The 10 Greatest Seattle Sports Moments
Seattle is one of the best sports cities in America. If you don't think so, then you haven't been paying attention.
It has the Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders, Storm and Washington Huskies. And even though the Sonics have been gone since 2008, they're still very much in the hearts and minds of the Seattle faithful. It's really only a matter of time until Seattle gets NBA basketball back again.
But we're not looking to the future right now. We're taking a look back at Seattle's rich sports history and its 10 greatest moments.
Sonics Win Game 7 to Reach NBA Finals in 1996
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After nearly squandering a 3-1 series lead to the Utah Jazz, which included a 35-point loss in Game 6, the Seattle Sonics righted the ship and managed to pull off a tight victory that sent the team to its first NBA Finals since 1979.
Even though the Sonics ended up losing to the Chicago Bulls (like everyone else in the '90s), this was huge for Seattle. It had a fun, young team with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. With the Sonics now gone, the 1996 team is the image that still endures for many Seattle natives.
Pele Helps Open the Kingdome
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The Seattle Sounders are one of the most dominant teams in MLS and have one of the most supportive fanbases in the sport. But possibly their most defining moment came in 1976 when the Sounders, then of the North American Soccer League, played the first sporting held in the Kingdome, now the defining sports location in Seattle.
Not only was it the first sporting event there, but the legend himself was there to christen it. Pele was playing on the opposing team, the New York Cosmos, and crowd of 58,128 turned out to watch the event. It was easily the biggest sporting event that had ever happened in Seattle at the time.
King Felix's Perfect Game
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A perfect game is one of the most cherished accomplishments in sports. In 2012, the Seattle Mariners got to see their star pitcher throw one in person.
It's always better when a perfecto happens at home because the crowd goes totally bonkers after every out. There's no hesitance at all. Everyone is all in. It's a great atmosphere.
Even though Felix Hernandez pitched the third perfect game in a crazy 2012 season, nobody has thrown one since.
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1991 Washington Huskies National Title
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The 12-0 Washington Huskies in 1991 were a force to be reckoned with. Some consider them one of the best college football teams ever.
Eleven Huskies were drafted in the following NFL draft, including defensive end and No. 1 overall pick Steve Emtman. It was a crazy talented roster.
Sadly, Washington had to split the national title that year with Miami, as the Pac-10 champion was contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl. But it beat No. 4 Michigan 34-14 there and further demonstrated its dominance.
Seahawks Comeback in the 2015 NFC Championship Game
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If it weren't for Malcolm Butler in Super Bowl XLIX, it's possible the NFC Championship Game would have gone down as the greatest moment in Seattle sports history.
Unfortunately, since the Seahawks didn't win the Super Bowl, it only goes down as one of the greats. But still, it's one of the wildest comebacks in NFL history.
With a 19-7 lead with four minutes remaining and Russell Wilson in the middle of a four-interception game, it looked like the Green Bay Packers had the game all wrapped up. But a score with 2:09 to go and a miracle onside kick that went right between the fingers of a Packer who wasn't even supposed to try to grab the ball allowed the Seahawks to take the lead shortly after.
Even though the Packers managed to send the game into overtime with a field goal, Wilson hit Jermaine Kearse for a 34-yard touchdown pass to send Seattle to an unlikely second straight Super Bowl.
The Sonics' 1979 Championship
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Victory is always sweeter when revenge is involved.
Coming off a loss in the NBA Finals the year before to the Washington Bullets, the Seattle Sonics found themselves right back there in 1979 against those very same Bullets. This time, they made sure the outcome was different.
After dropping the first game on the road, the Sonics roared back with four straight victories, including Game 3 in the Kingdome with 35,000-plus in attendance.
This would prove to be the Sonics' first and last championship and just the city's second professional title since the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup in 1917.
The 2001 Mariners' 116 Wins
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The 2001 Seattle Mariners: The team nobody expected.
In the previous three years, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez had all left the team. No one was expecting the world out of whoever was left. Instead, what they got was 116 wins, the most in American League history and tied for the most ever with the 1906 Chicago Cubs.
2001 was also the year Ichiro Suzuki debuted for the team, possibly the most beloved Mariner ever after Griffey. He led the league in batting average and won the AL MVP.
Sadly, they fell short of the World Series, losing to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, but that still went down as one of the most fun and out-of-nowhere seasons in baseball history.
The Beast Quake
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A picture or a description of this play really cannot do it justice. You have to watch for yourself.
The Seattle Seahawks had made the playoffs by winning a terrible division with a 7-9 record. Nobody gave them much of a chance against the defending champion New Orleans Saints even though the game was in Seattle. But when Marshawn Lynch is involved, anything can happen.
And anything did. Lynch ran a simple play up the middle but started breaking tackle after tackle, including one devastating stiff-arm on Tracy Porter, before jumping backwards into the end zone. That play proved to be essential, as the Seahawks won by just five points.
They call it the Beast Quake because when it happened, the stadium was so loud and so nuts that it actually registered on a seismograph.
"The Tip"
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Even though the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII, it's possible their fans remember the game that came before it even more than the actual championship.
Playing against their division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, who had just gone to the Super Bowl the previous year, Seattle found itself up 23-17 late in the fourth quarter. With the Niners driving and on the 18-yard-line with 30 seconds to go, Colin Kaepernick took at shot at Michael Crabtree in the corner of the end zone.
But Richard Sherman jumped up and was able to tip the ball to a waiting Malcolm Smith for a game-sealing interception. And if that play wasn't great enough, Sherman made sure it became iconic with his end-of-game rant while being interviewed by Erin Andrews.
"The Double"
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In Seattle, all you have to do is just say "The Double," and everyone there knows what you are talking about.
The Mariners had fallen behind 2-0 in the American League Division Series to the New York Yankees. They came back to tie up the series 2-2, but in the deciding Game 5, the Yankees had just gone ahead 5-4 in the 11th inning. Things looked bleak, but the Mariners started the inning by getting men on first and third with no outs, and Edgar Martinez came to the plate.
Martinez doubled down the left field line, and Ken Griffey Jr. came all the way from first and beat the throw home to win the series.
Amid relocation rumors, that play and that moment culminated in what then-manager Lou Piniella would later call "the season that saved baseball in Seattle."
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