Sunday, November 23, 2008

I was there, and I still don't believe it!


Muskegon's comeback from 22-points down is, without question, the most amazing comebacks that I've ever seen. In 1985, I watched Traverse City beat the Big Reds 22-21 at Hackley Stadium on a perfectly executed flea flicker, after falling behind with less than 40 seconds remain in the contest. The touchdown negated a 95-yard interception by Muskegon's Donald Banks that had broken a 14-14 deadlock. The two-point conversion was all but a given as Muskegon fans and players were in shock at the turn of events.

I witnessed Mill Coleman of Farmington Hills Harrison engineer a classic comeback in the final two minutes against DeWitt in the 1989 Class B final. Coleman's passes and runs cut through DeWitt defense were really no surprise. His skills on the gridiron were incredible. In 1994, Belding and their deceptive wing-T offense overcame a 19-point halftime deficit to defeat Detroit Country Day, 50-41, in on the the wildest contests of the state championships ever.

Not exactly the infamous Harvard beats Yale 29-29 game of 1968, but...

Trailing by 16 with less than five minutes to play, this one appeared to be over. Down to a single time out, the Big Reds, it appeared, were through. Davison was controlling the ball. Muskegon could do little right on this afternoon at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.

And then the tables turned.

Check out the various versions of coverage from the Muskegon Chronicle, The Flint Journal
the Detroit Free Press, as well as the Free Press Photo Gallery for the emotion of the game.

Watch Michigan Sports Radio for the archive of the broadcast, or better yet, listen to the amazing 4th quarter of the Davison comeback by local broadcasting legends Jim Moyes and Gene Young.

The MHSAA semifinal found of of the annual tournament have hosted some of the state's most thrilling contests. Check out this article from a few years back.





1 comment:

tbarrett said...

Best of luck to the Big Reds at Ford Field on Friday!