GoLocal's Top 10 Sports Stories of 2011

2011 is about to come to a close and, as has been the case for the last decade, it was another memorable season for southern New England sports fans.  Today, we look at the 10 biggest sports stories of 2011: 

10. Brown AD Mike Goldberger Retires

“Goldie,” as his friends and co-workers like to call him, made his announcement a couple of weeks ago that this would be his last year at the helm of the Brown University Athletic Department.  A fixture at Brown for 38 years as a coach, Director of Admissions and Athletic Director, Goldberger decided that the time was right to call it a career.  He actually tried to retire a year ago but was talked into staying on the job for another year by Brown president Ruth Simmons.  Many a championship has been won on his watch as AD for the past 7 years and some of the school’s athletic facilities have been upgraded during that time as well including the new Nelson Fitness Center which is scheduled to open this spring.  The University announced recently a strong financial commitment to athletics to continue to upgrade facilities as well as giving raises to many of its coaches.  The question is, how far will the school go in its commitment to athletics?  Harvard, for example, has made it very clear that they want to win in the high profile sports of football and men’s basketball.  Will Brown follow suit?  The selection of the next Athletic Director may give us some insight into that question.  For now, the much beloved Goldie will spend more time with his family which includes his son Kevin who is a fixture at Brown athletic events and amongst many of the school’s programs.  We wish him nothing but the best. 

9. Pats Sign Ocho Cinco, Haynesworth

Bill Belichick and the Patriots have never been shy about rolling the dice on aging veterans whom they feel still have some gas left in the proverbial tank.  This year, WR Chad Ocho Cinco and DL Albert Haynesworth

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were the offseason acquisitions that excited the fan base.  The problem is that, unlike Randy Moss and Corey Dillon, these two mercurial stars didn’t pan out.  Haynesworth was jettisoned midway through the season after contributing next to nothing to the team while Ocho Cinco remains but is a bit player at best.  Win some, lose some.  It would appear that Belichick and the Pats lost on these two signings. 

8. Lockouts

It’s rare to have one pro sports league engaged in a labor dispute that results in the owners locking out the players much less two in the same year.  That’s what happened in 2011 with both the NFL and the NBA.  However, in all due respect to the NBA, sports fans throughout the country and here in southern New England seemed to be only concerned about the NFL’s labor strife.  After much consternation, the two sides got a deal done just in time to salvage both the preseason and the regular season.  Patriots owner Bob Kraft was instrumental in helping get the new labor deal done but, make no mistake about it, this got done at the last moment because the league’s owners did not want to lose out on the hundreds of millions of dollars of weekly revenue that the preseason generated not to mention what they would have forfeited had the regular season been effected.  Fortunately for football fans, their lives were relatively unaffected by the league’s labor dispute which is not just a distant memory. 

7. The Death of Myra Kraft

This moment happened to coincide with the end of the NFL lockout as the wife of Patriots’ owner Bob Kraft lost her battle with cancer on July 20th.  Well known for her philanthropic activities throughout New England and the world, Myra Kraft made headlines early in her husband’s tenure of Patriots’ ownership when she openly objected to the drafting of Christian Peter in 1996 because of his alleged history of domestic violence towards women.  The Patriots would eventually release Peter because of Myra’s strong stance.  Her death also led to an emotional moment that most football fans will always associate with the end of the lockout.  When representatives from the owners and players emerged from a meeting to announce that a deal had been struck, Indianapolis Colts’ center Jeff Saturday openly embraced Bob Kraft telling the media how thankful he was for the Patriots’ owner to see to it that a deal got done all the while attending to his ailing wife. 

6. #1-seed?

Given the play of the Patriots defense in 2011 and all of the injuries on that side of the football, no one would have predicted that New England could be the #1 overall seed heading into the AFC playoffs.  Yet, at 12-3, here they are poised to grab that top spot in the conference with a win at home over Buffalo on Sunday.  It is a tribute to the greatness of the Patriots offense which has been superb for most of the season and to head coach Bill Belichick who manages to find a way to get the job done no matter what the circumstances.  There’s no room for excuses in Foxboro, just expectations for people to do their jobs when called upon which, for the most part, has happened this season. 

