1967-1987 Boston Sports compared to 1995-2015 Boston Sports

I was thinking about being a Boston Sports fan when I was a kid recently. I had this conversation with my 19 year old son about how spoiled he is as a Boston sports fan in this era, but I then kind of remembered that when I was a kid being a Boston sports fan was pretty darn fun.

My first sports memories, everyone was talking about just coming off the Bobby Orr years; the Bruins were still nasty (went to three more Stanley Cup Finals all tough losses in the mid to late 70's). The Red Sox had the 1975 World Series and were dam good team from 1975 to 1980, and of course 1986. All four Boston sports teams made the finals between 1986-1988.. etc The Celtics managed to somehow replace John Havlicek with Larry Bird my second favorite athelete of all time!

If you just compare these two different 20 year stretches for Boston Sports

1967-1987
Bruins 5 Stanley Cup appearances (2 wins)
Celtics 9 Finals appearances.. 68,69,74,76.81,84,85,86,87... 7 wins)
Red Sox 3 World Series appearances 67, 75, 86) no wins
Patriots 1 Super Bowl 86 (I loved the team overall between 76-86, just some bad luck and the competition was brutal)

1995-2015
Bruins 2 Stanley Cup appearances (1 win)
Celtics 2 Finals appearances (1 win)
Red Sox 3 World Series all wins
Patriots 7 Super Bowl appearances (4 wins)

Funny both 20 year stretches produced 9 championships for the region.

mosslost said:

I was thinking about being a Boston Sports fan when I was a kid recently. I had this conversation with my 19 year old son about how spoiled he is as a Boston sports fan in this era, but I then kind of remembered that when I was a kid being a Boston sports fan was pretty darn fun.

My first sports memories, everyone was talking about just coming off the Bobby Orr years; the Bruins were still nasty (went to three more Stanley Cup Finals all tough losses in the mid to late 70's). The Red Sox had the 1975 World Series and were dam good team from 1975 to 1980, and of course 1986. All four Boston sports teams made the finals between 1986-1988.. etc The Celtics managed to somehow replace John Havlicek with Larry Bird my second favorite athelete of all time!

If you just compare these two different 20 year stretches for Boston Sports

1967-1987
Bruins 5 Stanley Cup appearances (2 wins)
Celtics 9 Finals appearances.. 68,69,74,76.81,84,85,86,87... 7 wins)
Red Sox 3 World Series appearances 67, 75, 86) no wins
Patriots 1 Super Bowl 86 (I loved the team overall between 76-86, just some bad luck and the competition was brutal)

1995-2015
Bruins 2 Stanley Cup appearances (1 win)
Celtics 2 Finals appearances (1 win)
Red Sox 3 World Series all wins
Patriots 7 Super Bowl appearances (4 wins)

Funny both 20 year stretches produced 9 championships for the region.

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One team (the Celtics) won 9 titles in the 10 years before 1967. Why are you skipping over those years?

Cool thread...it would be good to hear some input from people who lived followed Boston sports in both eras. I was born in 1982, so I wouldn't be much help here.

1960Pats said:

One team (the Celtics) won 9 titles in the 10 years before 1967. Why are you skipping over those years?

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Right I know. I bled Celtic Green as a kid and still do. I was trying specifically to do a 20 year comparison against my Son's life roughly. I was born in 67 (67-87 snap shot of Boston sports there) and my son was born in 1996. (I chose 1995 to make the 20 year comparison.)

You are very right about the Celtics. Bill Russell's 11 titles in 13 years 57-69 (and one Finals loss in 58) never will be repeated.

The only sport city in history that can be placed in the same sentence as Boston is Ancient Olympia. And that city was developed primarily for sporting events.

I was around for most of it... born in 1960. Enjoyed Espo, Orr, and the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup as a kid, the last Celtic Russell championship, the Cowens years, and of course the Bird years. I was a bigger Red Sox fan than a Patriots fan then... Sox were a lot of fun to watch, even if they always fell short. I felt like the 1975 series was a draw. What memorable games!!! Then Bucky ****ing Dent... then some decent also-rans for a while. FWIW my wife is a Met fan, and we were married September 27, 1986. LOL... that series was brutal.

Followed the Patriots since they drafted Plunkett in 1971... got my hopes up in 1974 a bit too early. 1976 was an AWESOME year... until Ben Dreith ended it. 1977 and 1978 were good but disappointing... 1985 was incredible. Really, the Pats Super Bowl was against the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game, in Miami, where they'd not won for two decades. I really didn't hold out any hope against the Bears. In fact, Pats played the Bears that regular season and lost 20-7, the lone score being a long touchdown by Craig James.

