Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 3

This is day 3 of the 40 til 40 series of entries as part of the countdown to my 40th birthday on July 10.

This series is about anything and everything relevant to the number 40.

Last time I posted about what our favorite game show hosts of all time were doing when they were 40 years old.  Today this entry is about the 40 greatest blunders over the last 40 years.

1985:  The May 31, 1985 tornado outbreak in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario cut off all antiquated modes of communication (including severe weather sirens), leading to 90 deaths and thousands of injuries.

1986:  Cleveland Balloonfest was meant to raise money for the United Way of Greater Cleveland, and to set a new Guinness World Record for largest balloon launch, but legal action turned this event into a loss of $500,000.

1987:  Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers slashed Kent Nilsson in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals, won by the Edmonton Oilers, leading to Hextall serving an eight game suspension to start the next season.

1988:  David Shaw of the New York Rangers slashed Pittsburgh Penguins captain Mario Lemieux in the throat, leading to a brawl on the ice and on the benches.  Shaw was suspended for twelve games.

1989:  CBS launched The Pat Sajak Show in an attempt to dethrone Johnny Carson as the king of late night television, but failed after 18 months.  CBS would not attempt a late night talk show until 1993 with David Letterman.

1990:  The seizure of the Franklin Savings Association led to the arrest of Charles Keating for his role in the Savings and Loan crisis.

1991:  The Hartford Whalers traded Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings to the Pittsburgh Penguins for John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker on the orders of owner Richard Gordon.  This trade led to the Penguins’ first Stanley Cup championship and the beginning of the end for the Whalers.

1992:  Adam Graves swung his stick at Mario Lemieux in game two of the Patrick Division finals on the perceived orders of his coach Roger Nielson.  Lemieux’ left wrist was broken as a result of the slash from Graves, which put the New York Rangers shorthanded by two men six seconds after Joe Cirella went to the sin bin for elbowing.  The slash led to Graves being suspended for the remainder of the series, which the Rangers lost in six games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

1993:  Kerry Fraser failed to call a slashing penalty against Wayne Gretzky in game six of the Campbell Conference finals after Gretzky slashed Doug Gilmour.  Fraser claimed that his view was obstructed.  The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games to win the Clarence Campbell Bowl.

1994:  Former Youngstown State Penguins quarterback Ray Isaac tampered with a juror in the fraud trial of his benefactor Mickey Monus, the then-CEO of Phar-Mor, which ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

1995:  Art Modell’s announcement moving the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore was met with outrage from the fans, who burned Modell in effigy.

1996:  Fox cancelled America’s Most Wanted due to high production costs, but after protests from the public, law enforcement agencies, and 37 state governors, the show was revived and retitled America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back.

1997:  Roger Marino purchased a $40 million stake in the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it led to the team declaring bankruptcy one year later and Mario Lemieux purchasing the team in June 1999 by converting the money he was owed into equity.

1998:  Phil Luckett ruined the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season on Thanksgiving when he mishandled the coin toss for overtime that led to the Steelers losing to the Detroit Lions, which led to Steeler Nation hating Luckett afterwards until his retirement.

1999:  Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Craig Patrick hired his brother Glenn as the head coach of the team’s American Hockey League farm club in Wilkes-Barre instead of a more established head coach.

2000:  Indiana University fired longtime men’s basketball coach Bob Knight, leading to widespread protests on campus.

2001:  Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Craig Patrick traded Jaromir Jagr and Frantisek Kucera to the Washington Capitals for Kris Beech, Michal Sivek, Ross Lupaschuk and future considerations after rejecting a better offer from the New York Rangers due to bitterness with general manager Glen Sather.

2002:  The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired head coach Tony Dungy despite a winning season, while the Minnesota Vikings fired head coach Dennis Green after his first losing season in ten years.  These firings led to the enactment of the Rooney Rule, named for longtime Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the head of the National Football League committee on diversity, requiring teams seeking head coaches or senior football operations managers to interview a certain number of minority candidates.

2003:  The Dallas Stars introduced a new alternate jersey with a logo meant to depict the constellation Taurus featuring a trailing green star with red trail marks, leading to criticism from fans and media who felt it resembled a uterus, leading to the logo being labelled the “Mooterus”, which was thrown out three years later.

2004:  The San Diego Chargers used the number one overall draft pick on Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning against his wishes.  Manning would be traded to the New York Giants after the Giants used their first round draft pick on North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers, who went to San Diego.

2005:  A Cleveland Browns fan ran onto the field in the middle of a game on Christmas Eve which the Browns lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers 41-0, only to be tackled by James Harrison, leading to the fan’s arrest and subsequent banishment from Cleveland Browns Stadium.

