The Miracle of Richfield
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Before the 2007 Eastern Conference championship, the 1976 87-85 Game Seven Conference Semifinal win over the Washington Bullets was the Cleveland Cavaliers playoff claim to fame...at least locally.
This is a rare video of the last moments of the game which includes Joe Tait commentary.
RIP Joe Tait. This was one of his signature calls
Can't forget Joe Tait's historic call of The Miracle of Richfield, 1976. Those fans acted like the Cavs won the NBA championship that night, the way they stormed the floor (not for another 40 years). May Jolly Joe R.I.P. Thanks for all the great memories you brought to your listeners, myself included. You'll be greatly missed.
My dad took me here when I was 9. I remember this like it was yesterday. He threw me up in the air and the whole coliseum went nuts. Now, looking back on it, I can appreciate that I witnessed history; but back then, I was happy to be stay up late on a school night and spend time with my pops.
I remember like yesterday. I was 9. Chills listening to Joe Tait
This was by far the loudest sporting event I was ever at. It only put the Cavs into the Confrence finals but still was one of the greatest nights in Cleveland sports history. It meant so much to the city because of all the bad things that were happining to the city of Cleveland at the time.
RIP Joe Tait
He's the reason why I'm watching this video 👍🏿
R.I.P. Joe Tait. It was your #1 call!
I listened to this game on the radio! Had to use my imagination while wondering what it looked like. I will say that Joe Tait takes a back seat to no one in calling a game. He is nothing short of fantastic! I was feeling this incredible emotion at home in my bedroom! You just couldn't believe it!
He was great
Same here!!! Joe brought the vision to me as a 12 year old who listened to every game on a transistor radio even at times I was supposed to be sleep😂. That team a was and will always be special to Cleveland lore. Joe Tait, the best play by play person in Cleveland history.
Was a big Cavs fan then, and Joe Tait became most the reason i would tune in the radio as an 11 year old, every game i could, his voice and calls were riveting, no one like him! R.I.P. Mr. Tait, and thanks for being a bright spot on my youth. "STANDING O FOR THE GUYS IN GOLD!!"
I was in high school when i saw 2 miracle of richfield games, the stones, zeppelin and other great events. The 80's were great too. I'll never forget those events. Good times.
I lived in S. Indiana and spent many incredible nights sitting in my car listening to the magic of Joe Tait and the Cavs. The Richfield Coliseum was a mystical place I visited regularly. The Cavs were beating on the door of a championship and fought valiantly! very special!!!
I lived in E. Indiana and did the exact same thing. There was something about that 50K watt WWWE signal reaching across Ohio on chilly winter nights in 1975-76.
My dad and godfather were at this game. I just played this clip for my dad and he thoroughly enjoyed. He loves Joe Tait.
I love how even the announcer has spent every ounce of his voice and energy on this call. Really captures how emotional a win this was.
People who didn't live through The Miracle and experience it won't truly understand the frenzy and passion of the time. I get chills and goosebumps every time I see this. Thanks for posting.
great memory - I love the way the fans stormed to court. No one got hurt; good clean fun. Would never happen at today's venues...thanks for posting
Rip Joe
He was the best to do it
I get chills seeing replays of this. To me a champion is someone who fans run into the court to touch and hug and Nate Thurmond was that man that day.
Joe Tait's greatest broadcast call...RIP.
Joe Tait's contract with the Cavaliers runs until 2011, I believe. And as far as the video screen at the old Coliseum is concerned, it was state of the art at the time. The whole building was, but the Q is much nicer.
One of my sons and I met this cool gentleman at In n Out Burgers just before returning from Phoenix for a soccer tournament! Neat to sit and eat with this guy yesterday! He let me know as we were leaving that he was Dick Snyder (#10) and about this video!
Pretty cool!
Very well put! I loved that place. I saw the Cleveland Force there as well as the Cavs. There was a strangely comforting and classy quality to Richfield Coliseum. It wasn't as noisy and crass as many sports stadiums and arenas are today. It was an imposing thing to drive up to, as well. It was a massive tower-like structure in the middle of nowhere. It was like you were driving into a scene from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or something to that effect.
