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*********** Adolph "Al" Levis, died Tuesday. He was 89. So who was Al Levis? Only the inventor of the Slim Jim, the man who provided nourishment of a sort for those of us who stayed late in places that didn't offer much else in the way of food, that's all. Mr. Levis dropped out of high school during the Depression and built a business, operating out of his garage, of selling pickled pigs feet, tomatoes and cabbages to Philadelphia bars and delicatessens. Sometime in the 1940's, he and partner Joseph Cherry had a Philadelphia meat packer make a long, thin, easy-to-eat dried beef stick for snacking. He named it Slim Jim, its logo of a guy in top hat and tails reflecting Mr. Levis' hopes of making it something of an upscale hors d'oevre. He never came close. Although nowadays more and more Slim Jims are sold, in convenience stores, at first they were staples of bars, stored in big jars of vinegar. Eventually, the vinegar was dispensed with altogether, and the sticks were stored, standing on end, in the large jars provided by his company. Trust me - they provided many a late-night snack for those in dire need of something to eat when everyplace else was closed. By the 1950's, Cherry-Levis Food Products began wrapping the Slim Jims individually in cellophane.
*********** In 1993, the NCAA selected Minneapolis as the site of the 2001 Final Four, and immediately reserved 8,000 hotel rooms for use by executives, sponsors, news media and the four participating schools. The National Association of Basketball Coaches, which gathers annually at the site of the Final Four, booked 4,000 more rooms. 46,000 people are expected to attend, and in all, it's estimated that some 18,000 rooms in the Twin Cities will be in use by people in town for the basketball. In case you haven't taken Economics 101, there is a high-demand situation here, which the hotels seem to be aware of: rooms that regularly go for $150 or so a night can go for upwards of $400 this weekend. For four nights. That's how many nights' stay the hotels insist on, since it was once common practice for the followers of the two semi-final losers to leave town early and leave the hotels stuck. The Twin Cities are really geared up for this Final Four. In 1992, the last time they hosted one, the folks who do all the work could be excused if they were a little even-weary: in the previous 12 months, they had hosted (1) the Stanley Cup Finals, (2) The US Open Golf Tournament, (3) The World Series, and (4) The Super Bowl. Can any other place match that?
*********** A coach who is a friend of mine knows how much I despise the pernicious influence of pro wrestling, such as it is these days. I was once something of a fan of pro wrestling, but wrestling is no longer the show: wrestling is merely the vehicle by means of which they deliver the smut and the scum to our kids. The coach wrote to me, attempting to defend wrestling, and here's how he tried to do it: "Let me use an analogy I think is appropriate. If a child goes out in the snow in winter, without any clothes on and freezes to death, what killed him and who is responsible? Obviously the cold killed him, but I don't think the cold is responsible. The responsible party is whoever let or sent the kid out in the cold with no clothes on." Nice try. I understand that he likes wrestling. I happen to like beer. But because it is not healthful for kids to drink beer, we have decided that it is in society's interest to try to control its availability to kids. Few people would disagree with the advisability of not leaving it totally up to parents to decide whether their kids will drink or not. I think it is a whole lot easier to keep a kid from going outside in the cold without clothes than it is to keep him from watching TV or going to school and associating with kids who do. Besides, the kid himself realizes that the cold feels bad and isn't likely to stay out very long. In the case of wrestling, on the other hand, there is no similar built-in aversion to it. It is, in fact, quite alluring - addictive, even - and the more the kid watches, the more involved he becomes.
*********** Speaking of today's college basketball, John Wooden, greatest of all basketball coaches, had this to say recently: "I think the athleticism today is remarkable. There are better training facilities. The individuals are much better. I don't think tam play is much better. I think as the individual players have become so good, coaches tend to let them do on their own too much, just because they are so good. I think television has taken away from team play. Many players are actors. Even many coaches are actors. And officials, to some degree."
*********** "Did you use two-a-day practices? How long were your practices? How many days of doubles did you use. I'm in the process of gathering information from various coaches. I was at a clinic at Northern Illinois University and their staff said most colleges are moving away from the traditional padded doubles." John Bothe, Oregon, Illinois I haven't had "doubles" since 1982. I remember as a player in college what drudgery it was. I came back my sophomore year in exceptionally good condition. I was always a skinny kid, and I had really worked hard to get my weight up to around 175. For two weeks of two-a-days, I don't think I ate a good meal the entire time. I didn't eat much at breakfast because we went out early and I didn't want to throw up my meal. At the end of the morning session I was so thirsty that I drank so much I wasn't hungry when it came time to eat. Ditto the evening meal. By the time two-a-days were over, I weighed in for the game program (no fudging allowed) at 159. And I never gained it back. I also didn't think it was a great learning atmosphere. When do you learn better- when you can focus on what's being taught, or when you're preoccupied with how crappy you feel? I have found that even going into a brand-new situation, provided that players are in good contition, I can get everything done in one three-hour session. Only at the very end does conditioning come into play. That's the deal I always make with the kids - if they will bust it in nine optional workouts the 3 weeks prior to the start of fall camp, we will not need to have two-a-days. They always jump at the chance, and we do what we can to make it possible for them to get the workouts in. The workouts start out fairly tough, but they grow increasingly tougher. Players who in the past always dreaded the first days of real practicec onsistently marvel at how good they feel this way. (Oh - one other thing. Just in case I sound like kindly old Pop Wyatt - those players who don't bust it or who try to finesse the pre-season optional conditioning do not get out of the work. They are sometimes surprised - shocked! - to discover on the first day of practice that while they team doesn't have two-a-days, they do. They have a conditioning workout either before or after practice; that's when they get the conditioning that they missed while everybody else was working. And they don't get their equipment until they get all nine workouts in. But we gave them that option, which means makes the pre-season workouts optional, in compliance with state regulations. ) That's just my approach. It works for me. I have beaten people who do it differently from me, and I have lost to people who do it differently. *********** "You guys have room for all these other athletics, but there's no room for us, " a Camas, Washington skateboarder, told the the city fathers, asking them to build a skateboard park. (One of the council members noted that 400 kids turned out recently for Little League baseball tryouts.
COACHES! E-MAIL ME NOW TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM TO TAKE PART IN THE BLACK LION AWARD PROGRAM! |
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: If he looks a little short in this
picture, it's because, at 5-4, Buddy Young was. In fact,
he remains the shortest man ever to play pro football.
Buddy Young was no freak show, though - he was the real
deal. Over a 10-year NFL career, he averaged close to 30
yards per kick return. A native of Chicago, Young (his
real name was Claude, but he always went by "Buddy") was
state champ in the 100-yard dash, and at the University
of Illinois, he was NCAA champion in the 100 and tied the
world record (6.1) in the 60-yard dash. He also played a
little football, and was named Co-Player of the Game in
the 1947 Rose Bowl, after Illinois hammered UCLA, 45-14.
While at Illinois, he tied the school record for
touchdowns in a single season set by the immortal Red
Grange. He played ten years in pro football, the first
three in the AAFC, before it "merged" with the NFL. He
finished his career with the Baltimore Colts, and was the
answer to a question in the movie "Diner," made by
Baltimorean Barry Levinson, in which a guy makes his
fiancee prove her worthiness to marry him by answering a
series of trivia questions on the Colts. The question had
to do with the teams Buddy Young had formerly played for
that no longer existed. How about three: New York Yankees
(AAFC), New York Yankees (NFL), Dallas Texans (NFL).
Although short, Young was not a little man. He was a
cannonball with great speed and ability to change
direction, which made him a real crowd pleaser, and he
attributed his long NFL career to the fact that few
people ever got a decent shot at him. Buddy Young was the
first Colt to have his number retired and, in 1964, first
African-American executive hired by the NFL.
*********** I personally am tired of reading about someone's "hero" being a basketball star. Or a football star. Or an actor. Or a school teacher. They can be idols. They can be mentors. They can be role models. But not heroes. I think we have cheapened the word "hero" just as we have cheapened so much else in our culture, and so I thought it might be appropriate to share one description of a real hero and his heroic actions. On the 17th of October 1967 Specialist 4 Tom Hinger found himself in a holocaust of fear, death, and pain. He was a medic for the second platoon. While moving through thick jungle, Company A, 2/28 Inf was met with a fusillade of enemy machine guns, claymores, AK-47, and RPG fire. In minutes both lead platoon leaders were killed, and minutes later the Company Commander was blinded and deafened by an enemy claymore, leaving him helpless. Tom Hinger surged forward and began to bandage every wounded soldier he could find. Many were already dead. Oblivious to enemy fire, Hinger systematically, as a medic's duty demanded, moved from man to man, bandaging, helping, holding, applying tourniquets, and quickly running out of medical supplies. Morphine became as gold. He found a wounded medic and began using his bag of medical supplies. The enemy fire was ferocious, and Company A ceased to exist as a fighting force. But the wounded still needed help, as Tom Hinger's DUTY demanded. He continued to work and move. Suddenly an enemy soldier appeared from nowhere. Hinger used his .45 to defend himself, killing the enemy soldier. He continued his precious DUTY, saving the lives of his buddies. He left both of his canteens with wounded men who needed and were out of water. He noticed that he was wounded himself but he continued to minister to his men. As he was helping a wounded man out of the battle area a huge US Army Major appeared before him and said, "Come with me, Doc. There's some wounded men over there." Doc followed the Major for about 50 yards when the Major went down, shot through the withers by an enemy sniper. Doc got to the Major, and as he started to lift him up, the Major died in Tom Hinger's arms. He later learned that the Major was Major Don Holleder, the Brigade Operations officer, who had seen a small group of wounded soldiers struggling out of the jungle. Major Holleder, a former All American football player at West Point, received the Silver Star and Purple Heart posthumously for his bravery and giving his life trying to help Black Lion soldiers. After the 3-hour battle the enemy withdrew, leaving 55 American soldiers dead, 73 wounded, and two missing. Enemy casualties were estimated at over one hundred. Among the friendly wounded was Tom "Doc" Hinger, covered with his own blood and the blood of his comrades. Tom Hinger was awarded the Silver Star for his superb DEVOTION TO DUTY in saving the wounded and the Purple Heart for giving his own blood to his country in carrying out his DUTY. He fulfilled his call to DUTY that day. Those comrades still alive call him "DOC". He was the epitome of the word DUTY. He fulfilled his obligation to his comrades and his country. He never dodged it. His comrades were too important! DUTY FIRST! BLACK LIONS! It is my good fortune to come to know Tom Hinger. We have become correspondents as a result of my interest in Don Holleder and his having been on the scene when Major Holleder died. Tom, like so many men who've been there, is very self-effacing. He says he's not a hero. He says, "The heroes are the names on the wall; the rest of us were just there." I respectfully disagree. I say, Tom is, indeed, a hero. His is an astonishing story of heroism, forced on him, as it so often is, when duty and danger collided. A hero does not have to die. A hero does something that has to be done, something that benefits others, and he does so at great risk to life, or limb, or reputation or fortune. There is the distinction. There is a disregard for the knowledge that he might have to pay an enormous price - might even die - in the process. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he doesn't. But in either case, he has laid it on the line for someone else, and in my eyes he is no less of a hero.
*********** Whoever said that marriage is failing as an institution? Why, in the closing hours of his presidency, William Jefferson Clinton, that great proponent of family values, did more for marriage with one stroke of his pen than all those members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy did in the eight years he was in office. Here's how he did it: he signed into law a bill that says that illegal immigrants seeking residency in the US must return to their native country while their paperwork is being processed.UNLESS, that is, they are married to a US citizen, and file their applications by April 30, in which case they can remain in the US. In Harris County (Houston) Texas, marriage license applications in January were up 58 per cent over last year, and in Los Angeles they were up 59 per cent over last January and February.
*********** "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back..." If you do, you'd better hustle over to your favorite rib joint, because it won't be long before they're out of baby back ribs. It's because of the foot-and-mouth disease that's hit Europe. See, some 50 per cent of all baby back ribs sold in the US come from Denmark, a country with as many people as Washington state. Denmark hasn't had any recorded cases of foot-and-mouth disease, but its products are affected by current ban on imports of all European meat. Despite the name, baby back ribs do not come from piglets. They are actually a creative use of what was left over when the Danes came up with a boneless pork loin to help them crack the Japanese market. The Danes devised the marketing concept and the name, and American restaurants loved the idea. No wonder - they buy their ribs by the pound, and sell 'em by the rib, making them extremely profitable. They have become extremely popular, too, accounting for as much as 5 per cent of all entrees served at places such as Outback Steak House, in part because they appeal more to women than traditional larger ribs. They inspired that stupid Chili's commercial in which the happy folks in the kitchen stop what they are doing to break into song about wanting "my baby back," accompanied by clanging on pots and pans. So, faced with a baby back rib crisis, why not just switch to US ribs? "Danish ribs are more tender, and they are just a superior product," a manager of a Los Angeles restaurant told the Wall Street Journal. His place serves 60 to 70 plates of ribs every night during a typical week, and 100-some per night on weekends, and he has less than a month's supply on hand.
