by Kevin Hench

Updated: July 11, 2008, 11:26 AM EST Comment

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1936: Two months after Max Schmeling scored a shocking upset over Joe Louis at Yankee Stadium, Jesse Owens gained a measure of revenge, ruining Hitler's party by winning four gold medals at the Berlin Games. In the World Series, Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig (also know as Lou) homered off Carl Hubbell in Game 4 to propel the Yankees to their first World Series in four years, an unheard of drought for Murderers' Row. Hubbell had won his last 16 decisions of '36, his first World Series start and would win his first eight decisions of '37. Gehrig's homer led to Hubbell's only loss in a span of 26 decisions. Gehrig and Hubbell shared the cover of Time magazine during the Fall Classic.

1938: My, how times have changed. If the most enduring sports moments of 2008 were a one-round boxing match and a two-horse match race, it would go down as a sports disaster. But in 1938, Louis knocking out Schmeling in their rematch at Yankee Stadium and Seabiscuit besting War Admiral at Pimlico were seismic events. In baseball, Johnny Vander Meer pitched back-to-back no-hitters. And Don Budge became the first to win the Grand Slam of tennis.

1941: Arguably the greatest baseball season ever. Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games and Ted Williams hit .406. There's no Triple Crown winner in baseball, but Whirlaway wins the Triple Crown in thoroughbred racing.

1947: On April 15, Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Six months later, the Yankees would down the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series. Rocky Graziano defeated Tony Zale in the second of their incredible three-fight series to win the middleweight title.

1948: After losing two Olympiads to World War II, the Games resumed in London, where Fanny Blankers-Koen, mother of two, matched Jesse Owens' four gold medals. The Cleveland Indians doubly broke Boston's heart by beating the Red Sox in a one-game playoff to reach the World Series and then beating the then-Boston Braves to win the title. Citation won the Triple Crown, the second time jockey Eddie Arcaro had pulled off the feat.

1954: Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier. Willie Mays made "the catch" off Vic Wertz in the World Series, propelling the Giants to a sweep of the 111-win Indians. Milan High School (enrollment 161) defeats Muncie Central High School (over 1,600) 32-30 to win the Indiana state basketball tournament.

1960: Cassius Clay, meet Bill Mazeroski. Just over a month after Clay won the light-heavyweight gold medal in Rome, Maz slayed the Yankees with his Game 7 walk-off homer at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Two months later, the NFL championship would also be decided in Pennsylvania as the Eagles edged the Packers 17-13 when Chuck Bednarik tackled Jim Taylor at the 8-yard line on the game's final play. (A month earlier, Bednarik had injured Frank Gifford in what is still regarded as one of the most violent hits in NFL history.) Arnold Palmer finished birdie-birdie at Augusta to edge Ken Venturi by one stroke to win the Masters. Then Palmer shot 65 on the final day to come from seven off the lead to win the U.S. Open. With wins over Canada, the Soviets, and the Czechs, the U.S. Olympic hockey team shocks the world by winning gold at Squaw Valley.

1967: By virtue of giving us the very first Super Bowl, 1967 jumps up into immediate contention. The Packers' 35-10 dismantling of the Chiefs may have been a letdown, but America's favorite sports institution was born. A few months later, Wilt Chamberlain and the 76ers would end Boston's eight-year reign atop the NBA. The Maple Leafs beat the Canadiens for the Stanley Cup, the last time Toronto, home of the hockey Hall of Fame, hoisted the silver. And in October, Enos Slaughter scored from first base on a base hit when Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky held the ball, giving the Cardinals a seven-game World Series victory.

Wilt and the Sixers stopped the Celtics in '67. (Dick Raphael/NBAE / Getty Images)

1969: If 2008 has toppled an existing champion, it's 1969. The year began with "Broadway Joe" Namath and the AFL Jets upsetting massive favorite Baltimore in Super Bowl III. In October, the Miracle Mets shocked the Orioles to win the World Series. In between, Bill Russell won his last NBA championship, beating the Lakers in Game 7 in the Forum after famously declaring the balloons L.A. owner Jack Kent Cooke had planned to rain down in celebration would stay in the ceiling. Oh, and Rod Laver became the last man to win the Grand Slam of tennis.

1976: The Steelers and Cowboys, the signature NFL teams of the 1970s, met for the first of their three Super Bowl matchups. Swann took MVP honors with 161 receiving yards on just four catches as Pittsburgh prevailed 21-17. David Pearson beat King Richard Petty on the last lap to win the Daytona 500. The Indiana men's basketball team completed its undefeated 32-0 season with a win over Michigan in the NCAA title game. Nadia Comeneci landed seven perfect 10s and wins three golds in Montreal, where five U.S. boxers, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks and Michael Spinks, won gold. The Big Red Machine swept the Yankees for its second straight World Series crown.

1986: As Super Bowl blowouts go, there was something strangely compelling about the Bears' 46-10 thrashing of the Patriots. It felt like watching the birth of a dynasty. Watching that game, it would have been hard to imagine that the Bears would be one-and-done. The Celtics added Bill Walton to Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish and won their final title of the '80s. Bill Buckner got all the attention as the Red Sox lost Game 6 (and then Game 7) to the Mets in the World Series, but that obscured the string of two-out clutch hits delivered by Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight. Jack Nicklaus won his final major with an incredible Sunday push at the Masters, shooting 65 to beat Greg Norman and Tom Kite by one stroke. A rookie goalie by the name of Patrick Roy carried the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup.

There are arguments to be made for 1988, an Olympic year that featured the Dodgers' miraculous World Series run and the last championship for Magic and Kareem. And 1996 gave us Michael Johnson's incredible Olympics and the birth of a new Yankee dynasty.

But the fact is, 2008 already trumps those years and it hasn't even had its Olympics yet.