from me. During my evening of wrapping up the shirts for all the guys, I'd forgotten I already gave him one and sent him yet another one anyway. When he opened it, he was like, "Uh...what?" Duh, Mark. #oldmanproblems

Then I thought it would be a fun to do a Facebook post showing a photo of each of us wearing our new, matching RMEF shirts. You know, kind of like a "Holyoak Boys-Only Club," plus Mom, that is. I sent out a text to all of them and I started receiving photos from each of them. That is, each of them, except Connor. He'd say, "Sorry, I forget but I'll do it when I get home from work," or "Dang, I keep forgetting but I'll get it to you." It became like a running joke. I'd send him a GIF of a disgusted kid tapping his fingers on a table. I'd talked to Hallie and she said she would get right on it. More time passed and the calendar page turned into 2024.  

Meanwhile at work. there are now dozens of employees walking the halls wearing the same green and black flannel RMEF shirt. When I wore mine shortly after the big giveaway, one of them said, "Oh Mark, I see you got in on the freebie action." I said, tongue-in-cheek yet truthfully, "No, I'm not like you posers. I bought mine early last year so my hard-earned money actually went to help advance RMEF's mission."

Fast forward to early February 2024, I received this text from Connor: "Some backstory for the shirt. I felt bad because I couldn't find it anywhere! I was so confused where it could have gone. Today, I found it! It had been thrown in a Christmas box and stored away with all our Christmas things on accident. Sorry it took so long. That's my bad."

Connor

I just laughed. But then it got even better. Hallie texted this as a follow-up: "Please accept this performance and our deepest apologies for the delay."

Yes, Connor and Hallie really delivered. It was an epic performance, indeed. I just laughed and laughed. But that's only part of the story. Aubrey's youngest daughter, Lexi, watched the video like 4-5 times in a row, laughing through the whole thing every time. 

So thanks Connor and Hal. What a great, albeit delayed Christmas present. I loved it! And hey Connor, hope you like the shirt(s).

The Greatest Game I Ever Saw

It was an epic showdown on December 16, 2023. Two of the most successful programs in Division I-AA/FCS history battling it out on the same football field. The University of Montana Grizzlies with 27 postseason appearances on their resume -more than any other school in division history- versus the North Dakota State University Bison and their record nine national titles from 2011 through 2021. There they stood tied 23-23 heading into double overtime with a trip to the national championship game in Frisco, Texas, on the line.

Montana used consecutive running plays of five, seven and 13 yards by Jerry Rice Award (national freshman of the year) winner Eli Gillman to bust into the endzone and claim a 29-23 lead. Rules require teams that score in double OT to automatically go for a two-point conversion. Quarterback Clifton McDowell took the snap, lateralled it backwards to wide receiver Junior Bergen, who had already returned a punt a touchdown in regulation and caught a touchdown pass in the first overtime. A defender yanked at his facemask but could not pull him down. Bergen quickly regained his balance, reared back and fired toward the endzone in one motion.

If the Griz were to go on and win, a championship-clinching play like this Junior Bergen-to-Keelan White classic needed a moniker, a catch phrase or something to forever remember it by. For me, it came immediately to mind: the "Immaculate Deflection"- a play on words and tip of the hat to the 60-yard, game-winning Immaculate Reception by the Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris in an National Football League playoff game 51 years earlier, one that would later be voted the most popular play in NFL history.

Now it was up to the Bison to try to even the score. Despite directly facing the north endzone "crazies," as they call the section where we sit, and the full-throated frenzy of 25,000 in attendance, NDSU took just three plays to cover 25 yards and find the endzone with a two-yard touchdown run. That cut the deficit to 31-29 with a pending two-point attempt to try to force a third overtime. Surprisingly, like the Griz, the Bison tried a similar play. A wide receiver went in motion toward the quarterback, took the inside handoff in stride, rolled right and looked to the endzone for a teammate.

Interception! The crowd exploded! The UM players sprinted to the near endzone. Bedlam! Madness! Mayhem! Craziness! Hugs, high fives, jumping and shouts of joy both in the stands and down below. Fans poured onto the field. It was the highest of highs as the two-time champion Griz clinched a trip to their eighth title game. After high-fiving and hugging complete strangers, I took a few moments to soak it all in and took three photos - one to the my left, one toward the field and the other to my right. 

