The 1980s: The Greatest Decade in Los Angeles Sports History
By Derek Hart
May 2, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Magic Johnson speaks at a press conference to announce the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Guggenheim baseball management team at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports
Ronald Reagan, his Reaganomics Revolution, and his continuation and eventual victory in the Cold War to the tune of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this (Berlin) wall!” As well as gushing about how “It’s morning time in America.”
Michael Jackson, his one glove, and his pet chimpanzee Bubbles.
Madonna claiming to be the ultimate material girl in a material world.
Pac-Man. Atari. Space Invaders.
The Sony Walkman.
Michael J. Fox zooming in a DeLorean to get hit on by his mom in Back To The Future.
Bill Cosby being the positive African American role model in The Cosby Show.
When one looks back on the 1980s, these are the images that come to mind the most. However…
I’m not sure if fans in the greater Los Angeles area realize that that pre-cell phone, email, and internet era became known as the best decade as far as sports success in the United Sates’ second largest city.
EIGHT championships were won by teams that called L.A. home during that decade, including the city’s only Super Bowl win.
And adding to those triumphs, SEVEN out of the ten Rose Bowls played during the 80s featured a Los Angeles team, which won six of those seven.
Let’s go over these successes by the L.A. teams, starting with one where you absolutely CANNOT write about championship sports teams in the Southland during the 1980s without emphasizing them first, the:
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
November 16, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Former pro basketball players, Kurt Rambis, Dr. J, Norm Nixon, Irvin “Magic” Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar James Worthy, coach Pat Riley, coach Bill Sharman, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West on stage after the ceremony unveiling the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar statue in front of the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Number of championships won during the 1980s: Five
Years won: 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988
The “Showtime” era, featuring several hall-of-fame legends, including the all-time leading NBA scorer who played his college ball at UCLA and a 6′ 9″ point guard from Michigan State that, to be quite blunt, defined Los Angeles sports in the 1980s.
Led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, as well as other superstars like Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon, James Worthy, A.C. Green and shutdown artist Michael Cooper, those Lakers made the “Fabulous” Forum in Inglewood the place to be during the 80s as Jack Nicholson and what seemed to be every other Hollywood celebrity on the planet cheered them on.
The one Laker title that stands out in my mind is the six-game triumph over the Celtics in 1985.
The rivalry that L.A. had with Boston had been an intensely hateful one since the 1960s, and in the eight times that those two teams met in the NBA Finals prior to ’85, the Celtics had won all eight of them.
That all changed in 1985, which was won by the Lakers in Boston Garden, becoming the first visiting team to win a NBA championship in that building.
Oh yeah, let’s not forget those Laker Girls, which in the early 80s were led by a young lady named Paula Abdul.
LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Number of championships won: Two
Years won: 1981, 1988
In light of the major disappointment that these Dodgers have become this season to date, one thing that can bring good memories to the Dodger faithful is the World Series titles that the team won in the 80s, the last two in franchise history.
March 29, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers former manager Tommy Lasorda brings out the lineup card before a game against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Managed by the notoriously charismatic Tommy Lasorda, two names stand out in connection to those wins, the first one being a young 20-year old kid from the northern Mexico desert, an overweight left-handed pitcher named Fernando Valenzuela.
Possessing a devastating screwball and needing an interpreter to communicate with people as he spoke little English, in 1981 Valenzuela took L.A. by storm, launching “Fernandomania”, selling out stadiums wherever he went as fans, especially Latinos, went completely nuts over the youngster.
Not that it wasn’t deserved as Valenzuela won his first eight starts in ’81, throwing shutouts in five of them and eventually winning the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards during that strike-shortened season.
Rick Monday’s home run in Montreal against the Expos propelled the Dodgers into the World Series that year, where they defeated New York Yankees in six games for their fifth title.
It was only their second triumph over the Yankees in the Fall Classic, the first one coming in 1963.
Seven years later, a tough, no-nonsense, don’t mess-with-me free agent from the Detroit Tigers arrived in L.A. and immediately set the tone of how things were going to be when, after a prank, Kirk Gibson stormed out of spring training camp in anger.
His new teammates got the message, and 1988 became a season for the ages as Gibson won MVP honors and Orel Hersheiser won the Cy Young award after going 23-8 and breaking Don Drysdale’s record of 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
The defining moment that season was during game one of the World Series against the overwhelmingly favored Oakland A’s when Gibson, nursing painful injuries in both legs, pinch hit against A’s star Dennis Eckersley and whacked a backdoor slider into the right field pavilion at Dodger Stadium to give L.A. a 5-4 win, limping around the bases and boosting the Dodgers into an eventual five-game triumph.
