MM#110--March Madness SPECIAL--One Shining Moment 🏀

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to this final march madness special. The ball is tipped. There you are, you're running for your life. You're a shooting star. And all the years. No one knows just how hard you worked. But now it shows. And those my friends are the opening words to the song one shining moment. And if you don't know what one shining moment is, it is a song and video montage that is played after every NCAA men's championship basketball tournament game. This has begun or it happened for the first time in 1987. So it was originally aired in 1987. And if you remember, that was a hell of a championship game in which to insert this beloved song at the end of the game. Because if you do remember back in 1987, Indiana's key smart hit baseline jumper. And it was almost a buzzer beater to defeat a very, very talented Syracuse team led by a very good coach and Jim Boeheim. And in terms of great coaches, that victory 1987 would bring Indiana's Bob Knight, his third and final NCAA championship.

 But let's go back to the words of the song. But the time is short, and the road is long. In the blinking of an eye, all the moments gone. And when it's done, win or lose. You always did the best cousin side you knew. Now, that's just some great lyrical writing right there. And that great lyrical writing is written by a guy named David Barrett. He is the songwriter who penned those words of one shining moment after watching Larry Bird on television, in a bar in 1986, in East Lansing, Michigan. And this song has now reached iconic status, with many artists performing their versions, from Luther Vandross, to Teddy Pendergrast. To many others. That's kind of cool, because this generation of players that has grown up watching the NCAA Tournament games from start to finish. They are very familiar with this song. And you have to remember this generation grew up when the games were all broadcasts from start to finish, which hasn't always been the case. You know, for many of these kids that are now playing one shiny moment, the song is actually in their pregame ritual before their own games, they all wear the headphones. And many of them admit to having one shiny moment in their pregame playlist to get them fired up for their games. 

So that's pretty cool. I will include in the show notes, the YouTube video collection that has formed over the various different years versions going all the way back to 1987. And it's worth a tumble if you have five or so minutes. And if you're not too tired from staying up late on Monday night, especially as folks on the eastern time zone where it'll probably be after midnight. And now here's some incredible endorsements of this video montage and song. The Wall Street Journal tells us one shining moment is arguably the most famous song and sports Armin contain the CBS analyst tells us it's the most powerful anthem around the perfect song for the purest play in sport. And Sports Illustrated on campus probably has the most fitting endorsement. one shining moment is one of the great power ballads of all time. It's the one last heartfelt goodbye.

So those are indeed some great endorsements and the popularity of this piece actually has its own website. Now. I just found out one shining moment.com I will put that link in the show notes as well. Now personally, the song caught my attention when, after the Duke Blue Devils won the 1991 championship, and they were cutting down the nets. I was a high school sophomore staying up late to watch the game. And I believe it was well past midnight when as the Duke players were cutting down the nets. There was this long Musical interlude. And it seemed kind of strange to me, because I never heard that before. 

And after some 10 or so minutes, much to my disbelief. We had the opening beats of a drum. And then the song one shining moment came on. I sat up in my bed riveted and thought to myself what is this? Where did this come from? Who created this who wrote this? And that was captivated by what I saw and what I was watching. The beauty of one shining moment song is that it's overlap with a great video summary of the whole tournament. That whole year's tournament is down into snippets. Much as you would remember them in your mind's eye. You can see the buzzer beaters replayed the highest joys of the players in the fan celebrating. And you also see the agony of defeat of the players and fans who lost their dejection that this year wouldn't be their fairy tale run in the tournament. And the swings of emotion captured in the song and CBS their masterful job on the edits. And the creating of the video stands as just classic moments in this cultural phenomenon that we have discussed over the last two and a half weeks. 

So in today's Mojo minute and our last special Mojo minute, March Madness Mojo minute as you enjoy tonight's championship game. Be sure to stay tuned into the very end while after the game is over. And as the credits roll, and the legendary Jim Nance makes the announcement for the song and the video montage to start and just enjoy it. It's one of the great masterpieces in all of television sports. So enjoy tonight's final game folks. And most especially enjoy this year's one shining moment.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on