REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
by Thomas Snyder
Solution: ZEN MASTER
While this puzzle may read like an ordinary sports identification puzzle on quick glance, many of the entries will sound familiar but be fundamentally incorrect. A key description, if it is not obvious to that point, is the second from the last which refers to two sides of a coin and says, if the toss went another way, "the outcome could easily have been reversed."
Each of these 24 descriptions is actually a rewriting of a memorable moment in American sports which changes the outcome for the losing team. While each is an event that never happened, all contain enough of a description of the real event's details that they can be transformed into some of the most memorable plays in sports.
The first letters of the write-ups spell RETURN TO CHRONOLOGIC ORDER, which is one necessary step to the answering mechanism. Each description clues a specific person, and the year given is off by a certain number of years, which gives an index into each name for a single letter. The correct list of moments, dates, and people is:
| Moment | Fake Date | Real Date | Difference | Person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Shot Heard 'Round the World | Oct. 1950 | 10/03/51 | 1 | Don Newcombe |
| The Catch (baseball) | Sept. 1947 | 09/29/54 | 7 | Leo Durocher |
| Havlicek stole the ball | Apr. 1961 | 04/15/65 | 4 | Hal Greer |
| The Immaculate Reception | Dec. 1970 | 12/23/72 | 2 | Terry Bradshaw |
| Fisk waves it fair | Oct. 1971 | 10/22/75 | 4 | Bernie Carbo |
| The Miracle at the Meadowlands | Nov. 1974 | 11/19/78 | 4 | Joe Pisarcik |
| The Miracle on Ice | Feb. 1979 | 02/22/80 | 1 | Herb Brooks |
| The Catch (football) | Jan. 1980 | 01/10/82 | 2 | Bill Walsh |
| The Play ("The band is on the field") | Nov. 1976 | 11/20/82 | 6 | John Elway |
| 1983 NCAA upset by NC State | Apr. 1982 | 04/04/83 | 1 | Jim Valvano |
| Flutie's Hail Mary | Nov. 1975 | 11/23/84 | 9 | Melvin Bratton |
| Denkinger calls Orta safe | Oct. 1980 | 10/26/85 | 5 | Jack Clark |
| The Drive | Jan. 1980 | 01/11/87 | 7 | Bernie Kosar |
| The Fumble | Jan. 1979 | 01/17/88 | 9 | Bernie Kosar |
| Gibson's Gamewinner | Oct. 1979 | 10/15/88 | 9 | Tommy Lasorda |
| Fifth Down | Oct. 1976 | 10/06/90 | 14 | Charles Johnson |
| Wide Right | Jan. 1981 | 01/27/91 | 10 | Scott Norwood |
| The Shot (NCAA men) | Mar. 1975 | 03/28/92 | 17 | Christian Laettner |
| Webber's Timeout | Apr. 1991 | 04/05/93 | 2 | Chris Webber |
| Jordan's Gamewinner | Jun. 1986 | 06/14/98 | 12 | Michael Jordan |
| The Coin Toss Game | Nov. 1990 | 11/26/98 | 8 | Phil Luckett |
| No Goal | Jun. 1996 | 06/19/99 | 3 | Stu Barnes |
| Derek Jeter's Relay | Oct. 1989 | 10/13/01 | 12 | Jeremy Giambi |
| The Tackle (II) | Jan. 2005 | 01/15/06 | 1 | Nick Harper |
The ordered, indexed letters read DOGEN, PHIL JACKSON, OR HAKUIN. All three are men who have been referred to as ZEN MASTER.