09:22 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Journal file photo Jim Donaldson's choice for greatest moment was the Patriots' upset victory over the Rams in 2002, thanks to Adam Vinatieri's field goal.

It was an easy choice.

The veterans (a label much more preferable than "old-timers") on The Journal sports staff were asked to select the "Greatest Moment in Sports" we'd covered in our more than 20 years at the paper.

If you watched Sports Page Live last night on Cox 3, you know the selections. They were aired as part of The Journal's 175th anniversary show.

Mine, chosen without hesitation, was the Patriots' Super Bowl victory over the Rams.

But there certainly were others worthy of recognition that weren't mentioned, so here are my top 10 "greatest moments," from events I've attended in my 25 years at The Journal:

10. NCAA Hockey Championship, 1982

Providence has been the host city for seven men's Frozen Fours, and this year was host to the women's championship for the first time. The Wisconsin Badgers always were a popular participant, with the band playing in the streets and athletic director Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch buying beer for the house at the old Players Corner Pub. The ebullient Badger backers created a memorable moment in the final minutes of Wisconsin's 5-2 loss to North Dakota in '82. As fans of the Fighting Sioux were chanting "We're number one!" the Wisconsin band began to play "On, Wisconsin" while their fans chanted: "We're more fun! We're more fun!"

9. NBA Playoffs, 1981

After beating the 76ers of Julius Erving, Darryl Dawkins, Andrew Toney, Mo Cheeks, and Bobby Jones in the seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals, 91-90, in the Garden, the Celtics of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Cedric Maxwell, Kevin McHale, Tiny Archibald, and Chris Ford beat the Houston Rockets of Moses Malone, Robert Reid, Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich, and Mike Dunleavy in six games. It was the first championship of the Bird era, and the first NBA title series I'd covered. Having seen that team up close, personal and often, it's all but impossible for me to watch the current Celtics.

8. Yankee Stadium, Memorial Day weekend, 2000

I love New York, I love New York. Or so the song goes. In the last three games I'd covered at Shea Stadium, before the Jets moved to the Meadowlands, I'd seen: A.) a model airplane crash into the stands, propeller whirling, hacking up a fan; B.) a brawl on the field, during which a drunken fan fell more than 10 feet over the railing of the exit near where I was standing, only to get up and stumble away; and, C.) a guy wielding a cane and swearing loudly, attempting to force his way onto the press elevator.

So what happens on my first trip to Yankee Stadium in years? A fan falls out of the upper deck, passing right in front of me in the press box, and lands on the net behind home plate.

On a less exciting note, Trot Nixon hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning of the series opener to give Pedro Martinez a 2-0 win over Roger Clemens.

7. Brown wins the Ivy League basketball championship, 1986

The Bears had to beat Harvard and Dartmouth on the road to win the title on the final weekend. It was a fun bunch of guys to cover -- Jim Turner, Mike Waitkus, Todd Mulder, Patrick Lynch -- coached by the colorful, quotable, and likeable Mike Cingiser, who had been one of Brown's all-time great players.

6. Ryder Cup at The Country Club, 1999

The most vivid memory for most people was Justin Leonard's winning putt which touched off a controversial celebration on the 17th green. Mine is that the shirts worn by the U.S. team that day were incredibly ugly, but all the players' wives were blonde and beautiful.

5. AFC Championship Game, 1985 season

People have forgotten how big a deal it was when the Patriots upset the Dolphins and Dan Marino in the Orange Bowl to win the conference championship and go to the Super Bowl for the first time. The Pats had lost 18 straight in the Orange Bowl to Miami and were going up against the defending AFC champs, but with Craig James rushing for 105 yards and Tony Eason throwing for three touchdowns, Raymond Berry's boys won in a romp, 31-14.

4. Masters Moments

If I could cover only one event a year, it would be the Masters. Over the years, I've seen Fred Couples' ball velcro on the slippery bank of the treacherous 12th hole instead of rolling into Rae's Creek. That was 1992, my first Masters. Clearly, Couples was destined to win. Other unforgettable scenes were Ben Crenshaw breaking into tears after winning his second Masters in 1995, just days after his longtime mentor, Harvey Penick, died; Tiger's first Masters win in 1997, when he finished a record 12 strokes ahead of the field; seeing the legendary Arnold Palmer walk up the 18th fairway this year, at his 50th Masters, and then watching Phil Mickelson finally win his first major, in dramatic fashion.

3. Super Bowl XXXVIII

The Patriots made a truly remarkable run to the title in 2003 -- 15 consecutive wins, capped by an incredibly thrilling, 32-29, victory over Carolina in Houston. It was the most impressive march to a championship since the Dolphins went undefeated in 1972.

2. Friars in the Final Four in 1987

They were the worst team ever to get to the Final Four, which makes them the best story. What Rick Pitino did with that team of Jacek Duda, David Kipfer, Delray Brooks, Ernie "Pop" Lewis, Steve Wright, freshmen Carlton Screen and Marty Conlon, and previously pudgy point guard Billy Donovan was nothing short of remarkable.

1. Super Bowl XXXVI

The best of the best, in part because it was so unexpected. Midway through the 2001 season, the Patriots were muddling along at 5-5, with a second-year quarterback in Tom Brady. Brady had been a sixth-round draft choice the year before, when he appeared in just one game -- against the lowly Lions -- and threw three passes.

But the Pats beat Oakland in the Snow Bowl -- which, come to think of it, probably deserves to stand by itself as a Great Moment -- and upset the Steelers in Pittsburgh, with Drew Bledsoe coming off the bench to throw a touchdown pass, before taking on the high-powered Rams in New Orleans. Labeled "The Greatest Show on Turf," St. Louis was a double-digit favorite over the seemingly overmatched Patriots, who pulled out the victory on Adam Vinatieri's last-second field goal.

View video of Journal sports columnists recalling their most memorable sports moments, to be posted later today at:

http://projo.com/sports/sportspagelive/