*********** From my Australian Bureau (my son, Ed): "I actually enjoyed Russell Crowe's comments after the Academy Awards. If you don't know him, he's a Kiwi (New Zealander) by birth, an Australian citizen, an ex-Rugby League player and about as far away from a stereotypical actor as you can get. "His quote was... 'God Bless America, God Save The Queen, God Defend New Zealand and Thank Christ For Australia.'" *********** I don't know whether this is true or not, since it came to me over the Web, but I am partial to Stupid Crook Stories, and when I stopped laughing at this one, I decided to go ahead and print it: "Police in Radnor, Pennsylvania, interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed." Thanks to Scott Russell, Sterling, Virginia *********** I think we all owe the soon-to-be-defunct XFL a big vote of thanks. I must confess that I feared any success it might have would cause the NFL to feel compelled to match it for antics and coarse behavior. Instead, I do believe that seeing the XFL's pathetic ratings has given the NFL the courage to clean up its own act. The league's competition committee is recommending a ban on bandanas and various headwear that players have been wearing underneath their helmets. For the most part, the ban will affect black players, who now comprise 70 per cent of the league's players, so there are those who see racial - or even racist - implications in the proposal. Nonetheless, two members of the competition committee - Minnesota's Dennis Green and Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome - are black. I know, I know. I can hear the Uncle Tom accusations now. But the NFL has an image problem, and it must be dealt with. Says Dennis Green, "You get paid. You have a boss. If your boss comes in and says all of you have to wear coats and ties, you've got three choices: you can sue him, quit or get another job." Funny. Used to be your choice was do it or quit. Now, with suing an option, that's the one I'm betting on. *********** Speaking of the XFL... anybody else see this on page 2 of Tuesday's USA Today? "Coach, While reading the Sports page in USA Today, I saw this large article about the XFL. It included box scores of the weekend's games along with game summaries. I was suprised to see such an elaborate article. Then I noticed at the bottom of the page it said it was a paid advertisement from the XFL. You know you are in trouble when you have to pay newpapers to write articles about your sport." Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee *********** Derek Anderson, of Scappoose, Oregon, was named the state's Class 3A basketball player of the year. He's 6-7, and averaged 26.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. He will be going to Oregon State. To play football. That's because Anderson was also the 3A offensive player of the year in football. In his three-year career, he completed 61 per cent of his passes for 8,177 yards and 85 touchdowns, leading his team to a 13-0 record and its first-ever state title this past season. He committed to OSU before the season began. I suspect Dennis Erickson will know how to use him. "Growing up, my dream was to play basketball for North Carolina," he told the Portland Oregonian. "That was my favorite school, and it was my goal to play college basketball. But it turns out God gave me the gifts to be a bettr quarterback." *********** "The University of Texas swim team won another national championship this past weekend (In College Station no less!). This year marked the 22nd straight conference championship won by the UT swimmers -- a record that stretches back to the existence of the SWC. In fact, the last time Longhorn swimmers failed to win a conference title was the first year after I graduated high school!" Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas |
*********** First the WTF riots. Then the earthquake. Then the Mardi Gras violence. Now this. Seattle - the whole state of Washington, for that matter - just received a kick in the ass last week, when Boeing, the nation's largest exporter, announced that it would be moving its headquarters to another city. Dallas, Denver and Chicago were the ones mentioned. Some say that the move is to get more centrally located among its far-flung manufacturing sites. Others say it is part of a move to change the "corporate philosophy" from that of an airplane manufacturer to a company which can go in several different directions. There has been a great deal of reference to Washington's "anit-business climate." Since the announcement, I have heard some doofuses saying, "good riddance... let 'em go... where's their loyalty? ... big deal - it's only 500 people... " and so forth. Yes, it is "only 500 people." (Actually, there are 1,000 people now employed at Boeing's headquarters, but 500 will be let go in the move.) But it is a big deal. It is 500 well-educated people who make good salaries, who make their homes in the area and send their kids to area schools and belong to PTA's and booster clubs, and donate their time to work for local charities and sit on boards of museums and orchestras. In other words, 500 civic leaders! I have seen how a community suffers when a major corporation pulls out its headquarters, leaving it a branch-plant town, bereft of strong civic leadership. Thanks to Boeing and these "500 people," Seattle is known around the world; Seattle is a destination for people wanting to sell things to Boeing, and a place where the world's military leaders have come to view the latest in aircraft technology. Did somebody say "anti-business" climate? Seems to me it depends on the business. What galls me is that the state that's about to lose Boeing is the same state that agreed to impose new taxes on us to "save" the Mariners and Seahawks. Back when the Mariners threatened to move unless they were given a new stadium, the very thought of the Pacific Northwest without Ken Griffey, Jr. was enough to rally our politicians. So they agreed to build a beautiful new ballpark (amazing what you can do with hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, isn't it?) and let the Mariners keep the money for the naming rights. "Save" the Mariners, did you say? Now, Junior is gone, anyhow. And so is Randy, the Big Unit. And so is A-Rod. But not the taxes. And then the Seahawks - they were going to leave, too. But there was this one guy on a white horse - fella name of Paul Allen - who said he'd pitch in to help "save" the Seahawks. (Well, he didn't actually say so. He never says anything. But his flunkies said he did.) But this "rescue" was going to cost the taxpayers. Huh? See, Mr. Allen saw what the taxpayers had done for the Mariners, and he wanted a new stadium, too. So he took several of his millions (he is, after all, the richest owner in all of professional sports) to pay for a campaign to sell the idea of a new stadium - another one - to taxpayers. The vote barely passed, but thanks to Mr. Allen, they were able to go ahead and tear down that old Kingdome (and, along with it, any chances of Seattle ever again hosting a Final Four) and build him a new stadium. Our governor wasn't going to be the one who lost baseball and football. Oh, no. He very cleverly figured out that you could pay for new stadia without imposing any new taxes on Washington people - instead, you would screw visitors to your community , by slapping a 25 per cent tax on rental cars, and another tax on hotel rooms. So there sits the state of Washington, with taxes in place to pay for stadia designed so professional sports owners can extract large sums of money from the local yokels, part of which the owners themselves can pocket, the rest of which they can pay in obscene amounts to their hired mercenaries who, when their seasons are over, will return home to wherever it is they live. It was amazing how fast the governor came up with the solution, which essentially meant maintaining the lucrative lifestyles of 100 or so people who don't even know the name of the community they live in without looking at the front of their uniforms. And there, all the while, sat Boeing, which I'm sure was watching all this and shaking its corporate head. And now the Governor who wanted to be known for saving baseball and saving football could very well be known as the one who lost Boeing. *********** But then I wake up yesterday and see a pair of bald eagles land 80 feet up in one of our Douglas firs and I know why, Boeing or not, I love the Pacific Northwest. *********** The transition is almost complete- our society's transition into a youth-dominated culture, in which teens - and increasingly pre-teens - are allowed to believe that they are at the center of the universe; that nothing of value exists unless it is for their gratitifation, and nothing happens - the sun doesn't even rise and set - without their approval. There is no such thing as having to do anything, if they don't want to do it. Their "sense of entitlement" has been inflated to the point that parents live in abject fear of "alienating" their children by telling them "no." They have little responsibility and lots of demands. And when they do not get their way, there is hell to pay. Bullets may fly. Is it any wonder, then, that suicide is one way of teens' ways of dealing with the disillusionment sure to ensue when they discover that the world is not as portrayed on TV or in movies? That the rest of us have not been sitting around on our haunches, waiting for them to arrive to save the earth for us? Add to that some factors almost unknown to youngsters of 40 or 50 years ago: A huge rise in "adverse life events" such as separation and divorce; Having to deal with the "discovery" that they are gay, a discovery that in all likelihood wouldn't have occured in those olden days before "alternative lifestyles" were presented to kids as a smorgasbord of choices; Constant attacks, by those who would normalize dysfunctional families and communities, on "Leave it to Beaver" as the desired family model, and "Mayberry" as the desired community; Far greater access to alcohol and illegal drugs, and at much earlier ages; Far greater emphasis on sex and greater pressures on youngsters to participate - at inceasingly early ages; Far easier access to dangerous information, from manufacturing explosive devices to hard-core porn to occult religions to how (and why) to commit suicide; Our society's "non-judgmental" acceptance of all manner of deviant behavior as just another form of "diversity"; Elevation of gangsters as role models, and the gangster life as something to aspire to; The greatly diminished role of religion as a major part of our culture. *********** Not even the Amish (pronounced AH-mish, for those not familiar), who forsake worldly pleasures and temptations in an attempt to live a simple, Godly life, are immune to the plague of spoiled children with bloated senses of entitlement. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the heart of Amish Country, an 11-year-old Amish boy thought at first to have been kidnaped confessed that he'd concocted the story to avoid having to do chores. *********** From Kansas City, to Finland, and back to Kansas City again, Tim Johnson is well-travelled. A graduate of Kansas City's Rockhurst High, Tim originally went to Santa Clara to play college ball, but he got homesick and transferred back to William Jewell College, closer to home. After graduating from William Jewell, he wound up playing in Finland, in the mid-1980's, when teams were allowed one American player. While over there, he met Essi, the woman who would become his wife, and wound up in northern Finland in her home town of Oulu, coaching a team called the Northern Lights. That's where I first met Tim. We went up against each other a couple of times, and my wife and I slept on the floor of their apartment after one memorable instance of post-game socializing. Tim followed his former college coach, Vic Wallace, to Lambuth University in Tennessee, while still coaching in Finland during the summers, and when I stopped going overseas, we lost touch. So it was exciting for me to discover that Tim has been named the head coach - the first - at tiny Avila college, in South Kansas City. Assisting him will be Scott Frear, a friend and another veteran of Finnish football who coached in Rovaniemi, a town right on the Arctic Circle which bills itself as the northernmost oupost of American football. Avila will play a JV schedule this fall, before joining the Heart of America Conference in 2002. Why is a small school attempting to start a football program? Simply because they wanted to provide their students a "traditional" college atmosphere, and were convinced that football was a part of that package. "They researched this," Tim said. "They felt that the co-curricular activities that would provide that atmosphere are dance, spirit squad, debate, intramurals, and football. They're not saying, 'Coach, can you give us a football team?' They're saying, 'Coach, can you help us change the face of Avila?'" They've chosen a good man to do it. *********** "I just sit here watching the morning news as they discuss another school shooting and think we're(society) missing the obvious. I listened to the reporter question John Ashcroft about "what is the govt going to do to keep the guns out of kids hands?" and really focusing in on that as the "answer"...I call bulls---- on that! Look at what's changed in the last 50 years to find the answer - single parent households are the norm now...and where there are 2 parents, they both work. Of course, the likelihood of both parents being the actual biological parents of the child is slim. So we have kids raised by one parent who works...now..what do the kids do? no supervision, so they spend time with the babysitter - playstation 2 - great graphics - really shows the exploding body parts when you shoot the victim - and for those that can't afford the video game, all they have to do is sit in front of the boob tube(that's a throwback term, huh?) - have you seen the primetime network broadcast lately?? Listen to the language? See how many situations include homosexual relationships? "And let's say they can't afford a TV - then they just hit the street with their buddies, looking for a little fun/action and the easiest thing to do for a quick fix is some smack...so they end up tokin'/snortin' their way thru school for "something to do" - end up coming home at midnight on schoolnights, and never even see their parent. OK - now I'm not naive enough to think that all 2 parent homes, where only 1 works are going to have angelic kids - wrong answer - I was from one of those homes, and was anything BUT angelic - but my folks always knew where I was, what I was doing(well...), who I was doing it with, who my teacher was, what my conduct in school was, etc..and they always had me active in things like sports, band, church, and of course, plenty of household chores - "So I don't know what I'm really rambling on about, except it's not a "gun" issue - kids have always been picked on, and have always had access to guns - those things haven't changed - it boils down to leadership in the individual home. That's where the real crisis lies, in my humble opinion." Scott Barnes, Rockwall, Texas I think a big thing, too, is the way we glorify these little misfits. President Bush called the shooting in California a cowardly act, and social worker types were all over him for being so callous and not feeling the pain that poor little fella had been feeling. Deputy Faulkner, after arresting that poor little fella, said he seemed to be enjoying all the attention. As for guns... have you noticed that it wasn't until Thursday's incident in California that there was ever actually someone on the scene at one of those shootings who could - and did - shoot back? And whaddya know - they plunked the punk before he could kill anyone. I firmly believe that if these kids had reason to believe that someone at school would be armed and would take them out the first time they tried to fire a shot, we'd have a lot less of it. But I agree with you - the major problem is too many misfit kids being raised by too many misfit parents in too many misfit households, in a society that lacks the stones to sit in judgment of them. *********** "Ahhhh yessss! I remember it well! It was on a Monday Night Football telecast when 'The Boz' got steamrolled on the goal line by Bo Jackson. I still don't think "The Boz " has ever recovered from that night. "He might have recovered from that night if "dignity" was a substance that he could have mixed with his steroids before injecting them. But that obviously was not possible and as a result the downfall of 'The Boz' began." Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania *********** According to police in Morris County, New Jersey, Glen Parker, 40, was cheering for a friend's son at a youth football game last October, when he went over the line and began shouting obscenities at the 7- to 9-year-old players and the officials. When a man named Charles Hulbert, who was working the chains, asked Parker to stop, Parker hit Hulbert in the face. The game was called off with four minutes to go. Parker pleaded guilty recently to disorderly conduct, and was fined the maximum of $500. He also was barred from attending sports events at that field that involve minors. He had been charged with simple assault, too, but Hulbert agreed to drop that charge, said local township Councilman Bill Rosen, who also was refereeing the game. "I was pleased at how seriously the judge took this matter," Councilman Rosen told Matt Manochio of the Morris County Daily Record. "It was clear to me and others that, had the assault charge not been dropped, the defendant faced a very good possibility of serving 20 days in jail. In my opinion, the plaintiff chose the most compassionate and firm alternative." "Seriously?" A $500 fine and a slap on the wrist for slugging a person who did the right thing? For disrupting a kids' game? "Compassionate?" What compassion did that guy show Mr. Hulbert, a man who was standing up for what was right? I personally wish Mr. Hulbert had pressed charges. Twenty days in the tank with others of similar mindset would have been a great start. *********** It was a blow to read that Billy Ray Smith, died last Wednesday. What a stud he was! In his 13-year NFL career - nine seasons as a defensive lineman for the Baltimore Colts - he had to be one of the meanest, toughest men ever to put on a football uniform. "He was one tough guy, just one tough fella," said Art Donovan, Hall of Fame tackle who played with Smith for two seasons. "He intimidated a lot of people. He was not really that big to be a defensive tackle but he was so aggressive." "He was a great football player, a great athlete, but that barely scratches the surface of the kind of person he was," said his son, Billy Ray Smith Jr., former University of Arkanasas and San Diego Chargers' star. "He was a great father, just an incredible man. I feel bad for our family and friends, but I feel worse for the people that never got to meet him." I was living in Baltimore in 1961 when he arrived in town, traded to the Colts by the Steelers. Billy Ray must have lived somewhere near us on Argonne Drive and The Alameda, because I'd see him occasionally over at our shopping center. (Those were the days before professional athletes could afford to live in gated communities, away from the hoi polloi, and so it wasn't unusual to see Colts and Orioles around town.) I couldn't believe it, the first time I saw the guy in shorts - the man had the biggest calves I've ever seen! Former Colts' defensive end Ordell Braase remembers Smith's arrival in Baltimore, too. He remembers him announcing, "I never played second string, and I don't plan on doing it here." Braase said, "I told him, 'Well, I have played second string and I don't plan on doing it again." The problem was resolved when Smith was moved to tackle. It is said that he staved off the challenge of Bubba Smith, the Colts' first-round draft choice who seemed all but certain to take his job, by playing mind games with the rookie. According to Braase, he'd say, "Just remember one thing -- if you're taking my position away, I have a wife and four kids you need to take care of." Bubba lost the battle for the job. Smith acquired the nickname "Rabbit," which never was adequately explained to us Colts fans at the time. As Braase tells it, "After practice everyone had their favorite watering hole. Billy Ray had that kind of personality that was hard to suppress. One day he was talking up a storm, and someone said 'That guy is as crazy as a black rabbit.' The name stuck. You just couldn't help but know he was around. He had that personality." He was rough and he was tough, a two-time regional Golden Gloves heavyweight champion as a kid in Arkansas, but, as I later found when I managed and coached a semi-pro team in Western Maryland and sat next to him at a couple of banquets, he was extremely witty and very bright, well-informed on a number of topics. He spent some time as a stockbroker in Baltimore, and unless I am mistaken, I believe he may have worked for a while with Red Adair, the famed oil well fire fighter. At least I remember him diagramming for me on a tablecloth how they used dynamite to put out oil well fires. One incident that is branded on my mind was the time he was speaking at our league's All-Star banquet in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For some reason, some big-mouthed knucklehead in the audience - who'd possibly had a little to drink, or perhaps had a death wish - decided to start heckling Billy Ray. Now, I personally would have enjoyed watching the 6-5, 250 (he was considered "undersized" even then) Billy Ray Smith, the former Golden Gloves boxer, light into the damnfool semi-pro star, but Mr. Smith showed he was quite capable of handling himself without resorting to violence. "Tell you what," he said to the guy, in his Arkansas drawl. "Why don't you and I play 'horsey?' I'll be the horse's head, and you just act natural." *********** You've probably never heard of Zippy Clippy. Neither had I until last week, when I learned that Zippy Clippy is the losingest thoroughbred in horse racing history. Zippy Clippy, who is still racing, is 0-for-89 starts. If you call that racing. Most horses like him would have been roasts on French dinner tables long before they were able to lose 89 races. *********** Tell me those Packers fans don't love their team. It ain't cheap, being the Biggest Little City in Professional Sports. To help pay for renovations to Lambeau Field - so that the Pack can "compete" (pay outrageous salaries) with the big guys, every season-ticket holder is required this year to pay a one-time (wanna bet?) fee of $1,400 per ticket. One tavern owner from Shawano, Wisconsin, who over the years has accumulated 331 tickets which he resells to fans, had to come up with a "one-time fee" of $463,400 - and then he still had to pay for the tickets. *********** "Coach, I would like to add another success story to your collection. The 2000 seaosn was our first using your system. We went from a 4-5 record the previous season to 11-2 (Conference champions, Section Champions, State Semi-Finalist) this season. The players love running this offense." Dave Louzek, Moose Lake/Willow River HS, Willow River, Minnesota *********** I like Arizona and I like Lute Olson. But I don't like braggy fathers and I don't like cheerleading announcers, and this past weekend Bill Walton, father of an Arizona player, was both. Of course, I don't like Walton - going back to 1976 - but I think CBS showed really bad judgment in allowing Nasal Bill, the walking ad for Dristan, to call both Arizona games this past weekend. He made no attempt to disguise his pro-Arizona bias, and it got very tiring listening to him promote his own son and his teammates, while criticising Illinois' rough play, and second-guessing his son's coach. Because of how I remember him from his days as a Portland Trail Blazer, I think that at his best he represents what happens when you take a highly opinionated but inarticulate oaf and give him speech lessons. But at his worst, as he was this past weekend, he is a Little League father put in front of a microphone on a network telecast. |
*********** The XFL's invasion of Portland is on hold, while civic Leaders try to determine whether the XFL is - get this - "a good business fit" for the city. If it turns out it is, then maybe they could also bring an Edsel Museum to town.
*********** The XFL has set one record, and the end is not in sight. Saturday's Weekly broadcast rating hit a new low for prime-time programming. The rating for the NBC telecast was 1.6, lowest for any major netwrok telecast in the history of Neilsen Media Research. How low was it? Only an ABC News special on drug policies, back on August 30, 1997, came close. The previous low for a sports event on ABC, CBS or NBC was the 2.3 rating of last season's Stanley Cup final game on June 3. Comedian Conan O'Brien said when he heard everybody talking about the Final Four, he thought they meant the last people still watching the XFL. *********** J.K. McKay, general manager of the Los Angeles Xtreme, of the XFL, complaining about the lack of coverage hisbteam gets in the LA papers, "It's almost as if people are out to get us." Uh, Mr. McKay - if you'd ever seen the WWF's act on TV, if you'd ever seen much of Vince McMahon before you signed on, you wouldn't say "almost." I can guarantee you that there are a lot of people who don't even know you, your players or your coaches, but they've been against you from the start. *********** It sounds like a story from the late 60's and early 70's, when coaches were obsessed with "relating" to kids. But it actually happened last week. A New Jersey high school basketball coach was arrested at his home and charged with smoking marijuana with four students prior to a state playoff game. Not that it matters, but I couldn't find out whether the students were players, and whether his team was playing in the game. He has been suspended. With pay.