Those were great times to be a Boston sports fan.

But IMHO they cannot hold a CANDLE to the past 15 years. The curse reversed? With 2 more World Series wins since?!?!?! Celtics and Bruins championships... 4 Super Bowls wins... and the better than even money chance that the Patriots each year will be in the AFCCG. 50-50 shot EACH YEAR. I mean, THINK ABOUT THAT!!!!!

Enjoy this rich harvest, my young friends... for the Boston sports wildernesses will inevitably come again.

And they will seem like an eternity.

oldrover said:

Followed the Patriots since they drafted Plunkett in 1971... got my hopes up in 1974 a bit too early. 1976 was an AWESOME year... until Ben Dreith ended it. 1977 and 1978 were good but disappointing... .

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1980 was also a disappointing year for me they started 7 and 2 and I thought looked awesome, like 76 again, but then slipped to 10-6 missed playoffs. I always felt like the Patriots were really good during that period but that so was everyone else and a few were just dominant and we could not get there. In 76 we were robbed. In 1985-86 Steve Grogan actually put it best when he said it felt like they had just underachieved for 10 years until they got to a Super Bowl finally, like they were good enough to get there for a while before they finally did.

oldrover said:

I was around for most of it... born in 1960. Enjoyed Espo, Orr, and the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup as a kid, the last Celtic Russell championship, the Cowens years, and of course the Bird years. I was a bigger Red Sox fan than a Patriots fan then... Sox were a lot of fun to watch, even if they always fell short. I felt like the 1975 series was a draw. What memorable games!!! Then Bucky ****ing Dent... then some decent also-rans for a while. FWIW my wife is a Met fan, and we were married September 27, 1986. LOL... that series was brutal.

Followed the Patriots since they drafted Plunkett in 1971... got my hopes up in 1974 a bit too early. 1976 was an AWESOME year... until Ben Dreith ended it. 1977 and 1978 were good but disappointing... 1985 was incredible. Really, the Pats Super Bowl was against the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game, in Miami, where they'd not won for two decades. I really didn't hold out any hope against the Bears. In fact, Pats played the Bears that regular season and lost 20-7, the lone score being a long touchdown by Craig James.

Those were great times to be a Boston sports fan.

But IMHO they cannot hold a CANDLE to the past 15 years. The curse reversed? With 2 more World Series wins since?!?!?! Celtics and Bruins championships... 4 Super Bowls wins... and the better than even money chance that the Patriots each year will be in the AFCCG. 50-50 shot EACH YEAR. I mean, THINK ABOUT THAT!!!!!

Enjoy this rich harvest, my young friends... for the Boston sports wildernesses will inevitably come again.

And they will seem like an eternity.

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Born in 60 eh? Same year as the Pats.

My dad, brother and I had 4 season tickets to the Sox in upper box section 13 row 4 in 1978, the Bucky Dent year. The seats were $14 each and were right around to the left as you came up the ramp. My idiot brother didn't turn in the paperwork for the potential extra game, in spite of my constant reminders, so we didn't have the seats for the Dent game. His excuse was that we could watch the game at home. I had to inform him that we could have done that AND recouped most of the money we paid for the tickets for the season. I still get steamed thinking about it.

I also still remember the 85 Pats game vs the Bears during the regular season. That 90 yard catch and run by Craig James was the only time the Pats crossed into Bears territory for the entire game. The Pats were also the only team to score a point against the Bears in the playoffs. Although I had my hopes up for the SB it really was a mismatch. Another memory I have from that game was when the Bears were going into score, maybe the last time, Mike ****a decided to give Refrigerator Perry the ball instead of Walter Payton, who never scored in the game. That was criminal.

Besides the Dreith theft, 1976 was the year before I got married and I took my wife and two female cousins to a Saints game (they had moved to Luling a few years earlier). It was the worst experience of my life at a sporting event because of the large group of drunken fools who were yelling some of the most vile things at my soon to be wife and cousins. It was one of the most helpless feelings that I ever had, and as we were walking out I can still hear my cousin Lorraine say "this is why we will never come back here" and they never have. Cleaning up that sewer is one of Kraft's greatest achievements.

I feel blessed to have lived through some of the greatest moments in sports, and having seen so many sports stars over the years. From Ted Williams and Bill Russell to Tom Brady and everyone else in between. Those are memories that I will cherish forever.

TheGreatestEVER said:

The only sport city in history that can be placed in the same sentence as Boston is Ancient Olympia. And that city was developed primarily for sporting events.

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There's big, wide world out there mate. You probably need to do a little research before making a claim like this. Despite my Boston fandom (and believe me, I love Boston sports), there are many cities around the world with rich sporting heritages.