I wish I was alive to see games like this. That crowd at the end is insane. I guess the closest I'll ever get to seeing that was when we beat the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals in '07 and everybody was going wild in the streets.
My fave Cavs team of all time!! LETS GO CAVS!!!!!
Thank you Joe!!!
R.I.P...
Awesome!!! I was lucky enough to attend a couple of those games against the Bulletts that year. I have the old 3WE "Miracle" album that I've converted to mp3 format. I still crack a smile every time I hear the great one, Joe Tait, calling those last second victories. *THAT* was a great time in sports,no fans at courtside talking on cell phones. You didn't need the PA announcer to lead cheering. And yes, besides the oringinal uniforms, those uniforms are sooooo cool!
Tait was the best...one of a kind!
The Miracle of Richfield is so beautiful!!!
Not only did it send the Cavaliers to their first Conference Finals, but the loss propelled Washington to hire no-nonsense coach Dick Motta (who would take the Bullets to the 1978 title).
you can hear the Passion in Joe Taits voice
Wow ... has it been 36 years? It still seems like yesterday. I remember that game. THE best sporting event I ever attended in my life - bar none. Talk about a crazy crowd. I was using my GE transistor radio to listen to Joe Tait call the game and I could barely hear him in the earpiece (no headphones in those days). That ending was incredible. Great memories.
Joe Tait brought me here tonight.RIP
RIP
Nick Mileti.
Thanks for the memories.
And I thought today's home crowds in sporting events could get real excited over home team victories!
tgmurphy626:Yes, Joe Tait is one of the best in the business. Tonight (03/26/2008), he calls his 3000th regular season Cav's game. The man is a Cleveland treasure.
I have old audio recordings of the ends of games 2("Bingo! Bobby hit it!") , 5 and 7. Tait was(is) a great announcer.
I was in the 6th grade and I still remember the excitement and the sheer emotion of that game!!! I still feel it when I Iisten to the great Joe Tait, he embodies that emotion!!! RIP Joe. The Cavs were special and they were tough.
I love how the fans could rush the court back then!
Surprisingly good film quality
Classic days cav's miracle Richfield 20,000 strong blew the roof off the coliseum
I remember during the 80-81 season when tickets for nosebleed seats here were going for $2.50. $10 for a family night out.
21,564. Was that the most to EVER see a basketball game at the old Richfield Coliseum?
Yes, it was. That was the most the fire marshal could allow in the building.
I was 12. I still get chills.
I don't think I've ever seen a crowd tear down the basketball hoops... Cleveland's crazy!!
Go Tribe, Cavs, and Browns!
Probably that Ohio energy, just like at OSU football games.
Yeah, the other two announcers are Washington announcers. I believe the TV feed is also Washington as well, you are correct about that. It always makes me chuckle when watching this and seeing fans dressed in suits and ties to attend this game. Times have surely changed.
Tonight is Joe Tait's final game after 39 years as the Cavs' voice.
Good night, Joe, and good retirement. :)
What's impressive is that they beat a Bullet team that made the NBA Finals a year earlier and made two more Finals appearances in the next few years.
Wow. That's insane. Love that. Great upload.
I recorded this Joe Tait call live from WWWE using an old reel-to-reel magnetic tape machine with the mic stuck next to the radio speaker. One of my favorite play by play memories from my youth along with Skip Caray in Atlanta, Bob Costas in St. Louis and Al Michaels in Cincinnati.
cool. I have the entire 2nd half and postgame of the great Joe Tait for this game. It is epic Joe. If Jones does not break his leg in practice after this game, they could of won it all.
I remember listening to CAVS game on 3WE on the radio from Chicago. Bobby Bingo Smith from the corner, BINGO!
Hard to believe, the building lasted only 20 years, 1974-1994. (It was dormant for several years after that, and then demolished.) I've been to a lot of indoor pro sports venues, but overall, Richfield Coliseum was the best place I've been to, especially for watching a game. The fans collectively had a great view of the game, they reacted to every quirk that took place. Like a college hoops crowd. The only bad part, which cut short the venue's life way too soon, was where it was built.
