Yes but that one, and for that matter all other sports disasters, pale to insignificance compared to the spring of 1997 and the biggest sports upset I ever witnessed in person. Silsbee was 31 - 0 and ranked No. 1. We had a first round bye. Then we lost in the area round to Tyler Chapel Hill. The specter of the game still haunts me. Lufkin's old high school gym I believe. We sat there paralyzed in stunned, silent disbelief. The score board read 66-62. It was like watching the Hindenburg on the ground, a burning broken mangle of junk. Oh the humanities! Meanwhile the kids on the other team enjoyed the happiest moment of their lives. Many of our kids (and fans) were crying but I think some of their's were too, out of sheer joy and perhaps the astounding unlikeliness of it all. And then Chapel Hill, a fair team but far from great and one that we could have easily dusted off any other time, lost a not very close game to Cleveland in the next round.
The only joy I can take out of it is a perverse one. I'm certain that this was the high point of those Chapel Hill peoples lives and it's been all downhill from there. Anyway, for me, when it comes to unexpectedness this one is up there with the The Miracle On Ice - but in a bad way. I'm just glad they didn't make a movie.
But it's apples and oranges. Everything is different. It's like a giant meteor has just hit the Earth so it can't happen again, right? Not in the same lifetime anyway. Impossible odds, right?
Maybe I shouldn't even be talking about this. Isn't there some rule for Silsbee people that makes it taboo to even think of it? If not perhaps there should be.