Sports Then and Now

The Massachusetts Miracle Men with BU official(middle).

The world was in a state of turmoil. The Cold War was at epic heights between the Soviet Union and the United States.

America was secretly funding the Afghan rebels to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan.

There was no love loss between the two countries whether it was world affairs or on the ice.

The 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York was not just an international athletic competition, but a showing of superpower muscle.

And a band of collegiate hockey players from the Midwest and New England, were David trying to take down the Soviet Goliath.

Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione, Dave Silk, and Jack O’Callahan grew up playing hockey on rinks in the Boston area.

Jack O’ Callahan hailed from Charlestown, Mass.

Jim Craig called North Easton home.

Mike Eruzione grew up in Winthrop.

Dave Silk was raised in Scituate.

These four sons from the Bay State all attended Boston University, one of the country’s collegiate hockey powerhouses which was coached by the now legendary, Jack Parker.

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In Some places, the Rugby Six Nations Championship is bigger than the Super Bowl.

You’d be forgiven—if you are American—for thinking that the entire sporting world fell into awed silence as the brouhaha that is Super Bowl swept along everyone with even the faintest of pulses.

And of course this year’s spectacle had the extra wow factor of an emotional New Orleans back-story: underdog, triumph over adversity, not a dry eye in the house.

For many on the other side of “the pond,” though, that New Orleans back-story was the front story, too, because American football remains an impenetrable anachronism for most of us…well for this particular correspondent, anyway!

So last weekend, our focus was rather more Euro-centred. While the padded up and helmeted Superbowl heroes began their campaign to the predetermined rhythm of the broadcasters’ advertising breaks, its stripped down, bare-knuckled equivalent—the Six Nations Championship—was just getting under way.

This is a competition where deep-rooted loyalties have been determined by the history books, with the English the common foe. It may be hundreds of years since a king Edward or a king Henry strode into Scotland or Wales, Ireland or France, but an unspoken resentment still simmers in the veins.

That complex tapestry of history, married with the visceral sport that is rugby union, makes the Six Nations championship one of the most intense and compelling competitions in sport.

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The series “Pillars of Roger’s Career” looks back at key matches in the evolution of the mighty Roger Federer.

As the tennis telescope turns towards Flushing Meadow at the end of August, the world sits comfortably on its axis, and turns at its designated 24 hours a day. Roger Federer is No. 1 in the world, holds the Wimbledon title, and has broken Pete Sampras’ grip on the Grand Slam record.

Rewind 12 months and this was precisely the scenario that had been predicted for last year’s US Open. Except that, by August 2008, Federer had lost his No. 1 ranking, lost his Wimbledon title and had many commentators doubting whether he would ever reach that elusive 14th Grand Slam. The earth had, for tennis aficionados, tilted out of true.

Federer’s losses had begun, unexpectedly, at the very start of 2008, the first surprise being his capitulation of the Australian title. A subsequent diagnosis of glandular fever explained the result but did not silence the few who had begun to question his hunger.

While Federer continued with the required tournaments and ATP commitments, he was clearly not himself. Rafael Nadal was eating away at his ranking points, Novak Djokovic was celebrating his first Slam victory and further Masters success. Other rising stars were also picking Federer off—not least Andy Murray.

So the year went on, with a shocking defeat at the hands of Nadal in Paris, and a heartbreaking loss to the same adversary at Wimbledon. Most ominously, he made early exits from the key hard-court Masters leading into Flushing Meadows.

So the pressure could not have been higher nor the expectations lower for the four-time U.S. champion’s bid to equal the 80-year-old record of Bill Tilden. Read the rest of this entry →

The series “Pillars of Roger’s Career” looks back at key matches in the evolution of the mighty Roger Federer.

It was early in the new millennium and it had a special feel: of worlds colliding, of a changing of the guard, of one era giving way to another.

Pete Sampras, the dominant player of the 1990s, was flexing his muscles and his reputation for one more assault on the record books.

Another Wimbledon title would make him the most prolific winner of singles titles at the most prestigious of tennis events. One more Wimbledon victory and he would step above William Renshaw, with whom he shared the record of seven.

But it was more than that. Sampras had taken the last decade of the 20th century by the throat from the moment he won his first Grand Slam at the U.S. Open in 1990 until his most recent victory at this very tournament in 2000.

He was the title holder. He had lost only one match on Wimbledon’s grass—his quarterfinal against Richard Krajicek in 1996—since reaching the semi-finals in 1992. That’s 53 wins in the last 54 matches.

He was the first since Rod Laver to have a legitimate claim to the “Greatest of all Time” accolade, and this could be one more nail in the coffin of that “GOAT” debate.

Stood on the opposite side of the court was a mere teenager, newly in the top 20, and the first time he’d been seeded in a Slam. Sure, he’d won the junior title in 1998, but he’d gone out in the first round in both years since.

But this had a special feel. Read the rest of this entry →

The 2005 Australian Open semifinal between Marat Safin and Roger Federer was a classic.

This is part of a series of articles that outline the stand-out matches of Roger Federer’s career.  The impetus of this series was a discussion of the Greatest Matches of the Decade – in which Roger was not mentioned very often.  We thought that perhaps it was time to review some of the stand-outs.

Mercury is a very smooth element – gleaming silver and round, when positioned still on a tabletop, like an old-fashioned doorknob.

Coming into the AO in 2005, Roger Federer was smooth.  Possessor of the most complete game in the sport, the deceptive forehand, and the greatest amount of topspin in the game, Roger had won every Slam but the French, where he fell to clay-court specialist Gustavo Kuerten in straight sets.

Otherwise Roger owned the field.  2004 was one of his signature years, with lopsided wins over Marat Safin at the Aussie Open, Roddick at Wimbledon, and Lleyton Hewitt at the USO.  He would lose only 6 times (one of them to Kuerten at the French, and another in Miami to a 17-year old Spaniard from Mallorca.)

Starting the 2005 tennis year, would it be the same steam-roll?  Or would Roger and is opponent create one of the greatest matches is Aussie Open history?

Mercurial was the word most often used to describe Marat Safin.  Power was another word associated with Safin (more so than with Roger in those days). In 2000, he’d rocked Pete Sampras at the USO, and out-powered him with the forehand 4-3-3, to win his first major.  Safin ranked somewhere in the top five in all aspects of the game, but his temperament saw him often demonstrate a tendency for the erratic. Read the rest of this entry →

Few gave Buster Douglas a chance against Mike Tyson.

It was one of the most stunning and shocking upsets in boxing history. The unbeatable fighter beaten by a classic underdog.

Before  February 11, 1990, there was a growing belief that Mike Tyson (known as the baddest man on the planet) could not be defeated.

Few believed that James “Buster” Douglas, who had lost the IBF title to Tony Tucker in 1987, would be more than another early casualty when he faced the dominant Tyson in Tokyo. He was considered a 42 to 1 longshot by Las Vegas.

Though the fight was close from the beginning, when Tyson knocked down Douglas in the ninth round most experts believed it was over.

However, rather than fading away, Douglas regained his strength and in the 10th round threw the punch that would forever change boxing.

Instead of a decade of Tyson dominance, the 1990s saw a plethora of boxing champions and began its slow fade from relevancy.

The loss also proved the beginning of the end for Tyson. His dominance now broken, Tyson was never again the Baddest Man on the Planet and eventually landed in prison and then obscurity.

Below are highlights from the fight, including the deciding blow by Douglas.