Unseld was a great post defender, but Snyder got a step on him there. I loved those uniforms back then.
Lifelong Clevelander here but I’m only 40 so I’m to young to have been around when this happened. When we won it all in 2016 breaking that Cleveland drought of 52 years without a title, we did it on the road in Oakland. If by chance LeBron can lead us to a second title this year (currently up 2-0 to Toronto in the east semi finals) and by chance we can win it on our own home court, at the Q, I can imagine they’d rush the court and tear down the nets no matter how much security is there.
wow, that was truely amazing. Thanks for posting.
Decided to check this out because of Hanif Abdurraqib. Wow, can he write..
Great stuff! Sports just are not the same anymore. Used to be so great when the crowd could rush the field or floor. The good old days. This was the conference semi finals I believe. Cavs went on to play the Celts in the next round.
Price between the circles he shoots got it. RIP Joe
Joe Tait, 83, is in hospice, battling cancer and kidney failure.
The Bullets had been in the NBA Finals the year before, had a ton of postseason experience, the Cavs had no playoff experience (except for Nate Thermond) and the Bullets were huge favorites.
But 3 of Cleveland's 4 wins came in the final 5 seconds of the game (and one loss was in OT).
It was a tough, hard fought series between 2 extremely evenly matched teams.
The most exciting Cavs postseason series until Cavs/Celtics went 7 games in 1992
While it doesn't look difficult, anybody that's ever played know that Snyder's floater was not an easy shot. With all that forward momentum, it required a fairly precise touch.
The Cavs were such a horrible team for many years, it was great to see them finally break through and make the playoffs that season for the first time. I also remember a few years afterwards when they traded away many of their draft picks for marginal players while making other teams great
Look at those crazy Cleveland fans, and it wasn't even nickle beer night.
This was a great series, yet--for the second time in 3 years--ABC and the NBA completely forgot about it when the Cleveland and Washington franchises met again in the playoffs. Unless I missed it, the '76 series was never mentioned.
Dick Snyder was a good player...very underrated...great shootet
Shooter
Imagine John Tait was still alive and called the 2016 NBA Finals....
Haha, I cannot believe that the crowd got that out of control at the end. Even though it was 37 years ago, it's crazy that they rushed the court and tore the basket down. They're lucky no one was killed.
You can't fault their passion, though. Probably the second rowdiest Cavs crowd was for Game 6 in 2007? I remember watching that on TV and the crowd jeering Rasheed nonstop, eventually resulting in his ejection.
R.I.P Bobby Bingo Smith
2:00 the fans try to down the basketball rim
Damm they were getting crazy.
The Miracle AT Richfield was how they touted it back then, not of. Anyone, anyone? …Bueller? Bueller?
R.I.P. Nick Mileti
I can only wish that Tait would’ve called the Cavs Championship game seven win in 2016. Irving hitting the three. Lebron coming back on defense to block the shot at end!. Golden State throwing up desperation shots!. Kevin Love shut down defense! And the Cavs upsetting the greatest one season teams in NBA history, Too bad for me!!!
i agree cleveland needs to win something soon...i thought you had us in baseball 2 years ago
/love boston
Game 5 had a more dramatic finish. The Cavs were down by a point, and the winning basket was a tip-in after a missed shot, right at the buzzer.
I didnt know Richfield had a Jumbotron back in 76
Come on Cavs!
I'd give anything for Game 5 / Cleamon's tip-in footage.
Only b/c I was there Cavs 92-91, April 12, 1976, attendance, 21, 564. Call me Rainman and prove me wrong but I was 12 and it was the loudest sporting event I've ever experienced. My Dad's 80 now and he concurs :)
i was there too. bingo smith throws up an airball and there was jim cleamons at the hoop, catching it and putting it in in one motion at the buzzer. the noise and intensity was literally making my head throb. the crowd was unreal... standing ovations w/every time out in the 2nd half and standing ovations as play began out of those breaks. it was magical. and then game 7... we were on our feet the entire game. and of course, 20k+ people in 10k cars trying to leave the coliseum... it took 2 hours for us to get out of the parking lot and drive back down 77 to canton. unreal.
