It was less than a month ago that Ontarians were braving wind chills of -40 C, massive ice storms, and heavy snowfall. Less than a week ago, Australians were surviving heat that reached a sweltering 43 degrees. It is with these juxtaposed extremes that I anxiously bring to you my list of the 10 best weather-related sports games in (recent) history.
10. 2013 Australian Open – When it’s 43 degrees Celsius, it’s difficult to muster the energy to move, let alone play an entire match of tennis. Ball boys were fainting, players puking, and Canadian tennis player Frank Dancevic said that it was “inhumane” to let players play in those temperatures. The Aussie Open should have been decided over Mario Tennis for N64, in my opinion.
9. 1988 Fog Bowl – Philadelphia is notorious for atrocious weather during the football season. When the fog rolled into Connie Mack Stadium during the NFC Divisional Playoff game versus the Chicago Bears, Bears Quarterback Mike Tomczak summed up the weather brilliantly when he said, “I thought the parking lot was on fire.” The fog was so thick that cameras couldn’t capture the sideline on the opposite side of the field.
8. 2013 Calgary Stampede – While the Stampede still proceeded with relatively few hiccups, the memory of what the summer’s flooding did to Cowtown is unforgettable to Canadians. Calgary was evacuated, 80 schools were damaged, and projected rebuilding costs have soared to $3 to 5 billion in what has been labeled as the worst flood in Canadian history.
7. 1989 World Series – This is undoubtedly the most devastating weather-related event on this list. It was game 3 of the World Series between the cross-bay rivals, Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. The Loma Prieta earthquake struck, registering a 6.9 magnitude on the Richter scale. The earthquake killed 63 people and it was a full 10 days later, on Oct. 27, that game 3 resumed.
6. 2014 Winter Classic – While the rest of the world was recovering from New Years Eve festivities, 105,000 people packed the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings do battle in -10 degree weather and 15 centimeters of snowfall. Canada’s game, eh? You don’t say!
5. 2002 Tuck Rule Game (Snow Bowl) – There may not be a more controversial and snowy game in NFL history and, naturally, it featured my beloved Oakland Raiders. On Jan. 19 the Raiders travelled to Foxboro Stadium to take on Tom Brady’s New England Patriots. Hall of Fame cornerback Charles Woodson sacked Brady, forcing a fumble, which was recovered by the Raiders. When refs reviewed the fumble and, for some ungodly reason, concluded that Brady’s arm was in a forward motion as opposed to “tucking” motion, which meant no fumble. The Raiders lost 16-13 and I am not at all bitter.
4. 1981 AFC Divisional Game – As a Canadian, there is something exceptionally funny about watching football players play in the cold weather, especially when it is 10 degrees and sunny and players are dressed in parkas. But the -37 degree weather (with wind chill) justified the parkas and ski masks when the Oakland Raiders visited, and beat, the Cleveland Browns 14-12 before going onto win the Super Bowl.
3. 1967 Ice Bowl – Though the Tuck Rule game and the 1981 Divisional game were two of the NFL’s worst in terms of weather, the wind chill when the Dallas Cowboys travelled to face the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Championship in 1967 reached an NFL record cold of -44 degrees Celsius. Vince Lombardi, Packers coach, said, “I don’t want anybody missing the ball and blaming it on the gloves,” to which Dave Robinson jokingly said to the equipment manager, “Give me some brown gloves, he’ll never know the difference.” The packers won the Championship 21-17. Robinson didn’t drop a ball that night.
2. 1977 Blue Jays Franchise Début – Not much needs to be said about this historic day. It was spring of ’77, the Jays were in their inaugural season, and snowshoes and squeegees were being used at Exhibition Stadium, where the Jays won 9-5.
1. 2013 Guelph Gryphons football homecoming – In a season that was riddled with bad weather, no game was worse than the Gryphons homecoming where, with 10,000 fans as witnesses, it was raining sideways. Guelph won a sloppy game over the visiting McMaster Marauders, 24-22, and went 8-2 on the season, losing in the semifinals of the playoffs to Queen’s.