This Day in Black Sports History: February 25, 1964

“I don’t have a mark on my face and I upset Sonny Liston and I just turned 22 years old; I must be the greatest!”

Those were the immortal words uttered by Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. on Feb. 25, 1964 in Miami, Fla., fresh off upsetting a heavily favored Sonny Liston to win the World Heavyweight Championship of professional boxing.

By dethroning the reigning champion, Clay became the youngest man to win the heavyweight title, a distinction he would own for over twenty years until Mike Tyson burst onto the scene.

Four years removed from winning a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome as a light heavyweight, Clay became the top contender to Liston’s title by amassing a record of 19-0 with 15 knockouts.

Light on his feet and quick with his hands, Clay was an unconventional heavyweight who brimmed with confidence even after being knocked down in his two fights prior to facing Liston, whose penchant for early-round knockouts had already become legendary.

However, the Louisville, Ky. native defied most boxing experts by confounding the lumbering champion with a dazzling array of blinding combinations and fancy footwork.

By the end of the sixth round, Liston’s right eye was severely swollen and his left eye was significantly compromised due to a cut.

Complaining of a shoulder injury, Liston shockingly failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, giving Clay the victory by technical knockout (TKO), and ushering in a new era in boxing.

The week after the fight, Clay, who had joined the Nation of Islam, would change his name to Muhammad Ali and go on to achieve international superstardom for standing tall in the ring and standing up for what he believed out of it.

After defeating Liston in a rematch via second-round TKO in 1965 and subsequently defending the Heavyweight Championship eight times, Ali was stripped of the title and had his boxing license suspended in 1967 for refusing to serve in the United States Army during the Vietnam War due to his religious beliefs.

Ali’s refusal to serve in the Army resulted in a jury finding him guilty of a felony that was punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.

For this stance, Ali would lose three prime years of his professional boxing career as the appeals process was being litigated.

However, during this period sentiment against the Vietnam War and support for Ali increased proportionately.

With the help of a Georgia senator, Ali was allowed to resume his career in 1970, and it was in this second stage of his career that Ali cemented his status as one of greatest fighters in boxing history.

Ali’s trilogy of fights with Joe Frazier, more specifically, the first dubbed "The Fight of the Century" and the last named "The Thrilla in Manila", as well as his upset victory over George Foreman in a bout famously known as "The Rumble in the Jungle", reestablished Ali’s technical brilliance and transformed him into a global icon who transcended the sport.

When Ali retired in 1981, he had defeated every top heavyweight boxer of his era and was one of the most recognizable athletes in the world.

Ali walked away from the squared circle with a career record of 56-5, with 37 of those victories coming by way of knockout.

And despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984, Ali has remained an active and beloved public figure to this day.

Forty-six years ago, Ali boldly declared he was the greatest when he defeated Sonny Liston after many had doubted he could even go the distance with the feared brawler.

Now Ali and the nickname "The Greatest" are completely and unequivocally synonymous with one another.

Click here to read the original article at Examiner.com.

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This Day In Black Sports History: Februrary 16th, 2011

As the only American boxer to emerge from the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games with a gold medal, Joseph William Frazier had an extremely bright future ahead of him.

After the Olympics, a group of local businessmen invested in Frazier’s professional career so that he could train full-time. When he made his professional debut in 1965, Frazier, a hungry, young southpaw from Beaufort, S.C., did not disappoint, defeating Woody Goss via technical knockout (TKO) in the first round. This would become a recurring theme throughout the first half of Frazier’s career.

In his first 24 fights, Frazier, appropriately nicknamed “Smokin’ Joe”, registered 21 knockouts, with the majority of those victories occurring within four rounds.

Nevertheless, despite Frazier’s rapid ascension, there was a cavernous void in the heavyweight division left by Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of the World Heavyweight Title for his refusal to be inducted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War. To add insult to injury, Ali had his boxing license suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission.

Although the top-ranked contender at the time, Frazier boycotted the 1967 World Boxing Association (WBA) Heavyweight Championship elimination tournament in support of Ali’s controversial stance.

However, the New York State Athletic Commission, the same organization that suspended Ali’s license the previous year, recognized Frazier as the “World Champion” following his 11th round knockout of Buster Mathis in March of 1968.

