Top 10 Most Patriotic Moments In Sports

Sports in the United States of America are filled with patriotism. There is a national anthem played before virtually every game. At most games, there is red, white, and blue somewhere.

Sometimes patriotism is expected and delivers as promised. Other times it just happens. Both are beautiful. Here are 10 of the most patriotic sports moments in our country over the years.

10. June 8, 2001

George W. Bush became the first sitting U.S. President to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a College World Series game at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. But it wasn't his first CWS game. He was a baby in his mother Barbara's arms at the CWS in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1947 and '48 when his dad, the future President George H.W. Bush, played first base for Yale at the first two College World Series won by California and USC.

But W. was booed in 2001 as fans had to wait in line for more than an hour before they could enter the stadium for security reasons, which were nothing compared to what was coming in about three months. Fans jeered Bush for his controversial election win the previous January regarding voting tabulation snafus in Florida. I happened to ride up the elevator to the press box with some Secret Service agents, who were visibly upset and talking among themselves.

"There should be more respect for the Office of the President," one said. "If you don't like a president, fine. But respect the office."

Bush, a former part-owner of the Texas Rangers, was not upset at all moments later in the press box.

"Pretty good job if you can get it," he said to the writers covering the Tulane-Stanford opener that day. And he wasn't talking about his. "What a great American game!"

9. April 25, 2003

It was just a routine NBA first-round playoff game between Dallas and Portland at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. And 13-year-old Natalie Gilbert started the national anthem fine. But after a few lines, she messed up the song, then paused and even nervously laughed at herself. But she couldn't get started again, just stopped and looked to her right in petrified confusion.

Then Portland coach Maurice Cheeks, a guard on the Philadelphia 76ers' championship team in 1983, came to the rescue, saying, "C'mon, c'mon, let's do it." He picked up the song where she left off, and she gradually got back into it and went on to finish strong as fans cheered. Thanks, Mo.

Cheeks' Trail Blazers lost the series, but what a guy!

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - JULY 4, 1984: (L-R) Motor Racing Network (MRN) announcer Ned Jarrett, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, '84 Firecracker 400 winner Richard Petty, and Petty's car owner Mike Curb. (Photo by ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

8. July 4, 1984

Ronald Reagan becomes the first sitting U.S. President to attend a NASCAR race at the Firecracker 400 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

And the Gipper, who was at the height of his popularity following a landslide reelection over Walter Mondale the previous November, could not have picked a better race to attend. Richard Petty won his 200th race, and NASCAR began the transformation from a regional sport into the mainstream. Reagan stayed for the entire race and congratulated Petty for the win.

7. April 25, 1976

It was a normal Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. But Chicago Cubs center fielder Rick Monday noticed two fans doing something in left field. Then he saw a large can of lighter fluid and realized they were about to light the American flag on fire in some sort of protest.

"It looks like they're going to burn a flag," voice of the Dodgers Vin Scully said on radio. "And Rick Monday runs and takes it away."

The scoreboard message then said, "Rick Monday, You Made a Great Play."

"It angered me because that was the way I was brought up," said Monday, who was in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. "You don't do that with the American flag."

6. Jan. 27, 1991

Representatives of Disney interviewed several potential Super Bowl MVPs from both the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills during the week leading up to Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. They were each told they could say one of two things on live television after winning the MVP. "I'm going to Disney World" was the first option.

But there was a second option because the U.S. had just entered the Gulf War 10 days previously with Operation Desert Shield after Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.

Giants' running back Ottis Anderson won the MVP award after the Giants escaped with a 20-19 win following Bills' kicker Scott Norwood's narrow miss from 47 yards out. Had the kick been a yard or so to the left, Bills running back Thurman Thomas would have won the MVP.

"I'm dedicating this win to all the troops," Anderson said as a small American flag flew near him.

5. Sept. 23, 2001

Less than two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City, there were 140,000 small American flags distributed at Dover International Speedway in Delaware for the Cal Ripken Jr. 400 - the first NASCAR race after 9/11.

"There was part of me that felt NASCAR was helping the country," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., years after winning the race just seven months after his father died on the last lap at Daytona on Feb. 18, 2001, at age 49. "You looked up in the grandstands, and every person was holding an American flag. That made your heart stop, and you had a massive sense of pride well up inside of you. I don't think you will ever see a more patriotic moment in racing."

4. Jan. 27, 1991

The national anthem is sung before every NFL game. But there has never been another one like the one by Whitney Houston before Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills as the U.S. had just entered the Gulf War less than two weeks prior.

Houston's previous recording of the national anthem was what everyone heard as she sang into a dead microphone. But it didn't matter. The emotion was real and live.

"I still get chills thinking about it," winning Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler said.

3. Oct. 30, 2001

The country was much different the second time President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at a World Series game in 2001. At the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, four months earlier, there was very little security compared to the way New York City was still on lockdown after the 9/11 attacks before game three of the Major League Baseball World Series between Arizona and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

And Bush threw it right down the middle from the top of the mound. As Bush spoke with Yankees manager Joe Torre and Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly, chants of "U-S-A ... U-S- A ... U-S-A" came from the stands.

"It was hair raising. Just an awesome healing moment for our country," said Yankees backup catcher Todd Greene, who caught the pitch from Bush as regular catcher Jorge Posada was in the bullpen with starter Roger Clemens.

"It was just a huge moment to let the world know that we are moving forward and you are not going to intimidate us," Greene told MLB. com last year. "Everything is so political now. It was just nice to think back to how united we were as a country after 9/11 happened. I hope it doesn't take something like that again to bring us together."

2. Feb. 22, 1980

In the last year of President Jimmy Carter with 52 Americans held hostage in Iran since Nov. 4, 1979, the United States - just five years removed from losing the Vietnam War - was seen as weak. It was no different for the U.S. Olympic hockey team, which lost an exhibition to the four-time defending Olympic gold medal winning Russian hockey team, 10-3, at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 9, 1980. Was Russia winning the Cold War in more ways than one?

But somehow, a rag-team U.S. team of minor league and college hockey players in their early 20s somehow upset the much more veteran and professional Russians, 4-3, on Feb. 22, in Lake Placid, New York, then won the gold medal with a 4-2 victory over Finland two days later. It was not only a win for U.S. hockey, but for the U.S. as patriotism beamed like it hadn't perhaps since after victory in World War II. Russia's loss was its first in the Olympics since 1968.

"Do you believe in miracles? YES," was the iconic call by ABC's Al Michaels at the moment of victory over the Russians.

1. Aug. 9, 1936

Jesse Owens, a black man from Oakville, Alabama, wins his fourth gold medal for the U.S. in track at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, in front of German dictator Adolf Hitler, thoroughly dissing Hitler's philosophy of Aryan and German superiority.