Then, because I had a planned party I had to get home to -and couldn't afford getting caught in post-game traffic- I sprinted out the portal, under the stands and into the darkness of the night yelling, "Frisco baby! Let's go boys!" Or something like that. 

So there you have it. Because of the white-knuckle drama, on-field skill and execution, sheer excitement, immensity of what was on the line and intense crowd involvement capped off with a culminating explosion of elation and celebration, there was no doubt about it. This was the greatest game I ever saw in person!* 

Or was it?

Here's the qualifier combined with some personal context: I have seen scores and scores of games over my lifetime. And not just from being a sports fan. I was a sportscaster the first 14 years of my 24-year broadcast journalism career covering the Big 8, Big 12, Pac 10, Western Athletic, West Coast, Sunbelt and Big Sky Conferences, smaller college leagues, high school and other amateur sports, minor league baseball and hockey, NFL, Major League Baseball, college bowl games, College World Series, NCAA Basketball Tournaments (14 in a row), NCAA Division II Basketball Championships (two) and a slew of other sports, including several I competed in over the years.

With that said, I have many memories of many great games. And there are a bunch I don't remember as well. So, I need to do some clarifying as I take a trip down my own memory land of the greatest games I ever saw in person. Let's begin.*

Northern Arizona at Montana - November 1, 2003 

Before we move on from the Griz, my previous favorite UM game was November 1, 2003. I sat in the stands with my young son and we watched Levander Segars electrify the Washington-Grizzly crowd by returning not one but two punts for touchdowns in Montana's 59-21 victory over Northern Arizona. Segars went on to set FCS records for punt returns and punt return yardage.

BYU Football NCAA National Champions - 1984

1984 marked my first year as a student at Brigham Young University, and what a year it was! I attended all six home football games. It didn't take long to see that this team was special. Sixteen BYU players would be taken in the NFL draft over the next three years, including three first-round picks. In that lone season, the Cougars, led by quarterback Robbie Bosco (later drafted by the Green Bay Packers), outscored their opponents 432-166. Most every game was a high-flying, aerial circus on the field and a fan's delight in the stands with simultaneous waves (to the left, to the right, bottom to top and top to bottom), flying tortilla shells during warm weather and flying snowballs late in the season as well as the crowd tossing the football completely around the stadium after each extra point. 

My favorite play was one of the most amazing individual defensive efforts I've seen to this day, even though I'll admit I didn't see it in person since it was a road game. BYU was in a dogfight, trailing late at Hawaii. With the ball a mere few inches from their own goal line, safety Kyle Morrell (later named an all-American) put on his superman cape, timed his leap perfectly, flew over both his own defensive line and Hawaii's offensive line to grab the quarterback from behind on a planned QB sneak call, pulling him to the turf. Watch it here. That incredible effort by Morrell helped hold the Rainbow Warriors to a field goal. BYU got the ball back and closed it out with a game-winning touchdown drive. 

Despite winning all its games (12-0), BYU received criticism for not having a more difficult schedule.  You can only beat the teams on your schedule, right? The season began with a road win at number-3 Pitt followed by a 47-13 mauling of Baylor from the old Southwest Conference and rolled on from there. Still, when the regular season ended, BYU, the only unbeaten team in the nation, sat atop the polls. Today show host Bryant Gumbel declared, "How can you rank BYU number one? Who'd they play? Bo Diddley Tech?" A BYU associate professor  had a nicely crafted response that ran in the Daily Universe, BYU's student-run newspaper. 

Barry Switzer, head coach of the second-ranked Oklahoma Sooners also belittled the Cougars. He called BYU's 24-17 victory over Michigan in the Holiday Bowl a "JV game." He and his team must have had "BYU on the Brain," as The Oklahoma declared, because the Sooners were a train wreck in their Orange Bowl matchup against number-4 Washington. To exemplify the issue, the Sooner Schooner broke down on the field during the game costing the team a 15-yard penalty. On the ensuing play, Washington blocked Oklahoma's field goal attempt. OU went down in a thunderous (and ever so glorious) 28-17 defeat. Afterwards, Switzer declared, "I know one thing, Washington is number one!"

After the game, BYU garnered 38 first-place votes to finish atop the Associated Press poll. That team is the last one to this day from a non-Big Five Power Conference to win it all.

