Press

ALBANY – A panel of area sports writers and TV sports directors will gather at the New York State Museum on Tuesday, November 15th to challenge Times Union columnist Mark McGuire on his selection of New York’s top 10 greatest sports moments for the Museum exhibition that he curated.

Miracles: New York’s Greatest Sports Moments, open through March 26, 2006 in the Museum’s Exhibition Hall, complements Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers, a larger traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, open through January 8, 2006.

The media panel will discuss “Did He Get It Right?” at 7:30 p.m. in the Museum Theater. Joining McGuire on the panel will be TV Sports Directors Rodger Wyland (WNYT-13), Rich Becker (FOX 23), Doug Sherman (CBS-6) and sports writers Pete Dougherty (Times Union) and Bob Weiner (Daily Gazette). The event is free and open to the public. Audience members will be welcome to weigh in on the discussion.

McGuire, who writes a sports column for Times Union.com and co-authored two books on baseball, faced a daunting task in selecting the state’s top 10 sports moments, choosing from the many historic events New Yorkers have witnessed in every major U.S. Sport.

McGuire’s top 10 list, in reverse order, includes: 10 – Secretariat, (1973 Triple Crown winner);
9 -- Don Larsen’s Perfect Game, (1956 World Series); 8 -- The Shot Heard ’round the World, (The New York Giants’ 1951 pennant win); 7 -- Lou Gehrig: “The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth,” (the ailing Yankee’s 1939 goodbye speech); 6 -- The Bills Fall to the Giants in Super Bowl XXV; 5 -- Louis Knocks Out Schmeling; 4 -- The Greatest Game Ever Played, (Dec. 28, 1958 NFL title game); 3 -- 1969-70, (winning seasons for The New York Jets, New York Mets and the New York Knicks); 2 -- Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier; 1 --The Miracle on Ice (US hockey team victory over Russia during 1980 Lake Placid Olympics).

The exhibition also lists an additional 15 other memorable moments in New York’s sports history

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that were considered but did not make the list. Visitors to the gallery are invited to select from the total list of 25 greatest sports moments and use a computer interactive to vote on their personal top 10 favorites. The computer has kept a running tally of the top vote getters since it opened on October 15th.

The Miracles exhibition also features objects relating to the state’s greatest sports moments, on loan from a variety of institutions, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame and Basketball Hall of Fame, as well as the 1932 and 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum.

The adjacent exhibition, Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers, focuses on 35 athletes in 17 sports. Highlighting artifacts from the Smithsonian's sports collection, the exhibition spotlights the pioneering men and women who dominated their sports, championed their country, race, or sex, and helped others to achieve. Both on and off the playing field, these individuals broke records for themselves and broke barriers for everyone.

Near the entrance to the two exhibitions is a viewing area where a special video presentation of FOX 23 News will be shown. “Miracles and Moments,” a 45-minute film based on the two exhibitions, takes the viewer through a nostalgic retrospective of sports history and also provides a behind-the-scenes journey through the installation of the exhibitions. An adjacent viewing area features continuous video feeds from three different cable sports channels.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Founded in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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