Tied #2 ranked Mississippi 0-0.
Beat #6 ranked Tennessee 1996
Beat #7 ranked Auburn 1975
There was a top 10 Mississippi St win somewhere in the late 60s/early 70s but I can't remember what year.
Biggest would be either tying the #2 team or beating UT.
I'll let others put our biggest, but here's what I feel like is the coolest to me.
1999 - Hurricane Floyd strikes Eastern NC. The state is absolutely devastated. Much of Greenville is under 20 feet of water for 10+ days, especially near the campus of ECU (not exaggerating, feel free to look it up). ECU goes on the road to play (and beat) South Carolina in Columbia, only to find out that they cannot return to Greenville. They couldn't return because their apartments,houses, possessions, and everything they have in Greenville were all under water. They had no clothes other than what they wore to Columbia (USC actually provided them with some though, nice guys)... and literally had no idea what was going to happen to them.
The next week the Pirates were scheduled to host the #9 Miami HURRICANES in Dowdy-Ficklen stadium. Only one problem, Greenville was inaccessible to most of the fans. Our buddies over at NC State let us borrow their stadium for the game where we packed Carter Finley stadium (yes in 1999, 50k - Maybe 46k - Idk I've seen different things) to take on the Canes. Miami came out hot- getting up to 23-3 until late in the 3rd quarter. This is when the magic happened... ECU came back in a late 3rd/4th quarter run to win the game 27-23 and tear down the goal posts, forever pissing off Wolf Pack fans (we actually paid for them in advance, they were ours to tear down). From there on we stayed in the top 25 until the end of the season where we finished at 19 (highest ranking was 17- of course we got reamed by USM and poo poo'd UAB at the worst times- lost the bowl game to TCU). Actually - we might not have finished ranked - we went into that last game at #19.
That's the biggest win in my book. I was only 8 years old but I remember it like it was yesterday. Floyd wasn't actually the crappiest hurricane I had to endure, but I do remember some really heavy rainfall. I'm sure others will point to wins over higher ranked opponents but I think this one just makes for an awesome story.
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2013 12:29 AM by ncbeta.)
(11-26-2013 11:54 PM)oldtiger Wrote: Tied #2 ranked Mississippi 0-0.
Beat #6 ranked Tennessee 1996
Beat #7 ranked Auburn 1975
There was a top 10 Mississippi St win somewhere in the late 60s/early 70s but I can't remember what year.
Biggest would be either tying the #2 team or beating UT.
There was that time we beat USC @ their place in 1991 24-10. But they went on to a 3-8 record that year, so I guess it wasn't that great of a win.
Alabama in 1987?
We ARE 2-0 all time against Auburn, so that's something...
Hard to really say 3 NCAA BB titles, Sugar Bowl, Orange, Fiesta Bowl wins. Not to mention several BE conference titles. I really can't choose. Maybe the most fun was beating UK in the NCAA to go to the final four. Billed as The Dream Game .
I would say based on the ramifications of the game it would be the 1991 Peach Bowl vs #21 NCST.
It was a sold out Peach Bowl and the last outdoor game in the Peach Bowl history at Fulton County Stadium. It was a huge rivalry game vs NCST who stopped playing us after we defeated them in Raleigh and tore down their goalpost in 1987. This was a game where NCST would have loved nothing better then to beat ECU and bring our magical season to a end.
With everything that was riding on this game, ECU staged a historical comeback victory to defeat #21 NCST and finish #9 in the country. If we lose that game, the pollsters probably drop us #20-25 or maybe even out of the final poll all together the way they have shafted us over the years. As it stands that win validated a 11-1 season where ECU defeated #15 Syracuse and #23 Pitt earlier and only lost to Illinois on a bullcrap celebration penalty. Relating this thread to the AAC we had four AAC schools play a cameo role on our magical season as we defeated UCF, Memphis, Tulane and Cincinnati that year along with South Carolina, Akron, Syracuse, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Southern Miss and NCST.
I would certainly put the wins over #9 Miami, #8 WVU, #13 VT and the crushing of #12 Miami 31-6 in the Orange Bowl right up there with some of my favorite wins
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2013 08:28 AM by ShoreBuc.)
In football, I would have to go with not only beating #3 Florida, but really dominated. Powerhouse SEC program on National TV in a prestigious bowl game. Honorable mention- Beating Alabama 34-7 in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl, beating #3 West Virginia in 2006.
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2013 08:22 AM by L1C4.)
2 top 20 teams that hate each other, playing in small, cramped McGonigle Hall. Never felt more electricity in a crowd at any sporting event ever. I never saw a point guard get 30 assists and 1 turnover in a game.
I know Temple probably had bigger wins nationally, but this one was tops in my book.
(11-26-2013 11:41 PM)UCFKnight10 Wrote: What is the high watermark for your team?
UCF's is obviously beating #8 Louisville.
UCF's best ever win was a win in the snow at #2 seed, undefeated Youngstown State (ranked #1 in some I-AA polls) in the first round of the 1990 I-AA playoffs.
In hoops it's obviously UConn's first national championship in 1999 over Duke. In football it would have to be our near blow out of South Carolina in the Papa John's Bowl in 2009-2010 but we also beat Notre Dame that season so it's kinda like number 1 and 1a.
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2013 09:23 AM by HartfordHusky.)
(11-27-2013 12:25 AM)ncbeta Wrote: I'll let others put our biggest, but here's what I feel like is the coolest to me.
1999 - Hurricane Floyd strikes Eastern NC. The state is absolutely devastated. Much of Greenville is under 20 feet of water for 10+ days, especially near the campus of ECU (not exaggerating, feel free to look it up). ECU goes on the road to play (and beat) South Carolina in Columbia, only to find out that they cannot return to Greenville. They couldn't return because their apartments,houses, possessions, and everything they have in Greenville were all under water. They had no clothes other than what they wore to Columbia (USC actually provided them with some though, nice guys)... and literally had no idea what was going to happen to them.
The next week the Pirates were scheduled to host the #9 Miami HURRICANES in Dowdy-Ficklen stadium. Only one problem, Greenville was inaccessible to most of the fans. Our buddies over at NC State let us borrow their stadium for the game where we packed Carter Finley stadium (yes in 1999, 50k - Maybe 46k - Idk I've seen different things) to take on the Canes. Miami came out hot- getting up to 23-3 until late in the 3rd quarter. This is when the magic happened... ECU came back in a late 3rd/4th quarter run to win the game 27-23 and tear down the goal posts, forever pissing off Wolf Pack fans (we actually paid for them in advance, they were ours to tear down). From there on we stayed in the top 25 until the end of the season where we finished at 19 (highest ranking was 17- of course we got reamed by USM and poo poo'd UAB at the worst times- lost the bowl game to TCU). Actually - we might not have finished ranked - we went into that last game at #19.
That's the biggest win in my book. I was only 8 years old but I remember it like it was yesterday. Floyd wasn't actually the crappiest hurricane I had to endure, but I do remember some really heavy rainfall. I'm sure others will point to wins over higher ranked opponents but I think this one just makes for an awesome story.
I agree. The mere symbolism in beating the Hurricanes in the aftermath of one makes this game #1 in my mind. Here is the story of the 1999 Pirates for any interested parties.
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2013 09:28 AM by Chappy.)