Less than two years later, on Feb. 16, 1970, Frazier brought some legitimacy back to the Heavyweight Title by knocking out Jimmy Ellis, the winner of the aforementioned WBA elimination tournament, in five rounds at Madison Square Garden.

After dispatching with Light-Heavyweight kingpin Bob Foster in two short rounds, Frazier would immerse himself in a rivalry that would define the rest of his career.

Within a five-year span, Ali and Frazier fought a total of 41 grueling rounds over three fights. The first two bouts went the distance, while the third and final bout mercifully ended with Frazier on his stool, virtually blind in one eye.

Their first encounter, dubbed the "Fight of the Century", set the tone for how fiercely Ali and Frazier would compete in the ring, and how they would come to loathe one another outside it.

“Smokin’ Joe” successfully defended the undisputed Heavyweight Championship via a 15-round unanimous decision, which was punctuated by a thunderous left hook that floored Ali in the final round.

But, similar to the pre-fight hype, Ali would continue to disrespect his heated rival, repeatedly calling Frazier an “Uncle Tom” for stating he would have fought in the Vietnam War if he was drafted.

Not surprisingly, Frazier felt betrayed because he had attended numerous tribunals, hearings and public relations functions in support of Ali throughout his exile from boxing.

Frazier was also a staunch supporter in efforts to have Ali’s license restored, and provided some financial support during the lean times Ali experienced when he was unable to ply his trade.

Ali would later assert that his vicious verbal attacks on Frazier were merely an attempt to promote the fights and increase the gate.

All the vitriol did, though, was drive a deep wedge between two African-American professional boxing superstars who could have accomplished as much, united in social activism, as they did in creating magic on opposite sides of a boxing ring.

Click here to read the original article at Examiner.com.

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This Day in Black Sports History: February 14, 1951

It goes without saying that Valentine’s Day is an annual commemoration, celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.

However, sixty years ago, love and affection would be the last words used to characterize how Sugar Ray Robinson treated Jake LaMotta in the Chicago Stadium on Feb. 14, 1951.

After going professional in 1940, Robinson campaigned as a welterweight. However, he moved up to the middleweight division due an increasing difficulty with making the 147 lb. welterweight limit.

Prior to making his mark in a new weight class, Robinson had already established himself as the greatest welterweight to ever lace up a pair of boxing gloves, losing only once in 123 professional fights.

Coincidentally, LaMotta, nicknamed “The Bronx Bull” and “The Raging Bull”, was the one man responsible for the lone blemish on Robinson’s otherwise spotless record as they prepared to do battle for the sixth and final time.

Within a three-year span, LaMotta and Robinson became heated rivals, fighting five times between 1942 and 1945. Robinson won four of those contests via decision. LaMotta’s only victory in the series was an unanimous ten-round decision in their second fight at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium in 1943.

The much heavier LaMotta charged Robinson at every opportunity with bull-like rushes. Robinson tried to outbox his shorter opponent but had difficulty keeping him at bay.

LaMotta knocked Robinson through the ropes in the eighth round with a right to the head and a left to the body. The incident was the first knockdown of Robinson's career, and only the bell saved Robinson from suffering the first knockout of his legendary career as well.

Three weeks later, LaMotta would knock down Robinson again in their third fight, but would end up on the short end of a highly disputed unanimous decision.

Following two more bouts in 1945, both decision victories for Robinson, the two gladiators went their separate ways until fistic karma brought them back together again.

During the course of the next five years, Robinson won the welterweight title in 1946, defending the crown until he ran out of challengers, and by 1949 began his ascent up the ranks for a shot at the undisputed middleweight championship.

Meanwhile, LaMotta cleaned out the middleweight division, and finally captured the title in 1949 with a 10th round knockout of Frenchman Marcel Cerdan.

By the end of 1950, Robinson (still the welterweight champion) was the number one contender for LaMotta’s crown.

So in front of 15,000 fans at the Chicago Stadium, and millions watching on free network television, LaMotta and Robinson met for the first time with a title on the line.

Although both fighters were past their prime, Robinson was still able to conjure up flashes of his brilliant past while LaMotta exhibited the determination, heart, and grit that made him such a crowd favorite.

