1986: Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Len Bias, Bill Buckner And The Cutlass Supreme
Baseball, Basketball, Bull City, Football — By Joe Simmons on February 11, 2013 at 11:36 am
Some years of your life just stick out. In the past few months I have been doing a lot of reflection. It’s no secret that I am the oldest of The Sports Fan Journal writers, but I relish the fact that I have lived and witnessed so much history.
Just recently I was remembering some of the best years of my life and one of the years that stuck out … 1986.
December 25, 1985, was a memorable date to me because it was the Christmas that changed my life. I was a young disc jockey in the hood, and people always knew that I would have the most current music even though I was a young G. That Christmas was special because it was when my family put together the greatest gift that anyone could have given me.
When I say pieced together, that is what I literally mean. My mom bought me two Philco turntables, one sister bought me an Alpine mixer and my other sister bought me two Cerwin Vega speakers. From that point on, shit got real for my disc jockey career.
The New Year rolled in and the New Year’s party was in my partner’s basement. Everything was coming together as I broke out the new equipment, and we rocked the house all night long. I was merely a kid, and I had grownups doing that damn thing until two in the morning.
All of this may seem minor, but it was big to me. I made $250 that night, and I was proud of it. As a matter of fact, I used that money to go see my first ever New York Knicks basketball game. I remember it was January 7, 1986, and the Knicks were playing the Pacers. The rivalry wasn’t that big then, but it was a chance to see my man Patrick Ewing for the first time live.
Pat didn’t disappoint either as he was a box score stuffer. I remember that he had 24 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. Seriously, Pat was balling out in the low rider booty shorts that the NBA was sporting at that time.
Things didn’t slow down much after that week. We got word that we would have another holiday to celebrate as January 20, 1986, became the first official Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Although the bill was signed in 1983 by Ronald Reagan, it wasn’t officially honored until January 20, 1986.
Good times were had from no school on that Monday to the countdown to one of the greatest displays of defense ever seen during a Super Bowl. On January 26, the crew gathered up at the local sports bar to watch the Bears play the Patriots in the Super Bowl. If you know anything about the 85-86 Bears, you know that it was a thumping. The team that was known for its defense laid the pure smack down on the Patriots. Walter Payton finally gets his ring, and Mike Singletary does what he does to bring a title back to the windy city.
After the Super Bowl, the sports scene slowed down quite a bit, but I remember other things that were popping. A month or so passed and I remember it well as my home boy E Double got his license and his dad had just gotten a promotion on his job and he went out and bought him the infamous 1986 Cutlass Supreme.
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16 Comments
dope post, Joe.
That’s sweet how certain events stick with you for a lifetime and in 86 a lot of important stuff happened during that year.
Thanks man.. Music was everything to me then. Today I love music but it’s just not the same.
Excellent post. Unfortunately, the Challenger Space Shuttle Accident also took place in 1986.
There’s just one thing I don’t understand. How could a man who professes to be a DJ write about 1986 without mentioning the greatest rap album ever made? “Paid In Full” was a landmark release that forever changed the landscape of hip hop music. The internal rhyming and relaxed, mid tempo pace set new standards for lyricism.
“I made it easy to dance to this, but can you detect, what’s coming next, from the flex, of my wrist? Say indeed, then I’ll proceed, ’cause my man made a mix, and if it bleeds, he won’t need a band aid to fix.”
My goodness
Jag I love Eric B and Rakim myself but Paid in Full was July 7, 1987.. I remember because I bought it on the way to DJ a party for my cousin.
It fell like this…
Raising Hell 86
Paid in Full 87
Long Live The Kane 88
Fight The Power 89
Dude I would never forget any of that..
But I feel you though bro
“I don’t bug out or chill or be actin’ ill,
No tricks in ’86, it’s time to build”
The defense rests!
(It could be that we’re both correct. Some singles may have dropped in ’86 but the album might not have been finished until ’87.)
Those four albums you highlighted might just be the Mt. Rushmore of rap. “License to Ill” from the Beastie Boys deserves a mention as well.
I was born in 1984, so I don’t remember any of this since I was probably still pooping my pants, but awesome read.
hey man enjoy your youth.. It is never a bad thing..
This is a tremendous post. Loved the imagery and the recounting of the little things that turn memories into moments. Thanks for writing this, Joe. One of my favorite pieces yet.
Thanks Trible
86 was pivotal in my growth as a sports fan and music lover. It changed the game for me all together.
Joe, you out-did yourself with this one. Amazing, amazing stuff. That damn picture of Bias gets me every time. I was born in February ’86 and by June of that same year, Lenny was gone. Everything I knew of him came from books, documentaries and old game footage. I can’t imagine the hype around him coming out of collection smh. Excellent job of painting the picture.
And yes, for the record, Eric B. and Rakim’s “Paid In Full” dropped in the summer of 1987. That’s not an opinion. That’s a fact lol.
Man it was a shame to see such a great player go. Bias was going to be that dude. If you lived in that area it was huge and a lot of people still didn’t buy into it as accidental at the time.
Yeah Paid in Full dropped in July of 87.. Most of the rappers lyrics were put down a year earlier in the studio so you hear a lot of references in the lyrics to the year before. They didn’t start editing that type of stuff until 88. Hip hop was defined by 86 – 90. It took off after that and then some believe it died at the turn of the century.
Ok, fair enough. But the single “Eric B. is President” came out in 1986. That’s not an opinion either.
You are right about Eric B is president.. it dropped in October of 86. First single released on that track. I had the Maxi Single on LP. When the whole Paid in Full dropped it was the easiest DJ gig ever. I just put it on and didn’t have to skip a track and the people didn’t care.
Outstanding work, Joe. A golden age of sports for sure. You summed up the era perfectly and connected the dots like never before. I now feel even more privileged to have lived it. Well done, well done. G
Thanks for getting that straight, Mr. Simmons. It was in the fall of my college freshman year when I first heard “Eric B. is President” at an Alpha party so I know it was ’86.
To those of you who tried to chime in even though you were only one or two years old at the time, thanks but no thanks. If I want to know who wrote “See Spot Run”, I’ll get with you.
Thanks so much for this. I’m a writer from M