Cigar Aficionado

Imagine the unsured pressure: competing in your first big game at the very highest level. The stress of a sports debut has unnerved many, including some of the greatest athletes that ever drew breath. Despite collecting more than 7,200 hits between them in their storied careers, baseball greats Hank Aaron and Derek Jeter each went 0-5 in their first games in Major League Baseball, while legendary swinger Willie Mays managed only one hit in his first seven games. Bill Russell scored a mere six points in his NBA debut, missing eight of 11 shots and all four of his free throws, nothing that would suggest a career that would lead to 11 championship titles in 13 years. A young Troy Aikman didn’t look like the quarterback who would be on the winning side in three Super Bowls, as he completed less than half his es and threw two interceptions in a shutout loss to the Saints in his first pro football game.

Many struggled in their debuts, and many others played good first games, but merely being good doesn’t get you on this list—we’re looking for debuts that were amazing. Here are the 10 greatest first games in the world of sport, counting down to number one. 

10—Wayne Gretzky

He was only 17 years old, but Wayne Gretzky shone brightly in his debut with Edmonton on November 3, 1978, skating on his home ice at the Northlands Coliseum in Alberta, Canada. Just 14 seconds into the second period, the teenager blasted a 50-footer past the Winnipeg Jets’ netminder Markus Mattsson. Critics who claimed Gretzky had a soft shot were silenced with that sizzling slapper. “I don’t know where I got that power from,” Gretzky said.

The Oilers, who were at the time part of the World Hockey Association, won 4-3 that day and the following year became part of the National Hockey League when the WHA merged with the NHL. Gretzky went on to become the finest hockey player who ever lived, scoring 894 goals in his pro career. It’s still a record, one of many for Gretzky, who owns the hockey record book lock, stock and barrel. Among the many feats for this longtime cigar aficionado are the NHL’s seasonal and all-time records for goals, assists and points. Some start with a bang and fade, others slowly build to excellence, but “The Great One” showed his brilliance from the very beginning.

9—Isiah Thomas

He was only six-foot-one, small for the NBA, but Isiah Thomas made a spectacular showing at the Pontiac Silverdome against the Bucks in his debut for the Detroit Pistons, on October 30, 1981. He scored 31 points with 11 assists en route to a 118-113 win. Thomas had endured the crucible of coach Bobby Knight as a player for the Indiana Hoosiers and was drafted second overall in 1981, ing the team that would forever be known as the Detroit Bad Boys. As a point guard, Thomas led the Pistons to three consecutive finals from 1988 through 1990. They won in 1989 and in 1990, when Thomas was selected MVP, averaging 27 points and seven assists in a five-game win over Portland.

8—Ottis Anderson

Great running backs are the engines for football teams, powering through the defense and moving the chains downfield. No running back had a better first NFL game than Ottis Anderson, who gained 193 yards on the ground in his pro debut with the Saint Louis Cardinals. Even more remarkable, the gaudy numbers came on just 21 carries in a 22-21 loss to the Cowboys on September 2, 1979.

Anderson came into the NFL with high expectations: he was a superstar for the University of Miami, breaking school records for rushing in the 1970s. He was the eighth pick of the 1979 draft. And despite his stupendous first NFL game, it still ranks behind his performance in Super Bowl XXV, when Anderson, then 34 and playing for the New York Giants, rushed for 102 yards on 21 carries in Giant coach Bill Parcells’ masterful time-devouring rushing offense against the Buffalo Bills, who were favorites to win. With the Giants holding the ball for 40 minutes and 33 seconds compared with the Bills’ 19 minutes and 27 seconds, Parcells succeeded in keeping the team’s vaunted offense (which had totaled 95 points in the two previous playoff games) off the field. Anderson won the game’s Most Valuable Player award to go along with his Super Bowl ring.

7—Luis Tiant

The cigar-chomping hurler with a thousand jerky moves on the rubber used all of them in his debut at Yankee Stadium on July 19, 1964. It was the second game of a doubleheader, and Luis Tiant had just ed the Indians the day before. Manager Birdie Tebbetts asked him if he was ready to pitch. To say he was ready is an understatement.

A native of Marianao, Cuba, Tiant had played for the Havana Sugar Kings as a teenager before moving to the Mexican League, where he was discovered by the Cleveland Indians. When he took the mound on that day in 1964, he was facing a lineup that included Roger Maris, who had set the home run record just three seasons earlier. Tiant had no trouble mowing down the Yankees, and none came close to peppering that 296-foot mark in right field or the rest of the short porch. Tiant held the Bronx Bombers to four harmless singles, struck out 11 and hurled a complete game 3-0 win. He finished the season 10-4 with a 2.83 ERA.

Tiant played with style, and tended to look anywhere but in the direction of the batter when delivering a pitch, often from an unusual arm angle. Reggie Jackson once called him the “Fred Astaire of baseball.” He was known for his lifelong love of cigars, and was famously said to even have a cigar jammed in his mouth when he showered after games. The man known as “El Tiante” finished his career as a three-time All-Star with 229 wins and 2,416 strikeouts.

6—Maurice Stokes

It was nearly a triple double for the Rochester Royals’ six-foot-seven power forward. Maurice Stokes, named “The Cat” for his quickness, posted a game for the ages on November 5, 1955 at the Rochester Community War Memorial in New York. His debut line of 32 points, 20 rebounds and eight assists left his mates a basket short, as the Royals lost to the Knicks in overtime 100-98. A forward who could board, score and dish, Stokes earned NBA Rookie of the Year honors with 16.8 points and 4.9 assists per contest and a league-best 16.3 rebounds.

The rebound totals climbed even higher over the next two years, but Stokes’ career tragically ended before he reached 25. The three-time All-Star sustained a head injury on March 12, 1958, the final game of the regular season. He drove to the basket, was hit and his head struck the floor hard. After being revived with smelling salts, he returned. All seemed well three days later when he scored 12 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in a playoff contest, but he fell ill on the flight back home. Later, he succumbed to a seizure and ended up permanently paralyzed, diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy.    

Stokes was ed by his lifelong friend and teammate, Jack Twyman, who became his legal guardian. Despite his paralysis, Stokes was mentally alert and communicated by blinking his eyes. His condition deteriorated throughout the 1960s. The Cat, who made such a stunning debut less than 15 years before, died of a heart attack on April 6, 1970.

5—Bert Campaneris

With one out in the top of the second inning, before a scant afternoon gathering of 5,321 customers at Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota, Kansas City Athletics rookie shortstop Bert Campaneris barreled the first major league pitch he saw over the left field fence. It was July 23, 1964, and Campaneris got that hit off a tough customer, future Hall of Famer Jim Kaat. Later that game, with two out in the seventh and Charlie Shoemaker on second, Campaneris came to bat again with his team down one. He launched another home run blast to left field, again off Kaat. The Athletics held on for a 4-3 victory.

Some players get overlooked. “You can talk about Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Sal Bando, all those great players, but it was Campy who made everything go,” said Athletics owner Charlie Finley. True enough. The man who would be known as the “Road Runner” stole 649 bases in his career, 14th all time. A native of Pueblo Nuevo, Matanzas, Cuba and a cousin of major leaguer José Cardenal, Campaneris was signed for a mere $500 in 1961. It’s surprising that he flashed the lumber against Kaat in his inaugural, since he would become better known for blinding speed.  