Nevertheless, the wear and tear from LaMotta’s previous ring wars was evident as he appeared to grow tired by the sixth round of a 15-round bout.

Throughout the fight, Robinson, nicknamed “The Harlem Dandy”, punished LaMotta with sharp jabs and damaging counterpunches, playing the matador to LaMotta’s “Raging Bull”.

Unlike their previous encounters, LaMotta seemed content to head hunt rather than invest in the punishing body work that had become his trademark. In addition, LaMotta was a step slower and his work rate was significantly lower than it had been in the past.

In spite of this, LaMotta would remain competitive for ten grueling rounds, even bloodying Robinson’s nose and mouth with a thunderous left hook to the jaw in the sixth. However, his struggle to make the 160-pound weight limit had left him completely exhausted.

In a last ditch effort, LaMotta summoned whatever reserves he had left and went for a knockout in the eleventh round, pinning Robinson against the ropes and throwing punches from all possible angles.

But when Robinson survived the onslaught, LaMotta found himself in more serious trouble by the end of the round as Robinson began to bludgeon him with vicious combinations to the head and the body.

For next round and a half, Robinson would butcher a virtually defenseless LaMotta, unleashing a plethora of uppercuts, right cuts, and left hooks, with only LaMotta’s immense will keeping him on his feet.

Mercifully, the fight would be stopped at 2:04 of the 13th round as LaMotta lay helpless against the ropes, his first legitimate knockout loss in 95 professional fights.

Dubbed the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the bout would go down as one of the most memorable fights in Robinson’s Hall of Fame career, in which he became the first boxer to win a divisional world championship five times.

Click here to read the original article at Examiner.com.

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This Day in Black Sports History: February 11, 1990

When James “Buster” Douglas signed on to challenge Mike Tyson, the youngest man to win the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) Heavyweight Titles, the Mirage Casino, the only Las Vegas casino to offer odds on the fight, had the challenger as a 42 to 1 underdog.

In essence, the 30-year-old Douglas, who had amassed an unimpressive 29-4-1 record up to that point, was widely regarded as a tune-up for Tyson, nicknamed “The Baddest Man on the Planet”, prior to a future super fight with undefeated cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield.

But although his mother, Lula Pearl, passed away just 23 days before the fight, Douglas entered the ring in the best physical condition of his career.

With nine successful title defenses and 33 knockouts in 37 fights on his ledger, the unbeaten Tyson was supremely confident that Douglas would become yet another stepping stone on his path toward becoming the greatest heavyweight champion in boxing history.

In fact, it’s highly likely that the only people who truly believed Douglas would walk out of the Tokyo Dome as the undisputed heavyweight champion were Douglas himself and the men working his corner.

So when Douglas got off to a fast start in the bout, dominating the early rounds with an effective jab, stinging right hands and brilliant footwork, the sentiment among those in attendance was they were witnessing an aberration, a tantalizing prelude to Tyson’s seventh consecutive knockout.

However, as ‘Iron’ Mike repeatedly neglected to move his head while seeking a one-punch knockout, Douglas continued to pepper him with jabs and right hands, leading to severe swelling in Tyson’s left eye.

Although his left eye was swollen completely shut by the eighth round, Tyson unleashed a trademark right uppercut that floored Douglas, putting his questionable will to the ultimate test.

Douglas would leave absolutely no doubt this time, as he rose to his feet at the count of eight to survive the round, and withstood a Tyson onslaught at the beginning of the ninth round to retake control of the bout.

Prior to the conclusion of the ninth round, Douglas unleashed a vicious combination that staggered Tyson along the ropes, virtually tearing a page out of the book of the most feared man in boxing.

Douglas would place the finishing touches on his virtuoso performance with a huge right uppercut, followed by a rapid combination, to deal Tyson the first knockdown, knockout and loss of his career in arguably the biggest upset in the history of professional sports.

Click here to read the original article at Examiner.com.

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Boxing's Best converge in NYC to benefit Wounded Warrior Project

On the ninth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, Gleason’s Gym and HighVista Entertainment will bring the ‘Sweet Science’ to New York City to benefit Golden Gloves of America, Inc. and the Wounded Warrior Project.

