The Great One

Los Angeles Kings v Philadelphia Flyers, January 9, 1992

The Spectrum, Section 13, Row 8

Good seats to see The Great One. I had a one game streak on the line. When I have seen Gretzky play, he scored a goal.

The Flyers jumped to a 3-0 lead with 1st period goals from Mike Ricci, Andrei Lomakin and Kevin Dineen. Heavy weights Jay Miller from the Kings and Dave Brown from the Flyers both got fighting majors in the 1st.

At the 11:19 mark of the 2nd, Jari Kurri fed Wayne Gretzky for the Kings first goal of the game on a power play. Rob Blake scored for the Kings 4 minutes later to pull the Kings with in one of the Flyers.

Kevin Dineen and Pelle Eklund scored in the 3rd to give the Flyers a 5-3 victory.

Quack Attack

Anaheim Mighty Ducks v Philadelphia Flyers, January 9, 1996

The Spectrum, Section 48 Row 3

The Mighty Ducks started off the game with the Flyers Shawn Antoski dropping the gloves and squaring off with Todd Ewen at the 0:03 mark. The Ducks were also called for an "illegal line up" at the during this donnybrook.

The Ducks went up with an unassisted goal by Steven King (Brown Univ)at the 3:52 mark of the first. And after the Flyers Chris Terrien was flagged for a roughing penalty, Paul Kariya (Maine) netted a goal on the power play. Later in the first the Flyers closed the deficiet off a Eric Desjardin goal with a feed from Petr Svoda and John LeClair.

The 2nd period was scoreless until the final 4:30 seconds of the period when LeClair scored with Eric Lindros and Joel Otto getting the assists. The 3rd period and OT were scoreless leaving the match knotted at 2-2.

Worst Unitforms Ever

Houston Rockets v Philadelphia 76ers, January 8, 1992

The Spectrum, Sec 27 Row AA

In Philadelphia there is a hierarchy to the value of free tickets from salesmen, etc. In 1992, the 76ers were at the bottom of the hierarchy. If you were of any value to a salesman, you would get Eagles or Flyers tickets. Phillies were 3rd tier at the time. The Sixers were down at the bottom.

It didn't even feel good getting offered free Sixers ducats. A neighbor of mine worked behind a counter and was offered free tickets. She came home so excited that she was offered free tickets and was walking on air to my wife. Of course she did not want to go herself but felt important offering them to her for me. I laughed and declined but my wife instructed me to march on over graciously and accept the offer. So I did, packed up a kid and went to see an NBA game under protest.

Things were going well until we discovered even the mice were scared away by the sounds (or lack of) being emitted in this half empty, lifeless building. One ran right along the wall in front of our seats. Good thing the boys wasn't afraid of mice.

13,766 was the announced attendance, falling miserably shy of any home Flyers game in the same building.

Hakeem Olajuwon lead all scoring in the game with 28 for the Houston Rockets. Hersey Hawkins led the Sixers in scoring with 24. Charles Barkley had 15 for the home team in the winning cause.

After getting a load of the worst uniforms in the history of sport, I never went back to a 76ers game and Charles Barkley bolted town.

Good job in embracing tradition.

Sixers 114 Rockets 104

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, January 5, 1985


Hampton Coliseum, Mezzanine B

Not my first Springsteen show but this was about the time when I first started going to his shows.

This was a more naive time when I did not listen to rockers political banter, I just tuned it out and listened to the music. During this show, Bruce, when introducing Johnny 99 snarled "This is about, uh...the trickle-down theory of economics not trickling down....” a direct swipe at President Reagan. Recently, Springsteen shows have become more and more political rallies for Democrat candidates and left wing causes, turning off many in his audience.

This show is the only time I have seen Santa Claus performed live.

Known setlist:

BORN IN THE USA / OUT IN THE STREET / DARLINGTON COUNTY / JOHNNY 99 / DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN / REASON TO BELIEVE / HIGHWAY PATROLMAN / JOHNNY BYE BYE / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / GLORY DAYS / THE PROMISED LAND / MY HOMETOWN / BADLANDS / THUNDER ROAD / COVER ME / DANCING IN THE DARK / HUNGRY HEART / CADILLAC RANCH / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / I'M ON FIRE / GROWIN' UP / BOBBY JEAN / RACING IN THE STREET / BORN TO RUN / DETROIT MEDLEY / TWIST AND SHOUT - DO YOU LOVE ME / SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

Body Bag Bowl

Washington Redskins v Philadelphia Eagles, November 12, 1990

Veterans Stadium, Seat Location unknown

The concept of this blog was to open up a box full of ticket stubs, place them in a chronological sequence, and post a historical prospective about the anniversary date. I really did not begin saving ticket stubs until adulthood. I had scattered ticket stubs from prior games, but not many.