2006:  The Ohio Lottery Commission cancelled Cash Explosion Double Play to replace it with Make Me Famous, Make Me Rich, but Ohioans were not happy.  To appease the citizens, they cancelled Make Me Famous, Make Me Rich and revived Cash Explosion Double Play one year later.

2007:  The Oakland Raiders used the number one overall draft pick on Louisiana State quarterback JaMarcus Russell, passing on future Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, who went to the Detroit Lions on the next pick.

2008:  LenDale White of the Tennessee Titans disrespected the sacred Terrible Towel after his team defeated the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers to clinch home field advantage.  However, this stunt led to the Titans losing a meaningless regular season finale and the divisional round playoff game, ending their season.

2009:  Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals engaged in a knee on knee collision with Tim Gleason of the Carolina Hurricanes.  Both players sustained knee injuries as a result, but Ovechkin was suspended for two games due to having been assessed a game misconduct penalty, his second of the season.

2010:  Jim Joyce ruined a perfect game for Armando Gallaraga of the Detroit Tigers when he ruled Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians safe when replays clearly showed he was out, leading to Tigers fans threatening Joyce, who admitted he blew the call.

2011:  Jeannette native Terrell Pryor and Farrell native Mike Adams were implicated for trading their memorabilia for tattoos, which led to the Tattoogate scandal, their suspensions, and their coach Jim Tressel’s resignation in disgrace.

2012:  Butler native Jerry Meals blew a call at home plate causing the Pittsburgh Pirates to lose to the Atlanta Braves in 19 innings, leading to hatred for Meals among Pirates fans and the Pirates having their 20th consecutive losing season.

2013:  The National Geographic Society hired Soledad O’Brien to succeed Alex Trebek as moderator of the National Geographic Bee starting in 2014.  However, viewers’ backlash led to her termination the following year and being replaced with Mo Rocca in 2016.

2014:  I was in what I thought was a relationship with a girl, but I terminated the relationship with the support of the Hermitage Police Department after it was revealed that she failed to return money I lent to her, which she had done to two other men prior.

2015:  Keith Olbermann fired a series of shots at THON dancers at Penn State on Twitter labeling them as “pitiful” after they raised more than $13 million for pediatric cancer research, leading to him being suspended for the rest of that week and his eventual termination in July.

2016:  Vontaze Burfict of the Cincinnati Bengals violently hit Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers, drawing a personal foul for unnecessary roughness. The incident led to Burfict’s teammate Pacman Jones to commit unsportsmanlike conduct, drawing another penalty. The Bengals lost the AFC wildcard game as a result. Burfict was suspended for the first three games of the 2016 season.

2017:  The Lebanon Raiders of the Lawrence/Mercer County Church Softball League made the mistake of placing their ace pitcher Tyler Allen on waivers following the merger of their church’s two softball teams, leading the Covenant Speed/Power to take advantage of a fire sale and claim Allen, leading to the current dynasty of the Covenant Speed/Power (which includes two finals wins over Lebanon in 2020 and 2021).

2018:  Vontaze Burfict of the Cincinnati Bengals violated the National Football League policy on performance enhancing drugs and was suspended for the first four games of the 2018 season.

2019:  Dr. Phil McGraw’s comments about the Varsity Blues Scandal caused an uproar among citizens of Slippery Rock when he thought that Slippery Rock University was a “made up” name.  Slippery Rock University is a real university in Pennsylvania.

2020:  Robert Morris University administrators announced that the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams would be terminated in the summer of 2021, but were reinstated before Christmas 2021 after protests from the university community, local sportswriters and former Pittsburgh Penguins players.

2021:  Sony Pictures Television chose Mike Richards and Mayim Bialik to host Jeopardy! following the passing of longtime host Alex Trebek, but Richards resigned after one week following the revelations of misogynistic comments on a podcast, and the viewers’ criticism of Bialik led to her termination by July 2023 and Ken Jennings being named temporary host in November 2021, which became permanent in September 2022, and sole host in July 2023.

2022:  A hazing scandal at Northwestern University where freshman football players were sexually assaulted for poor performance led to longtime head coach Pat Fitzgerald’s termination the following year.

2023:  Anaheim Ducks coach Greg Cronin was ejected from a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins for unprofessional conduct towards officials leading to him being fined $25,000.

2024:  Several players from the 2018 Canadian World Junior hockey team were implicated in a sexual assault scandal that led to numerous sponsors withdrawing support of Hockey Canada. 

Note that 2025 is not included in this post as the year is ongoing.