Al Michaels is on the Mount Rushmore of American sports broadcasters. In his lengthy career, he’s called a number of famous sporting events including arguably the most famous – the Miracle on Ice. But what other events stand out to the legendary play-by-play man?
Before this week’s Thursday Night Football matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings, the Prime Video X account shared a list of Michaels’ favorite sporting events straight from the broadcaster himself.
While it naturally includes what is the greatest call in the history of sports, there’s a few other classics and a couple surprises that make the list as well.
Al Michaels shared his list of the most memorable events he’s called over the last 50+ years.
⚾️: Oct. 8, 1973 – NLCS Game 3
🏒: Feb. 22, 1980 – Miracle on Ice
🥊: Apr. 15, 1985 – Hagler vs. Hearns
⚾️: Oct. 12, 1986 – ALCS Game 5
⚾️: Oct. 17, 1989 – World Series Game 3
🏈:… pic.twitter.com/YBWpPksTj6— PrimeVideoSportsPR (@PrimeSportsPR) October 24, 2024
Going chronologically, the 1973 NLCS Game 3 between the Reds and Mets was famous for a fight between Pete Rose and Bud Harrelson. Michaels called it on WLW in his last season as the Cincinnati Reds radio announcer.
Michaels called the epic Hagler-Hearns fight in 1985 alongside Al Bernstein on closed circuit television and you can find the call still to this day.
Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS is famous for Dave Henderson’s top of the ninth two out home run that saved the series for Boston as the Angels were within an out of going to their first World Series. Boston eventually won the game in extras and then took Game 6 and Game 7 before losing to the Mets in the World Series. And the story of the 1989 World Series is well known with Al Michaels on site when an earthquake halted proceedings before the game.
Finally, the two Super Bowls are excellent choices for the quality and excitement of each. In Super Bowl XLIII, the Steelers and Cardinals played a thriller that went down to the wire with Santonio Holmes catching the winning touchdown in the final minute from Ben Roethlisberger. Super Bowl XLIX featured Malcolm Butler’s famous interception at the goal line to win yet another Lombardi Trophy for the Patriots.
While the TNF schedule has gotten a lot better at Amazon, odds are that Thursday night’s Rams-Vikings matchup won’t be added to this list. But it’s nice to have such historic events documented from the man that was there to call them all.
