Monday Milestone: Milestone Milestone

This Week in History:
2011, October 17.
The first Monday Milestone is published on Making the Nut

It’s difficult to believe a year as passed, since Nick first commissioned this column. Fifty two Mondays have passed since then. Nineteen sports have been discussed, as well as some pretty random Olympic sports the majority of the world only cares about once every four years.

Forgiving the self-indulgence, this week on the Milestone, we will take a look back at the journey around the globe and around the calendar, which has demonstrated in the past twelve months that no matter what time of year someone somewhere has been creating history.

Whether it be the World Series of baseball, the Melbourne Cup, Thanksgiving football, Test cricket, Christmas, more Test Cricket, the Australian Open tennis, Australia Day, the Winter Olympics, the opening of the rugby league season, the beginning of AFL seasons, Mother’s Day, NBA finals, FIFA World Cups, State of Origin, Summer Olympics, the Ashes, the rugby league finals series, or Bathurst.

Pick a month, any month, and there will be something for the Milestone to commemorate. Looking back on the past year, there has been a lot to remember.

There have been the solemn moments, such as the remembrance of the fallen on Anzac Day, when the bombs exploded in Bali, or when the “Busby Babes” were killed on that day in Munich.

There have been the political moments, like the South African struggles with their conflicting Apartheid policy and competing in world sport, or when Muhammad Ali’s draft dodging caused a huge controversy during the Vietnam War.

And there have been the downright ridiculous moments. Like the story of formula one ace Juan Fangio being kidnapped by the revolutionary guerrillas right before the Cuban Grand Prix, or those thieves who stole the World Cup, before realising they had no way of offloading their heist, instead dumping it beneath a hedge in England.

All of these have held their place in world sport. But over the past twelve months, it’s been the truly significant moments that the Milestone has honoured, which have been the favourites. Those moments, that changed the world in sport and still resonate today through the ages is at the very heart of any sporting historian.

Like when the English doctor Roger Bannister ran the first four minute mile, an achievement thought beyond the limits of human physical achievement. When Jackie Robinson broke through the colour barrier in baseball in a landmark moment for Civil Rights. What about when Sir Edmund Hilary was the first man to stand on the roof of the world, ascending Mt Everest? These have been the moments that truly mattered, and that live on.

So here at the Monday Milestone, we hope you have enjoyed your weekly piece of sporting nostalgia each Monday and would like to thank the readers of Making the Nut for their support this past year as well as Nick and the team for the opportunity for this column. Here’s to the first anniversary of the Milestone.

A milestone Milestone, if you will…

 

The Milestone Five: The most popular columns this past year as denoted by reader viewership

5. Lane Eight – 25 July, remembers the achievements of Kieren Perkins, when he unbelievably won gold for Australia in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after qualifying in eighth place for the final.

4. Tied Test – 12 December, remembers the landmark test between Australia and the West Indies at the Gabba in 1960 with the first ever tie in Test cricket

3. New Holland – 23 January, postulates what life in Australia would have been like if the country had been Dutch, rather than English

2. Dummy Spits – 16 January, remembers the tantrums that led to John McEnroe’s expulsion from the Australian Open tennis championships in 1990

1. Croker Choker – 10 September, remembers the heartbreak for the Canberra Raiders as Jarrod Croker misses a penalty goal that would have sent the semi final against the Wests Tigers into extra time at Canberra Stadium.