Alexander: What are your favorite Southern California sports moments?
The world according to Jim:
• In the same spirit as last week’s revelation that there will be an L.A. Sports Hall of Fame – and the number of readers who emailed to suggest nominees – today let’s go in another direction. This one was inspired by a social media post, so I pose the question to our readers: What are your top five Southern California sports moments?
To kick-start the conversation, here are mine:
• Kirk Gibson, Game 1, 1988 World Series. No explanation should be necessary, right? …
• Jerry West’s 63-foot buzzer-beating heave that sent Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals between the Lakers and New York Knicks to overtime. (If the 3-point shot had been in existence then, the Lakers would have won that game in regulation – they lost in OT – and would have won L.A.’s first NBA title in six games rather than losing in seven.) …
• Alec Martinez’ goal at 14:43 of the second overtime to give the Kings a second Stanley Cup in Game 5 against the New York Rangers in 2014, complete with his “jazz hands” celebration. (That came after he’d scored the deciding goal at 5:47 of overtime to eliminate Chicago in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals). …
• Raiders linebacker Jack Squirek’s pick six of Washington’s Joe Theismann right before halftime in Super Bowl XVIII, Jan. 22, 1984, giving the Raiders a 21-3 lead en route to a 38-9 victory and L.A.’s first Super Bowl championship. (It was a tough call between this one and Vince Ferragamo-to-Billy Waddy, a 50-yard pass play in overtime that gave the Rams a Divisional Round victory at Dallas on Dec. 30, 1979, en route to getting to their first Super Bowl – and losing to Pittsburgh at the Rose Bowl.) …
• And Sandy Koufax on just two days rest (and without a functioning curveball) and still pitching a three-hit, 10-strikeout 2-0 victory in Minnesota in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series. …
• As for that L.A. Hall of Fame question, there were 26 responses and 58 individuals mentioned as potential Hall of Famers. If the people’s voice makes a difference, John Wooden with 12 mentions and Vin Scully, Chick Hearn and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with four each should be first ballot Hall of Famers. …
• One respondent wondered if Sam Gilbert, UCLA players’ benefactor in the ’60s and ’70s (i.e., the Wooden years), was eligible. If he were around today in the NIL era, would he be in his element? Or would he be just another donor?
And there was the respondent to cast a vote for “All USC Heisman winners except one.” Who do you think he had in mind? …
• This week’s quiz: Sam Darnold will be the first former USC quarterback to start in the Super Bowl Sunday for Seattle. Who was the first former Trojan to play the position in the Super Bowl? Answer below. …
• Things I wish I’d written, especially pertinent with the back and forth verbiage surrounding Bad Bunny’s scheduled appearance in Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show, from Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing: “What looks like a culture war is really just trying to keep people from switching to Netflix during commercial breaks.” …
• I’d add the one-liner “Pass the guacamole,” except for this: I don’t eat the stuff. Not a fan of avocado. …
• So the Rams’ home game against San Francisco next season will be played in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. That’s a sneaky way to keep 49ers fans out of SoFi Stadium. …
• The nine international games (so far) scheduled for next season seem to be another step toward the NFL’s push for an 18-game schedule, though commissioner Roger Goodell sort of softened his rhetoric on the subject during his annual Super Bowl presser this past week.
But if the NFLPA is going to stand its ground on any issue, this is the one. If a 17-game schedule is too much from a player safety standpoint, 18 is flat out overkill. …
• After NBA commissioner Adam Silver made sure that Kawhi Leonard would be part of the All-Star Game on his home floor next weekend, I wondered if residents of his hometown had directed any lobbying efforts at the Commish. After all, when Clippers PA voice Eric Smith does the starting lineups, Leonard is introduced not as being from San Diego State but representing “Moreno Valley, California.”
And yeah, before you ask, I’m all for it. He is, after all, the city’s best export – especially because he doesn’t have anything to do with warehouses. …
• Quiz answer: Pete Beathard, who played the position for USC in 1961, ’62 and ’63 – and was part of a national championship team in ’62 – was Len Dawson’s backup in Kansas City and got in at the end of Super Bowl I – then clunkily known as the NFL-AFL Championship Game. He completed one pass and was sacked twice in the late stages of Green Bay’s 35-10 victory.
And as columnist Nick Canepa pointed out last Sunday in our corporate sibling, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Green Bay’s Willie Wood was also a former USC quarterback (1957-59). But in that first Super Bowl, he played on the other side of the ball and returned an interception 50 yards to set up a Packers touchdown. …
• Are the people who run the College Football Playoff tone-deaf or just stubborn? (Or, perhaps, deluded by the big TV ratings numbers from this season’s final, thanks to Indiana’s Cinderella story?)
The amount of time between rounds is way too much, messing with players’ and teams’ rhythms and seemingly inviting all but the most rabid fans to lose interest. Next season the semifinals are Jan. 14-15 – a full two weeks after the quarterfinals over New Year’s – and the final Jan. 25 in Las Vegas. The following year the semis are Jan.13-14 and the final Jan. 24 in New Orleans.
All of this, of course, is in direct competition with the NFL playoffs throughout January. My vote is for “stubborn.”
jalexander@scng.com