theScore's 90s week countdown continues with a look at Nos. 25-2 in our 99 most memorable sports moments.
Entries 99-76 can be viewed here, Nos. 75-51 here, and 50-26 here.
The inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship took place on November 12, 1993. A far different setup than the events of today, UFC 1: The Beginning saw fighters compete in an eight man tournament, with $50,000 representing the top prize. Royce Gracie defeated Gerard Gordeau to win the event.
- Scott Lewis
Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France in 1999, setting off a run of seven consecutive victories at the Grand Tour race. Armstrong, of course, would be stripped of his titles in 2012 after he was outed for doping throughout his cycling career.
- Scott Lewis
The U.S women’s gymnastic team was hailed as the magnificent seven, but it was their weakest link that would vault into our consciousness thanks to an act of remarkable courage and skill.
Kerri Strug was asked to beat the Russians in front of a raucous home crowd in Atlanta. She was asked to do what the team’s star, Dominique Moceanu, could not. Her first vault resulted in a 9.162 and two torn ligaments in her ankle. Strung’s infamous coach, Bela Karoyli, asked if she could do it again. The rest is history.
- Devang Desai
January 11, 1995 marked the end of a three month lockout that caused the NHL to run with a 48-game schedule for the 94-95 season. One of the lasting impacts of this particular lockout was the rookie salary cap.
Although the impending demise of franchises in Quebec City, Winnipeg, and Hartford were not direct results of the lockout, their collective moves to more southern locales were representative of the economic struggles for some franchises of the day.
The wheels were in motion for Gary Bettman's ascension to hockey villain.
- Scott Lewis
He came, he dominated, and like that... he was gone. In terms of running backs and individual achievements in the 90s, Barry Sanders owned the decade.
The Detroit Lions never found the team success that guys like Emmitt Smith found in Dallas or Terrell Davis in Denver, but Sanders stands as one of the greatest players to ever see a snap in the NFL. Sanders retired, suddenly and quietly in July of 1999, when he seemingly had so much left to give. He was Barry Sanders, and he did it his way.
- Scott Lewis
Jordan’s final act of the 90’s would have been the perfect cap to His Airness’ career if not for a brief (two-year) comeback with the Wizards three years later, as with the Bulls down three late in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals, MJ cut the lead to one, stripped an unsuspecting Karl Malone on the defensive end and came back down the court to do this to poor Bryon Russell and the tortured Jazz faithful.
Watching the footage now, it appears Dennis Rodman came close to calling a timeout when Jordan first stole the ball from Malone, perhaps nearly robbing us of one of the 90’s most defining NBA moments.
- Joseph Casciaro
Every kids dream - knock a walkoff home run to win your team the World Series. Only two men can say they ended the baseball season with a long ball - Joe Carter is the only one to do it with his team trailing in the game.
- Drew Fairservice
It’s a story that will always retain a sense of romance. With Yugoslavia mired in civil war, UEFA had no choice but to expel them from the tournament a week before kick off. Denmark got their spot, and with no pressure and no expectations, they rode their way to a final encounter against one of the most feared sides in European football. The result shocked the world, perhaps even more than Greece’s win in 2004.
- Richard Whittall
It was one of the most shocking incidents to ever take place.
Monica Seles was on top of the women’s game in 1994, which didn’t sit well with Steffi Graf superfan Gunter Parche. His actions would change the future of the game and prevent Seles from achieving tennis immortality.
- Devang Desai
Canada lost its semi-final game at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano in a shootout to the Czech Republic. Dominic Hasek, perhaps the best goalie who ever lived, stopped all five Canadian attempts. None of those attempts were taken by Wayne Gretzky, the best hockey player of all time.
Canada chose to send Theoren Fleury, Ray Bourque, Joe Nieuwendyk, Eric Lindros, and Brendan Shanahan – a pretty impressive quintet. Breakaways were not Gretzky's greatest strength, but still – he’s Wayne freaking Gretzky, he thrives on big moments, and you didn’t give him a chance. That debatable decision has been second guessed for 16 years now.
- Justin Bourne
A year-and-a-half after Michael Jordan stepped away from the game, he announced his return with a two-word press release that sent the basketball world into a frenzy: “I’m back.”
In his fifth game back in the Bulls lineup, wearing the number 45 because his original No. 23 had already been retired by Chicago, Jordan marked his return with an iconic 55-point performance at Madison Square Garden that will forever be known as ‘The Double-Nickel.’
For good measure, he also assisted Bill Wennington’s game-winning bucket with 3.1 seconds to go.
- Joseph Casciaro
A labor stoppage that would eventually last 232 days through 1994-95 would cost baseball the '94 postseason, World Series, and nearly 1000 games.