The event, appropriately entitled “Boxing At Its Best”, will feature the NYC All-Star Team from Gleason’s Gym matching jabs, hooks and uppercuts with the 2012 Olympic hopefuls from the British National Team.

The evening’s festivities will be hosted by actor Vincent Pastore, best known for his role as Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on The Sopranos, under the roof of the renowned B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, conveniently located in the heart of Times Square near Penn Station and the Port Authority.

Doors open at 5PM and, in addition to eye-opening displays of pugilistic virtuosity, guests will be treated to a full night of entertainment highlighted by special guest appearances and a silent auction with prizes ranging from dinner for two to a new Lexus.

To purchase tickets, call Gleason’s Gym at (718) 797-2872 or contact Gleason's by e-mail at info@gleasonsgym.net.

Founded in 2003, the Wounded Warrior Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, with additional offices located in New York City and Washington, DC, whose purpose is to:

- To raise awareness and enlist the public’s aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women,

- To help severely injured service members aid and assist each other, and

- To provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of severely injured service members.

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and a special video tour of Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, New York.

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Is Shane Mosley The Reason Why Floyd Mayweather Balked At Fighting Manny Pacquiao Again?

When Floyd Mayweather, Jr. announced his return to the ring last May after a 21-month retirement, it was widely expected that the undefeated Mayweather would shake off the rust with 1-2 fights before a highly anticipated showdown with pound-for-pound kingpin Manny Pacquiao.

However, after handily defeating Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley within the past year, Mayweather has still not agreed to step into the ring with ‘Pac-Man’; even in the face of a deadline recently imposed by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum.

According to ESPN.com, Arum's deadline of 3AM ET came and went Saturday morning with no response from Floyd Mayweather, Jr. or his representatives about whether he would accept the terms of a deal for a November 13 bout with Manny Pacquiao.

Therefore, Arum will begin negotiating for another fight for his top client, which would most likely be a rematch with Miguel Cotto for the WBA Super Welterweight Championship he won from Yuri Foreman on June 5 or a bout with Antonio Margarito, who remains unlicensed in the United States because of the scandal over his hand wraps before his knockout loss to Shane Mosley last year.

Although Arum did leave open the possibility for a deal to be made, it appears that the boxing public will have to wait at least another year before the ‘Fight of the Century II’ comes to fruition.

And for those looking for a reason why terms for a Mayweather-Pacquiao bout seem impossible to finalize, a likely candidate is the second round of Mayweather’s last fight with ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley on May 1.

Despite scoring a relatively easy unanimous decision victory, Mayweather was rocked by two solid right hands from Mosley in that second stanza that caused him to hold on for dear life at one point in the round and buckled his knees at another.

Highly regarded for his uncanny ability to avoid being hit, this was the most trouble the 33-year-old Mayweather had been in since his fight with DeMarcus Corley in 2004. Inexplicably though, Mosley miserably failed to follow up on this seminal moment and virtually handed the fight to Mayweather on a silver platter by drastically lowering his punch output the rest of the way.

In Pacquiao though, Mayweather won’t have the luxury of being able to rest on his laurels because the ‘Fighting Pride of the Philippines’ will continue to launch bombs, from all different angles, that are all capable of sending him to the canvas and forever shattering Mayweather’s aura of indestructibility.

With the blood testing issue no longer an obstacle and the richest prizefight in the history of boxing on the table, what other reasons could there be for Mayweather and his camp to avoid Pacquiao like the plague?

In any case, this game of cat-and-mouse between Mayweather and Pacquiao has grown old and tired; and it’s becoming apparent that Mayweather is the mouse who is continuing to shrink before Pacquiao’s lion-like ferociousness.

There is absolutely no doubt that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is a great fighter, but his greatness is being steadily diminished by his continuing refusal to step into the ring with the one fighter who can define his legacy.

And until he faces Pacquiao, Mayweather’s place among the pantheon of greats in the history of boxing will always be in question.

Click here to read more on boxing at Examiner.com.

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Referee blows call in Cotto-Foreman bout at Yankee Stadium

Over 20,000 fans packed Yankee Stadium on Saturday to bear witness to the first fight card in the Bronx since 1976, when Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton headlined the famed venue in their third and final bout.

