April 4, 1983: Lorenzo Charles dunks the winning basket for NC State in their 52-50 victory over Houston in the NCAA final game at Albuquerque.- Coach Valvano launches into his insanity run as the face of shock finally yields to celebration.
Sometimes the pain of a loss stems from the sport you care about. Sometimes it shoots up from the pain of your emotional connection to the team that just lost. Sometimes the pain electrifies the nervous system like sciatica from the way a game was lost. Other times, the pain drops you to the floor from the nanosecond flashback memory of what was moments ago at stake and up from grabs, but now is lost forever. Most of the time, most probably, its a painful poisonous cocktail that includes a generous dash of all these ingredients – and then some. If you’ve ever struck out with two away and the bases loaded and victory or defeat hanging in the balance in the bottom of the ninth, with your dad and favorite uncle watching, you will know what I mean when I write of this excruciating pain.
Along this dismal line, I always come up with the same three picks whenever I start to review my choices for the three most painful losses in Houston sports history. Realizing, too, that we all have our own least favorite memories in this regard, the “Big Three” for me are spread out, one each, for baseball, basketball, and football. Here they are in chronological order:
1) Sunday, October 12, 1980, The Astrodome, Houston, Texas, Baseball: The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Houston Astros, 8-7, in ten innings of the Game Five finale of the 1980 NLCS to take the National League pennant and go on from there to defeat the Kansas City Royals to win their first World Championship and first appearance in the big annual Series since 1915. – The Astros had a 5-2 lead going into the top of the 8th inning with Nolan Ryan pitching, but let it all slip away when the Phillies pecked in 5 runs in the 8th and then won in the 10th. – It still hurts to write about it. If you need more turning point down slide details, please feel free to look them up for yourselves.
2) Monday, April 4, 1983, University Arena, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Basketball: North Carolina State scores on the last shot of the game to defeat the heavily favored Houston Cougars and the Phi Slamma Jama fraternity of Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler for the NCAA Division-1 collegiate basketball championship of 1983. For more information, check out this distant past column from the archives of the Pecan Park Eagle:
https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/1983-memories-of-the-unforgettable-uh-ncs-game/
3) Sunday, January 3, 1993, Rich Stadium, Buffalo, New York, Football: This was the NFL Playoff game that saw the Houston Oilers and QB Warren Moon grab a 35-3 lead in the 4th quarter, only to do a sudden steep cliff free-fall at that point that allowed the home team Buffalo Bills to out-score them by the same one-sided 35-3 margin the rest of the way for 38-38 tie at the end of regulation play. The seal to the frustration of the Oilers may have been that the greatest comeback in NFL history had been engineered by back-up QB Frank Reich, who was playing in the absence of injured starter Jim Kelly. With Madam Mo firmly entrenched on the bench of the Bills, the Oilers then lost in OT on a sudden death field goal, 41-38. – Almost 21 years later, I still refuse to totally wrap my mind around the fact that this game actually happened.
At any rate, those are my Big 3 picks in this category of Houston’s worst sports disasters. – How do my picks fit with your choices?
The Pecan Park Eagle 
September 4, 2014 at 2:10 pm |
Those will do just fine, thank you. As far as the Astros are concerned, though, I’d call the 1980 NLCS game 5 a tie with 1986 NLCS game 6. Many of those ’86 Mets admit that they did not want to have to face Mike Scott again in a winner-take-all game 7. Alas, thanks to the Mets’ win in the 16-inning marathon that was game 6, that game 7 never happened.
September 4, 2014 at 2:11 pm |
I think your list is perfect. For me, the next game on the list would be the final loss in the 1986 playoffs to the Mets. I had been at the 1980 game and watched the lead against the Phils evaporate. To be in the Dome in 1986, as I was, and to watch another lead disappear was like ripping open an old wound you had tried to forget.
September 4, 2014 at 2:15 pm |
Without even reading this: The UH-NC State NCAA final, the Oilers playoff choke against the Bills and the 1986 NLCS Game 6 loss to the Mets (valiant as it was).
(now looking).. Ooh, close. Whether the 1980 NLCS Game 5 loss or the 1986 NLCS Game 6 loss was worse is debatable. We inexplicably gave up three run leads late in both and the Astros made a valiant comeback both times only to lose at the end. I think the ’86 loss was more painful because it had come after the ’80 loss. Plus, I felt losing Richard, Cedeno and Ashby along the way would have made the ’80 team a weakened shell of itself at the World Series.
September 4, 2014 at 2:32 pm |
Another interesting fact about the Buffalo game, (besides the one had instant replay been in use to overturn calls, one of the early Buffalo TD’s would have been called back because the receiver stepped out of bounds) is that the previous week, 12/27/92, the Oilers had defeated the Bills 27-3 in the Astrodome. Which means in the previous 6 quarters of football that they had played, Houston had outscored Buffalo, 62- 6 ! This made the comeback to me, even more inconceivable. I wonder if they got a little overconfident?
September 4, 2014 at 3:17 pm |
Have to echo my sentiments to Tom’s comments on suffering through the ’86 game after also being at the ’80 loss. Both of these games helped keep me from getting too excited in 2005, just before I watched Pujols’ 9th inning homer sail over the railroad tracks. Even though we won the series in St Louis the next day, this game could easily be number 5 on the list.
September 4, 2014 at 4:03 pm |
Bill-
Good but painful picks. Before I read your piece, I took a stab at my three picks and they were exactly the same as yours. The only other one that came close was the Cotton Bowl game where Joe Montana led a 4th quarter comeback in the wind and cold in the 4th quarter to beat UH.
Bill Gilbert
September 4, 2014 at 4:23 pm |
Bill – I had the same problem passing on the UH-ND Ice Bowl loss. It certainly caused me more pain than either the Astros 1980 loss or the 1993 Oilers fold, but, I picked on the side of the three disasters that I felt most impacted most people in the City of Houston. I also came close on picking the 1986 Mets loss over the 1980 loss because, even with the NY dread of facing Mike Scott in a Game 7, the 1980 loss to the Phillies of a 3-run lead in the 8th with Nolan Ryan on the mound was a game for all the marbles. Six outs from reaching our first World Series, the Astros blew it. To me, that was a larger pain than our 9th inning meltdown against the Mets in the 9th inning of Game 6 in 1986.
September 4, 2014 at 4:10 pm |
Ah, BIll, there’s another great memory! U of H had 4th and short against the wind in the 4th quarter, if I remember correctly. They elected to punt rather than go for the first down that would have allowed them to run out the clock. The wind was so strong that it blew the punt back to about the original line of scrimmage. Joe Montana took it in from there. What a great morning we’re having!
September 4, 2014 at 5:00 pm |
Mike and I may be twins separated at birth. In addition to the 1980 and 1986 games, I too was there for the Pujols homer off Lidge in 2005. Ah, the joy of being an Astro fan. Or at least I was until Bud Selig forced us into the American League. But that’s a discussion for a different time….
September 5, 2014 at 12:20 am |
I agree with Kleinworth on all accounts. I also believe that the Buffalo loss ended the Oilers. The team never regained fan support after that nor did the franchise deserve it. Up yours Bud Adams…I hope you enjoyed that Super Bowl in the Dome you had that scoreboard yanked for. The irony of the Titans going to the Super Bowl the year after they left was nauseating. But, of course, they lost.