Now that we’ve recognized the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, let’s get to the really significant stuff from 1969.

Here’s the thing about that year. Neil Armstrong wasn’t the only guy who took a giant leap. The case could be made that 1969 was an historic lap through the calendar for sport. Landmarks everywhere.
You’d probably like evidence.
Six months before Apollo 11 blasted off, Joe Namath guaranteed a New York Jets victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. A team from the AFL insurgency beating one of the mighty old guard from the NFL? Yeah, right. Check back when we’re on Mars.
When Namath turned out right, pro football entered a new age.
Four months before the lunar landing, UCLA and an Atlas rocket at center named Lew Alcindor won a third straight national championship. No team had ever done it before, but then, no player had ever seemed more unstoppable.
Alcindor graduated, to the immense relief of college basketball coaches everywhere, who didn’t realize the John Wooden empire was only beginning.
Sixteen weeks before liftoff, the major league baseball season opened with its most radical design change in generations. Alarmed by the lopsided dominance of pitching and anorexic batting averages, the keepers of the game lowered the mound five inches for the 1969 season.
Talk about your performance enhancers for hitters. Only this one came from a rulebook, and not a bottle. The long, loud road to the golden age of home runs and offense had begun.
Ten weeks before the moon shot, the aging Boston Celtics - with Bill Russell making his last stand - went from fourth place to their 11th NBA title in 13 years.
Russell promptly retired. An era and dynasty promptly ended.
Seven weeks before the Apollo mission, Mario Andretti won the Indianapolis 500. At the time, the checkered flag didn’t seem all that significant. But everyone later recognized that this was the one and only day that the Andretti curse at Indianapolis held no power.
A month before liftoff, a sectional qualifier named Orville Moody won the U.S. Open. Tiger Woods, he wasn’t. It would turn out to be the only PGA Tour level event Moody ever won. Still, golf’s ultimate one-hit wonder.
While Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were doing their power walk around the Sea of Tranquility, the New York Mets were showing signs of joining the pennant race. Hard to decide what was more amazing, since the sad sack expansion franchise had never finished higher than ninth place or closer than 24 games out of first.
We know how it ended - with a World Series title that redefined the baseball upset.
Six weeks after the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home, Rod Laver won the U.S. tennis Open to complete the men’s calendar grand slam.
No one has done it since, even earthlings named Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
Four months after the mission, Michigan upset No. 1 Ohio State 24-12. It was more like Fort Sumter, for this was the first salvo in the Woody Hayes-Bo Schembechler 10-year war.
Nearly five months after Armstrong stepped on the moon - scientific feat of the century, according to NASA - No. 1 Texas met No. 2 Arkansas - college football game of the century, according to the Southwest Conference.
Texas won 15-14, and President Nixon was there to present the Longhorns a plaque honoring them as the national champions. You think the BCS is fouled up? This was Dec. 6. The bowl games hadn’t even been played yet, and Penn State was unbeaten, but the White House didn’t care.
Joe Paterno never forgave Richard Nixon. He would have liked personally to send the president to the moon.
One last feat:
While watching the futile batting attempts of a rookie San Francisco pitcher in 1962, Giants manager Alvin Dark offered the prediction, “There’ll be a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run.”
On July 20, 1969 - barely an hour after Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface - Gaylord Perry homered for the first time in his career. One small step for a man.