The significance? No Dodger team has been to the World Series since.
UCLA BRUINS AND USC TROJANS
Number of Rose Bowl Appearances: Seven – four by USC and three by UCLA
Years in the Rose Bowl: USC – 1980, 1985, 1988, 1989, and UCLA – 1983, 1984, 1986
Rose Bowl Records: UCLA, 3-0 and USC, 3-1
Although neither team won a national championship during that time, west coast college football was dominated by the city of Los Angeles in the 1980s as the two schools in town that fielded major Division 1-A teams, UCLA’s Bruins and USC’s Trojans, played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on January 1st seven out of the ten years.
Future NFL hall-of-famers such as Marcus Allen, Jack Del Rio, Mark Carrier and Rodney Peete led the Trojans during the decade, as ‘SC’s Rose Bowl wins included Michigan in 1980 and ’89 and Ohio State in 1985, while losing to Michigan State in 1988, the Trojans finishing in the country’s top ten three times.
November 17, 2012; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins linebacker Anthony Barr (11) forces a fumble by USC Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley (7) in the fourth quarter of the game at the Rose Bowl. UCLA won 38-28. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Meanwhile across town in Westwood, UCLA was enjoying a renaissance, particularly during the mid-80s as during a four-year span, the Bruins went to three Rose Bowls and a Fiesta Bowl – and won them all.
The Bruins’ run of success eventually earned them seven straight bowl wins from 83-89, the first time anyone in college football had achieved that feat. They finished in the top ten four times.
UCLA’s star power matched their USC rivals as Kenny Easley, Tom Ramsey, Freeman McNeil, Ken Norton, Jr. and Troy Aikman led the team to a level that has yet to be approached.
As for how the Bruins and Trojans did against each other, it was a closely played crosstown rivalry, UCLA winning the decade with a 5-4-1 mark.
The Battle for the Victory Bell has been dominated by one team or the other since then, UCLA winning eight straight from 1991-98 while USC has won 12 out of the last 14 contests.
LOS ANGELES RAIDERS
Super Bowl Appearance: January 22, 1984 – Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins, 38-9
The only Super Bowl championship in Los Angeles came courtesy of Al Davis’ club as in their second season in L.A. after moving south from Oakland and coming off a 12-4 regular season record, the Silver and Black faced the Redskins in Tampa, FL.
December 30, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders fans cheers prior to the game against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
At 14-2, Washington was the favorite, but by the start of the fourth quarter it was over as the Raiders took a 21-3 halftime lead, increased that advantage to 35-3 after three quarters, and cruised to their third and last NFL title.
Derrick Jensen blocked a punt for a touchdown, and Jack Squirek intercepted a pass on the Redskins’ own 5-yard line and returned it for a score just before the half, but what really broke Washington’s back was Marcus Allen’s 74-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, making everything moot.
Quarterback Jim Plunkett and Todd Christensen at tight end joined Allen as the offensive stars, while the Raider defense was led by Howie Long, Lyle Alzado, Matt Millen and Lester Hayes.
I don’t think anyone would have believed it if they were told that the Raiders would never win another Super Bowl, either in L.A. or back in Oakland, where they returned in 1995.
THE TRADE HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD
August 8, 1988: A date that would live in infamy among Canadians.
It was on that summer day that Wayne Gretzky, the Edmonton Oilers center whom many felt wore a blue spandex suit with an “S” on the chest under his uniform, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, devastating all of Canada to the point where some in their government talked about blocking “The Trade”.
Hockey fans in L.A. were ecstatic, however, as “The Great One” would bring respectability to the Kings during his eight seasons in Los Angeles, leading them to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 1993 while boosting interest in hockey in Southern California, selling out games at the Forum, and being at least indirectly responsible for the NHL expanding to warm weather cities like Phoenix and San Jose.
A look at sports in Los Angeles during the 1980s would not be complete without mentioning this significant event.
And I think it makes for a convincing argument as to why the 1980s were the best decade for sports in L.A. – if the Lakers, Dodgers, and UCLA and USC football weren’t convincing enough.
Apr 15, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of statute of Los Angeles Kings former player Wayne Gretzky with a Kings jersey before game three of the 2012 Western Conference quarterfinals against the Vancouver Canucks at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports