Forgotten Rivalries

[Sport]

On 10/12/2018 at 7:18 PM, infrared41 said:

Like some of the other older members around here, I remember Reds - Dodgers being a huge rivalry back when they were both in the NL West. Pirates - Reds was a thing for a minute in the 70's. 

 

I looked this up recently for other reasons, but thought I'd share because I feel like getting one over on Pittsburgh right now: the Pirates are the most common playoff opponent for the Reds. They played each other in the NLCS in 1970, 1972, 1975, 1979, and 1990. The Reds won 4 of those 5 series. The Pirates won the 2013 Wildcard game when the rivalry was briefly restored. 

 

The rivalry will never come back because the Reds will never be good at baseball ever again!

[leopard88]

To follow up on my early post about the Ravens-Titans rivalry --

 

A punch to the gut: Why Ravens-Titans feud was once NFL's best

 

Quote

 

The other memories of the Ravens-Titans rivalry were defined by two-by-fours, banshees, spears and a stadium foreclosure.

 

In the Ravens' 2000 Super Bowl season, the Ravens not only became the first visiting team to win at the Titans' new stadium but they handed Tennessee its first two losses there. During the final minute of that season's playoff win at Tennessee, Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe turned to the Titans fans and yelled, "Maybe we should charge the Titans rent to keep playing in our house. Better yet, maybe we should just foreclose on it."

 

Even Tennessee's scoreboard operator got into the act only a minute before the opening kickoff for that playoff game. Attempting to fire up the Nashville crowd, the Titans showed taped footage of Billick boasting in the locker room after the Ravens' previous victory at Tennessee.

 

That led to the Billick line: "When you go into the lion's den, you don't tippy-toe in. You carry a spear. You go in screaming like a banshee and say, 'Where's the son of a bitch?'"

 

The following 2001 season, Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher told his team before a game in Baltimore: "Even if we lose, just bring your two-by-fours to lay some wood into the Ravens."

 

That message got back to the Ravens and became the chief motivation in a 26-7 defeat of the Titans. After the game, Fisher's post-game handshake with Billick turned into a drive-by slap, barely connecting with Billick's hand at midfield before Fisher left without a word exchanged.

"They need to bring a bigger stick next time," Billick said.

 

 

[pianoknight]

Give it maybe 10 years until the Big XII finally keels over and there will be a LOT of old Big 8/12 rivalries left in the dirt.

 

People have already mentioned Nebraska-Oklahoma, Nebraska-Colorado and Nebraska-Missouri.  We also had a (lopsided) rivalry with Kansas that was one of the longest running series in the nation.  Something like 100+ straight annual/consecutive meetings.

 

Toss Missouri-Kansas in there, plus Texas-Texas A&M.  And if/when the Big XII dies, rivalries like Oklahoma-Texas, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, Texas-Texas Tech and Kansas-KState are in jeopardy.  Schools like Kansas could be a hot commodity for Jayhawk basketball, but KSU is a lackluster roommate.  Same for the Pokes if the B1G or SEC comes calling for the Sooners.

[The_Admiral]

Nebraska in the Big Ten has never felt right. They belong with all the other big empty-box states. The Plains =/= the Real-Ass Midwest.

[4_tattoos]

West Virginia Football rivalries.

• Pitt has already been mentioned.
• Virginia Tech, although they played a good one last season.
• They had a nice short lived rivalry with Louisville during the Brian Brohm years. 
• In Miami's last couple of seasons in the Big East WV made them sweat. 

SN: In hindsight it kinda sucks that the ACC didn't give WV an invite. I mean seriously, ALL of their rivals were there. 

[B-Rich]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

Nebraska in the Big Ten has never felt right. They belong with all the other big empty-box states. The Plains =/= the Real-Ass Midwest.

Completely agree.

 

You can also throw in longtime ACC member Maryland.

 

And SEC fans still wonder why in the hell we wound up with Mizzou. Were the St.Louis and Kansas City TV markets worth having a team that in no way fits the SEC?

[The_Admiral]

I think it was the 30 for 30 on SMU that detailed the distinctions between SWC/Big 8/12 southerners and SEC southerners, and how the latter looked down on the sh-tkickers to the west. Never thought about it that way but then it made sense.

[Wings]

Expanding our geographic footprint. I hate that term. 

[pianoknight]

3 hours ago, the admiral said:

Nebraska in the Big Ten has never felt right. They belong with all the other big empty-box states. The Plains =/= the Real-Ass Midwest.

 

It's less than a decade old. Compare that to the Big 12, which started in 1996.

 

Nebraska, Mizzou and Colorado are creeping up on more time in the B1G, SEC and Pac12 than they ever spent in the Big 12 (same for A&M). The real crime wasn't the Big 12 falling apart, it was the Big 8 falling apart (not the same for A&M). 

 

The Big 12 was a shotgun marriage that resulted in a bunch of Texas-centric politics that ultimately killed off both the Big 8 and SWC. And not even two decades later, it's become the Texas-Oklahoma-and-nobody-else conference. Once either of those two make a move, it's over. 

[Kevin W.]

