Oh, what a year 2015 has been for the sporting world. There were many other fantastic events that we could’ve covered here from the uplifting (USWNT’s win at the World Cup, Roberta Vinci’s upset of Serena Williams) to the degrading (FIFA corruption, the DFS fiasco), but only the most captivating and groundbreaking of moments made our final cut below.
Without further ado, let’s look back at the top 10 stories that stood out and grabbed the most headlines from 2015’s illustrious tapestry.
And while you’re enjoying the magic of college football bowl season, don’t forget to check out our compilation of the top 10 worst bowl names in history here.
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The Top 10 Stories and Moments in Sports: 2015 Edition
10. A-O-Coach K
Leading up to the 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball national title game, the Wisconsin Badgers already treated fans to what many would claim as one of the greatest college basketball games of all-time when they took on the then-undefeated and 38-game winners, the Kentucky Wildcats. Wisconsin would go on to win that thriller of a contest to set up a date in the final against powerhouse Duke.
The Badgers led by as much as nine with five minutes left in the finale, but head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his boys from Durham had other plans in mind. The Blue Devils, led by Jahil Okafor and Tyus Jones, would rally from that nine-point deficit and come away with the 68-63 victory to give Coach K his fifth national title for the school to further solidify the Duke Blue Devils as the prime alpha males of the college basketball realm.
9. Blackhawks Never Down
[sc:Other240banner ]Not even a serious tornado warning two hours before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final could’ve prevented the Chicago Blackhawks from winning their first title-clincher on home ice and in front of their rabid fan base since 1938.
The Blackhawks proved that experience ultimately trumps sheer firepower when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, the league’s highest-scoring team that season, with a resounding 2-0 shutout in the final contest. With its third Stanley Cup trophy in hand over the past six years, Chicago cemented itself as the NHL’s next emerging dynasty.
8. ‘Money’ in His Bank
Seven years is a long period of time to build up hype and anticipation, but also a grueling stretch where skill and promise are bound to wane. That’s exactly what transpired on May 2nd, when Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. finally took on Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao’s challenge to determine who this generation’s indisputable pound-for-pound boxer truly is.
Alas, the 36-year-old Pacquiao did indeed succumb to Father Time’s toll, as Mayweather would go on to win the match by playing out his methodical yet rather unappealing approach for 12 whole rounds to stay unbeaten throughout his professional career (and take home a really fat paycheck in the process).
Sad to say, boxing fans worldwide were duped into witnessing an overpriced superfight over half a decade late in the making that provided more zzz’s than ooh’s and aah’s.
7. Bang for Your Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes’ path towards this year’s national title was paved with adversities left and right. Starting quarterback Braxton Miller got hurt in August, a Week 2 loss to Virginia Tech had the team on the ropes, and backup QB J.T. Barrett also went down due to an injury.
But even with all of those hurdles throughout the team’s campaign, Ohio State still managed to make the inaugural College Football Playoff as the fourth and final seed, upset college football juggernauts in the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Oregon Ducks (led by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota all the more) in succession, and emerged as the nation’s first CFP champion.
6. New Queen at the Holm
The attention and clamor for mixed martial arts – particularly from the sport’s most renowned promotion, UFC – is at an all-time high, and a huge part of that success has been “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. Rousey was basically the only female fighter worth watching, who defended and emerged victorious from each of her UFC title bouts in the most dominant of fashions while remaining undefeated in all 12 of her professional fights in a span of three years.
Enter similarly unbeaten Holly Holm, who entered UFC 193’s showdown with Rousey in November with a 9-0 MMA record. To the shock of viewers and netizens worldwide, Holm had great control throughout the first round of the match, and landed a brutal head kick on Rousey to knock her out cold and become the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion.
Majority of the fans still argue that Rousey’s days inside the octagon are far from over, so the rematch set for July of 2016 will likely generate the same intensity and energy that made the first encounter such a massive draw in the first place.
5. ‘Never Be Royals’ No More
The road to the 2015 World Series featured a bevy of title-starved franchises on the cusp of finally ending their respective droughts. Among those seemingly-eternal hopefuls who made the postseason cut were the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets.
However, the reigning ALCS champion Kansas City Royals would not be denied the second time around from securing their first World Series title in 30 years by handily dispatching the Mets in five games.
