When Sports Photos are as Iconic as the Events
Sometimes as a sports photographer, it’s all about timing. You have to be there to elegantly capture these moments and provide a visual that allows the event to be cemented into history. That’s why the photographers below are the real MVPs.
As our own ode to sports photography, we combed through Sports Illustrated’s “100 Greatest Sports Photos of All-Time” and used our WhereOnThe.Net analytics to see which images are getting the most action on the Internet to date.
Dwight Clark and “The Catch”
Known today as “The Catch,” this touchdown reception by San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark off a pass from quarterback Joe Montana gave the 49ers a 28–27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the 1982 NFC Championship Game. The win secured their spot in the Super Bowl, where they later defeated the Cincinnati Bengals.
Although the image has appeared on over 200 different websites since February 2008, 92 percent of the 6,400+ total hits are from Uni-Watch.
U.S. Hockey Defeats Soviet Union
The U.S. Men’s Hockey team caused the largest upset of the 1980 Olympics when they beat the Soviet Union 4–3 on captain Mike Eruzione’s game-winning goal. The U.S. later defeated Finland to take home the gold medal. and the story of this “Miracle on Ice” has now been made into what I would argue is the greatest American sports film ever. My father agrees, considering he signed me out of school so I could see it in theaters. Plus it doesn’t hurt that director Gavin O’Connor and his team casted real hockey players so the movie could be genuine and accurate.
Since first appearing online in March 2008, the iconic image has generated 595 occurrences on nearly 220 websites — including a Sporcle quiz, an inspirational billboard on Values.com and naturally, the USA Hockey website.
Dennis Rodman Goes Horizontal
During a game against the Indiana Pacers in 1997, Chicago Bulls power forward Dennis Rodman flew through the air as he pursued a loose ball at the United Center in Chicago. By the end of the 96–97 season, Rodman won both his sixth rebounding title and his fourth NBA championship.
According to WhereOnThe.Net, the snapshot has appeared on over 315 websites, like Acid Cow and Fresher Russia. A majority of those hits took place between 2013–2015 when Rodman made headlines for his trip to North Korea and the documentary that followed.
Bobby Orr Wins the Cup
This iconic photograph captures Boston Bruins defenseman Bobby Orr following his winning goal during overtime of Game 4 in the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals. The conquest over the St. Louis Blues was Boston’s first Cup in 29 years and Orr walked away with MVP honors.
Reddit, Jot Down Spain and about 320 other websites have celebrated the image’s impeccable timing. Today, the photo has turned up on 850 unique pages — gaining nearly two-thirds of the hits following the 2013 release of Orr’s book, which features a detail of the photograph on the cover.
The Winning Dunk
With his second photograph on the list, Walter Iooss Jr. captured Michael Jordan the moment before he reached a perfect score of 50 to win the Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend 1988. This was Jordan’s second title, triumphing over a fellow NBA legend Dominique Wilkins.
Nearly 450 websites and over 1630 unique pages have hosted the photo according to WhereOnThe.Net. Surprisingly, it has appeared on less sports websites and more lifestyle pages, such as Pinterest and Food Republic. The image was even featured alongside an article published in Thought Catalog titled, “Screw My ‘Michael Jordan Year’” about a woman turning 23.
Michael Jordan’s Buzzer Beater
Jordan is also a double feature on this list, but this time he is shown scoring the game-winning buzzer beater against the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. Some argue that this was the most memorable shot of Jordan’s career.
Bleacher Report and ESPN are just two of the 525 websites that have hosted the image. It has also appeared on over 1770 unique pages, with occurrences nearly tripling after news broke in 2014 that Jordan is a billionaire.
Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston
And the oldest and most viral image goes to…. well, The Greatest. Photographer Neil Leifer snapped this renowned shot of boxing legends Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965 during the heavyweight title rematch. Ali defeated Liston by knockout in the first round and would hold the heavyweight title until 1967.
The photograph has racked up appearances on nearly 6045 unique pages, with occurrences spiking after Ali’s hospital stints in late 2014 and early 2015. Almost 1330 different websites feature the image, ranging from Slate’s critique of the photo and CBS News’ piece about when the gloves went up for auction to a creative desktop background by a designer in Smashing Magazine.
Got a favorite sports photo you’d like to learn more about? Find out where it is and where it’s been with WhereOnThe.Net and share your results with us.
WhereOnThe.Net traces how images spread online. Whether you want to find copies of your own work or track viral images, we crawl the Internet and show you all the sites it has appeared on and it’s growth over time.
Images used in this article are used subject to news reporting and quotation exemptions in German copyright law, but if you are the rightsholder and think it should be taken down, please let us know. For any questions, please email us at contact@whereonthe.net.
