This is part of a series of sports history articles aimed at preserving the best moments of the modern sports era, from 1976 to the present. The focus is team sports—college & pro basketball and football, major league baseball and hockey. This article offers a snapshot of 1986 sports, a year highlighted by baseball drama, a great Super Bowl champ and two historic college championship battles.
The 1986 Los Angeles Rams were coming off a breakthrough year, one in which they displaced the San Francisco 49ers atop the NFC West and reached the conference championship game. They spent much of ’86 looking to build on it before a late fade left them going into the offseason with a sour taste in […]
After winning Super Bowl titles in 1981 and 1984, the 49ers organization took what was for them a step back in 1985. They settled for a wild-card berth in the playoffs. The 1986 San Francisco 49ers spent much of the season on that same trajectory before they rallied at the end for a division title. […]
The 1986 Kansas City Chiefs are the one bright spot in a long stretch of franchise futility. The last high point of the Hank Stram-Len Dawson years that included a Super Bowl title was 1971. The first high point of the Marty Schottenheimer-led ascendancy was 1990. The 1986 edition is sort of dropped in the […]
The time had arrived for the 1986 Denver Broncos. It was John Elway’s fourth year and his first three had been an appropriate mix of success and disappointment for a growing young quarterback. They had reached the playoffs in 1983 and 1984 and gone 11-5 in 1985. In 1986, the Broncos took the next step […]
The 1986 Dallas Cowboys marked the beginning of the end of the Tom Landry era. After a strong start, they were a contender for a second straight NFC East title and a Super Bowl. By season’s end they were sub-.500 and would never contend again in the Landry era. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTSStart reading today. Dallas […]
… no one came close the impact of Lawrence Taylor. “LT”, as the ferocious outside linebacker was casually known, had 20 ½ sacks and won the MVP award, the last defensive player to do so.
The 1986 New England Patriots didn’t make a Super Bowl run like they had in 1985. But in its own way, the ’86 Patriots were just as impressive. While the 1985 AFC Championship had a magical quality to it, with three straight road playoff wins, the 1986 team showed its mettle by winning the franchise’s […]
The 1986 Minnesota Vikings marked a new era in franchise history. The legendary head coach Bud Grant retired for good after 1985. Grant initially retired in 1983, then came back after a disastrous season in 1984. This time around the Vikes did what they should have done the first time and hired Grant’s long-time offensive […]
The talk of a dynasty was freely in the air for the 1986 Chicago Bears as the season began. They were coming off a 1985 season where they simply demolished the NFL and won the Super Bowl. The ’86 Bears were awfully good in their own right, but quarterback instability proved to be their undoing […]
The 1986 Cleveland Browns came closer than any team has in franchise history to reaching the Super Bowl. After a stellar regular season and an epic playoff win, it took the signature moment from one of the NFL’s signature players to deny them at least a chance at the Vince Lombardi Trophy. GREAT 1980s SPORTS […]
The 1986 Cincinnati Bengals didn’t make the playoffs. But they came close for the first time in several years and set the stage for what would ultimately be a Super Bowl team. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTSStart reading today. Cincinnati had been mired in mediocrity since the playoff years of 1981-82, where they reached the Super Bowl […]