12/02/1985 - Dolphins hand '85 Bears lone loss

Coming off back-to-back shutout-victories against the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons, the 12-0 Chicago Bears were aiming to become the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to finish with a perfect record. It was week 13 and Chicago's opponent was that very Miami team, who hoped to retain the legacy of the '72 Dolphins by handing the Bears a loss. Miami had won 17 of 18 games and had made it to the Super Bowl the year before; if they couldn't beat Chicago on their own field, no one would.

The epic telecast between the Dolphins and Bears was carried on Monday Night Football and remains the most watched regular season game in history. A colossal 70 million viewers tuned in to ABC, a number that no other regular season NFL, NBA, or MLB game will has ever come close to matching.

Those watching to see Bears' victory No. 13 were short-ended by Miami's No. 13 -- Dan Marino. The Dolphins' QB exploited the defense throughout by connecting with Nat Moore, the Dolphins' third receiver, while Ron Davenport contributed by rushing for a pair of touchdowns. The Bears defense, which is still considered one of the greatest units ever, had held nine of their previous twelve opponents under ten points. Miami scored on their first five drives and led at halftime 31-10.

"We were more concerned about the business at hand of trying to continue winning and have the best record in the AFC," Moore said. Indeed, a loss would have dropped the Dolphins to third place in their own division.

In the locker room, Mike Ditka nearly came to blows with defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan on why a linebacker was covering Moore. When Ryan refused to switch to a cornerback, Ditka recalled saying, "We can do it any way you want to. We can go right out back and get it on or you can shape your ass up." Ryan left to coach the Eagles the following year.

Chicago looked better in the second half, though it wasn't enough to overcome the onslaught suffered in the first thirty minutes. The game ended with Miami winning it 38-24: it was the Bears only loss of the season. Had Chicago managed to pull out a win, they would've stolen the '72 Dolphins mantle as the greatest team of all time. They're one of the greatest, there's no doubt, but with one loss on their resume, it's still up for interpretation.

12/01/1963 - Scott wins NASCAR race

At Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, Wendell Scott becomes the first African American to win a Grand National race event. It was a momentous achievement for Scott, who had broken through as the first black stock-car racer to rise to prominence. His feat was especially inspiring, as he was competing in a southern sport that, besides him, was 100% white and not at all receptive to diversity.

However, Scott's win would not be treated with the respect that it deserved. In fact, he initially wasn't even credited with the win. Fearing that Scott would kiss the white trophy girl during the victory celebration, the race officials decided to name Buck Baker the winner instead. Scott was furious that he had been kept out of the winner's circle and protested the outcome. Three hours later, when everyone had left the track, NASCAR officials declared Scott the winner, but refused to award him the championship trophy.

"My dad went off then," Franklin Scott recalled when his dad learned he had been denied. "He said, 'Give me my damn money.' Buck got the real trophy. The thing we got was junk. They gave us a trophy about a month later at Savannah. But it wasn't the real thing."

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11/29/1972 - Pong is released

It was on this day in 1972 that the first commercially successful video game of all time was released: Pong. The gameplay was simple enough -- the user moved a 2D paddle where a square ball would bounce, with either the computer or another player trying to hit it back. The player who got the ball past the opponent the most times was the winner. Just like ping pong.

Pong was immensely popular, so much so that you couldn't go anywhere in the 1970's without finding an arcade cabinet or a console version of the game. Nowadays, Pong is downright primitive compared to the video games of the present.

On a side note, there is some ambiguity when it comes to declaring the first video game of all time. Many consider a 1958 analog tennis game called "Tennis For Two" to be the original, while others point to even earlier electronic devices. While it's up for interpretation which came first, the fact remains that if you like video games, you better have some appreciation for what the game of tennis done for you. Without Tennis For Two and Pong, Super Mario 64 and Half-Life 2 may have never existed.

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11/27/1971 - The Gator Flop

With only 80 seconds left in the final game of the season, the Florida Gators were destroying the Miami Hurricanes, 45-8. Florida quarterback John Reaves needed only 14 passing yards to surpass Jim Plunkett of Stanford for the most in history. But the Hurricanes had the ball in the red zone, and it didn't appear that Reeves would get the opportunity to break the record.

That was when the Gators pulled the infamous "Florida Flop." On Miami's next play, every single Gators defender fell flat on the ground as though they had been hit with a tranquilizer dart. With not a single defender impeding his path, Miami quarterback John Hornibrook waltzed into the end zone for a touchdown. The Hurricanes would add a two-point conversion to make the score 45-16. After recovering an onside kick, Reaves was able to complete a 15-yard pass to move him just ahead of Plunkett on the all-time list.

When the game was over, Reaves and the other Florida players dove into the pool near one of the end zones at the Orange Bowl, where the game was being played.

Miami coach Fran Curci was positively livid. Intentionally forfeiting points was bad enough, but to do it in an already decided game just to orchestrate a scoring record? It was hardly the model of good sportsmanship. "It was a disgrace," Curci said furiously, "the worst thing I've ever seen in college football. A pure lack of class. ... I lost all respect for (Florida coach Doug Dickey) as a coach and as a man."

