Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: Sports

With 2008 wrapping up, many of us are excited for the New Year to begin.

But, before this year comes to a close, I want to take one last look back at the 2008 year in sports, one of the greatest years in sports history.

The year began with one of the greatest Super Bowls anyone has ever witnessed. Eli Manning led the New York Giants, an overwhelming underdog, past the seemingly invincible 18-0 New England Patriots.

The game was capped off with Manning eluding several tacklers, heaving the ball high in the air, and teammate David Tyree pinning the ball against his helmet for what experts consider one of the greatest plays in NFL history.

March arrived, and so did the NCAA basketball tournament. After many upsets and thrilling buzzer beaters we were left with Kansas and Memphis in the championship game.

Kansas, down by nine with two minutes to go, slowly began creeping back into the game. With just a few seconds left on the clock the Jayhawks found themselves still down by three points. Kansas put the ball in Mario Chalmers' hands, who netted a circus-shot three pointer to tie the game with no time left.

For just the seventh time in history, the championship game went to overtime. Kansas carried its momentum into the extra period and came away with a 75-68 victory.

The U.S. Open Championship came next, and brought us more mid-June action than anyone ever expected.

Tiger Woods entered the final day with a two-shot lead over Rocco Mediate, an unknown golfer at the time. Woods struggled down the stretch as Mediate flourished. Woods was forced to sink a long putt in his final shot to tie himself with Mediate to end the final day.

The two then faced each other in a back and forth 18-hole playoff that resolved little. Both players still remained in a deadlock after another round of golf, and a sudden-death playoff was needed to decide the winner.

Woods squeaked by Mediate in the playoff with a one-shot victory to bring him his third U.S. Open title. Woods, who was clearly in pain the entire time, had knee surgery just two months earlier, a very short amount of time to recover in. After the tournament was over, Woods revealed he suffered a double stress fracture to his left tibia, making his accomplishment even more remarkable.

Less than a month later, sports fans were presented with another impressive one-on-one battle. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer clashed in the Wimbledon final for what many tennis experts considered the best match in history.

It took four hours and 48 minutes, the longest amount of time in tournament history, to decide the winner in this epic match.

The match between the two had three tie breaks, including one that determined the winner. Eventually Nadal barely skidded past Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7, in a match that kept even non-tennis fans enthused.

From there the summer concluded with Michael Phelps winning a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics and Fresno State's baseball team became the biggest underdog to win an NCAA title in history.

This fall Jimmy Johnson became just the second NASCAR driver in history to win three straight titles, and the Phillies ended a 25-year title draught.

Even without the conclusion of this college football season, all of these events occurring in the same year make 2008 go down in my book as the best year in sports history.

Pellegrino is a sophomore print journalism major and copy editor of The Spectator.

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