Photo credit: ESPN

After the game, the Salt Lake City Council of Governments took a classic, roundhouse swing at the Sooners' coach by voting to rename the South Valley Water Reclamation Facility's large sewage pond the "Barry Switzer Bowl." Today, that sewage pond is no longer active, and neither is Barry.

Kansas State vs. North Texas - September 30, 1989

Nobody likes getting sand kicked in their face. For the Kansas State Wildcat football program, that happened again and again and again. In 1989, Sports Illustrated published a sandblaster of a piece leading into the college football season titled "Futility U." It chronicled the woes of K-State, "America's most hapless team." Here are some of the KSU lowlights at the time:

• Only major college football program with 500 losses
• Record of 299-509-41 over 93 years of playing football (dead last in Division I-A)
• From 1946-1989, K-State ranked last in scoring offense, scoring defense and last in total offense since 1954
• Failed 27 straight times to record 300th win
• Had not won a game since Oct. 18, 1986 which was the longest nonwinning streak in America
• Long-time ESPN prognosticator Beano Cook famously predicted a tie in 1987 between K-State (0-8) versus Kansas (1-7), a game dubbed "The Toilet Bowl" because both teams were so bad. Sure enough, two plays after recovering a KU fumble, K-State's 28-yard field goal in the final seconds was blocked (go to 7:30 mark - of course I couldn't find a better highlight) and the game ended 17- 17. That's even worse than kissing your sister. 
  

With that in mind, K-State opened the 1989 season by being outscored 78-28 in losses to Arizona State, Northern Iowa (I-AA school) and Northern Illinois. North Texas, another I-AA school that beat KSU four years earlier, came to Manhattan with a 3-0 record. Trailing 17-14 with seconds to go, Head Coach Bill Snyder passed on what would have been a game-tying 29 yard field goal. Instead, he put faith in quarterback Carl Straw who found wideout Frank Rodriguez from 12 yards out for the game-winner (go to 3:20 mark*). I was in the old press box at the time which I thought may tumble down to earth as it swayed after the touchdown. The crowd exploded, poured onto the field and tore down the goalposts as K-State won its first game after 31 tries dating back to 1986.

To this day, I remember interviewing Hernandez. He had the biggest, deepest smile on his face. That ended up being K-State's only victory of the season but it was just the beginning as Bill Snyder orchestrated the biggest turnaround in college football history. The Wildcats went on to play in 11 consecutive bowl games over his 17 years before he walked away from the game. However, with the program struggling, Snyder came out of retirement to lead K-State for another decade and eight more bowl games in a row.  

(*Some may recognize the K-State play-by-play voice as Mitch Holthus. He was the radio voice of the Wildcats from 1984 to 1996 before becoming the radio voice of the Kansas City Chiefs, which he does to this day. When Mitch started his new job with KC, he reached out to launch a weekly insider report about all-things Chiefs football called "A Minute with Mitch." We recorded the weekly segment together on a Monday morning and then I edited in additional video or graphics and mailed the tapes to TV stations across Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and into Iowa. It was a good time. We even shot video for Mitch while covering the Chiefs training camp in River Falls, Wisconsin. I also bought a shimmering golden suit coat from under his nose, so to speak, but that's another story for another day.)

K-State vs. Colorado State - 1995 Holiday Bowl

Talk about a game with an electric atmosphere. Two years after the Cats won their first-ever postseason game at the Copper Bowl in Tucson, Arizona, 10th-ranked K-State rolled into a Holiday Bowl matchup with 8-2 Colorado State. I shot the entire game from the sidelines which was the best place to witness the carnage. Amazingly, the entire upper bowl of Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego was purple. That's right, some 25,000 K-Staters made the 1,500-mile trip from Manhattan, Kansas, and it was LOUD! Midway through the first quarter, the crowd went silent when starting quarterback Matt Miller left the field on a stretcher with a neck injury. (He would be okay). Backup Matt Kavanagh replaced him and tied a Holiday Bowl record with four touchdown passes - one of them to Kevin Lockett, K-State's all-time leading receiver whose school records would later be broken by his son Tyler Lockett who went on to have a stellar career with the Seattle Seahawks. The Wildcats rolled to a raucous 54-21 victory with Kavanaugh taking offensive MVP honors and hard-hitting Mario Smith the defensive MVP award. K-State gave me a #95 Holiday Bowl jersey that I lost decades later in our house fire.

