“You get self-satisfaction from pushing yourself to the limit, knowing that all the effort is going to pay off.” - Mary Lou Retton
#MJMondays featuring Larry Bird
Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan make your Dream Team come true, one star at a time.
#MJMondays
#9 Michael Jordan
#15 Magic Johnson
of the USA 1992 Dream Team
Dream On!
Feb. 22, 1980 - U.S. beat U.S.S.R. 4-3 during the 1980 Winter Olympics
Clip of the game’s final seconds:
“Do you believe in miracles?! YES!”
The “Miracle on Ice” is the name in American popular culture for a medal-round men’s ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York.
The United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players and led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet team, who had won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament since 1954.
Team USA went on to win the gold medal by winning its last match over Finland. The Soviet Union took the silver medal by beating Sweden in its final game. In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the “Miracle on Ice” the Top Sports Moment of the 20th Century. As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) chose the “Miracle on Ice” as the century’s number-one international ice hockey story.
Feb. 12, 1934 - Happy 79th Birthday, Bill Russell!
The greatest winner in basketball history is born in Louisiana.
2 time NCAA champion, Gold Medal winner, 11 time NBA champion – 14,522 points, 21,620 rebounds, 4,100 assists, 5 time MVP, 12 time All-Star.
Dec. 22, 1996 - Karl Malone became the 11th player to get 20,000 career points and 10,000 career rebounds
During the 1996-97 season, Malone put up a resurgent 27.4 points per game while leading the Jazz to a 64–18 record, the most regular season wins in team history. Malone won his first NBA Most Valuable Player award, and the Jazz were the top team in the Western Conference and the playoff champions in that conference. After sweeping the Los Angeles Clippers and defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, the Jazz took on the Houston Rockets, led by the aging trio of Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and Clyde Drexler. The Jazz beat them in six games (the last victory coming on a last-second shot by Stockton). Malone finally got to the Finals in 1997, where they played the Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. In a matchup of the two previous MVPs, the Bulls took the first two games at the United Center. Malone struggled from the field, going 6 of 20 for 20 points in Game Two. However the Jazz won the next two games at the Delta Center behind Malone’s 37 points in Game 3 and 23 in Game 4, including a game-winning fastbreak lay-up off a spectacular assist by Stockton in the last minute. The Bulls took the next two games and the series, with Malone struggling from the foul line in the pivotal Game 6.
“My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces.” - Wilma Rudolph
“A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.” - Jesse Owens
“The key is not the “will to win” … everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” - Bobby Knight
Aug. 11, 1984 - Carl Lewis wins fourth gold medal
Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal as part of the US 4×400 meter relay team in the 1984 Summer Olympics. It was the sprinter’s fourth of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, matching Jesse Owens feat in 1936.
The Fosbury Flop is a style used in the athletics event of high jump. It was popularized and perfected by American athlete Dick Fosbury, whose gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics brought it to the world’s attention. Over the next few years the flop became the dominant style of the event and remains so today. Before Fosbury, most elite jumpers used the Straddle technique, Western Roll, Eastern cut-off or even Scissors-Jump to clear the bar. Given that landing surfaces had previously been sandpits or low piles of matting, high jumpers of earlier years had to land on their feet or at least land carefully to prevent injury. With the advent of deep foam matting high jumpers were able to be more adventurous in their landing styles and hence experiment with styles of jumping.
200 Metre: the greatest sprinter of all time strikes again
Aug. 9, 1936 - Owens wins fourth medal
As part of the United States’ 4×100-meter relay team, Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. He was the first American to win four medals in one Olympics. His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years.
July 19, 1996 - Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Ali was also given a replacement gold medal for his boxing victory at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Ali had supposedly thrown his previous gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused entry into a restaurant. The United States would dominate the medal count, winning 44 gold medals (Russia was second with 26) and 101 total medals, beating second place Germany who finished with 65. However, it was the Canadians who stole the show in the two biggest events of the Olympics.
The men’s 100-meter race, which is widely considered the main event at any Summer Olympics, was won by Donovan Bailey in a world record time of 9.84 seconds. Bailey would also lead Canada to gold in the men’s 4 x 100 meter relay.
