This story is part of FanSided’s Fandoms of the Year, a series spotlighting the teams, athletes and cultures that defined sports fandom in 2025.
Everyone remembers the finals, the titles, the ring ceremonies and champagne sprays. But winning it all isn't the only thing that matters, and the victors aren't the only things we'll remember from this year in sports.
Our round-up of favorite fan moments from the FanSided team does include some unlikely champions, but also symbolic gestures, franchise records and a viral movement about nothing more than sharing the love and inanity of fandom.
Newcastle United wins its first domestic trophy in 70 years
Newcastle United supporters waited 70 years to see their club finally end a domestic trophy drought. Their agony most sports fans could scarcely fathom. Not since the 1955 FA Cup had Newcastle won a trophy in England, and it hadn’t won a trophy above the Championship level since the since-discontinued 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Matched up against a Liverpool side that dominated the Premier League from beginning to end in 2024-25, Newcastle managed the unthinkable. They marched into the 2025 EFL Cup Final at Wembley Stadium with more than 88,000 people in attendance and secured a dramatic 2-1 victory behind goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak.
For a club that’s been knocking on the door of an ascension into the top tier of the Premier League, a statement was made. For all the Geordies who went generations without witnessing a trophy, lives were changed as the beautiful game rewarded one of the greatest fanbases in sports for decades of unwavering commitment to their club.— Maxwell Ogden
Shirtless bros solve male lonliness
Back in 2021, one Indiana Hoosiers football fan stepped into Section 19, took off his shirt in 37-degree weather and proceeded to wave it above his head like a helicopter blade. He couldn’t have known the trend he was setting the stage for in college football, even as hundreds of other Indiana fans joined him for a shirtless flash mob during a 38-3 loss.
For college football, 2025 was the Year of the Shirtless Section. Fans going shirtless at games isn’t uncommon, but hundreds of them flocking to one empty section of the stadium to wave their shirts and hop around in glee was something of a phenomenon this year.
In the middle of a horrifyingly dire one-win season, a quartet of Oklahoma State fans stepped into Section 213. Just like that Indiana fan, they took off their shirts and waved them. And just like the hundred of Hoosiers fans who dropped everything to join them, Oklahoma State fans en masse took their minds off of the football massacre unfolding on the field to let their chests air out. The moment went viral, and then it was all the rage.
with what started as four shirtless guys, has now turned into two entire sections of shirtless guys. what in the oklahoma state is going on here? (down by 26 btw) pic.twitter.com/X5UZLlgrRU
— abby (@abbymariiie) October 11, 2025
Wisconsin fans did it the following week during a 34-0 beatdown at the hands of Ohio State. So did UCLA fans during a comeback win over Maryland. A week later, it was North Carolina and Wake Forest. Another week on, Virginia Tech might have done it best with a shirtless secction materializing with the Hokies down 20-10 in the third quarter. It grew across two sections as the team came back to win in overtime.
By the end of November, Appalachian State, Arizona, Baylor, Cal, Colorado, Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Iowa State, LSU, NC State, North Texas, Memphis, Miami, Michigan State, Navy Texas Tech, UCF, USC, USF, Utah, UTEP, Washington State and West Virginia were in on the trend. The Trojans did it in a rare Southern California downpour. The Tigers used the opportunity to chant, "We Want Kiffin." Fans with nothing and everything to cheer for jumped on the trend, on both sides of blowouts, with one foot in the coaching carousel or one foot in the College Football Playoff.
The half-joking idea that the shirtless trend was solving male loneliness was repeated across social media. I say half-joking because the idea isn’t exactly crazy. Shirtless sections brought college football fans together in a celebration of simply being in a football stadium with other human beings and choosing to experience happiness.— Alicia de Artola
UConn returns to the top of the mountain
Nine years is a long time for the UConn women’s basketball team to go without winning a championship, considering they won 11 in the 22 seasons between 1995 and 2016. The longest they went without winning a title during that time was five years, and that happened twice. That’s a long time by UConn’s standards, so nine years felt more like an eternity.
So, you can understand why fans celebrated their 2025 championship like it was the first time all over again. From watching Paige Bueckers’ collegiate career come to a close with a storybook ending, to Geno Auriemma, the winningest NCAA coach, adding to his legacy — it was a moment that fans everywhere, not just those lucky enough to watch it live in Tampa, will look back on and smile about for the rest of their lives.
It was a party from start to finish, with the Huskies routing the defending champions, Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, in an 82-59 win. Fans hadn’t forgotten what it felt like to lose to South Carolina in the national title game in 2022, and 2024’s Final Four loss to Iowa was still fresh on their minds. You could say it made them appreciate 2025 a little more.
