Almost perfect.

If there is an appropriate sports epitaph for 2008, that's it.

History will remember the year that was as remarkable for reasons ranging from an extraordinary election to a depressing financial crisis. As a sports season, history may remember 2008 as perhaps the greatest ever.

From the nearly perfect New England Patriots to the perfectly awful Detroit Lions, this was truly a year of extreme superlatives. No, we didn't find a partner for the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and we didn't discover a horse as indomitable as Secretariat, but the glory of 2008 was that those things almost happened.

We did witness a swimmer more accomplished than Mark Spitz, a sprinter more swift and brash than Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson put together, a Wimbledon final more epic than Borg-McEnroe, and a U.S. Open golf classic that illustrated the will and determination of Ben Hogan plus Ken Venturi.

That would make for a pretty good year. But there was also a revival of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, and the biggest championship rally in NCAA Final Four history.

The pursuit of perfection was an ongoing theme from the moment the calendar turned. Once the Patriots became the first team ever to survive a 16-game regular season unbeaten, 19-0 seemed a foregone conclusion. And it would have been, if any one of the four guys who seemingly had New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning trapped finished the job in the closing minutes.

But Manning's escape was only the first half of the most miraculous play in Super Bowl history. The other end of his 32-yard heave ended with David Tyree out-leaping Rodney Harrison and catching the ball with the unconventional combination of his right hand and his helmet. Four plays later, the Giants scored, and a dynasty was dead.

Appetites whetted for perfection, we turned to Tiger Woods. Grand Slam talk buzzed the minute the world's No. 1 golfer surmised it was "easily within reason" before his first tee shot of the year. When he proceeded to win his first four events worldwide, the talk escalated to fever pitch.

But when Woods couldn't catch Trevor Immelman at the Masters Tournament and was checked out for knee surgery the next day, all seemed lost. He didn't reappear until two months later at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, and from the opening double bogey, it was clear he was in agony.

But in weekend prime-time television, Woods produced one spectacular shot after another, wincing his way to eagles and chip-in birdies that managed to keep him just close enough to need one last dramatic birdie to force a playoff. The lovable everyman who pushed him to this brink, Rocco Mediate, said he knew Woods would sink the tricky 15-footer that elicited a primal roar on the 72nd hole.

It took 19 more dramatic holes between the two men on Monday -- a playoff witnessed by so many people on site, on television and online that it made you almost forget all the previous playoff duds -- before Woods finally got his 14th career major. It took another 24 hours before we fully realized the magnitude of the accomplishment, as Woods revealed he was playing on a broken leg and would take the rest of the year off to undergo reconstructive knee surgery.

This all happened just a week after another superstar had pulled up lame in pursuit of perfection. Big Brown had won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in such convincing fashion that a 30-year Triple Crown drought looked all but over. But he had nothing left when jockey Kent Desormeaux asked him at the top of the Belmont stretch, and he eased up on a sore foot and finished dead last. Big Brown did not join the immortals, but for a fleeting few furlongs, he made us believe he was.

By the time July ended, we already had these tales and enough others to make this a standout year.

There was eventual NCAA basketball champion Kansas rallying from nine points down to Memphis in the final two minutes and forcing overtime when Mario Chalmers sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer. There was the new-era Celtics taking down Kobe Bryant's Lakers in an old-school NBA Finals. There was 53-year-old Greg Norman leading on the final nine holes of the British Open before yielding to Padraig Harrington, who a month later would add the PGA Championship to his burgeoning portfolio. And there was Rafael Nadal outlasting Roger Federer in a nearly five-hour, five-set marathon that many have hailed as the greatest tennis match ever played.

But this was an Olympic year, which upped the ante on spectacular. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt put up unforgettable performances in setting world records in the 100 and 200 meters, as well as the 4x100 relay. His coasting to a 9.69 time in the 100 despite celebrating before crossing the finish with one of his shoes untied would have been the highlight of any Olympics.

However, Michael Phelps was in China. Like Woods, the Patriots and Big Brown, the pressure of his pursuit of perfection started long before the first of his eight swimming events. It left us breathless even on our sofas halfway around the world.

Even his relay teammates were swept up in the audacity of the quest, and thanks to an unforgettable anchor leg from Jason Lezak in the 4x100 freestyle relay and an unbelievable fingernail touch in the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps became the most gold-plated Olympian of all time.

It was all big-time stuff, and even our local arena added to the drama. The GreenJackets cruised to the Class-A South Atlantic League title. Former Lakeside star Reese Hoffa finished seventh in the Olympic shot put, while Grovetown's Scott Winkler placed fifth in the Paralympic event. Greenbrier's Rich Poythress and his Georgia teammates came up one win short in the College World Series. Former Augusta State All-American Oliver Wilson sank a dramatic, 25-foot putt to win a match against Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim in one of the brighter European moments of a riveting Ryder Cup. The Bulldogs started the year with a Sugar Bowl blowout that spawned unrequited hopes as the preseason No. 1, while new coach Paul Johnson breathed life and promise into Georgia Tech's program.

But the shining moment of the local scene came from Augusta State's men's basketball team. Led by Tignall, Ga., native A.J. Bowman and Augustan Garret Siler, the Jaguars soared to the NCAA Division II championship game. Despite a 15-point first-half lead, Augusta State couldn't stave off a rally by Winona State and had to settle for runner-up.

Like I said, it was almost perfect.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.