We wave out the old year tonight, packing 2014 in mothballs, a trash can or a time capsule that one day will bring laughter, tears, awe -- possibly all three.
But what should we remember about the sports year all but gone, especially within the Tennessee Valley? What moved us? Enthralled us? Enraged us?
What do we hope we never see again? What do we hope is repeated in the years to come?
With an eye toward brevity and levity we'll attempt to highlight, by month, the best and biggest sports moments from 2014:
Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston smiles as he takes questions during a news conference in Los Angeles, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014. Florida State takes on Oregon in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) JANUARY: Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston showed why his on-field talent allowed his off-field behavior (an alleged rape charge, stealing soft drinks from a restaurant fountain machine after he was ordered to stop, etc.) not to keep him off the field by leading Florida State to a 34-31 over Auburn in the final BCS title game. It also marked the first time in eight years a Southeastern Conference team didn't win it all.
Closer to home, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's coach Jim Foster registered his 800th career win in a home victory over Samford, then deadpanned, "My concern is for you guys (the media), because you're going to have to think of a new question next week."
FEBRUARY: Peyton Manning was anything but perfect in the Super Bowl, his Denver Broncos broken swiftly and thoroughly by Seattle during a 43-8 Seahawks win that became the most-watched television show (111.5 million viewers) in U.S. history.
But it was a video of a different NFL player -- Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice -- that may change off-field behavior by pro athletes for the better. Though the most dramatic, disturbing tape of Rice knocking out his eventual wife in an Atlantic City casino elevator didn't surface until September, his actions during the wee hours of Feb. 15 led the NFL to dramatically change its penalties on domestic violence, and forced the rest of the country to re-examine its thoughts on the subject.
MARCH: Though both Kentucky and Florida would reach the Final Four, Tennessee's run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA men's basketball tourney was a somewhat pleasant surprise within the Volunteer State.
Alas, all those unfortunate souls who feared a march through March might encourage the UT brass to fully embrace coach Cuonzo Martin got what they didn't deserve: Martin left for California not long after the Vols' 73-71 Midwest Regional loss to Michigan. Or maybe they did get what they deserved, since Auburn snapped up former UT coach Bruce Pearl, laying waste to those 36,069 "Bring Back Bruce" online petitioners.
APRIL: UConn broke SEC hearts at the Final Four by knocking off Florida in the semis and Kentucky in the title game, but the most memorable and confusing moment of the month occurred at Tennessee's spring football game, where rising sophomore quarterback Josh Dobbs threw for three touchdowns, ran for another yet couldn't even earn a second-team designation from head coach Butch Jones heading into Team 118's season.
And this was after the coach said, "Be able to throw the football, make people miss in space. That's what our offense is all about."
Too bad it took Jones two-thirds of the 2014 season to embrace his own words.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.MAY: Dale Earnhardt Jr. flew into town for this newspaper's Best of Preps banquet. Before the banquet someone asked him if he had a favorite sports moment that didn't involve NASCAR. Earnhardt's answer should warm the heart of anyone who rode the bench as he recalled reaching the state title game with the Mooresville (N.C.) High School soccer team.
"I wasn't very big," he said. "I'm not sure I even got in for as much as a minute in the state title game, and we ended up losing. But just to be a part of it, to play someone we'd never played before, to get to spend the night in a hotel with your teammates, that will always be special to me."
JUNE: It may have been the busiest sports month of the year. Vanderbilt won its first NCAA title in anything but bowling when its baseball team captured the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Florida won the NCAA softball national title. Martin Kaymer won the U.S. Open golf tournament by eight shots. The San Antonio Spurs -- arguably the classiest franchise in all of American professional sports -- grabbed their fifth NBA championship. And thoroughbred racing went without a Triple Crown winner for the 36th straight year when California Chrome finished fourth in the Belmont.
But Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn did deliver the sour-grapes quote of the year when he grumbled that Tonalist skipping the first two legs of the crown -- the Kentucky Derby and Preakness -- to race in the Belmont was "like me, at 6-2, playing basketball (against) a kid in a wheelchair. ... Would that be fair?"
JULY: World Cup. World Cup. World Cup.
Sure, it started in June, but by the time Germany edged Argentina 1-0 in the title match it was July 13. The U.S. fell 2-1 to Brazil in the knockout round, but not before stirring hundreds of thousands the nation over to alter their work schedules to view the Red, White and Blue. Even our own Miller Plaza was jammed with fans.
In another world sport, Novak Djokovic held off a rejuvenated Roger Federer in their five-set Wimbledon final that many later rated the best match of the year.
Or as Fed noted afterward, "It had everything for fans to like."
Much, much closer to home, East Hamilton Middle School student Madison Hayes gave local youth sports fans something to really like when she earned the girls' 12-under championship at the national Pitch, Hit and Run competition during Major League Baseball's All-Star Weekend in Minneapolis.
AUGUST: Mo'ne Davis. Yes, college football practice started. And baseball pennant races heated up. And the new college football Hall of Fame opened down the road in Atlanta, complete with a Chick-fil-A attached.
But Davis, the 13-year-old baseball pitching phenom, stole the show at the Little League World Series after becoming not only the first girl to win a game at the event, but also the first to throw a shutout when she beat the Nashville entry 4-0.
In one of the most memorable quotes of the year, she said, "I throw my curveball like Clayton Kershaw and my fastball like Mo'ne Davis."
SEPTEMBER: It became football time again in Tennessee and elsewhere; the Braves removed themselves from the playoffs with a 7-18 September record before removing Frank Wren as general manager, and the locally staged Little Debbie Ironman provided such terrific human interest stories as Dalton residents and training partners Wendy Tieck and Dean Stamper. They became the final two finishers of the 2,241 participants to complete the grueling event in the alloted time.
Said Tieck after crossing the finish line 16 hours and 48 minutes after she began, the hour just past midnight: "This is my first and probably my only Ironman. Now I've got three days off and I've already scheduled an acupuncture treatment, a chiropractor and a massage. I lost almost 50 pounds training for this. It's time to pamper myself a little."
OCTOBER: The Atlanta Falcons didn't win a game all month. The Tennessee Titans went 1-3, their lone win against woeful Jacksonville. Apparently the South's outrageous success in college football doesn't often translate to its NFL brethren.
UTC's Jacob Huesman, left, and Malcolm Colvin celebrate a touchdown in the game against Indiana State at Finley Stadium.NOVEMBER: If you're a UTC or UT football fan, you'll long remember the first day of the turkey month as the day your teams came of age on the road. With snow swirling at times at both Western Carolina and South Carolina, the Mocs mashed WCU 51-0 to all but wrap up the Southern Conference title while the Vols came from 14 down with less than four minutes to play in regulation to shock the Gamecocks in overtime. The best day of the football season for both teams.
Oh, and did we mention that Foster's women Mocs shocked No. 4 Tennessee on the night before Thanksgiving?
DECEMBER: Santa visited the Vols and Mocs early and often. First, UTC earned the first football playoff win in school history by routing Indiana State 35-14 on Dec. 6 at Finley Stadium. The football Vols accepted a Gator Bowl bid against Iowa the very next day. On that same weekend, the UT men's basketball team shocked highly regarded Kansas State.
Move forward a weekend and the Vols did it again by stunning No. 15 Butler. Three days after that, Foster's Mocs did it again, shocking No. 7 Stanford inside McKenzie Arena. And Will Wade's men's Mocs closed out the year winning five of their final six games. For two schools that began the school year with much athletic uncertainty, it was certainly a grand way to ring out 2014.
Or as Foster said after the Stanford win, "The whole intent is to become good enough for the postseason."
Given that the postseason doesn't arrive until March of 2015, could there be a better quote to ring in the new year?
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.