Now, let’s hope that it won’t be another nine years until the Huskies win another. Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd may have something to say about that in 2026. —Jordanna Clark
Tyrese Haliburton has the Knicks choking again
Some NBA franchises have rings. The Pacers have Reggie Miller making the choke sign to Spike Lee and the Knicks.
It came after he scored 25 points in the fourth quarter in Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, leading the Pacers to a comeback win at Madison Square Garden. It was a moment so big they made a whole documentary about it, a moment so big it caused John Starks to infamously babble, “Man, did this dude just did this?”
Pacers fans have held onto this moment for decades for all it represents — the swagger, the heart, the miraculous potential for everything to work out no matter how long the odds. They’ve also held onto this moment for everything it obscures — the Pacers lost the next two games, and lost the series. They beat the Knicks in the playoffs one round earlier the next season but lost again in the Eastern Conference Finals — their second of eight eliminations in the Eastern Conference Finals from 1994 through 2024.
But thanks to Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers can finally let go a little bit.
In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals this year — against the Knicks, and at Madison Square Garden — he hit an unbelievable jumper at the buzzer to force overtime. And the first thing he did after the ball bounced through the rim, was find Spike Lee and make the infamous choke sign.
The Pacers won that game in overtime and beat the Knicks to advance to the Finals for just the second time in franchise history. Haliburton’s big shot at MSG would end up being just one of four game-winning or -tying buzzer beaters he’d hit in the playoffs. We all know how that run ended, and it might seem like the Pacers and their fans are back in the same place Miller left them in 32 years ago.
But Tyrese Haliburton showed us anything is possible. And maybe this time … it will end differently.— Ian Levy
Rory McIlroy finally breaks through
It could’ve so easily been “just another Rory choke job”. And it was damn sure close on so many occasions. The flubbed pitch into the 13th green. Another brutal missed putt on the 72nd hole that put him into a playoff. That was also the reality of the ultimate redemption arc for McIlroy and all the fans behind him, though — the path to the final triumph was never without speedbumps.
Over the decade since Rory had won his last major, greats like Tiger Woods and many others had always considered it just a matter of time before McIlroy not only got his Green Jacket to complete the career grand slam, but also simply won another major championship. Amid all the scar tissue that he’d acquired over that decade, though, it became fair to wonder if time was more his enemy than his friend, especially in a sport like golf that is so mentally unrelenting.
That made Sunday at Augusta that much more special, though. It was resilience straight out of a Hollywood script. Yeah, he doubled the 13th, but that only made his approach into the Par-5 15th hole that much more brilliant. The bogey on the 72nd hole hurt, yet it didn’t stop him from not only sticking his approach on the exact same 18th hole in the playoff, but then drilling the winning putt.
Rory’s rise to prominence as a young man coincided with my obsession with the game of golf. We’ve grown a bit older together, and with that, it’s been impossible not to share some of the same heartbreaks the Northern Irishman has felt in his career. But the beautiful part of taking the bad parts to heart as a fan is that the absolution, whenever it finally comes, is an even keener feeling, one that brought be to tears of joy on a Sunday in April.— Cody Williams
Pete Alonso becomes the home run King of Queens
Pete Alonso setting the New York Mets' franchise record by hitting his 253rd home run in a Mets uniform at a packed Citi Field might not have meant a lot in a lost season, but it meant a lot to the fans. It meant a lot because of what it showed, but more importantly, it meant a lot because of who hit it.
Alonso breaking the record made it abundantly clear that he's the second-best homegrown position player in Mets history. That might not mean a lot to the 29 other fan bases, but for Mets fans who know how hard it's been for this team to develop hitters in its history, having a homegrown talent who loved everything about being a Met breaking the record just meant more.
From Tom Seaver to Dwight Gooden to Jacob deGrom, the Mets have had their share of star pitchers. There's a reason they've won seven Cy Young awards in their history and not a single MVP. Alonso never won an MVP or a World Series ring, but other than David Wright, he was the closest thing to an MVP-caliber player that the Mets have had when looking at players they've developed.
Having a homegrown guy set the record was awesome, but again, Alonso loved everything about being a Met. I haven't seen many players love and appreciate being a New York Met more than him. From coining the rallying cry of "LFGM" in 2019 to seemingly going out of his way to re-sign with the team in the 2024 offseason, Alonso was a fan favorite in Queens for reasons beyond his play.
On the field, he was the guy who set the franchise's single-season home run record in his rookie year. He was the guy who set the franchise's single-season RBI record just three years later. He was the guy who hit one of the biggest home runs in franchise history against the Brewers in Game 3 of the 2024 NL Wild Card Series. He was the guy who seemingly always came through when the Mets needed him to.
His tenure with the Mets didn't result in a World Series win and ended earlier than anyone would've liked, but Alonso breaking Darryl Strawberry's record before he left, further etching his name in the Mets record books, is a memory Mets fans will never forget. — Zach Rotman