5. URI Collapse

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from the URI men’s basketball team entering the 2011-2012 season.  However, what we have witnessed was not one of the options.  The Rams are off to an abysmal 1-11 start which is their worst in 37 years.  What’s wrong with the Rams?  You name it!  A dysfunctional team which, at times, doesn’t get along, doesn’t play hard, players suspended, starters benched, Nikola Malesevic breaking his hand while punching a wall, a press that was awful, it has all been bad!  How much Jim Baron will be able to right the ship with the midseason additions of his son Billy and Andre Malone remains to be seen.  But, for a coach who was already on the hot seat coming into the season, that seat is now blazing hot as his Rams continue to lose and people continue to show up to the Ryan Center dressed as empty seats. 

4. Pats One And Done

The Patriots may well secure the #1 seed in the AFC again this season and the first round bye and home field advantage that comes along with it, but it won’t mean a hill of beans if they can’t at least get to the AFC Championship

this year.  After a dominant 14-2 season last year, the Pats looked like the team to beat until the New York Jets came to Foxboro and manhandled the Pats in the Divisional round of the playoffs.  It was the second straight year that they bowed out of the postseason in their first game.  They lost at home to Baltimore on Wild Card weekend the season before.  Going back to Super Bowl 42, that’s 3 straight playoff losses for the Pats leaving many to question whether or not this one-dimensional team is built for the playoffs?  Another early exit this year would make the answer to that question a resounding “yes!” 

3. Red Sox September Collapse

As astonishing as it was to see the Boston Red Sox execute an historic September collapse blowing a 9-game lead in the Wild Card race, what we learned shortly after the season ended was stunning.  Pitchers Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Jon Lester were said to be drinking beer and eating fried chicken on a regular basis in the Boston clubhouse DURING games.  The combination of that and the collapse ultimately cost Terry Francona his job as manager of the team.  And, despite some classless shots from people within the Red Sox organization on his way out the door, Tito took the high road and did not fire back.  With players like Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek and JD Drew no longer here, there will be a bit of a different look to the roster under new manager Bobby Valentine.  But all eyes will be on both Beckett and Lester (Lackey is out for the year) next season as they attempt to redeem themselves in the eyes of Red Sox Nation. 

2. Bruins Win The Stanley Cup

This probably could have been #1 on the list as the B’s brought Lord Stanley’s Cup back to Beantown for the first time in 39 years.  Riding the red-hot play of the NHL’s best goaltender Tim Thomas, the B’s put it all together in the playoffs after they trailed rival Montreal 2 games to none in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.  What was so refreshing about the B’s march to the Cup was that their style of play epitomized what every coach or every fan would want out of his team which was great effort, unselfish play and true determination.  After what many believe was a “Stanley Cup hangover” in the first month of the 2011-2012 season, the B’s have kicked into high gear once again looking very much like the team that won it all last spring.  Might another Cup be forthcoming this spring? 

1. Big Changes at PC

What a wild ride it has been for fans of the Providence College men’s basketball program.  The year started with a tremendous amount of angst regarding head coach Keno Davis and his team’s style of play which seemed to

neglect defense.  At the end of a disappointing season which saw the Friars go 4-14 in the Big East, Davis was fired by the school prompting the search for a new head coach.  As was reported here first, the search focused in on one man only – Providence native Ed Cooley.  Then the coach at Fairfield, Cooley wowed PC brass from the very start and confirmed their beliefs that he was the right man to turn this program around.  Shortly after his hire, GoLocalProv.com again reported first the hiring of former UConn assistant Andre LaFluer who is known as a very good recruiter.  Then, after just a few months on the job, we also broke the stories of top recruits Kris Dunn and Rickey Ledo choosing PC.  Meanwhile, on the floor, Cooley’s Friars are off to a terrific 11-2 start heading into Big East play.  While they will surely take their lumps in conference play, it seems quite clear that Cooley was the right choice for Providence College giving Friar fans tremendous hope for the future.

What will 2012 bring for sports fans in southern New England?  Who knows?  But I, for one, can’t wait to find out!