The 10 Greatest Sports Moments of My Life:

No. 9:

Kansas Wins the National Championship - April 4th, 1988

As with my sports moment number 10, I wasn't really old enough to know what was going on, but until recently I clung to this moment as my claim to glory for my sports teams. The Chiefs true glory days were before I was even a thought of, The Royals glory days ending coincided with my birth year. The only team I root for that has been consistently good my entire life has been the Kansas Jayhawks.

KU has arguably the most storied program in all of college basketball. UCLA has more championships, but KU is where the game was INVENTED. North Carolina has won 4 championships in the last 25 years but the man that brought that program to its current dominant level was a KU alum. Not to mention the man who currently helms the program and has brought it quite high got his start under Dean Smith (the aforementioned KU alum) and his first head coaching gig was at KU. Duke was nothing before Coach K came 30 years ago. James Naismith invented the game at KU in 1898, and with the aforementioned Dean Smith, basketball coaching legend Adolph Rupp was also a KU alum who got his tutelage from the KU greats. When he retired Phog Allen was the winningest coach in college basketball, giving rise to the vaunted battle cry to all who come to Lawrence to play the Jayhawks..."Pay heed all who enter the Phog..."

The 1988 season was a magical one to say the least. At my young age I was not able to appreciate it and my parents had to get a babysitter for me so they could go and watch the game. I would expect nothing less, any 3 year old of mine needs to realize if any of Daddy's teams are playing in a championship a babysitter will be necessary. The infallable father figure image I am sure to project to my young child will need not be ruined by him seeing me scream and holler at a tv screen, and yelling at players whom I dont know and have never met, by their first name, whether it be in pure elation or disdain.

The Jayhawks made the Final Four when the illustrious Danny Manning was a sophomore in 1986. They reached the 30 win plateau that year and Larry Brown had asserted himself as one of the best coaches in college basketball. A #1 seed and favored to win the National Championship, KU's season ended disappointingly in the Final Four (again showing the brilliance of KU's program that a Final Four loss would cause a seson to end in disappointment). High expectations followed in '87 with a slightly disappointing 25-11 season with an exit in the sweet 16. Due to this the expectations for the 1988 season were slightly tempered going in. Those expectations turned out to be correct as KU found themselves with a 21-11 record heading into the tournament in 1988. This garnered the Jayhawks a #6 seed in the tournament. Nothing great was expected....

However, the incomporable "they" who always makes those expectations forgot about Danny Manning, which is why this team is fondly referred to as "Danny and the Miracles." Behind the epic scoring abilitiy and general greatness of Danny Manning, the entire team rode on his back to the Final Four and on to the National Championship. I recently acquired a coffee table book outlining the great history of the Jayhawks and it contained a copy of Vern Lundqvist's notes on that '88 championship game, which included remarks about the brilliance of Danny Manning. Paul Pierce was probably the most dominant KU that have been able to see play and comprehend his greatness, but from what I have seen and heard Manning was better and I only wish I could have seen him will this team to victory.

After being deadlocked at 50-50 in an extremely exciting and fast-paced first half, the Jayhawks came out and controlled the ball, the tempo, and the game culminating in the unthought of championship bringing the trophy, and more importantly the glory, back to Lawrence for the first time in 36 years!!!

Obviously, this was the championship that I really hung my hat on as a sports fan. The Royals are nowhere even remotely close to being in the same solar system as that team from 1985. The Chiefs have had some really good teams but have never been able to completely put it together. Through all the ups and downs in my sports life the Jayhawks have always been there representing to make sure I had something good to cheer for. My younger years are filled with the glory of KU and (to be honest) some slight disappointments. I still remember the compassion my sisters showed me in 1998 when the only game KU lost during the regular season was a triple overtime thriller to the team that wont be named (but resides in Columbia, MO). As I cried watching the undefeated season slip away from the Jayhawks my sisters came in to "lovingly" gloat that the team they root for just to piss me off happened to catch lightning in a bottle and beat the best team in the land. Thank God for my mother who came in to make sure I was ok after the gloating...sidenote: these are the moments mothers are made for, when you're siblings dont know when to stop they can come in and make it all better. Thanks Mom. Although the pain only lasted for a short while as KU rode a 32-1 record into a #1 overall seed in the tournament. This was the best team I have ever seen at KU, even to this day. The season only ended in disappiontment, which led me and a friend to discuss whether its better to be like KU and always be close or be like his team (that which won't be named) and only get there once in a blue moon (or in the case of a Final Four, never). The verdict was it is better to always be close cause at least it keeps your interest and every once in a while you break through (1952, 1988, 2008...but who's counting).