Coach K College Basketball – This game was released a couple of months after Krzyzewski’s second seeded Blue Devils were upset in the second round of the NCAA tournament by 10-seed Providence. The following season Duke finished the regular season ranked No.3, but lost a heartbreaker to eventual champion Kentucky in the Elite Eight. Krzyzewski has won two titles since, in 2001 and 2010, coached the Redeem Team to a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, and is 10 wins shy of tying Bob Knight’s record of 902 career victorys.
Dick Vitale’s “Awesome Baby” College Hoops – Vitale’s fourth book, Dickie V’s Top 40 All-Everything Teams was released the same month this game was released in June 1994. Vitale was a high school, college and NBA coach before joining ESPN in 1979. In that time he has essentially changed the vernacular of the sport and become one of the most popular and beloved figures in college hoops. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and continues to broadcast games.
Brett Hull Hockey ’95 – The 1994-95 season would have started soon after this game was released on Sept. 9, 1994 if it were not for a lockout by NHL owners that delayed the start of the season until Jan. 20, 1995. Hull was coming off is his first sub-100 point performance in five years. He would play nine more full seasons before retiring after just five games with the Phoenix Coyotes. Hull finished his career third both on the all-time goals list and the game-winning goals list. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009.
Mario Lemieux Hockey – This game was also released during the 1994-95 NHL lockout, on Nov. 1, 1994, but Lemieux would sit out the entire season due to fatigue from radiation treatments he endured the year before. Lemieux would return in 1995-96 to win his third Hart Memorial Trophy. After his retirement in 1997 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He returned in 2000 to play parts of five seasons before retiring again in 2006. Lemieux became the majority owner of the Penguins in 1999 and remains in that position today.