Besides being a six-time All-Star, Campaneris played on Oakland’s three consecutive world championships from 1972 through 1974. In the American League Championship Series in ’72, Campaneris was involved in one of the most controversial incidents in postseason history. The A’s were up a game and leading game two 5-0, mostly on the strength of Campaneris’ quick feet. In three at bats he had three hits, two stolen bases and had scored twice. Meanwhile, Blue Moon Odom had three-hit the Tigers. In the bottom of the seventh, Tiger reliever Lerrin LaGrow drilled Campaneris with a fastball on his left ankle. Campaneris flung his bat out to the mound which LaGrow ducked to avoid. Despite the obvious intention behind LaGrow’s pitch, it was Campaneris who was fined $500 and suspended the next three games of the series. The loss of their starting shortstop could have cost the Athletics the series but they won in five games when slugger Jackson made a move more expected from Campaneris, stealing home to seal the game five victory for the A’s.

4—Fran Tarkenton  

The Minnesota offense was sputtering against the Bears, but that was no surprise. It was September 17, 1961, and not only was it the first game of the season, it was the first NFL game ever played by the Vikings, an expansion team that had just been created only a year before. In the second quarter, coach Norm Van Brocklin benched veteran quarterback George Shaw and sent in rookie Fran Tarkenton, who had been drafted from the University of Georgia. Tarkenton took over in dramatic fashion, hurling a touchdown on his first drive. Over the next two quarters, he threw three more and ran for another, finishing 17 of 23 for 250 yards and five touchdowns. Tarkenton was the only player in NFL history to for four touchdowns in his first game, a record that stood for more than 50 years before Marcus Mariota tied it in 2015. The Vikings upset the Bears 37-13 that day, and Tarkenton would go on to throw for 47,003 yards and rush for another 3,674 in an 18-year career. He became known as “The Scrambler,” but in his phenomenal inaugural game he was a thrower.    

3—Juan Marichal

Juan Marichal’s windup was as graceful as it was improbable. The righty kicked his left foot high in the air where it met his glove. The pitching hand, concealed momentarily, came behind the foot and the glove, making it hard for opposing batters to figure out what the San Francisco Giant was hurling their way. In his debut against the Phillies on July 19, 1960, the “Dominican Dandy” showed off his full repertoire. He tossed screwballs, sliders, hard ones, all of them delivered from varied arm angles: overhead, sidearm, even submarine. He spun a no-hitter for eight-and-a-third innings before surrendering a pinch-hit to Clay Dalrymple. Unshaken, he finished with a one-hitter and 12 strikeouts in a 2-0 victory in just two hours and seven minutes at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Three years after that first game, on July 2, 1963, Marichal would face the Braves’ Warren Spahn, then 42 years old. Spahn would win 363 games, more than any lefty in history, and the two battled for 16 scoreless innings. Willie Mays finally connected off Spahn for a walk-off homer in the bottom of the sixteenth for a 1-0 victory, a duel that was called the greatest game ever pitched. Marichal won 191 games in the 1960s, more than any other pitcher in the majors.

2—Usain Bolt

He is called the fastest man in history, and his speed was on full display on the grandest stage in sports. In Usain Bolt’s first complete Olympic games, in Beijing in 2008 (his 2004 Athens Olympics were cut short by injury), the Jamaican native won his first contest—the 100-meter-dash—and did it in a world record time of 9.69 seconds. And his 19:30 in the 200 meters beat Michael Johnson’s 19:32 record set 12 years prior. He won another gold running the third leg of the 4 by 100 meters relay in the same Olympic games.

In 2012 in London, the six-foot-six “Lightning Bolt” struck again, improving upon his Olympic record with a 9.63 finish in the 100. He blazed through the 200 meters at 19.32 to win another gold, and the team’s world record 36.84 in the 4 x 100 meters gave him gold once again.

Rio completed his Olympic trio: he won gold in all three events once again, but he was stripped of the relay medal when his teammate Nesta Carter was found guilty of a doping violation. The name Bolt has been synonymous with speed for decades, and his world-record time of 9.58 seconds in the 100 (set at the 2009 world championships in Berlin) still stands, 14 years later.