K-State vs. Syracuse - 1997 Fiesta Bowl

Here we go with another edition of "Manhattan West" as 30,000 K-State fans made the trek to Tempe Arizona. Even though the Wildcats had the higher ranking at number-10, the national pundits talked up Donovan McNabb and his 14th-ranked Syracuse Orangeman. But future NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the K-State defense and quarterback Michael Bishop who clearly outplayed him throwing for four touchdowns in a 35-18 throttling. K-State finished 11-1, its highest win total in program history with the lone loss coming to national champion Nebraska.

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Seattle Seahawks - November 11, 1990

Best individual game that I watched by any player on any level ever? This may be it. It was November 11, 1990 - Veteran's Day. I was in the press box at Arrowhead Stadium as the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Seattle Seahawks. KC honored veterans with a high energy pregame ceremony capped by a black, bat-wing stealth bomber that buzzed the crowd of 76,000. 

Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas was raised by his mother, Edith, because his father, Robert, died while on a mission as a B-52 pilot in the Vietnam War. On this day, DT played inspired football in honor of his father. A one man wrecking crew, he pulled Seahawks quarterback Dave Krieg to the turf again and again and again. One of his sacks deep in Seattle territory jarred the ball loose. Dan Saleaumua fell on top of it in the endzone for the Chiefs lone touchdown of the day. In all, Thomas sacked Krieg seven times - seven! That performance remains a single-game NFL record to this day. 

Despite DT's effort, it was the one that got away that haunted him. Seattle had the ball in Kansas City territory with mere seconds remaining. Thomas broke through the line, got both hands on Krieg but could not pull him down. Krieg recovered, threw and found Paul Skanski in the endzone for the game-tying touchdown. The extra point gave Seattle a 17-16 victory. Afterwards in the Chiefs locker room, a very quiet locker room I may add, Thomas said, "That last sack I didn't get is the one I'm going to remember."

Still a seven-sack game in front of a revved up crowd? Wow, what a game!

Photo credit: Kansas City Chiefs

Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs - November 29, 2015

Fast forward to 25 years later, I surprised Jace with a father-son getaway trip from Missoula, Montana, to Kansas City. It was his first-ever visit to Arrowhead Stadium. While I had covered a decade of KC games as a sportscaster back in the day, I'd only seen games either from the press box or from the sidelines with a camera on my shoulder. This was my first game as a fan in the loudest stadium in the nation, and it came just one month and one day after the Kansas City Royals, perhaps my all-time favorite franchise in any sport, won their second World Series championship. While Jace wore a Chiefs hoodie and hat, I sported a Royals hoodie and hat, and got a lot of high-fives from fellow Royals fans on hand.

A quick pregame visit next door to Kauffman Stadium, home of the 2015 World Series Champion Kansas City Royals

We got there plenty early to watch players warming up on the sidelines. One of them was Dan Carpenter, kicker for the Buffalo Bills who played for the Montana Grizzlies from 2004 to 2007. We yelled his name a couple of times but he didn't acknowledge us until we yelled, "Go Griz." Then he turned around and waved.

As for the game, the weather was crap due to three hours of cold, rain with temperatures in the 30s but that didn't stop us from standing all game long and doing our best to raise the crowd's decibel level. Alex Smith threw for a couple of touchdowns while Spencer Ware scored another while topping 100 yards rushing. KC rolled 30-22 over Buffalo. A fun time and a great game!

Wichita State vs. Kansas - March 20, 1981 (NCAA Basketball Tournament)

Okay, a qualifier: I did not see this game in person but I'm claiming it since I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, following Wichita State and attending games in the formerly named Henry Leavitt Arena more popularly known as "The Roundhouse." The early 1980s featured some of the program's best teams led by some of its best players including Antoine Carr (who used to destroy my high school) and Cliff Levingston, two All-Americans who, together with Carr, helped the Shockers lead the nation in dunks. Yeah, they were fun to watch.

Back when schools hosted early round NCAA Tournament games on their campuses, Wichita State got the nod in 1981 and opened with a first-round blowout win over Southern followed by a come-from-behind, four-point win over favorite Iowa. That set the stage for a Sweet 16 showdown against Kansas. 

