Blood, Guts and...

I've been thinking about this one for a while. I have at last arrived at my answer.

A few weeks ago my esteemed colleague Darren Kilfara wrote about his most dramatic moment in sports. Let's just say his choice was interesting. I'm sure the Hooligans of England and the three Americans who saw the soccer game share his enthusiasm for a 2-0 soccer game.

But let's be serious here. It is noble of Darren to pick a non-American sports event, it shows his openmindedness towards all sports. But how can a game be honored with such lofty recognition when it is only memorable because of the goal differential tie-breaker system that was in existence? Any casual spectator would probably have not even understood the importance of the second goal.

But I'm not here to criticize. Rather, I'm here to offer my own selection and some close runners-ups(some more serious than others).

Runner-up number two: To please the ever-worldly Darren, this one comes from an international event, the Olympics. In third place is Mary Lou Retton's gold medal vault to win the overall gymnastics championship.

The whole world was watching, (except those lucky few who may have been tuned into an England league soccer match) she needed a perfect ten to secure the victory, and she did it. America laughed, they cried and claimed they were better than the Russians.

Furthermore, not only was it an amazing clutch performance, but it put her on the box of Wheaties for the next eight months. I guess the idea was that you too can be a champion like Retton, as long as you're under five feet tall and able to distort your body like a Yoga master.

Runner up number one: 1984 Orange bowl for the College Football national championship. Unbeatable Nebraska was losing to unheradled Miami by one point with just seconds on the clock.

Nebraska, a heavy favorite, had come back from a 17-point deficit. Coach Dr. Tom Osborne had the choice of going for one and a tie--and in all likelyhood the national championship--or for two.

He went for two, and failed. As Turner Gill, Nebraska's brilliant, dexterous quarterback, rolled to his right, he had back-up I-Back Jeff Smith open for a split second. He unloaded, only to see a Miami player dive and break it up at the last second.

The two-point conversion is often the most exciting play in sports and this was the most important one of them all. This play had it all: great athleticism, T.V. build-up, bold coaching and most important, extreme significance.

And now my number one selection. So many plays ran through my mind: Flutic's Hail Mary pass, Bobby Thomson's homer, Fisk's homer, Rumeal Robinson's freethrows, to name just a few.

But they all fell short. What came to mind was an event that few may remember. I do not know the woman involved, nor do I remember the year, but the pictures have left an indelible mark on my sports memory.

It was an Iron Man competition in the early eighties. One woman became the center of attention as the race winded down. It was not for her winning performance, in fact she was far back in the field. Rather it was for her amazing bravery and the "drama" as she approached the finish line.

The thing is, she had become sick with diarhea in the middle of the race, but continued in her fight. With her lunch literally running down her leg--to phrase it as nicely as possible--she crawled to the finish line.

It wasn't a significant race, and as I said she did not even win, but it was the physical embodiment of human drama in sports. As people often say, "It was so dramatic, I damn near #$@& in my pants."

Well on this occasion, it actually happened.