And much like its predecessors, the Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight championship contest contained every bit as high drama as Ali’s unanimous victory over Norton 34 years ago, Max Schmeling’s shocking knockout of Joe Louis in 1936 followed by Louis’ first round destruction of Schmeling two years later, and ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson’s 14th round submission to Joey Maxim due to heat exhaustion in 1952.

Foreman, the first practicing Orthodox Jewish boxing world champion in over 70 years, attempted to outbox his stronger opponent; but as the fight wore on not only did Cotto’s superior punching power become more telling, so too was the observation that he was beating the defending champion at his own game.

The eventual end came in the ninth round when Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) delivered a picture perfect, signature left hook to the body that sent Foreman (28-1, 8 KO’s) to his knees, prompting referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. to stop the bout 42 seconds into the round and give Cotto a title win in his third different weight class.

The real story of the evening though was what happened in the two rounds prior to Cotto’s one-punch knockout.

In the seventh round, with Cotto ahead on all the judges’ scorecards, and in total command of the fight, Foreman’s right knee completely gave out, sending the aspiring rabbi tumbling to the canvas. Foreman, whose knee is always wrapped in a black brace due to a previous injury, was in obvious pain and, as a result, the lateral movement he displayed throughout the entire fight became non-existent.

"I was making side-to-side movement and it gave out," Foreman said. "It was a lot of pain, a lot of sharp pain. Couldn't do a lot of moves."

With Foreman virtually unable to move laterally, as evidenced by an obvious limp and the pained expression on his face whenever he had to exert himself in that regard, Foreman was left with no alternative but to get into toe-to-toe exchanges with Cotto; which would turn out to be a losing proposition for the former champion due to his lack of punching power.

Foreman’s injured knee would send him to the canvas again later in the seventh round but he would gamely finish the stanza and inform his corner and the referee that he wanted to continue.

So although severely compromised by an injured knee that would not allow him to execute his game plan, Foreman came out for the eighth round to essentially become target practice for Cotto. Foreman would fire back but was taking much more punishment than he was doling out.

Therefore, in order to protect their fighter, Foreman’s corner threw in the towel early in the eighth round at the insistence of Forman’s wife, Leyla Leidecker; which brought an immediate halt to the action and a seemingly merciful end to the fight.

However, in a bizarre scene, referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. forcefully threw the towel back outside the ring and asked Foreman if he wanted to continue; a question to which every true fighter will answer in the affirmative, as did Foreman.

Subsequently, Mercante proceeded to clear the ring and instruct Cotto and Foreman to re-engage.

"There was no need to stop the fight," Mercante said. "They were in the middle of a great exchange, a great fight.... I felt like I did the right thing."

Wrong.

Mercante, a highly regarded official in the sport, miserably failed to safeguard the welfare of a fighter whose ability to protect himself was extremely limited due to an injury.

Mercante’s comments sounded like those of an avid boxing fan rather than a seasoned referee. The problem there is Mercante was functioning in an official capacity and failed to separate what he wanted to see as a fan and what he should have done as a referee.

Mercante ignored the request of a boxer’s corner, which is charged with knowing what is best for their respective fighter, to encourage an injured combatant to continue; which could set a very dangerous precedent.

Fortunately, Foreman wasn’t seriously hurt while he was taking unnecessary punishment at the hands of Cotto. But he could have been and what if he was?

Although respected in the sport, Mercante does have a history of allowing fighters to take too much punishment before stepping in for their protection; and this latest incident should cast a brighter light on Mercante's questionable ring protocol when it comes to stopping fights.

Last week, baseball umpire Jim Joyce was widely criticized for a blown call that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

In all actuality though, Arthur Mercante, Jr. should be the official coming under infinitely more fire for a blown call that, technically, could have cost a man his career and/or his life.

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com which includes relevant links and videos of Arthur Mercante, Jr.'s questionable judgment calls in past years.

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Floyd Mayweather & Manny Pacquiao have gotten too big for their britches

With Yankee Stadium playing host to the championship bout between World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, 8 KO’s) and Miguel Cotto (34-2, 27 KO’s), the prevailing thought among many New York boxing fans must be that this could be a prelude to the staging of the ‘Fight of the Century II’ in the Big Apple.