Cliff & Antoine

It was an especially big game for the Shockers, and its fan base, because of the history between the two schools. Despite just a 160-mile distance between the them, WSU and KU had only met four times between the early 1900s and this game (and very few times since). Why? Well, let's just say Kansas thought (and still thinks) it was too good to schedule games with Wichita State. The Kansas Legislature even made rumblings back in the day trying to force the issue. That didn't matter in 1981 because the NCAA bracket brought the two schools together. The cherry on top was the scheduled site was the city of my birth -  New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Played before 34,000 fans in the Superdome, the then-largest crowd ever for an NCAA Tournament game, it came down the last several possessions. Leading 65-62 with 56 seconds left, KU's Darnell Valentine (also from Wichita Heights High School and a former teammate of Carr's) missed a free throw. Carr rebounded and Mike Jones hit a jumper to bring the Shockers to within one point. Valentine then somehow missed an open layup and WSU rebounded. With the clock running down, Jones took a 25-foot jump shot (there were no three-pointers back then) and BAM! Nothing but net! Ding dong, the witch is dead! The Shockers won 66-65. 

What happened next was amazing. 66-65 billboards popped up all over town. And scores of people, me included, bought Battle of New Orleans t-shirts (see image below). I wore mine until it wore out. (Side note: the two schools met a few times since then but the 2015 NCAA Tournament bracket again brought them together. And again, WSU came out on top winning 78-65.)

Wichita State 1984

I attended Wichita State during the 1984 winter semester before transferring to BYU. By then, Xavier McDaniel was the standout. In fact, in 1984 he became the first player in college basketball history to lead the nation in both scoring and rebounding the same season. While sitting in the student section, the game sponsor left flyers on each seat in the roundhouse. I took mine, finagled a unique looking paper airplane (see right) and let it fly. It slowly wafted over the student section and floated down over the most expensive seats toward the court. It seemed everyone was watching and then smack. It hit the P-A announcer in the back of the head. The student section erupted. I don't remember how the game turned out but at least my paper airplane left its mark.

Loyola Marymount vs. Wyoming - March 17, 1988  (NCAA Basketball Tournament)

Two years after skipping class with my BYU roommates to attend first and second round 1986 NCAA Basketball Tournament games at the University of Utah, the NCAAs returned to Utah in 1988, this time at Weber State. We had a precedent to live up to so we again bought tickets, left campus and made the trek north. But we had absolutely no idea what we were about to witness. Simply put, I had never seen a game like this one. And I was not alone.

10th-seeded Loyola Marymount faced 13th-ranked Wyoming. We had great seats on the first row of the upper deck. Because a camera man was immediately to our right, we could watch game replays on a monitor set up at his feet. We were surrounded in that upper bowl by a sea of Wyoming brown and gold with non-stop pre-game chants of "W-Y-O! W-Y-O!" Once the game started, LMU and its nation's highest scoring offense took over. "Run and gun" does go near far enough to describe the way the Lions played. Coached by Paul Westhead, who was head coach of the 1980 NBA champion LA Lakers, Bo Kimble, Hank Gathers, Jeff Fryer and crew would sprint cross half court and chuck up a three-pointer. Drive full speed to the hoop and put home a layup or a dunk. Three-pointer, layup, three-pointer, dunk, jumper and on and on. It was all offense, all the time. And no defense. At halftime, LMU led 63-56. Sixty-three points in one half! My roommates and I just looked at each other in awe.

Wyoming had no idea how to handle it. The first play of the second half provided the evidence. The Cowboys won the second half tip (yeah, they used to have a jump ball to begin the second half back then) and immediately had a 3-on-1 break. So what did they do? Attack? Nope, they pulled the ball out and tried to slow the pace. We just howled. And so did all the non-Wyoming fans in attendance. The second half was more of the same as Loyola Marymount went on to win 119-115, an outcome that was never really in doubt and the highest-scoring game in NCAA Tournament history at the time. (LMU beat Michigan 149-115 two years later.) 

In the postgame press conference, Wyoming forward Fennis Dembo said, "That wasn't dizzying, it was unbelievable. They were possessed. I never played against a team like that before."

Wow, just wow! To this day, I still shake my head. (Sad note: Gathers led college basketball in both scoring and rebounding in 1989 but collapsed and died on the court from a heart condition during a game in 1990).