*********** I have kids who went to Stanford, and kids who went to Duke, but I always find a part of me pulling for Temple. John Chaney, Temple's basketball coach, is one of my personal favorites. He is a Philly guy. In the words of the Philadelphia Inquirer's Mike Jensen, he is a Philly original. I say, a Philly classic. Jensen writes about the time back in 1978 when Chaney was coaching at Cheyney State College, and was taking a pre-game shower in his hotel room prior to playing that night for the NCAA Division II national championship, when there was a knock on the door. Chaney's assistant, Anthony Pinnie, answered. It was the opposing coach, stopping by to wish Chaney luck. Pinnie went into the bathroom to tell Chaney. "John was all soaped up," Pinnie recalled. "He walked out. Naked. Soap all over him, foam dripping off. He gives the guy a big hug. There's soap all over the guy's suit. A beautiful suit. John's wishing him luck. He's got a straight face." Chaney coached at Cheyney from 1972 to '82, and also taught a full load of Physical Education classes. It was a low-budget deal. He often had to cook meals for his kids, and his recruiting brochure was printed bu the school's printing department and charged to his meagre budget. Whenever recruiting, though, Chaney made sure to look official, always carrying a briefcase, even though, said Pinnie, sometimes he would only have a sandwich inside. He didn't have game films, instead taking Polaroid shots from the top of the stands and looking at them at halftime. "John may still be there if they had made him a full professor," Pinnie said. "The union blocked it. They said, 'This is academia.' That ticked him off. He said, 'let's apply for teacher of the year. Of the entire state system.' He got it. He gave me some of the award money." Pinnie remembers the John Chaney who kept track of turnovers at every practice, and would line up his players afterwards and paddle them for every turnover. He remembers the John Chaney who once kept one of his best Cheyney players at home because the player refused to wear a tie on the airplane. He used to bring a hot plate on the road to cook his favorites, pig's feet and tripe. Pinnie recalls legendary games in Erie, Pennyslvania, where Cheyney would travel to play Gannon. "A shot-and-a-beer crowd," Pinnie said. "They always let us play on Friday night. They put ads in the paper, Wanted Dead or Alive, Wolf Man. He loved it." (Chaney was called the Wolf Man in those days because of the beard he wore back then.) "Watch me, I'm going to stir them up tonight," Chaney would tell Pinnie. Stir them up he did. Pinnie recalls games when Gannon, anticipating a riot, had police dogs at courtside. One time, wading his way to the lockerroom at halftime through the hostile Gannon crowd, Chaney was confronted by a guy who began poking a finger in Chaney's chest and ranting. Chaney dropped him with a punch to the jaw. When someone knocked on the lockerroom door and informed them that it was Gannon's team doctor he had just punched out, Chaney told Pinnie, "Go across the street and get him a get-well card." "I heard a million speeches," Pinnie said, hearing wisdom he said he'd never heard in any class. He said he'd tell Chaney, "I know you're cheating on that. You've got to be writing it out ahead. You can't be this bright." "Sometimes he acts dumb," Pinnie says, " but he sees and hears everything," including exactly who is paying attention to him during time-outs. Pinnie tells of the kindness of John Chaney, who once walked Pinnie's father home because he didn't like the neighborhood the older man was going to have to walk through. One Pinnie story tells a lot about Chaney's competitiveness. Pinnie used to run a summer program at Cheyney for the children of migrant farm workers, and would get up softball games for the kids, junior-high age, who primarily spoke Spanish. Chaney, who was on campus teaching summer school at the time, would come by and insist on pitching. "John, let the kids hit," Pinnie would tell him, but instead, Chaney would give it everything he had - fastballs, curves, the whole deal. "John, you're destroying their self-image," Pinnie would tell Chaney. "They're not hitting me," Chaney would reply. *********** "When I moved out from NY back in the 80's I hired on with Pacific NW Bell which is now ATT. Er, USWEST. Er, I mean QWEST. I started in the line business installation crew. The area my crew covered included the University of Washington which I always jumped at the chance to work at. (At the time I was not married) Every home football game they would ask for volunteers to work at the games on a standby basis for the backup phone lines. Since I was the young guy I never got the opportunity, except once, Michigan vs UW. I was given an all access pass to move about anywhere I wanted, I was excited. With my camera in hand I proceeded to walk down to the Michigan sidelines for some Bo moments. It was just before half time and I started to snap some close-ups of Bo, no more that six or seven feet away. I was dumb enough to think that pass would allow me down on the field to roam anywhere. A guy in a suit (he looked important) came up to me to escort me off the field when the half came to an end. As Bo was was walking by he nodded to the guy and smiled at me. The guy reached into a bag and pulled out an official photographer's arm band and secured it to my arm. During the second half I took a roll of slides from all over the field. Maybe Coach Schembechler noticed that old Michigan hat I was wearing. I still have all those slides and look at them every once in a while remembering that day." Glade Hall, Seattle, Washington *********** I know it's sure to become a Constitutional issue, and yet I can't seem to find anyplace in The Federalist where Hamilton, Madison and Jay addressed the subject of tattoos. See, Portland Trail Blazer Rasheed Wallace, the World's Tallest Child, has evidently located a blank spot on his body, one that hasn't yet been disfigured with tattooist's graffiti, and he is reportedly contracting with a candy company (Baby Ruth comes to mind; or maybe Just Born) to place its ad there. For a price, of course. And should the NBA try to take action to stop him (or cover him), there is sure to be a squawk about 'Sheed's First Amendment rights. This goes beyond the question of whether the company is Nestle ("official candy of the NBA"). This is not the same as inking out three stripes on a shoe. This is a person's own body. I say make 'em all wear long johns. *********** First-hand from my daughter, Julia, came this report from the East Regional held last weekend in Greensboro NC. You probably heard all about the games (great wins by Utah State and Missouri, good try by Hofstra, and romp by Duke). Here are some things you probably wouldn't know unless you were there: FAN BASE: Every adult not specifically cheering for their team rooted for the underdogs. Duke had a huge following, so they were the exception to the underdog thing. Kids seemed to back the favored seeds. BIGGEST UPSET- Utah and Missouri over UCLA. Cheerleaders, that is. The Utah State and Missouri cheerleaders were the babes that had everyone talking, as opposed to the UCLA cheerleaders. And I do mean talking. As the crowd was about 90% male, there was constant talk about which cheerleading team was "winning". Utah State came out to an early lead, and held on to the very end, where Missouri caught up. Binoculars were flying, debates ensued. See below for more. BEST MASCOT: Um, not really sure there was one. The Missouri Tiger was kind of cool, the Georgia Bulldog had some good theatrical moves, the Utah State Aggie could tumble in uniform, and the UCLA Bruin wore a nice Hawaiian shirt. The Monmouth Hawk, Hofstra Lion (for Pride, their nickname), and the Blue Devil were all kind of ragged looking... WORST MASCOT: The Ohio State Buckeye was the dorkiest thing I have ever seen. EVER. BEST BAND: 1. UCLA- good songs, good technique 2. Georgia, Missouri, Ohio State- good traditional college pep bands WORST BAND: 1. Hofstra- the Chicago song "Twenty-five or 6 to 4"??? 2. Monmouth State 3. Duke (NOTE: How can a school like Duke NOT have a zillion band geeks?) LAMEST PROPS:1. Ohio State stools for the players. 2. Georgia cheerleader mats (I say let 'em sit on the floor between celebratory and carefully choreographed stunts. BEST CHEERLEADERS: This is very difficult category, because I think "good cheerleader" is close to being an oxymoron. But I really did think the good cheerleaders and bands set a far better tone than bad ones. In fact, I think Duke's ready for an upgrade... 1. Utah State and Missouri. Athletic babes who seemed to know the same 2. Hofstra, surprising the crowd with cuteness and tumbling skills. Georgia and Ohio State were far too into how clever their lifts and routines were, as opposed to watching the game and reacting to it. WORST CHEERLEADERS: Well, let's just say Monmouth was a 16th seed in every way... and Duke's cheerleader seeding did not match their team's. (One of my husband's friends said the Duke cheerleaders were "a little light on talent this year"). SLEAZIEST CHEERLEADERS: UCLA all the way. It was like they were auditioning for an MTV video. They did swinging hair and hip swivels that I wouldn't have wanted my kids to watch. Then, they brought out the dance team at half time, who performed a soft-porn dance routine to Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on it". I don't believe I have ever seen a more sexually-charged performance. Needless to say, the audience was mesmerized. BEST DRESSED COACH: 1. It's all about Quin Snyder, baby. 2. Steve Lavin looked good too. BEST CHEER: 1. "Good-bye Columbus! Good-bye Columbus! " as Ohio State exited. 2. "Drive Home Safely! Drive Home Safely!" from the Duke fans to the Carolina fans leaving the ACC finals early (something Carolina fans are known for doing). OK, OK - this wasn't an NCAA thing, but I did think it was clever. COOL THINGS:1. Missouri's last-second shot to win 2. Utah State's last second shot to put the game into overtime 3. UCLA's dunks 4. Duke's 3-point shooting 5. The Monmouth players waiting after the game in a line to shake Coach K's hand. All in all, a great 12 hours of basketball!
Coach Jones, who played his college ball at Mississippi State where his dad was a coach, has had the pleasure of coaching his own two sons, and he has the answer for any dad worried about whether the Double-Wing will showcase his kid: when Coach Jones decided to go to the Double-Wing, he had to sit down his older son, Chris, a promising wide receiver, and tell him (as Coach Jones remembers it), "we're fixin' to go to this offense," one which meant Chris wasn't going to be catching as many passes as before. Chris' response: "Dad, I'd rather be on a winning team." Chris got his wish. He did get to be on a winning team, and now he's a redshirt freshman wide receiver at Division II champion Delta State. Younger brother Cory, an upcoming junior ("rising junior" as they say in the South) at Florence, is coming off a sophomore year in which he rushed for over 1600 yards at A-back, and returned five punts all the way for TD's. He became the only sophomore ever selected on the Jackson All-Metro team. Coach Jones is a great believer in using the flexibility our system provides, opening things up when the situation calls for it, and running from a variety of sets while maintaining a limited core of base plays. He says whenever an assistant approaches him with a play he'd like to see run, he tells the assistant to decide which one of the base plays he wants to eliminate - because they are not going to be adding any more. Last year Florence put the ball up 144 times, completing 70 for 13 TD's. In discussing the great run of success Florence has had since he arrived, Coach Jones was careful to give credit to his defensive coordinator, Steve Pruitt, whose dad, Bob Pruitt, is head coach at Marshall University. Coach Jones is unique in that he has won two more state chanpionships as a soccer coach than as a football coach. He is the AD at Florence, and wound up as soccer coach by default when he couldn't find one. In the last four years, Florence has been to the state finals four times, and won the title twice. "It just proves to me," he says, "that you don't have to be too smart to be a soccer coach." Coaching soccer has helped him identify kickers for his football program: three of his kickers have gone on to Division I schools, including last year's kicker who is going to West Point, and as a result, there is so much interest he has to turn kickers away. *********** Those poor darlings. California was hit by power outages on Monday, but as elevators stalled in mid-floor, factories shut down and dairy cattlemen struggled to figure out how to milk their cows, the people in Beverly Hills, although hard hit, were struggling bravely to cope. At the Raffles L'Ermitage hotel, where dozens of designers, hairstylists and makeup artists had set up shop for this Sunday's Academy Awards show, many were preparing for the worst. "We've got hundreds of thousands of dollars wrapped up in this,'' said Ted Kruckel, a publicist for jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels and Helena Rubinstein's Heather Canavan. "Why Oscar week?'' |
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: His given name was Hugh, and his last
name was Daugherty, but everyone knew him as Duffy. Just
Duffy. Surely one of the most popular men ever to coach
the game, Duffy Daugherty was also a great coach. He
succeeded a legend at his school, the man who had taken
it from second-rate status to that of a national power -
and then kicked it up another notch. He won major bowl
game and a national title, and could have won another
except for a tie game - one of the most famous ties in
the history of college football.
I agreed with the former football coach and AD at Michigan when he sounded somewhat amused and more than a little ticked at rumors that Rick Pitino might succeed Brian Ellerbe as the Wolverines' basketball coach. That's because we all know Pitino doesn't work cheap. In fact, Bo knows that Pitino would demand more than Michigan now pays Lloyd Carr, its football coach. "I have two words for you," Bo said. "Never happen." He told reporters it would be "a colossal mistake" for Michigan to pay its basketball coach more than its footbal coach. Referring to Michigan's long string of sellout football crowds of 100,000 or more, he asked, "what do you think this thing (the Michigan athletic program) was built on?" That was a great start for Bo, the guy who cut basketball coach Bill Frieder loose on the eve of the NCAA tournament when it was learned that Frieder had accepted an offer to move to Arizona State. I remember two things Bo said at the time. First, making his thinking on the subject of loyalty quite clear, he said, "A Michigan man will coach a Michigan team." And then, when some reporter said something like "you can't do something like that at this point in the season," he said, "This is Michigan, son. We can do anything we want." I loved it. Let others call it arrogance. I called it supreme self-confidence. But Bo blew it later last week, when he second-guessed current Michigan AD Bill Martin for saying that he'd never hire Bob Knight. "If I were AD," said Bo, "he'd have been hired yesterday. His qualities far outweigh the negatives. He'd be just what we need, but they'll never do it." I could almost hear all those Spartans up in East Lansing chanting, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Do it! Do it! Do it!" *********** While we work to make our schools safer by installing metal detectors, putting up signs outside schools declaring them to be in a "Gun Free Zone", and suspending kids for pointing finger guns at each other ("zero tolerance," don't you know?), in China, 37 third-graders and at least four adults were killed in an explosion at their school. In one of the more unique hands-on science lessons I have yet heard of, they were inserting fuses in firecrackers that they'd been assembling for their teachers' outside business. *********** 30 years after giving wide currency to the term "Uncle Tom," Muhammad Ali has finally apologized to Joe Frazier for calling him one. "It was all meant to promote the fight," said Ali last week. Uh huh. Maybe. But Frazier, who's been no fan of Ali over the years as a result, didn't seem to understand that. Wouldn't it have been a good idea to let Smokin' Joe, whom Ali later also called a "gorilla," in on the secret a little sooner? Was it really necessary to wait this long to apologize? I mean, the fight was in 1971. I personally believe that in view of Ali's status as a sports icon, he owes an apology to more people than just Mr. Frazier. It has been clearly established that a major factor in holding back the academic achievement of many black youngsters is their fear of being accused by their peers of "acting white" - of being an overly-compliant, foot-kissing Uncle Tom - if they should apply themselves to their schoolwork. The consequences have been disastrous, for those kids and for our country. Given the importance of peer pressure in young peoples' lives, especially those without both a strong father and mother at home, many of them find it preferable to underachieve - fail, even - than to "act white" by performing up to their capabilities. Think of the young lives being wasted this way. Ali was fortunate that he was a great boxer and a clever guy. He also took a strong moral stand against the war in Viet Nam that cost him his championship. But without that God-given talent, I somehow doubt that many people would ever have known about that bubbling personality, and I know he would have been looked on as just another draft dodger. Without any great athletic skills and without an education, my guess is that his life would have taken a far less fruitful course than it did. I think that Ali owes it to our youngsters to tell them - not just Joe Frazier - that he was wrong - that working hard to succeed is not "acting white." It is "American."
