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 BACK ISSUES - MAY 2003

May 30, 2003 - "One of MacArthur's greatest attributes was to get going and to hit quick." Vice Admiral Arthur D. Struble    2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)     A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: In the portrait at far left, Eddie Le Baron is shown as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant; in the middle, he's shown as "The Little General," a 5-9 NFL quarterback. He was a college All-American, NFL Rookie of the Year, a Four-Time Pro Bowl selection, and an NFL General Manager. He was the first starting quarterback in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. Today, he's a successful lawyer (portrait at far right). He was an All-American quarterback at College of the Pacific, and following graduation in 1950, with the Korean War starting up, he accepted a commission as an officer in the Marine Corps. He spent nine months in Korea, seven of them in combat on the front lines. He was wounded twice, and was awarded the Bronze Star for an act of heroism at Heartbreak Ridge. Back in the States, despite his height (generously reported to be 5-9) he wound up as the starting quarterback job with the Washington Redskins when Sammy Baugh broke his hand, and, coached along by Baugh, he wound up throwing for 1400 yards and earning Rookie of the Year honors. After two years with the Redskins, he jumped to the CFL with two other Redskins, but returned a year later and, under Coach Joe Kuharich, led the Skins to an 8-4 record. Hopes were high for 1955, but a preseason car accident ended the career of star Vic Janowicz and the Redskins finished a disappointing 6-6. From then on, although he was the NFL's leading passer in 1958, it was three straight losing seasons with the Skins, until his career was saved when Tom Landry traded for him and made him the brand-new Dallas Cowboys' first quarterback. Don Meredith understudied him, until gradually, as Meredith became ready, Landry began to shuttle the two quarterbacks in and out. He had earned his law degree from George Washington University while playing for the Redskins, and he put his legal talent and business expertise to use as General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982 and as executive vice president and chief operating officer from 1982 through 1985. In 1980, Eddie Le Baron was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.   Correctly identifying Eddie LeBaron- Joe Daniels- Sacramento... Mike Framke- Green Bay, Wisconsin... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Dennis Metzger- Connersville, Indiana... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... Dave Potter- Durham, North Carolina... Joe Gutilla- Minneapolis ("The Little General's exploits at Pacific are legendary. COP (as it was called back then) had a strong football tradition for many years, and LeBaron was the first in a line of outstanding quarterbacks play at Pacific. Pacific and Fresno State would play in front of overflow crowds at Memorial Stadium in Stockton. The Tigers-Bulldogs rivalry was as heated as they get. However that list of UOP quarterbacks will remain short since UOP's football program was one of many in California that fell victim to the Title IX budget axe.")... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois ("Thanks for coming up with an easy one this week. Eddie LeBaron was very familiar to me when I lived in Texas and followed the then brand new Dallas Cowboys. He also appeared in the first book I ever read about football, 'Heroes of the NFL.'")... Ron Timson- Umatilla, Florida ("He was one of my idols, mainly because of his small stature that I also endured as an athlete. I admired the fact that he could make it in the NFL. I remember him throwing the jump pass to TE's and being a pretty good scrambler.")... Bert Ford- Los Angeles... Scott Russell- Potomac Falls, Virginia... MIke O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky ("My dad and I saw him quarterback the Cowboys to a preseason win over the Giants in Louisville in 1960. I think that is was the only game they won that year. I know they went winless that year in regular season play. Eddie took a lot of tough hits playing for the Cowboys.")... Steve Staker- Fredericksburg, Iowa... John Reardon- Peru, Illinois... Alan Goodwin- Warwick, Rhode Island... HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TO BOB HOPE - ONLY AMERICAN EVER TO BE MADE AN HONORARY VETERAN *********** Coach, Let me see if I have this correct. . . you were the public relations director for a soccer team?  The Washington Diplomats?  I thought that was the team that played the Harlem Globetrotters and had a record of 0 wins and 200,000 losses, or something like that.  Oh, my mistake.  That was the Washington Generals, wasn't it?  Or was that the USFL team with Doug Flutie and Herschel Walker?  You know, for most of us, it's tough to identify the players without a program.  That is why it must be great to be a Democrat because (well, in the cases of the Kennedys and Clinton) they don't need to identify who they are with.  No programs (social or otherwise) to save on paper. Anyway, back to the soccer PR gig.  Just how did you "spin" the news regarding the scoring uprisings (I now am talking about the soccer games) that occured in Washington with the Diplomats?  Boy, I bet that was exciting, not to mention time consuming. Take care and all the best to you and your family.  Great job on the Memorial Day piece.  It was very moving. Mike O'Donnell, Pine City, Minnesota (Coach O'Donnell is talking about my secret life as a soccer executive. Believe it or not, I didn't last a day in the soccer business. By the time I got home, it was obvious to me that even though I needed a job and wanted to stay in sports, I simply couldn't get excited enough about soccer to hang around it and write about it. It sure would have been a challenge trying to break people of the practice of calling them the "Dips." HW) *********** While deciding whether to upset the balance of college football or hold up the Big East for all of its BCS revenue, the University of Miami has found time to issue a "cease and desist" order to Umatilla, Florida High School (ahem! a Double-Wing school) to prevent it from continuing to use a "split U" logo on its helmets, similar to that used by the Hurricanes. After reading about it in the Portland Oregonian, I fired off an e-mail to Ron Timson, an old friend who is the head coach at Umatilla, asking if he had any comments on the subject, or if he was under some sort of gag order. He wrote, "How did you hear about the Miami thing way out there? No, not under a gag order - I just find it so amazing that it is a little more than we can handle.  It has given us some extra coverage as a couple of TV stations in Orlando came over and filmed some of our Spring practices to use with their story.  Our principal just wants it to go away, but our booster's club president is stirring the pot a little and having some fun with it.  It will be interesting to see just what happens over time. "Free publicity never hurts a small program." I wrote back, "I think that it's hilarious. And, yes, it is a source of nationwide publicity and it doesn't make you look bad. Can't say the same about Miami. "I read about it because it was in the Portland Oregonian - a sports writer wondered when Miami would get around to checking out Umatilla, Oregon, too. (Which by amazing coincidence also happens to be a double-wing school.) "I think you ought to find a lawyer in town who is willing as part of a joke to go after them for unauthorized use of the letter "U." At least they'd be forced to explain finally what the hell that thing on their helmet means. *********** The next time you argue that taxpayers' money is not misspent on public education, you'd better hope nobody brings up Newark, New Jersey. Newark's schools are so bad they're being run by a state-appointed superintendent. And like school districts in many depressed old cities, Newark's is in a state of "financial crisis," and is asking for $15 million in emergency state aid. Meanwhile, in the midst of the crisis, Newark's City Council certainly has its educational priorities in order. I mean, wouldn't you have voted to spend $20,000 of the taxpayers' money to pay for a four-day trip to the Bahamas for the Malcolm X Shabazz girls' basketball team, as a reward for winning the state championship? *********** I am continually looking to improve my knowledge of the game &endash; do you have any other resources that you would recommend? (especially defense &endash; you've covered O pretty good!) Jim McGrath, Fairfax, Virginia (The best available stuff on defense right now would have to include Fritz Shurmur's "Coaching Team Defense" and the AFCA Manual (got to www.afca.com "Defensive Football Strategies," which is a compilation of clinic talks. HW) *********** The state of Utah is looking for a few good marksmen to take care of a couple of convicted murderers who have requested death by firing squad. (Utah is one of only three states, along with Idaho and Oklahoma, where execution can be carried out by firing squad.) Set to die are Troy Michael Kell, a white supremacist who stabbed a black prison inmate to death in 1994, and Roberto Arguelles, who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and killing three teenage girls and a 42-year-old woman in 1992. I would gladly volunteer except that in comparison with the police sharpshooters who will probably get the call, I'm not all that great a shot, and I might wind up shooting the bastards eight or nine times apiece. (At least, I'd blame it on my aim.) *********** Just in case you've been breezing along in your own personal Mayberry... WAKE UP! You're teaching in the 21st Century... This comes from a pamphlet issued by the Vancouver (Washington) Education Association - my wife's union - to its members SEXUAL MISCONDUCT Accusations of sexual misconduct with students are the most common reason why school employees lose their jobs. Whether it is true or not, an accusation alone can easily put a school employee's career in serious jeopardy... most of the pitfalls that lead to accusations of sexual misconduct can be avoided, however, if you carefully consider your own actions when you're around students... First of all, recognize that today's school environment is filled with pitfalls that can lead to allegations of sexual misconduct. Students can and do misinterpret even the most innocent act or comment. The key word here is "interpret." Sometimes they may even intentionally lie. Either way, you may end up in a position where you have to prove you're innocent - regardless of the truth. It's not fair or just. It is, however, reality. Coaches, PE teachers, activity advisers, band directors and counselors seem to be more vulnerable to sexual misconduct allegations than others, because of the nature of the times and the situations in which they come in contact with students. This group should make every effort to steer clear of situations where words or actions can be misinterpreted. It's not necessary to touch a student to get into trouble. Some sexual misconduct allegations result from words only. A compliment on a student's hair or clothing can result in a complaint. Sometimes, students practice their social skills by flirting with school employees. The problem comes when the employee even hints at returning the attention. Tips to keep in mind to help you avoid allegations of sexual misconduct AVOID TOUCHING STUDENTS (MORE ABOUT THAT LATER) AVOID SEXIST COMMENTS, INNUENDOES OR JOKES. USE THE SAME LANGUAGE FOR BOTH MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS DON'T BE REPEATEDLY ALONE WITH A STUDENT OR GROUP OF STUDENTS WHEN ALONE WITH A STUDENT, KEEP THE DOOR AND/OR WINDOWS OPEN DON'T DRIVE STUDENTS HOME ON TRIPS, TAKE MORE THAN ONE STUDENT AND PARENT. TELL YOUR ADMINISTRATOR. GET PARENTAL PERMISSION. DON'T LET THE SAME STUDENTS PERFORM FAVORED TASKS OR RECEIVE PRIVILEGES ALL THE TIME. DON'T INVITE STUDENTS TO YOUR HOME, TO ATHLETIC EVENTS, OR TO MOVIES. HOT-TUB PARTIES, ONE-ON-ONE DINNERS OR WALKS ARE INVITATIONS TO TROUBLE GET UNRELATED ADULTS TO ATTEND ANY KIND OF SOCIAL EVENT FOR STUDENTS IF YOU SEND CARDS TO STUDENTS, SEND THEM TO SEVERAL AT ONCE, WITH AN IMPERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL SALUTATION IF YOU WANT TO SEND GIFTS TO STUDENTS, FIRST DISCUSS DOING SO WITH YOUR ADMINISTRATOR IF YOU RECEIVE AN AFFECTIONATE NOTE, CARD OR GIFT FROM A STUDENT, DOCUMENT IT IMMEDIATELY WITH A COUNSELOR OR YOUR ADMINISTRATOR DON'T DATE FORMER STUDENTS UNTIL AT LEAST A YEAR AFTER GRADUATION, AND THE PERSON IS AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD *********** Dennis Metzger writes from Connersville, Indiana, " I am moving; down the road about 35 miles.  I will become a principal of a 7-12 building with about 600 students, Northeastern Jr/Sr High School, just north of Richmond, Indiana.  Richmond is about 50,000 people but Northeastern is a small town/rural district. "It looks like my coaching career will be on hold for the time being. Pray that I will be the type of principal that any football coach would be glad to have." I told Coach Metzger that I'm sure that being able to look at things from a football coach's viewpoint will make him the kind of principal that is all too rare nowadays. *********** Hugh: A warm Bula from Fiji. Can someone explain to me what was suddenly added to the U.S. water supply, or, to use an alternate non-explanation, what genetic breakdown suddenly occurred sometime after 1980, that produced a rash of ADD/ADHD/ABBA-DABBA-DOO kids in every school in the country simultaneously? It couldn't have anything to do with an ideologically-motivated push by teacher's unions to eliminate testosterone and its messy side effects from the classroom, could it? Of course, that's just me -- I could be wrong... Regards, Ted (Too PI to be allowed to live in the USA) Seay, Suva, Fiji Islands While I am a proponent of recess and of PE in the elementary schools, I think that this is a far bigger problem. You're right in noticing this phenomenon as a relatively recent one (it dates back to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which has been with us since 1975), but as a husband of a teacher - and a former teacher myself - I place the blame entirely with parents. Yes, there are kids who are certifiable and everybody knows it, and yes there are kids who need help big time, but there are an incredible number whose "ADHD" label takes the parents off the hook for the fact that they're raising brats. Take a look around at any store and see how little control parents have. And there's little stigma to the label, either - it's gotten to the point where parents almost brag that their kids are ADHD. Many parents want their kids certified because then they can get "special help." (The "disability", of course, is why they and the kids haven't been getting the job done. It couldn't possibly be the fact that the parents can't pry their kids from the TV or the Nintendo.) Some wealthy parents are clever enough to realize that if their kid is "diagnosed" with a "disability" he/she will get to take the SAT untimed. And wouldn't you know? there is always a whorish doctor willing to certify that the kid has one "disability" or another. Don't even get me started on "Oppositional-Defiant Disorder." *********** There is this persistent sense among Washington State fans that no matter how well things seem to be going - in a season or in a game - something bad inevitably will happen to shatter their dreams of glory. And it really does seem to work that way. In the Northwest, it's called "Cougin' it," as in Cougars. ("They Couged it in the Rose Bowl.") Everybody here is familiar with the expression. A lot of the reaction here to Mike Price's fall from glory was that, true to form, he'd Couged it. *********** In answering last week's Legacy question, David Crump, of Owensboro, Kentucky wrote, "I believe that Don Faurot was the first coach to number the defense for blocking purposes. I may be wrong on that. When I started coaching in 1969, my head coach explained to me the split T system for numbering defenses. Coach Baker didn't use coach Faurot's name, but called the system split T numbering. Do you know if that is true?" (I don't - anybody out there who does? HW) *********** Coach, It was a pleasure meeting you in Atlanta at the March clinic. I came out with a lot more than I went in with. We just finished spring. Thanks to your tapes and the grace of God I was able to do it by myself and it was very productive. I made an adjustment on 88 SP against my defense and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. In our base defense I teach my DEs to jam the TE with his inside shoulder. We were having trouble kicking him out, so I told our C back to down block him treating him like a "6" even though his initial alignment is a "9". He reads it on the run. The B back stays on his course and ends up kicking out probably the CB. We still run inside the kick out block but it goes a bit wider than it would vs. a boxing DE. It seemed to fix the problem, but I wanted to be sure it is the correct thing to do? Steve Owens, Stapleton, Georgia Coach- Glad the clinic helped. I enjoyed meeting you, too. As for adjustment, you have figured it out. A lot of guys never do. If a guy turns himself into a "6" as soon as the ball is snapped, that is exactly how we treat him. Similarly, if the DE were to line up in a "6" but loop outside at the snap, both the TE and the wingback would ignore him and the B-back would win up kicking him out. *********** Coach, We had a very successful spring training. We finished spring with 78 players (9-11). We played Pascagoula in a scrimmage. We won the varsity 35-14. we won the JV 7-0. Everyone is excited about our future. We are in a tough division, but I think we have a good chance to make the play-offs this year. Our QB is the most athletic I have ever had. We have 4 really good backs at A and C. We are 5 deep at the B back. Our center is 6'4" 285, good feet and strength.We only used 88/99, 6/7 G, 47 /56 C, and 2/3 trap in the spring. plus 2 play action passes. I am moving next week. I will be in touch to let you have my new address and eMail. Steve Jones, Ocean Springs, Mississippi (Coach Jones has just taken over at one of the state's largest schools, in one of the state's toughest conferences. His son, Cory - the player who basically pioneered the Wedge Reverse, will be attending Miami of Ohio his fall. Coach Jones added, "He loved the campus and he really liked the players he met. They have a first class program and a great coaching staff. He reports in August. He will also go up in mid June for orientation. Cory is also playing in the All-star game this summer. He was chosen to play in three games, but chose to play in the Mississippi North/South game. He will be the 4th member of our immediate family to play in the game." HW) *********** I heard Rush Limbaugh quoting this info, which came from some advertising agency, illustrating how much a billion really is: A billion seconds ago, it was 1959;. A billion minutes ago, Jesus walked the earth; A billion hours ago, man lived in the Stone Age; But a billion DOLLARS ago - it was only 8 hours, 20 minutes ago, at the rate Congress spends our money *********** Sam Knopik has been named head coach at Kansas City's Pembroke-Hill School. Coach Knopik, an Omaha native, started out as a double wing coach in the Ukraine. Back stateside, he was head coach at Moberly, Missouri, and for the last two seasons has been offensive coordinator at Liberty, Missouri. *********** In football it was Cal's Roy Riegels (out of respect for the man's life-long wishes, I won't call him "Wrong Way Riegels"), catching a fumble in mid air, getting hit, and, disoriented, returning it all the way to the one-yard-line. His own one yard line. In the Rose Bowl, then the biggest football game by far. In basketball, it was a Georgetown player making a careless cross-court pass that North Carolina intercepted, clinching the National Championship. In soccer it was the poor devil who scored an "own goal" and paid for it with his life. In baseball, it was "Merkle's boner," the play named in "honor" of the New York Giants' Fred Merkle. It was late September, 1908, and the Giants, locked in a tight pennant race with the Chicago Cubs, were tied with the Cubs 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth. Fred Merkle was on first base, and another Giant runner was on third. So when the batter singled and the man on third scored to win the game, Merkle, wanting to avoid the crowd that had already begun to storm the field, raced directly to the Giants' clubhouse, which in the old Polo Grounds was in deep center field. Uh-oh. He didn't touch second. The Cubs' Johnny Evers (As in "Tinker to Evers to Chance") got the ball and tagged second, forcing Merkle out and ending the inning. The run wasn't allowed. You can only imagine the pandemonium on the field. There were no instant replays. The game was stopped, to be finished at a later time. When it finally was - following the end of the regular season with the two teams tied for first, the Cubs won. In fact, the Cubs won the pennant and the World Series (and they haven't won one since). Baseball is full of plays like that, possibly because baseball attracts more than its share of knuckleheads to begin win, but I'm not sure even Merkle's boner can compare with Nixon's Knothead - A week ago Saturday, the Angels, batting in the top of the ninth, trailed the Red Sox, 3-2; a ball was hit to rightfielder Trot Nixon, who caught it, turned, and threw it to a young fan in the stands. Did I say that there was only one out at the time? And did I say that the Angels had men on first and second? As a result of Nixon's Knothead, the Angels went on to win, 6-2. Trot Nixon will survive. After all, Fred Merkle did - he went on to play another 18 years in the majors. (Although following his retirement he did stay away from baseball for 23 years, before finally being persuaded to return to New York for an Old-Timers' Game. He was warmly received.) Nixon will get the benefit of our non-judgmental society, in which fans are quick to forgive. (Or, because there is so much going on, to forget.) Or, because of the growing apathy toward baseball, maybe nobody cares, anyhow. Poor Roy Riegels. He spent the rest of his life living down that incident and that nickname, while nowadays idiot wide receivers spike the ball five yards short of scoring and all we do is look at each other and shrug our shoulders and say, "what do you expect?" *********** Good morning Coach.  I received the tapes I purchased last week and I've already watched them all.  They are very good and even after running the DW last year, I saw a lot of things I was teaching incorrectly.  I feel that these will help tremendously and I would like to thank you for them.  Also, our league just voted to remove the "mercy rule" and I wanted your take. Here's the reasoning: The Mercy Rule has been removed by a large margin of vote by the coaches attending the May Meeting. I think idealistically this will be a good thing, and I feel that there was consensus regarding the issues that caused this vote. 1) Players time was negatively affected by having the rule as kids lost valuable playing time. 2) No-one likes to be handed the ball on the 40-yard line. It is demeaning. 3) As coaches we can control a blow out situation, with strategy. Another point of emphasis must be repeated. We cannot ask our kids to take it easy on opponents, nor can we ask them to go half speed, three quarter speed, or anything but full speed. We should never back our players off another team, as it is unsafe for all concerned. We can and will limit the blow outs, by tactically changing the way we call plays once the game has been decided : Trying for field goals... Going with 2nd or 3rd position players... Punting and working on special teams... Running the ball up the middle only. There are dozens of ways to apply strategic changes to reduce the point spreads while pounding an opponent. I have done it, as many of you have. If there are massive blow outs, we can be assured of hearing it from parents, coaches, and even the public. It can also expose some teams who have just formed and are getting started, to losses, that no one wants to see, and even winning teams have weird feelings about one-sided games. The reason for the change was to allow more playing time, allow players to get experience, while giving coaches a chance to coach. To see if you really can win the second half or the fourth quarter. Let's make this thing work. Let's set the example for everyone to see that we have players' best interests in mind. All four of these objectives are equally important (1) to engage in teaching and encouraging participation in the sport of American football, (2) to assist in combating juvenile delinquency by promoting the physical and emotional well being of young people by interesting them in participating in American football and other related activities, (3) to further sportsmanship and the importance of physical activity in their lives, and (4) to carry on competitive games and exhibits in the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico. Coach Marvin Garcia, Albuquerque, New Mexico Coach, I tend to agree with everything there. I think in junior football it is the job of the league to try to make things competitive by not allowing certain teams to "load up," but also to try to work with those coaches who just aren't getting it done. It does seem to me that in youth football especially, there is a wide discrepancy between the guys who are just running plays they got from Madden (the game, not the coach) and those who take their coaching responsibilities seriously. Ultimately, I think we still have to put it on the coaches themselves to act like sportsmen, without having to put "Mercy Rules" on them and the kids. I do, however, think it is the job of the league to stress the responsibility that all coaches have to the game itself. We used to call it sportsmanship, and striving to be a "good sport" was a major goal, but since "sportsmanship" has the word "man" in it, I guess it's not politically correct to use it any more. I say baloney - it's time for us coaches to act like men - like sportsmen - and teach our kids to be sportsmen. *********** I have set a goal: by 2014, 100 per cent of American children will be able to run a mile in under 5 minutes. To make sure that the children are making progress toward that goal, we'll time them at regular intervals... And to make sure that their coaches know we're serious, those whose kids don't continue to show improvement will be penalized. We'll allow their fastest runners to transfer to other schools, and we'll give their coaches extra training. And what if we still find that not enough kids are capable of meeting the mark? Why, then, we'll just make that a six-minute mile. Or a seven-minute mile. Or whatever the hell it takes to achieve our goal of 100 per cent. Call it the No Child Left Behind Even if We Have to Stop and Go Back and Pick Them Up and Carry Them The Rest of The Way on Our Backs Law - but state after state, charged with meeting impossible academic goals or facing the wrath of the federal government - and possible loss of federal funds - is finding that high standards sound good in the halls of the state capital, and on the editorial pages of the state's newspapers, but the ugly fact is that we've got a lot of stupid, unmotivated kids. Or stupid, unmotivated parents. Or, more likely, both. Many states will be doing the same as Texas, which voted to reduce the number of questions that third grade students must answer correctly to pass the statewide reading test, from 24 out of 36, to 20 out of 36. My prediction is that it will soon be 18 - and still kids will fail. Michigan officials reduced from 75 per cent to 42 percent the percentage of students who have to pass statewide tests in order to certify a school as "making adequate progress." *********** Years ago, when I was working for a brewery, I came up with what I thought was a pretty good idea to advertise our product. But our advertising agency thought that it was the only source of good marketing ideas in the world, and looked down on us brewery types. I showed my boss my idea, and he said "Great! Now if we can just figure out some way to get the agency to come up with the idea." I've never forgotten that lesson. *********** Lucky me. My little town, Camas, Washington, is "Soccer City" this weekend. For some reason - probably because no place else wanted it - Camas was selected to host this year's Class 2A, 3A and 4A state soccer final fours. Imagine - twelve soccer teams and nine soccer games in two days of breathtaking action. This is for all the marbles, sports fans. The over-under on goals scored ought to be about 30. (If I had just known sooner, I never would have scheduled my Portland-Vancouver clinic to go up against such a sports festival.) Another reason why Camas is hosting it is the Field Turf at what used to be the football stadium. Oh, it's still got stripes on it every five yards, but it's a damn soccer field. See, when the district was considering putting in Field Turf, the local soccer association kicked in some $30,000 (out of close to a half-million), and now, except when the football team is playing, it is a soccer field. It is in use until 9 or 10 o'clock, 7 days a week - as a soccer field. (Not saying that our schools have more money than they know what to do with, but when they open the new high school in the fall, it, too, will have a Field-Turf field, in addition to the one at the stadium. I was walking the dog Thursday evening and one of the teams was practicing on a field next to the street. They come from "across the mountains," over in the heavily-agricultural central part of the state, and the kids were all Hispanic. I listened as they did jumping jacks, and damned if they weren't counting in Spanish. Now, maybe that was just a little tradition. Let's hope so. Because if those kids are playing a school sport, and the coaches aren't using the sport to help them become proficient in English - at least having them count to ten - they ought to shut the damn team down and get those kids out for football, where they'll play an American game for an American coach - maybe one with a Spanish surname.  *********** OPPORTUNITY!!! I got a call Monday from Jet Turner. He needs some help. For the last five years at Ware Shoals, SC, while Coach Turner took the backs, his assistant, Jeff Murdock, coached the line. And then, in the off-season, Coach Turner took the head job at Clover High, and Coach Murdock was named to succeed him. Which is why Coach Turner was calling me. He'd just come off the field from his first day of spring practice, and he realized how much he misses Coach Murdock, and what a good line coach can mean in a Double-Wing program. He's looking for a line coach with Double-Wing experience. For the right guy, he's got a great opportunity. He has a couple of coaching spots to fill, and at least one social studies teaching job. Clover is in the northern part of the state, about 16 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina (NBA basketball and NFL football). Clover High is a 3-A school and rapidly growing, with about 1600 kids. Clover is also one of the best-paying school districts in the state - the football coaching supplement is $5,000. Coach Turner's e-mail isn't up yet, so if you're interested, you'll need to call him at home - 803-684-4482. ***********Good Evening Coach, Please keep my family in our prayers as we discovered Thursday that my wife has cancer. Although she is a tough "football mom", the road ahead of us will be tougher than we would have liked. Thanks, Akis Kourtzidis, Brea, California Coach- I have said a prayer for you and your wife that you and she may have years more of health and happiness. With your permission, I would share your note with my readers, but only on that condition. God Bless. Hugh Wyatt Coach, We firmly believe in the power of prayer and the more people praying for us the better. You have my permission to share it with all your readers. God Bless you too, Akis Kourtzidis (Let Kate Kourtzidis know how much we coaches appreciate football wives. E-mail her with your best wishes and words of encouragement - math4power@yahoo.com - She said email will play a major part in her recovery. HW) *********** Coach Wyatt, I just saw the article about Kate Kourtzidis and her battle with cancer. She will be in my family's prayers from today forward. As I mentioned during the clinic in Detroit, I have been battling cancer for the last 14 years and recently underwent a stem cell transplant to try to finally get rid of it. I just received the 'all clear' at my one year anniversary and hopefully will be a 'pain in the arse' to my players for years to come. I'm going to email Kate and see if I can lend any support and/or insight. Living with cancer is a daunting challenge, but one that can be overcome with a good attitude and help from above. Doug Parks, Milford, Michigan   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 27, 2003 - "He who neglects the possible in quest of the impossible is a fool." Karl von Clausewitz, "On War"    2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)     MEMORIAL DAY, 2003 IN CAMAS, WASHINGTON My wife and I look forward to Memorial Day as the informal kickoff to summer, but also as a reminder that Americans still care. Every year, the routine is the same: on Saturday a local Boy Scout troop places flags on the graves of veterans at the town cemetery, then a steady stream of visitors all day Sunday and Monday passes through to place flowers and pay their respects. It's not the worst thing in the world to live across the street from a cemetery, as we do - not when the cemetery is as beautiful as Camas cemetery is, and especially so on Memorial Day and Veterans' Day, when the lush green lawn is studded with flags and flowers, and the tall evergreens, silhouetted against the sky, stand guard in the background. A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: In the portrait at far left, he's shown as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant; in the middle, he's shown as "The Little General." He was a college All-American, the NFL Rookie of the Year, a Four-Time Pro Bowl selection, and an NFL General Manager. Today, he's a successful lawyer (portrait at far right). He was an All-American quarterback at Pacific, but following graduation in 1950, with the Korean War starting up, he accepted a commission as an officer in the Marine Corps. He spent nine months in Korea, seven of them in combat on the front lines. He was wounded twice, and awarded the Bronze Star for his acts of heroism at Heartbreak Ridge. Back in the States, despite his height (generously reported to be 5-9) he got the starting quarterback job with the Washington Redskins when Sammy Baugh broke his hand, and, coached along by Baugh, wound up throwing for 1400 yards and earning Rookie of the Year honors. After two years in Washington, he jumped to the CFL with two other Redskins, but returned a year later and, under Coach Joe Kuharich, led the Skins to an 8-4 record. Hopes were high for 1955, but a preseason car accident ended the career of star Vic Janowicz, and the Redskins finished a disappointing 6-6. After that, although he was the NFL's leading passer in 1958, it was three straight losing seasons with the Skins, until his career was saved by Tom Landry, who traded for him and made him the brand-new Dallas Cowboys' first quarterback. Don Meredith understudied him, until gradually, as Meredith became ready, Landry began to shuttle the two quarterbacks in and out. He had earned his law degree from George Washington University while playing for the Redskins, and he put his legal talent and business expertise to use as General Manager of the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982 and as executive vice president and chief operating officer from 1982 through 1985. In 1980, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.   *********** I don't watch any of that so-called "Reality TV." I don't need to see what some of the losers I've taught are doing these days. But damn - it sure was cool watching real real people on TV Monday - watching Marines return from a nine-month deployment to New River, North Carolina and their wives, mothers and dads, girlfriends and kids. *********** A booster club at a large high school in the West hopes to welcome its new football coach by raising enough money to build a new weight room. Fair enough. But judging by the letter being circulated by the head of the fund-raising effort, they can't resist bad-mouthing the former coaching staff : "Look, we all know that winning isn't everything and that today we don't have to win at all costs, but lets face it, these boys already know how to lose. Now with one of the finest High School Coaches of all times at the helm we should start to learn how to win!" Classy, huh? Now, I happen to know a little about the old coach and his staff - the ones who, the letter suggests, taught their kids how to lose. (No, they didn't run the Double-Wing). The head coach had solid experience, including a stint as a Pac-10 assistant, and a quality staff that worked its ass off to win - with minimal talent. In return for their efforts they were dumped over the side at the end of the season, in order to bring in "one of the finest High School Coaches of all times." (Trust me - this new guy is not the second coming of Gordon Wood.) *********** What exactly constitutes Faurot's split t? Is it the "t formation" that Notre Dame ran and became part of Maine's original Wing-T? Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts The only thing that the Split-T and the Delaware Wing-T have in common is the fact that the quarterback takes the snap from the center, to distinguish it from the Single-Wing. Other than that, they are unrelated to. As you can see by the diagrams from Don Faurot's book (on Friday's NEWS page) , there are huge line splits and the attack is straight ahead without much deception. In order to make the handoff on the lightning-quick dive play, to a halfback who's set fairly wide as a result of the splits, the quarterback can't "spin" - he has to take the snap and haul-ass down the line of scrimmage to get the ball there in time. Split-T quarterbacks, while not noted as passers, were very good athletes. The dive is the base play from which everything else in the Split-T derives. If you've never seen it, you can't believe how fast it hits, and as a result, it doesn't require linemen to sustain their blocks very long. Thus, what came to be called "brush blocking." The concepts of the Split-T - the coordination of a dive with a run-pitch option - are the basis of the thinking behind the veer and the wishbone. The Delaware Wing-T has resulted from the marriage of the "spinning T" quarterback action of Clark Shaughnessy's T formation and the backfield action and line blocking principles of the single wing. It descends from a totally different branch of the offense family from the Split-T. The only connection between Notre Dame (split T) and Maine/Delaware is that in anticipation of a possible from switch from the single wing to what is now called the Wing-T, Dave Nelson sent his backfield coach, Harold Westerman to Notre Dame's spring practice to learn the mechanics of the T-formation snap. *********** "I started to read your news and got through the poem the Blue and The Gray. I have never read it before/ it was awesome. Take care Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho *********** A day after an bomb went off in the Yale University Law School, investigators suggested the bomber might have held a grudge against the school. Sheesh. Just because I think Yale Law School could stand some fumigation - it's the place where Bill and Hillary met - does that make me a "Person of Interest?" *********** Last Friday, coming back from break to start the second hour of his show (10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern) Rush Limbaugh gave a special welcome, "to those of you who are on welfare, and just starting your day." *********** "This whole girl playing with the boys in golf has me a little miffed. "Our Girls Basketball team has a shirt that says 'Best man wins has never played a girl.'  This seems to bring up some heated discussions between men and women regarding sports.  I usually try to stay out of it but one day i could no take it so i went off and used these facts in my argument. 1. Our school record for the girls bench press is 155. most of my freshman can lift that. so my scrawny little freshman is stronger then the strongest girl EVER in the schools history. 2. My WR is as fast as the world FASTEST women (Marion Jones, USA - 10.75 - 2000 Olympics, Australia) 3. Most major High School Programs would work over any WBNA team as they cannot even DUNK. I bet your readers could add many others to the list." Bruce Eien, Los Angeles Coach- You are so right. I am about up to here with the "G.I. Jane" garbage that is strictly movie fantasy. I used to listen to high school girls in class and bite my tongue when they'd get started on this "girls are as good as boys" crap. Where feats of physical prowess are concerned, girls overall are NOT as good as boys, and girls can NOT do anything boys can do. And the feminists have got to stop feeding that stuff to girls. Can't girls be respected for what they accomplish competing against each other? There are witless fools in the news media - I hear them all the time - who say that at the rate girls are growing bigger and stronger, it's just a matter of time before there's a woman who'll be able to play quarterback in the NFL, or point guard in the NBA. They overlook the fact that men are getting bigger and stronger (and faster), too. Like we really need to waste our time with foolish arguments like this. Women have their own sports now - isn't that enough? In fact, for the most part, their sports are subsidized by the revenues from men's sports. The WNBA wouldn't last another season without the generous support of the NBA. *********** Now that the Annika Sorenstam fiasco is over with ("she was the personification of grace under pressure," was the best spin the sports libs could come up with to deal with the best woman's golfer in the world finishing 11th from the bottom of a routine men's tournament), the next big feminist sports cause will be soccer's Women's World Cup - coming, if you hadn't heard, to the USA! Because of the SARS epidemic, the World Cup, scheduled to be held in China this fall, is being moved to the United States, which won the right to host it after tough competition from Sweden. (What a shame that all those people in China had to die in order to bring such happiness to the United States!) Now watch the women and their suck-up accomplices on the sports pages gripe because America will be so preoccupied with (ugh!) football that it won't give this great world-wide event the attention it deserves. *********** It would have come out sooner or later, so it's best that you hear it first from me. I know that there's no way I can make it up to you. All I can say is, I'm sorry. See, I was once an agent of the enemy. I was once an executive for a professional soccer team. Wait. I can explain. Yes, I was once the PR Director of the Washington Diplomats. But give me a break - I had a wife and four kids and I'd just been laid off when the World Football League went under following the 1974 season. Besides, I was never even on their payroll. I never so much as wrote "pitch" for "field," and I never said "nil" for "nothing." I never called a team a "side." Hell, I didn't even last a full day. I just knew it wasn't going to work. (Now, what would make me think that?) Fortunately for me, the World Football League got up off the mat a month or so later, and I was off to Portland. But in cleaning out the garage this past weekend, I came across some incriminating evidence which, in the wrong hands, could have been used by my enemies to destroy me. PRESS RELEASE My only choice was to come clean first. Please forgive me. *********** We got a couple of "Click it or Ticket" commercials on our Indy telecast. They were paid for with your tax dollars, as part of Big Nanny's multi-million-dollar campaign to get us all to buckle our seats belts. In the entire country, an average of some 75 per cent of people are already in compliance. Is it really possible that a TV commercial - or anything else, for that matter - is going to change the hard-cores? *********** I think the national anthem sung at Indianapolis by New York Police Officer Daniel Rodriguez was possibly the most beautiful rendition I've ever heard. I'm sorry, girls, I know this is going to put a lot of you rock-star tarts out of work, but I just don't see our national anthem as your audition song - your ticket to fame. Sorry, arrangers, but I don't see it as your opportunity to show everybody how clever a rendition you can provide us. Actually, promoters, I don't see it as a part of your show. I think it is our song, not yours - and it's a bold, stirring song that should be sung - straight - by a real man with a strong voice. Officer Rodriguez did not disappoint. *********** Gil De Ferran came in first in the Indianapolis 500, and I began to worry - not a Frenchman, I thought! I checked out his bio and sure enough, he was born in France. Damn! But then I found that when he was very young, his family moved to Brazil, where he could be raised as a man. (Brazilians, by the way, finished 1-2-3.) *********** The most effective owner in professional sports? It's George Steinbrenner, right? Okay, then - Jerry Jones? Jerry Buss? Get serious. Those guys are piss ants compared to Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske Racing. When Gil De Ferran won the Indianapolis 500 Sunday, it was the 13th win for a Penske. Right behind De Ferran in one of the closest Indys ever was Helio Castroneves, who won it last year. Castroneves was also driving a Penske car. *********** So much for the "trickle-down" theory - the idea that the money the rich folks spend eventually works its way down to the poor folks. So now that "the rich" have received their tax cut, you will be pleased to see that much of their money will be trickling down to... Michael Jordan? Are you sh---ing me? Big as life, in the "Weekend" section of this past Friday's Wall Street Journal, in a 1/4-page ad, Michael is advertising his escort service - sorry, "adult basketball camp experience." It all sounds very whorish to me. I mean, here's Michael Jordan, probably the greatest basketball player ever, peddling his companionship at $15,000 for less than a week (August 16-19 at the Mirage, in Las Vegas). I mean, what the hell else does he have to offer to his "campers?" (people 35 and over - I assume women are not excluded.) Is he going to help them work on their game? We already know that it didn't work with the Wizards. What else is he doing but selling his services as an American geisha? Wow. It says there'll be "one-on-one instruction with Michael." Maybe sniff his jock 'n' everything. For that kind of money you should get to keep it. *********** OPPORTUNITY!!! I got a call Monday from Jet Turner. He needs some help. For the last five years at Ware Shoals, SC, while Coach Turner took the backs, his assistant, Jeff Murdock, coached the line. And then, in the off-season, Coach Turner took the head job at Clover High, and Coach Murdock was named to succeed him. Which is why Coach Turner was calling me. He'd just come off the field from his first day of spring practice, and he realized how much he misses Coach Murdock, and what a good line coach can mean in a Double-Wing program. He's looking for a line coach with Double-Wing experience. For the right guy, he's got a great opportunity. He has a couple of coaching spots to fill, and at least one social studies teaching job. Clover is in the northern part of the state, about 16 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina (NBA basketball and NFL football). Clover High is a 3-A school and rapidly growing, with about 1600 kids. Clover is also one of the best-paying school districts in the state - the football coaching supplement is $5,000. Coach Turner's e-mail isn't up yet, so if you're interested, you'll need to call him at home - 803-684-4482. *********** The good news is that Melissa Stark is pregnant and will not be able to "work" the sidelines on ABC Monday Night Football this upcoming season. The bad news is ABC is looking for a replacement. *********** News from the First Amendment front... When a Seattle high school kid told his teacher he thought an assignment was "gay," the teacher asked the kid - who was black - how he would like it if someone called him a "N-word." (The teacher used the unabridged word.) The kid went home and told his mother of the incident. Actually, knowing the listening ability of kids, he probably told her that the teacher had called him a N-word, but however it happened, the mother contacted the local chapter of the NAACP, which contacted the Seattle Public Schools, which suspended the teacher while investigating the incident, and then gave him a written reprimand. The teacher promptly announced he was quitting his job. ***********Good Evening Coach, Please keep my family in our prayers as we discovered Thursday that my wife has cancer. Although she is a tough "football mom", the road ahead of us will be tougher than we would have liked. Thanks, Akis Kourtzidis, Brea, California Coach- I have said a prayer for you and your wife that you and she may have years more of health and happiness. With your permission, I would share your note with my readers, but only on that condition. God Bless. Hugh Wyatt Coach, We firmly believe in the power of prayer and the more people praying for us the better. You have my permission to share it with all your readers. God Bless you too, Akis Kourtzidis (Let Kate Kourtzidis know how much we coaches appreciate football wives. E-mail her with your best wishes and words of encouragement - math4power@yahoo.com - She said email will play a major part in her recovery. HW) *********** Coach Wyatt, I just saw the article about Kate Kourtzidis and her battle with cancer. She will be in my family's prayers from today forward. As I mentioned during the clinic in Detroit, I have been battling cancer for the last 14 years and recently underwent a stem cell transplant to try to finally get rid of it. I just received the 'all clear' at my one year anniversary and hopefully will be a 'pain in the arse' to my players for years to come. I'm going to email Kate and see if I can lend any support and/or insight. Living with cancer is a daunting challenge, but one that can be overcome with a good attitude and help from above. Doug Parks, Milford, Michigan   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 23, 2003 - "Under the sod and the dew/waiting the judgment day/Under the one the Blue/Under the other the Gray" Francis Miles Finch ("The Blue and the Gray")    2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)     A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: A true football innovator, Don Faurot ("four-OH") is known as the Father of the Split-T, and therefore, the grandfather of the belly series, the veer and the wishbone. A Missouri native, Don Faurot was a star player at Mizzou, and immediately after graduation in 1926, got a job coaching at Northeast Missouri State. In nine years there, he posted a record of 64-14-3, and after his 1932, 1933, and 1934 teams went undefeated, compiling a 26-game win streak, he was hired to coach at his alma mater. In 1941, the year after Stanford's Clark Shaughnessy introduced his deceptive T-formation, he revealed his T-formation, which at first, based on the down-the-line action of the quarterback after receiving the snap, was called the "sliding T" to distinguish it from the "spinning T" of Stanford and the Chicago Bears.   With the "sliding T" the quarterback "slid" down the line of scrimmage to make his handoff, rather than turning his back to the line as in Shaughnessy's "spinning T." Coach Faurot simplified things and placed emphasis on careful repetitions of a limited number of plays. His Split T employed large line splits, enabling it to attack quickly to either side with a "quick opener" - a "handoff" or halfback dive. When defenses ganged up to stop the dive, he employed a fake handoff following which the quarterback might keep the ball himself or pitch it to another back. This "option" provided the first way to run the ball outside without having to block the defensive end. His 1941 team, with a converted single wing tailback named Paul Christman at quarterback, went 8-2, but World War II intervened and, while serving in the Army Air Corps, he spent the war years at Iowa pre-flight, teaching and perfecting his offense. Two of his assistants were young men named Jim Tatum and Bud Wilkinson. When the war ended, Coach Faurot returned to Missouri, but Tatum was hired by Oklahoma and Wilkinson went with him as his assistant. When Tatum left shortly after to go to Maryland, Wilkinson succeeded him as head coach of the Sooners. Although Don Faurot was the acknowledged inventor of the offense, coaches such as Wilkinson and Tatum, not to mention Frank Leahy at Notre Dame enjoyed greater success with it, largely because they had better players than he ever did. Following the 1956 season, he retired,with a record of 101 wins, 79 losses, and 10 ties in his 19 seasons, to become athletic director. His first hire, Frank Broyles, didn't work out at Missouri but went on to a fantastic career at Arkansas. Broyles' replacement at Missouri, Dan Devine, would also become a coaching legend. Don Faurot is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1972, Missouri's Faurot Field (but not its stadium) was named for him.   Correctly identifying Don Faurot - Joe Daniels- Sacramento... Akis Kourtzidis- Brea, California... Jack Tourtillotte- Boothbay Harbor, Maine... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Joe Gutilla- Minneapolis... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois... Sam Knopik- Kansas City... Ronald Singer- Toronto... John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts (" another great choice this week, a very solid coach,poor bastard lost some heart-breaker New Years day Bowl Games - I think he was something like 0-4 in the Sugar, Orange, Cotton.")... Steve Staker- Fredericksburg, Iowa... Jon McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois... Bill Nelson- West Burlington, Iowa... Michael Morris- Huntsville, Alabama ("Big clues like Missouri and Split-T. As I've written before, the old coaches have a lot in common. Faurot's, Lahey's, Bryant's, and many other older coaches books all reflect a common theme of how to get the most from their players. I certainly have enjoyed reading Don Faurot's, Biggie Munn's, and Fritz Crisler's books. I have cut back some in finding and purchasing these old books, but they certainly have been some of the better books that I've read on coaching football.")... Mike Foristiere- Boise, Idaho ("His nephew was at the clinic in Sacramento last year and gave me a ride to the airport.")... John Reardon- Peru, Illinois... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky... Glade Hall- Seattle, Washington... *********** Was surprised and please to see Dan Faurot as the legacy question this week. The Split-T has caused more sleepless nights for defensive co-ordinators than almost anything. A great offense and would be a good offense today for a high school program. All those modern 4-3's would give lots of nice gaps to run to - would not take long for coaches to move back to the old split 6 to defend. Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine *********** My friend Jon McLaughlin, of Oak Forest, Illinois asks, "If it's Faurot Stadium why do they call it Memorial Stadium? (Hmm. Good question. On closer inspection, it appears that Missouri has played the little game where remains Memorial Stadium but games are played on Faurot Field. This from the Missouri sports information office: "The playing field adopted a new name in 1972 - Faurot Field - in honor of the legendary Mizzou football coach and athletic director whose teams and administrative leadership helped mightily to pay off the mortgage. As a matter of fact, Faurot, a graduate student in 1926, helped lay the stadium's sod. And he was there again in June to drop the last square of turf into Mizzou's new field." Oregon has done the same thing - the Ducks play IN Autzen Stadium, ON Rich Brooks Field.)   Two diagrams from Don Faurot's Book "Football: Secrets of the 'Split T' Formation (1950, Prentice-Hall) Coach Faurot's Split-T "Outside Handoff" vs a 7-diamond Coach Faurot's "Keep Play" vs a 5-3   *********** Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day, a day set aside to decorate the graves of men who died fighting in the Civil War.   It is impossible for me to imagine the butchery and brutality of our Civil War - to believe the atrocities committed by Americans against Americans. In comparison to the War with Iraq, in which we experienced fewer than 200 deaths from various causes, the numbers of casualties in our own Civil War are staggering: one single day of fighting - at the Battle of Antietam - resulted in some 40,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action. The marvel is that we ever managed to reunite as a nation, and Memorial Day has played a major part in the reconciliation. Memorial Day was first recognized as a semi-official holiday in 1868 , when General John A. "Black Jack" Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union Army veterans' organization, issued a General Order proclaiming May 30 as a day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country…." One by one, northern states adopted the holiday, but southern states adopted "Confederate Memorial Days" of their own. Following World War I, when the American Legion assumed the responsibility of keeping the tradition alive, the holiday began to be recognized nationwide, and the tradition was expanded to honor those who died fighting in all our wars. A tradition of honoring fallen Civil War soldiers regardless of the side they fought on dates back to the ending of hostilities. One such memorial celebration took place on April 25, 1866, at a cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi, where four local women met to decorate the graves of fallen Confederate soldiers. Also buried there were forty Union soldiers, and in the spirit of compassion, the ladies decorated their graves as well. The event made national headlines, and the news of the incident made such an impression on Francis Miles Finch, an Ithaca, New York, lawyer, that he wrote a poem called "The Blue and the Gray." The poem was published in the September 1867 issue of The Atlantic Monthly , the same publication which had first published Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic."   (Please don't be put off by the expression "judgment day." That was just something put on us by God, who as we all know has no place in today's America for the very reason that He is too "judgmental.")   *********** Last week's clinic was my first one away from a large metro area. I hadn't even planned on having a clinic that weekend - after several weekends away, I sort of enjoyed my time at home - but "JT" was persuasive. "JT" is John Torres, one of the earliest friends I've met since going out on tour back in 1998. JT lived in LA, where he worked for the ATF, and when he was transferred to head its San Francisco office, he had two priorities - finding a place to live, and finding a place to coach. He found both, near his hometown of Stockton. He lives in Manteca, and coaches in the neighboring town of Lathrop. He lucked twice, if you can overlook that fact that on those mornings when he has to drive to his office in San Francisco, 70 miles away, he has to get up at 3:30. The Lathrop Titans' organization is a good one. Seven of its coaches, along with the president, Jaime Hernandez, attended the clinic, held in Lathrop. I had dinner Friday night - at Tio Luis' Restaurant (great Mexican food) - with JT and the other members of his staff, Rich Scott and Steve Popovich, as well as Mark Rangel, who coaches the younger kids. Steve Popovich, the legendary "Dipper" of the Youth Coaches' Double-Wing Forum, is a native of Connecticut who began running the doouble-Wing back on the East Coast and just by happenstance happened to run into John Torres when he moved to California. Football is healthy in Lathrop - moving up to the 13-14-year-old level this year, John, Rich and Steve have 45 kids signed up. They are used to large numbers like that. All kids play, and none drop out. By the way, here's a great team-building activity - they got a photo of their team's helmet (like the Tennessee Titans') and sent it off to a company that makes jigsaw puzzles. The company sent them back a 45-piece puzzle, and the first time the kids get together this summer, each kid will be given a "piece of the puzzle" and then they'll be given time assemble it. At the end of the season, that assembled puzzle will be mounted and awarded as a prize - a prize that was made possible because all 45 kids had a part in putting it together. (You can get info on such a puzzle where they did - at nationalpuzzle.com) *********** I just finished reading your site, and I wanted you to hear about something that just happened in Conroe. A 17 year old was just caught hacking into the Conroe HS database to change grades. Now, at first, it was believed he'd done so because he'd been paid (anywhere from $10-50) by kids wanting better grades for college transcripts; but later, it came out that he'd also been changing grades for revenge! The police and DA's office have said he will probably be charged with a felony (thankfully). Talk to you soon. Love, Cathy Tiffany, Houston, Texas (Cathy is my daughter. I told her I have the perfect defense for him: "Come on, your honor - It's his first felony."   *********** Am I too cynical, or am I right in suspecting that all these revelations about JFK's swordsmanship are designed to restore Bill Clinton's image, making him look good by comparison?   *********** "The GBN (Glenbard North High School) prom this past weekend went off without any incident. 450 kids attended at the Sheraton on Michigan Ave. In spite of the news media's considerable attempts to find kids behaving badly, they couldn't. Regards, Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois (Coach Babb, a newly-elected member of the school board in whose district the now-famous girl-fight took place, is justifiably proud of his district's high school and the vast majority of well-raised kids who go there. HW) *********** Two adults have been charged in the Glenbard North case - one for providing alcohol, another for letting the kids drink in her home. May I suggest 20 lashes, well laid-on?   *********** After reading my story about Oregon's "treatment" for rapists, Doug Gibson, of Naperville, Illinois, must have been inspired by the guy in Utah who cut his arm off to get free of the boulder that had fallen on him. He suggests something similar for rapists, except his "treatment" calls for a duller knife and specifies a different member, which would be nailed to the floor of a shed just prior to setting fire to it.   *********** Forget about what God says about having "no other gods before me."   