SZVETITZ: A look back at the top sports stories of the past year

Sports marches to the beat of a different drum. A really loud and, sometimes, obnoxious drum (read: Pacman Jones).

Athletes and fans alike are programmed a little differently. And that’s not always a bad thing.

You’ve got to have a screw loose (in a good way) to spend your 401(k) on season tickets, plane tickets, RVs, big-screen TVs, cable packages, dish packages, barbecue grills and enough meat to stop up the Lincoln Tunnel just to enjoy a Saturday watching your favorite team play.

And because we’re different, we need a different calendar. See, around here, college and high school sports rule. Which means our year does not coincide with the normal calendar.

For athletes and those of us who love watching them compete, our calendar year starts in August and runs through May.

It’s when all the action happens. It’s what we plan our vacations around.

We live for those 10 months and spend the other two recuperating and saving so we can go all out again the next year.

June is fast approaching, and with it begins the two-month decompression. I know, I feel your pain. So, I came up with something that will hopefully tide you over.

You see this a lot in newspapers across the country in late December. Usually it’s a top “you pick the number” list of biggest or most memorable stories from the past year.

Since this is the end of our year in sports, I thought I’d put out my own list. Below are my five most memorable sports stories from the area over the past year (August 2007-May 2008).

This list isn’t numbered for a reason. It’s not a countdown or a “this one’s better than that one” list. This is just how I saw the last year in area sports. You might (and probably do) see it a little differently. And that’s good. Because I can’t be right all the time.

At the end of the column, you’ll have a chance to tell me what you think about the list and give suggestions of your own.

But for now, here’s what I’ve got:

The Opelika baseball team finishes 42-4, loses in state championship series.

What a season for the Opelika Bulldogs. Even if it ended without a state championship, to win 42 games, make it farther than any other team that came before and be two outs away from a state title is pretty darn good.

Ten out of the 13 seniors on that team are moving on to play a sport in college, while the underclassmen will be back to try and build on a rock-solid foundation.

The Bulldogs not only won a ton of games and had probably the best team this area has ever seen, but they won the respect and admiration of an entire community.

I was told that at their end-of-the-year banquet, the team decided as a group that they didn’t want to be given any individual awards. They won as a team, lost as a team and wanted to be honored and remembered as a team.

Six pack: Auburn beats Alabama, again.
On Nov. 24, 2007, the Auburn University football team beat Alabama, 17-10, at Jordan-Hare Stadium, marking the sixth year in a row the Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide.

The win not only gave Auburn its longest winning streak of the storied series, but made the 2007 senior class the third consecutive to never lose a game to its archrival. Quarterback Brandon Cox also became just the second starting quarterback to finish his career 3-0 against Alabama.

This past week, the rivalry got a little bit hotter as AU head coach Tommy Tuberville fanned the flames while on a trip to the Middle East. After a flag football game between two teams of servicemen, Tuberville, who coached the winning team along with Georgia’s Mark Richt, jokingly flashed seven fingers as he was carried off the field by his charges.

Could it be a precursor to the 2008 showdown in Bryant-Denny Stadium in late November? We shall see.

Leaving 3 yards in a cloud of dust.
Just weeks before Auburn was to take on Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, Tuberville pulled the ol’ switch-a-roo when then-offensive coordinator Al Borges resigned from his post in early December, Tuberville turned around and hired Tony Franklin from Troy. Simple. Right?

Not so fast. Franklin runs a spread offense. Tuberville hails from the philosophy of run, kick and play defense.

It didn’t seem like a natural fit at first. And, it still doesn’t. But here was Franklin, a guy who likes to pass to set up the pass to set up the pass, working his magic on the Plains in just a few weeks.

Under Franklin, Auburn ran 90 — NINETY! — offensive plays to beat Clemson and rush into the spring season with a new offense that is catching the eye of a lot of talented high school recruits.

But Franklin wasn’t the only new coordinator Tuberville brought in this past year. In mid-January, the Tigers replaced Will Muschamp, who left Auburn to take the same position at Texas, with Paul Rhoads, who spent the previous eight seasons at Pittsburgh.

Opelika head football coach Spence McCracken announces his retirement after the 2008 football season.
In late March, McCracken said it was time to hang it up. He said he just knew. So, when the Bulldogs play their last game at the end of the upcoming season, McCraken’s legendary ride will come to an end.

And what a ride it’s been. McCracken will end his career as the winningest active coach in Class 6A football. After 35 years, McCracken’s record stands at 272-76-1. He came to Opelika in 1995 and has compiled a 122-32 record while with the Bulldogs. His teams reached the
Class 6A semifinals in 2005 and 2006, and finished the 2007 season with a 9-3 record.

Prior to his successful stint at Opelika, McCracken went 118-25 at Montgomery’s R.E. Lee, winning state titles in 1986, 1991 and 1992.

High school sports rule spring headlines.
Opelika’s baseball team wasn’t the only squad making waves this spring. The Beauregard boys track and field team won the school’s first-ever state championship by bringing home the 4A title from Gulf Shores earlier this month, while the Hornet girls finished runner-up.

The Auburn High girls soccer team made it to the state championship match for the first time in school history, beating Enterprise in the semifinal to break the streak of four Final Four losses in a row. The Tigers eventually lost to Mountain Brook in the finals, but with a lot of young talent returning, they should see Huntsville again next year. Also, the Auburn High girls golf team finished runner-up for the second consecutive year.

Ten out of the 12 Auburn High senior baseball players signed college scholarships this spring to go with what AHS athletic director Chuck
Furlow said was the biggest signing class in the school’s history. This year, 26 Tigers signed on to play one sport or another on the collegiate level.

Auburn, however, isn’t the only school with athletes headed to the next level. If my count is right, every school in the area had at least one athlete sign a college scholarship this year. Congrats to all of you.

Throw in the success of all the area softball teams — from both the AHSAA and AISA — all the individual track and field titles, not to mention Lee-Scott’s boys winning the state golf championship for the third consecutive year, it was a spring to remember.

So, there you have it. At risk of leaving someone out, which I know I probably did, you now have the chance to weigh in. If you have a nominee for most-memorable sports story of this past “school sports calendar” year, please let me know.

Again, the above column is just one man’s opinion. It’s open for discussion and interpretation. Kind of like Tuberville’s seven-finger salute.
MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at or 737-2513.

To give us your take on most-memorable sports story of 2007-08, e-mail it to or post a comment at the bottom of this story. All nominees will be posted online.