We’re counting down the biggest plays in Kansas City sports history: Today, Nos. 21-25
This week, the Kansas City Star is counting down the 25 biggest sports plays involving our professional, college and high school teams or individuals.
We’ll unveil five a day. These aren’t the best single-game performances or milestones. These are singular moments that can provide such memories you recall where you were and who you were with when you watched them.
Here are plays No. 21-25.
25. Chiefs pay with Cash, tell Buddy Ryan to keep the change
The Chiefs know about playoff malaise. After winning five of their first seven postseason games, capped by a Super Bowl IV victory, the Chiefs mixed playoff heartache with drought for two-plus decades.
But in the 1993 postseason, a thrilling overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round set up a trip to the Astrodome to meet the favored Houston Oilers and their aggressive defense led by brash coordinator Buddy Ryan.
This was Joe Montana’s first of two years as the Chiefs’ quarterback, but he couldn’t get the offense going and KC trailed 10-0 at halftime. The locker room was calm, though, and coach Marty Schottenheimer emphasized that the Oilers hadn’t done anything the Chiefs hadn’t expected.
Stick to the game plan and good things will happen, Schottenheimer said.
The Chiefs just needed an emotional spark. And tight end Keith Cash provided it in the third quarter.
On their first possession of the period, the Chiefs drove to the Oilers’ 7-yard line and Cash freed himself for a walk-in touchdown reception. The play was huge, but what happened next made the moment list-worthy.
Cash had run into the side of the end zone where a sign with a drawing a Ryan’s face was displayed. Cash wound up and fired a fastball at Ryan’s face.
“It was like, ‘Screw you, we’re here to play ball, too,’” Cash told The Star’s Sam Mellinger in 2015. “I knew I was going to let him have it. As a statement. We are here. We are not intimidated.”
It was Cash’s second huge play in as many weeks. Against the Steelers, he had blocked a punt late in the fourth quarter that set up the touchdown to produce overtime.
Against the Oilers, the Chiefs didn’t let up. Montana threw touchdown passes to J.J. Birden and Willie Davis, and Marcus Allen clinched the 28-20 victory with a 21-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run.
For the first time since the AFL-NFL merger, the Chiefs had advanced to the AFC Championship Game. They lost to the Buffalo Bills, starting an eight-game playoff losing streak that ended in 2015 when they returned to Houston to play a different team, the Texans.
That game had a memorable play as well, with Knile Davis returning the opening kickoff 106 yards for a touchdown.
The Cash touchdown and keep-the-change moment started the rally that gave the Chiefs their biggest victory in the short Montana era, and a Chiefs team coached by Schottenheimer never got as far in the playoffs again.
24. Don Denkinger becomes a household name
An umpire is happy if no one knows his name after a game. That means there was no controversial call or reason for fans to be upset.
Unfortunately for Don Denkinger, to this day his name remains associated with Game 6 of the 1985 World Series. With the Cardinals nursing a 1-0 lead and looking to close out the Series, Royals batter Jorge Orta hit a chopper to first base and was called safe by Denkinger. Viewers at home realized immediately it was a bad call.
The Cardinals unraveled in the ninth inning with a dropped pop-up and a passed ball, and the Royals rallied for a 2-1 win. According to the gregstoll.com win-probability calculator, if Orta had been called out, the Cardinals would have had a 90% chance of winning. Orta being called safe dropped that to 70%.
23. Playoff machine Damien Williams gives Chiefs a Super Bowl lead
Starting with a 44-yard completion to Tyreek Hill with 7:13 remaining in Super Bowl LIV, everything was going the Chiefs’ way. But to surge ahead of the San Francisco 49ers, they’d have to convert on third-and-goal from the 5.
Running back Damien Williams took a Patrick Mahomes toss in the flat, reached the ball above the pylon and a replay review upheld the call: touchdown. With 2:50 remaining, the Chiefs had the go-head score. Williams added a 38-yard touchdown run to extend their lead.
On the drive, Mahomes went five for five for 60 yards. Had Williams not gotten into the end zone, would the Chiefs have gone for fourth-and-1 or attempted a short field goal to tie? Given the Chiefs’ daring nature, it seems likely Mahomes would have had another snap.
22. George Brett learns of a rule about pine tar on a bat
The Royals rallied to take a lead in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium, then lost the game, then went ahead and, finally, won to beat New York 25 days later. But the final result wasn’t nearly as memorable as George Brett’s reaction to being called out for having too much pine tar on his bat.
Goose Gossage was one out away from closing out a 4-3 Yankees win over the Royals. With a runner on first, Brett crushed a two-run homer to right field, giving the Royals the lead. Yankees manager Billy Martin asked umpires to take a look at Brett’s bat. An arcane rule indeed limited the amount of pine tar one could have on a bat, and the umpires ruled Brett out.
An enraged Brett sprang from the dugout and attempted to, ahem, plead his case to the umpires. The Royals protested, and American League president Lee MacPhail agreed with their case. On Aug. 18 the game restarted and the Royals won 5-4. But on the night of July 24, 1983, newscasts across the country showed Brett’s tirade, which remains one of most memorable moments in sports history.
21. Derek Hood’s 3-pointer sends mega-high school game to OT
Kansas City’s rich prep sports tradition is represented on this list by what is largely considered to be the biggest shot in the biggest high school game ever played in Kansas City. Central’s Derek Hood’s three-pointer—the first he had made all season — sent the Missouri Class 4A boys state quarterfinal game against Raytown into overtime. Central went on to win in a Municipal Auditorium so jam-packed that some fans sat in aisles and others were turned away.
Hood would enjoy an All-SEC career at Arkansas and even had a cup of coffee in the NBA. Knocked out that night was a Raytown team led by Tyronn Lue, who would become an All-Big 12 guard at Nebraska, play an 11-year NBA career and coach LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA championship.
This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 11:59 AM with the headline "We’re counting down the biggest plays in Kansas City sports history: Today, Nos. 21-25."