*********** "Coach Wyatt, With all due respect, I think you owe the most sincere apology to all the US military personnel who have served a tour in Somalia. 30 were killed and 176 were wounded in action and 14 other deaths. The military personnel did not go soft (the youngest Army Ranger killed was a 18 year old from Florida) because the Washington leaders did a lousy job of planning of capture a warload in Mogadishu. I don't need to go in details to explain what happened in Somalia, but please make efforts to give a sincere apology to those families, friends, or anyone who have lost someone special in Somalia." James Kuhn, Greeley, Colorado (Fair enough. I was not talking about our military, which as I am sure you know I support whole-heartedly, but about the society it protects. I have nothing to apologize for, but since there may be others who read it the same way, I do owe an explanation to anyone who thinks I that I said our military has gone soft. I was talking about a nation which went to pieces at the sight of one American being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. A horrible sight to be sure, but putting our military in a spot like that has its costs. I do not back away from my contention that we as a people have gone soft, relative to the fibre it took to fight World War II, and I challenge anyone to provide examples contradicting that. Again, I regret that I gave you the impression I did.) *********** Wonder why people are "out to get" the XFL? Said Vince McMahon to Bob Costas, during their interview last week: "Shut up and let me answer the question." *********** (1) Why did the Orlando Sentinel keep fighting so hard to see the Dale Earnhardt autopsy photos, when it said it had no plans to print them? (2) Why don't people trust newspapers? *********** I guess our tax dollars bought us this information: Census Bureau estimates tells us that Americans with disabilities who hold jobs earn less on average than those without disabilities, and - hold on to your seats - those whose disabilities are considered "severe" earn even less. *********** Oregon State, coming off that huge Fiesta Bowl win, and with season ticket sales higher than they've been in years, is stuck with only five home games. Seems that North Texas reneged on a commitment it made long ago, and now it's kinda late for the Beavers to find anybody else. Somebody at North Texas (the AD responsible isn't there any more) went ahead and scheduled Oklahoma on the same date as they'd already "committed" to play Oregon State. You're not supposed to do that, but what do you think this is, a gentleman's game? Word is that North Texas will make so much more playing Oklahoma that it can buy its way out of its Oregon State contract for $200,00 and still come out way ahead financially. I personally think that someone at North Texas saw Oregon State dismember Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl and decided they'd rather take their chances against Oklahoma. *********** I'm not even sure what this was doing in the sports section, but the article said, "Bob Entzion, former athletics director at North Dakota State, was found guilty of lewd conduct and fined $73 for grabbing an undercover police officer in the crotch last fall." The article didn't say whether it was a male or female police officer. Just curious. ************ Here's how you can tell he'll be back in the NBA in three years. Rick Pitino, still enjoying Louisville's shameless mating dance, said, "My wife, no question, wants to come back to Kentucky (where he coached before bolting to Boston and the really big bucks). She realized after being away that absence dopes make the heart grow fonder, and how great Kentucky really was." *********** Coach, You beat me to it. I was going to bring the National Wrestling Championship to your attention, concerning the true meaning of TEAM. Last night my son Erik had his high school team's wrestling banquet, and he brought the Minnesota Championship up to make a point in his little speech: that his goal is to develop the best wrestling team he can and let the individual champions fall where they may ( next year he has 11 varsity wrestlers back ). He also brought tears to my eyes when he thanked everyone for their support, and saved his Dad for last, and thanked him for teaching him the meaning of hard work, discipline, team work, and having the loudest mouth in the gym. He also thanked me for the Lifesavers I would offer him after the learning experiences. I guess life has its rewards." Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey *********** "I'm definitely looking forward to my high school reunion." Penn State's Titus Ivory, after the Lions beat North Carolina. (He comes from Charlotte, NC) *********** in regards to Coach Newhouse.....I can have empathy for him.....being "non-renewed' and "because it's time for a change" .....words no coach wants to hear.....some times your best is not enough (Name Withheld) (you make a good point. We are at a point in education in which the process by which kids arrive at the answer to a math problem is more important than getting the correct answer, so it is only reasonable to assume that more and more coaches will lose their jobs (sorry - be "non-renewed") because "educators" disagree with the "process.") *********** We were due. First it was the earthquake. Then the Trail Blazers brought in Rod Strickland and immediately came apart. Now, our rivers are low, our lakes are nearly dry, and California is "borrowing" our electricity and "promising" to pay us back sometime this summer. We needed a break. Finally, though, it looks as if we got one - Vince McMahon's coming to Portland. Thursday, I think. Why? Well, the word is that he thinks Portland will be perfect for the XFL. I agree, if he's referring to Portland's tradition of falling for loser leagues. I'll put Portland right up there with any town except Birmingham when it comes to being seduced by "pro" football pretenders in various guises. Let's see, I came out here in 1975 with the Portland Thunder. The year before that there was the Portland Storm. Then came the tail end of the USFL, as Portland served as the final stop for the itinerant Boston/New Orleans/Portland Breakers. Don't forget the Forest Dragons of the Arena Football League, which were so successful here that their owner moved them to someplace in Oklahoma. Other than transsexual cheerleaders, I don't see what Portland has to offer. The Trail Blazers control the town the way Don King used to control boxing. Portland doesn't even have a place to play football at the moment, although when the city finishes pouring taxpayer millions into a renovation of what used to be called Civic Stadium, it will have a spiffy minor-league baseball park capable of holding maybe 25,000 people (which, now that I think of it, ought to be more than enough for an XFL team). Oh well - Vince'll be needing a general manager, so maybe I ought to go meet him at the airport and give him my card. He'd never find our place. It's so hidden even the Domino's delivery guys have to call and ask. Actually, considering some of my opinions on the subject of Vince McMahon and the WWF, maybe it's just as well he can't find me. *********** Just remember, when you listen to Brian "The Boz" Bosworth - this is the guy who once called John Elway "Mister Ed." I have two words for Brian Bosworth: BO JACKSON. (If you don't know what I'm referring to, ask around.) |
*********** In college wrestling, it is pretty much a given that the NCAA championship team will come from Iowa, Iowa State, Oklahoma or Oklahoma State. So it was something of surprise when the winner of this year's NCAA championship - held, of course, in Iowa City - turned out to be Minnesota, as the Gophers won their first national wrestling title ever. Not that the title strayed all that far from the states of Oklahoma and Iowa: Gophers' coach J (honest, that's what he goes by) Robinson wrestled at Oklahoma State and before hiring on at Minnesota served as a trusted assistant to Iowa coach Dan Gable. To say it was a team effort is an understatement. The Gophers didn't have a single individual champion, but all 10 members of the team placed. I wouldn't suggest that you tell any of your kids to do what Owen Elzen, Minnesota's 197-pounder, did, but there is no question that the way he dealt with adversity - the way he "took one for the team" - was a major factor in the Gophers' winning the title. Back in December, in a dual match against Hofstra, Elzen tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee. It should have finished his season. But after sitting out an invitational tournament and three dual meets, he was back wrestling two months later. His teammates, meanwhile, although acknowledging that he had a knee problem - a "sprain" - that caused him to be held out of certain matches, managed to keep the actual severity of his injury a secret, for fear opponents would go right for the knee. Elzen at first tried a brace, but soon discarded it because "it was really uncomfortable." When he returned to the mat, there was so little change in his performance that his coaches said they often forgot that he was injured. "He would be out there so strong that you wouldn't even remember it," assistant coach Marty Morgan told Michael Rand of the Minneapolis Star-Times. "You didn't notice it until it swelled up and we had to ice it right away." He went into the NCAA's as the number five seed at his weight, and made it to the semi-finals before losing, 6-4 to the eventual champion, but in the third-place match, trailing 4-0 in the second period, he shocked his opponent by pinning him. "That's inspirational to the other guys on the team," Coach Robinson told the Star-Tribune. "They saw someone who wanted to win for his team, and that's what it came down to - a total team effort." Said teammate Leroy Vega, who also took a third place, "Everyone has aches and pain during the year, but you can't complain when you know Owen has a torn ACL."
*********** "Coach- Just had a blow up with (-- my wife-- ). We were talking about the kids at her school. It seems they are upset because they are not allowed to wear coats or hats in the school. Coats, because who knows what they may have under them, and the hats simply because it's not proper for men to wear hats indoors ( not to mention the logos ). The principal wants to give in on the hats and let them wear them. (--- My wife ---) wants to negotiate, like you can wear the hat if you promise not to smoke in the rest rooms. I said, bull----. Stick to your guns. If you start that, where will it end - you can wear your coat if you promise not to carry a shotgun under it? It would be like me saying, I'll let you sit out the sprints if you promise not to be late for practice, or you can sit on your helmet if you promise to run the sprints full speed . I just think it's part of discipline conditioning. "When I was a kid I had to take the garbage out every night, empty the ashes every other day, cut the grass Sat morning. There was no negotiating. It had to be done so you just did it. After a while it was a part of life. I did it without thinking, like brushing teeth, or washing hands before dinner, and, of course being on time to eat it. I bet if they were not allowed to wear the hats indoors at home, they would not even give a thought to taking them off in school. Where are the women's libbers? This is simply a sign of respect to women. I guess their idea of equality is, if, a man tips his hat, removes it indoors, or opens a door for them it is treating them less than equal. I feel men not wearing hats indoors is a simple sign of manners, respect, and discipline, and a good place to start to take a stand on our principles." Hard to disagree on the importance of discipline - and the growing need for ways for modern kids to experience it. We have so "empowered" (a favorite edubabble word) teenagers - and younger - that they've got the idea that they are at the center of the solar system - that the rest of us are all sitting around idling, just waiting to hear their opinions on everything. Just waiting to hear what they want, ready to cater to their every desire. They walk all over Mom and (if he's there) Dad and expect to be able to do the same with teachers, coaches and employers. All too often, they do. Discipline in one of its many forms is conditioning yourself to doing things without asking "why?" Just doing them because they have to be done. In today's overly-feminized America, it is faddish to equate unquestioning obedience with Naziism. To that, I say bull----. That's not Naziism. That's how we defeated the Nazis. That's why we won World War II. It's also why, 50 years later, we pulled out of Somalia.
*********** In the early days of gender equity, when schools were first required to pay girls' basketball coaches as much as their boys' counterparts, irrespective of the enormous differences in pressure, community expectations, parental interest, etc., many boys' coaches saw it as easy money. Most of the ones I know who made the switch said that the girls were a lot more fun to coach and a lot more appreciative. And coaching sure could make a difference, when an experienced coach went up against someone with good intentions who just didn't have a clue: it was not unusual then to see scores like 86-23 or 75-12. Things are changing rapidly, though. Rare is the girls' basketball team that isn't well-coached, and with college scholarships lighting up parents' eyes, the pressure is increasing apace. Recruiting is not unheard of, and parents have been known to shop their daughters around. Girls' coaches are expected to win, but at the same time, to deal with the delicate emotions of young girls. It is sometimes a difficult balancing act. So Matt Newhouse discovered, when he was fired - "non-renewed" - recently as basketball coach at Seattle's all-girls Holy Names High School. This despite the fact that in his three years at Holy Names, Newhouse was 63-20 and his teams went to the state tournament twice. This year's team finished fourth in its league after a key player was injured in December, but the league titles Holy Names won in his first two years as coach were the first in school history. Newhouse admitted to the Seattle Times that he coached aggressively, and that his coaching voice sometimes took on "more than a conversational tone." "Some of the kids that I coached this year, from a sensitivity side of things, had trouble dealing with my matter-of-factness," he added. The Holy Names Athletic Director refused comment, other than to say, "It's just time for a change." You just know that parents had to be involved, and for those wanting to read between the lines, you might want to note that Newhouse also told the Seattle Times there was some difficulty with "some of our younger players" and their parents about "where they saw themselves." "I won't apologize for the way I've handled myself and conducted myself," Newhouse said. "I don't have a problem with what I've done." *********** Remember the Great Digital Divide? You know - that huge gulf in computer literacy and Internet access that supposedly had developed between society's haves and have-nots, and threatened to widen unless Big Government stepped in and gave every homeless child a laptop, a high-speed connection and a cell phone? Haven't heard much about it since the election. In our neck of the woods, Big Government has been spending its time and money trying to eliminate the Great Skate Divide. See, while the children of the privileged have been busy skateboarding, grinding marble benches to dust, the children of the poor are in danger of being left behind. Unless Big Government steps in, that is. The little town of Washougal, Washington, reacting to the kind of organized pressure communities around the nation have been experiencing, is going build a skateboard park. It is hoping to receive a Community Development Block Grant to pay $87,000 of the $109,000 project, but it won't receive the "government money" (your taxes) until the project is completed and it can then demonstrate that more than half of the park's users come from "low- and moderate-income areas." I am not kidding. It gets better. To determine whether Washougal qualifies for the grant, a government team will conduct a survey, in which skateboarders will be asked their home addresses. Your tax dollars at work. *********** It's hell being on the road this time of the year. For me, it has already meant missing the "XFL Game of the Year" between Orlando and Los Angeles. Of course, lots of other people missed it, too, even though they were home. There's this other thing on TV called the NCAA basketball tournament, and it does seem to occupy peoples' attention. *********** Meanwhile, the XFL doesn't know when to shut up. Now it's the coaches getting into the act. Los Angeles Coach Al Luginbill said, "If we played Oklahoma, it wouldn't be a contest." He really said that. He probably meant right now, in mid-March, in view of the fact that Oklahoma's players haven't practiced in a couple of months, and their equipment's all been turned in. But he'd have to make it quick, 'cause spring practice ought to be starting soon. Just as delusional was Los Angeles General manager J. K, McKay, adding, "We could score 100 points on Oklahoma." He really did. I wasn't there to hear him say it, but I trust the people who say they were. *********** Can you believe Jesse Ventura as a sympathetic figure? Vince McMahon is so hateful that he can actually get me pulling for Jesse. McMahon, that purveyor of sleaze, who plans everything right down to a gnat's anus, now implies that Jesse was saying things he had no business saying - something about the fact that the public doesn't like hype. Like Jesse wasn't following the script. Furthermore, says McMahon, Jesse is the reason for the XFL's low TV ratings, so he is on "thin ice." "We need football announcers, not WWF announcers," McMahon said last week, apparently having awoken to a blinding flash of light informing him of this fact that any one of us could have told him. But why would he listen to us? He also thinks we're so stupid that we don't know it was his idea to push the WWF involvement in the new football league to the max in the firest place. This is not to say that Jesse still doesn't suck as an announcer. Duane Benson, a former Vikings' linebacker and former Minnesota state senator, says, "It's hard to believe anyone could turn on a sports production for an announcer." (Unfortunately, what Mr. Benson probably doesn't realize is that people will turn a sport production off if they don't like an announcer.) *********** I passed through Minneapolis yesterday, and they are not giving Jesse an easy time of it in his homeland. The St. Paul Pioneer Press' Joe Soucheray refers to him as "Governor Turnbuckle." And a political cartoon in Sunday's Minneapolis Star Tribune asked, "which came first - the Turkey (drawing of Jesse) or the egg (the XFL, and the egg it has laid)?" Many are questioning whether the Guv ought to cut his losses right now. "The XFL has been a disaster," says Chris Gilbert, professor of political science at Gustavus Adolphus College, in St. Peters, Minnesota. "the sooner he gets it behind him the better." Said State Senator John Marty, "If anything, getting fired could be a good thing for him politically. I think a lot of Minnesotans - including a lot who are big fans of his - just don't think that is the right thing for their governor to be doing. It could save face for him politically." There are those who suspect that the McMahon-Ventura spat is contrived, in typical WWF fashion, much in the way that Jesse tried to stir things up with NY/NJ coach Rusty Tillman, in a feeble attempt to breathe some air into the XFL's near-lifeless corpse. Davis Meltzer, editor of Wrestling Observer, thinks it might be a case of McMahon trying to cut his losses. Meltzer notes that "everyone in the industry knows the frustration of the XFL is getting to him (McMahon)...he's got a flop on his hands, and he's looking for someone to blame." Stating that McMahon has "gotten all the mileage he's going to get out of Ventura's name," Meltzer suspects that McMahon is trying to bust Jesse's gonads and goad him into quitting. See, if Jesse quits, McMahon won't have to honor their contract. "Generally, if you quit,," Meltzer observes, "you can't collect on your contract. If he fires Jesse, he would probably have to pay him off." If McMahon is trying to bait Jesse into quitting, Sarah Janacek, editor of a Minnesota political newsletter, thinks he might be successful: "We in Minnesota know that our governor does not deal with public criticism well. If he gets into a harsh war of words with McMahon, he might get himself in trouble." *********** "We had a guy in our league who as he went thru the league manipulated the rules - which was the league's fault - in order to aquire a virtual "All Star" team that did not lose a game for 4 years, and one season went unscored-upon. Now during this time parents on other teams screamed bloody murder about how he cheated and how the league was responsible for this and they decried the lack of competitive balance. The league finally took a stand and advised him that some of his players would have to be spread out to balance the league. He refused to do so, claiming the kids would not play for anyone else. We stood our ground, and he left the league, finding a league in another state where he took the kids and won a championship. We had our most competitive year ever , no undefeated teams . Teams were so evenly matched you absolutely had no idea who would win. The awards dinner was great - everyone talking about how competitive it was. Now the other guy's kids all go on to high school, so to restock his team he is calling our kids and sending letters out. So now some of these people who called him every name in the book are talking of their kids playing for him. Even one of my kids is talking about it. Coach this kid's mother wrote me a letter after the season that was 4 pages that I can't read without getting choked up. I was going to put it in a prominent place in my home. It meant that much to me. It made me feel like I was accomplishing what I'm supposed to accomplish as a coach . Then this same kid's father says that he has no respect for the other guy, but because of the promises this guy has made to his son he feels that maybe he can get into a "prestigious " private high school. That letter just got stuffed in a drawer. Believe me, if Bill Clinton was a youth football coach this would be him. Thanks for letting me vent coach. I take this stuff too personally and get too attached to the kids." (Name withheld to prevent retaliation by the Clintons.) |
Correctly identifying Bud Wilkinson- Kevin McCullough- Lakeville, Indiana ("I did not know Oklahoma ran the option under him, or that he was from Minnesota.....I don't know how any one could have much of a better run than he did.)....Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota ("The picture is of Bud Wilkinson who was a quarterback (blocking back) for the Golden Gophers as a junior and then, I believe, made a change to play guard for his senior year. Of course, in the single wing, there was little difference in contact between a blocking back and guard.")...Scott Russell- Sterling, Virginia...Adam Wesoloski- DePere, Wisconsin... Dennis Metzger- Connersville, Indiana (" I don't think that he invented the Split-T but he used it as well as anyone could, winning 47 straight games at one time. A classy man, I had the privilege of hearing him speak at a clinic that he and Duffy Daugherty hosted. My junior year in high school-1966- I was a Split-T Qb and our secondary offense was the unbalanced Single Wing. I was the QB/Blocking back in that offense. The pulling guard and I had a lot of fun attacking defensive Ends, especially a box end. It's probably the same feeling that linemen in the Double Wing have when they pull.")... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois... Glade Hall- Seattle, Washington ("Besides all the numbers his teams ran up he also wrote a couple of books. I found one from the 50's at my local used book store. His philosophy of the running game was some what different from the double wing but very effective. I never watched any of his teams but I sure do remember listening to him describe the action when he did the color on college games.")... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky ("I had the pleasure of meeting coach Wilkinson and coach Duffy Daugherty through their clinics in the 1970's in Louisville. They used to have all the great coaches speak at their clinics.")... Bert Ford- Los Angeles... Tom Hensch- Staten Island, New York... Mike Benton- Colfax, Illinois ( "I don't think any college team will ever be as dominant over a long period of time as his Oklahoma Sooners were.")... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ("That's Bud Wilkinson who compiled a major college win streak that will never be surpassed. I decided to look him up on line and the biography said he played guard his first 2 years before playing quarterback his last year. Is that possible? Anyway, he was a remarkable man as well as football coach. His brief coaching stint with the St Louis Cardinals in no way diminished what he accomplished at Oklahoma.")... Joe Bremer- West Seneca, New York... Don Gordon- South Deerfield, Massachusetts... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa ("As a collector of football books, I have one of my favorites that coach co-authored with Gomer Jones.")... John Reardon- Peru, Illinois... John Grimsley- Gaithersburg, Maryland... Mike Ryan- St. Louis, Missouri...("Your "News" picture is of the late Bud Wilkinson, coach of the Oklahoma Sooners and in 1978 and about 3/4's of the 1979 season coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. He was fired by Cardinal owner Bill Bidwill when he refused to start former wasted first-round draft choice Steve Pisarkiwicz (sp?) at quarterback when the season was a definite loser. Coach Wilkinson knew Zark wasn't up to NFL standards, and was proven correct the last few games of that season. Coach Wilkinson was impressed with St. Louis, however and continued to live here until his death. His widow Donna still lives here and is very active in local charitable fund-raising activities.")... *********** Still on the subject of Bud Wilkinson... "Has there ever been a more competent football analyst for the college game as Bud Wilkinson was for years? After he retired from coaching Oklahoma and he was hired by one of the major networks, I listened to him virtually every Saturday doing the commentary on the "Game of the Week". He brought an understated expertise that has eluded many of our present football "color" people (which would include Governor Ventura, as well). Coach Wilkinson was truly an analyst rather than a "color" man because he looked ahead at possiblities rather than summarizing what the viewer just saw. "At the Coach of the Year clinics (which he and Duffy Daugherty put together), Coach Wilkinson was able to keep over 1,000 coaches focused on each word he spoke. Unfortunately, he seemed to generally get a topic that was difficult to cover in the brief time he had to present. However, when he was able to discuss at length the similarities and/or differences of the wishbone and the split-T (about 1971 or so), he was as precise and as efficient as his best Sooner squads and there was an electricity in his presentation. "When I was in high school (mid-1960s), we were a split-T team and my older brother, who was also a huge fan of Coach Wilkinson, would frequently talk to me about Coach Wilkinson and what they were doing at Oklahoma. We talked about their practice schedules, training techniques, and games. I remember seeing them play USC on television after the Trojans had won the national title the year before (about 1964 or so). The game was covered in Sports Illustrated and the title was something like "100 plays in 100 degree heat." Oklahoma defeated USC behind the all around, superb play of Joe Don Looney (one of the more unusual players at Oklahoma), a dominant running game, and a stout defense. "I believe Coach Wilkinson was more of a "refiner" than an innovator. Some of his favorite "coaching extras" included the no-huddle offense, the halfback pass, the "sucker" shift (he got Notre Dame on this one, I believe, in the mid-1950s), certainly the option play, and "racehorse" football where the offense huddled quickly to keep the defense off balance. His book on the split-T offense was probably as well read of text as any published. "I remember reading one time that Coach Wilkinson probably got more coaches fired than any other person alive. Supposedly, many coaches thought they could copy his style and, by doing that, have the same success as he experienced only to find out that lining up in the split-T and looking cool on the sidelines were significantly different than knowing the split-T and having a plan for all situations. I believe that Coach Wilkinson stated his practices were supposed to be harder than any game situation so the players would anxiously look forward to the action on Saturday. "He was everything one would want in a coach - organization, efficiency, tactics, planning, aggressiveness, and thoughtfulness. He was truly a coaching legend for all time. I see there is a new book out about Coach Wilkinson that was written by his son. I have not had a chance to read it yet but I am looking forward to it." "Take care and Happy Saint Patrick's Day." Mike O'Donnell - Pine City, Minnesota *********** Coach, Clinic was great. It is a good thing, had you not been worth every penny and then some I and my staff might have booed you. Here is how our weekend went: Flight was great Got to Midway and had no Rental Car (school forgot to get us one). No one had enough room on the credit card to pay for it either. Cab to Tinley Park cost us $72.00 Got to hotel and school had reserved us rooms but said nothing of taking the voucher, or school credit card to actually pay for it. Good thing I had just enough room on the card to pay for the rooms. Wives couldn't go to Michigan Ave. to shop because of high cab fare (needless to say I was very unpopular) Convenience store had no beer (and with the day I was having I needed some) Luckily we met a guy (Dan) there for the wrestling (big WWF show) and he gave us a ride to get some beer. Chris Davis (Slayton, Minnesota) gave my staff a ride to the clinic and back from it. You were awesome. Cab fare back to Midway was $40.00 Got home to a winter storm Needless to say I think my staff and I deserve 3 "Set of Stones" t-shirts for surviving our trip to the "general Chicago area". But Thanks For A Great Learning Experience, Best Clinic I have Attended, Brad Knight, Holsteion Iowa (I agreed with Coach Knight on the tee-shirts. They went out Thursday.) *********** Credit Jay Weiner of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for this one: "These basketball players are student-athletes, right? (Sure, that's why they're about to miss three weeks of class.) But according to U.S. News, Stanford (of the NCAA tournament institutions) has a higher range of college entrance exam scores than even Princeton, although Princeton is rated as the nation's No. 1 university. Here's the SAT Top 10 among tournament teams: Stanford, Princeton, Duke, Notre Dame, California, Georgetown, Virginia, UCLA, Wake Forest and North Carolina." *********** Back around Christmas time, we were at the airport waiting to meet someone when a group of big, young, good-looking college-age guys came walking by. And then we recognized Ernie Kent. Ernie Kent is the University of Oregon's basketball coach, and those, obviously, were his players, on their way to a game in Louisville. Naturally, we wished Coach Kent luck, then we all remarked on how good his players looked. We've come a long way since the days of the late 60's, when white coaches were ordering black players to shave off their mustaches and goatees, and the players were resisting - either walking out or striking. But it seems as if the coaches are at it again. Once again, college players - the majority of whom are black - are being given the same kind of orders, updated only slightly. This time, though, the orders are coming from a different angle. In the Pac-10, based on a survey by Rachel Bachman of the Portland Oregonian, it appears that black coaches, who make up fully 50 per cent of the conference's head basketball coaches, have tougher dress and conduct standards than their white counterparts. Oregon's Kent, whose kids so impressed us, said he bans earrings. Otherwise, he told Bachman, his general instructions are to "look like students." One of his players recalls Coach Kent telling him to cut off his braids: "He told me that maybe scouts or refereees would judge me by my hair." Henry Bibby, USC coach, also bans earrings. Other jewelry, too. It does not come as a surprise to the players he recruits. "Before kids come into my program," he told Bachman, "I tell them how I want them to look." Oregon State's Richie McKay's prohibitions include earrings, headphones while in an airport, high socks and braids. Washington State's Paul Graham also bans jewelry, but deals with hairstyles on an individual basis. "Braids are fine, but I make the ruling on it," he said. "We live in a world of perception and not reality, and that's what you've got to deal with." OSU's McKay sees it as fighting some negative racial stereotypes that still exist, saying, "I think it's easy for people, if they see a lot of African-Americans on the floor, coached by an African-American coach, to have a perception of 'Oh, he's just recruited a bunch of thugs.'" According to Darrell Millner, a professor of black studies at Portland State, black coaches may be able to be more demanding, because their players "have an almost innate understanding of what those black coaches have overcome to get to the positions they are in." Stanford's Mike Montgomery, a white coach, does not allow facial hair, but he relented on jewelry: "When Michael Jordan came out with an earring," he said, "I figure we lost that battle." *********** Remember Heather Sue Mercer, the female placekicker who sued Duke because she was cut, and was awarded $2 million in punitive damages? An appeals couort just upheld the verdict, and further ordered Duke to pay her lawyers $388,800. Do you see what a wonderful blow Ms. Mercer has struck for the cause of women? Who in his right mind, knowing the possible consequences of cutting her, would give another woman a chance similar to the one then-coach Fred Goldsmith gave Ms. Mercer? The old adage says to beware the adversary who has nothing to lose. That lawsuit cost her nothing to file. With the amouont that can be won in a so-called "discrimination" suit, there are plenty of lawyers willing to take it on a contingency basis - if they lose, it costs the client nothing; if they win, they get a large percentage of the amount awarded. Beware the person whose lawyer is working for a contingency fee while your lawyers are on the clock. *********** A 53-year-old Boston schoolteacher was "allegedly" assaulted by the 32-year-old mother of one of her students, and the teacher's husband spoke out angrily, not only at his wife's attacker, but also at school officials, whom he accused of tolerating disruptive students at the expense of the majority of children and their teachers. His wife suffered a gash in her face and a fractured cheekbone after the mother of one of her first-grade students allegedly stormed into school with the boy's grandmother and shoved her, according to eyewitnesses. The push caused the 53-year-old teacher to fall and hit her head on a desk, as her class looked on, horrified. The mother faces assault and battery charges, and she and the boy's grandmother have been barred from the school. Good thinking, except according to kids in the teacher's class, a similar incident occured last year. "This is not the first time this woman has pulled this crap,'' said the teacher's husband. ". . . And you know what we've heard from the school department? Nothing.'' A typical mealy-mouthed school district spokesperson said that the superintendent was unable to call Mrs. Reveliotty to see how she was doing because he was out of town, but added that the department was in constant touch with her principal to check on her condition. They have her home phone number, I'm sure. The mother has denied shoving the teacher, claiming she "tripped over a chair'' when the mother confronted her about restraining her son the day before. Right. The mother's account differs quite a bit from those of students who were in the classroom and witnessed the incident. They volunteered the information that the boy has a history of disciplinary problems. "I see my wife who's just trying to get to retirement in one piece (she is a 30-year veteran) come home crying because that's how much she cares about her job,'' said the teacher's. "And I tell her don't. Don't care. Because this is what you get." More and more teachers will tell you that this sort of incident, although still unusual in that it involved physical assault, nonetheless typifies the harassment they face on a daily basis, and the extra load they've been forced to take on as increasingly they're expected to take on the jobs that once belonged to parents and social workers. I live with a teacher and I know plenty of teachers, and I listen to their frustration at having to spend more and more time having to teach children the things it was once taken for granted they would learn at home. I wonder if, in coming up with all their other bright ideas to fix America's schools, the wizards of School Reform have factored in "this crap" - to use the husband's apt description. If they haven't, they might as well throw away all the rest of their feel-good stuff, because School Reform, for the people who want to get their kids away from "this crap", is going to consist largely of private schools and home schooling. *********** Cool web sites: A Seattle firm named BC Design has a pretty slick depection of how to deal with an earthquake: http://www.bcgraphicdesign.com/quake.html (Thanks to graphic designer Adam Wesoloski, in DePere, Wisconsin) Find an anagram for any word - even your name! http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html (Thanks to Scott Russell, Sterling, Virginia) A night-time photograph of the entire earth, taken by satellite: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg (Thanks to Tom Hinger, Auburndale, Florida) *********** "I think I told you that I would not be able to coach this year. As a result I took a hard look at my schedule to see where I might be able to make it (football) fit next year. I thought I may be able to do it if I can get some place close to home. Get this, I saw an ad in today's paper for a football team and sign ups. I called the president and asked if he or any of his coaches needed any help, anywhere. I even told the president that I would count eqiupment if he needed help there. Well this guy proceeds to tell me how good his organization is and that they DON'T NEED ANY COACHES, period. He asked if I had coached before and though I said yes he did not let me get a word in edge wise. I am sincerely disapointed and a little pissed at this arrogant bastard. I did not expect a welcoming party by any means, just a little courtesy and maybe half a chance. I did not expect to be the head coach, but maybe help a younger coach learn some new things. Hope I did not bore you, I just needed to vent a tad." "Arrogant bastard" says it all. We hear so much about irrational parents nowadays that we never hear about this side of youth sports. I have heard some real horror stories about the people who run youth football organizations like their own little fiefdoms; unless you're an insider, it's like dealing with the Supreme Soviet. As so often happens, kids come last. Can you believe that? "We don't need any coaches!" |
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LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: This photo, from the 1934 University
of Minnesota Gophers' team photo, is of none other than
Bud Wilkinson, future all-time great coach of the
University of Oklahoma Sooners. Bud Wilkinson spent two
seasons at guard, and one as quarterback (blocking back)
in Bernie Bierman's famed single-wing. He was an
assistant at Oklahoma under Jim Tatum when Coach Tatum
left to go to Maryland, and he was named head coach. He
was 35 years old. From the late 1940's through the early
1960's, his teams set the standard for excellence in
college football, dominating their conference as few
football teams have ever done. Although he did not invent
option football, his teams brought the option play to
national attention by running it better than it had ever
been run.
*********** Question from an unnamed coach: "Say you have extremely good skill players at receiver and quarterback, and not much for running backs. Wouldn't you be better served spreading out the offense and getting them the ball?" Coach- That makes some sense, but of course it would depend on whether you have the time and the know-how and the quarterback and the offensive linemen to devote to developing a passing game sophisticated enough to justify your putting all your eggs in one basket. You didn't say whether you mean going totally to a pass-oriented game, but I will address that point. I wish you well if your QB goes down. I doubt that you will have two equally good ones, both completely ready. Try getting the backup ready in a couple of days. You have no doubt seen the problems the pros have when they have to do it. As for those wide receivers - I have yet to find a good wide receiver who can't run the ball. That is what any good receiver has to do after every catch anyhow. You can spread one end or both, as we sometimes do, but you'd still better have some people who can run the ball. Because unless you have a practically unstoppable passing attack, if you don't have a decent running game to hang your hat on you will probably wind up looking like those "offenses" in the NFL. And, as anybody knows who has ever had an ineffective passing game, that is the surest way to lose big. It is no fun to have to go right back on defense after three straight incompletions and a punt and see that you haven't even taken a minute off the clock.
*********** XFL President Basil Devito said Monday that as a result of lower- than-expected TV ratings, the XFL will not meet the forecast of $80 million in revenues from advertising, ticket sales and merchandise, made back in December by WWF CEO Linda McMahon.
*********** How cool is this? A coach who now has his dad, a retired head coach, on his staff, writes, "On my schedule for next season is a game at my old high school and on the field that is named for my dad. They plan on rededicating the field in his honor next year during our game. That must be a wierd feeling for someone that coached 30 years at one place to come back coaching for another team.
*********** I am always wary of people who wave the "service to others" flag at me. I am tired of politicians being described as having spent their lives in "public service." Like they were Peace Corps volunteers! Come on - Mother Teresa spent her life in public service. So did Albert Schweitzer. "Serve the public?" You tellin' me that's why Bill Clinton did it? Take away the money and the power and the perks and see how long most of our "public servants" stay in "public service." Instead of the "public servant" who claims to have spent a career doing that, I am more inclined to trust the person who just went about his business and one day, lo and behold, found himself (or herself) in a position to do some good. As I understand it, Colin Powell did not join the Army with the idea of performing any great public service. I believe he joined because it looked like a good opportunity for a young black man from the South Bronx and, as it turned out, it was - he was able to take it from there. Nothing wrong with that.
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From the very start of my clinics in 1998, I have been sensitive to the issue of "talking down" to youth coaches. I won't do it and I strongly advise high school coaches against it. High school and youth coaches together are able to take part in a give-and-take. I think one reason for that is that we all talk the same language - those of use who use the same system terminology, that is. That enables us to bypass a lot of the need for translation that you normally would run into. This week's clinic is in Atlanta. Coaches are urged to contact me by e-mail or phone to pre-register. As at Chicago, tapes and "IT TAKES A SET" tee-shirts will be available at clinic prices.
*********** From a coaching friend: "I don't know about out in Washington, but here in ----- it is hard to cope with the attitudes that even some of the seven year olds exhibit. Respect is one word most will never learn to spell or apply. Maybe its because they've never been asked to, I'm not sure what the problem is. But the inability to listen to an elder, a teacher or a coach means you never learn what is being taught. "I really do love these hard headed hellions, it's just I expect so much more from them. My hats are off to you and every coach, teacher and parent who does this on a daily basis. It's in my blood now, so even though I complain, I love this sport and all it gives to everyone!" You are absolutely right on in your observations about lack of respect and inability to focus. Now you see what their classroom teachers are up against, and why I think it is so grossly unfair of people to blame the poor results of our schools on the teachers.
*********** The Top 10 College basketball arenas, in the opinion of Dan Wetzel - www.cbs.sportsline.com 1. Gallagher-Iba Arena, Oklahoma State: No facility can match its combination of noise, history and charm. Renovation may slightly alter game environment, but until that's proven, it remains No. 1. 2. Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke: Classy, full of old school ambiance and beautifully set on the Duke campus. Television has made student fans and their Krzyzewskiville Camp Site famous. An environment that is often copied but never duplicated. 3. The Palestra, Penn: You want old, this Philadelphia landmark has a game clock that still ticks and a banner celebrating a 1908 Ivy League Title. It was home to scores of Big Five doubleheaders that helped an entire city fall in love with the game. 4. Phog Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas: Seats over 15,000 but still feels like a gym, with steep seating, a track running underneath the bleachers and windows that let the sun shine in. 5. Williams Arena, Minnesota: One of kind old Midwestern barn with a raised floor, three decks of intimidating throaty fans and 20-foot banners of old stars such as Kevin McHale in tight shorts staring down at you. 6. McArthur Court, Oregon: The best of the West rocks even when the Ducks are middle of the pack. Small, but with balconies, it can shake with noise. 7. The Pit, New Mexico: On top of the wonderful ambiance and passionate crowds is a sign painted on the wall of the long tunnel players run down to get the court. It reminds you that you're are a mile above sea level and if the Lobos don't get you the thin air will. 8. Rupp Arena, Kentucky: While not aesthetically overwhelming, when the 'Cats take the floor under eight championship banners and over 24,000 stand to cheer, the power of the program simply roars down upon you. 9. Hilton Coliseum, Iowa State: It's a big block of concrete sticking out of the frozen winter ground in Ames, but statistically proven to provide the nation's greatest home court advantage. Even when the Cyclones have been bad, Hilton Magic has made them winners.
*********** A friend who coaches at an elite private school looked long and hard - really long and hard - at the Double-Wing before making the leap. It took him three years before he finally decided to go ahead and install it this past year, but now is very happy he did. His kids wound up having a good season, getting progessively better as they went along and grew better acquainted with the offense. About mid-season they pulled off a shocker - a very big win over a team they'd never beaten. His kids, holding onto a 10-7 lead with seven minutes to play, marched 65 yards in 14 plays for the clincher, taking 6:32 off the clock in the process. (Even he was surprised, because, as he told me, "I wasn't experienced enough with the Double-Wing yet to know what to expect.")
