[Old School Hound]

We all love sports, of course. Sports provides us some relief from the daily grind that life can sometime be.  I can't imagine my childhood without the Cincy Reds, or Corbin Redhound football. However, as therapeutic as sports is for us, sometimes things go very, very wrong in sport. Serious injuries, or even death , are risks that athletes take to pursue their dreams. Is there a single event that you witnessed, either in person, or watching on TV that stands out to you as one of the worst moments you've witnessed in sports? Is there an event that profoundly affected you, in some capacity?


I'll start with an event that affected me in such a way that I can't remember really following the sport that much after the tragedy. My grandfather and I , in addition to enjoying watching Reds baseball together, would watch two sporting events every year. One, was the annual Army-Navy football game(we always rooted for the Army) and the other was the Indianapolis 500.

The '82 Indy 500 is about the last one I can recall, and for all the wrong reasons.  Gordon Smiley lost his life during a qualifying run. It still remains the most horrifying car crash I have ever seen in my life. The car literally disintegrates upon impact with the wall at over 185 mph. Pieces of the car and Smiley were strewn all over the track. Someone found the top part of Smiley still inside the wreckage. He was said to have been "scalped by flying debris." Gray matter, originally thought to be oil, but later determined to be Smiley's brain matter was scattered over the track. This crash haunted my dreams for weeks afterward. I remember a guy I went to school with who died in a high speed, fiery crash, just outside of Corbin back in the 70's I remember us going to some lot  and seeing the charred remains of the car(along with possibly some body parts) he had been riding in at the time of the crash. That was haunting, much like the Smiley crash several years later. Just really creeped me out.

Here's the Smiley crash. It's really, REALLY bad... VERY disturbing images. 

[Old School Hound]

As a huge Reds fan from childhood, I never miss tuning in on opening day. However,  1996 was not the Opening Day anyone wanted. Big John McSherry died on the field at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium. John was a terrific umpire and was very well liked by everyone. It was the saddest Opening Day ever.  Again, disturbing video...

[Old School Hound]

Clint Malarchuk got bladed. This about ended my hockey watching. Severed his carotid artery and sliced his jugular vein.  If the sight of blood makes you queasy , I'd recommend skipping over this one. Hard to watch. 

[Old School Hound]

I was a huge tennis fan back in the day. McEnroe, Connors, Borg, Lendl,  Graf, Hingis, Navratilova, Evert.  But this was tennis' darkest day...  The perp didn't want Steffie Graf to lose her #1 ranking to Monica,  SO  ...

[Old School Hound]

It's sports entertainment and not sports but still a very sad and disturbing incident at Kemper Arena back in 1999.

[-STAT-]

It's sports entertainment and not sports but still a very sad and disturbing incident at Kemper Arena back in 1999.

I remember this one very well, right in the height of the attitude era. When times were a little more laxed back in the day. My Dad worked w/ a guy who would record(illegally) all the WWF pay-per views onto VHS, then bring them to him the next day. So, when dad got home that Monday evening from work, that's something we'd do is watch it. Well obviously, this would be one I'd never forget. I've seen videos of it in Tik-Tok of the Undertakers reaction to seeing where Owen fell in the ring, but being that young back then, I vividly remember his reaction, and him trying to stay in character, then Stone Cold coming out to the ring and you could see it written on his face, that the show shouldn't have went on after what happened. Just tragic and sad.