Kansas vs Arkansas - March 23, 1991 (NCAA Basketball Tournament)

"40 minutes of hell!" That was the moniker of Arkansas because it best described their full court, helter skelter, hard-pressing defense coached by Nolan Richardson that triggered their fast-breaking offense. That's why the Razorbacks entered the NCAA Tournament ranked number-2 in the nation. The Kansas Jayhawks lost in the semifinals of the Big Eight Tournament so not many people gave them a chance in this Elite Eight matchup in Charlotte. I was a young sportscaster just a few years out of college working at ABC affiliate KTKA in Topeka, Kansas. Sitting on press row, KU went into halftime trailing by 12 points. Yes, it looked like Arkansas would roll over the Hawks right into the Final Four. Instead, KU bolted out of the gate after intermission with a 19-to-7 spurt. Alonzo Jamison played lights out, scoring a career-high 26 points and Kansas scored 58 points in the second half to win 93-81. 

The players were fired up in the locker room afterwards and that festive atmosphere continued for hours upon end. On board the packed crimson and blue charter flight back home with the team, coaches, administration, cheerleaders and boosters, the KU radio team hooked up audio of the game over the plane's speaker system. Since I had already done my live shots and fed back my stories before we left, it was great to just sit back, relax, enjoy the rebroadcast and listen to the fans on board as they soaked in the play-to-play, cheering basket after basket. 

We arrived at Forbes Field in Topeka in the early morning hours. As we taxied in, we looked out our windows to see thousands of fans. It was madness. A KU pep band blared the fight song in the small  terminal while jam-packed fans high-fived players and even sportscasters like me. It was quite a site and a great memory that lingers even to this day. 

At the Final Four in Indianapolis, KU defeated North Carolina 79-73 to advance to the title game. That is a story in itself as North Carolina alum Roy Williams outcoached his mentor, Kansas alum and Topeka High grad Dean Smith. Again, that's another story for another day. The Jayhawks, however, could not close the deal as Duke the title 72-65.

Gonzaga vs. Florida - March 18, 1999 (NCAA Basketball Tournament)

"Gonzaga! The slipper still fits! They win it! 73-72 (go to 1:14:55 mark)! Holy cow!" That Gus Johnson call is perhaps the most famous in Gonzaga basketball history. The game is certainly among the school's greatest. Being there to witness it from press row while working for CBS affiliate KREM-TV in Spokane was simply amazing. To appreciate the game, you have to know what led to it.

The Zags won the West Coast Conference tournament and entered the NCAA Tournament unranked and seeded 10th. Their reward was a trip to Seattle, a mere four-hour drive from Spokane. With the old Key Arena crowd firmly behind the underdogs, Gonzaga beat Minnesota and then upset 7th-ranked Stanford to advance to a Sweet 16 matchup against Number-23 Florida. 

Like in Seattle, the Phoenix crowd was behind the upstarts from Spokane. Gonzaga opened a 13-point lead early only to hold just a one-point lead at the half. The second half was a back-and-forth affair, setting the stage for Casey Calvary's heroics. Leading by one with 15 seconds left, Florida turned the ball over on a traveling violation. Quentin Hall's floating jumper missed but Calvary tipped it in and the crowd exploded. The Gators ran down court, threw up a long jumper at the buzzer. It missed and all bedlam broke lose. Dogpiles in the Gonzaga stands while the Zags pilled on top of Calvary at midcourt with Richie Frahm planting a couple of smooches on his cheek.

A few days later, Gonzaga put up a valiant fight in the Elite Eight against eventual national champion UConn before falling 67-62. I'm still Facebook friends with a couple of the players - good guys from a great program that made a heck of a run to set the stage for everything Gonzaga's done since then, including an amazing 24 NCAA Tournament berths in a row (as of 2023). 

Working in the satellite truck / Live NCAA selection show the following year with Casey Calvary and Coach Mark Few

USA Olympic Team vs. Tulsa Oilers - January 12 1980

Okay, it was just a hockey game where the result didn't matter. Or did they?  It was my senior year of high school and my family got tickets to watch an exhibition game featuring the U.S. Olympic hockey team on its pre-Olympic tour against the Central Hockey League's Tulsa Oilers at the old Kansas Coliseum outside of Wichita, Kansas. We knew and understood the game of hockey since we lived in Calgary, Alberta, in the mid-1970s but I wondered how many other Wichitans really knew it or would show up because Wichita didn't have its own team. Well, more than 8,000 jammed into the stands as Team USA manhandled Tulsa 7-to-4 . 