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Correctly identifying Gerry Ford, the Michigan center and Yale coach: Adam Wesoloski- DePere, Wisconsin ("he was the team's most valuable player. It's never difficult to nominate a SW center for that honor.... Kevin McCullough- Lakeville, Indiana... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky ("Most people don't know of his coaching career. They only know of him from politics. A good man who stepped into a difficult situation during a time of crisis. I don't think that he has ever gotten the credit he deserves for helping his country in a dark time. He handled the situation with class and dignity.")... Mike Benton- Colfax, Illinois... Greg Chambers- Groton, Connecticut ("Being from CT you'd think I'd know about his time at Yale, but I didn't. Shame on me, a history major no less.")... Steve Davis- Danbury, Texas... Ladd Vander Laan- Grand Rapids, Michigan... Alan Goodwin- Warwick, Rhode Island ("That guy looks like Gerald Ford with hair.")... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... Scott Russell- Sterling, Virginia... John Grimsley- Gaithersburg, Maryland... Lou Orlando- Sudbury, Massachusetts... Mike Foristiere- Boise, Idaho... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota... Dennis Metzger- Connersville, Indiana... Bert Ford- Los Angeles... Dave Potter- Durham, North Carolina... John Reardon - Peru, Illinois "...when Gerald Ford lost the presidential election to that peanut farmer, his first "public" appearance after leaving office was to accept the Chubb Fellowship at Timothy Dwight College (part of Yale's system of residential "colleges within a college." For his or her three upper-class years, every student lives and eats in his/her residential college, attends its parties, plays on its intramural teams, etc.) at Yale. He came to the school for a few days, meeting the students, and we had a reception for him up at Ray Tompkins House (the football offices). There were 5 of us on the football team that lived in Timothy Dwight, and we wrote him a letter inviting him up to our room for a beer. Never dreaming we had a snowball's chance in hell of meeting him, the Secret Service called us and told us that he couldn't come up because of security issues, but we were welcome to come down to the suite where he was staying. We excitedly and nervously all went to his room; we sat, talked, and drank a Michelob with him for about 30 minutes. When we were about to leave he offered to pose for pictures. I used to show everyone the picture: "Hey, do you want to see a picture of me and President Ford? I'm the one on the left.." Used to get a lot of laughs. This episode with President Ford and my teammates was mentioned in Coach Cozza's book "True Blue." Lou Orlando, Sudbury, Massachusetts. (Lou, who played center at Yale in the late '70s, is, in fact mentioned in Coach Carm Cozza's book. Coach Cozza says that Lou and a few of his teammates "Invited him for an informal chat." He didn't mention the beer.) *********** So Mr. Tough Guy, otherwise known as Bobby Knight, reveals his true self. This pillar of morality, who tried to hide all manner of inexcusable behavior behind the fact that years ago, before parents started advising their kids not to go to Indiana, he won a couple of Final Fours - who never failed to have one of his PR guys mention that his players did manage to graduate (well duh, Bob - and so did the kids at Princeton) - is a victim of that evil University. So Mr. Knight - "The General," as professional suckup Dick Vitale likes to call him, is taking the weenie way out and suing Indiana University because - sniff - it damaged his reputation and - sob - caused him emotional distress. Pain even. Bastard. Here's a guy who seemed to take great pleasure in seeing how coarse he could get with women coaches sitting in on his clinic lectures, seeing if he could gross them out of the room. A true boor. Here's a guy who was insufferably rude - downright abusive, in fact - to tournament officials, ordinary guys just doing their jobs. How dare they cross the great Coach Knight? Here's a guy who applied a forceful grip to the throat of one of his players (hey- that sounds like choking!) who wasn't performing up to the coach's expectations in practice. A classic bully. And all the while in the employ of Indiana University. And he's suing? What a puke. I say it's time for a countersuit. It's time for Indiana to nail his sorry ass for all the distress his juvenile actions caused the University. I hope somebody there in Bloomington was keeping score every time that creep did something to embarrass or disgrace the institution. I'm willing to bet somebody was. *********** Speaking of tough guys... WWF closed Thursday at 12.35, a thin dime away from its 52-week low of 12.25. Keep bellowing, Jesse. *********** After I wrote the other day about Temple football's problems, I was reminded by a reader of a guy who is probably the best football player to come out of Temple in the last 20 years. But I have to go back to 1972. I was coaching a semi-pro (we marketed it as "minor league") team in Hagerstown, Maryland. We had some pretty good football players, a mix of local guys and imports. Most of them had played some college ball, and many of them had been cut by one or another of the NFL teams not too far from us - Eagles, Colts and Redskins. They had aspirations of giving it another shot. Unlike some teams whose players were paid nothing - with the possible exception of a star player or two - our players were all paid the same: $50 a game plus expenses (which in the case of some of the guys driving to practice from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Virginia and upstate Pennsylvania sometimes amounted to more than the $50). Our league, the Seaboard League, (technically, the Seaboard Professional Football League) stretched from Hartford, Connecticut on the north to Portsmouth, Virginia on the south, with other teams in between in Hempstead, Long Island, and Pottsville, Chambersburg, Conshohocken and Ridley Township, Pennsylvania. Many of the players in that league would later go on to play - even star - in the World Football League. One particularly rough team was called the Aston Knights. For years, it had played as the Ridley Township Green Knights, named for an area southwest of Philadelphia, but for some reason, this particular year it had changed its name. Some of its players - quarterback John Waller from Temple, running back Frank Ryan from Duke, and a linebacker from Notre Dame named Mike Kondrla - had played some college ball, but most of them were just tough local kids. Very tough. I don't think they practiced all that much, but finesse was not their game. They had their nights when they could beat anybody. I recall this one night in particular when we played them at their field - at a place called Sun Valley High School. It may sound like a resort in Idaho, but it was named for the nearby Sun Oil Company refinery. We had a better team, I thought, and yet we were having a difficult time. Especially my left tackle, Dickie Keats. Dickie was what you would call a wily old veteran of the semi-pro wars, and he kept coming off the field, shaking his head and complaining about what a tough time he was having with this guy playing over him. We'd never seen the guy before on films or in our scouting. He was listed in the program as "Jimmy Jones," and after the game - we lost - I asked a few of the Aston guys about him. They said he was a local high school kid. Well, a couple of my players happened to hear that, and naturally they ran to give Dickie the news that he'd just been worked over by a high school kid. He didn't take it well. I remember him saying, "A high school kid! You go to be sh---in' me." Only years later did I learn that, "Jimmy Jones" was playing for Aston because he'd either quit or been thrown off the team at St. James High in nearby Chester. Somehow, he managed to get the people at Temple interested in him. Maybe they saw the film of our game. I rather doubt it, though, since playing in something called the Seaboard Professional Football League might not have gone down too well with the guys at the NCAA. (The statute of limitations has expired.) I haven't seen Dickie Keats since moving west in 1975. I wonder if he ever found out that the high school kid playing opposite him was young Joe Klecko. *********** "Coach, I've picked up a few football tapes here & there ("Coach Joe Blow's Guide to Blocking Like A Pro," or what have you.) Anyway, there seems to be quite a bit of mention of blocking a "3 technique" or a "9 technique," but they don't explain what they mean. Not being familiar with these terms, I thought I'd turn to you. I know about blocking certain players and/or certain positions, but not "techniques." What gives?" Coach: It is unfortunate that so often we coaches will use football jargon, "inside" terms that tend to intimidate people unfamiliar with them, preventing them from asking what they mean. Go to my "Tips" 60-64 and you'll find an explanation of the defensive numbering system used by many coaches. (If you think football coaches are bad, you ought to hear "educators" tossing pet terms around.) *********** I enjoy hearing the Wing-T insights of Jim Shelton, who is now living in Florida after a career in the US Army. Before his days as a military man, though, he played guard at Delaware for Dave Nelson, considered to be the inventor of the Delaware Wing-T. Jim recalls the day he demonstrated Wing-T guard techniques for Coach Forest Evashevski, a college teammate of Dave Nelson at Michigan, who was visiting Delaware to learn the Wing-T so he could install it at Iowa. (How'd he do with it at Iowa? Not bad. Back in those days when the Rose Bowl had a no-repeat rule, Iowa won it big in both 1957 and 1959.) Jim writes, "I went to Delaware predominately as a linebacker and I loved it. I was defensive signal caller my senior year, but as I played more offense I grew to love it more than defense, at least at Delaware. Blocking the running game was plain fun. Dave Nelson was talking to Ara Parsegian every weekend, as well as Evasheveski and Bump Elliott (of Michigan). They all used the Wing T. The funny thing was we watched their movies and we executed better than all of them. But they had the horses and could get away with sloppy execution."
*********** Following up on my simplistic 'explanation" of zone blocking, I am indebted to Mike Putnam, of South Albany High, in Albany, Oregon, for this much more professional and detailed job: " In the spirit of trying to teach a little instead of just showing off, I would like to share my experience with zone blocking. For my first 5 years of coaching, I worked under a Dennis Erickson disciple who gave me some of these principles of the technique and the basics of the play. "True zone blocking teams emphasize 'area' blocking more than man blocking, which means that this is not always a reach block. Often it involves a series of zone double-teams designed at securing the first level (DL) while having a blocker 'chip' off to 2nd level (LB). For example, a 7 technique DE (inside shade of the TE) requires a zone dbl-team for strong side zone runs. TE drive steps into the end, while the tackle either reaches or executes a 'bucket' step (45 degree step that loses about 12" from the initial stance) to eventually take over the block from the TE. As the OT swings his hips and 'rubs' the TE off the block, the TE can move up to 2nd level to take on a LB. As you can see, it is a little more than just a reach block accross the board. "The other principles of the technique, 'taking the man where he wants to go, are right on in zone blocking schemes. Hope this helped." *********** "Just for your info, I just bought my wife Jane a new Camry, and the local Toyota dealer gave me five of those silly dollar coins when we picked up the car. Nice gesture, but I would have rather had an extra tank of gas. Now you know, buy a car, get a coin, and you thought they were hard to find." Tom Hinger, Auburndale, Florida *********** Steve Fickert went from coaching high school ball in Tennessee to becoming a globetrotter, coachig two years ago in Seinäjoki, Finland, and last year in Hannover, Germany, and now he writes to say that he's adding another location to his list: Tupelo, Mississippi. "I have just signed a Contract as Defensive Coordinator and Special Teams Coordinator of the NEW Tupelo franchise of the NEW National Indoor Football League. This is a minor league of Arena Football (like AF2, IPFL or the old IFL). It is Professional Football...all the players were college stars from ALL LEVELS (a few have NFL experience!)...I AM EXCITED!" Naturally, I gave Steve my congratulations and best wishes - although to tell you the truth, from the scores I see, I really didn't know any of those teams even had defensive coordinators. *********** For a great read, pick up Dan Jenkins' "I'll Tell You One Thing. " It is billed as "The truth about Texas, America and college football. With pictures to prove it." It is historical, but if you're at all familiar with Dan Jenkins' style of writing, it is not heavy reading. He has seen them all and known most of them. It is a truly enjoyable journey through Texas football and the glory days of the Southwest Conference. *********** Now it's okay to print this story, courtesy of Reuters News Service - Pope John Paul was quoted as saying the only world leader he was never really able to have a proper conversation with was outgoing President Clinton. In a wide-ranging interview published in Italian weekly magazine Oggi, the surgeon who operated on the Pope in 1994 said the 80-year-old Pontiff had revealed details of some of his encounters during relaxed conversations. Quoting what the Pope said to him, Fineschi said: "The only leader I did not manage to have a proper conversation with was Clinton. I was speaking and he was looking at one of the walls, admiring the frescos and the paintings. "He was not listening to me," Fineschi quoted the Pope as saying. ("Well, Gol-lee! Bill, you lucky dog, you. You ever seen so many naked women in your life? Would you look at the caboose on that fat one over there? Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, Your Holiness. Did you say something?") ************ Pete Porcelli, who in one season turned the Troy (New York) Catholic Central High football program around, has been hired as head coach at Lansingburgh High. Heading into last season, Catholic Central had lost 48 of 52 games, including 14 straight, and was 0-9 in 1999. But using the Double-Wing, Coach Porcelli in his first season took the Crusaders to a 6-3 record. Lansingburgh finished 4-5 in 2000. Coach Porcelli played college ball at C.W. Post and spent six years as a lineman in the Arena Football League, including three seasons with the Albany Firebirds. *********** In the days before Palm Pilots... Author Anne Fadiman writes, "One day, when Sir Walter Scott was out hunting, a sentence he had been trying to compose all morning suddenly leapt into his head. Before it could fade, he shot a crow, plucked a feather, sharpened the tip, dipped it in crow's blood, and captured the sentence." Now that's what a football coach would call I & A: Improvise and Adjust. *********** One of my wife's co-workers had a new "student" enter her class recently. She is a little girl who is definitely high-maintenance - she has an IQ of 49 and a lot of trouble with self-control. Needless to say, no one asked the teacher whether she "wanted" this student in his classroom. Nor did anyone ask the school if it "wanted" her. Or the school system. Or the community. The fact is that because of the way current law is interpreted she is there, and the fact is that the teacher - who, like all teachers nowadays, is coming increasingly under the gun to show increases in student performances on standardized tests - must somehow alter what she has been doing with the rest of her class in order to accomodate her new student. This is not to debate the merits of putting this little girl in the classroom. My purpose is to illustrate one of the many unseen sides of "education" that all those "just-run-education-like-a-business-and-hold-schools-and-teachers-accountable" types don't seem to be aware of. I wonder how they'd be able to make the payments on that vacation home if they had to shut down their assembly line every time somebody came in with something that needed special attention, and they had to devote more attention to repairs than to manufacturing. *********** Rick Pitino has made a lot of money as a basketball coach. He also has "written" (I'm sure he sat down at his word processor and sweated bullets late into the evening for several weeks) a book aimed at businessmen who somehow have been convinced that by doing what he's done, they can be better car salesmen or financial consultants. I must confess I haven't read the book, but I bet there's nothing in there about skipping out of contracts. *********** Here's a great note Scott Russell, a youth coach in Northern Virginia, received from a player's mom: "He went to a party this weekend and the boys all ended up playing football. He was the only one on a football team, and asked the others what the most important thing was about football. A few said scoring touchdowns. He told them the most important thing is to play hard and have fun. You are doing a great job - Thanks for all your efforts." |
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LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: This photo was cropped from a shot of
the Yale coaching staff, sometime in the late 1930's. The
man on the right is the legendary Earle "Greasy" Neale,
who would go on to coach the Philadelphia Eagles of Steve
Van Buren and Company to two straight NFL titles. The man
on the left is the one we're looking for. A native of
Grand Rapids, Michigan, he started at center in the
University of Michigan's single wing under the great
Harry Kippke. Despite popular lore, he did not captain
the Wolverines. He coached at Yale from 1935 through
1940, during which time the Blue had back-to-back Heisman
Trophy winners in Larry Kelley and Clint Frank, but when
he left New Haven, his career took him in another
direction and he never coached again.