1—Wilt Chamberlain  

The air crackled with excitement. A crowd that swelled to a capacity of 15,245 fans by game time buzzed with anticipation for the NBA debut of Wilt Chamberlain on October 24, 1959 at Madison Square Garden in New York. A star by way of the University of Kansas (as well as a year with the Harlem Globetrotters), the Philadelphia Warrior center was the game’s grandest attraction at seven-foot-one and 258 pounds. Fans stirred under the Garden marquis, snug between an Adams Hats store and Nedicks on 50th and Eighth. In the Garden rotunda, some smoked panetelas, others perfectos. Other fans bided their time one block east at Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant on Broadway. Still, others rushed through their dinners at Gallagher’s Steakhouse just two blocks north.  

The man known as “Wilt the Stilt” lived up to the lofty expectations of that electric crowd, racking up 43 points and 28 rebounds in a 118-109 victory over the Knicks. He played all 48 minutes. “Right from the beginning I could see what it was going to be like,” said Knicks coach Fuzzy Levane. “On one of the game’s early plays, Wilt and Kenny Sears went up for a ball near the basket. They both got their hands on it but Wilt jumped and dunked it into the basket with both hands. Sears was still hanging onto the ball. I swear I thought Chamberlain was going to stuff Kenny into the basket too.”

Chamberlain sunk his fadeaway push shot, made stuffs and put backs, and—despite the constant grabbing at his shirt and elbows in his back—spun off defenders in the lane for lay-ins. “Coach Levane and his players were quoted before the game as saying they’d stop me by blocking me out on the boards and making me shoot from the outside,” Chamberlain recalled. “I hit four jump shots from the top of the key in the first four minutes.”

Swarming defenses were nothing new to Chamberlain, who sometimes faced triple-team defenses in college. Now, he countered the attempts of Charlie Tyra, Johnny Green and six-foot-nine forward Kenny Sears to stifle him. At times, all five Knicks sagged into the lane to force him farther from the basket. None of it seemed to work. He made 17 of 27 field goal attempts. On defense, he ignited fast breaks by whipping outlet es to half-court.

It was not only the most impressive debut of any NBA player, but it launched the most statistically dominant career in the history of the league. In his rookie season, Chamberlain averaged 37 points and 27 rebounds, both NBA records.

But he was unhappy. Opposing players treated him to an endless diet of hard fouls, sending him to the line where he hit only 58 percent of his free throws. His frustration peaked after 245-pounder Clyde Lovellette swung a vicious elbow that ultimately cost Chamberlain two of his teeth. “They’re getting away with murder against Wilt,” said his coach Neil Johnston, who wanted the big guy to punch back. Chamberlain swung back that night, knocking out Lovellette with one punch, which made him afraid of his own impressive power. “If I come back next year and score less than I have, I may have to punch eight or nine guys in the face,” he said. “I may lose my poise. I don’t want to.”

Just like his debut NBA game, his career numbers are a study in excess. NBA players have scored 70 points or more in a single game on 13 occasions—six of those performances were by Chamberlain. No one else has done it twice. He averaged 50.4 points per game in the 1961-62 season, a record that still stands, and his ridiculous 100 points against the Knicks on March 2, 1962 in Hershey, Pennsylvania are the most any player has ever scored in a single NBA game, by a comfortable margin. He averaged over 40 points a season twice—no one else did it once. His 72.7 field goal percentage in 1972 is the highest ever for a season. Add his career averages of 30 points and 22 rebounds and the total is a record 52. Critics may diminish his greatness due to his four losses in the NBA finals. Chamberlain’s two championships came with the 76ers in 1967 and the 1972 Lakers, the teams owning the best records to that point. When it came to closing out the Celtics in the ’67 Eastern Division Finals, Chamberlain posted a game-five line of 29 points, 36 rebounds and 13 assists in the 140-116 win.

In 1973, his career ended as it began, against the Knicks, although this time it would be in the NBA Finals. Although the Lakers lost in five games, Chamberlain performed his swan song like a true legend, playing all 240 minutes of the series, more than any other player on the court.