Dickey defended "Operation Laydown," even though he had not instructed his players to flop on the play. "I would rather not have had to do it that way," he said. "But certain records are worth going after. I did not mean to embarrass the Miami football team in any way."

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There's no easy answer why the Miami Heat, the team some experts had winning 70 or more games, are off to a disastrous 8-7 start. Sure, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem are big losses, but they shouldn't exactly need them to beat the Memphis Grizzlies or, particularly, the Indiana Pacers. After all, last year's Heat team beat the Pacers by 13, 34, 30 and 9 in the four games they played them, and that Heat team featured both Carlos Arroyo at point guard and Joel Anthony at center -- the two players who are now considered albatrosses on Miami's roster, and who some see as the prime reason they're unable to compete against the top contenders in the NBA.

Miami's start flies in the face of conventional wisdom, that the union of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh would be anything but a potential dynasty. In Cleveland, James had managed to take a team with a mediocre supporting cast deep into the playoffs every single year. And while the Cavs never did win it all, few would say they weren't overachieving. But now James and the Heat find themselves in conjunction and, oddly enough, it's not working. Somehow, the Heat could beat the Pacers on the road by 9 with Arroyo, Wade and Anthony in the starting lineup, but in 2010, they couldn't beat them with LeBron James and Chris Bosh taking the place of Michael Beasley and Quentin Richardson. In fact they got destroyed... by 16... at home. Somehow, LeBron James is less successful with the help he's been dreaming of for seven years than he was with the Cavaliers, when arguably the second-best player on the team -- Zydrunas Ilguaskas -- is with him now in Miami.

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(Luckett, Bettis and a pair of Lions observe the coin flip)

One of the strangest controversies to befall a referee concerned the most basic facet of a football game: the coin flip. It was Thanksgiving day -- the Lions and Steelers were tied at 16 at the end of regulation. Phil Luckett met the team captains at midfield and tossed the coin into the air. Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, to the naked ear, appeared to call tails as the coin hung in mid-air...

But as he knelt down to retrieve the quarter, Luckett announced to the Silverdome crowd that Bettis had called heads and that the coin was showing tails. Bettis and teammate Carnell Lake immediately argued with the head official; it seemed obvious that the word out of Bettis' mouth was "tails." Luckett insisted that he had called "heads" and conferred with the other officials. Despite the protests of the Pittsburgh sideline, Detroit was awarded the right to receive the football at the start of the overtime.

Less than three minutes into the extra session, Jason Hanson booted a 42-yard field goal to put the Lions on top. Since the format for overtime was sudden death, Hanson's kick gave the Steelers a 19-16 defeat, one that could have been prevented had they won the coin flip.

"What makes me mad is when you fight and scratch for 60 minutes out there, and the game is decided by guys who wear striped shirts," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "There's something wrong about that." He was by no means alone in his thinking. The general consensus was that the Steelers had been robbed by an incompetent official.

After the game, Luckett told reporters that Bettis actually called "heads-tails," and that he honored the first declaration. "That is a lie," Bettis responded. "That's a baldfaced lie."

Detroit cornerback Robert Bailey heard differently. "To me, it sounded like one guy called heads and one guy called tails. That way, no matter what happens, you can argue. It's an old trick."

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11/25/1993 - Lett commits his second blunder

Already known for a gaffe he committed in Super Bowl XXVII, Leon Lett of the Cowboys hands the Miami Dolphins a win on Thanksgiving day. His error would force him to hide from the media for months, although all was forgiven when his team eventually won the Super Bowl.

To read more about this story, click here for an in-depth Inhistoric article:

11/25/2001 - Jim Mora: playoff optimist


Following a 40-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora went on maybe the most memorable rant of any NFL coach. Discarding the verbiage and eloquence of other coaches, Mora told it like it is: "In my opinion, that sucked," he said of his team.

The best part came when a reporter asked if the 4-6 Colts could still make the postseason, to which Mora responded with a falsetto-level of incredulity. His response of "Playoffs? Are you kidding me? Playoffs?" is probably the most repeated line ever uttered by a coach in his post-game press conference.

(Howard after his 93-yard TD. Photo by Brian Masck, Getty Images)

11/23/1984 - The Pass

One of the most thrilling games of all time ends with a game-winning Hail Mary from Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie. The TD gave the Eagles the win and launched the legend of Flutie, who would do little else in American football.

To read more about this story, click here for an in-depth Inhistoric article:

11/23/1991 - Hello Heisman

Desmond Howard was well on his way to winning the Heisman Award when his Michigan team faced arch-rival Ohio State. Michigan crushed the Buckeyes, 31-3, and Howard notched another achievement with a 93-yard punt return. On the play, he eluded several defenders and was by himself as he entered the end zone. In perfect harmony with Keith Jackson's call of "Hello Heisman," Howard struck a perfect pose of the Heisman trophy.

The national spotlight elevated his Heisman campaign and he eventually won the award with 85% of the votes, a record at the time. Howard's NFL career didn't quite live up to his collegiate tenure; his best moment came in Super Bowl XXXI, where, as a member of the Packers, he was named the game's MVP.