OMG, those uniforms!!!
2006 Damon Jones reminded Washington of this.
I'm not totally positive, but I think this feed is the Washington TV feed. I know this game wasn't televised Cleveland (we had to listen on the radio, although they broke into prome time TV to show the finish). I think they spliced Joe Tait's radio commentary into the play by play. When you hear other announcers, I believe it's the Bullets local announcers. Anyone confirm this?
Snyder was clutch!
Steve Kerr brought me here.
tough shot
vousallezvous, I'm a Bullets/Wiz fan, but that made me laugh! Thanks
LeBron James was born in 1984.
greatest moment in cle sports history. too bad chones broke his foot after that or the celtics would have been toast. 🎉
Go Snyder, Go Wildcats.
I worked there some guy ran around selling parts of the net for a hundred bucks a piece
@PsYcHo14 You mean the cornfields? lol this was so far out of Cleveland but still it was rockin!!!!
I never understood fans. I used to be one. But realized, why?! Why are we cheering for these people. Especially now a days. 99% if not 100% of the team is not even from that city. We cheer for players who could careless about us. We pay them millions to lose. When they win, we get nothing. Except high prices. Honestly, all the billions we spend in sports could actually go towards something that matters and makes a difference in life.
how much footage?
Anyone recognize the voices of the announcers?
And Joe Tait, all 5000 pounds of him, is STILL doing their play by play here in 2008. I'm amazed the guy hasn't died of a heart attack or stroke by now. But man he is THE best at calling a basketball game.
God, I can still remember as if it were yesterday "Bingo top of the key ... it's GOOOOOD!!! Cavaliers WINNNNN......."
Ahh when fans could storm the court in NBA games. also does anyone know around what year people stopped running onto baseball fields anyway?
Around the 80's. Philly had police horses on the field in the last inning of the 1980 World Series. 1984 WS in Detroit was the last big fan stampede in baseball postseason. Shea Stadium had a military presence in Gm 7 WS when the Mets beat the Red Sox. 1988 NBA Finals in Inglewood was the last fan rush I remember in basketball postseason. Look at 1969 WS, 1973 NLCS, 1976 ALCS. New Yorkers know how to tear up a field.
1979, when Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles on the road in game 7 of the World Series to win the title, lots of fans rushed the field, it was strange because it was on the road. lol
Not to mention back in 1982, when Milwaukee Brewer fans rushed the California Angels in the ALCS to get to the World Series. The whole field was swarmed so quickly and tons of fans.
Same thing in the World Series, when the Brewers beat the St Louis Cardinals in game (their last home game), to go up 3-2 in the series.
Speaking of the Angels. As of late as the mid '90s (1995) when the Seattle Mariner fans rushed the field after eliminating the Angels in a 1 game playoff/AL West tiebreaker for the Division title. There were a lot of fans on the field and taking some of the astroturf and bases.
Not much of it happened the '90s as security got tighter. Marlin fans rushed the field when they beat the NY Yankees, Florida's first season in MLB. Around the early '90s.
Also when the Toronto Blue Bays had a walk off HR to win the World Series against the Philly Phillies, a few fans, not a lot, rushed the field.
But, for the most part, it started to taper off by the mid '90s
Happened more so during the '80s. Don't forget the KC Royal fans rushing the field after beating the St Louis Cardinals in game 7 of the World Series to win their first title ever in '85
why was Unseld guarding Snyder?
Who the hell had their back turned to the ball, chasing Bingo Smith down toward the right corner? It looks like it might be Truck Robinson, who I believe is the guy who can't get the tip at the Bullets' rim at the buzzer. A little bleary to be sure about either of these assertions.
@@JohnSmith-op1tc it's Nick Weatherspoon
Not the best nine seconds of Wes Unseld's career, that's for sure.
+David Gee- Nor Elvin Hays, who clanked 4 free throws in two different games in that series
Snyder beat HOF Wes Unseld on that
lol was lebron born yet?
I have old audio recordings of the ends of games 2("Bingo! Bobby hit it!") , 5 and 7. Tait was(is) a great announcer.
R.I.P. Bingo Smith