Upon Further Review: What team will pull the next Vandy?
What a weekend — choke, choke, choke!
The Titans blew yet another game on Sunday against Chicago. Tennessee let the Bears tie the game to send it to overtime, and a safety on Billy Volek gave the Bears the two-point win. Oh my!
And not to be out done, Vanderbilt falls to Kentucky 14-13 — CHOKE! Vanderbilt is holding a 13-0 lead with 12:50 remaining in the third quarter. Everyone — OK, not everyone, just Vandy fans — thought a win might be in the making. First, if you’re a Vandy fan, you had to know something would go wrong, it’s a tradition at Vanderbilt. Kentucky scored on a 25-yard pass with 1:48 left in the game.
If you look up the word “Vandy” in Webster’s Dictionary it will say, “can’t win, won’t win and if it’s close they will lose.” In other words, they will choke. For many, the word Vandy means to choke or perform to the least of one’s abilities.
So for the rest of this column I will use the words “pulling a Vandy” in relationship to teams or players folding under pressure.
The team to pull the biggest Vandy so far in 2004 was the New York Yankees. With a 3-0 lead in the ALCS, Boston rallied for four straight games. And of all teams to pull a Vandy against, Boston. It makes you forget about the 2003 Cubs and the 1986 Angels, when Dave Henderson hit a two-run home run off Donnie Moore. The Angels were one strike away from going to their first World Series. And the Cubs, well I’ll just leave that one alone.
But when you think about chokes, the one that stands in my mind the most was the 1999 British Open. Jean Van de Velde (Hmm… “Van de” Velde? “Vandy” Velde? Coincidence? I think not) blew a five-shot lead going into the final hole. All he needed was a six to win the tournament, but it would take him seven strokes just to make a three-way play–off, which he lost. Yes, he pulled a Vandy — or in his case, a “Van de.”
While I’m on the subject of golf, who could forget Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters? In the opening round Norman shot a course-record 63. On Sunday, in the final round, it took him 15 more strokes as he turned in a 78. He blew a six-shot lead, the biggest in Masters history. Nick Faldo played very well on Sunday but if it weren’t for Norman pulling a Vandy, Faldo would have finished second.
One of my all-time favorites happen in 1980 in the boxing ring. Does “No mas, no mas” ring a bell? It translates into, “I’m pulling a Vandy.”
Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard fought for the world welterweight title in New Orleans. Duran, who was a fearsome boxer, did one of the biggest chokes of all time. Most of the time athletes prefer the public not to see them in defeat, especially when they choke. But not Duran. After Leonard used his quick hands and slick movements to manhandle Duran, the Panamanian boxer suddenly stopped the fight in the eighth and declared he was pulling a Vandy. “No mas, No mas!”
If you sit back and think about it, you can come up with many classic chokes. And yes, I’ve had a little fun here with Vandy fans, and maybe I’ve been a little to rough on them. Choking is a part of sports we’d all rather forget, but it happens. It just seems to happen at Vanderbilt way too often.