A message from Brian:
There are a few things that everyone knows about sports. They're memorable, they're emotional and most importantly they're personal. This bracket is not something that is cut and dry. It's something that makes you think where you were and what you were doing during the moments in question. It is about a son's memory of spending time with his dad. A memory of two boys, 5 and 9, playing football in the yard, arguing over which one gets to be Michael Vick.
That's me, and as you will be able to tell the Hokies hold a very special place in my heart, as they do with all of you. The best part of this thing is not that there will be a definite winner, but that there will never be a unanimous champion, but only multiple champions of the heart.
I just hope that y'all have as much fun filling this thing out as we did.
A message from Joe:
Thanks to everyone for all of the great suggestions! That thread was one helluva trip down memory lane. Narrowing the bracket to 32 moments was difficult, and everyone's suggestions plus the number of up-votes determined and seeded almost the entire field. In my opinion, the most glaring omission was the 2007 ECU game. Both Brian and I agreed, the respective winners of our brackets would finish in second to that emotional pre-game.
Download and/or print an empty bracket, view Brian's bracket, or view my bracket.
I hope y'all enjoy the podcast, and leave any additional thoughts below.
Comments
Joe, do you think you could add voting for each matchup on the left side of the page so maybe we could have a TKP chosen champion?
I thought we were making a huge bracket to vote on site-wide. That would be awesome.
...who Angela Tincher was. So, there's one upset!
Sugar Bowl Texas, Miracle in Morgantown*, Beamerball Clemson 07, 38-0
*Miracle in Morgantown wins it all, but the true championship was in the Great 8 between MiM vs. Hokies in ACC. Those two, by far, are my two greatest moments as a Hokie. With Sugar Bowl Texas as third.
Tyrod to Coale is up there, but he didn't score. If you're including the whole sequence with Dyrell, maybe it makes the Finals. Otherwise, I'll take 38-0, which was much more than one game...it provided about 5 classic highlights, set the Coach London program in its proper context and we did it in Lane Stadium East.
Teabag Paulus doesn't make it out of the first round for me. It's a cool highlight, but Corey Moore's Thunderdome remains our zeitgeist. And I actually started to like Paulus when he went to Syracuse, that was a cool story.
The #4 seed 38-0 is missing from the empty bracket.
Fixed, and thank you.
Any other 8 seed and I could have advanced her.
Putting Miami 03 up against Miami 11 was just sick :(
Some of those first round matchups were brutal. Both Clemsons facing off, right next to having to pick between Terrordome and the ONE Deron Washington highlight that made the list... tough.
In the end, I had to go with Tyrod to Coale. Yeah, he didn't score, but it led to it, and at some level is included in my mind, and, of all the euphoria-inducing highlights, this is the one that gets me every time I watch it (which is honestly about once a month). The call is terrific and the memory is sublime.
That said, do I think it's the greatest moment in Tech history? No. There are moments from before my time; I understand them, I appreciate the lasting impact they've had on the program and the school, but none have the visceral impact of hearing "Taylor, looking desperately, now THROWS IT DEEP! Has a man open! CAUGHT! DANNY COALE!"
just reading that last sentence sent a chill through me
With chills on my arms as I did so...
Just curious if you didn't see the 2007 ECU game post (by me) or it didn't get enough up-votes/comments?
I also agree that it would be nice to have a community bracket voted on. Maybe through the left-hand side polls?
Joe mentioned it in his bit, why they left it out.
I can tell by the selections, this skews to you, young whippersnappers.
2 entries, pre-99?
1986 kinzer kick, 1990 vt over uva 95 nit champs & 95 bryan still punt return vs texas in the sugar bowl needed to be in this.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. I am a youngish whipper snapper (26) but I've been around BBurg for my whole life. Where is 95 Miami?? Then again, this is also very skewed towards football as well. Maybe sometime next winter we could do a basketball bracket? Might be hard to fill up 32 slots...
Class of '01, still BW3's to me. Short for the original name Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck
Here is my bracket. This was extremely difficult.
Having witnessed the Tyrod Miracle in-person, and celebrate on Worsham Field 5-minutes later that would be my all-time Hokie Sports moment, too.
That's the best moment of my life, let alone sports, let alone Hokie Sports
Wait... Ryan Williams dragging a guy for a TD in a blowout victory is one of the four greatest moments in VT sports history??? Doesn't even belong in the top 32. I mean, the play was cool as hell... but c'mon guys!
Love the idea though.
That was fun. Beat paying attention in Dynamics class.
My apologies, I fat fingered what was supposed to be +1
Meh, these two brackets pretty much suck...all about emotion and no substance. Seedings were way off also IMO...anyway it was an interesting idea
Seed your own then. Not trying to be a dick, but I'm just saying you can create your own.
I love this idea, but maybe, as it's been suggested, this should get split up between football and all other sports. I think most, if not all, of us on here have a strong bias towards football so those moments stand out higher to us. Personally what Tincher did to the US National Team might be one of the greatest moments in sports had it not been in women's softball. Sure it was an exhibition game but no hitting the most dominant team in the world is comparable to beating the Russians in Lake Placid.
That all being said, beyond being a great moment, had the Miracle in Morgantown not happened who knows if this program is what it is today.