It's not his fault. He's just s-o-o-o-o-o- Biblical. God, you see, never heard about DIVERSITY, which, as we modern-day Americans all know, we are expected to worship before all other gods. It's a little bit like a Monty Python movie - Mention the magic word DIVERSITY and people fall prostrate in awe. Doors open and seas part. Attack DIVERSITY and expect a stoning in the public square. DIVERSITY, we're told, is "our strength." (What was that UNITY crap, anyhow?) It's DIVERSITY that makes America great. That's why we worship it. So it was only a matter of time that DIVERSITY WORSHIP would work its way into football. Sure, we coaches play the best man, regardless of race - isn't that the way it should be? Well, yes - but are we providing enough... DIVERSITY? Consider - a coaching staff I am acquainted with had been looking forward to seeing a gifted underclassman play on their varsity next year. As a sophomore this past season, the kid scored a large number of touchdowns (if I mentioned the exact number, I might identify the staff, and then they and I would be publicly stoned for blaspheming the DIVERSITY god). The kid happens to be a member of a "minority race." Since the town itself has very few minorities, there was only a small handful of minorities in his school. The kid's father, for whatever real reason, requested a transfer to a school across town, one that also has a handful of minority students, but a slightly larger one. The father said it was because he felt his son needed more DIVERSITY. No objection. Request granted. The DIVERSITY god has been appeased. *********** The news out of Baghdad Tuesday - weeks after the war officially ended - was that the Allies will now require that Iraqi citizens turn over their AK-47's, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. Of course, there will be those in the US who will say, "Ohmigod - next thing you know, they'll be coming to get my RPG's." But there will be others like me who will say, "what the f--k took them so long?" *********** Yah, da Yoopers will be playing football this year! Houghton, Mich. -- Michigan Tech University's Football Advisory Council announced that it had come up with enough money - $300,000 - to assure that the 2003 football season is a go. School officials, faced with having to pare the budget, had announced on March 15 that football would be eliminated, but after an "extraordinary" outpouring of public sentiment to keep the 80-year-old football program alive, the administration agreed to accept the Football Advisory Council's plan. In addition to the money needed to operate the program this year, the Football Advisory Council must raise an additional one million dollars by December 31, 2003, to ensure that players committing to the University will have five years to compete and graduate. "I am not surprised at the extraordinary amount of heart and generosity demonstrated by the Football Advisory Council and their commitment to Tech football," said Head Coach Bernie Anderson. "Our players, their parents, coaches and many others have demonstrated unusual grit, courage and dedication to seeing this challenge through to a winning conclusion." Said Anderson, "We have something special here. Of the young men that have finished their playing eligibility since I've been here, 100 percent have graduated and I'm very proud of that fact. Football is invaluable in so many ways to the overall University experience." We are not talking here about saving the scholarships of knuckleheads - 75% of Michigan Tech's football players are engineering and science majors. (Interested donors can contribute to Tech football through the website: http://www.mtf.mtu.edu and click on Football Leadership Campaign.) *********** Those of you who cheer the Big East's break-up overlook the fact that 12 years ago, Miami was a wet dog, abandoned and looking for a home when the Big East took them in. Miami brings to the ACC a college that acts like a pro franchise - when there's a big game, its fans turn out, but when it's not, they stay home. Do not expect Miami to show up in your town with fans. We are not talking Alabama or LSU or Michigan or Ohio State, Miami has no following whatsoever, unless you count rappers. Their academic standards are about the same as your typical NFL team. Other than that, all Miami brings to the ACC is the chance to make $10 million. Never mind. *********** Coach superb job on News You Can Use this week, you exposed Teddy-Boy for what he really is,a Liberal-Fraud who will pander to any so-called "victim-group" for political capital and positioning- see ya Friday John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts *********** Grrrr. I don't think it would be prudent for me to run into USA Today Columnist Ian O'Connor any time soon. I don't take kindly to writers taking gratuitous shots at people I admire. Trying to attain sainthood on the cheap (in the words of Thomas Sowell), O'Connor was going off about Alabama's not hiring Sylvester Croom, a black man, and he thought it would be clever to go back to Kentucky's passing up Doug Williams, another black man, and instead hiring (Mr. O'Connor's words) Rich "The Retread" Brooks. Okay, okay, Ian. We know you're liberal. Your dance card's punched for another week. But where Rich Brooks is concerned, you really don't know what the f--k you are talking about. However, since you felt the need to dredge up old news, like a Democrat still counting votes in Florida, I'd like to repeat something I wrote back in December: I think I like Mark May, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was expressing his personal emotions. Not that it's very professional for a professional sports reporter to be expressing his personal emotions on the air, but I can understand that he, a black man, is frustrated at the fact that with all the Division IA coaching vacancies this year, only one black coach has been hired. But I was offended by the on-air tirade he went into when word came over the wires that Kentucky would not be hiring Doug Williams. I think it would be fair to say that it bordered on the racist. What he did was go off on how anybody could possibly pass over a Super Bowl MVP, who'd won three straight conference championships! three straight conference championships! (he said it twice, for effect) and hire a guy who'd been out of the game for two years! Why, he hadn't even been in the limelight during his time out of coaching (like other ex-coaches who rake in the bucks doing TV.) Uh, not so fast, Mr. May. I don't think that we advance Doug Williams' cause - or that of any other black coach - by demeaning the other guy. So upset was May at the perceived injustice of it all - the racism - that he wouldn't even mention the guy by name, but I will. His name is Rich Brooks. I know him and I respect him. I consider what he did at the University of Oregon to be one of the finest coaching performances in my memory. I realize that Doug Williams is a former teammate of Mark May - and a black guy, at that - but only a damn fool would lay Doug Williams' coaching credentials side-by-side with Rich Brooks' and not hire Rich Brooks. C'mon Mark. Rich Brooks took the Oregon program from dead last to the Rose Bowl. In 1994, he was AFCA regional Coach of the Year. He has been a successful defensive coordinator in the NFL - helping take the Falcons to the Super Bowl - and he might have done the same thing with the Rams that Dick Vermeil did, except that the Rams found it convenient to toss him overboard after two seasons in order to hire Vermeil. Out of it for two years? Parcells has been out longer than that, and Jerry Jones has been salivating over him. And then there's Dick Vermeil himself. When he was hired by St. Louis, he'd been out of coaching for 15 years - fifteen years - after announcing to the world that he was burned out in Philly. I have nothing against Doug Williams and I am not going to demean him. First of all, though, forget the Super Bowl MVP B-S. That has nothing to do with coaching. While he was playing pro ball and making good money, other, less talented guys were paying their dues, learning to be coaches. If it were possible to trade years playing in the NFL for years coaching, the exchange rate would be about five to one. He is doing a fine job at Grambling. Yes, he has rebuilt the program and won three straight conference championships. And, yes, there have been Division I-AA coaches who have successfully made the transition to head coaching at the Division I-A level. But not many. Jim Tressel at Ohio State is the foremost example of one who has, but coach Tressel's Youngstown teams were national I-AA powers. No serious football person would confuse Grambling with Youngstown. Paul Johnson is in the process of getting things done at Navy, after a good run at Georgia Southern. No serious football person would confuse Grambling with Georgia Southern. I do think that if coach Williams is going to be a viable candidate for a big job, he's going to have to show some proof that he can coach with the big boys. Success at a lower-level D-IAA school won't do it. He will have to do what so many guys in his position have had to do - he's going to have to show that he can coach - and recruit - big-time players. Maybe take a coordinator's job at a D-IA school. Unless he does, he - or any other guy, black or white, with his experience - is going to be a risky hire for any big school AD. Now, Ian baby, I'll try to go over it once more - slowly, this time, so even you can understand. Rich Brooks has demonstrated the ability to recruit Division I athletes. Doug Williams has not. Rich Brooks has coached successfully in Division I (1994 Rose Bowl). Doug Williams has not. Rich Brooks has demonstrated the ability to work with big-hitter alumni in raising funds. Doug Williams has not. Rich Brooks has been able to hire and manage a Division I staff. Doug Williams has not. Rich Brooks has been an NFL head coach. Doug Williams has not. Rich Brooks has been a defensive coordinator on a Super Bowl team. Doug Williams has not. The only knock on Rich Brooks, then, seems to be that he's 61 years old. Now, age doesn't seem to stand in the way of the people who run bigger things than football teams - corporate executives, United States Senators, Donald Rumsfeld or, I might add, the editor of your paper. "Retread?" Better watch your words, asshole. There's such a thing as age discrimination in America, in case you haven't heard. You wouldn't think of dismissing Doug Williams with a racial epithet - and neither would I - but it would make just as much sense. *********** Double-Wing in Germany (I have printed this letter exactly as it came to me, just to let you know that our Double-Wing is hard at work in places where English is not generally spoken. I am impressed by Coach Kegelmann's willingness to use English - his English is a lot better than my German. As you can see, he also speaks fluent Double-Wing. ) Hi Coach, we just had our Second Game, with our new Junior Team(age 16-19). Nowbody in our Region has ever seen the DW-Offense. Here is what happend. We lost the first Game 22:38 because the Kids where nervous,and our Defense is not very good,yet. But it was interesting to see how the other Defense Changed from 4-3 Cover 2 into 9 Man on the Line,after 99-P,88-P,2-Wedge and 47-C. That opend up 6-G,7-G and 3-Trap-2 ,RED-RED, BLUE-BLUE ,R-43-Brown and 58-Bl.-Throwback. (This is all we can run by now). We won the Second Game 22:13. Same Story as First Game. After a a couple 99-P ,88-P and 2-Wedge Plays, we Scored with R-47-C and RED-RED. R-47-C is the biggets Problem for other Teams. I install R-43-"C" Screen next, because it is the same as R-43-Brown and R-47-C for the most Positions. WHAT A OFFENSE. regards Andreas Kegelmann, Herne, Germany PS: I follow the discussion about Soccer in the States. I dont like Soccer, because of the Violence between the Fans(Sometimes a couple hundred Policemen in the Stadium to keep the FANS from killing each other). Soccer in Germany is Club-Sport, and they pay Money even to Kids that have a bit of Talent. But if they fail,or loosing interest on Soccer, try to pull a Kid away from the TV without Payment. The German Kids like American Football because they like allmost everything from the US, and ,you wont believe it, they like the DISCIPLIN. I think this a bit like your experiance in Finnland. *********** It's about time wrestlers and wrestling coaches caught a break, so here it is - Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia is preparing to reinstate wrestling as a varsity sport for 2004-05. Ever since the program was dropped in 1994, wrestling devotees have been hard at work trying to bring it back. Calling themselves the Liberty Wrestling Foundation, they've already raised more than a third of the $100,000 needed by September. Although Liberty's wrestling program was nationally recognized, it was dropped as a varsity sport for financial reasons but also in order to bring Liberty into compliance with Title IX, whose "proportionality" standards require schools to provide opportunities to women and men based on the proportion of the student body that they comprise. Even though funding may be provided by outside sources, schools still must comply as if the sports were being supported by college funds. So why is wrestling coming back? Because Liberty is in "non-compliance." Liberty - get this - is awarding more scholarships to women than to men! "I learned from the former wrestlers who are wanting to re-instate wrestling that we were in non-compliance with Title IX demands because we were offering more scholarships to female athletes than male athletes," the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Liberty's chancellor, told the Lynchburg News and Advance. "This afforded us the opportunity of doing what we're doing." I don't know whether you'd call it a dig at the strident femmies who couldn't care less how many men's programs have to be cut in order to achieve strict proportionality, but Reverend Falwell did note that Liberty never considered doing the same to women's sports. "We could have met that challenge by simply cutting back on women's athletics," he said, "but the Liberty wrestling foundation accepted a challenge from president Borek to raise $100,000 as seed money for the rebirth of wrestling at Liberty. "Wrestling is a very popular sport with certain young men and to me, it's just one more way Liberty can appeal to young athletes to come here and get their education," Reverend Falwell said. He said he'd attend all the meets. "I most certainly will as I did in the past," he said. "I'll probably be their best fan." *********** Coach - I just flew back from Vegas and my attention was diverted to the cover of Southwest Airlines Magazine. The article was titled "Annika Sorenstam: Hey guys, IN YOUR FACE!". I thought for sure that the article was written by a feminist, but to my surprise, a Michael Geffner. The article was neutral but that damn title really got to me. Like if Tiger and some big hitters went to play the mini-courses with the women on the LPGA, there would really be a close tournament. I have the perfect by-line, "Hey Gals: How long is your drive?", no pun intended. John Torres, Manteca, California *********** I can't believe what idiots people can be when they step outside their field of expertise. First there was radical feminist Patricia Ireland. (Believe me, I'll never call her "Pat." Sean Hannity did that on TV the other night, and she jumped him, telling him "my name is Patricia.") Ms. Ireland used to be the executive director of NOW (the National Organization of Women) but now she's executive director of the YWCA. In case you didn't know, that stands for Young Women's CHRISTIAN Association, and Hannity asked her, "Are you yourself a Christian?" Boy did she dodge. She ain't answered him yet. But anyhow, there she was on Hannity and Colmes Tuesday night, talking about Annika Sorenstam. She didn't see any inconsistency at all in letting Ms. Sorenstam play on the men's tour while excluding men from the women's tour - "women need more opportunities." And to show she really knew what the f--k she was talking about, she mispronounced Ms. Sorenstam's name "uh-NICK-uh." Then there was columnist Ellen Goodman, who up until a week ago probably never heard of Annika Sorenstam, based on the fact that she writes, "Annika did not get the attention of the world until she was picked to play with the boys." Right. Up until then, nobody noticed that she was the best women's golfer in the world. I mean, isn't that why she's "playing with the boys" in the first place? I mean, if if nobody had ever heard of her, would anybody be making a big deal of the fact that she's "playing with the boys?" And then this Goodman, who I suspect had her parents write notes excusing her from PE back when she was in school, went on to say, "Today's female stars, like the buff Annika, would wallop yesterday's male superstars." Sure, Ellen. Like Nicklaus. Palmer. Player. Trevino. Hogan. Snead. Nelson. I could go on. You no doubt understand what it was like in the days before endorsement dollars, how they had to go out on the Tour, week after week, with nothing promised to them, playing against a herd of other guys who were also hungry, and all capable of beating their asses. I'm sure you're aware of how "yesterday's male superstars" would finish a tournament, then pile into a station wagon and drive all night to the next stop on the tour? And, being a sports historian, you probably know that there was a time ("yesterday") when the US Open required "yesterday's male superstars" to play 36 holes on the last day. *********** I watched golf on TV Thursday, not so much to follow Annika (she really is a good golfer, and she has a great swing) but to catch those terrific "Great Moments in Women's Sports" features that they kept showing during breaks. That Billie Jean King sure is a great one, isn't she? *********** Don't know what you'll be doing this weekend, but Mark Kaczmarek, coach of United Township High in East Moline, Illinois is going to have to plan carefully when he wants to get a hot dog or use the rest room at the Iowa state track meet. His daughter, Chelsea, a senior at Davenport's Assumption High, will be competing in four events in the girls' state track meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. On Friday, there will be the long jump finals, plus preliminaries in the 400-meter dash and the 1,600 relay. On Saturday, there will be the 200 meter preliminary heats in the morning, and the finals - assuming she qualifies - in the 400, 200 and 1,600 relay in the afternoon. Going into the state meet, Chelsea has the state's best district time in the 200, second best in the 400, fourth - with her teammates - in the 1,600 relay, and fifth in the long jump. "I'm excited about my chances," she told the Quad City Times, "and the events are fairly well split up so I can get some decent recovery time,'' she said. "I feel I'm peaking at the right time.'' Next fall, Chelsea is headed for the University of South Carolina, defending women's outdoor national champion. ***********Good Evening Coach, Please keep my family in our prayers as we discovered Thursday that my wife has cancer. Although she is a tough "football mom", the road ahead of us will be tougher than we would have liked. Thanks, Akis Kourtzidis, Brea, California Coach- I have said a prayer for you and your wife that you and she may have years more of health and happiness. With your permission, I would share your note with my readers, but only on that condition. God Bless. Hugh Wyatt Coach, We firmly believe in the power of prayer and the more people praying for us the better. You have my permission to share it with all your readers. God Bless you too, Akis Kourtzidis (Let Kate Kourtzidis know how much we coaches appreciate football wives. E-mail her with your best wishes and words of encouragement - math4power@yahoo.com - She said email will play a major part in her recovery. HW)   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 20, 2003 - "Our inheritance of well-founded, slowly conceived codes of honor, morals, and manners, the passionate convictions which so many hundreds of millions share together of the principles of freedom and justice, are far more precious to us than anything which scientific discoveries could bestow." Winston Churchill    2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)     A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: A true football innovator, he is known as the Father of the Split-T, and therefore, the grandfather of the belly series, the veer and the wishbone. A Missouri native, he was a star player at Mizzou, and immediately after graduation in 1926, got a job coaching at Northeast Missouri State. In nine years there, he posted a record of 64-14-3, and after his 1932, 1933, and 1934 teams went undefeated, compiling a 26-game win streak, he was hired to coach at his alma mater. In 1941, the year after Stanford's Clark Shaughnessy introduced his deceptive T-formation, he revealed his T-formation, which at first, based on the down-the-line action of the quarterback after receiving the snap, was called the "sliding T" to distinguish it from the "spinning T" of Stanford and the Chicago Bears. His offense employed large line splits, and its base plays were either a "quick opener" - a halfback dive - or a quarterback option. He simplified things and placed emphasis on careful repetitions of a limited number of plays. The option provided the first way to run the ball outside without blocking the defensive end. His 1941 team, with a converted single wing tailback named Paul Christman at quarterback, went 8-2, but World War II intervened and, while serving in the Army Air Corps, he spent the war years at Iowa pre-flight, teaching and perfecting his offense. Two of his assistants were young men named Jim Tatum and Bud Wilkinson. When the war ended, he returned to Missouri, but Tatum was hired by Oklahoma and Wilkinson went with him as his assistant. When Tatum left shortly after to go to Maryland, Wilkinson succeeded him as head coach of the Sooners. Although he was the acknowledged inventor of the offense, coaches such as Wilkinson and Tatum, not to mention Frank Leahy at Notre Dame enjoyed greater success with it, largely because they had better players than he ever did. Following the 1956 season, he retired,with a record of 101 wins, 79 losses, and 10 ties in his 19 seasons, to become athletic director. His first hire, Frank Broyles, didn't work out at Missouri but went on to a fantastic career at Arkansas. Broyles' replacement at Missouri, Dan Devine, would also become a coaching legend. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1972, Missouri's stadium was named for him.   *********** God help Coach Ray Sherman, an assistant with the Packers, and his family. Coach Sherman's 14-year-old son shot himself yesterday. Police believe the cause of death was suicide. *********** Did anybody see what that despicable bastard Clinton told the graduates of a small, historically-black college in Mississippi? He said the President (Mr. Bush) has spent more time on terrorism than on "domestic issues." Uh, Willie, for much of the last year and a half, terrorism has been a domestic issue. Not that you would know, as much time as you spend in Europe, sucking up to people who think you still matter, who don't know how despised you are over here. *********** Don't know whether you've thought about this, but if the ACC expands to 12 teams, followed almost certainly by the Big 10 (never one to let its name stand in the way of expansion), four 12-team conferences will have such a lock on the BCS - and such an interest in its perpetuation - that the chances of an NCAA Division I-A football playoff will become absolutely nil. Why, for heaven's sake, would the Big Four want to give up the proven moneymaker they have now? Why would they turn their control - not to mention a large share of the revenue - over to the NCAA? Why would they want to share their money with smaller schools? I can envision a possible playoff, and they'll be in a position to bring one off, totally controlling it, keeping all the revenues, and promoting its winner as the National Champion. It would involve eight teams - their teams - and require a total of seven "bowl" games: four games to serve as the quarterfinals, two to serve as the semi-finals, and one gigantic game to determine their "national champion." What's the NCAA going to do - deny them its blessing? That's a laugh, because basically, once there are four super conferences, they will have the NCAA check-mated. Should the NCAA oppose anything they want to do, they can pull out of the NCAA and go their own way, leaving the NCAA with the rights to the name "Final Four" and damn little else. Meantime, if I were Notre Dame, I think I might be heading for the security of the Big Ten. And if I were the Pac-10, I'd be scrambling to find two more teams. *********** Greed is taking the blame for much of the ugly restructuring getting ready to take place in big-time college football. Why else would you break up a perfectly good ACC? Why else would a conference with such distinguished members as Duke, North Carolina and Virginia get in bed with the likes of Miami? In fact, why else did a perfectly good ACC add Florida State? But greed isn't totally to blame. Sure, there's plenty of it in college sport. But the truth is, greed is taking all the blame while Title IX gets off scot-free. The fact is that colleges need every spare million they can squeeze out of football and men's basketball so that they can keep making payments to the extortionists - the femmies and their Congressional buddies who insist that as the price of staying out of trouble they subsidize scholarships in such money-loser sports as softball, volleyball and women's crew. (I purposely left out women's basketball, because there are actually places - such as UConn and Tennessee - where it pays its way.) In typical fashion, Congress very generously and courageously solved a problem - creating athletic opportunities for women - without providing any funds for the solution. It was left to the colleges to find the money. That sort of weasely legislative action is called an "unfunded mandate". It makes the lawmakers look noble without having to make the hard decision about where the money's going to come from. Special Ed is another example of the legislative dishonesty of the unfunded mandate. Schools are required by federal law to provide special services for kids with disabilities - regardless of the number of kids or the extent of their disabilities. Schools are given insufficient federal funds to cover the costs of these services, which means they have to get the money out of the local taxpayers. But the taxpayers' generosity has its limits, so schools all over the country find themselves forced to cut back on basic services for the vast majority of kids, so that they can comply with a federal mandate and provide costly special education services. *********** Nine members of this past season's SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs have sold their SEC championship rings for more than their value as jewelry. This is an NCAA no-no, since it could easily turn into a convenient dodge that alumni would use to pay players. ("Wow. What a cool ring. I'd sure love to have one. Would you take $10,000 for it?") Two things occur to me - one, the kids ought to be free to do what they want with something that belongs to them. The old expression is, "if you can't sell it, you don't really own it." Second, I'm disappointed that their team seemed to mean so little to them - that they would be so materialistic, so into money as to peddle a memento of something significant that they achieved as members of a team. (And please don't give me the poor, starving athlete argument.) *********** The good news is that Fresno State is reinstating a men's sport. The bad news is it's soccer. *********** Parents of the kids involved in the Chicagoland girl-gangbang that was captured on home video and shown on every TV channel know to man have totally stonewalled law enforcement officials attempting to investigate whether parents might have supplied the beer that fueled it. "There is a tremendous lack of information coming forward from people of the community about who did supply the alcohol," Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine told reporters at a news conference last week. "When everybody you talk to says they have a lawyer and don't want to talk to you, there's an issue," he said. "And the issue for this community is whether people are going to come forward and are going to cooperate with law enforcement." Police officials, he told the reporters, "don't have a magic wand. They rely on information. And if they talk to people and someone - everybody - says, 'I don't know,' or 'I won't talk to you,' or 'Talk to my lawyer,' well, you're not allowing law enforcement to do its job." "It's up to this community to decide what kind of responsibility they want to have out here," Devine said. Bear in mind that these worms are the same people who are quite willing to tell anyone who'll listen that their kids' schools and teachers should be "held accountable," and their coaches should be fired for not doing more to get their kids college scholarships. *********** When did the American students become spoiled whining babies? Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts When we began to glorify children, and give them and their opinions the same status as formerly accorded only to adults. I think that Dr. Spock and his ideas on child-rearing had a lot to do with this change, which began taking place as the babies born following World War II reached puberty (around 1960). The very expression "teenager" dates back to the post-war years. Never before in our history had we had the luxury of doting on our kids like that. Prior to that time, if kids had said something about "wanting to make our voice heard," the old people who had grown up in the Depression and gone through World War II would have said, "Huh?" Back when what other people thought of us was important, it was considered a mark of shame to have disobedient kids. There was an expression then - "children should be seen, and not heard" - that pretty much summed up the role of children in our culture. *********** Dave DeBusschere died Wednesday. DeBusschere (pronounced "De-BUSH-er") was a class act, and one of the last of the true two-sport athletes. He pitched for the White Sox and played for his hometown Detroit Pistons where in 1964 at age 24 he became the youngest coach in NBA history, but his career didn't really get into high gear until he was traded to New York, where he wound up playing with the likes of Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Cazzie Russell, Jerry Lucas, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe. As a Knick, he played on two NBA championship teams. Although he was just 6-6, he was nicknamed "Big D", as much for the tenacious defense he played as for his name. He played in eight NBA All-Star games, and practically had a reserved place on the annual NBA all-defense team. Dave DeBusschere was the consummate team player, and during his last season with the Knicks, teammate Bill Bradley contemplated the thought of a Knicks' team without him and said, "You don't replace a Dave DeBusschere." Amen. *********** With Annika Sorenstam getting ready to play with the boys this week, sports writers are dredging the bottom, recalling ways in which women "broke down barriers" in sports. What a laugh. The one they love to throw at us is Billy Jean King's tennis "victory" over Bobby Riggs, back in the mid-70's. Yeah, a real triumph for women. At the time, Billie Jean King was perhaps the best women's tennis player in the world. Bobby Riggs? He was 55 years old, a once-good-tennis-player-turned-hustler who was way, way, way past his prime, and saw a match with King ("The Battle of the Sexes") as a chance to pull off a big score. He did. He made off with a lot of money, and the femmies wet their pants in their excitement at watching a woman beat a man. But of course, hundreds of men could have beaten Riggs, too. King's "victory" wouldn't have been less significant if she had played Big Bill Tilden, who was dead. I had a phone call a few days ago from a reporter with the Denver Post, who'd traced me down through my connection with the World Football League. He needed my help. He was doing one of those "breaking down the barriers" stories, and he thought he'd remembered a woman playing in the WFL. Not so. We were interested in drawing crowds, to be sure, but believe it or not, we had integrity - we were above making a farce of our game. For the record, it was 1970, and the woman's name was Pat Palinkas. She held for extra points for the Orlando Panthers, in the Continental Football League. As I recall, her husband was the place-kicker. I do seem to recall some defensive lineman running into her. Anybody know what happened to Pat Palinkas? All this women-against-men business is just freak-show sports. Sorenstam is damn good, but it would be best for women's golf if the public didn't get to compare her - the best woman golfer in the world - against your everyday men's professionals. The fact is, good as she is, there are hundreds of male golfers - professional or not - who could whip her butt, and she has no business taking a spot in the tournament from any one of them. *********** You've got to hand it to Vijay Singh. First, he keeps liberal sports reporters busy writing about what a sexist swine he is for daring to say that Annika Sorenstam shouldn't be playing in a men's PGA Tour event ("she doesn't belong out here"), and then, beset by the squawking magpies of feminism and their liberal handmaidens (cleverly disguised as sports writers), he goes out and wins this past weekend's Byron Nelson. Now - haw, haw - after having said that he would withdraw from this week's Colonial (sorry - Bank of America Colonial) tournament if he had to play with her, he gets to avoid the controversy entirely. With $1 million from winning the Byron Nelson in his bank account, he's decided to take this week off. *********** I think the President of Iowa State should take full responsibility for Larry Eustachy's misconduct. Likewise the President of the University of Alabama for what Mike Price did. It's not enough that coaches Eustachy and Price walked the plank. All they were doing, you see, was reflecting an overall culture for which the President of the University is ultimately responsible. You believe that? Not me. But that's what Teddy Kennedy, the Senator from Chappaquiddick, seems to think. Because he blames General Robert Clark, who was in command at Fort Campbell, Kentucky back in 1999 when a gay soldier was beaten to death on the base, for "creating the climate" that permitted the murder. Forget the fact that the perp was convicted and is now serving life - it's also the base commander's fault. At least that's what Kennedy is saying, in opposing General Clark's promotion from Major General to Lieutenant General. He is backed by The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (a gay rights group that monitors military justice), by the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Organization for Women and People for the American Way. And by the Democratic National Committee. Forget the fact that an investigation by the Army's inspector general exonerated all officers involved, including General Clark, saying that there was no "climate of homophobia" at the base. Probably, thanks to the opportunistic opposition of a Senator who knows a little something about killing (although the death of a heterosexual female 35 years ago is no longer a big news story), the General likely will not get a third star. Talk about striking it rich! Talk about living the liberal's dream! In one stroke Kennedy gets to honor gays and diss the military. I haven't the slightest idea whether General Clark merits the star. I am willing to assume that since President Bush submitted his name, he is deserving. But General Clark's competence is not the issue here. Political correctness is. General Clark's career is being offered as a sacrifice to radical organizations. And you wonder why the top guys in the Pentagon so often tend not to be warriors, but desk-jockey, politician types, guys who make it to the top mainly because they never offended anybody? *********** Seems a Vancouver, Washington kid wanted to attend a party but there was a slight problem - he wasn't invited. In fact, the people giving the party didn't know him. Our young man persisted - I believe that's still called party-crashing - but he had no luck. He and his fellow crashers were so frustrated at their inability to convince the host that they would add life to the party that they began smashing car windows and breaking car antennas. When the guys from the party tried to explain that this was no way to earn an invitation, why, one of the young crashers did what any of us would do - he shot two of them, wounding them severely. He was just found guilty and sentenced to 17 years, The best his attorney could do in arguing for a lenient sentence was, "It's his first felony." That seemed to me a funny way to put it. Now, I don't know what kind of a defense attorney she is, but she sure sounds as if she knows her client. *********** I was reading an