With terrific hitting and fielding, the Royals finally climbed the top of the Major League’s summit and blocked out all the noise coming from their detractors, even the ones that constantly used Lorde’s 2013 chart-topper as an indirect diss track for the once disenchanted franchise.
4. The Next Jordan (of Golf)
With legendary golfer Tiger Woods well within the twilight of his career, it was only a matter of time before we anointed a new PGA superstar. That new flag bearer of golf’s future turned out to be 22-year-old Jordan Spieth, who was two majors victories short of completing the Grand Slam since Woods did it in the early 00’s, and the first-ever to supposedly have earned the Grand Slam within the same calendar year.
In spite of his shortcomings, there was no doubt that Spieth was the most accomplished and electric golfer of 2015, even finishing inside the top five of the two major tournaments that he didn’t win. All eyes will be on him again in the renewed season of the PGA Tour, and everybody will be eager to witness him vie for another shot at the elusive calendar year Grand Slam and many more prestigious golf tournaments to come.
3. New England Patriots: Super Bowl XLIX Champions*
Super Bowl XLIX’s stage was set to become a clash for the ages, with neither the New England Patriots nor the Seattle Seahawks claiming the right to be deemed as the favorite of the contest. The two teams were simply too good to be true at the time, and the end result of their bout was also a remarkable one.
The Seahawks were one score away from the one-yard line in the dying minutes of the game from becoming Super Bowl champs, but they decided to run a passing play instead of leaning on their formidable run game to seal the victory. In turn, unheralded New England cornerback Malcolm Butler picked off Seattle’s Russell Wilson to see the Patriots hold on to the 28-24 victory and bring home the team’s fourth Lombardi Trophy in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era.
However, in the aftermath of all the festivities and grandeur, the Patriots – mainly Brady himself – were accused of tinkering with game balls during the playoffs, which led to the now infamous Deflategate scandal. Should New England have won its fourth title without a so much of a hitch, they would’ve probably topped this here list and we wouldn’t have made such an uninspired title for their write-up above with an accompanying (and dreaded) asterisk to boot.
2. True Equine Royalty
While American Pharoah’s name is inconspicuously misspelled to the untrained eye, there’s no doubt whatsoever that this wonder colt is indeed the king of its rare kind. This year, the much-touted race horse became only the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since 1978 after a less-than impressive showing at the Kentucky Derby followed by a rain-drenched, gutsy win at Preakness and a dominant run at Belmont.
Not only that, but American Pharoah also became the first-ever American horse racing Grand Slam winner with a victory at the Breeder’s Cup Classic in October. Sadly, the sensational steed has retired already, so let us just continue to bask in American Pharoah’s banner run this 2015 in all its glory.
1. All That Glitters is Golden State
The NBA’s current landscape has drastically changed for better and for worse with the Golden State Warriors’ victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals series from last season. Golden State boasted one of the most prolific and efficient shooting performances in NBA history all season long en route to their dazzling postseason run.
Behind spritely sharpshooter and league MVP Steph Curry, silent assassin Klay Thompson, force of nature Draymond Green and relentless reserve Andre Iguodala, the Warriors defeated the Cavs in the Finals (or more like one-man wrecking crew LeBron James) in six games to prove that a jump-shooting team with a lockdown defense can indeed win an NBA championship.
Not everyone believes up until now that the Dubs’ formula for success is a potent one, but they have shown early returns this season that, with virtually the same roster core and game plan, a repeat of their stupendous 2014-15 campaign is under way, if not with even better results (24-0 start to this current season, anyone?).
Kids nowadays will look up to this Golden State team – specifically Curry – as the optimal model of modern basketball, where a barrage of 3-pointers as the main weapon on offense will ultimately to lead to wins. However, what Warriors have done and continue to do from the field is unprecedented, and only they themselves have the utmost mastery over such an unorthodox yet surprisingly effective approach to the game.
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Which leads us to the perennial question about this team: exactly how much longer can the Dubs sustain this style of play and continue to rack up victories and championship titles? Their bid for back-to-back titles has already begun, and so have several other teams and athletes from their respective fields of prowess.
As with any given sport, not every outcome is predestined to favor one side over the other. And in spite of their brilliance, the Warriors certainly aren’t an exception from that fact. More wild and unexpected stories are waiting to be immortalized in the new year, and that will ultimately make for even more compelling and thrilling sporting action that we have come to know and love ever since.
As a matter of fact, we’re more than willing to bet that you won’t be able resist what 2016 has in store.
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