The Pecan Park Eagle

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?