What's the greatest sports rivalry you remember?

I have been around forever compared to most posters here, or even on the net in general and I tend to be more sentimental on old stuff, but what sports rivalries are your greatest?

I know there's a lot of newer stuff that hasn't had to stand the test of history but are no less important. When I meet my old buddies, it's always about Magic Johnson and his Lakers, or Joe Montana and his 49ers, or Muhammad Ali, or how New York stole the A's Reggie Jackson and Coach/manager Billy Martin.

While I almost put the Giants-Dodgers, I don't think there's anything I have seen in my life as exciting as Bird vs. Magic. To see them both on the dream team was beyond description.

I put in 10 options but could have put a lot more. A lot of the options make top 10 lists but then there are a lot of top 10 things, especially heated college rivalries, that I didn't put here. Honorable mention for me is:

Ali-Frazier,
Patriots vs Giants,
UCLA-USC in almost anything,
and 49ers-Cowboys.

What made me put in Pacauaio-Marquez over Ali-Frazier is the closeness of the Pacqauio-Marquez fights and some say controversy in splitting hairs which makes for a great rivalry.

Had Eli Manning and the NY Giants actually made it to postseason this year, and the Giants and Pats squared off (yet again) in the upcoming Super Bowl, then they would be right at the top of my list.

With UCLA and USC, there are just so many sports both schools are great at (UCLA holding more titles than any school in the nation) that I can't do it justice here. There's a perceived middle class student at UCLA vs. rich student at USC rivalry that southern California people all know about similar to a socio-economic divide between Cal and Stanford.

And finally the 1990s wasn't complete, and utterly frustrating to a 49ers fan like me without the Cowboys besting the 49ers two out of three times in the NFC championship that many considered the real Super Bowls of the '92, '93, and '94 seasons. Dallas would go on to win both the 1992 and 1993 season Super Bowls and the 49ers took home the 1994 season Super Bowl.

zioxide said:

Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens

They have met in the postseason 33 times. Always a blood bath, going all the way back to 1924.

YouTube: video



Lakers and Celtics is always great too. 33? championships between those two franchises.

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We all know the Celtics and the Patriots out west here, but you showed me that Boston's best team are the Bruins. I had not idea, since what hockey I saw was after their most dominant years. But anyway congrats on rather recent Stanley Cup title. Bruins met one team in postseason that many times? That's amazing and there must be some bad blood there.

I have to look back and see how many times LAD and SF Giants went for postseason and had to get past the other to achieve #1 in NL west. They gave us a good scare with Kershaw in 2012 and personally I didn't think we could get past LA in the standings. Next year will be a scary one and if it's true we lost closer Wilson, then things are not looking good.

dukebound85 said:

No Duke-UNC bball?

No Nebraska-Oklahoma fball?

No UK-Louisville bball?

No UGA-Florida fball?

No Auburn-Alabama fball?

No Broncos-Raiders?

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I could have made a thread just on that, too and college rivalries can be more fun. You can have a great coach but not being able to keep a player more than four years can create some upsets. USF was a totally hot team but then again they had the help of one Bill Russell. At least if this was a pro team, they could keep a top player for much longer.

That being said, nothing in the world explains the UCLA college basketball run a couple of generations ago (using many different players with different styles) and that highlight will basically remain unchallenged in American sports, forever along with maybe a few other things (100 point Wilt game, Ichiro going 200+ hits for ten years in a row, and Pablo Sandoval/Reggie Jackson three homers in a single World Series game). Somehow though, UCLA going 10 titles in 12 years, will be the gold standard of American sports dynasties. I can't recall but there's a Spanish soccer team/club that has a better winning percentage along a long period of time that bests that in scope and there may be other international dynasties out there who are better than UCLA's college basketball dynasty in the numbers.

Anyway, http://bleacherreport.com/articles/397548-the-ten-most-dominant-dynasties-in-sports-history/page/11

eric/ said:

There are many college sports rivalries, but really nothing tops Ohio State - Michigan as an overall rivalry. It's tough to quantify such things, but there is so much history behind this one that it's been pretty much the consensus top rivalry in not just college football, but in all of sports. And those aren't my words specifically. The rivalry has died down quite a bit lately with Michigan sucking, but it appears to be picking back up.

That being said, one of the bigger rivalries the past few years, at least for Ohio, has been against Wisconsin. Basketball and football.

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I agree with that one. While locally we love our Stanford-Cal football rivalry, it's mostly a "fun" thing. Neither team is usually that great year after year though we have had some good teams but usually notable individuals. But with Ohio State and Michigan, those two teams annually put up such great teams and players destined for the pros.

We could get a great guy like Elway from Stanford or some great Cal guys but then we will hear about them for decades. But an Ohio State or Michigan comes out with future HoF players every single year and those schools are in the elite football schools who are defacto NFL player factories. Even though there could be years when Stanford and Cal are devoid of serious talent, the big game between the two is just as eventful but you have to be around here to hear about it. I know there are so many better college rivalries but it's all we have to hang onto some years in our sports papers when Raiders, Niners, Giants, A's, Warriors, or Sharks are not in contention for something.

Sometimes it's not even how good your college team in the bay area has done that is remembered but if you beat your regional rival.

We also have every lame excuse in the book. If a Stanford or Cal loses to a school much more noted for football heroes, we say, "Well at least we are a better school academically". And when Stanford loses to Cal they always say, "It's because our football players have to go to class and aren't given a pass like Cal players who often don't have real professors (but undergrad TA's) teaching their classes in the first place. I just don't think we could ever grow to a level of an Ohio State-Michgan, red-blue rivalry. We will have our own red-blue thing with Stanford and Cal and make do.