Other highlights included a stellar European association football (soccer) season, culminating in EURO 2012, and Thoroughbred horse racing Triple Crown challengers in both the U.S. and the U.K. Several sports were tarnished with a myriad of doping problems, however, and a child sexual abuse scandal at Pennsylvania (Penn) State University transcended athletics.
Steven Mullen of The Tuscaloosa News called the episode "stellar", said the Charles Miner soccer subplot ended "perfectly" and said, "Watching [Michael's] fears bubble beneath the surface and slowly erode Pam's confidence was a masterwork".
Bennett is of the same ilk as Vancouver's Darren Mattocks and he will be hoping to follow his countryman into Major League Soccer after another stellar season in the Big South.
And there are prepaid calling cards, created in a licensing agreement with IDT, that bear the name of the Telemundo soccer show "Futbol Estelar" ("Stellar Football" or "Amazing Football").
Inevitably, we'll also be hoping for some Cinderella moments, like an underdog Greek who captures the marathon, or more stellar performances by the beleaguered Iraqi soccer team, which won an upset victory yesterday.
Tim Howard's stellar performance for the U.S. men's soccer team Tuesday gained the goalkeeper a bit more than just recognition.
When the former superstar Ronaldo returned to play club soccer in Brazil last year after a stellar career in Europe, he was surrounded by journalists after his first match, bopped on the head with a microphone and a television camera and left with a black eye, according to Reuters.
From a stellar career at the University of Akron to Major League Soccer, Bunbury, a promising 6-foot-2 striker, has moved up the soccer ladder quickly.
At the last minute, we got tickets to a Major League Soccer game, so we ate at the stadium -- which happens to host a stellar selection of food trucks.
