What are my top 10 most memorable moments in Canadian sports?

I am glad I asked.

This question came to mind last week, when Nick Taylor drained a 72-foot putt to win the Canadian Open golf championship.

The criteria for this column is that these are events that stick in my mind. The list doesn’t include accomplishments over a season or career.

Here we go.

10. Northern Dancer: I am putting a horse 10th, so no one can accuse me of putting a horse ahead of great athletic accomplishments of people.

I was nine years old when Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby. I named my bike “Dancer.” Northern Dancer went on to win the Preakness and finished third in the Belmont, the final leg of the Triple Crown.

Northern Dancer proved to be good in the bed, siring 645 foals, with 411 of them becoming winners, including 147 stakes races. His stud fee went from $10,000 to $500,000 over the years. He died with a smile on his face.

I was sitting in front of a black and white television on the day Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby. I will never forget it.

9. George Chuvalo: This one is odd, I know. In the 1960s, Chuvalo fought the great Muhammad Ali twice. Both fights went all 15 rounds, despite Chuvalo being pummelled round after round.

“He’s the toughest guy I ever fought,” Ali said.

There were those that said Ali spent a night in hospital after the fight, and Chuvalo went dancing with his wife.

In 93 professional fights, Chuvalo was never knocked down. Those 93 included the two with Ali, as well as ones against the likes of Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Those guys could throw ’em.

I will always remember the first fight with Ali.

8. Gretzky/Lemieux: With the game tied 5-5 in the deciding game in the best-of-three final against the USSR at the 1987 Canada Cup, coach Mike Keenan put Dale Hawerchuk at centre, and Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux on his wings.

Hawerchuk won the faceoff, and Gretzky, Lemieux and defenceman Larry Murphy broke out of the Canadian zone, creating a 3-on-1.

The obvious pass was Gretzky to Murphy, but Gretzky saw Lemieux skating up the middle and slipped a pass to him. Lemieux scored, firing the puck high on the glove side.

Gretzky to Lemieux is arguably the third more exciting goal scored in Canadian hockey. (The other two appear later in the column.) Lemieux’s goal came in one of the most exciting hockey games ever played.

7. Bianca Andreescu: She went from an unknown tennis player to a star in the summer of 2019. That summer, she won the Canadian Open and then the U.S. Open. In both finals, Andreescu, who was 19 at the time, beat the great Serena Williams, the best female player ever.

Canada has had some good female players, but Andreescu is the only one to win the U.S. Open and to reach the height of No. 4 in the world.

It is sad that a series of injuries have stalled her career, but I will always remember her for that glorious day in 2019, when she won the U.S. Open.

As an aside, Leylah Fernandez’s run to the final at the U.S. Open in 2021 is a great moment for me. Fernandez, the epitome of class, lost the final in straight sets to Britain’s Emma Raducanu.

6. Nick Taylor: Taylor won the Canadian Open golf championship just last week with a putt for the ages. After an opening round 75, and making the cut by one stroke, Taylor lit up the leaderboard.

His putting was incredible down the pressure-packed stretch of the final round. On the fourth playoff hole, he sank the 72-footer to defeat Tommy Fleetwood.

The crowd at the tournament went absolutely bonkers.

It was the first win by a Canadian since Pat Fletcher’s in 1954.

Did you know when Fletcher won, he was the professional at the Saskatoon Golf and Country Club? He lived in Saskatchewan from approximately 1947 to 1956.

Taylor’s putt will go down as the greatest in Canadian golf history.

People will wonder, rightfully, why I have Taylor on the list, but not Mike Weir’s win in the 2003 Master’s. Weir’s win didn’t leave a lasting impression on me like Taylor’s will, and like other moments on this list.

5. Nancy Greene Raine: Greene, who didn’t have Raine attached to her name during his skiing career, is one of the greatest skiers in history, dominating the sport in the late 1960s. She won the Canadian ski championship nine times and the United States championship three times. In 1967, Greene broke the European domination of the sport, winning the inaugural World Cup.

My moment came in 1968, when she won the Olympic gold medal in the giant slalom.

Greene was named Canada’s top female athlete of the 20th Century.

Enough said.

4. Donavon Bailey/Ben Johnson: At the 1996 Olympics, Bailey won the gold medal in the 100 metres in a world-record time of 9.84 seconds.

During the race, he hit a top speed of 43.6 kph/27.1 mph, which was the fastest ever recorded by a human.

Some saw Bailey’s win as restoring the integrity of Canadian sprinting, eight years after Ben Johnson won the gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in a record time of 9.79 seconds.

Three days after the race, Johnson was disqualified for doping. Johnson was labelled a national disgrace and many Canadians were outraged.

I felt no disgrace or outrage. Later, it became obvious that

Johnson was a pawn for those in charge of his career. These pathetic people would have benefited from his future earnings. They supplied Johnson with the drugs, and had been since 1981.

For me, Johnson’s race is more memorable than Bailey’s. I make no apologies for that.

3. Sandra Schmirler: Make that the great Sandra Schmirler. For all her accomplishments in curling, her gold- medal win at the 1998 Olympics is the most memorable. It was the first year that women’s curling was a medal sport. What took it so long?

In 2019, Schmirler was named the second greatest female curler of all time, finishing behind Jennifer Jones. That is debateable, but not here and now.

The Schmirler team, which was comprised of Jan Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit, was named the top Canadian women’s team of all time.

Schmirler was taken from us far too young, dying from cancer in 2000 at age 36.

A foundation in her name has donated more than $7 million to hospitals over the years for the purchase of life-saving equipment for sick babies.

Sadly, she didn’t get to see her own daughters grow into the wonderful women they are today.

2. Sidney Crosby: It takes a team to win a game, but Crosby’s overtime goal in the gold-medal game against the U.S. at the Vancouver Olympics is the most famous one for many Canadians.

Most Canadians will remember where they were when Jarome Iginla made the pass to Crosby. “Iggy,” Cosby yelled. Iggy knew it was the scream of a guy in a position to score.

Crosby took the pass and fired the puck past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller.

It was a big one, but not the biggest in Canadian hockey history.

1. Paul Henderson: Henderson’s goal in the dying seconds of the eighth game of the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union was the biggest one.

It was us against the Commies. It was the first time we had a good look at Russian hockey. They played a style of game never seen by our lads.

It was written that “the Soviets adopted an inventive style of play with a heavy emphasis on passing, shooting only if you had a good chance to score. They played as five- man units, circling back to regroup, which left Canadian players, coaches, fans and media mystified.”

What Canadians thought would be a cakewalk, turned into an outstanding series. It was our grit against their robotic style.

Henderson, one of the seemingly lesser lights on our team, was the hero.

He not only scored the series-winning goal, but also the winning goals in games six and seven.

Henderson has been enshrined in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, but not the Hockey Hall of Fame. What a shame.

What are your memorable moments?

(Background information for this column came from a number of online sources.)

• Cam Hutchinson