It occurred to me the other day that around this time 30 years ago, I was graduating high school. To say that much has changed around me since then would be an understatement.
This applies to the world of sports as well.
For example, when I attended Bertie High School in the late 1900s, I represented the Falcons by competing in football and being a member of the shooting team. Certainly nothing unusual about football, but I find it hard to imagine a student nowadays getting on the school bus with their rifle in the morning like I did so they could practice with teammates behind the softball field after school. Not without causing a panic and headlines at least.
I had fun looking back and remembering what was happening as it related to sports back in 1994 in the months, weeks and days before I graduated. I will try to do it in chronological order.
Florida State was the most dominant team in college football and had just won the national championship with an 18-16 win over Nebraska. Yes, Nebraska used to be good at college football back when they ran the option out of the I-formation and nobody had to pass the ball.
Tonya Harding’s bodyguard attacked fellow figure skater Nancy Kerrigan at the U.S. championship in Detroit. Harding won that championship the next day and it would be seven more days before her bodyguard was arrested and charged with the attack on Kerrigan.
The NFL player of the decade for the 1980s and UNC legend Lawrence Taylor retired from football. He was undeniably one of the greatest and most feared linebackers of all time.
The Dallas Cowboys used to be good back then. They won Super Bowl XXVIII against the Buffalo Bills in the Georgia Dome. Emmett Smith won MVP and head coach Jimmy Johnson would quit two months later.
Sterling Marlin won his first NASCAR race, but drivers Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr were killed in separate practice incidents in the lead up to the 36th Daytona 500.
They opened up a new major-league baseball park in Cleveland and upset people when they announced that smoking would not be allowed on the premises. Smoking was a thing that happened on airplanes when I was a kid, so it was unusual for a ballpark to say you couldn’t smoke in public.
Wayne Gretzky passed Gordie Howe as the NHL record holder for goals with his 802nd. I can only assume that is the moment they began calling him “The Great One.”
Michael Jordan was still playing… baseball, for the Birmingham Barons. It was a good time to be a Houston Rockets fan.
North Carolina won the NCAA women’s basketball championship and a few days later, the Arkansas Razorbacks beat Duke to claim their first men’s title. I remember this made the President of the United States very happy.
Lennox Lewis scored a TKO against Phil Jackson in the eighth round and won the heavyweight boxing title. I had to look it up and confirm this information because I remember Lewis fighting Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, but I certainly don’t remember him fighting the former Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers head coach. Apparently, it was another Phil Jackson who fought professionally and never played for the New York Knicks.
The Toronto Raptors were essentially born and their logo was unveiled. In case you don’t remember or haven’t figured it out, Jurassic Park was very popular at the time.
All of that excitement in the first half of 1994 peaked on the week of my graduation when O.J. Simpson and his Ford Bronco got chased for an hour and a half on national television.
What a time to be alive.
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