Eighty-one years ago today, Gene Sarazen drained a double-eagle two on the par-5 15th at The Masters, a -3 on a single hole that propelled him into a playoff and a subsequent major title. It’s one of the most famous shots in golf even though only big golf fans probably know about it. But imagine if Jordan Spieth had done that this year? Imagine if Tiger Woods had done it in 2003? Imagine if Jack had hit the shot in 1986? It’d be the biggest thing in the history of the game. You’d know the replay and the call by heart. It would be all ESPN and CBS would talk about during coverage, and rightfully so. It’d be known as the greatest shot in golf history. But since the only remnants are a club, a ball and some recounted memories, it might as well be a tall tale – one of the tallest ever, but still.
Sometimes it seems like great sports moments only exist if there were television replays to document them. How many times have you seen the final seconds of the Miracle on Ice? In the two years since it’s happened, you’ve seen Chris Davis’s field-goal return against Auburn at least 15 times? What about Jack’s Masters putt at 17 or Tiger’s chip-in at 16? Because of TV (and the fondness we have for elevating the newest memories) it seems like every great sporting moment has happened since, say, 1970, even though there were plenty of unbelievable moments before then.
In honor of Sarazen’s albatross at Augusta (No. 1 on our list), here are some of the other great sports moments that would have been infinitely bigger had they happened today.
(Photo by Louis Van Oeyen/Western Reserve Historical Society/Getty Images).
2. The Babe’s 54-homer season
In 1884, Ned Williamson hit 27 home runs for the Chicago Cubs. That record stayed for 34 years before Babe Ruth smacked two more in 1919, his last year with the Red Sox and a season in which he started 15 games at pitcher. That was a mere prelude to Babe’s 1920. The Sultan of Swat hit 54 homers in ’20, 54 homers that …
a. … doubled the single-season mark of any other player in baseball history.
b. … were more than any other team in the American League hit that year, combined.
c … were more than 14 of the other 15 teams in baseball, combined. (The NL’s Phillies hit 64.)
d. … were 35 more home runs than anybody else in baseball hit and was more than triple the amount of every other player that year with the exception of George Sisler, who hit 19.
e. …were five fewer homers than the league-leading total in each of the four seasons before his 29, put together. (The homer leaders from 1915-18 had 24, 12, 12 and 11, respectively.)
f. … were part of his eight home run titles over 10 seasons.
(Photo by New York Times Co./Getty Images)
3. Jesse Owens’ college track dominance
The same year as Sarazen’s double-eagle (about one month later, to be exact) an Ohio State sophomore named Jesse Owens went to the Western Conference Outdoor Track and Field meet in Ann Arbor. Over the course of 45 minutes he’d tie a world record in the 100-yard dash, broke the world record in long jump by half-a-foot, shattered the world mark in the 220-yard dash and then, 16 minutes after that and 45 minutes after his day began in that 100, Owens broke the world record in the 220-low hurdles, just for fun. Forty-five minutes, four world records. To be fair, Owens had a slightly more famous track meet the following year in Berlin, but his performance in Ann Arbor is still one of the all-time greats.
4. Bobby Jones’ Grand Slam
Only one player in golf has won the four majors in one year and that was Jones in 1930. He did it by winning the U.S. Amateur, British Amateur, U.S. Open and British Open (The two amateurs were then part of the major rotation partly because the other two current majors, the Masters and PGA Championship, weren’t created yet). Jones would rectify that situation a few years later when he’d be instrumental in the development of an annual tournament in Augusta. Jones was considered America’s greatest sportsman during his time and was even bigger in Scotland. As The New York Times wrote in his 1971 obituary:
In 1936, on a visit, he made an unannounced trip to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews for a quiet morning round with friends. There were 5,000 spectators at the first tee and 7,000 at the 18th. Businesses closed as word spread that “Our Bobby is back.”
(C. Aluka Berry/The State/MCT)
5. Maryland-N.C. State
It was called the greatest game ever played long before anybody had even heard of Christian Laettner. And even after Duke-Kentucky’s 1992 clash, it still might be.