article about five female college tennis players who had been ruled ineligible by the NCAA. They were all from England. Now, Title IX compliance is measured by "gender equity," which is measured by "proportionality," which states that the percentage of athletes on scholarship at a college should be roughly the same as the percentage of women in the student body. So can anybody tell me how a college is complying with Title IX - which is supposedly about the constitutional rights of American women - if it gives athletic scholarships to foreign women? Presumably, there weren't any qualified American women - so why not give those scholarships to American men? They're paying for the women's scholarships as it is. *********** Mark this on your calendar: June 28-29, in San Francisco - Pride 2003, wrapping up a month of "gay pride" activities. There will be performances by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and a Pride Parade, but I'm mainly interested in the "international gay rugby tournament." (Those who might remember my notice about the Australian rugby league player who was banned from the game - and why he was banned - will understand my keen interest.) *********** "A few years ago, fourteen students at an affluent public high school were involved in a school break-in. They weren't vandals and they weren't trying to steal anything; their goal was to alter computer records of their academic transcripts so they would have a better chance of getting into premier colleges. Some people were horrified, others amused and still others were willing to treat the matter as a minor youthful indiscretion. "The superintendent fell into the last category. "It's a one-time infraction of the rules," he said and he imposed a five-day suspension. Corrected transcripts were sent to the colleges involved, but the schools were not told about the burglary or falsification of records. The reason? According to the superintendent, "The students were under a lot of pressure" and they made a "mistake," but, he said, "We think they learned their lesson and we don't want to ruin their lives." "The students learned a lesson all right. They learned that there is very little downside to doing whatever it takes to get what you want, even if it involves committing a felony. They learned that even if you get caught, you probably won't suffer serious consequences. Come on! Suspending high school seniors for a week is more like a vacation than a punishment. "I think this sort of excessive leniency sends a terrible message to kids about right and wrong. I think the superintendent trivialized the act by calling it a "mistake." But hold on! A mathematical error is a mistake. Forgetting someone's birthday is a mistake. Even getting into a bad relationship is a mistake. Breaking into a locked office to alter documents is not a mistake. It's a premeditated act of dishonesty and should be treated as such. If that means the students will suffer long-term impact, so be it. That is what justice requires and what responsibility is about." Michael Josephson - Character Counts *********** Oregon, like many other feel-good states, likes to look down on states that fry murderers. Oregon , you see, is a kinder, gentler state. Oregon takes a kinder, gentler approach to criminals. Oregon, like the liberals that dominate its politics, believes that with a little love and self-esteem, all criminals are capable of being turned into useful, caring and productive citizens. So Oregon winds up turning monsters loose on parole, leaving them free to prowl its streets on the condition that they'll attend "treatment programs." This is the kind of "treatment" they get... One guy, paroled in 1996 and ordered to attend a sex-offender "treatment program" after serving time for the attempted kidnappings of girls in 1989, was given an assignment - to keep a notebook of his fantasies. According to the Portland Oregonian, this guy wrote about driving around schools and parks, looking for victims. There, he'd be more likely to find younger girls, the kind who'd be "more afraid, less defiant and unlikely to report the crimes," according to the testimony of a Portland police detective. In the guy's own words, "I chose my victims by their age, 'cause I didn't think anything would even get reported. I felt I had complete control, and that's what was lacking in my life.... At that time, I didn't care who I was hurting, as long as I felt better." Now, I'm guessing that nobody bothered to check this sicko's assignments, because you would think any person of normal intelligence who read that stuff would be right on the phone to the parole people, saying, "this guy needs to be locked up. Fast." But no.... and so in December, 2001, a 14-year-old Portland girl's body was found. She'd been raped and murdered, not far from her home in a nice, middle-class neighborhood. Our guy was asked to provide a sample of his DNA, but he told his parole officer that he'd just been to the dentist, and his mouth was so swollen he couldn't use the oral swab to get the sample. The f--king fool accepted the guy's story. Four months later, the guy broke into the home of his girlfriend's cousin and raped her. But she spoiled his plans. She called 9-1-1 and identified him. Dum-te-dum-dum. This time, they got a DNA sample. It linked the guy to the rape of his girlfriend's cousin, to the December, 2001 rape-killing of the 14-year-old, and to three other rapes dating back to 1997. Clearly, the guy needs more treatment. This time, I'd like to administer it. Scalpel, please. *********** General Jim Shelton, Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions is shown below at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, home of the Black Lions, addressing the leadership cadre. General Shelton was a starting guard at Delaware (wing-T!) and he saw considerable combat in Vietnam. Among his many activities since retirement, General Shelton spent years writing a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which 58 Americans died - nearly half the total killed in the entire War with Iraq. Major Don Holleder was along with them.   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 16, 2003 - "In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: good will." Winston Churchill     2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)      THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD THIS SATURDAY MAY 17 - 9 AM to 4 PM AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205 (Take I-5 to the Louise exit. Exit Louise and go to Harlan. Make a right on Harlan and this will take you to ITT which will be on the left hand side of the road. You have to go into the parking lot of ITT and enter from the south side.) BECAUSE OF THE LATE SCHEDULING OF THE CLINIC, COACHES CAN WALK-UP AND STILL PAY THE PRE-REGISTRATION FEE OF $75 AT THE DOOR   A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Burl Toler may be the best player you never heard of, on the best team you never heard of. He was a native of Tennessee, and played junior college football at City College of San Francisco, where he was a JC All-American. His college team, the University of San Francisco, took on all comers - anyone who would play them - and finished their 1951 season unbeaten. But at the end of the season, back in the days when there were only a handful of bowl games, there was no bowl invitation for them. (Maybe we should blame the school's publicity director, a young fellow names Pete Rozelle.) Yes, the Dons' schedule was somewhat light, and yes, they were so hard-up for games that they even had to play San Jose State twice, but that was because the schools in the PCC (Pacific Coast Conference, forerunner of the Pac-10) knew how loaded the Dons were, and refused to play them. There were numerous reasons why the Dons might have been passed over, and it has become fashionable now for liberal whites to attribute the bowl snub to racism - to claim that the Dons were overlooked by the Dixie-based bowls because of their two black players - - he and teammate Ollie Matson. But at the time, the issue was not so clear-cut - one of the teams selected ahead of USF was College of the Pacific, whom the Dons had beaten, 47-14. Pacific's star running back, Eddie Macon, was a black man. Eleven of Burl Toler's teammates would go on to play in the NFL, and three of them - Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti and Bob St. Clair - are now members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But despite the fact that his teammates agreed that he was the best player on the team, despite an outstanding college career as an offensive tackle, despite being the linebacker the Dons' defense was built around, Burl Toler never got to play a down of pro football. He was injured severely in the 1952 College All Star Game and his career as a player was over. He turned to a career in education, becoming the first black secondary school principal in San Francisco. And he managed to remain active in football as an official; in 1965, Burl Toler became the first black man to officiate an NFL game, and he served the league as an official through the 1989 season. During his NFL career, he officiated in three Super Bowls. Following his retirement as an active official, he continued to work with the NFL as a game observer. His son and namesake, Burl Toler, played football for Cal, and his grandson, also Burl Toler, has been enjoying a good career there, too. In 2002, a San Francisco middle school was renamed in his honor.     Correctly identifying Burl Toler - Alan Goodwin- Warwick, Rhode Island... Jon McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... Bill Nelson- West Burlington, Iowa... Joe Gutilla- Minneapolis ( "According to many old Dons he was considered the BEST all-around player on that USF team. As you know even though two-platoon football was just getting its start around that time, many schools still had their players play two-ways. USF was one of those schools, and Burl Toler was possibly the best at it. Ollie Matson was sweet as honey, but Toler was the money.")... Akis Kourtzidis- Brea, California... Steve Staker - Fredericksburg, Iowa... Joe Daniels- Sacramento... MIke Foristiere- Boise, Idaho...   Thanks to Joe Daniels, of Sacramento, for providing me with further information about Mr. Toler: "He has received numerous awards. Among the: The Isaac Hayes Achievement in Sports Award; Spirit of Kezar Stadium; Hall of Fame, City College of San Francisco; University of San Francisco Alumnus of the Year; President's Award, Saint Ignatius College Preparatory, San Francisco; , Burl A. Toler, Sr. Scholarship, endowed by a private donor for an African American student chosen annually to attend St. Ignatius College Preparatory, now in its sixth year. He serves as a mentor to the selected students. He is a member of the National Football League Professional Referees Association. Mr. Toler resides in San Francisco and is a motivational speaker and enjoys watching his grandson play football for the University of California, Berkeley."   *********** So now that the ACC has voted to admit Miami, will the Big East just roll over and die? I think not. Look for the Big East, doomed if Miami pulls out (and takes a couple of powerful teams with it) to make Miami an offer it can't refuse. (1) Against Virginia Tech, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College and West Viginia, Miami will play two games at home for every one it plays away; (2 Miami will have right of first refusal on any Florida athlete being recruited by another Big East school; (3) The Conference football championship and basketball tournaments will both be held in Miami every year, with 50 per cent of all revenues to go to Miami; (4 Miami will be spotted 10 points in every conference game; (4) The Conference will split into northern and southern divisions, whose winners will meet in the Big East championship game for the conference's BCS slot. The southern division will consist of Miami, Rutgers and Temple; ************** Jesse Jackson just had to go and stick his nose into the University of Alabama's business, demanding an investigation of its recent hiring of David Shula, a white man, rather than Sylvester Croom, a black man. Now, I know a hell of a lot more football than the Reverend Jackson (regardless of the fact that he did play at North Carolina A & T) but I wouldn't presume to say who, between David Shula and Sylvester Croom, was more qualified to coach the Tide. And I seriously doubt that Bama's decision was race-based. The Reverend Jackson wearily insists on applying the racial test to every situation - if a black man is convicted of a crime, it's because of a racist society; if he goes free, the system works. Guilt or innocence has nothing to do with it. So now that Alabama has hired a white man over a black man, why, it's got to be racism. C'mon Jess, get over it. Surely there's a nice-looking young widow out there who's just been evicted and needs a little, uh, "comforting," if you know what I mean. (Nudge, nudge.) And next time, before you go off against Alabama, do your homework - you'll find that, for better of worse, there's only one thing that matters in Alabama - and it's not racism and neither, despite what's been in the papers lately, is it the coaches' personal conduct. It is WINNING. If Mike Price had gone 13-0 at Alabama last season, he'd still be their coach. Alabama people would have hired Sylvester Croom in a minute if they could be sure that he had a better chance of delivering a national title than Mike Shula. I really believe that. Alabama 's people demand a winner, and it's all they'll settle for, Jesse Jackson or no Jesse Jackson. Bear Bryant flew in the face of racism when he recruited Wilbur Jackson, his first black player, because he knew that without black players Alabama could not continue to win. And you know what? He was right, and Alabama fans, who even in those long-gone days of white supremacy still put winning first, never flagged in their support of the Tide and the Bear. I would like very much to see more Tyrone Willinghams, more Herman Edwardses, more Tony Dungeys in coaching. I think they are class men who add a lot to the game. But Jesse Jackson isn't going to have a damn thing to do with whether or not there are more men like them hired as head coaches. Frankly, if I were a qualified black coach (as Sylvester Croom must be, or he wouldn't have been a finalist for the Bama job) I'd call Reverend Jackson and tell him to butt out - I wouldn't want people getting the idea that if they get me, he comes along as part of the deal. I'm not sure even Alabama wants to win so bad they'd be willing to put up with Jesse. *********** Not that it would have helped, since most contracts now contain "for cause" clauses, but can you believe that Mike Price went ahead and coached as long as he did - in hostile country - without a contract? Talk about unprotected sex. Nowadays, even free agents have agents. So where the hell was his? At the very least, though, despite Alabama president Witt's declaration that Price will receive no severance pay, Alabama owes him something for recruiting and spring practice. Without either one, the program would be immeasurably poorer right now - a point I'm sure Coach Price's lawyer will be able to establish. *********** Boy, we may be able to kick ass militarily, but internally, our country is one sick pup. Take this latest law. Please. I'm talking about the latest one, the one that prevents the hospital from telling you that your best buddy, who was rushed there last night, is either (a) dying; (b) in satisfactory condition; or (c) at home watching TV and drinking beer and eating Cheetos. This one must have slipped through Congress back when our congressmen were busy embarrassing themselves and our country defending the Man From Hope. How else to explain this kind of insanity--- A woman called our home Wednesday and asked to speak to "Constance." (That's my wife's given name, but since everyone we know knows her as "Connie," a phone call for "Constance" alerts me immediately to a call from a phone solicitor.) She wasn't there, but I asked, teasingly, "How wants to speak to 'Constance?'" The caller identified herself as "Karen," and said she needed to change an appointment that Constance had made for sometime in August. "Appointment?" I thought. "Karen?" "Uh, who are you, Karen, and who's this appointment with?" I asked. "I'm sorry," she said, sounding like a recording. "Federal regulations don't permit me to give out that information." *********** It was no worse than Delta Air Lines learning that one of its pilots liked to have a couple of drinks before flying - and doing nothing about it. It was no worse than McDonald's learning that one of its managers was okaying the use of rotten ingredients - and doing nothing about it. It was no worse than Wells Fargo learning that one of its branch managers was deliberately passing counterfeit twenties to customers - and doing nothing about it. But it was just as bad, when the New York Times - which haughtily sets itself up as the standard of journalism (while pushing the left-wing liberal line) - revealed that one of its reporters had falsified stories, made up quotes, shamelessly lifted material from other newspapers, and claimed to be reporting from such locations as West Virginia (he totally faked the view from Jessica Lynch's front porch) and Montgomery County, Maryland while actually never getting farther from New York than Brooklyn. He begged off an assignment to help write the capsule biographies of the people killed in the World Trade Center attack, falsely claiming that he had lost a relative there and just couldn't deal with writing about it. And here's the thing - the guy did it over and over and over. And the people at The Times knew it. Coworkers and editors told upper management about it, and essentially nothing was done. The guy was given second chances and new assignments, and the new people he was assigned to were never told that he had, uh, credibility problems, and that he needed to be watched closely. This at a place that has nothing to sell except credibility. This is the same New York Times that - rightly - rips government agencies for coverups, and - rightly - got all over Enron because it didn't pay attention to whistle-blowers inside the company - people who kept saying that something rotten was going on. And The Times itself turns out to be rotten to the core. In essence, it has been a willing party to fraud. *********** There is an underlying issue in the Times case that I don't choose to spend a lot of time on. The reporter is black, and on the face of things, he was awfully young to be covering national stories for the most prestigious paper in the United States (he is now 27 and he's been with the Times for about 5 years), so perhaps he was a "diversity" hire, and perhaps he was given special treatment, with second chance after second chance. But I think the problem is more a matter of the guy's age, and the idea, among young reporters especially, that the goal of journalism is not so much accuracy or thoroughness as it is to land the big story - which leads to a book, which leads to a movie, etc. - even if it means things have to be trumped up. Albert R. Hunt, writing in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, told how youong journalists once learned the trade. In his early days in the newspaper business, nearly 40 years ago , he worked as an intern at the now-dead Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. The first story he was assigned was an obituary, which, as Mr. Hunt recalled, he thought "a little beneath my dignity." In assigning him the story, the city editor, a man named Earl Selby, warned him of the importance of accuracy. Only a handful of people would read the story, he said, but their impression of the paper "would forever be stained" if there were a date wrong or a name of a relative misspelled. The editor's words, which obviously have stayed with Mr. Hunt all these years, were, "You should hate making a mistake!" *********** A welcome to the world to Hailee Rae Knight, born May 10 in Cherokee, Iowa to Brad and Kala Knight. Brad is the head coach at Galva-Holstein High in Iowa, and Kala is a coach's wife who, Brad tells me, knows everybody's assignments on the base plays. Hailee is brad and Kala's first. Grand-dad Chuck Knight is a former coach. *********** "I also read about East Tennessee State's decision to drop football. Add another school to my "gutless" list which includes: University of Pacific, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Hayward, Chico State, Sonoma State, San Francisco State, Santa Clara, Oregon Tech, Swarthmore, Canisius, New Jersey State, UMass-Boston, and a host of others not worth mentioning." Joe Gutilla, Minneapolis *********** Just in case you thought I'd given up, I haven't... I'm still hoping to find one - just one - soldier who fought in Iraq for peace protestors' right to protest. *********** Mariah Blackwell, from Hockinson, Washington, helped her soccer team, the Stingers, to a 9-0 record last fall, and now she is one of the girls from the state of Washington selected to represent the USA this summer in the Haarlem Cup, in Holland. Her family is hustling to raise the $3,000 needed to send her. Did I mention that she is 10 years old? (1) When will people catch on to the "gret honor to be chosen to represent your country" scam, which is basically a glorified tour package? (2) What if this kid turns out to be really good someday? What's she got to look forward to down the line? A trip to Holland? *********** Bruce Mastracchio, now coaching in Las Vegas but formerly head coach of Cranston West High in Cranston, Rhode Island, wrote with a minor correction: "I  ran  the  Double  Wing  at  CWHS ( not  exclusively  but  a lot)  over  5  years  ago  in  '97 , '98  so  Spaz  (Coach Steve Spaziano, new head coach at Ponoganset High in North Scituate, RI) won't  be  the  first. Maybe  the  first  from  your  clinic  BUT  I  ran  it  from your  videos. Anyway   glad  you  had  a  great trip  to  RI   *********** I'm not sure I understand... The NRA is all pushed out of shape over President Bush's support for extending a 1994 law banning the sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons that's due to expire next year. "This is a president who has been so good on the Second Amendment that it's just unbelievable to gun owners that he would really sign the ban," said Grover G. Norquist, a leading conservative and an N.R.A. board member. Now, I own guns and I like to shoot them. But I don't consider myself a gun nut, and I'm not sure why anyone needs an AK-47 (unless perhaps it's to defend himself against another nut who already has one). But get real, NRA - if not George W. Bush, who the hell are you going to support - John Kerry? Joe Lieberman? Howard Dean? Dick Gephart? Hillary Clinton? *********** We had our first registration, and during the sign ups, one of our 'shy' 7 year olds came up. So I grabbed a K2 and instructed him on how to long snap using the end over end concept. He did a total of 20 snaps, only the first two would be considered bad. I had him snap it as far as 10 yards and he was very accurate. One of my players, was there as well, he was my Right Guard for the past two season, tried it as well - and could snap it consistently for 15 yards. I see a lot of potential with this snap...just wanted to pass it on to you. The Gun Offense will be used this season often and early. (My friend that attended the Clinic Brian Mackell, had his girlfriend making snaps as far as 10 yards error free!) Jason Clarke, Millersville, Maryland  *********** Hugh, I like the article by Dr. Ridgley so much I had it copied and e-mailed to all our faculty ( proper credit given of-course). It is probably the best thing I have read in a long while. Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine *********** Coach, I just received an email from my friend Terry Henderson, head coach at Ellicott High School. He said that Lt. Col. Clark Welch presented their Black Lion Award last night. It sounds as though it was a great occasion. I asked him to email you with some details. Greg Koenig, Las Animas, Colorado (I trust Coach Henderson knew that only a week ago, Clark Welch was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross - second only in importance to the Medal of Honor - in a huge ceremony at the Pentagon. General Shelton maintains that the only reason LTC Welch didn't receive the MOH is because all the witnesses were killed, and he has made it his life's mission to help LTC Welch receive it. HW) *********** Not saying that travel to France is down or anything, but United this week offered a special Chicago-Paris round-trip fare of $399. It costs me more than that to fly to Philiadelphia. Of course, it's worth the difference. When I land in Philadelphia, I'm among friends. Pretty much. The natives sit in their "tappies" (tap rooms) and talk about football (Iggles football). And where the hell in Paris are you going to find hoagies, cheesesteaks, Tastykakes, scrapple, soft pretzels, crisp thin pretzels, fried-in-lard potato chips and real, honest-to-God cinnamon buns?   *********** If anyone knows of a good football man looking for a coaching job, please put me in contact with him ASAP. I am losing both of my paid assistants, and I really need some help. I think we will have a PE position available. Thanks for any help you can give me. Greg Koenig, Las Animas HS, Las Animas, Colorado (E-mail me if you're interested and I'll forward your name and address to Coach Koenig. HW) *********** How much are the kid shields again? I'm going to purchase two more by next month. Thanks, Jeff Osborn, Columbus, Ohio Coach- In quantities of 1-4 they are $45 each, including shipping. In quantities of 5 or more they are $40 each, including shipping. *********** A friend of mine in an eastern state wrote to tell me that a rival coach had told one of my friend's assistants, "you guys handcuffed your kids by running that offense." He was talking, of course, about the Double-Wing. What an ass. How does he know what kind of talent my friend had? (Final score was 23-20) *********** Will the Double-Wing Offense work well with the Fly Offense? This will be my fourth year coaching, my first year coaching 11-12 year olds. This squad has never had a winning season. NAME WITHHELD Coach, I think, especially with kids that age and the limited practice time, that you need to commit to one offense or the other. A major problem, I believe, is too much offense and not enough time to practice it. HW *********** Coach, CNN Headline News (the trash network's snotty little brother) had a blurb about the Illinois high school cheerleader hazing, showing the video while saying that 30 some students were suspended. So on the left side, above the text "high school hazing horror," did they have a megaphone or a pom pon? No. They had a football. I listened to hear if football players were involved in the "pelting with rocks." No - just 'girls were beaten by other girls.' Is this the only graphic they could come up with or is CNN just totally ignorant? Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Even though football players weren't involved, everybody knows that they're brutal oafs, and only the fact that they weren't female prevented them from joining in the melee. HW) *********** Patricia Wirth dropped out of high school at 17. "I didn't value education," she told the Vancouver , Washington Columbian. "I came from a farm family, and I thought all I had to do was work hard and I'd be a success." She married at 18, and at 24 was working in a Vancouver, Washington bag factory - working hard - when she decided some other line of work might be a lot easier in the long run. So she set out to earn her GED, while continuing to work. It took her six years of night school to get it, but by then she had herself an office job as a bookkeeper. Next, she decided to get a two-year degree from a local junior college, Clark Community College. She was 38 years old when she got it, and she took a job as bookkeeper at the junior college. Picking up momentum, she transferred to Portland State University, where she got her bachelor's degree at age 43, and her master's degree at 45. In 1978, at the age of 48, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Idaho. In the meantime, she had begun teaching, and after a variety of teaching and administrative positions at Portland area junior colleges, in 1981, 35 years after dropping out of high school, she was named vice-president of Clark. In 1984, she was named president of Yuba Community College, a posiiton she held until her retirement in 1994. She has recently been recognized as one of Clark's oustanding alumni. Obviously, it wasn't an easy road, and, she recalled in an interview in the Columbian, she didn't get a whole lot of encouragement along the way. She remembered talking with the counselor at Clark, shortly after she'd gotten her GED. When she told of her plans to get a two-year degree, the counselor asked her, "Do you know how old you will be when you finish?" She responded, "I'll be that old anyway." *********** Joel E. Smilow of the Class of 1954 has donated enough money to Yale University to endow - provide permanent funding for - the salaries of the head coaches of men's and women's basketball and women's lacrosse teams. A long-time supporter of Yale athletics, Mr. Smilow, former chairman, CEO and president of Playtex Products Inc., endowed the head football coach position in 1988, and in 1992 he was the lead donor for the renovation of the Yale Bowl field house, since named the Joel E. Smilow Field Center. As an undergraduate, Mr. Smilow participated in crew and tennis, and was sports director for WYBC, the campus radio station. *********** Coach Wyatt, A friend of mine and I were discussing if a highlight tape would be more exciting if filmed from ground level on the sideline or up high from thepress box.  Do you have any thoughts on this.  Thanks Bryan Oney, North Fairfield, Ohio (If it's purely meant to be "highlights" and not for analysis, it is still best if you can show the plays from up above, but cut liberally to sideline shots. HW)     THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 - 9 AM to 4 PM AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP (LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205) Take I-5 to the Louise exit. Exit Louise and go to Harlan. Make a right on Harlan and this will take you to ITT which will be on the left hand side of the road. You have to go into the parking lot of ITT and enter from the south side. BECAUSE OF THE LATE SCHEDULING OF THE CLINIC, COACHES CAN WALK-UP AND PAY THE PRE-REGISTRATION FEE OF $75 AT THE DOOR   *********** General Jim Shelton, Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions is shown below at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, home of the Black Lions, addressing the leadership cadre. General Shelton was a starting guard at Delaware (wing-T!) and he saw considerable combat in Vietnam. Among his many activities since retirement, General Shelton spent years writing a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which 58 Americans died - nearly half the total killed in the entire War with Iraq. Major Don Holleder was along with them.   