Nearly 40 years ago, the ‘Fight of the Century’ was the promotional nickname given to the first of three fights between undisputed World Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier (26-0, 23 KO’s) and Muhammad Ali (31-0, 25 KO’s), which took place on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Ali and Frazier were guaranteed purses of $2.5 million apiece, a record for a single prize fight at the time, and the hype for the contest attracted scores of luminaries including Norman Mailer, Woody Allen, Burt Lancaster, who served as color commentator for the closed-circuit broadcast, and Frank Sinatra, who took photographs for Life Magazine.

After it was announced that Frazier had defeated Ali via unanimous decision to retain the World Heavyweight Title, the overwhelming general consensus was that the bout lived up to all the press it had received. And, arguably, there hasn’t been a fight of that quality and magnitude in close to four decades.

However, Floyd Mayweather (41-0, 25 KO’s) and Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s), the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, have the rare and unique opportunity to give the sport of boxing what it needs in light of the continuing rise in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA); an event that would transcend boxing itself and transform it into the center of the sports universe much like Ali-Frazier I did in 1971.

But irreconcilable differences such as Mayweather’s demands for blood testing within 14 days of a potential fight and squabbles over which one of the two will get a bigger piece of the cake have left the boxing public to wonder if the ‘Fight of the Century II’ will ever take place.

Hope springs eternal though.

In an interview with ESPNNewYork.com’s Wally Matthews on 1050 ESPN Radio, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, who is also the promoter for the Cotto-Foreman bout, stated that the issue of blood testing is no longer an obstacle as Pacquiao has acquiesced to Mayweather’s demands.

Therefore, pure greed appears to be the only hurdle to clear to make the dream bout become a reality. But even though both fighters figure to easily make between $50-100 million each, Mayweather and Pacquiao are no closer to getting in the ring than they were last year or the year before.

Additionally, Arum gave Matthews every indication that if a deal is hammered out, the bout will not take place in New York City because of the exorbitant amount of taxes that will have to be paid, as opposed to Nevada and Texas which have no personal income tax.

So, even though it should be, Pacquiao-Mayweather will not be held at Madison Square Garden, if at all. And this is a microcosm of the trend that long gone are the days when the best boxers in the world, in all weight classes, were more than willing to face one another, in the prime of their careers, on the grandest stages.

As great as Mayweather, a defensive wizard, and Pacquiao, an offensive juggernaut, are in the squared circle, they could have easily been going into their second or third fight by now and in the midst of a rivalry that could have been mentioned in the same breath as Ali-Frazier, Jake LaMotta-‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson and Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez.

But, for the moment, all we’re left with is what could have been and still in search of the bout that could be called the fight of this century.

Where have you gone Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali?

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and a video featuring highlights from the 'Fight of the Century'.

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Jim Lampley Loves the Word, "Bang"

During this weekend's Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottery fight, HBO announcer Jim Lampley got a little excited during the eight round.

Let's say it plainly, "Bang Bang Bang Bang"



(Courtesy of Deadspin)

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Amazing Sport Stories

Considering I have been a sports junkie for my entire life, with an entire library filled with books, and video I thought that sharing some of the greatest sports story in this blog would be a great idea. As time passes, past generations seem to fade away in time. Nearly all sport fans over 35 could at least tell you something about (Dwight Clark's) "The Catch", or Franco Harris's "The Immaculate Reception". Yet when you ask most sport fans under 30 about these historical sporting events they will just look at you with a blank stare.

I don't consider myself to be very knowledgeable about too many things in life, but my appreciation for sports history is one of my strengths. My goal is to talk about the greatest sport stories in history. Some of them may be more obscure than others, but they deserve to be remembered and have their piece in history preserved for future generations. Please feel free to email me at mastershops@yahoo.com if you have any suggestions on interesting, amazing, and hair-raising sports related stories that you fondly remember, or even ones that were passed down to you from your grandfather. Comments are welcome and encouraged. I'm hoping that this blog can be an interactive place for sport fans to talk about some of the great moments in sports history, and I soon hope to add a forum for everybody to share their favorite sport stories in history.

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