Back before Jim Boeheim had bubbles to whine about, one team per conference made the NCAA tournament and the ACC, with its long-running tournament, sent the champion from that competition as its representative. In the 1974 final, No. 1 N.C. State, with David Thompson and Tom Burleson played No. 5 Maryland with Tom McMillen, Len Elmore and John Lucas. Today, they might have been playing for a No. 1 seed. Back then, they were fighting just to get a bid. The back-and-forth, up-tempo game ended with State winning 103-100 in overtime. Eight of the 14 players who stepped on the court would played in the NBA, there were no turnovers during regulation, the teams scored 203 points despite the lack of shot clock and three-point line (and still didn’t turn over the the ball in the first 40 minutes), N.C. State would go on to beat mighty UCLA in the Final Four (snapping the Bruins’ seven-tournament win streak) and cut down the nets in the national title. Next year, the NCAA tournament would expand to allow multiple teams per conference – one year too late for Maryland.
This was only 42 years ago but is oft-forgotten and true replays of highlights are almost never shown on television.
(Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)
6. Bob Beamon’s jump
Since 1968, the men’s 100-meter world record has been lowered 18 times. The long jump record has gone down just once. That was thanks to an at-altitude leap by Bob Beamon at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics that beat the old record by almost two feet. Much like the adjective created by Babe Ruth’s dominance (Ruthian), Beamon got one too: Beamonesque. What’s crazy is that this jump, which was revered and remembered for so long (and is still the second-longest jump in history), was actually the world record for less time (23 years) than Mike Powell’s current record (25 years).
7. Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile
The answer to “who broke the four-minute mile?” used to be common knowledge, like “who cured polio?” and who first climbed Mt. Everest?” Now, I don’t think more than 10% of sports fans under 30 would know, sort of like the answers to “who cured polio” and “who first climbed Mt. Everest.” Self-absorbed millennials. Anyway, the four-minute mile was sort of like the sports moon landing: There were people who long thought it would never be done. Then, once it was clear people were getting close, there was an intense race to become the first. Since the metric system rules in track, the mile isn’t run at international competitions but it should be: It’s a far better distance of measure than some arbitrary amount of kilometers. (1,500 is the “metric” mile.)
(Photo by Norman Potter/Central Press/Getty Images)
8. Georgia Tech’s 222-point football win
I’d assume most have heard of this one but don’t know the story behind it. Unlike other records on our list, this one is strictly a product of its time. Cumberland discontinued its football team in 1915 but still had a deal to play Georgia Tech in 1916. Tech coach John Heisman (yes, the same one) was upset about a baseball game a year earlier in which he claimed Cumberland had used professional ringers. This was payback. Without a team, Cumberland, which faced a $3,000 forfeit fee, had to wrangle up a little over a dozen guys to play and Heisman, who sounds like a swell guy, ran up the score to the tune of 32 touchdowns. Golfers can still hit double eagles at Augusta. Runners can still break new records. Teams can still play classic basketball games. But you’re never going to see a football power play a small school without a football team (think Alabama playing Julliard) or anyone come close to scoring 222 points again.
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
9. Jim Thorpe
He’s a mirage now. A story, a fable. He has a memorial in a small Pennsylvania town that bears his name and the story about the King of Sweden telling him he was the greatest athlete in the world. But no one really talks about much beyond that despite all that there is to talk about. He had his football exploits at Carlisle, when he led a team that ran over Dwight Eisenhower’s mighty West Point. (This is the second time the 34th president has ties to an athlete on our list – he was a famous lover of golf and was good friends with Bob (he didn’t like Bobby) Jones. That painting of Jones that sits on the mantle during the cheesy post-Masters ceremony at Butler Cabin? It was painted by America’s greatest general.) Thorpe was the first president of what would become the NFL. He played professional baseball and basketball. And then there was that 1912 Olympics, where Thorpe won both the pentathlon (now defunct for men) and decathlon with times that still hold up today, more than 100 years after he set them. There were 15 events in the two competitions – Thorpe won eight. In the final race of the decathlon, Thorpe went 4:40.1 in the 1,500 on a wet, cinder track. In the London Games, American Tray Hardee won a silver medal in the decathlon, going 4:40.94 in that same 1,500. Thorpe never actually said his famous response to King Gustaf (“thanks King”) but given that Thorpe seems like a myth himself, a little literary license seems apropos.