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 13, 2003 - "Chance favors the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur, father of microbiology     2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)      THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD THIS SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205) BECAUSE OF THE LATE SCHEDULING OF THE CLINIC, COACHES CAN WALK-UP AND PAY THE PRE-REGISTRATION FEE OF $75 AT THE DOOR   A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: He was the best player you never heard of, on the best team you never heard of. He was a native of Tennessee, and played junior college football at City College of San Francisco, where he was a JC All-American. His college team, the University of San Francisco, took on all comers - anyone who would play them - and finished their 1951 season unbeaten. But at the end of the season, back in the day when there were only a handful of bowl games, there was no bowl invitation for them. Yes, the Dons' schedule was somewhat light, and yes, they even had to play San Jose State twice, but that was because the schools in the PCC (Pacific Coast Conference, forerunner of the Pac-10) knew how loaded the Dons were, and refused to play them. There were numerous reasons why the Dons might have been overlooked, and it has become fashionable now for liberal whites to attribute the bowl snub to racism - to claim that the Dons were overlooked by the Dixie-based bowls because of their two black players - - he and teammate Ollie Matson. But at the time, the issue was not so clear-cut - one of the teams selected ahead of USF was College of the Pacific, whom the Dons had beaten, 47-14. Pacific's star running back, Eddie Macon, was a black man. Eight of his teammates would go on to play in the NFL, and three of them are now members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But despite the fact that his teammates agreed that he was the best player on the team, despite an outstanding college career as an offensive tackle, despite being the linebacker the Dons' defense was built around, he never got to play a down of pro football. He was injured severely in the 1952 College All Star Game and his career as a player was over. He turned to a career in education, becoming the first black secondary school principal in San Francisco. And he managed to remain active in football as an official; in 1965, he became the first black man to officiate an NFL game, and he served the league as an official through the 1989 season. During his NFL career, he officiated in three Super Bowls. Following his retirement as an active official, he continued to work with the NFL as a game observer. His son and namesake played football for Cal, and his grandson, also a namesake, has been enjoying a good career there, too. In 2002, a San Francisco middle school was renamed in his honor. *********** It is sad - not to mention scary - when a 23-year-old man, healthy enough to have taken part in a professional football team's mini-camp, dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a mysterious illness. There is still no explanation for the death Sunday of Cowboys' running back Ennis Haywood, a rookie from Iowa State, one day after falling ill and being placed on life support. How sad for those who knew and loved him. *********** New Jersey Nets' coach Byron Scott took aim at an entire city last week, informing a New York radio audience that Boston was unwelcoming to minorities, calling Boston fans "cruel" (c'mon Byron - you've been to Philly) and implying that they're racist. Not so fast, said legendary Red Auerbach, coach of the Boston Celtics during their dynasty years, after learning of Scott's remarks. Said Auerbach, who as coach put the first all-black team on the court - in Boston - and as general manager hired the NBA's first black coach - in Boston - "What the hell does he know? It's just a stupid remark. It's as simple as that." *********** Sam Lacy died Thursday in Baltimore. He was 99. Mr. Lacy had been sports editor of the weekly Baltimore Afro-American since 1944. It is important that we note his passing, because it is impossible to overstate the importance of his role in the rise to prominence of the black athlete. For years, he hammered away, keeping the heat on major league baseball to integrate its game, and he, along with Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier, is credited with persuading the Brooklyn Dodgers' Branch Rickey to sign Jackie Robinson. As a resident of Baltimore during the days when its sports teams were just about the only things in town that were integrated, I can attest to the invaluable role that Mr. Lacy played as a spokesman for the black community, and as a bridge between blacks and whites. It seems a shame that we direct so much admiration to one great individual, Dr. Martin Luther King, when in reality Dr. King should represent the hundreds - maybe thousands - of people like Sam Lacy, each of them laboring in their own way, in their own community, in the struggle to attain equality. Find out more about Sam Lacy on the Afro-American's site - http://www.afro.com/history/Robinson/sam.html *********** Amid all the breathless talk about whether soccer - men's or women's - will ever appeal to large numbers of American sports fans, it's important to understand how far they have to go - how big a lead football has. The photos below are 100 years old, give or take a year or two. They were used in Fielding Yost's book, "Football for Player and Spectator," published in 1905. They show, as only photos can, that football - American football - was already BIG, and its appeal was nationwide. It is, so to speak, "embedded" in our culture in a way that soccer can never be. And even then, the "demo's" - the demographics of the football audience - were the sort that modern-day marketers would die for - spectators were generally well-off, and many of them were college-educated (at a time when a college education was a rarity). The photo at upper left is Minnesota against Wisconsin, at Wisconsin's Randall Field; at right, Michigan is playing at Minnesota Left, Harvard Stadium, first modern stadium and still in use, jam-packed for a Harvard-Yale game; at right, the University of Michigan's stadium, before the construction of the Big House Left, Harvard is playing at Pennsylvania. (Note the way the field was divided into 5-yard squares - before a runner started upfield, he first had to cross one of the side stripes.) Right, Army (on the left) is driving against Navy. In all likelihood, the game was played at Philadelphia's Franklin Field. Even then, crowds of 25,000 were routine for an Army-Navy game.. At left, Penn is playing at Harvard. At right, Stanford is playing Cal in San Francisco. ************ Next time somebody tries to sell you on the idea that police ("first responders") rank right up there with the military on the bravery scale, mention the Washington State Patrol. Evidently all the state's criminals are safely behind bars and all its drivers sober and driving the required number of car lengths behind the car in front of them, so WSP officers are now able to direct their undivided attention to the public menace of drivers who aren't wearing seat belts. For their efforts, the state police are being rewarded with generous amounts of overtime - paid for with your taxes, through something called the Traffic Safety Commission or some damn thing - if they meet their quota of tickets (3 a day) for drivers not wearing seat belts (cost per ticket= $86). The last time out, they got replica state police cruisers for meeting their quotas. ("Daddy, tell me again about the time you won the miniature car for ticketing all those bad people who weren't wearing seat belts.") It's all part of a federally (that means "taxpayer") funded campaign to save lives. Yeah, save lives. And also stuff money in the pockets of TV station owners, who'll donate generously to Congressmen in gratitude. Last year, Congress set aside $25 million for broadcast advertising, all to remind you to buckle up ("Click it or Ticket!"). Yeah, sure - it's a safety issue. It's for your own good. It costs the taxpayers money if you get hurt. Blah, blah, blah. So how do you account for the fact that people are still dying of AIDS, at great expense to the taxpayers (and health insurers) and nothing is said or done about the reason why? *********** Atlanta's Morris Brown College, its students no longer able to receive federal grants or federally-guaranteed student loans as a result of its loss of accreditation, moved one step closer to going under with the announcement that it was discontinuing all intercollegiate sports. *********** East Tennessee State, a member of the Southern Conference (Division I-AA), announced Thursday that it was dropping football, effective immediately. (Do you realize how much easier it is to comply with Title IX if you drop football and all those men's spots? Elimination of football - or at least severe cutbacks in football programs - are a major goal of the sports feminists.) *********** The ACC is holding its spring meeting in Florida right now, and the hottest topic on the agenda will almost certainly be expansion. Expansion talk started not long ago when Miami's AD announced that he'd been talking with the ACC about the possibility of joining it. That would bring the ACC membership to ten. The ACC has added only two members in the last 50 years - Georgia Tech in 1978 and Florida State in 1991. But there's more - if Miami were to leave the Big East to join the ACC, the Big East would lose quite a bit of its lustre - and quite a bit of its appeal to the BCS folks - causing other Big East members to consider desertion. Two of those, Boston College and Syracuse, have already been mentioned as possibilities. (Other viable Big East football powers Pitt, Virginia Tech and West Virginia have not been mentioned in most newspaper stories, although presumably they would not remain for long in a Big East reduced in size and strength.) What's in it for the ACC? MONEY. Miami's addition gives the ACC a legitimate claim to BCS status. And the addition of three new teams would bring it to 12 members, the number required by the NCAA for it to conduct a post-season conference championship game. Estimates of the amount of extra money such a game would produce for the ACC range from $6 to $10 million. Of course, a 12-team conference will result in another of those horrible breakups such as the ones that put Alabama in the SEC West and Tennessee in the SEC East, Nebraska in the Big 12 North and Oklahoma in the Big 12 South. And talk about a geographic problem in the ACC - the Carolina schools (Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest), long the heart and soul of the conference, would be split asunder. Figure it out: to the south, there would be Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson. To the north, there would be Boston College, Syracuse, Maryland and Virginia. To divide the conference geographically, then, two of the Carolina schools have to go one way, and two the other. Ah, what the hell. It's only tradition. Look at all the money to be made. *********** Hello Coach: I enjoyed the clinic very much and found the intimate setting great. It was even better having a couple with you and Donnie Hayes afterwards. Michigan has about 11 national football championships, around ten from before 1950 that just about everyone says don't count because of that very reason, before football was really competitive, or whatever. Are those the same people that are going to say the same thing about the 1980's Miami teams, or the 90's Nebraska teams in 50 years? Probably. But they shouldn't, because for their eras they were the best. Also, being a c-span junkie like I am (I watch it even at work!) I wrote the great orator last year and he has over 110 monuments, according to a staffer; college buildings, satellite dish stations, microwaves, monuments, a huge highway that is rarely used, etc... named after him. "The senator considers it an honor that the people of West Virginia feel that naming these things after Senator Byrd is the way they say thanks." Hands held out, palms up no doubt. Byrd is the biggest spender year after year while all the other senators line up to stroke him not wanting to offend the 55 year politician, except for John McCain, who calls him out in front of the senate every few months. Is it a coincidence that W.V. is one of the poorest states year after year? What's the incentive, Byrd will take care of everything. No one, ever, even in a political blowhard body like the senate, has ever loved to hear themselves talk, in front of cameras, more than Byrd! David Livingstone Troy, Michigan (I have to agree with Coach Livingstone's first premise - that the test of a team is whether it was the best of its particular era - because that's pretty much the story of Yale football! HW) *********** A moralist's way of looking at the Mike Price/Larry Eustachy issue: "Should they have been fired? I think so. In dealing with stocks it's said, 'A hold is a buy' -- meaning you shouldn't continue to own a stock unless you'd be willing to buy it at its current price. The same is true here. You shouldn't retain a coach if, knowing what you know now, you wouldn't hire him today." Michael Josephson, "Character Counts" *********** I took a look at a DVD that Coach Rick Davis, of Duxbury, Massachusetts handed me at the Providence clinic, and noticed from some of the graphics that he was using it in recruiting kids for next year. He wrote back, "Yes, it was a good recruiting tool. The kids loved it, the dads were amazed at how organized we looked, then the kids overwhelmed the moms begging her to let them sign up. I also ran a little clinic over school vacation in April and picked up about 5 kids. We have to compete with another youth football program in town (some mad dads started a Pop Warner team) so I have to use a bit of 'coach hustle' to recruit kids. The DVDs help out a lot." *********** I was still trying to figure out what the hell possessed Mike Price to do what he did when I came across an article in Friday's Wall Street Journal. It was about a new type of cigarette marketing, making use of employees called "leaners." Leaners are, in the Journal's words, "good-looking women" who frequent bars posing as patrons. There, they flirt with guys and - in New York or Los Angeles, at least, where you can't smoke in a bar - entice them to have a smoke, and offer to join them outside for one of the leaners' sponsor's cigarettes. After that, who knows? Of course! I thought. That's what happened! Why didn't it occur to me sooner? See, Coach Price was in Pensacola for a golf tournament, and he probably stopped in for a beer or two and ran into a few such "good-looking women," who, because he reads the Journal, he quickly sized up as leaners. Undoubtedly upset at seeing them jeopardizing their health and the health of others, not to mention concerned about their young children, he invited them up to his hotel room to learn about the Smoke-Away, all-natural, 7-day smoking cessation program. Knowing what a generous guy he is, he undoubtedly offered them financial incentives to quit, and demonstrated a strenuous exercize program (one that might appear to the untrained observer to be body contortions). Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried giving up smoking knows, there is often a dramatic increase in appetite, which explains why one of the young women ordered a large amount of food ($1,000 worth) from room service and charged it to his card *********** A friend of mine had a great principal whom she and the rest of the staff loved dearly. He pretty much trusted them to do their jobs, and they were professional enough to appreciate his style and not let him down. But then he retired, and a new principal with a need to control - to put his stamp on everything - came in and began to micromanage. And things went all to hell. Managers stepping into a new situation ought to think twice before changing the culture they're stepping into, because unless there is a need for a change, it might be a whole lot more prudent for them to adapt to the culture. In Roger Kahn's new book, "October Men," about the 1978 New York Yankees, he tells of Bob Lemon, fired as manager by the White Sox in June and then hired by the Yankees in July, after Billy Martin's drinking cost him his job. and his first speech to his new team. Management types and coaches alike would do well to read Lemon's first speech to his new team, and commit it to memory: "If I read the papers right, you fellas won the World Series last year. Do I have that straight?" (Several answers in the affirmative.) "Well, I guess you know how to play baseball. I'll try to stay out of your way." (The Yankees repeated as world champions.) ************ Don't know if you've been paying much attention to Dennis Miller since the war on Iraq broke out, but he's been one entertainer who's been foursquare behind the President and the war effort, and he's ripped a few of his fellow entertainers for their unpatriotic comments. In fact, I've enjoyed some of the things he's said so much that I'll bet if they were to bring him back on Monday Night Football, people would look at him in an entirely different light this time around. *********** It is said that 12,000 people in the US die every year of AIDS. It is also said that AIDS kills more people in two hours than SARS has killed altogether. Yet despite all the money being spent on AIDS education and prevention, the number of new HIV infections in the US is holding steady at 40,000 every year (which would seem to indicate that many people's priorities are, uh, "skewed.") The Bush administration is getting pressure from AIDS activists to take strong action, involving what they call "community outreach," but is understandably reluctant to use taxpayers' money to fund programs involving "'great sex' workshops, pointers on where to have anonymous sex in public places, masturbation instructions, 'fisting' forums and tips on how to negotiate sex with prostitutes." Evidently, the problem is that many "at-risk" men just won't attend "safe sex" meetings, so they have to be lured to "picnics" and "sex workshops." But sadly, writes Nicholas Kristoff in the New York Times, "most Americans are unlikely to regard tax dollars as well spent when used to finance gay sex workshops." (No sh--, Sherlock.) Nevertheless, says Mr. Kristoff, President Bush is going to have to deal frankly with the American people, and convince them of the need for such "community outreach" programs, even if "some Americans get the willies when they see terms like 'anal sex.'" Count me among them. Somehow, I don't think an American public that gets "the willies" at the thought of "domestic partnership" has any idea that it may entail "anal sex." George Bush is going to have to "deal frankly" with us, Mr. Kristoff? Do you mean by talking to us about "anal sex?" I don't think so. Didn't we just get rid of the creep who introduced the term "oral sex" to an American public that didn't particularly want to hear about it?       THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP (LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205) BECAUSE OF THE LATE SCHEDULING OF THE CLINIC, COACHES CAN WALK-UP AND PAY THE PRE-REGISTRATION FEE OF $75 AT THE DOOR   *********** General Jim Shelton, Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions is shown below at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, home of the Black Lions, addressing the leadership cadre. General Shelton was a starting guard at Delaware (wing-T!) and he saw considerable combat in Vietnam. Among his many activities since retirement, General Shelton spent years writing a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which 58 Americans died - nearly half the total killed in the entire War with Iraq. Major Don Holleder was along with them.   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 9, 2003 - "You don't wait till you're in trouble to find your faith. You find your faith now, and then it helps you when you're in trouble." Gracia Burnham, missionary, who along with her husband was kidnapped in the Philippines by Islamic terrorists and held for more than a year. Her husband was killed in the rescue effort, leaving her to raise their two children.     2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)      THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205) BECAUSE OF THE LATE SCHEDULING OF THE CLINIC, COACHES CAN WALK-UP AND PAY THE PRE-REGISTRATION FEE OF $75 AT THE DOOR A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: The photo of Fielding Yost is from his book, "Football for Player and Spectator," published in 1905. He is one of the most famous of all coaches, certainly of the early coaches, and he deserves full credit for starting the great tradition of University of Michigan football. Coach Yost was a winner right from the start. His first team, in 1901, was undefeated, untied and unscored on, including a 49-0 win over Stanford in the first-ever Rose Bowl game, and in all, his teams played 56 straiight games without a lossw: in his first five years of coaching, his teams won 55, tied one and lost one (a 2-0 loss to Chicago in the final game of 1905). Not until his 13th game was Michigan even scored on, and not until his 30th game - a 6-6 tie with Minnesota - did the Blue fail to win. Fielding Yost's first five years at Michigan have been called the most successful in college history. The defensive statistics are staggering - 50 of the wins were shutouts, including a run of 12 straight; only Chicago scored more than six points in a game against the Wolverines (12 points, in a 22-12 loss). But his racehorse offensive style, and his constant exhortation if practice to "hurry, hurry, hurry!" earned him the nickname "Hurry-up" Yost, and his teams' offensive stats reflected his approach: his so-called "Point-a-Minute" teams averaged 49.5 points per game over five seasons. His championship teams inspired Michigan student Louis Elbel to compose "The Victors" ("Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the Champions of the West!") The 6-6 tie with Minnesota is noteworthy because of its legacy. The Gophers were good - they were 10-0 at the time - and a then-huge crowd of 20,000 showed up in Minneapolis to watch the clash. Suspicious of Minnesota chicanery, Coach Yost had arranged to have a manager buy a crockery jug and fill it with water. Michigan led only 6-0 late in the game, and when Minnesota tied the game with two minutes to play, the Minnesota fans went wild, and the game had to be called. In their haste to get off the field, Michigan left the water jug behind, and when the Yost wrote Minnesota to ask the return of the jug, he was told, "If you want it, you'll have to come up and win it." That he did, and thus was the origin of the Little Brown Jug, the oldest trophy in major college football, given annualy to the winner of the Minnesota-Michigan game. Fielding Yost was a native of West Virginia. He played college football at West Virginia for two years and at Lafayette for two years. After graduation, he coached at Ohio Wesleyan, Nebraska, Kansas and Stanford before being hired at Michigan. In his 25 years as football coach at Michigan (1901-23, 1925-26) his overall record was 165-29-10, and eight of his teams were unbeaten. In 1921 he was named athletic director, and in that capacity he oversaw the construction of Michigan Stadium - still the largest on-campus football stadium, and the ice hockey arena now named for him. Michigan Stadium - the "Big House" - cost $1 million to build (in 1927 dollars). He was so farsighted, he saw eventual expansion to 300,000. As it was, it was gigantic for its time - seating 84,000 - and realizing that it might take even more than football to fill such an enormous stadium, he is also responsible for the development of the Michigan band. To this day, many Michiganders still refer to the University as "Mee-shigan" without knowing where that started. It's not the result of a Midwestern accent. It derives from a long-time U-M football broadcaster who insisted on pronouncing it the same as the legendary Coach Yost, who never lost his West Virginia twang. Correctly identifying Fielding Yost: Joe Daniels- Sacramento... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... John Bothe- Oregon, Illinois... Tom Hinger- Auburndale, Florida... Mark Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... Mike Framke- Green Bay, Wisconsin... Jon McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois... Christopher Anderson- Cambridge, Massachusetts... Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, oregon ("Here is an amazing stat from the 1902 Rose Bowl; Michigan played 11 guys the entire game, NO SUBS!!!")... Akis Kourtzidis - Brea, California... Steve Staker- Fredericksburg, Iowa ("buried next to the Michigan campus where his tombstone reads 'I wish to rest where the spirit of Michigan is warmest.'")... John Muckian- Lynn, Massachusetts... Brian Rochon- North Farmington, Michigan... Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee (a Michigan State alum)... Mike O'Donnell- Pine City, Minnesota... Bill Nelson- West Burlington, Iowa... Keith Babb- Northbrook, Illinois... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky ( "I wish that I could see film of the point a minute team. That would be some interesting film.")... John Zeller- Sears, Michigan ("Being such a Michigan fan, I just had to find the time to get in on this one.")... PHOTOS FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF FIELDING YOST (PRE-1905) The Michigan team lines up in its "Tackle back" formation (the guy standing in the background is not part of the formation); This was before the rules mandated seven men on the line, and Yost has one of his tackles in the backfield as an extra blocker. (Notice that the QB is a few yards back from the center; it was not yet legal for the ball to be snapped up into his hands as is done nowadays. The exchange was somewhat similar to our "Wildcat" exchange.) Michigan football at the turn of the 20th Century wasn't totally backward; above, Michgan players prepare to hit their state-of-the-art blocking sled. *********** Patricia Ireland, former leader of the National Organization for Women (NOW), a radical feminist group, has been named head of the YWCA - that's Young Women's Christian Organization. She is an admitted bisexual - she has had a husband (male) and a lesbian "partner". She is pro-abortion and pro-homosexual, and she is listed as a member of the Board of Directors of GenderPac, a "transgender" organization that promotes sex change operations and cross-dressing for teenagers! It hardly seems likely that she will suppress her feelings within the YWCA. I watched this witch on the O'Reilly Factor this week, and had to laugh at the way she ducked and dodged, trying to evade O'Reilly's one simple question: "Are you a Christian?" Man. You think Clinton was an equivocator. That woman simply could not bring herself to answer, "Yes." So while various United Way chapters cut off the Boy Scouts because they are "exclusionary", you should know that they will continue to cheerfully forward your money to the Young Women's "Christian" Association. *********** Coach , I am dispirited over the Mike Price situation, I feel bad for the poor SOB, I hated to see him leave WAZZU, I always thought he was a great fit there, but I wanted him to do good at BAMA. I thought he earned it. My spin ( grassy knoll theory) on this is, When Price got hired I have a feeling a group of very powerful and influential Bama alums and Boosters were not happy with the selection, simply because he was not one of "them" i.e.:Bears' "boys", had no connection to BAMA or the SEC, or even the SWC or ACC, and was viewed as a complete "outsider"," a Yankee from the FAR WEST. Price might as well been from MARS, so they had a "hard on" for Price the second he came to Town, and were looking for any excuse to either give him a hard time or get rid of him. Unfortunately, Price gave them the "sword" to use against him. Look at the Trouble they gave Bill Curry , a son of the South, granted a former Ga.Tech and Bobby Dodd player (which the BAMA faithful could not stand), but also to Mike Dubose, one of their own. Footnote - The Clemson Player Woody Hayes slugged was Charlie Bauman, See ya Friday - John Muckian, Lynn, Massachusetts *********** Hugh, I was reading your news and of course Mike Price was as far as I got. Since I moved to the Northwest I have heard nothing more than what a stand up guy he is. Enough said/ but what bothers me in his firing is not what he will do / but what about his assistants who are out of a job? I guess in a sense I relate more to that part of the story that is not told here. I imagine they have families too. / In the world of College football it is to late to find another job. Mike Foristiere, Boise, Idaho (Coach Foristiere makes a great point - just one more reason why I would rather clean out elephants' stalls that be a big-time college assistant. HW) *********** "They are going to induce my wife on Friday, and we have been assured by Sunday we will have a baby in the family. This is how awesome my wife is, she actually wanted me to go to Brookings, SD to watch one of my former players take part in the spring football game on Saturday (last weekend). She knew how badly I wanted to go because he told me he would see 35-45 plays at a minimum. Hugh, her due date was Saturday, so I stayed home, but she knows how important these guys are to me, and was actually trying to push me out the door to get on the road. She is definitely a keeper!" Brad Knight- Holstein, Iowa (Brad added, "She told her mother LONG before she met me she wanted to marry a football coach - why exactly I do not know - why any woman would want that is beyond me" Let's hear it for Kala Knight. That is a woman for the Coaches' Wives Hall of Fame! Think I should start one? HW) *********** Dear Coach Wyatt; The first I heard of the entire Mike Price issue was reading your 06 May column today (the 8th). I've been a little out of the loop, because my father-in-law, a stellar, extremely supportive man, passed away last Tuesday while surrounded by his loving family. He had been fighting colon cancer for nearly two years, and had the best outlook on it that his physician had ever seen in a cancer patient. Dad's death put me behind in my news reading for the past couple of weeks, so I was astonished to discover that Mike Price was fired for visiting a topless bar in Florida. I mean, didn't a bunch of over-educated academic screwballs just applaud a professor that stood up in front of his 'peers' and prayed for a million Mogadishus? Didn't the left just say the United Way was infringing on Susan Sarandon's 'rights' by firing her from her presenter's duties the week before the show she was supposed to give? Who does the American Public think they are to boycott the Dixie Chicks for their cowardly actions, insulting the president to a group of foreigners? Isn't it their RIGHT to badmouth the president in front of a group of Euros? Aren't we somehow infringing on Mike Price's 'right' to go to a t*tty bar, get sloshed, and ogle naked women? Isn't it wrong to try to hold him to our standards, even though he's a different person? Isn't it wrong to demand that, as a leader of young men, he actually conform to standards of decency that he himself demands of them? Can't we all just get along? If we can't all just get along, then can't we all just go to topless bars and try? Derek Wade, Tomales, California (Come to think of it, it is amazing that while Mike Price is on the streets, that asshole DeGenova at Columbia - the one who wished for "a million Mogadishus" - is still "teaching." I guess all it proves is that Alabama at least has a sense of shame. HW) *********** Overlooked in the excitement of the news from Iraq was the liberation of Portland's sports fans. After nine years of living in a sports colony, run from Seattle by the imperialistic Paul Allen regime and its strong-man General Manager Bob Whitsitt, Portland's NBA fans all but danced in the streets upon learning that Whitsitt - the guy who brought in Rod Strickland, Gary Trent, Shawn Kemp, Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells, Damon Stoudamire, Ruben Patterson and assorted other social misfits - has been "reassigned". He's been removed from his position as GM and President of the Portland Trail Blazers, and the people of Portland have been promised that this time, the job(s) will be filled by someone who actually lives in Portland. Whitsitt , who commuted to Portland when it suited him (he once "conducted" a "press conference" in absentia from Seattle, with Portland media guys gathered around the speakerphone to take notes) will now be able to remain in Seattle full-time and concentrate his full efforts on running another of owner Allen's toys, the Seattle Seahawks, no doubt thrilling news to Mike Holmgren. Meantime, it may be a little late - years ago, the Blazers passed on Michael Jordan in order to draft Kentucky's Same Bowie - but now that Michael Jordan's out of work, the Blazers might join with Nike in enticing him to move to the Portland area. Talk about working magic - when he arrived in Washington in January, 2000, the Wizards had reportedly lost $40 million the year before. The past two seasons, the Wizards have had 82 sellouts at the MCI Center, and have made some $30 million in profits. *********** "The news on your web site has been great lately. The words of Dr. Ridgely were fantastic. It reminded me of something that happened to me in 1985. I was teaching and coaching at a small Christian school in Michigan. We made the decision in 1984 to dump soccer and start a football program. It was one of my proudest accomplishments! One day in American History class, while chatting with the kids before the start, I made the comment, "Oh well, soccer's a communist sport anyway." One kid, a junior who had played soccer for two years but was not going to go out for football, just about came unglued. He walked out of class and went home. The good news is that the principal was one of us. He was the founder of the school and had been hoping to start a football program for years. The only bad thing was that the principal, instead of really putting the hammer down and sticking it to this kid for his outrageous display of insubordination, chose instead to give him a good talking to. (Come to think of it, that's why I left the school. The principal was not what you would have called a strong disciplinarian.)" John Zeller, Sears, Michigan *********** The Double-Wing will invade another state, with the anouncement Thursday night of Steve Spaziano's hiring as head coach at Ponaganset High School, in North Scituate, Rhode Island. Ponaganset will be our first team in the Ocean State. Coach Spaziano is ready. He has been an assistant at Providence's LaSalle Academy, which runs the Wing-T, and he has attended my last three Providence clinics. Brad Knight - Will send you a pic when I have one. And a cigar! (In Finland, they give cigars for boys only - doughnuts for girls.) *********** A 17-year-old Longview, Washington high school kid is dead after being kayoed by a buddy during a friendly backyard boxing match. *********** On Wednesday, a local fisherman who caught a 25-pound chinook salmon in the Kalama River, near Kalama, Washington, about 20 miles north of here, had just packed the fish in a plastic bag, lashed the bag to his backpack and started the hike to his truck when he was knocked to the ground from behind. When he got to his feet, he saw a cougar disappear into the woods. Fish & Wildlfe people found claw marks on the backpack. *********** Now that I have a little time at home to write about the travel of the last few weeks... The Q-Shack, in Durham, North Carolina, has the best ribs I've ever had. The University of North Carolina's Kenan Stadium is one beautiful place. Not that the campus itself, in Chapel Hill, is too shabby. Mark down this date - September 13. N.C. State at Ohio State. The word down Carolina way is that the Wolfpack is loaded. As everyone who saw them play Notre Dame knows, they are very, very fast. And they are tough, a reflection of their coach, Chuck Amato (Lord, I like that guy. Can you imagine life on that campus with him and Jimmy Valvano both coaching there?) They are returning a bunch of people from a 28-6 Gator Bowl win over Notre Dame and they supposedly had a defensive tackle and a wide receiver on their scout teams last year (eligibility problems) who were better than any of their starters. The coaches at the Raleigh-Durham clinic were raving about State's new football building. Read about it. You talk about escalating the college football arms race! Virginia Beach is a cool place. I'd grown up on the East Coast and travelled all over, but I'd never been there. We stayed in an oceanfront hotel. True, it was early April, and cold and stormy, but if you live in the Pacific Northwest you come to appreciate the ocean in wintertime. (What choice do you have?) We stayed one night and liked it so much we decided to stay another night. We found an ordinary-looking little place on the water called Sam's that provided warmth and hospitality and good food. (You probably can't get in the place in the summer.) Virginia Beach is also the surprise answer to the question, "What's the largest city in Virginia?" It is the largest in area - 258 square miles - and in population - 425,000. Virginia Beach has 11 public high schools. Virginia Beach is the largest city in the largest metropolitan area that nobody seems to know about - mainly because it has no one giant core city to identify with, and therefore no name. It is called, variously, "Hampton Roads," or just "Tidewater." A "Dallas-Fort Worth," "Minneapolis-St. Paul" or "San Francisco-Oakland" joint naming approach won't work, either; there simply are too many cities involved, and not enough headline space for "Cheasapeake-Hampton-Newport News-Norfolk-Portsmouth-Suffolk-Virginia Beach." What's-It's-Name (or whatever it's called) is by far the largest metro area in America without a major pro sports franchise. It has more people, for example, than such "major-league" markets as Buffalo, Charlotte, Columbus, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City and San Antonio. Plenty of great athletes have come out of What's-It's-Name. Among the most recent ones are Allen Iverson (great football player - all-state quarterback) and Michael Vick (not too bad, either). Otto's Brauhaus, in Hatboro, Pennsylvania is one of my favorite places for German dishes. I knew there had to be something wrong. So many guys commented favorably on my choice of location for the Philadelphia clinic, the Holiday Inn in King of Prussia. It was large enough, even though it was one of my largest clinics, and it was easily accessible from any direction. And then I received the letter. I'm used to getting follow-up letters from places where I hold clinics, asking me to evaluate the facilities, the services, the people, etc. But this one said, "Thank you for holding your function, blah, blah, blah" and went on to say that in June, they're going to be closing the place down. When it reopens, more than a year later, it won't be a mere Holiday Inn. It will be a - Ta-Da! - Crowne Plaza. "King of Prussia" is actually the name of a Pennsylvania town, once out in rural farmland but long since swallowed by Philadelphia's sprawl, near historic Valley Forge. Valley Forge is where push came to shove - where Washington and his troops endured the crisis that would ultimately determine whether we would become Americans or remain English subjects. The "King" is undoubtedly Frederick the Great of Prussia, the militaristic state that formed the core of today's Germany, and my guess is that the name honors Baron von Steuben, the Prussian who volunteered his services at Valley Forge. Using the modern military training then employed only in the Prussian army, von Steuben whipped Washington's raggedy-ass band into fighting shape. If you can't find a good Italian meal in Providence, Rhode Island, you aren't trying. If I had all the money in the world and I could live anywhere I wanted, one of my homes would be on Providence's east side, near the Brown University campus. The Shannon View Inn, in Warwick, Rhode Island is still one of my favorite taverns in the United States. The fact that it is just across Post Road from the Comfort Inn is one of the main reasons why I keep returning there to hold my clinics. This year, holding an extracurricular session following the clinic, I happened to mention to the bartender how much I enjoyed the place, and I guess I must have gone on at some length, because he said, "some guy wrote something like that about this place - the owner's daughter found it on the Internet - some guy from Washington or someplace..." I looked at a couple of the other guys sitting there and said, "Maybe that was me!" He went and got the article - it was pinned to the wall - and damned if it wasn't a reprint of what I'd written after last year's clinic!" The bartender handed the article to a guy who'd been sitting near us and, gesturing to me, said, "That guy wrote this!" After reading it, the guy said, "That's it. You captured it." Talk about proud - I felt like the New York Times restaurant reviewer ("Wyatt's Guide to Great Joints"). The article follows: This past weekend I paid my once-yearly visit to perhaps my favorite bar in America, the Shannon View, in Warwick, RI, and I realized, finally, that despite 27 years in the Pacific Northwest, I am still an Easterner. I like Eastern bars and Eastern conviviality. Don't laugh - the same Easterners who might not give you the time of day out on the street are the friendliest people in the world when you sit down next to them in a pub. And conversely, those Westerners who smile and tell you to "have a nice day," can be surly and hostile when you walk into their place. Unless you like loud juke box music, cue balls bouncing off the table, and onto the floor, people fighting and spilling beer on the floor, you would like the Shannon View. I ordered a Guiness draft, and when the bartender finally finished pouring it, he handed it to me and I looked down at the head and damned if I didn't see a shamrock in the foam! I called him over and asked if I was hallucinating, and he laughed and said, no - it was just a little thing he'd taught himself to do as he's finishing off the head. People of all ages sat around the large, rectangular bar socializing, as the bartender moved back and forth in the center, keeping everyone happy as bartender/social director. I sat there and listened a while, trying to figure what was unusual about the sound of the place. Why was this different from most of the places I've been to all over the West? Finally, I figured out what it was - it was the sound of voices. Voices engaged in conversation. Not loud, boisterous bellowing or shrill female shrieks. Just the din of dozens of conversations going on. There was a complete absence of the loud jukebox music that in most western taverns passes for ambience. Two older men sat at a table behind me and played cribbage, something I hadn't seen since I lived in Connecticut after graduation from college. A big guy ordered five bottles of beer for himself and the people at his table, and, noticing an old friend engaged in conversation over on the other side of the bar, nodded toward him and told the bartender, "give Charlie whatever he's drinkin'." That's when I knew I was back in the East. Talk about your western friendliness all you like, but I have lived in the West for more than 25 years and have yet to come across one single incident of that quaint Eastern barroom custom of sending a drink to someone with your compliments. I struck up a conversation with a guy on my left whose accent I couldn't place. Turned out he was from Wales. He was waiting for the piano player to come on and play some Welsh songs. The two guys on my right, in the space of three minutes, covered three sports, going from bitching about Ottawa's center-ice zone trap (whatever that is) to discussing the race at Talladega on Sunday, to making a bet between them on whether Phil Mickelson will win a major this year - or ever. It could never happen in any place in the Portland area.   Only Notre Dame can inspire the loyalty it does, all over the country, among people who never went there. While in Providence, I had been reading a history of Notre Dame football - a partial history, actually, since it was written in 1966 and its title was "Notre Dame Football From Rockne to Parseghian" - and I became engaged in a great conversation with a Rhode Islander with exceptional knowledge and recall of Notre Dame football facts. He knew it all. He had some strong opinions and he had facts to back them up. (The book was written by Francis Wallace, who was sports editor of the ND school newspaper while Rockne was there, and actually served as Rockne's publicity guy - something of what we would now call a sports information director. Written just after the start of the Parseghian era - a very promising start, coming after the "Time of Penance", as golden-domers refer to the Brennan-Kuharich years - the book reflects the author's unabashed love of Notre Dame and expresses his hope that Ara can restore the glory of Rockne and Leahy. Looking back, it is safe to say that he did all that and more.) I can never tell going into a clinic what its makeup will be. Sometimes it's mostly high school coaches and sometimes it's mostly youth coaches. Usually, it's a mix of 1/3-2/3 either way. The Detroit clinic was the first I can recall that was totally made up of youth coaches, and since there wasn't a large number of coaches in attendance, I was able to pretty much "wing it" and deal with whatever topic the coaches wanted addressed. My wife came with me to Denver, where we combine a clinic with a visit to our daughter and son-in-law and their four kids. Friday, we took a quick trip to take a look around Colorado Springs. Highlight? By happenstance, we saw a sign directing travellers off I-25 to the world headquarters of Focus on the Family. I've heard its director, Dr. Dobson on the radio, and I've read some of his stuff, and think the man does a wonderful job of helping people apply the lessons of scripture to their everyday family life. (Let's put it this way: he's so old-fashioned and stuck in his ways that he thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman.) I said, "let's go!" and we parked and went into the "Welcome Center." On the main floor, with beautiful views out toward the Rockies and the Air Force Academy, there are all sorts of exhibits illustrating Focus on the Family's world-wide reach. Down on the next level (kids can get there via a giant, spiraling slide that they enter up on the roof) is a kids' play area that can only be described as "neat." There are caves to explore, puppets to play with, and a little stage for kids to act on (with a "backstage" where they can put on various actors' clothing). And there is a bomber for kids to climb in and through. A real, World War II bomber (God, it's small!) with machine guns and all (gasp!). My little four-year-old granddaughter though it was really cool. Lowlight? The U.S. Olympic Training Center. If you're like me, you've read about this cutting-edge training center in an exotic locale called "Colorado Springs," and you've pictured this college-like campus up in the foothills of the Rockies, blue skies and green trees, etc. Wow. What a let-down. Plop in the middle of a neighborhhood, it looks like generic Big-City Public High School, with maybe less room. The buildings (although they do have the official Olympic Rings on them) define "ordinary," and "institutional," and reinforcing the high-school feel are a number of portable classrooms surrounding them. In Denver, I finally got to meet Jim Hooper. Jim's a West Point grad and a Denver attorney, but he's also a football coach. I think I've mentioned this before, but Jim got onto the Double-Wing about this time a year ago, and we talked a bit about it, and then - total coincidence - he happened to learn that the mother of one of his players was the daughter of a football coach, and upon further questioning - he is a lawyer, after all - discovered that her father was... me. It was my daughter, Vicky Timbers, and the player was my grandson, Will. By the way, the Double-Wing was so effective for their team that they made it to their Super Bowl, and along the way they beat a team that had whipped them 60-0 the year before. (I was told this by the guys from Parker, Colorado, the ones who had beaten them 60-0.) Jim very graciously gave me a 1928 Yale-Army program he'd found, and also - on loan - Fielding Yost's book (where I found the photos shown above.) *********** Coach, Great columns as always. Hope the clinics are going well for you. You mentioned Everett, WA, in your previous column with regards to the USS Lincoln. One of my best friends and classmates enlisted in 1992 and went to basic training 10 days after our high school graduation. His posting was the USS Lincoln. He served almost six years on the carrier, and when he got out he settled down in Everett, just to stay near "his" ship. Mick Yanke, Dassel-Cokato, Minnesota *********** The Democrats remind me of a stock scene you used to see in the old movies, when a woman would get so pissed off at a guy that she would begin sputtering. "Why, you..." she'd say, then stop - unable, because she was a lady, to mouth the vulgarities she wanted to shout. Then, her anger out of control, she'd start to throw things - anything she could get her hands on. She'd keep grabbing things and flinging them haphazardly in his direction. The guy would pretend to cover up, but he really had nothing to fear, because she "threw like a girl" (sorry, softballers) and anyhow, her aim sucked. The audiences loved it. It was always good for a laugh. So here come the Demmies, pissed beyond belief because the President of the United States went ahead and defied them and their buddies in the United Nations and we won a war! And then, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he dared to fly out to the USS Abraham Lincoln, press the flesh of sailors, have his picture taken with them, and congratulate them and thank them for their efforts. Angry and sputtering, the Demmies - like girls - are flinging teacups and saucers at him. "Sputtering," did I say earlier? There was old pompous-ass Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, a former Ku Kluxer (you could look it up, as Casey Stengel would say), a man who has diverted billions of Americans' tax dollars into projects in his home state, a man who has at least 20 projects in his state (dams, highways, courthouses, federal buildings, telescopes, built with your money and mine) named for him, sputtering in his robot-like way as he accused the President of wasting money and glorifying himself. Senator, you throw like a girl. And your aim sucks. But - you ARE always good for a laugh. *********** There is talk about the ACC wanting to add Miami. Why, I'll never know, unless they figure that Florida State is going to be down for a while and they won't be able to count on the Seminoles to get them into a prime BCS game. Miami is damn good, of course, but I just don't see what it adds to the ACC, other than another lopsided loss for Duke in football and two more wins for Duke in basketball. The deal supposedly would include Boston College and Syracuse, since Miami is reluctant to pull out of the Big East if it means deserting its large alumni base in the Northeast. Conspicuously missing from any of the stories I've seen has been Virginia Tech, which along with West Virginia and Pitt(sburgh) - and, if you insist, Rutgers - would be all that's left of the Big East football-wise, Temple having been voted out as unworthy. (Wonder if they'll be back, hat in hand, begging Temple to forgive them.) How about this Big East football configuration - Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Temple, Rutgers, UConn, Army and Navy? *********** Jody Hagins, of Summerville, South Carolina, noticed this comment in a letter regarding Woody Hayes "it's a shame that so many people only remember him for hitting the Clemson kid." Coach Hagins, a South Carolina Gamecock, added, "I always thought he should have been given a RAISE. He didn't hit him with malice. He was trying to knock some sense in him for having chosen to go to Clemson in the first place." (Which will give you some idea - but only a small one - of the intensity of the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry.) *********** Veteran Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan appeared Sunday night on a Boston TV sports program, and responding to a question from the host about the rights of ticketholders to be rude, said he was irritated by Jason Kidd's wife, Joumana, and the "harassment" she claimed she received at the hands of Boston fans after the much-publicized incident in which Kidd "allegedly" smacked her. Ryan suggested that Mrs. Kidd had brought the attention upon herself, accusing her of parading their 4-year-old son, T. J., in front of the television cameras as "a prop". "I'd like to smack her," Ryan added. Uh-oh. For that remark, Ryan has been suspended for a month without pay, and instructed by the Globe "not to appear for a month on any radio or television outlet." "Bob Ryan's comments were a clear and egregious violation of the standards of The Boston Globe," said Martin Baron, the editor of The Globe. "Bob has been told in no uncertain terms that his remarks were offensive and unacceptable." I agree. I, too, personally find Ryan's comments "offensive and unacceptable." No man should ever talk that way about any woman. Except maybe Hillary Clinton. *********** Coach Wyatt, I just love it. The democrats are squawking over the cost of the President's carrier landing. Hmmm, how about paying for the landing by auctioning off all of the silverware President Clinton stole from the White House. Let's think about their respective legacies here. President Bush will be remembered for his tailhook landing. President Clinton will be remembered for his attempt to 'hook up' with tail. I've about had it with this lunacy. By the way, I think we should use the same 'morality clause' in most coaches contracts for the President of the United States. Doug Parks, Milford, Michigan *********** "Welcome to the School Board!" I wrote to my friend Keith Babb, who lives in Northbrook, Illinois. Keith was recently elected to the school board overseeing the very district in which the now-celebrated girls' hazing incident occured. Keith wrote back, Well it's been an eventful 4 days in Northbrook, Illinois - home of the hazing girls that have made national news over the last few days. I got a call from the school superintendent around Monday noon informing me that there was going to be a local news story on a hazing incident that occurred on Sunday off school property. Needless to say, I had no idea that this thing would get blown all over the national news. Rather than give you a bunch of details from 'ground zero', I'll make this offer. If you need a correspondent on the ground - I'm here for you. I'd also be interested in any thoughts you have on the subject. (I think what got it in the national media were (1) the videotape, and (2) the words "human waste," "excrement," etc. And, of course, the rarity of girl-on-girl hazing. Look for more of it as the girls in girls' sports become more and more aggressive. Dare I say "butchy? I find it interesting that the majority of people who wrote into AOL expressing an opinion on the matter said that the school was to blame. Isn't it amazing that the same parents who "raised" these little bitches - who gave them cars, money, and the freedom from restraint to do as they wish - are held less responsible than the school for what their kids do on their own time? Yet if those same kids are caught drinking, or fighting, or shoplifting - you name it - and thrown off a team, their parents will be in the principal's office in a heartbeat, calling for the coach's head and screaming, "it wasn't on school property.... it wasn't a school function... it's none of the school's business...") Keith went on, "you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I have a few stats for you: Glenbrook North HS has 2,087 students. The average experience of teachers is 16.5 years and 79.9% have masters degrees. The average ACT score is 24.7 out of 36, placing 97% nationwide. 97% of students are accepted to college, 98% of students who took AP tests received college credit, and there are 11 National Merit scholars this year. The school was named an outstanding HS in 1999 by US News and World Report and was a Newsweek top 300 HS in 2000. Not to mention numerous state awards in athletics, debate, math, theater, and other extra-curricular activities. "I would argue that the school is doing its job. I hope that more parents do theirs." *********** Coach Wyatt, I want to thank you for putting us in touch with such a great award! I would also like to thank you for putting me in touch with LTC Clark Welch. What a dynamic man. He had our audience riveted. I have heard several great comments from them about him. He will attend the presentation award at this years recipients high school. We gave the award this year to Casey Adragna. Casey does not attend our school. Instead, he attends Hanover School 20 miles away. They do not have a football program, so he plays for us (our gain). Hanover is having their athletic awards next Thursday. LTC Welch will be flying in from New Hampshire that afternoon so that he can attend the ceremony. What an honor to have him present the award. I will forward pictures from the Hanover ceremony. Yours in Service of our Young Men & Women, May God Richly bless you in everything you do. May the Spirit of Christmas stay in your heart always. Terry Henderson, Ellicott High School, Calhan, Colorado Thanks for taking the time to write. You truly were fortunate to have a man such as LTC Welch to present your Black Lion Award. He is a true American hero. You are probably aware that only a little more than a week or so ago he was at the Pentagon to receive the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor as an award for bravery. I think it is wonderful that a boy such as Casey will make the sacrifice he does in order to play our great game, and I think it is a tribute to you as well. It is also wonderful that kids at two schools will get to meet Clark Welch and to learn of the bravery of him and the men he served with. Perhaps it will inspire them to do great things for their country if they should ever be called on to do so. *********** Archbishop Curley High, in Baltimore, will be running a four-evening Double-Wing skills camp this July 21-24, for Double-Wing players and teams in the Baltimore-Washington area. There will be a fee per camper which will cover the instruction, and a tee-shirt that will be provided. Instruction will be by the Archbishop Curley staff and senior players. The purpose of the camp is not to teach the Double-Wing to teams, but to teach Double-Wing skills to kids whose coaches and teams run the Double-Wing. For more information, contact head coach Sean Murphy at (home) 410-838-1045 or (school) 410-485-8000. (For what it's worth, I know Coach Murphy and the Curley staff and I think very highly of them.) You have got to read this. I first heard about it from Matt Bastardi, from Montgomery, NJ, who added, "Someone got it right!"... The Secret of American Foreign Affairs By Stanley K. Ridgley, Ph.D. April 29, 2003 During his administration, Bill Clinton cut the United States Army from 18 active divisions to 10 and presided over an aimless "Blackhawk Down" foreign policy. How, then, could the U.S. military remain so formidable as to conquer Iraq, a nation of 24 million people, in three weeks? A larger question is how does our military continue to outstrip the rest of the world in every category, from soldier training to leadership to the will to win? The answer to that question is one of the great secrets of American foreign affairs. There is one primary reason for the rise of U.S. military power over the past century and its overwhelming capability to fight and win wars: American football. Decried by some as a simple-minded sport that "glorifies" violence and appeals to the blue-collar, beer-bellied crowd, football is a phenomenon woven into America's social fabric and into the psyche of her people. The United States is a football nation - football players and football fans - and this sociological factor sets Americans apart from every other nation on earth. American football is a brutal collision sport in which every player's mettle is tested on every play. At its supreme level, the mutual human violence done in football is greater than that of any other sport in the world. The only other sport that approaches football in bone-crunching controlled mayhem is rugby, another Anglo-Saxon game played almost exclusively by the British and Australians. Coincidentally, they were the two major powers providing ground troops for the war in Iraq. Football is violent, but it is not aimless violence. Each individual collision is a tightly circumscribed competition that measures each man's heart, drive, intellect, skill and cunning. On both sides of the ball, strategy and counterstrategy - the multiplicity of options on a single play - contrive to create an intricate and sophisticated contest. Football is as cerebral as it is violent. The only people who cannot comprehend football's sophistication are snobs who would like nothing better than to believe that these slashing wide receivers and great gridiron behemoths smashing into each other are dumber than they are. What a devastating ego shock to realize that the average college professor would be incapable mentally, as well as physically, to play successfully the modern game of football. Why incapable? Because a working intellect under intense psychological pressure and physical exhaustion is an entirely different quality than a working intellect languishing in the library. Players must execute a sophisticated battle plan swiftly, decisively and flawlessly in extreme situations, while a similarly equipped and talented group of athletes is doing its best to stop them. Play after play, there is no room for error. In football, there is no time for still more "resolutions." The threat must be perceived and evaluated and the correct decision made now or the consequences could be ignominious defeat. The ethos of football and its prerequisite talents, attitudes and qualities are inculcated in abundance in America's military leaders. While the football ethos is reflected in America's national spirit and her military, the Europeans draw from a distinctly different sports tradition; one developed on the playing fields of Paris and Potsdam, Boulogne and Berlin. The ethos of what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "Old Europe" is exemplified in the game of soccer. Soccer is a beautiful and well-powdered sport, much like "diplomacy," bringing to mind men in top hats and striped pants walking herky-jerky, as in black-and-white silent newsreels. Soccer is French jeu d'esprit , and it is the sport of the United Nations. Soccer rules are easily understood, and the sport is imbued with a comradely egalitarian aspect. Players run about. They wave their arms. Sometimes, they fall down. Sometimes, they can even be tripped, and it is in these moments that Europeans first learn to be either bad actors or diplomats; tumbling on the turf, clutching a "bruised" shin, then bounding up unhurt to take a free kick (or a post-war oil concession.) Soccer matches can and frequently do end in a tie. This abundance of scoreless ties leads one to suspect that for soccer players, as for U.N. diplomats, the goal is to stall until ultimately nothing is resolved, and no one can really be blamed. Tie-breaking "shootouts" in international play ought to be eliminated altogether, since an egalitarian draw of no winner, no loser, and no hurt feelings is a U.N. dream come true. The activity, in the end, is pointless. But fans will neither despair nor rejoice at the outcome; aficionados in smoky salons, sipping espresso, can debate endlessly who played the better game. Is it any wonder that the Old European nations shrink from decisive action, taking only tentative, mincing steps, hoping they'll never have to fight for anything and unable to decide firmly whether there is anything at all worth fighting for? Consider also what American football is not . It is not about passing the buck, walking while others carry the load or debating until you are overcome by events. Nor is it about ennui, languor and the c'est la vie attitude. Football is about character and courage, might and mettle, decisiveness, strength and stamina. It is about men who sacrifice, who dare great things and who are not afraid to win great victories. Hundreds of thousands of American boys and young men play football each year, forging a distinctly American character in the fire of competition. This character is reflected in the American military and its successes. I am not the first to claim more from sport than might be deserved. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, supposedly credited his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo to his having been schooled on the "playing fields of Eton," his famous alma mater. So mightn't there be substance here? Perhaps. American football might not be the great secret of American foreign affairs success of the past 100 years, but it does capture much that is true about the United States and her mettle. And surely, it is one small part of why she is great.   Stanley K. Ridgley is president of the Russian-American Institute. He served for eight years as executive director of the Collegiate Network, a national association of college newspapers, and for nine years as the editor of CAMPUS: America's Student Magazine. His articles have appeared in Heterodoxy , the University Bookman , the Charlotte Observer , the Raleigh News and Observer ,ORBIS foreign policy journal, and Charlotte Magazine , among others. In 1989, he founded the Duke Review , a conservative student newspaper at Duke University which still publishes. Dr. Ridgley holds a doctorate in political science from Duke University and a bachelor's in journalism from the University of North Carolina, and is a former military intelligence officer. He is the author of "Start the Presses - A Handbook for Student Journalists." He told me that actually he enjoys playing soccer, but, "Soccer's a 'jogging man's' sport and a sport for overprotective mothers who want to shield their young men from injury. I find soccer to be a robust metaphor for European foreign policy. " Reprinted by permission of the author. (By arrangement with the author, this article will be permanently posted on my site) A follow-up note from Dr. Ridgley, in response to my seeking permission for coaches and teachers to copy and circulate his article among friends and co-workers: Coach Wyatt: Please tell your colleagues to reprint the article, copy it as they like, post it, and pass it around. Email it to their friends. I've always been more concerned with the influence of my writing than with niggling details. I'm glad your constituents are enjoying it. I wrote it for them. Best, Stan (I'm sure that Dr. Ridgeley has been catching some heat for his theory, and it's important that he know that he has a grateful audience among football coaches. If you enjoyed the article, write me < coachwyatt@aol.com > and tell me so, and I'll pass your letter along to Dr. Ridgley. If you didn't enjoy it, go out and kick a soccer ball around for a while and don't bother me.)   THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP (LATHROP IS ABOUT 10 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205) BECAUSE OF THE LATE SCHEDULING OF THE CLINIC, COACHES CAN WALK-UP AND PAY THE PRE-REGISTRATION FEE OF $75 AT THE DOOR   *********** General Jim Shelton, Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions is shown below at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, home of the Black Lions, addressing the leadership cadre. General Shelton was a starting guard at Delaware (wing-T!) and he saw considerable combat in Vietnam. Among his many activities since retirement, General Shelton spent years writing a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which 58 Americans died - nearly half the total killed in the entire War with Iraq. Major Don Holleder was along with them.   