Hers is one of those "only in America" stories that the whiners and gripers and victims need to hear more of. She has come a long way from Grapeland, Texas, where she was born the twelfth child of sharecropper parents. On "60 Minutes," she recalled the Christmases of her childhood when her present(s) consisted of "ten nuts, and orange and an apple." And then she told of the wonder of her first day of school, walking into this big, bright room, and meeting "this wonderful person called a teacher...It was like a veil lifting." Obviously, someone saw something special in this little girl. Maybe it had something to do with her mind (as one of her sisters recalled on "60 Minutes," "that girl always had her nose in a book"), but, as she remembered, "my teachers went into their closets and gave me clothes." While she was still young, her family moved to Houston. It was not a step up. The family lived in a tiny, run-down shack. Ms. Simmons' comment on that was, "You're not what you live in." Looking back, she refuses to acknowledge that her family's poverty was a stumblingblock: "There is nothing that is withheld from me simply because I am poor." I was especially impressed at her old-fashioned idea of the purpose of an education. "Education," she told Morley Safer, "does not exist to provide you with a job. Education nourishes your mind. Education transforms your life." Well said by a person whose life has been transformed in a way no one would have thought possible. Did any of you ever imagine that your little sister would wind up as President of an Ivy League college, "60 Minutes'" Morley Safer asked a couple of her brothers? Answered one of them, "Not in our wildest dreams." *********** I think that the XFL's biggest mistake - other than throwing in with the scum from the WWF - was not doing enough to make its game radically different from the NFL. Perhaps something such as Rugby League would have been the answer - it's not that difficult a game for people to understand, there's plenty of scoring and wide-open action, and, best of all for their purposes, plenty of blood (remember, no helmets). And Americans are not sophisticated enough to know whether what they're watching is good rugby or bad rugby. In fact, as I was telling Kyle Wagner, in Edmonton, Alberta, maybe the XFL should have purchased the Canadian Football League lock, stock and barrel and changed its name, retaining the CFL rules. Most American kids are so brain-dead that they have no idea what the CFL is anyhow, so they'd have been quite willing to accept this brand of wide-open football as something radically new, dude. *********** "I attended the Football clinic in Seattle this past weekend. In many discussions I could not believe people's reactions and responses when I mentioned the DW. Most came from lack of information and knowledge in reference to the system. Many felt that it was too old of a offense not enough firepower. As you know coaches many times can be quite opinionated. Anyway, I explained as best I could the system and after that many of them at least became a bit more interested. Some actually were saying I am glad we do not have to defend that. So at least there was some discussion." (This from a Washington coach. As a businessperson, it is exciting to me to think that there are so many people out there who stoll know so little about the Double-Wing. As a coach, it is even more exciting to think that some of us could wind up playing people that ignorant.) *********** "So I said to my 285 lb. All American defensive end (from the U of Delaware) student teacher, 'Are you ready for your first physical education class with the kindergarteners?' He replied, 'No way! I'm scared of them!! I'd rather get my head beat in by 350 lb. offensive linemen than to have to teach 30 kindergarteners!' I replied, 'You Wussie!'" Mike Lane, Avon Grove, Pennsylvania *********** "We won our regional basketball tournament and are in the state final four in Austin this Friday. I really believe that all the hard work we put into the football season carried over and has helped us get this far." Steve Davis - Danbury, Texas *********** From Frank Simonsen, in Cape May, New Jersey, a guy who has spent most of his life at sea: "Thank God there is not a full moon lurking. We are getting an ass kicking, I mean a learning experience in weather.." *********** A friend of our family lives in Vienna (Austria, not Virginia) with her Austrian-born husband, where she has started a rather interesting web site - www.englishschoolhouse.com - designed to support ESL teachers in a variety of subject areas. The initial idea is for teachers to submit materials, lessons, resources, etc., in various subjects for downloading by other teachers. Once there is a sufficiently large amount of material on site, there would be an annual charge for usage, and contributors would be paid for their work based on the number of times it was downloaded. If you are an ESL teacher or married to one, if you work with one or know one, you might put them on to this site. *********** A young coach asked me if I would rather do one thing very well - say, running or passing - or try to do them both reasonably well. Obviously, I would want to do a couple of things very well, but if one must choose, I told him, I would much prefer to do one thing as well as humanly possible than to try to take on more things and risk doing a half-ass job of even one of them. *********** There are thirteen former Chicago Bears who have had their numbers retired - they are Dick Butkus, Willie Galimore, Bill George, Red Grange, George Halas, Bill Hewitt, Sid Luckman, George McAfee, Bronko Nagurski, Walter Payton, Brian Piccolo, Gale Sayers, Bulldog Turner. *********** "I have an incoming freshman quarterback who is already 6' and weighs about 165. He has a better arm than anyone in the high school, and he is a straight A student. He may be a special player. I am already getting pressure from some fans to install a spread offense, but that won't happen. However, I am intrigued with the possibilities of your customized passing game. How much have you run it in the past, and how successful were you? It seems that it wouldn't be too difficult for kids to pick up the terminology. We will have pretty good speed and several kids who can catch for the next several years, so it is a good idea to use the weapons. But I don't want to give up the identity that we have developed the past two years by pounding away at people on the ground. We weren't very successful last year with our passing (not bad either, but there is room for improvement), so that is an area I have been concentrating on this off-season. I just want to be able to make the opposition pay when they stack 9 or 10 in the box, but I also want to use my weapons to the best advantage for our team. Do you have any thoughts/insights/advice? Thanks, Coach. I look forward to hearing from you. Coach, I have been reasonably successful with it - back before I found a running game. My purpose in having it now is if we ever have to have to, we can make up a play even though we've never practiced it. There are a lot more variables involved in a successful passing attack, and the QB - even after you spend all the time necessary to make it worth your while - is only a part of it. There is still the matter of receivers - talent, toughness and brains and pass blockers - likewise. There is the matter of knowing the passing game yourself and imparting that knowledge to your players. There is the matter of still having to have a good running game even though you have to devote most of your practice time to passing. And, of course, a defense that will bail you out of those times when you throw three straight incompletions and, less than a minute later, you're punting. I really wouldn't care how good a quarterback is - he couldn't possibly be good enough to make me stray off course. All he has to do is get hurt, transfer, get suspended, get sick, fail a class, decide he doesn't like the offense or the play called. They usually come with dads who think they are the kid's agent. A coach who succombs to "pressure from fans to spread it out" will soon find out that he can never satisfy them. There is plenty of passing built into our offense to make people pay for keeping only one or two men back there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. *********** SCENE: A busy convention center. People mill around in the background, holding lamps, vases and small pieces of furniture. In the foreground, two people sit at a table. One looks like an expert at something. He is dressed in a suit and wears wire-rimmed glasses. The other is a rather normal-looking guy, wearing a tee-shirt and jeans. EXPERT: "Welcome to the 127the season of Antiques Road Show. Do you have any idea what you have here?" NORMAL-LOOKING GUY: "Well, I got it from my grandfather. It looks like a football, except it's black and red with a big "X" on it. I thought maybe that meant it was rejected or something." EXPERT: "No, actually what we've got here is, indeed a football. A professional football, believe it or not. It's from back in 2001, from a league called the XFL. Most people have never heard of it, because it only lasted a few weeks. Do you have any idea what this football is worth?" GUY: "No, I don't." EXPERT: "Well, I hate to disappoint you, but from what we've been able to learn, the XFL had grandiose visions of success, and part of its plan was to get one of its footballs into the hands of every 12-year-old boy in America. They stocked the stores with these footballs, and then, when it became obvious that the XFL was going to fold, they had to mark all their XFL merchandise down. That's when the professional collectors swooped in. We actually see quite a few of them at shows. I'd say it's worth, maybe, fifteen dollars..." GUY: "Bummer." *********** A coach came back from a clinic where he'd heard all sorts of people referring to "Zone Blocking" as if everyone in the world knows what it is, and asked me what it is. This is something many football clinicians are guilty of - sometimes they are far more interested in showing everybody how much they know, rather in teaching them. "Zone" blocking is basically reach blocking - blocking a man in your zone and trying to get your helmet outside his helmet. You take a reach step and get into the man and take him where he wants to go. You set out to reach him if you can, but if he runs outside you stay stuck to him (I'm not going to get into what these guys are taught to do with their hands) and turn him out. The runner takes off for an "aim point" but hits wherever a seam opens up. It is mainly employed with one-back offenses (there's not a whole lot else you can run without a lead blocker) and it is the sort of run blocking technique you can teach to a big guy who has been recruited mainly to pass block. *********** The Business Roundtable's Education Task Force has spent a year studying American edcuation, and has come out with some strong recommendations, most of them in the area of teacher training. First of all, they would cull out the pool from which teachers are drawn, requiring all prospective teachers to have a 3.0 GPA in the first two years of college, rather than the 2.5 generally required now. (This is not as strict as it sounds. Grade inflation has reached the point at many colleges where most students receive "A's" or "B's".) All prospective teachers would be required to pass rigorous tests in the subject matter they intend to teach. Well, duh. Licenses would be "portable." You wouldn't have to jump through a separate set of certification hoops every time you crossed a state line to accept a new job. Amen. The most significant proposal, I think, is elimination of "education" as a major. All teacher candidates would be required to take - and complete - a major in an academic field. (I never could figure out how normally intelligent, easily bored individuals managed to take four years of "education" and stay sane.) *********** Wanted: General Manager for NBA team. Must understand the importance of good public relations. On Tuesday, the day that the Portland Trail Blazers were scheduled to honor Clyde Drexler, one of the classiest men ever to wear a Blazers' uniform, they also announced the signing of Rod Strickland. Strickland, who had already proved in an earlier stay in Portland that he is one of the most selfish, surly, irresponsible individuals in a league that seems to herd those types, was cut loose recently by the Washington Wizards, who finally grew tired of his act. Among other things, Mr. Strickland doesn't like to practice, misses and occasional team flight, and doesn't always seem to understand - or care - that the police don't especially want people driving after they've had too much to drink. Among other things. To show the public relations genius of Trail Blazers' GM Bob Whitsitt, the Strickland story, the story of the chronic malcontent, was all over Tuesday's sports pages. The Drexler story - the return to town of a beloved player so that his jersey can be retired - was relegated to page four. *********** Harold Stassen died the other day. He was 93. For quite some time, he was the butt of many a joke because every four years, hopeless as it was, he would run for President. It is too bad that people remember him that way, because there was a brief time back in 1948, when he made a run at Thomas Dewey, and in 1952, when he really did seem to have a decent shot at the Republican nomination. And then along came General Dwight Eisenhower, easily the most popular Republican since Teddy Roosevelt, and Harold Stassen was swept aside. Eight years later, in 1960, the nomination was passed on to Richard Nixon, who'd been the General's vice-president, and Harold Stassen was still on the outside looking in. In 1964, the conservative wing of the party wasn't interested in the Minnesota liberalism of Stassen, and Barry Goldwater was its nominee. In 1968, Nixon returned for a successful rerun, and he was re-elected in 1972. Gerald Ford, who assumed the presidency when Nixon resigned, was the natural nominee in 1976 because he was the standing president. And then, in 1980, came Ronald Reagan, easily the most popular Republican since Eisenhower. No matter, he ws still running in 1992, a symbol of political futility. Comedians were guaranteed a laugh whenever they mentioned his name. Stassen. The guy who never really seemed to understand that the people just didn't want him to be the President. He really was quite a guy. He was born and raised on a Minnesota farm, and worked his way through the University of Minnesota. He had his law degree by age 22, and at 31 elected Governor of Minnesota, the youngest governor in the history of the state. Get this - after being elected to a third term as governor, he resigned in 1943 to join the Navy, and finished out World War II as assistant chief of staff to Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey. He was active in the drafting of the United Nations Charter, serving under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. In 1948, he was selected president of the University of Pennsylvania, and that's where his tie-in to sports begins. I remember his proclaiming some sort of "Victory With Honor" program, and people wondering what, exactly, was wrong with the way Penn had been winning. Stassen's idea seemed to be that Penn would aspire to Ivy-League-type academics, while emulating the Big-Ten football prowess of his beloved MInnesota Golden Gophers (check it out - during the 1930's, no one was tougher than Minnesota). That meant not being content merely to be the best in the East, but scheduling teams that would bring Penn national prominence. Fair enough. But down the line, either Mr. Stassen or his successor, a guy named Gaylord Harnwell, made the decision to join the Ivy League, which meant dispensing with athletic scholarships. But until the Ivy schedule kicked in, there were still those national powerhouses - Georgia, California, Ohio State, Notre Dame - to play. Long-time Penn coach George Munger realized what he was facing, and resigned. On the scene came Steve Sebo, fresh from working on the Michigan State staff of Biggie Munn, an all-star staff that included, besides Coaches Munn and Sebo, Dan Devine, Earl Edwards amd Duffy Daugherty. Coach Sebo brought along the MSU multiple offense, and even changed the traditional Penn uniforms, all-white with alternating red-and-blue stripes the entire length of the sleeves. The Quakers got killed. That was 1954. They got killed again in 1955. I don't believe they won until they actually joined Ivy League round-robin play in 1956. They finally won the Ivy title in 1959, following which Coach Sebo was fired. So much for Victory with Honor. (I did some research, and came across an interview with Jerry Ford (not the President), long-time athletic director at Penn. He was 85 years old at the time of the interview - 1995 - but his memory was remarkably clear regarding Harold Stassen, and he was no admirer) FORD: Well the president of the University of Pennsylvania, what the hell was his name, you know, the great bulls---er, who... INTERVIEWER: Stassen? FORD: Who? INTERVIEWER: Was it Stassen? FORD: Stassen. Yeah, I think he was the guy. Wasn't he the one that was running for President? INTERVIEWER: Right. FORD: Right, oh sure. It was Harold Stassen. Yeah, it was Harold Stassen. This dumb as----le, he got to be president of the University of Pennsylvania, decided that what Pennsylvania needed was Harvard on the schedule, Yale on the schedule, and Princeton on the schedule, with Cornell. The hell with the rest of these guys, they were no good. Don't get Dartmouth, don't get Brown, don't get anybody like that on the schedule. Now he told Franny Murray (athletic director before Ford), "Look, I want you, at the next Ivy directors meeting, I want you to propose that this is Penn's idea of an Ivy League. And go to work on that." Well, Murray had a fair amount of time, except that the date that he wanted with Harvard was the date that Pennsylvania had with Columbia, you see. Well Franny went back to Stassen and said, "I can't bring this thing together because the Harvard date and the Columbia date interfere with each other." So Stassen said, "Well, just cancel against Columbia." And Murray probably said to him, "Well we can't do that, they've been our, they've stood by us all these years." He said, "Go ahead and do it." So Franny called up Fred Conley (at Columbia) and said, "Look, you have to get off our schedule. We're going to play Harvard on that day." And the guy, who was director of athletics at the time, said, "Look, you son of a bitch." He said, "Columbia will never play Pennsylvania in football as long as I'm director of athletics here." Well, Franny at least had Columbia off the schedule. And then he called Harvard, to tell him that it was all set, to take it on that day. They hadn't talked yet to the director of atheletics up at Harvard to see whether he wanted to play Pennsylvania or not, and he said, "Oh we can't play you then, we're going to play Brown," or somebody. And he said, "That's a standing thing." So that was it, that was the end of Stassen's Ivy League venture. And the great motto, that he had given Murray to use from then on, was Victory With Honor. Victory With Honor. Now get this, Stassen was interviewed on the subject of Victory With Honor, and he, he was a great politician in those days, wanted to get the Irish vote. So he said, "There's no reason why Pennsylvania and Harvard and Yale and Princeton shouldn't be playing, shouldn't be playing Notre Dame and people like that." He said, "This is all I want, I something good for the Ivy League." They decided, Christ, we've had enough of Pennsylvania, so that was it. And not one of the Ivies signed up with Pennsylvania except for Cornell. (For 1953) And Cornell was always favorably disposed to Pennsylvania because they made all their money there, you see. That stadium that we had that seated 78,000, we used to play them at home every year, you see. And that kept Cornell's, that kept Cornell's program in operation. |
*********** You old-timers may remember, as I do, when the indoor track circuit was big - really big - in the wintertime. Back in those days, there were two things guaranteed to pack people into Madison Square Garden for a track meet: the hope of seeing someone finally run a four-minute mile, and the hope of seeing the Reverend Bob Richards clear 15 feet in the pole vault. How times have changed. Now, indoor track is on life support. And a woman pole vaulter, Stacy Dragila, regularly clears 15 feet. *********** If you're Dennis Erickson, coach of Oregon State, you know for sure you're not in Miami any more when two of your players from this past season's Fiesta Bowl champion team are found guilty by a Corvallis, Oregon jury of beating and stomping another student at a party last summer, and face possible prison terms of up to five years. *********** I had to laugh when Mike Adamle was introduced as the third man in the XFL broadcast booth Saturday. He was introduced by the famed J.R., who told us that Mr. Adamle had been brought on the scene to provide "football analysis." He put the emphasis on the "football," as if to differentiate what Mike Adamle would be doing from whatever the hell Jesse Ventura has been doing. Jesse the Joke had to climb into the back seat, reduced to spouting stupid cliches and baiting New York coach Rusty Tillman. Tillman, to his credit, remained true to his profession and refused to degrade himself by even recognizing the Big Buffoon's legitimacy as a critic. As someone who has spent a good deal of his life coaching and takes a great deal of pride in being a coach, I think it is reprehensible for a person paid as a broadcaster to harass a coach as Mr. Ventura has harassed Coach Tillman, and I wish the AFCA, with its 9-10,000 members, would censure the big oaf. From a marketing standpoint, how smart is it of the XFL to allow Mr. Bombast to attack what is by far the most professional aspect of its product - its coaching? Coaching is the least of the XFL's problems: in my opinion, the XFL teams appear overall to be rather well-coached. Oh - and I certainly don't need a lecture on the First Amendment and the guarantee of free expression from Governor Constitution (it's spelled with a "C", Governor, if you ever want to look it up). I personally think that Jesse Ventura's incredible spoutings, delivered in that unbelievably grating voice, are the major reason for the abysmal ratings that endanger the XFL's continued existence. Necessity is the mother of invention. I'll bet some guy in Minnesota invented the mute button. *********** Poor Temple. An inner-city school, it is finding it nearly impossible to play football with the big guys. Once, Temple was pretty good in football. Temple played in the very first Sugar Bowl, losing to Tulane, 20-14, in 1935. Along the way, the Owls defeated Virginia Tech 34-0, West Virginia 28-13, and Texas A & M 40-6. Their coach was a guy named Warner. Glenn S. Warner. You probably know him as "Pop." At the age of 61, he was lured from Stanford to come to Temple, where he coached from 1933 through 1938. Temple still has a special place in the hearts of old Philly guys, because an awful lot of us had PE teachers who were Temple grads. Many of them were World War II vets who were glad to be home and weren't interested in going anyplace else. The defensive line of the NFL champion Eagles of 1948 and 1949 was anchored by two Temple guys, Bucko Kilroy and Mike Jarmoluk. As a kid I used to ride the "S" bus out to Temple Stadium on Friday nights to watch the Owls play. Never a member of a conference, they played a mishmash schedule, one week beating up on Albright, the next getting stomped by Syracuse. Actually, we went as much to watch Larry Cardonick as to watch Temple. Cardonick had gone to our school, Germantown Academy. For one year. He had actually graduated from Philadelphia's Olney High School, but he'd appeared on our campus in the fall, knocked the crap of people on the football field, and then departed some time later. (We had a lot of the guys like that back in those days.) I really don't know whether he stayed around for graduation or not. But man, could he hit. Temple Stadium was small but cozy, built out in what was then the sticks, miles from the city's "campus" in the heart of North Philadelphia, where there was no land to build a stadium, and which even back in those days could fairly be described as "tough." Today, the neighborhood surrounding the University is beyond tough. Temple is largely a commuter school. It is actually a Pennsylvania state school, as is the University of Pittsburgh. Academically, it is solid and well-thought-of, at least where it is known, which means around Philadelphia. Its school or journalism produces many of Philadlephia's notoriously cynical and gifted sportswriters. Its medical school is top-rate, and its law school produces many of the top practitioners in a city which made famous the term "Philadelphia Lawyer." Temple has a well-known basketball program, coached by John Chaney, one of the best in the business. But city schools can make it in basketball. Football is a different proposition. It is tough to sell kids from rural or small-town Pennsylvania, or from New Jersey or Maryland or New York or Virginia on coming to a college which, essentially, has no campus life. That pretty much restricts recruiting to the Philly kids - the ones the more attractive schools take a pass on. Wayne Hardin had some pretty good teams, back in the 1970's. Hardin, who had been Roger Staubach's coach at Navy, was a charismatic individual who schmoozed well with the alumni, played exciting football, and got the absolute most out of his players, few of whom had ever been highly-recruited by anyone else. (As player personnel director of the World Football League's Philadelphia Bell, I saw why. Under some pressure from influential Temple alumni to sign some of Coach Hardin's kid, we signed eight or nine of them as a courtesy. Only one of them ever played a down for us. As a backup center.) Hardin wouldn't allow a negative word to be said in his presence about Temple and all its obvious disadvantages. (Slums? What slums? I don't see any slums.) During his regime, Temple made the move to giant Veterans' Stadium for a few games with Penn State, and thus began the climb that would eventually land the Owls in the Big East. It has not been a pleasant stay there. The Owls have not been successful in the conference, and the few wins they have managed have come for the most part at the expense of Mid-America Conference teams. With no suitable home stadium of their own - Temple Stadium being adjudged too small - they have had to move into far-too-large venues, where their small crowds have rattled around, scarcely justifying opening the concession stands at the Vet or the University of Pennsylavnia's Franklin Field, their other home-away-from-home. Now, finally, the Big East has run out of patience and pulled the plug on Temple, saying that next year will be its last as a conference member. There is no doubt some sort of conference gate-sharing arrangement, by which Temple shares in the big gates when it goes to Miami or Virginia Tech, while the Hurricanes and Hokies share in the small gates when they go to Temple. When you are Miami and Virginia Tech, those numbers don't make sense. On top of that, Temple rides free, sharing in the Big East's bowl revenues, despite not having played in a bowl game itself since joining the conference in 1991. From Temple's standpoint, the loss of the prestige and the loss of the built-in schedule will be bad enough; the loss of the conference bowl revenues will almost certainly consign the Owls to some form of Division I-AA status.