No team was devastated by the strike quite like the Montreal Expos, who led the Atlanta Braves by six games in the National League East when the '94 season was cut short. The stoppage would have lasting effects on the franchise, which later moved to Washington in 2004.
Attendance at games and television ratings dipped when baseball came back for 1995, but record chasing performances from Cal Ripken, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa helped baseball re-establish itself as a healthy professional league by the end of the decade.
- Scott Lewis
Losing by 1-0 for most of the match, things were looking desperate for Alex Ferguson’s side. Up stepped Teddy Shearingham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to win the treble and one of the best European Cup finals of all time. Football, bloody hell.
- Richard Whittall
As the third round of Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II was coming to a close, Tyson bit Holyfield's right ear, taking a chunk of cartilage with him. Proving he was perhaps the most dangerous and unpredictable athlete of his generation, Tyson bit Holyfield's left ear during a tie up after the fight resumed.
Tyson would later claim that his tooth work was in response to a headbutt from Holyfield, but still, you can't go around biting chunks of people's ears off.
- Scott Lewis
With the Pacers down 105-99 to the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden, and with Spike Lee talking trash with less than 20 seconds to go, Reggie Miller completed one of the most memorable sequences in NBA history, draining a three, stealing the ball on the ensuing New York inbounds play and then quickly connecting on another triple. His free throws seconds later sealed a personal 8-0 run to end the game and gave Indiana a 1-0 series lead.
- Joseph Casciaro
With the Rangers trailing the Devils 3-2 in the ’94 Eastern Conference Final, Mark Messier publicly guaranteed that the Rangers would win game six. It made headlines, both teams saw it, and it became A Thing. He went on the score a natural hat-trick in the third period (with the third being an empty-netter), and now people compare it to Babe Ruth calling his shot. That’s a bit heavy-handed, but it was pretty impressive.
- Justin Bourne
The Fab Five made an everlasting impression on the college basketball game. Their legacy is greater than one mistake at the end of the national championship game.
After a great but injury-shortened pro career and successful transition to television work it is difficult to think about Chris Webber without this ill-fated timeout popping into your mind.
- Drew Fairservice
Never have two words summarized a franchise's failure quite like "wide right". Scott Norwood's slight -- so, so slight -- shank with four seconds left in Super Bowl XXV ended the first of four straight Super Bowl losses for the Buffalo Bills, this time to Bill Parcells' New York Giants in a matchup of the league's best offense and best defense that year. The combined score in the Bills' next three Super Bowl losses: 119-54.
- Sean Tomlinson
This defined sporting disappointment for years and years and years for a certain generation. The penalty miss in the 1994 World Cup final which cost Italy the trophy.
- Richard Whittall
There was already a bad vibe in the air during that weekend at Imola. Roland Ratzenberger succumbed to injuries sustained during qualifying.
The next day racing legend Ayrton Senna met with former teammate Alain Prost to discuss the re-establishment of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association. Starting the next week in Monaco things would change, and racing would be safer.
Senna never got the chance to follow through on that mission.
- Devang Desai
On his way to rewriting nearly every golf record imaginable, Tiger Woods claimed his first major title in style, winning the Masters by a record 12 strokes. Tiger’s triumph at Augusta was his first of four titles at the hallowed course and the first of his 15 majors to date.
Safe to say, after this tournament, golf would never be the same.
- Drew Fairservice
If Cal Ripken’s workaday everyman brought baseball back to the national consciousness, it was Mark McGwire’s larger than life persona and assault on the record books that really brought baseball back in the minds of many fans.
The night he broke the record, at home against the Cubs, was a terrific night as it brought two months of friendly rivalry with Sammy Sosa to a head, as the other man pursuing Roger Maris’ record was on hand to witness McGwire’s shot down the left field line, over the fence and into history (briefly.)
- Drew Fairservice
Nothing captivated television viewers in the 90s quite like the O.J. Simpson murder case. From a runaway Ford Bronco to black leather gloves to live coverage from inside the courtroom, Simpson's trial for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman was a spectacle for the ages.
People all over the world stopped what they were doing for a few moments on October 3, 1995 when a verdict of not guilty was announced. Controversy ensued.
The jury had deliberated for just four hours, which was surprising given how long it took for the trial to unfold. In the end, the prosecution failed to prove its case despite a wealth of evidence, some of which was alleged to have been mishandled.
Like Simpson's attorney Johnnie Cochran said of the infamous glove in his closing arguments... "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
- Scott Lewis
In the first Summer Olympics to feature active NBA players, the Americans trotted out a roster of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner. They took Barcelona by storm, won all six games by an average of 51.5 points and forever made their case as the greatest team ever assembled in any sport, period.
- Joseph Casciaro
