What were you doing on this weekend 25 years ago? Do you remember how you spent that Saturday? Enjoying a late-summer day at the beach? Playing a little golf? Lounging at home, watching some college football? Probably, too much time has passed to recall exactly where you were and what you did.
But not for me.
If I live to be 100, I'll never forget the first "Super Saturday" at the 1984 U.S. Open, where, for more than 12 hours, the sellout crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium was treated to what many consider the greatest day in tennis' major championship lore.
I'll never forget sitting in the front row of that old press box atop the arena, baking in the afternoon sun, freezing in the air conditioning at night, all the while watching the biggest names in tennis take each of the day's marquee matches to an ultimate set.
I'll never forget that night, trying to write on deadline with a pounding headache -- likely from the strain of my eyes tracking too many of the 979 points across the 165 games that were played -- struggling to put into words and capture the emotions of all that had happened.
Four long matches.
Two five-set victories.
And another memorable clash in the storied rivalry between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who won her second Open championship with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory in a women's final that was sandwiched between two of the most compelling men's semifinals in tournament history.
Ivan Lendl, who is expected to attend Saturday's 25th anniversary celebration at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, survived a fifth-set tiebreaker against Pat Cash. His 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 triumph lasted more than 3-1/2 hours.
Then, after Evert and Navratilova left the stage, John McEnroe outlasted Jimmy Connors 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a 3-hour, 45-minute, all-American slugfest under the lights.
And when the last ball was struck at 11:16 p.m., a tennis day that had begun at 11:07 a.m. -- with Stan Smith defeating John Newcombe 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the men's 35-and-over final, a match added for the CBS telecast -- was finally done.
It was dramatic. It was unforgettable. It was as exciting as it was exhausting.
It was a long, long day of tennis.
Too long, really, especially for those of us who were there.
Vendors ran out of food. Spectators ran out of stamina. The usually raucous Open crowd ran out of energy, maybe even interest.
As the day wore on, the big-fight buzz that filled the arena in the afternoon had noticeably waned by nightfall. And as the clock moved past 9 p.m., the scene was almost eerie.
There were McEnroe and Connors, the two biggest names in the game, playing an Open semifinal in prime time on a perfect Saturday night in early September ... in a half-empty stadium.
Not that it affected them.
McEnroe and Connors went at each other as they always did, playing as if their lives depended on the outcome, giving the CBS audience and what was left of the crowd a night to remember -- before McEnroe destroyed Lendl in Sunday afternoon's anti-climactic final.
Maybe you tuned in. Maybe you were there. If so, I doubt you've forgotten it, even after 25 years. I know I haven't.
I've covered all kinds of must-see sports events in the years since, a list that includes Super Bowls, Olympics, World Series, Final Fours, college football national championship games, golf majors and Daytona 500s.
Some of those memories have become blurred with the passage of time.
But not this one.
Not that one special Saturday at the Open.
(Ray McNulty is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers in Florida. This column reflects his opinion. He can be reached at ray.mcnulty@scripps.com.)
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