*********** "Hugh: Someday when you have some time let me tell you about my hometown--Franklin, New Jersey. Franklin, originally called Franklin Furnace after Benjamin Franklin invented it, was known for iron mines which eventually became Zinc mines--the richest zinc mine ever found. Naturally the mines brought us sturdy young men named Kovach, Stankowich, Zucknovich, Stefkovich, and Lacika. There were also a few Anglo Saxon names--the Welsh and the English produced some hardy miners. We had a semi-pro team in the town from 1935 to 1968. The Franklin Miners' record over those 33 years was 224 wins, 67 losses and 20 ties. One of the coaches during the later years before they joined the Continental League as the Newark Bears and later the Norfolk Sailors, was Steve Van Buren. I played two seasons but only about three games for the Miners. We had some great players. Maybe you heard of Neal Buckman. He was with the Pottsville team as a quarterback before he came to the Miners. Anyway, when I read your bio I thought of the Miners. P. S. I was a single wing center and linebacker for Franklin High School, called the "Lil' Miners'" Jim Shelton, Englewood, Florida *********** (The talk last week ran to separation of one part of a state from another. Naturally, Michigan's U.P. (Upper Peninsula) and its people ("Yoopers"), came up. I heard from one former Yooper, Adam Wesoloski, who now lives in DePere, Wisconsin: "In regards to separation of states, as a Yooper (will always be no matter where I live) I have to agree with the gentleman from Canada regarding money. The Trolls below the bridge never put anything back into the U.P. either. No problem accepting it though. There were rumblings one time, when I was a kid, about actually becoming our own state, Superiorland I think. Talk about the smallest population in the union. I don't even know what city would be a capital, Marquette? The state bird would be the mosquito, hands down. "I understand that the vast majority of the people in the state of MI live in the lower half of the lower penninsula, but the U.P. is treated like a foreign land. I remember in college, Western MI U, people looked at me like a jackalope - 'you have running water up there?' those jokes and plus the snow questions, the 'Fargo' dialect - 'say, Post Toasties', etc. It was really funny. I actually became more proud of my upbringing.
***********"I'm sorry to bother you. I've been investigating the Digital Camcorder world and I'm confused. The following terms were all used at the Sears web site: (My Answers are in Bold) 8 mm - Totally obsolete HI 8 - A step up from 8 mm but now also totally obsolete Digital VHS - Don't know where they get the term "digital" in there, but VHS is the common format that most people's VCR uses. You don't want a VHS camera. Too big and cumbersome, mediocre results Digital 8 - Digital 8 records a digital signal on 8 mm tape. Two advantages: if you already have some stuff you've shot on 8 mm or Hi8, this camera will play it; and also the tape is cheaper. Otherwise, I couldn't recommend it over DV because I like DV.
Coach, I don't have a "tailback," and because I have three running backs, I immediately get three guys touching the ball in the same unit. I rotate the backs as I see fit, and often have them change positions just so they're familiar with different ones. My #1 QB gets by far the most work with the team. If they are really close in ability, I may give the #2 guy a little more, but it is no more than 10 per cent. I just figure that if he has an idea what to do, he is ready if we get in a jam, and next week, if he turns out to be #1 because of an injury, we will have time to really get him ready. In passing drills, #2 will get a few more reps - maybe 1/3. I just don't want to be the one to start a quarterback controversy. I am going to pick my guy and go with him. Don't know if that's the answer you were looking for!
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*********** People have written about the earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, and how we fared. I have now dug out from under the rubble to write this. IN all seriousness, we're fine. I was surprised to see what it did to Seattle, 150 miles to the north of us. I sat at my computer and for a minute I thought I was in a boat and a large ship had just passed by and I was rocking and bobbing up and down in its wake. And then I thought, wait a minute.... Although we have been told repeatedly how bad it was going to be for us because we have had such a dry winter, and how low the reservoirs are behind the dams and how low the snowpack is and how we're going to have hydroelectric power shortages this summer, blah, blah, blah---
*********** Coach; I recall several years ago reading about a cluster of nine counties in Western Kansas which made a very serious effort to split away from the rest of the Sunflower State. Their slogan was, "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." "Staten Island has long sought to break off from New York City. "And let's not forget the Conch Republic of Key West." Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas I also recall some black friends of mine who were native West Virginians and talked of a place in southern West Virginia once known as "The Free State of McDowell" (or perhaps it is spelled MacDowell). Can anybody help me with that? *********** Hi Coach, You were talking about the splitting or secession of many of your states. I feel better knowing that Canada is not the only place with talk of "splitting" up. It always seems to us that the U. S. is the epitome of the "melting pot" of cultures and lands into an undivided nation. Although it seems to me that even if a state split there is not much question on whether or not they want to be American. Our whole country of Canada has talked about breaking itself up the day after it was made into a country by the British. Think Canadians are nice peaceful people? Talk about Quebec wanting to separate in a small town in Alberta, or talk about the Parti Quebecois whose sole purpose is to try to break away Quebec from Canada. There has recently been talk that Alberta should separate from Canada. Parts of British Columbia want to change the borders with Alberta so they would be Albertans. They feel that Victoria is so far away that they are not listening or do not understand them. They feel they have more in common with Alberta than B.C., never mind the tax advantages. One of the scariest moments of politics in Canada was the last Quebec Referendum on unity. The Nationalist won 51% in favour of staying in Canada. Kyle Wagner, Edmonton, Alberta (I told Kyle how, years ago, my son and I drove up to Vancouver, B.C. to watch the B.C. Lions play. We satrted talking with one of the locals, and he volunteered the information that western Canadians sent all their money back east, only to have the eastern Canadians take it back "and shove it up our (where the sun down't shine)." The people around him nodded in agreement. Kyle wrote back, "He is definitely not alone. That was the height of Trudeau's National Energy Project which took oil and gas royalties from the west and distributed them to eastern provinces with less money. I remember as a kid watching all these people on TV giving the "Trudeau Salute" with their middle finger to the former PM's train as it traveled through western Canada. *********** "Coach, Just a couple comments. Yuppers actually refer to it as, "Da U.P." My favorite U.P. bumper sticker is, "Say Ya to da U.P., eh? Second comment. Your comments about Jesse Ventura's degrading the person that asks a question he doesn't want to answer sounds a lot like someone else that has been discussed here...Bobby Knight. Jusk ask Jeremy Schapp. Remember, Jeremy is not his father. Great words of wisdom to live by." Greg Stout, Thompson's Station, Tennessee (Actually, the observations about Governor Ventura's resort to intimidation and degradation were not mine, but those of someone closer to the action, Mike O'Donnell, of Pine City, Minnesota) *********** Whit Snyder also wrote, "I am probably telling you something you already know but you might want to remind your readers that the SMU Mustangs were the inspiration for the classic Ford vehicle of the same name. "The way I remember it, Lee Iacocca designed the car and was still searching for a moniker when he attended the 1963 SMU-Michigan football game in Ann Arbor. As was often the case, Hayden Fry's team was outmanned but put up a battle before falling to the Wolverines 27-16. Iacocca, inspired by the Ponies' fiesty play, dubbed his vehicle the Mustang. I've heard that "Flatop" Fry received one of the first of those vehicles to roll off the assembly line. "Just as a side note, a couple of weeks later the Ponies beat Roger Staubach and #4 ranked Navy 32-28 in a thriller. After the season, Fry somehow talked the Sun Bowl into extending an invitation to his team to play in that game even though SMU had won only four of ten games (the Mustangs' performance against four highly ranked bowl-bound opponents (Navy, Air Force, Baylor and #1 Texas was cited as the reason). There, they lost to Oregon 21-14. "Just to let you know, the Texas Longhorn RFC is the Big 12 Rugby champion for 2001, Hook Em!" *********** Fortunately, she probably won't let him play football... I don't know much about major league baseball, so I don't know much about Curtis Leskanic, of the Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, I didn't know anything about Curtis Leskanic - hadn't even heard of him - until I read Tuesday's USA Today. I guess Mr. Leskanic, a relief pitcher, has made it a practice of signing his autograph and adding the phrase, "Kick Me." I'm guessing it has something to do with his Slavic surname. So that's how he signed a tee-shirt for a 10-year-old at a middle school in Clinton, Wisconsin. But later, out on the playground, some of his schoolmates evidently accepted the invitation, and kicked him. Boy, was his mom angry! She dashed off a letter to the Brewers and to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I can just see her writing it. Curtis Leskanic wrote a letter of apology, saying that he will no longer add the cute little phrase to his signature. I can just see him writing it. *********** It's that ole Law of Unintended Consequences again. Oregon, like many states, seems to think it's a great idea for all its high school graduates to be "proficient" (whatever that means) in a second language. (One of the reasons for this, I read, is that "the workplace is becoming more diverse." Excuse me, but if "the workplace" is filling up with Latin Americans, Russians, Chinese and Hmong, wouldn't it make more sense to teach them English?) Anyhow, they've just begun to figure out that in order for every student to become halfway "proficient" in a foreign language, every student will have to take two years of the language, which few now do. That will mean scheduling every student into a foreign language class, which will mean fewer opportunities for students to schedule elective classes, such as art, music and drama. Which will mean art, music and drama teachers had better learn to teach Spanish or look for another job. And, because the woods are not exactly full of foreign language teachers as it is, it will mean finding them wherever they may be. Some of them are now teaching third- and fourth-year foreign language classes. Those classes - the ones most likely to be teaching anything approaching true proficiency - will likely have to be cancelled in order to free up the teachers to provide language "proficiency" for the masses. *********** Just shows how far the Beavers have come. I was in a Safeway store in Oregon recently, buying my Oregon State highlights video entitled, "Road to the Fiesta Bowl." As the checkout clerk was putting the cassette in the bag, she stopped and looked at it for a minute, and said, "they kicked butt in that game, didn't they?" *********** "Listening to sports talk this am and Jay Mariotti out of Chicago, was blasting Jesse the Body along the same lines you were in your NEWS...re: Rusty Tillman.....he said that NBC has found something to "promote" and now have bumped whatever Saturday night game they were planning to show in favor of having Jesse do his thing broadcasting the NY/NJ Hitman game........Oh my goodness......I try to watch the XFL cause it's football, but they make it so hard...That and the lack of offense....it's hard to sit through a whole game...Don't think I've watched one from beginning to end yet......." Bill Shine - Van Nuys, California (Be sure to listen to Jesse the Body as he demeans coaches everywhere by trying to get it on with Rusty Tillman, coach of NY/NJ. Number one, it will be so asinine it will give you a good laugh. And number two, as low as TV ratings are, a couple of you could make a difference.) *********** BUSINESS NEWS (WWF dropped below $14 a share on Wednesday - if you were nuts enough to buy it) *********** Question: When you edit on a computer and make a digital tape, how do you make multiple copies? "When I need to make multiple copies, I just hook up my DV deck (I did go a little high-end when I got one of them) or my DV camera to my multiple VHS decks and copy away. As inexpensive (relatively speaking) as VCR's have become, you could buy four very good ones for under $500 if your school didn't have them and you absolutely had to. "If I had to make lots and lots and lots of copies, rather than wear out my DV original, I guess I would just make a master VHS tape to make copies from and put my DV original away for safekeeping. Even though the final copies would be another generation removed from the original, that is still preferable to losing my original. "Of course, if it is something you plan to sell, such as a Highlights tape, you would be wise to go to a commercial "dub shop" where they would make a digital copy of your original, and make copies from it." *********** I get letters like this all the time, and I enjoy answering them. Obviously, though, I have to do a better job on this Web site of describing the success people have been having with the Double-Wing, even coaching little bitty guys. I have been assistant coaching Boys Club Football (3rd & 4th grade team and then 5th & 6th grader team) for the last 4 years, mainly at the request of my oldest son who will now move on to Junior High. Little did I realize how much I would learn to love it. Our Head Coach was a participating Dad as well who really did an excellent job. All assistant coaches concurred that his teaching & coaching skills were as good those we experienced as players in high school and college (Impressive considering that one of the Assistants was a Team Capt. under Darrel Royal !). We made it deep into the playoffs all years, including 2 Toy Bowl appearances and 1 Championship. Most importantly our boys absolutely loved the experience. I have now been asked (and I have accepted) the Head Coaching job for the 3rd & 4th grade team for the 2001 season as my youngest son will be eligible to play in another year. All of the parents have great expectations and I have big shoes to fill. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to the experience. Now on to my problem. Our past teams were successful via outstanding defense and I plan to continue to stress this part of the game. However, we failed to develop an effective offense over the last 4 years. We tried numerous formations but it appeared to me that we got by with good talent and big plays, and not an offensive strategy. Seldom did we establish true offensive drives as we had hoped in each game. Do you think your system would be a good match for boys so young ? Ideally, I would like to install a system that they could build on for the next 4 years. My caution is we must keep it simple. Your ideas would be appreciated. I would be happy to purchase your videos and playbooks if you think this is the correct system at this age. I will get right to the point and say that this offensive system is ideal for young kids. That never occured to me when I first started making videos of it back in 1996. Or when I developed the play-calling system back in 1982. I was just trying to come up with something that the - let's say - "least educationally-endowed" player on my team could understand. I realized I was on to something when I coached overseas (I coached seven seasons in Finland) and those guys were able to understand what I was trying to teach. I also knew when the editor of Scholastic Coach, Herman Masin, told me that he showed my tape to a friend who didn't know anything about football, and after watching it, he said, "I can understand this!" So, your kids can understand it. (It goes without saying that you and your coaches can.) If they can understand it, you can teach it. It is not hit-or-miss. It is not a matter of "block somebody." It is a matter of everybody on the team knowing exactly where the ball is going and who is going to carry and who is going to block whom - who is going to make the inside of the hole and who is going to make the outside of the hole. It is not dependent on a great runner succeeding in spite of whatever the blockers do. It is dependent on runners understanding how a play is going to be blocked and then being smart enough to go through the open door. It is based on blocking techniques that even little kids can be taught. It is based on allowing the blocker to be the aggressor - I find it interesting that on a lot of Double-Wing youth teams I hear from, linemen prefer to play on offense rather than defense. Yes, kids can play this offense and do quite well with it. If you would like, you can contact -------------- I think he will give it to you straight. His address is ----------- Let me know if I can answer anything else. Hugh Wyatt PS- One other thing. You won't get stranded. Through e-mail I am available to my "customers" for technical support. *********** Johnny Radcliffe is a neighbor of my daughter and son-in-law in Durham, North Carolina. Johnny, as the song goes, is a Tarheel born and a Tarheel bred. I like to tease him and tell him he's only playing redneck - but he can do a very convincing job of it. He's a pickup truck guy all the way, but for some reason, he's now driving a Subaru, which he calls his "Lesbaru", because Subaru aims so much of its marketing at the lesbian community (for example, the ad with Martina Navratilova and a hefty woman golfer). The other day, Johnny drove over to my daughter's house in the heavy snow they were having, and when she mentioned that it was a good thing he was driving his all-wheel drive Lesbaru, Johnny agreed with her, saying, "I can go where no man has gone before!" *********** Anybody else notice that noted rapper Puff Daddy, as he nears crunch time in the trial that could send him away for 15 years, has been wearing dark suits and neckties? And no jewelry? Isn't this just a trifle hypocritical? Hasn't he been making a good living playing a guy who doesn't give a rip about what people think? Can't we turn this into a lesson for all those kids who try to emulate him? *********** ONE VOTE FOR HRV'S: In response to my proposal last week that teachers be given "Hit the Road Vouchers" which they could hand to butthead kids, "empowering" them to go to some other school, Mike Lane of Avone Grove wrote: "Coach Wyatt, I couldn't agree with you more!! How much money are we talking about anyway? How much could they be refunded for? If they are not going to be worth much, some teachers might not even use them . How many would be issued? Would they be given quarterly or yearly? "Could we get some for administrators too? Or, how about some for school board members?" *********** I just heard a TV guy say that the recent census "missed three million people." My question: who counted them?
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A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY