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The 1972 USA Olympic Men's basketball team lost their very first Olympic Game since Olympic play began in 1936. It was the most controversial moment in Olympic history. In the final game against the Soviet Union and the US trailing, Doug Collins was fouled driving to the basket with three seconds left to play. He sank the first free throw to tie the game and made the second as an inadvertent horn blew. With the US in the lead by one point the Soviets quickly inbounded the ball and with one second to play and the ball at midcourt the referees stopped play again to discuss a bizarre complaint that the Soviets had called a time out before the second free throw. Once the timeout was disallowed, the Soviets were allowed another three seconds and the ball out of bounds again. They threw the ball in bounds and the horn sounded sending the USA team in to jubilation. The referees stopped the celebration and said the horn sounded inadvertently again and awarded the Soviets a third chance to inbound the ball. On the third time, the USA defender was illegally ordered by the referee to move back allowing the Soviets a clear pass down court. The pass to Aleksandr Belov was successful and with a fake he laid the ball in uncontested for a one point victory. At the end of the game one of the referees refused to sign the official scoring sheet in protest and the US team boycotted the medal ceremony and refused to accept their Silver Medal.

BABE RUTH’S CALLED SHOT - It is one of baseball’s all-time great mysteries. Did Babe Ruth really call his shot just before hitting a mammoth World Series home run? The undisputed facts of the events were as follows: It was October 1, 1932, Game 3 of the World Series in Wrigley Field, with the Yankees leading the Cubs 2 games to 0. In the top of the 5th inning, Ruth was at bat with the score tied at 4, facing Cub pitcher Charlie Root. The Cubs’ bench was heckling the Babe as he took strikes one and two. Now, at this point in time, fact and myth get a bit jumbled. Ruth made some type of outward gesture with his bat, but it is unclear whether the gesture was toward the pitcher, or the centerfield bleachers, as Ruth proudly proclaimed for many years thereafter. Either way, Ruth smashed the next pitch well beyond the centerfield fence, for one of the most memorable and debated World Series home runs of all-time. An interesting side note to this story is that on the very next pitch, Lou Gehrig, forever playing in Ruth’s shadow, also hit a home run, his 2nd of the game as well, knocking Charlie Root out of the game. But as was typical for Gehrig, his two home runs in the game paled in comparison to the legend of the mighty Babe’s called shot.