If I were a young hockey player, today, I'd be digging up everything on Bobby Orr- regardless of my position -and bringing as much of his game into my own that I could. Put simply, Orr is Bird, Williams and Brady on ice.

My parents were 7 and 8 in 67 so forgive me if I'm ignorant of the era

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

1960Pats said:

Born in 60 eh? Same year as the Pats.

Although I had my hopes up for the SB it really was a mismatch. Another memory I have from that game was when the Bears were going into score, maybe the last time, Mike ****a decided to give Refrigerator Perry the ball instead of Walter Payton, who never scored in the game. That was criminal.

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i agree with you -that was terrible for me too - still in my memory...

but it was a fantastic run that year - i was so happy that our beloved team was finally at a Super Bowl

pity that ended in that way but at very least we finally where there

italian pat patriot said:

i agree with you -that was terrible for me too - still in my memory...

but it was a fantastic run that year - i was so happy that our beloved team was finally at a Super Bowl

pity that ended in that way but at very least we finally where there

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The run up to that superbowl was the best part. Beating the Jets, Raiders and Dolphins all on the road was awesome.

1960Pats said:

The run up to that superbowl was the best part. Beating the Jets, Raiders and Dolphins all on the road was awesome.

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I used to get off of work on Sunday night and hurry over to Green Airport and wait for their plane to arrive, all dressed in my first Pats T-Shirt.. "Squish the Fish"..

An interesting aside was that during those down years for the Patriots the writers(Gammons, McDonough, Montville etc.) were revered, remember the hot stove league column by Gammons in the Sunday Globe? They were considered the pinnacle, however in walks Parcells, BB, Doc, Francona and many other strong coaches the press was relegated to JAG's.. some never got over this, thus the continual vitriol..

Remember when McDonough decked Raymond Clayborn in the Pats locker room in 1979??... those were the days my friends we thought they would never end.

1960Pats said:

The run up to that superbowl was the best part. Beating the Jets, Raiders and Dolphins all on the road was awesome.

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That 1986-87 stretch was great. Starts off with the Pats run and SB and have another solid 1986 season. Celtics win the title in 86 and have a timeless run in 87. Sox almost get it done in 86. Bruins make the playoffs both years and have great mojo heading into 1988 to an eventual Stanley Cup finals appearance.

Born in '60, (NY) in my early, mid teen yrs I was a Vikings Fan. I had a Tarkenton Jersey and followed them through'76 which brings me to Steve Grogan and Pats. I saw a game where Grogan threw Flea Flicker Bombs, ran bootlegs like a RB and they wore Red lol being that I was a Mike Schmidt/ Phils Phan in'76 as well and NY Nets (ABA) Dr.J (I know him well) fan everything I owned was red and of course eventually a Redwings fan in'89 after meeting Steve Yzerman, RED!

Anyway '76 Pats was fun to watch and if it wasn't for that BS roughin passer call on Sugar Bear Hamilton, it would have been Pats/Vikings SB. I've been to Sullivan, Schaefer, Foxboro Stadium many times and sat on that metal bench with most that were so Wacked by halftime they probably thought they were at a Bruins game. Oh Yeah I was a Bruins fan mid '70s and I was at that game when Millberry hit a guy with his own shoe in stands, had a Terry O'Reilly Jersey too.

So I've seen Grogan to Bledsoe to Brady in Gillette and PROUD To be a Pat's Fan.

Hopefully the comparison from 2000-2020 will end up beating the 1967-87 comparison by a few more championships.

Those of us who grew up on the mid-late 80's endured a particularly brutal stretch. Our positive Boston sports memories are squishing the fish and the '86 Celtics. But after that...

-The '85 bears
-Lenny Bias
-Bill Buckner
-The slow demise of the Bird Celtics
-The Pats locker room sexual harassment scandal
-**** McPhearson and Rod Rust
-The early 90's Red Sox

What's amazing about the last 20 years though is that we have all 4 teams winning championships in their respective leagues. The previous 20 years titles were carried by the Celtics with 7 and the Bruins with two, so it was less spread out.

On a similar note, 2000-2010 is widely regarded as the greatest decade in sports for a region edging out LA in the 80's. We are spoiled indeed.

Rhodey said:

If I were a young hockey player, today, I'd be digging up everything on Bobby Orr- regardless of my position -and bringing as much of his game into my own that I could. Put simply, Orr is Bird, Williams and Brady on ice.

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Orr was simply beyond belief. Playing for the most part on one leg because they didn't have the technology to fix knees the way they do now. The Bruins would have to kill a penalty, and he'd get the puck and just skate all over the rink with the other team chasing him. Then score on them when the penalty was almost up.