2008

It’s the end of the year and here are three of my many favorite moments from 2008. Me being a sports person two of the three are sport related.

This one is my favorite because it got me (and the entire 29,000+ student body) out of school the next day. We in Kansas know this one simply as “the shot.” Mario Chalmers’ shot that sent the national championship game into overtime where we eventually outlasted Memphis in the toughest final four field to date where all four #1s reached the semifinals. I can recall watching this at a friend’s house and one of my friends was outside in the bushes taking a piss, when this occurred.

I can still watch that all day long! After the win we made an impromptu trip to Lawrence along with several thousand others. K-10 heading out to Lawrence was packed with cars that night. Fun night! I lost my voice for the next two days and I had a speech to give on one of those days. I got a B on that speech.

Then finally my absolute favorite sport moment of 2008. It happened in the Euros and for me this game is the game, match, or whatever of this year and perhaps of the past four or five years. In this tournament after Turkey’s first game with Portugal, no lead was safe against the Turks. The match Turkey vs. Czech Republic where both sides’ fans were in it and vocal, the players put on quite a show. I will not lie, the Czechs should have beaten Turkey and advanced. Yet, they didn’t and this isn’t the first time the Czechs have lost to a team they should have beaten in a major tournament and gotten knocked out because of it. The last, if we can recall, was against Ghana where Ghana put on a tutorial on “How to dominate and beat a team you are supposed to lose to.” The Czechs had this one won, but as I’ve heard and have experienced, “A two-nil lead can be the most dangerous lead in football” and the Turks have proven why.

Still the best football match I have ever seen to date.

One more…

The last and recent favorite moment, the event that 2008 will always be remembered for and will be written into the history books, is the national election. The year when we (okay, majority of us) voted in the 44th President of the United States. America’s first African American President, President-Elect (soon to be President) Barack Obama. Oh yes we did.