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

I think it was the 30 for 30 on SMU that detailed the distinctions between SWC/Big 8/12 southerners and SEC southerners, and how the latter looked down on the sh-tkickers to the west. Never thought about it that way but then it made sense.

Well, we all know that the real reason why SMU got in so much trouble wasn't because they were the only program cheating to that extent. The bigger programs were butthurt because how dare a small school like SMU take the higher-ranked recruits that the big-name schools had cheated so hard to recruit.

[The_Admiral]

50 minutes ago, pianoknight said:

Nebraska, Mizzou and Colorado are creeping up on more time in the B1G, SEC and Pac12 than they ever spent in the Big 12 (same for A&M). The real crime wasn't the Big 12 falling apart, it was the Big 8 falling apart (not the same for A&M). 

 

Isn't the Big 12 just the Big 8 by a different name, like the Pac-x Conference? I know adding the Texas schools changes the character, but there's still enough continuity there. I don't know, this is boring, I don't even like college sports.

[TrueYankee26]

And of course, there is this certain channel.

[pianoknight]

7 hours ago, the admiral said:

 

Isn't the Big 12 just the Big 8 by a different name, like the Pac-x Conference? I know adding the Texas schools changes the character, but there's still enough continuity there. I don't know, this is boring, I don't even like college sports.

Technically, no. The Big 12 was a brand new conference. But name association makes it easy to think Big 8->Big 12.

 

The clip below says the conference was formed in 1994, but play did not begin until 1996. As a Husker fan this is easy to recall because our 94 and 95 Titles did not include a Big 12 Championship game. The 96 Almost Title and 97 Title seasons DID play through the Big 12 CCG. 

 

 

From Wikipedia:

"The Big 12 Conference is the second youngest of the major college athletic conferences in the United States, having formed in 1994 from a merger of one of the oldest conferences, the Big Eight, with four prominent colleges from Texas that had been members of the Southwest Conference."

[Unocal]

He’s right,

 

The Big 8’s last football hurrah, like the SWC, was 1995 (and boy did the Big 8 go out with a bang)

[kiwi_canadian]

A few that I can think of:

 

Canucks-Avalanche: They had a good battle going through much of the mid 2000's. There was the year that Forsberg and Hedjuk pretty much stole the scoring title and goal title from Naslund and Bertuzzi on the last game of the season as well as taking the division that year as well on the final game. Of course there was the Steve Moore incident and the Naslund hit leading up to it.

 

Oilers-Flames: not to say it's forgotten but the hate just isn't there like it used to be. I think part of that is due to the 1-8 playoff seeding system instead of division semi finals-> division finals format they used to have, it was almost a given that there would be an Oilers vs. Flames playoff series. Also I think both teams have struggled on ice the past 20 years.

 

Flames-Canucks:  Same as above

 

Habs-Leafs: Again, not forgotten but the hate isn't there any more. Both teams on ice have struggled and with the addition of more teams, the chances of playoff meeting have dwindled significantly. As well the English vs. French hatred isn't really there these days like it was in the past.

 

All original six rivalries: Again, not the same as they used to be. It was bound to happen with the addition of more teams. (Some have made a bit of a comeback like the Leafs and Bruins)

 

To me a good rivalry has playoff hockey during the regular season. Teams would go out to physically beat each other as well as on the scoreboard. With the way hockey is now and with how, you physically can't do that. It would be impossible to stay healthy all season and be ready for playoffs. Plus with the awareness of health issues and what not, I don't think we will see good old school rivalries like we used to. Not that that is a bad thing, just an observation.

 

 

[NYUNDERDOGS]

Remember when Isles V Rangers games were 10x as important

[TBGKon]

On 10/15/2018 at 9:31 PM, 4_tattoos said:

West Virginia Football rivalries.

• Pitt has already been mentioned.
• Virginia Tech, although they played a good one last season.
• They had a nice short lived rivalry with Louisville during the Brian Brohm years. 
• In Miami's last couple of seasons in the Big East WV made them sweat. 

SN: In hindsight it kinda sucks that the ACC didn't give WV an invite. I mean seriously, ALL of their rivals were there. 

Being a USF fan,those games against WVU were always heated and I looked forward to them

[sc49erfan15]

On 10/10/2018 at 4:39 PM, goalieboy82 said:

in football (aka Soccer)

El Salvador and Honduras (they even had a War in 1970 because a this)

 

 

This is false. There were FIFA World Cup qualifying matches played between the two teams a few weeks before the (very brief) war, but the matches themselves were not the cause of the war.

[sc49erfan15]

It's probably my locality showing, but the 49ers and Panthers seemed to have a bit of a rivalry going in the late 90s-early 00s until (wait for it) realignment.

 

Panthers won just about all of them, too.

[DnBronc]

On 10/19/2018 at 2:52 PM, kiwi_canadian said:

Oilers-Flames: not to say it's forgotten but the hate just isn't there like it used to be. I think part of that is due to the 1-8 playoff seeding system instead of division semi finals-> division finals format they used to have, it was almost a given that there would be an Oilers vs. Flames playoff series. Also I think both teams have struggled on ice the past 20 years.

 

If they would have had the post-1994 playoff format from 1983-90, there may have been at least two Oiler-Flame conference final meetings, if not more.