1. Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Ohio State's track star completely destroyed Adolph Hitler's Aryan race superiority propaganda and humiliated Hitler in the process.
2.Buster Douglas KO's Mike Tyson in the 10th round. This was arguably the biggest upset in boxing history. Buster Douglas was a Columbus guy who played basketball at Linden-McKinley and was on a state championship team.
3.Jack Nicklaus wins the 1986 Masters at the age of 46.The Golden Bear was 4 strokes behind entering the last round and shot a 30 on the back nine to win the tournament. Epic!!
4. Ohio State wins the 2002 National Championship by defeating the heavily favored Miami Hurricanes in double OT. The Buckeyes became the first team to finish 14-0.
5.In 1975 Ohio State's Archie Griffin became a two-time Heisman Trophy winner. This is significant because 50 years later Archie remains the only member of that club.
6. LeBron James returns to Cleveland and leads the Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship. It was awesome because it was the return of The Prodigal Son and the only championship in team history.
7.The Big Red Machine has to be on this list because of excellence in the early and mid 70's. This team had great players like Johny Bench, Pete Rose,Tony Perez, and Joe Morgan, They won 2 World Series Championships.
8.Ohio State's 2024 National Championship football team. The 4-game gauntlet the Buckeyes navigated was unprecedented and came after a very disappointing loss to a very average Michigan team. Greatest run in College football history
9.On March 6, 2005 Matt Sylvester hit a shot that signaled a change in the trajectory of Ohio State Basketball.Sylvester's 3-pointer gave Ohio State a 65-64 victory over Illinois and ended Illinois dreams of an undefeated season. The shot gave Thad Matta 20 wins in his first season and led to the great success Matta's teams had in the future.
10. In 2010 Ohio State's Evan Turner hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to defeat Michigan in the quarter finals of the Big 10 tournament. The painful look on the faces of the Michigan players and fans made this a must for my list.
