In the spirit of Halloween, I took a look at the most intense, nail-biting and spooky moments in Dallas-Fort Worth sports. After much deliberation I emerged from the murky depths of dark sports history with a list of the top five most bone-chilling moments.
5.Tom Landry shown the door
Cowboys’ fans across the globe still harbor ill thoughts towards Jerry Jones ever since his decision to move on from the only man who’d ever coached Dallas in its 29 years of existence.
The man in the funny hat was cast aside immediately after Jones stepped in to take over the ownership duties of America’s team on Feb. 25, 1989, sending media and even veteran Cowboys into a state of mourning.
“It was a very difficult meeting,” said former Cowboys General Manager Tex Schramm to reporters that day. “It’s very, very sad. It’s tough when you break a relationship you’ve had for 29 years. That’s an awful long time.”
Although Dallas did go 1-15 the following season, this haunting memory only ranks fifth because of the great success new coach Jimmy Johnson and Jones went on to enjoy just four years later.
4. 2006 NBA Finals Mavericks lose 2-0 lead
Gut-wrenching might be too soft of a description for what Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks had to face against the eventual champion Miami Heat in the 2006 championship round.
After making one of the most spectacular playoff runs in Dallas sports history, the favored Mavericks were matched up against the upstart Miami Heat, led by Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal.
The first two games seemed almost easy at times, as Dallas cruised to two double-digit victories in games 1 and 2, but once the Mavs traveled to Miami things began to unravel quickly.
Nowitzki and the Mavericks were in a perfect position to be up 3-0 after gaining a 13-point lead with six minutes to play, that is until Wade went on a tear that no one was ready for and won his team a decisive victory.
From that point on, Dallas couldn’t counter the explosive Wade and O’Neal’s power, as the Mavericks’ first appearance in the Finals turned up empty.
3. The Catch
If anyone didn’t know who Joe Montana was before the 1982 NFC Championship game, they sure knew all they needed to after it.
On a cloudy January day in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, the Cowboys and 49ers met each other on the football field for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
A hard fought struggle throughout the course of the afternoon eventually concluded with a hurried pass from Montana to Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone for the 49ers lead.
The touchdown led to a 28-27 San Francisco victory that meant so much more to both sides than a trip to football’s ultimate game.
Dallas’ loss set the team back for more than a decade that wasn’t corrected until Jimmy Johnson, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith came along in the early ‘90s.
For the 49ers, the game was a right of passage as the Cowboys’ dominance in the conference finally ended and San Francisco ushered in a new era that would stand until Dallas took it back more than a decade later.
2. Nelson Cruz’s whiff in the World Series
Just thinking about this one is enough to make a Ranger fan’s fingernails curl with rage, their stomach’s fill up and burst with butterflies, or the hair on the back of their necks stand up as stiff as a needle.
Up 7-5 with one outfield catch away from the franchise’s first world championship, Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz misplayed a fly ball from the Cardinals’ David Freese to tie the game up in the ninth.
The game would go into extra innings, but the damage had already been done as the Rangers went on to lose game six and eventually game seven in St. Louis.
Cruz’s mistake compounded the team’s pitching woes, and the franchise long known for its mediocrity and disappointments is still searching for its first World Series trophy.
1.SMU receives the death penalty
As damaging as some of the other scary moments in DFW sports history may have been, none of them compare to a punishment so feared and so long-lasting that the institution that enforced it is afraid to use it again.
After several major violations of rules and sanctions handed down by the NCAA in the mid 1980s, Southern Methodist University became the first and, to this point, the only school to ever have its football program shutdown for a period of time.
On Feb. 25, 1987, the same day of the year as coach Tom Landry’s firing, the Mustang football program received the aptly named “death penalty” from the NCAA and David Berst, the NCAA director of enforcement.
Even Berst himself wasn’t ready for such an announcement as he fainted right after delivering the news to a group of reporters.
SMU battled back into relevancy for the next two decades, waiting until Head Coach June Jones and the new style of offense to get back into a bowl game.
While every other organization mentioned has either won a championship since their scare or are still in the upper tier of their respective sport today, the death penalty was a shocking turn for SMU athletics and the world of college football.