When the anniversary of this game came around, I let it go without posting, as I had no ticket stub to the event.

For instance, I attended every single home basketball game in college for 2 seasons and a majority of them during my college years. I have one or two ticket stubs.

I also attended Phillies games with an aunt who had season tickets from the mid 70's to early 80's.
I was able to attend several games during the seasons she had her season tickets. I only have a handful of those ticket stubs.

The Body Bag Bowl was a memorable game but I had not ticket stub, therefore, forgot about it until now. I remember I attended a Sunday night Bruins at Capitals game the night prior. I drove back to New Jersey for work Monday, then began tailgating around 4 for the Monday Night Football game. I suspect we paid off a security guard in the basement of the Vet to get in. That would explain the lack of ticket stub. A co-worker worked part time at The Vet. He would arrange for us to pay a security guard in one of the tunnels in the basement $10 each to gain access to big games we couldn't get tickets to. We never had seats so we wandered around trying to cop the best view.

The game ended up being one of legend. It is one of the few NFL games that was dubbed with it's own name. It is one of the few NFL games to get it's own Wikipedia entry.

The game was the epitome of the Buddy Ryan era. In the days leading to the clash, Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan threatened a beating so severe that "they'll have to be carted off in body bags." Ryan's words were prophetic. The Eagles defense scored three touchdowns in a 28-14 win.

During this game, nine Redskins were injured, including starting quarterbackJeff Rutledge and backup Stan Humphries. The Redskins had to end the game with rookie running back/kick returner Brian Mitchell at quarterback.

One of the most fondly remembered Redskins-Eagles games ever, at least by Eagles fans, was avenged by Washington in the playoffs.

Following the Body Bag Game game the Eagles would go on to win five of their last seven under Randall Cunningham, finish the season 10-6 and earn a wild card playoff berth, the fourth seed in the tough NFC.

The Redskins meanwhile also would win five of their last seven to finish the season 10-6, losing the number four seed spot to the Eagles.

Wake Remains Unbeaten

Wake Forest v Richmond, January 4, 2003

Robins Center, Sec 5 Row V

There was a reported attendance of 7,561 for this afternoon affair. Richmond sports fans, if there is such a thing, always bragged that the city ignores other sports because they are such ACC fanatics. Richmond is 2 hours and a million miles away from Tobacco Row.

I never expected to see empty seats when an ACC powerhouse was in town.

He plays for one of four unbeaten teams in Division I, but Josh Howard is going to treat No. 23 Wake Forest's 68-62 victory against Richmond on Saturday like it was a kick in the teeth.

"I'm taking it like that and I know the team will, too," Howard said after scoring 21 points to help the Demon Deacons (9-0) hang on despite their sloppy play for all but a 15-minute stretch of the second half.

"We've just got to get in practice tomorrow and concentrate and focus. Just concentrate. That's the biggest thing right there," Howard said.

The Demon Deacons opened the second half on a 20-5 run to pull away from a 26-all tie and beat the Spiders for the 11th straight time.

After building a lead as high as 15 points, and leading by 10 with 2:08 left, Wake Forest had to hold on, allowing the Spiders to get within three on two free throws by Will Holloman with 26 seconds to play.

"The first 15 minutes of the second half we played as we have most of the year," Deacons coach Skip Prosser said. "Fortunately that was enough to allow us to get out of here and back down the interstate with a win."

Howard and Justin Gray, who scored 19 points, each had six during the run that gave Wake Forest a 46-31 lead. Gray's points came on a 3-pointer and a three-point play, and Howard had a fastbreak dunk, a shot in the lane and a putback that capped the run with 13:12 remaining. Richmond didn't get the lead under 10 until 2:36 remained, then used a half-court trapping defense to force the last few of the Demon Deacons' 20 turnovers and make the game exciting for the near-sellout crowd of 7,561. Wake Forest helped, too, by making just three of six free throws in the last 50 seconds, but each conversion kept the Spiders two possessions away. "We survived," Prosser said. "No one said it was going to be pretty." Tony Dobbins, who scored 10 of his 18 points in the last five minutes, said the Spiders hurt themselves by getting out of their defensive ways. "One of the things that has been a constant for this team, no matter how poorly we play on offense, is that our defense keeps us in games," he said. "That's something we didn't do today." After Holloman's free throws made it 65-62, Gray had a free throw and Trent Strickland added a dunk with 6.4 seconds left. "We just kept going and kept what focus we had," said Howard, who also held Richmond scoring leader Mike Skrocki to just three field goals. Skrocki was 9-for-9 from the line and had 15 points, while Holloman had 13. The first half was bizarre as Wake Forest shot 55 percent to Richmond's 36 percent, but the game was tied because the Spiders responded to an early 9-0 run with a 16-2 burst. The Demon Deacons went 6:39 between baskets and had seven turnovers in a span of eight minutes.