5 biggest moments of MU athletics this year. Well, so far.....

I'm officially sick of talking about Mike Alden and Frank Haith.  Not that both these guys aren't worthy of discussion.  It's just that there's nothing to talk about right now.  Coach Haith hasn't even hired his first staff member yet, or gotten his first recruit.  There may be something if he manages to salvage something from this recruiting session, which suffered from inattention to former coach mike anderson.    As for Alden, as I've stated before, he's very unlikely to be fired due to the profitability of the AD, and the fact that most programs are doing as well or better than they ever have during his watch.  What I'd like to talk about are what I consider to be the 5 biggest moments for the athletic department for 2010-2011.  We may yet see something from the baseball, and even more importantly the softball programs, but those will be topics for another day.  So here are my 5 biggest, in no particular order.
1. The Catch
No, I'm not talking about Montana to Clark.  I'm referring to September 18th of 2010.  The Tigers season appears ready to derail before it ever gets out of the station as they trail lightly regarded San Diego State 24-20 with less than a minute to go.  Suddenly, out of no where, Blaine Gabbert finds TJ Moe for a 68 yard touchdown to save the season.   Without that, who knows where the season might have gone. 
2. The Return

If TJ saved the season, the return of the opening kickoff from Gahn McGaffie set the stage and made Missouri a contender.  ESPN Gameday was in town and Tiger nation had done itself proud, showing up over 18,000 strong to set a new record.  But what remained was the game against the # 1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners, a team that head coach Gary Pinkel had never beaten.  The game opened with a lot of energy from the crowd, and the Tigers needed a good start to keep them in the game.  McGaffie supplied that with an 86 yard return of the opening kickoff and I've not been in Memorial Stadium where the volume was that loud since the 4th quarter of the 2003 game vs Nebraska where the Tigers ended 24 years of frustration.
3. Robin Pingeton hired 
I know.  Women's basketball isn't a major sport.  In the food chain at Mizzou, it ranks about even with golf and cross country.  But it was making a statement that the Tigers weren't giving up on any sports, whether it had a following or not. While I'm not sure I always agree with the philosophy, it is pretty much the mission statement of the athletic department, and I expect to see her bring women's basketball to a level of competitiveness that we just haven't see before.
4 Mike Anderson resigns
I probably shouldn't have capitalized his name, and I doubt that he's ever mentioned again, but the cowardly and deceitful way that former coach anderson left is something that I'm going to remember.  He did raise the bar of the program after the Quin Snyder debacle, but I hope that at some point he learns to tell the truth.  Frankly, I wouldn't believe the man if he said good morning.
5 Gary Pinkel's contract extended
This just happened today and I couldn't be happier.  Coach Pinkel signed a 2 year extension which means he remains in CoMO until 2017.  Coach signed the extension for the same money he was making, although he does receive an extra 100 k contributed to his annuity per year, and an extra 150,000 to be distributed among his assistants.  This may or may not be the last extension the coach signs, but I still expect to see a statue of him outside the stadium after he retires.