That evening was significant because it caught the attention of former Edmonton Oilers general manager Larry Gordon because he later purchased a new CHL franchise and brought it to Wichita. The Wichita Wind had a short three-year run but long enough for a friend and I to catch a bunch of games as the team churned out several NHL players including Walt Poddubny and Andy Moog, who played for the Oilers.

One month and 10 days after that exhibition victory in my backyard, the young American squad of amateur players faced the powerful Russians, winners of four straight Olympic gold meals and five of the last six, in their first game of the medal round at the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York. The two teams played an exhibition game just 13 days earlier in Madison Square Garden with Russia mauling the Americans 10-3. But this night was all red, white and blue. Team USA scored two goals in the third period to rally from behind and do the unthinkable - defeat Russia 4-to-3 in what became known as the "Miracle on Ice." Do you believe in miracles? YES! To this day, that remains my all-time favorite sports memory and I believe the greatest moment in American sports history. Two days later, Team USA beat Finland to win the gold medal. Did I see this team play in person? YES! 

Credit: Sports Illustrated

George Brett Flirts with .400 - 1980 Kansas City Royals

I admit that I don't remember particulars of this game, like the opponent or the final score, but I remember the anticipation and excitement of what I was watching and the entire Major League Baseball world was following. It was late in the season at Royals Stadium (called Kauffman Stadium today) in Kansas City. Not only were the Royals (yeah, my favorite team) running away with the American League West title but George Brett was having one of the greatest seasons in modern baseball history. The last person to hit .400 was Rogers Hornsby 58 years earlier. In mid-September, Brett was hitting .399. 

In the game I saw, he came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, tie score with the winning run on third base. Brett hit a deep drive to deep left-center field. The game was over. The runner on third base would tag up and score easily. A lot of times, outfielders in that situation would just let the ball land wherever it ended up since the runner would score anyway. In this case, the center fielder sprinted back beyond the warning track and made a nice play to catch the ball against the wall. Yes, the winning run crossed the plate and the crowd cheered but I was mad. Why not just let it hit the wall and let Brett tack on a miniscule point or so to his batting average? Dang it! 

Still, KC won the west and swept the Yankees to win the American League pennant but lost to Philadelphia in its first-ever World Series appearance, 4 games to 2. For the record, Brett hit .375. Five years later, he would hit .370 to lead the Royals to a their first World Series championship against St. Louis.

I got to meet and interview Brett several times later as a sportscaster - definitely a personal highlight since I consider him one of the greatest players ever. And a guy who played the game the way it should be played - with hustle, focus and pride. 

Mark's Personal Athletic Pursuits

I have a lot of favorite memories from my own athletic past. Of course, they pale bigtime to all those mentioned above but still they mean a lot to me. 

Among them was playing basketball with my buddies and being coached by my older brother. We won the Wichita church league title and advanced to the regional tournament where we played teams from across the Midwest. 

As a player-coach at age 18, I played with those same friends as a squad of teenagers in the Wichita Christian Softball League. Every other team had adults much older than us but we more than held our own against them. We gave the first-place team their first lost and beat the men's team from our own congregation.

While watching my older brother play soccer for Ricks College, I got pulled out of the stands to play with him because they were a man short. I ran and ran and ran. And we lost and lost and lost. Still, we fought hard as a club team against scholarship teams. That morphed into a multi-game soccer career that included games on three different college campuses. Not bad for a teenager who didn't even know the rules of the game.

At BYU, my roommates and I lived in a house a few blocks from campus. We also formed our own intramural basketball team that fared quite well during the season. The post-season tournament featured more than 300 teams and some great games. We made it to the final eight before we bowed out in the final seconds.  

A month or so before my 40th birthday, I took up ice hockey in Missoula, Montana. The first year, we stormed through the playoffs and won the Glacier Hockey League's novice division championship on one of my favorite teams of guys in any sport I'd been a part of. The following year I was voted league MVP but we got knocked off in the playoffs. I was part of another rec league championship several years later. Four of my teammates were members of the Missoula Maulers. That eight-year run playing hockey remains a personal highlight full of memories.

Also in Missoula, several of us formed a softball team that qualified for multiple state tournaments as we finished at or near the top of the city league standings each of our 20 or so years together.

So, what was the greatest game I ever saw? That's a tough one. Well, there are still games to be seen. And games to be played. I'll get back with you on that one.