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS SIGN UP YOUR TEAM OR ORGANIZATION FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 6, 2003 - "There's one way to find out if a man is honest - ask him. If he says yes, he's a crook." Groucho Marx     2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    MAY 17 ON MY CLINIC CALENDAR IS NO LONGER AN OPEN DATE- THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP   A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: The photo is from his book, "Football for Player and Spectator," published in 1905. He is one of the most famous of all coaches, certainly of the early coaches, and he deserves full credit for starting the great tradition of University of Michigan football. He was a winner right from the start. His first team, in 1901, was undefeated, untied and unscored on, including a 49-0 win over Stanford in the first-ever Rose Bowl game, and in all, his teams played 56 straiight games without a lossw: in his first five years of coaching, his teams won 55, tied one and lost one (a 2-0 loss to Chicago in the final game of 1905). Not until his 13th game was Michigan even scored on, and not until his 30th game - a 6-6 tie with Minnesota - did the Blue fail to win. His first five years at Michigan have been called the most successful in college history. The defensive statistics are staggering - 50 of the wins were shutouts, including a run of 12 straight; only Chicago scored more than six points in a game against the Wolverines (12 points, in a 22-12 loss). But his racehorse offensive style earned him the nickname "Hurry-UP", and his teams' offensive stats were no less impressive: his so-called "Point-a-Minute" teams averaged 49.5 points per game over five seasons. His championship teams inspired Michigan student Louis Elbel to compose "The Victors" ("Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the Champions of the West!") The 6-6 tie with Minnesota is noteworthy because of its legacy. The Gophers were good - they were 10-0 at the time - and a then-huge crowd of 20,000 showed up in Minneapolis to watch the clash. Suspicious of Minnesota chicanery, Michigan 's coach had arranged to have a manager buy a crockery jug and fill it with water. Michigan led only 6-0 late in the game, and when Minnesota tied the game with two minutes to play, the Minnesota fans went wild, and the game had to be called. In their haste to get off the field, Michigan left the water jug behind, and when the Michigan coach wrote Minnesota to ask the return of the jug, he was told, "If you want it, you'll have to come up and win it." That he did, and thus was the origin of the Little Brown Jug, the oldest trophy in major college football. He was a native of West Virginia. He played college football at West Virginia for two years and at Lafayette for two years. After graduation, he coached at Ohio Wesleyan, Nebraska, Kansas and Stanford before being hired at Michigan. In his 25 years as football coach at Michigan (1901-23, 1925-26) his overall record was 165-29-10, and eight of his teams were unbeaten. In 1921 he was named athletic directo, and in that capacity he oversaw the construction of Michigan Stadium - still the largest on-campus football stadium, and the arena now named for him. Michigan Stadium - the "Big House" - cost $1 million to build (in 1927 dollars). Realizing that it might take even more than football to fill such an enormous stadium, he is also responsible for the development of the Michigan band. To this day, many Michiganders still refer to the University as "Mee-shigan" without knowing where that started. It's not the result of a Midwestern accent. It derives from a long-time U-M football broadcaster who insisted on pronouncing it the same as the coach, who never lost his West Virginia twang. *********** I WROTE THIS BACK AT BOWL TIME...   You know I like Mike Price. I also like Alabama. You've no doubt read that I don't know whether he's going to make it at Alabama. It's just much tougher there than at Washington State.   You probably remember also that I didn't think he should have coached in the Rose Bowl. My thinking is that if you've already picked Mike Price's successor, it should be that man's team to coach.   I heard the official WSU athletic department argument for allowing a lame duck to coach in the Rose Bowl - that if Mike Price left for Alabama with all the assistants who were expected to go with him, the Cougars wouldn't be left with enough coaches to prepare the team for the Rose Bowl. Subsequent developments have exposed that argument as total bullsh--, since the defensive coordinator, Bill Doba, will be remaining - he is, after all, the new head coach - and so will the offensive coordinator, Mike Levenseller. And a few other coaches as well. So how many coaches do you need to get a team ready for a bowl game? Can't you get most of your preparations done working together in "team" sessions, rather than breaking into small groups? You mean to tell me a skeleton staff of three or four coaches would have prepared a team any worse - called a game any worse - than the full WSU staff did Wednesday night?   C'mon - you mean to tell me that the AD couldn't have said, "Coach Price is free to go, but the rest of y'all ain't goin' anywhere. You're going to work for Washington State until January 2?"   There was something fishy going on maybe there was a bowl bonus involved, and Mike Price, despite a $10 million contract waiting for him at Alabama, couldn't walk away from it, but Washington State deserved better.   I have to admit that I thought I had looked at this from every possible angle, but I never considered this one - what if he stays and coaches the Cougars in the Rose Bowl, and the Cougars stink out the joint?   And damned it that isn't just what happened.   Big mistake, Mike.  When you go back to Pullman to clean out your desk, you might want to wait until nightfall. Washington State fans are that pissed.   Not that the friendly folks in Tuscaloosa can be all that delighted, either. They just saw the latest spiritual descendant of the Bear put a team on the field whose performance in the last two minutes of the first half would have gotten an Alabama coach fired before he got to the locker room.   Mike, I hate to say this, but your decision to stay means you're going to Alabama as damaged goods. *********** The Mike Price episode is classic Greek tragedy applied to modern-day sports. A coach forsakes the comfort and security of a job where he is loved and appreciated to land the job of his dreams. And then, after years and years of establishing a solid reputation as a man of good character, he conducts himself - in public - in such an aberrant way that he is fired before he coaches so much as one game. And, even worse, before signing his contract.   I am at a loss for an explanation, and I have considered a number of them, with no favorite emgerging:   (a) It's nothing new for him. I rather doubt that, because this is really the first that anyone's ever heard so much as a whisper about wild conduct on his part, and there aren't too many places around tiny Pullman, Washington - or even Spokane, a larger city but not exactly Metropolis - where a guy can get into that sort of trouble without everybody knowing it;   (b) He felt the need to win over the Bama alums - and students - by showing them that he was a good ole boy;   (c) The pressure and the public visibility were so much greater than even he imagined they would be;   (d) He was set up. Drugged, maybe;   (e) Being named head coach at Alabama gave him a terminal case of PSS (Professional Sports Syndrome) - the belief that he can do anything he damn well pleases, because he is not like the rest of us;   (f) He heard that the Bear had a "drinking problem", and figured if it worked for him... ;   (g) He really missed life in the Big Sky Conference;   (h) It was a body double;   Meantime, whatever the reason, Mike Price, by all accounts a decent man, is ruined. And scumbag Bill Clinton, rock and roll president, known perjurer and defiler of his office, continues to be fawned over by foreigners and liberal jocksniffers, and second-guesses a President who is twice the man he ever dreamed of being. *********** Coach, Seeing that (Alabama) player press conference yesterday was quite strange - seeing how much he had bonded with his players, seeing the running back beg the president through his tears. I think they're probably as shocked with Price himself as with his firing. Given the strong trust of these 20, 21, 22-year old young men, can you imagine the feelings of the boys who were betrayed and abused by some of these perverted priests in the Boston Archdiocese? Mike Price did some shameful and disreputable things. I don't think anyone can say that Bama didn't have good reason to fire him. (as my dad said 'when their salaries have gotten so high they deserve no tolerance.') But what's with all these reporters coming out of the woodwork and condemning the state's passion for football? Anyone who follows college football - a journalist no less - is aware of the Alabama tradition and the importance of football in the south. Some people I've read are acting like Ken Starr just blew the top off of Alabama football. I can't say I'd disagree with either decision they could have made. But one thing is left out of the story for me. How come we never heard a word from Tide AD Mal Moore? Was he gunning for his prize hire? Was he gagged by the school's president as Price was? As for the replacement of Price, I'd like to see the University promote an assitant to the head job and give them all a contract that runs through midnight of the Iron Bowl, then start it all over. Call me touchy feely, but I think the lesson has been taught and Bama should at least let the players finish the year they've in a way already begun. I was as proud of Price as one could be in this mea culpa situation - not coming out last week to defend himself, no finger wagging "I did not have sexual relations" crap. This reminds me a lot of (Gary) Moeller, and especially Woody Hayes. As a Michigan fan I despise him in the spirit of rivalry, but I know you among many others vouch for him as a good man and a DAMN good coach. Talking with Lakeside DC Doug Porter, he said "it's a shame that so many people only remember him for hitting the Clemson kid." There are rumors about Arizona for Price...I think maybe he'll resurface in the Big Sky Conference again. Someone will take that second chance on him. I'd like to think he'll make good on it. But after this week, I just don't know. It was like watching another Apple Cup meltdown. Cougin' it once again. Christopher Anderson, Cambridge, Massachusetts (":Cougin' it" is a Northwest term, likely originating among disappointed Washington State Cougar fans as a way of expressing the Cougs' frustrating tendency to choke, whenever they seem to be on the verge of winning big.)   *********** It can't be easy for Mike Price, or for his wife, or his two sons, who were to have been on his staff at Alabama. But I suppose it could be worse. At least he woke up after his night of all nights.   The late, great Red Sanders, the man who built UCLA's football program to national prominence, was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room. He died, legend has it, in the arms of a whore. *********** Larry Eustachy is sick. He has (had?) a good job as basketball coach at Iowa State, and no big-time coach in his right mind would have done the dumb-ass things he's done. Not allegedly done, either. The Des Moines Register has the photos. I won't go into all the charges - drinking to excess at a U of Missouri frat party, kissing college girls, or (worst of all in my mind) bad-mouthing his own team. To perfect strangers, at that. Of course, he wouldn't be in the trouble he's in if he'd been President of the United States, and he'd merely been serviced by a young intern. Then, prominent politicians would rise to his defense, telling any damn fool who'd listen that what he did may have been wrong, yes, but it didn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense. But Larry Eustachy isn't the President. He's a coach, and he's held to a higher standard, and he sure did some dumbass things. That's how I know he's sick - no healthy, right-thinking coach wouldn't have done the things he did. In public, yet. That's because if the big-time coach - the man in charge of a big-time basketball or football program - suffers from anything at all, other than egomania, it is from paranoia. Not that he doesn't have good reason to be paranoid. People are out to get him. If he's losing, that's obvious. But even if he's not, there will be alumni who thought he was a bad choice in the first place or are upset with him because he didn't give a scholarship to the son of the guy who buys a new Cadillac from him every year from. There will be fans who think he's running the wrong offense. Or doesn't cover their bets. It may be the new AD, who's looking forward to the day when he can hire his own guy. It may be players (or their entourage or prospective agents), unhappy about the playing time they're getting or the role they're playing. It may even be a guy on his own staff (I'm told that's been known to happen). And it certainly can be people from the rival school. You think Auburn people (just as an example) wouldn't love to get something on the Alabama coach? So if the guy who's made it to the top level of his profession tends to be guarded in what he says, and tends to be reserved at social functions, and restricts his socializing to old friends at private clubs, he has a good reason for it. And that, fellas, is why coaches hire people they know. In their position, you'd do the same thing.   *********** When Bush's plane landed on that aircraft carrier, I couldn't tell if that was the screech of the tires that I heard, or the screech (whining) of the democratic presidential hopefuls that I heard. The PM of Australia has some stones, I guess that he was facing even more resistance to the war than Bush was, but stuck to his guns and now has high ratings/support (must play rugby there or something). Nice to see him at the ranch. Rick Davis, Duxbury, Massachusetts *********** The difference between a player and a professional... Writer Richard Turner of the Wall Street Journal was playing golf with tour pro Jeff Sluman. They came to a 150-yard par three, and Turner asked Sluman if he was going to be aiming for the flat part of the green with the uphill putt that the TV guys are always talking about. Sluman, sounding almost as if he felt his professionalism had been questioned, replied, "I take dead aim. If we don't aim for the hole, we don't belong out here." *********** I just made hotel reservations in Newburgh, NY for the first weekend in September. The occasion? The UConn-Army football game at West Point! I'm really looking forward to seeing a game there. I haven't been to West Point since I was Boy Scout, and my wife has never seen it.  Alan Goodwin, Warwick, Rhode Island. (I've been told by Bob Novogratz that the members of the great Army team on 1958, the team that featured Novogratz, All-American (and future NY Giant) Bob Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins, and "Lonely End" Bill Carpenter, will be on hand that day to dedicate a statue of their great coach, the legendary Earl "Red" Blaik.) *********** No sooner had I mentioned Nancy Fowlkes of Virginia Beach, Virginia, believed to be the first woman to coach on a high school varsity team, than I heard from guys in Nebraska informing me that Scott Frost's mother was first. (You may remember Frost, who may have been the most talented football player ever to leave the state of Nebraska when he went to Stanford; when Stanford - Bill Walsh, I suspect - moved him to defensive back, he transferred to Nebraska. Anyhow, I seem to recall that's the story.) And I recently heard from Craig Cieslik, head coach at Los Angeles' Cleveland High, that he has a woman on his varsity staff. Her name is Lydia Dubuisson, and she coaches Cleveland's linebackers. *********** Patty Rasmussen included this little note in the "family newsletter" she writes to her large family: "I was asked by a football coach in a neighboring county to present the Black Lion Award to their honoree. Imagine my delight! I asked Dad if he thought it would be okay, appropriate to do so, and he said "sure!" So, on May 16th I get to present the Black Lion Award to a senior at their awards night. I'm pretty jazzed and nervous at the same time. Mostly I'm really honored. I'll let you know how it goes." (I guess that if it is anyone has the right to present the Black Lion Award, it would have to be Patty Rasmussen. "Dad" is General Jim Shelton, Vietnam combat veteran and Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions, and Patty, one of General and Mrs. Shelton's eight children, is herself the mother of Lt. Matt Rasmussen, a West Point graduate and Army Ranger, now stationed somewhere in Iraq. Patty will be presenting the award to HW) *********** The Human Bowling Ball died last week. Charley Tolar was no more than 5-6 (and probably 5-5) and he weighed at least the 210 pounds at which he was listed, and he was one tough dude. On a good Houston Oilers team that jumped out in front of the reast of the American Football League thanks to a great job of signing big-name players such as Billy Cannon and George Blanda, he came out of Northwest Louisiana to claim a job in pro football. He lasted seven years, until his knees gave out. Tolar came along to an Oilers' tryout with his college teammate, Charley Hennigan, who the year before had been the last player cut by the Steelers. Hennigan wouild go on to catch 101 passes in a single season, then a pro football record. Tolar, well... He was so tough that he couldn't be kept out of the lineup, and I loved watching him knock bigger guys on their asses. When he retired after seven years with the Oilers, he had played in 95 games and rushed 907 times for 3,187 yards. Not exactly a big target for his quarterbakcs, he nevertheless caught 175 passes for 1,266 yards. He was so tough that in the off-season (most pro football players worked at other jobs in the off-season), he worked as an oil-well firefighter for the famed Red Adair (that's "EH-dair" to folks outside Texas). Suffering from terminal cancer for the last several months, he reminisced with the Houston Chronicle's Mickey Herzkowitz about his AFL days. He told Herzkowitz (the guy who gave the Wishbone its name) that one time while the Oilers were in Boston to play the Patriots, they stayed in the same hotel that was hosting a Little People of America convention. Tolar didn't know this. As he stood in the lobby waiting for an elevator, the door opened and out stepped a dozen or so of the little people. Tolar, sure that George Blanda had somehow brought them in to play a practical joke on him, refused to speak to the quarterback for several days. "Blanda was a prankster," he told Herzkowitz, , "and a great, great quarterback. It was an honor to play with him. But the best player I ever saw was Earl Campbell. That's just my opinion." *********** Next time you hear somebody start to bitch about the most recent cable increase, just ask them, "Where do you think the money comes from to pay pro athletes' salaries? Disneyland?" Well, actually.... ESPN, owned by Walt Disney, is committed to a $4.8 billion (that's BILLION) deal to televise NFL games and a similar deal with Major League Baseball for $851 million. It has to do something to justify those expenditures, so it has just informed its "distributors" - cable systems and the two major satellite systems - that it will be increasing its rates by 20 per cent on August 1. Since ESPN is already charging those "distributors" an average of $2 per subcriber, per month, the increase will work out to roughly 40 cents a month. That's nearly $5 a year per subscriber, which means that a cable system with a million subscribers will be forking over an additional $4.8 million a year. Until the next ESPN increase, that is. Drop ESPN? Hardly an option. Not only is it well-watched, but most cable systems are committed to long-term deals. And those deals contain a provision allowing ESPN to increase its charges by up to 20 per cent annually. Just to give you an idea of what ESPN is doing to its "distributors".... the average monthly charge to carry MTV is $0.23 cents per subscriber; for Fox Sports (including all the regionals), it's $1.16.   *********** FROM A FRIEND WHO FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW HAS RUN THE DOUBLE-WING SUCCESSFULLY ON HIS FRESHMAN TEAM... Good news! Coach ----- (the varsity head coach) let me put in a basic package of double wing plays this spring. He is talking only about short yardage and goal line for the package. The kids made me put in wedge first. Their favorite play. We have a whole team of players who have run double wing as freshmen and are now seniors. This will be the second year that we have had this occur. This group is very vocal and talked it up to Coach ----- with no prodding from me, honest!! We are going to have a very large line this year. They will average about 6'2-6'3 and go about 260 or so across the front. You should see this bunch run the wedge! If Coach ----- will call it in a game, this group will hurt people. I have a defensive tackle who doesn't like to play offense, but volunteered to be the fullback. He's about 5'10 or 11 and about 270 lbs. You should see this bowling ball run the wedge behind that big line. It was great!!! I'll keep you posted. NAME WITHHELD   *********** I normally hit "delete" on most e-mails whose subject starts with "FW" but for some reason I opened this one, and it proved to be worth passing along: My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth, so when I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great. "Did you hear about the new state program to measure the effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I asked. "No," he said. "How will they do that?" "It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as Excellent, Good, Average, and Below Average and Unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. It will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better. Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice in the state." "That's terrible," he said. "What?" I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?" "Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry." "Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me." "Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele? So much depends on things we can't control. For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem and I don't get to do much preventive work. "Also," he went on, "many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off, many of my clients have well water, which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?" I couldn't believe he would be so defensive. "It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I'm not!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's and my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists' because I choose to work where I am needed most." "Don't get touchy," I said. "Touchy?" he said. "Try furious. In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. My more educated patients who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating actually is a measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I"ll be left with only the most needy patients. And then my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?" "I think you're overreacting," I said. " 'Complaining, excuse making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'...I'm quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted. "What's the DOC?" he asked. "It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said - "a group made up mostly of laypersons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved." "Spare me," he said. "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it." The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?" "Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes." "That's too complicated and time consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure." "That's what I"m afraid my patients and prospective patients will think," he said. "Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you." "How?" he asked. "Well, if you're rated poorly, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help work with you on improving." "You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? Big help." "There you go again." I said. "you aren't acting professionally at all." "You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would make as much sense as grading schools and teachers on an average score on a test of children's progress, without regard to influences outside the school - the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? "No one would ever think of doing something like that to schools."   *********** Coach Wyatt, Probably don't remember me other than another scrawny kid trying to play football and at least 100lbs too little of myself to throw out there!   Anyway, I received an email from your daughter Cathy and saw your email attached and wanted to say hello.   So you know, I didn't ever get thrown in jail, do any drugs or drink enough to get me in trouble. In fact the Army has seen fit enough to have promoted me to the rank of Major and I'm about 4 years from a 25 year retirement.   Also, I have a wonderful wife and two great little boys, 6 and 12. I have to say your positive influence and that of Mrs. Wyatt and your two daughters was part of what got me here. I hope you're well, I'm looking forward to seeing Cathy for the first time in 20 years and meeting her husband in July at our 20 year reunion.   Take care Coach and best of luck. Sincerely, MAJ Dirk A. Levy, 3rd Brigade Operations Officer, 40th Infantry (Mechanized), US Army   You have got to read this. I first heard about it from Matt Bastardi, from Montgomery, NJ, who added, "Someone got it right!"... The Secret of American Foreign Affairs By Stanley K. Ridgley, Ph.D. April 29, 2003 During his administration, Bill Clinton cut the United States Army from 18 active divisions to 10 and presided over an aimless "Blackhawk Down" foreign policy. How, then, could the U.S. military remain so formidable as to conquer Iraq, a nation of 24 million people, in three weeks? A larger question is how does our military continue to outstrip the rest of the world in every category, from soldier training to leadership to the will to win? The answer to that question is one of the great secrets of American foreign affairs. There is one primary reason for the rise of U.S. military power over the past century and its overwhelming capability to fight and win wars: American football. Decried by some as a simple-minded sport that "glorifies" violence and appeals to the blue-collar, beer-bellied crowd, football is a phenomenon woven into America's social fabric and into the psyche of her people. The United States is a football nation - football players and football fans - and this sociological factor sets Americans apart from every other nation on earth. American football is a brutal collision sport in which every player's mettle is tested on every play. At its supreme level, the mutual human violence done in football is greater than that of any other sport in the world. The only other sport that approaches football in bone-crunching controlled mayhem is rugby, another Anglo-Saxon game played almost exclusively by the British and Australians. Coincidentally, they were the two major powers providing ground troops for the war in Iraq. Football is violent, but it is not aimless violence. Each individual collision is a tightly circumscribed competition that measures each man's heart, drive, intellect, skill and cunning. On both sides of the ball, strategy and counterstrategy - the multiplicity of options on a single play - contrive to create an intricate and sophisticated contest. Football is as cerebral as it is violent. The only people who cannot comprehend football's sophistication are snobs who would like nothing better than to believe that these slashing wide receivers and great gridiron behemoths smashing into each other are dumber than they are. What a devastating ego shock to realize that the average college professor would be incapable mentally, as well as physically, to play successfully the modern game of football. Why incapable? Because a working intellect under intense psychological pressure and physical exhaustion is an entirely different quality than a working intellect languishing in the library. Players must execute a sophisticated battle plan swiftly, decisively and flawlessly in extreme situations, while a similarly equipped and talented group of athletes is doing its best to stop them. Play after play, there is no room for error. In football, there is no time for still more "resolutions." The threat must be perceived and evaluated and the correct decision made now or the consequences could be ignominious defeat. The ethos of football and its prerequisite talents, attitudes and qualities are inculcated in abundance in America's military leaders. While the football ethos is reflected in America's national spirit and her military, the Europeans draw from a distinctly different sports tradition; one developed on the playing fields of Paris and Potsdam, Boulogne and Berlin. The ethos of what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "Old Europe" is exemplified in the game of soccer. Soccer is a beautiful and well-powdered sport, much like "diplomacy," bringing to mind men in top hats and striped pants walking herky-jerky, as in black-and-white silent newsreels. Soccer is French jeu d'esprit , and it is the sport of the United Nations. Soccer rules are easily understood, and the sport is imbued with a comradely egalitarian aspect. Players run about. They wave their arms. Sometimes, they fall down. Sometimes, they can even be tripped, and it is in these moments that Europeans first learn to be either bad actors or diplomats; tumbling on the turf, clutching a "bruised" shin, then bounding up unhurt to take a free kick (or a post-war oil concession.) Soccer matches can and frequently do end in a tie. This abundance of scoreless ties leads one to suspect that for soccer players, as for U.N. diplomats, the goal is to stall until ultimately nothing is resolved, and no one can really be blamed. Tie-breaking "shootouts" in international play ought to be eliminated altogether, since an egalitarian draw of no winner, no loser, and no hurt feelings is a U.N. dream come true. The activity, in the end, is pointless. But fans will neither despair nor rejoice at the outcome; aficionados in smoky salons, sipping espresso, can debate endlessly who played the better game. Is it any wonder that the Old European nations shrink from decisive action, taking only tentative, mincing steps, hoping they'll never have to fight for anything and unable to decide firmly whether there is anything at all worth fighting for? Consider also what American football is not . It is not about passing the buck, walking while others carry the load or debating until you are overcome by events. Nor is it about ennui, languor and the c'est la vie attitude. Football is about character and courage, might and mettle, decisiveness, strength and stamina. It is about men who sacrifice, who dare great things and who are not afraid to win great victories. Hundreds of thousands of American boys and young men play football each year, forging a distinctly American character in the fire of competition. This character is reflected in the American military and its successes. I am not the first to claim more from sport than might be deserved. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, supposedly credited his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo to his having been schooled on the "playing fields of Eton," his famous alma mater. So mightn't there be substance here? Perhaps. American football might not be the great secret of American foreign affairs success of the past 100 years, but it does capture much that is true about the United States and her mettle. And surely, it is one small part of why she is great.  Reprinted by permission of the author. Stanley K. Ridgley is president of the Russian-American Institute. He served for eight years as executive director of the Collegiate Network, a national association of college newspapers, and for nine years as the editor of CAMPUS: America's Student Magazine. His articles have appeared in Heterodoxy , the University Bookman , the Charlotte Observer , the Raleigh News and Observer ,ORBIS foreign policy journal, and Charlotte Magazine , among others. In 1989, he founded the Duke Review , a conservative student newspaper at Duke University which still publishes. Dr. Ridgley holds a doctorate in political science from Duke University and a bachelor's in journalism from the University of North Carolina, and is a former military intelligence officer. He is the author of "Start the Presses - A Handbook for Student Journalists." He told me that actually he enjoys playing soccer, but, "Soccer's a 'jogging man's' sport and a sport for overprotective mothers who want to shield their young men from injury. I find soccer to be a robust metaphor for European foreign policy. "   A follow-up note from Dr. Ridgley, in response to my seeking permission for coaches and teachers to copy and circulate his article among friends and co-workers: Coach Wyatt: Please tell your colleagues to reprint the article, copy it as they like, post it, and pass it around. Email it to their friends. I've always been more concerned with the influence of my writing than with niggling details. I'm glad your constituents are enjoying it. I wrote it for them. Best, Stan (I'm sure that Dr. Ridgeley has been catching some heat for his theory, and it's important that he know that he has a grateful audience among football coaches. If you enjoyed the article, write me and tell me so, and I'll post your letter and pass it along to him.) (By arrangement with the author, this article will be permanently posted on my site)   REACTION TO DR. RIDGELEY'S ARTICLE (FOOTBALL, YES; SOCCER, NO) *********** I could do nothing but chuckle out loud while reading the article by Dr. Ridgley. He has, in one article, articulated perfectly our strength and how the lessons derived from football hone the leadership skills of some of America's youth. He has, also, described how soccer is a major culprit in the wimpification of the majority of American males.. The sad thing is, that the soccer mentality is a lot of times brought over to football. These moms, in their eternal quest to protect their boys' feelings, keep them from acquiring the self confidence, discipline, and teamwork skills that can be so profoundedly imbedded in a young man by the great sport of football. No, football isn't a touchy-feely, lovey-dovey, let's all be happy game. It requires everything so eloquently said in Dr. Ridgley's article, and how sad for the majority of boys that they will never get the opportunity to develop these gifts. How tragic that in their efforts to keep their young men from injury, these "soccer moms" cripple them, permanently. Akis Kourtzidis Brea, CA *********** Coach, His article was awesome. There's a copy of it pinned up on the lunch room wall as we speak. Glade Hall, Seattle   MAY 17 ON MY CLINIC CALENDAR IS NO LONGER AN OPEN DATE- THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP (LATHROP IS ABOUT 7 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205)   *********** General Jim Shelton, Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions is shown below at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, home of the Black Lions, addressing the leadership cadre. General Shelton was a starting guard at Delaware (wing-T!) and he saw considerable combat in Vietnam. Among his many activities since retirement, General Shelton spent years writing a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which 58 Americans died - nearly half the total killed in the entire War with Iraq. Major Don Holleder was along with them.   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS IT'S NOT TOO EARLY TO START SIGNING UP FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD

May 2, 2003 - "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on." Walter Lippmann, American journalist and author     2003 CLINIC NEWS & SCENES : CHICAGO - ATLANTA TWIN CITIES   click here for info ----->>>>> <<<<<-----click here for info THIS PAST SEASON'S WEEK-BY-WEEK GAME REPORTS FROM ASSORTED DOUBLE-WING TEAMS ( "WINNER'S CIRCLE")  AS PROMISED.... READERS' FRENCH JOKES (updated as we get them)    MAY 17 ON MY CLINIC CALENDAR IS NO LONGER AN OPEN DATE- THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC IS DEFINITELY ON - IT WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP A LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: It is common nowadays to see him referred to as Clyde "Bulldog" Turner. Don't you believe it. No one called him Clyde, and the "Bulldog" was never in quotes. His name, for all the sports fans of America knew, was just Bulldog Turner. No quotes. No Clyde. Just Bulldog, a name that was a natural fit for a guy who many have called "the toughest player ever." Considered one of the greatest centers in the history of the game, Bulldog Turner played his high school ball in Sweetwater, Texas - two years after Sammy Baugh - his college ball at Hardin-Simmons, and his pro ball with the Chicago Bears. Before he ever got to play a down in the NFL, and despite the fact that he came from a little-known college in the days when pros did little in the way of scouting, he was involved in a fierce contest between the Bears and the Lions for his services. Drafted number one by the Bears, he became a starter at the age of 20, and in his second year, he became the first man since 1932 other than the Giants' great Mel Hein to be named All-NFL center. He went both ways, as did all players of the era, and even by today's standards he was a good-sized linebacker at 6-2, 235. He was extremely fast, and in 1942 he led the NFL in interceptions with eight. In one game in 1944, when the Bears ran out of running backs, he was moved to the backfield and gained 48 yards on one of his carries. With time out for World War II service, he played 12 years with the Bears, and was six times named All-Pro. He played on four NFL championship teams, including the one his rookie season that trounced the Washington Redskins, 73-0. After retirement, he was an assistant coach with the Bears, and in 1962 was head coach of the woeful New York Titans (now the Jets) of the American Football League. In George Halas' memoirs, "Halas by Halas," he recalls a time Turner served as the team's enforcer. "One day a player jumped on Bill Osmanski's brother after he was down, breaking his back. Bill told the player he did it deliberately. He replied, 'That's part of football.' Bulldog overheard. On the next punt, Bulldog hit the guy so hard he was carried off." He had a reputation as a rough-and-tumble guy who enjoyed himself at all times, a fact Halas alluded to in saying that "he had provided so much excitement, on and off the field." In an interview with Myron Cope in "The Game That Was," (1970) Turner recalled that he had served as the Bears' captain "for about seven, eight years," although it was only after five years or so of his taking on the captain's role on the field that Halas made it official, "'cause to be a captain, you didn't only have to be a good player and a leader of men, but your off-the-field activities had to be real good, too, which mine weren't too good." He recalled how Halas took care of him whenever he'd get into scrapes. "Damn near every year," he once told a teammate who had his doubts about Halas, "I'd get in a little bit of financial trouble, and I'd need money during the off-season. I'd get in pretty bad trouble. But I would do two things. I would pray and I would call George. And you know? Every damn time, George Halas came through first." In 1966 Bulldog Turner was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (If you're keeping score at home, that's two Hall of Famers - Turner and Baugh - from Sweetwater, Texas.) Correctly identifying Bulldog Turner: Akis Kourtzidis - Brea, California... Joe Daniels- Sacramento ( "I remember reading about that guy when I was kid....I was a student of the game way back then...I have Cope's book - picked it up for $1.00 at a flea market - great book, even though as a raider fan I HATE the Steelers and his homer announcing!")... Kevin McCullough- Culver, Indiana... Mike Framke- Green Bay, Wisconsin... Adam Wesoloski- Pulaski, Wisconsin... Jon McLaughlin- Oak Forest, Illinois... Dave Potter- Durham, North Carolina... Sam Knopik- Kansas City... Greg Stout- Thompson's Station, Tennessee... David Maley- Rosalia, Washington... Steve Staker- Fredericksburg, Iowa... Scott Russell- Potomac Falls, Virginia... Mike O'Donnell - Pine City, Minnesota... Mark Kaczmarek - Davenport, Iowa... Norm Barney- Klamath Falls, Oregon... David Crump- Owensboro, Kentucky... Alan Goodwin- Warwick, Rhode Island... John Reardon- Peru, Illinois You have got to read this. I first heard about it from Matt Bastardi, from Montgomery, NJ, who added, "Someone got it right!"... The Secret of American Foreign Affairs By Stanley K. Ridgley, Ph.D. April 29, 2003 During his administration, Bill Clinton cut the United States Army from 18 active divisions to 10 and presided over an aimless "Blackhawk Down" foreign policy. How, then, could the U.S. military remain so formidable as to conquer Iraq, a nation of 24 million people, in three weeks? A larger question is how does our military continue to outstrip the rest of the world in every category, from soldier training to leadership to the will to win? The answer to that question is one of the great secrets of American foreign affairs. There is one primary reason for the rise of U.S. military power over the past century and its overwhelming capability to fight and win wars: American football. Decried by some as a simple-minded sport that "glorifies" violence and appeals to the blue-collar, beer-bellied crowd, football is a phenomenon woven into America's social fabric and into the psyche of her people. The United States is a football nation - football players and football fans - and this sociological factor sets Americans apart from every other nation on earth. American football is a brutal collision sport in which every player's mettle is tested on every play. At its supreme level, the mutual human violence done in football is greater than that of any other sport in the world. The only other sport that approaches football in bone-crunching controlled mayhem is rugby, another Anglo-Saxon game played almost exclusively by the British and Australians. Coincidentally, they were the two major powers providing ground troops for the war in Iraq. Football is violent, but it is not aimless violence. Each individual collision is a tightly circumscribed competition that measures each man's heart, drive, intellect, skill and cunning. On both sides of the ball, strategy and counterstrategy - the multiplicity of options on a single play - contrive to create an intricate and sophisticated contest. Football is as cerebral as it is violent. The only people who cannot comprehend football's sophistication are snobs who would like nothing better than to believe that these slashing wide receivers and great gridiron behemoths smashing into each other are dumber than they are. What a devastating ego shock to realize that the average college professor would be incapable mentally, as well as physically, to play successfully the modern game of football. Why incapable? Because a working intellect under intense psychological pressure and physical exhaustion is an entirely different quality than a working intellect languishing in the library. Players must execute a sophisticated battle plan swiftly, decisively and flawlessly in extreme situations, while a similarly equipped and talented group of athletes is doing its best to stop them. Play after play, there is no room for error. In football, there is no time for still more "resolutions." The threat must be perceived and evaluated and the correct decision made now or the consequences could be ignominious defeat. The ethos of football and its prerequisite talents, attitudes and qualities are inculcated in abundance in America's military leaders. While the football ethos is reflected in America's national spirit and her military, the Europeans draw from a distinctly different sports tradition; one developed on the playing fields of Paris and Potsdam, Boulogne and Berlin. The ethos of what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called "Old Europe" is exemplified in the game of soccer. Soccer is a beautiful and well-powdered sport, much like "diplomacy," bringing to mind men in top hats and striped pants walking herky-jerky, as in black-and-white silent newsreels. Soccer is French jeu d'esprit , and it is the sport of the United Nations. Soccer rules are easily understood, and the sport is imbued with a comradely egalitarian aspect. Players run about. They wave their arms. Sometimes, they fall down. Sometimes, they can even be tripped, and it is in these moments that Europeans first learn to be either bad actors or diplomats; tumbling on the turf, clutching a "bruised" shin, then bounding up unhurt to take a free kick (or a post-war oil concession.) Soccer matches can and frequently do end in a tie. This abundance of scoreless ties leads one to suspect that for soccer players, as for U.N. diplomats, the goal is to stall until ultimately nothing is resolved, and no one can really be blamed. Tie-breaking "shootouts" in international play ought to be eliminated altogether, since an egalitarian draw of no winner, no loser, and no hurt feelings is a U.N. dream come true. The activity, in the end, is pointless. But fans will neither despair nor rejoice at the outcome; aficionados in smoky salons, sipping espresso, can debate endlessly who played the better game. Is it any wonder that the Old European nations shrink from decisive action, taking only tentative, mincing steps, hoping they'll never have to fight for anything and unable to decide firmly whether there is anything at all worth fighting for? Consider also what American football is not . It is not about passing the buck, walking while others carry the load or debating until you are overcome by events. Nor is it about ennui, languor and the c'est la vie attitude. Football is about character and courage, might and mettle, decisiveness, strength and stamina. It is about men who sacrifice, who dare great things and who are not afraid to win great victories. Hundreds of thousands of American boys and young men play football each year, forging a distinctly American character in the fire of competition. This character is reflected in the American military and its successes. I am not the first to claim more from sport than might be deserved. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, supposedly credited his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo to his having been schooled on the "playing fields of Eton," his famous alma mater. So mightn't there be substance here? Perhaps. American football might not be the great secret of American foreign affairs success of the past 100 years, but it does capture much that is true about the United States and her mettle. And surely, it is one small part of why she is great.   Stanley K. Ridgley is president of the Russian-American Institute. He served for eight years as executive director of the Collegiate Network, a national association of college newspapers, and for nine years as the editor of CAMPUS: America's Student Magazine. His articles have appeared in Heterodoxy , the University Bookman , the Charlotte Observer , the Raleigh News and Observer ,ORBIS foreign policy journal, and Charlotte Magazine , among others. In 1989, he founded the Duke Review , a conservative student newspaper at Duke University which still publishes. Dr. Ridgley holds a doctorate in political science from Duke University and a bachelor's in journalism from the University of North Carolina, and is a former military intelligence officer. He is the author of "Start the Presses - A Handbook for Student Journalists." He told me that actually he enjoys playing soccer, but, "Soccer's a 'jogging man's' sport and a sport for overprotective mothers who want to shield their young men from injury. I find soccer to be a robust metaphor for European foreign policy. " Reprinted by permission of the author. Do not reprint - or circulate on the Internet - without permission from Stanley K. Ridgley (although I don't think that Dr. Ridgley would object to your posting a copy on your faculty room bulletin board. Or maybe even in the soccer team's locker room.) (By arrangement with the author, this article will be permanently posted on my site) MAY 17 ON MY CLINIC CALENDAR IS NO LONGER AN OPEN DATE- THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CLINIC WILL BE HELD SATURDAY MAY 17 AT ITT TECHNICAL COLLEGE - 16916 HARLAN ROAD, LATHROP (LATHROP IS ABOUT 7 MILES SOUTH OF STOCKTON, NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF I-5 AND I-205) *********** Wow - It must have been the thrill of a lifetime to have been a sailor on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln - at sea for the last 10 months - and see the President of the United States land on the deck. Talk about riveting TV. I couldn't take my eyes off the President shaking hands with all those young sailors. It made me teary-eyed to see the smiles on their faces as they posed for photos with The Man. Hey - Permit me to do a little bragging. Those sailors, God love 'em, are Washingtonians, at least temporarily. Their home port is Everett, Washington. (Talk about responsibility - talk about the thrill of a lifetime - how about being selected to fly the President of the United States far out to sea in a four-seater jet and land on an aircraft carrier?) *********** Greg Koenig wondered if maybe the National Day of Prayer should be a national holiday. I would say "no," considering the way we've trashed Thanksgiving and turned it into Turkey Day, made Christmas into a national potlatch, and turned the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents (Washington and LIncoln) into silly excuses for mattress sales. *********** I must admit that I was tempted, on the National Day of Prayer Thursday, to get down on my knees and ask the Lord to receive Mr. and Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, Senator Tom Daschle, and several other politicians and entertainers into His loving arms up there in Heaven - and, if it pleased Him, to hurry up. I expect there would be a question about Bill's eligibility. *********** Darrin Bennett of the San Diego Chargers is one of the best punters in the NFL. Before joining the NFL, though, Bennett played in the AFL - the Australian Football League. If you find a punter who has played Australian Rules Football, you know he has the ability to kick a football long and accurately, often on the dead run, and often under pressure. In addition, of great importance to punters, you know he has good hands and you know he's not afraid of contact. Bennett is smart enough to have seen opportunity in the high-paying NFL for young Australians, and he has been running talent searches and kicking camps Down Under, and the results are beginning to show with the Broncos' signing of Mat McBriar. McBriar, from Melbourne, punter three years for the University of Hawaii, where he averaged 42.2 yards per punt (131 punts) and - highly significant - had 32 of his punts downed inside the 20-yard line. *********** There's nothing a liberal believes in more fervently than the idea that if the government will just spend more money (your money), it can solve any of society's problems. For the most part, that policy simply results in bigger government, so as a result, it has become fashionable among conservatives to say that you can't solve America's educational problems by throwing money at them. Permit me to submit one argument in opposition to my conservative brethren. Kids, for the most part, can't write. Can we agree on that, or am I going to have to dredge up the studies, surveys and reports? As someone who has spent a good deal of his life writing and teaching others how to write, I am appalled at the way most kids write, but even more appalled at the way most teachers "teach" what they call "writing." They have tried to make it easier (see the quote at the top of my Home Page.) Educational faddists at some sold the idea that the key to good writing is "unlocking the kids' creativity." They must be encouraged from the time they are little to write. No matter that they haven't yet learned how to write - why, if we were to start out teaching them that, they'd learn to hate writing. What they must do, instead, is the literary version of finger-painting - put anything down on paper, while the teacher says, "Ooooh. That's s-o-o-o-o good!" It's rubbish, of course, and everybody knows it, but we don't want to stifle the kid's "creativity" by being judgmental, now, do we? This "unleash the creativity" approach has generally gone over well with elementary teachers, many of whom are into creativity and would rather not be bothered with the petty details of basic writing skills. As the writing teacher at a small high school, I was once asked to be a judge in an elementary school writing competition, but the kids were not, I was told, to be graded on grammar, spelling or punctuation. What!?! I asked, incredulous. I begged off, saying that those were the main things they should be taught at that level, and that now I understood why I was having so much trouble teaching my high school kids how to write simple sentences. (Why is it that most youth football coaches are smart enough to understand that first they have to teach their kids the basics before trying to teach them the West Coast offense?) So writing incompetence, born of elementary teachers' reluctance to teach what needs to be taught, is passed along to the high school, where it is rather late to be teaching kids things they should have had drilled into them year after year, and all too often, teachers maintain the sham that what their kids are doing is actually writing. (Ever read the average high school newspaper? And they're often the best writers!) And then, to compound the problem, along has come "peer evaluation," or "peer grading," or whatever you want to call it. I call it shared ignorance. Essentially, it's kids grading each other's writing. Super! How good would your football team be if the kids evaluated the game tapes? Not very good, of course, but it sure would save you a lot of time, wouldn't it? Which is precisely the point. It saves a lot of the teacher's time, and - get this - I don't blame the teacher! I was in a situation once where I have had four high school writing classes, two creative writing, two expository writing. Do the math - four classes of 20-25 kids per class (we had small classes), with each kid writing just one essay a week (I often assigned more). Assuming I took an average of three minutes to read and make notes and comments on each kid's essay, that worked out to one hour per class, or four hours every weekend. Actually, I enjoyed it. I felt I was accomplishing something with those kids. Maybe now, years later, some of them agree. But, damn - there was no way I was going to do that for more than one year. I wasn't compensated for my time, and I did have other things to do on weekends. But that is the only way writing can be taught. Kids have to write, and they have to submit their work to someone who will coach them. That means finding the coaches - people who understand what good writing is, people who can correct kids without ripping them, people who can constantly encourage them to do better - and making it possible for them to coach. They're going to have to read and correct a lot of writing, which means we're going to have to cut down on the size of the classes they teach, and we're going to have to compensate them for the extra time they spend reading papers. Sure sounds to me like throwing money at a problem. *********** Anybody else hear Hillary's ranting, raving, frothing-at-the-mouth "I am sick and tired" speech? Sheesh. Only Bill Clinton deserves to come home to something like that. Wait a minute. You say he doesn't? Never mind. *********** "I know you are familiar with missing a day of school and all the catch up that is required. However, missing last Friday was worth it. I was able to attend the Drake Relays. I know you favor the Penn relays, but wow what an event." Mark Kaczmarek, Davenport, Iowa *********** Jack Tourtillotte, from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, spoke to the coaches at my Providence clinic about what the Double-Wing has meant to his school, Boothbay Region High, where he is not only the offensive coordinator but also the principal. (He was a head coach who got into administration and was fortunate enough not to have to give up coaching.) The Boothbay program, smallest in the state to play football, was so far down ten years ago that it was one school board vote away from being closed down. But thanks to the Double-Wing, some very good coaching by Jack, head coach Tim Rice and line coach Ted Brown, and some serious in-the-halls recruiting, the Boothbay Seahawks are at the point where they have won three state titles in the last five years, the last two of them back-to-back. I told Jack that I felt that it was important for people to hear directly from someone like him that it CAN be done and to actually see him as living proof of it. The Boothbay program, which by now is undoubtedly the envy of a lot of people in Maine, was built from the ground up, with solid fundamentals and hard work. There were no gimmicks. Jack's wife, Sue, accompanied him, and joined our crew for dinner Friday night (at an Italian restaurant on Providence's Federal Hill). Sue is truly a coach's wife. She is comfortable around other coaches, and she enjoys the camaraderie. She fits right in. Jack wrote me afterward, Thanks for the pictures and we did have a wonderful time - a great way for a football coach to relax. We who have had supportive wives should thank our lucky stars and I do every day. In my opinion there is nothing better then the DW for a system of football. It has everything, flexibility, power, passing, simplicity, the ability to adapt to changing personnel, a proven winning system, and fun to coach. Nothing can replace hard work but our way of running the DW gives us a great advantage over many of the others. Again, many thanks - I have said on a number of occasions you are responsible for keeping me in education - now some may have wished it otherwise- but I have not regretted a minute of it and have enjoyed spreading our particular brand of conservatism and the DW. Jack *********** Glade Hall, a football coach in Seattle, is a native of New York State, where lacrosse is big, and he sent me an article which talked about a "lacrosse boom" in the Pacific Northwest. It talked about a handful of high schools where it's played as a club sport, and a growing number of youth organizations starting up. It quoted an organization called the Northwest Lacrosse Association as saying on its Web site that the sport has grown 20 percent just in the last year. Not to minimize anything, and I'm all for lacrosse because I think it's a great sport, but "BOOM?" A 20 per cent increase from an almost nonexistent base is not exactly a boom. When you have almost no one participating, doubling in size is impressive; do that for a couple of years in a row, and you've got a boom. As for its chances to move into schools (as other than a club sport) - high schools all over the NW are so financially strapped they're looking for ways to preserve the sports they've already got. *********** Political correctness shows up in the damnedest places. No big deal to me, but Tuesday was the first day I notice that AOL's little hand with the pointed finger was no longer encased in a ghost-white glove, but was instead "of color." *********** Greg Koenig won't' be able to make the Denver clinic this weekend. I was counting on seeing him, because he is a good man and he does a great job with the program at Las Animas, Colorado (he's still looking for an assistant, by the way). But for the last week he's been in Fargo, North Dakota, where his dad faced open-heart surgery. A lot of people offered their prayers and best wishes, and Greg wrote on Tuesday with encouraging news: It is 11:30 CST, and Dad has been out of surgery for about 40 minutes. Everything went very well, and the doctor was very pleased. He is experiencing considerable pain, but they are giving medicine for that. There were absolutely no setbacks. PRAISE GOD for all the answered prayers, and thank you to everyone for your prayers. Please continue to pray for a smooth recovery. God bless all of you. *********** Coach, You and the reader from Ohio were both dead-on in your observations about soccer. I happen to like the game itself and respect the athletic ability of the people who play the game on the highest level. I also had a great time at a World Cup game in 1994. Like you, what I can't stand is what soccer has become in this country. As the reader pointed out, all over the world it's a poor kid's game. Kids play pickup games in the streets with balls made of rags. Here, soccer is all about parents coughing up thousands of dollars so their kid could play on some select club team and they drive their kids all over the country year-round to play in hyper-organized tournaments every weekend in search of the college scholarship that they think is out there for their kids. I guess that fits into the liberal philosophy of throwing money at a problem. The one thing I really appreciate more and more about football is that there is no AAU football or Olympic Development football. If a high school-aged kid wants to play football he has to play for his high school. I realize the various camps are playing a bigger and bigger role in the recruiting process, but when was the last time you heard a football player say something like "I just play on the high school team to have fun and be with my friends. The camps are where the real competition is." I hear things like that from kids in other sports all the time. I once had a parent of a kid who plays Division I college soccer tell me how the coach handles letters from potential recruits: If the kid has only played for his high school team, the letter goes right in the trash. The kid could hold a state scoring record or some such thing and it wouldn't matter one bit. If a college football coach did that, whom would he get to play for him? Steve Tobey, Malden, Mass. *********** The late Bill Livingstone, who passed away in early April, was one great coach. He was also something of a self-made man, joining the Marines after an undistinguished academic career in high school, then spending a very brief period of time at the University of Detroit before entering the world of work and eventually starting his own business, Financial Alternatives. He certainly impressed me as a very smart, very well-educated man, and his son, Dave, told me why: from the time he was a young man, he began building his vocabulary. He diligently worked his way through the dictionary, learning one new word a day, every day of his life. When he died last month at 64, his dictionary was bookmarked in the middle of the T's. *********** The double-wing game of the 2002 season may very well have taken place in suburban Detroit, between the North Farmington-West Bloomfield Vikings and the Troy Cowboys (Bill Livingstone's team). When they met, in the fourth week of the season, the two teams were unbeaten. The Cowboys were defending Oakland-McComb County Super Bowl champs. The Vikings were unscored-on up to that point. They both spent the first half moving up and down the field, and at halftime, the score was 18-18. The Vikings scored early in the fourth quarter to take a 25-18 lead, but the Cowboys scored on a desperation pass on the last play of the game to make it 25-24. And then, going for the win by kicking (a kick is worth two points), the kick was blocked. The Vikings had their first-ever win over the Cowboys. An amazed team official remarked, "a game that could have been played on a ping-pong table (with the two teams playing tight double wings) - and they score 49 points between them!" The teams combined to rush for more than 500 yards. The Cowboys went on to lose in the league semi-finals; the Vikings gave up only two more touchdowns the rest of the season and won the Super Bowl title. Six of their nine regular-season games were ended by the Mercy Rule. *********** Donnie Hayes, coach of the North Farmington-West Bloomfield (Michigan) Vikings is a native Floridian. His dad, Don, owns a barber shop down there - Don's Casselberry Plaza Barber Shop, if you're ever in Fern Park, Florida. Bring your patriotism. A Marine vet, Donnie's Dad has a Marine flag hanging in the shop, and the walls are adorned with photo of the Marines whose hair he's cut. Not so long ago, a guy sat down in his chair and partway through the haircut, started in on the war. "It's wrong," he said. "We're arrogant.. blah, blah." Uh-oh. The shop went silent as the other barbers turned and stared, scissors in their hands and hands at their sides, watching Don unclip and remove the cloth, and gesture to the customer to get up out of the chair. "We're done," he said. *********** Friday, we'll know. Thursday night, the Ditzy Chicks opened this year's tour with a concert in Greenville, South Carolina, definitely C & W country. But, like most of C & W country, I suspect Greenville is high on the patriotism scale as well. A counter-concert was scheduled at the same time in Greenville's twin city of Spartanburg, promoted by conservative radio talk-show host Mike Gallagher, the "General" of "Gallagher's Army." His concert features the Marshall Tucker Band, and all proceeds are promised to assist families of those killed in Iraq. Veterans and active service members attended free, their way paid by contributions from admirers. Gallagher actually extended an olive branch to the Chicks, asking them to match his contributions (and buy a lot of forgiveness from the people of America), but they turned him down. The Chicks' concert was said to be a 15,000-seat sellout. Friday, we'll know. We'll know how many of those tickets were bought by supporters, and how many were bought by people disgusted with the witches. People who showed up to express that disgust, or just decided to stay away and use their tickets to light cigars, or paper bathroom walls, or... *********** Hi coach! How do you think the DW could be adapted to arena football? We have an Arena II team here, and their offense stinks. That league is built around the passing game, but I think a good DW attack would flatten their weenie defensive sets. Also, they allow full motion toward the LOS. However, it is difficult to see how it can be adapted to the number of players per side. Anyway, just wondering... Jody Hagins, Summerville, South Carolina I believe that it would work, just as it works in 8-man high school football (a state title in Nevada, a state runner-up in Oregon). I doubt, however, that fans would accept it, because the primary purpose of Arena ball is entertainment, and its fans, who I suspect are not the most knowledgeable of football people (and pro-oriented if they do have any knowledge) wouldn't understand what was going on. HW *********** The Portland Trail Blazers finally got "off the Schneid" as Al McGuire used to say (to be "Schneidered" in gin rummy is to be shut out, so to be "on the Schneid" meant that you were in danger of being shut out). Prior to Sunday night, they had lost 10 straight playoff games - going all the way back to their loss to the Lakers in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals. They'd also lost six in a row under Coach Maurice Cheeks. But they won Sunday to stay alive against the Dallas Mavericks, and more important than that, they won in the feel-good league, too. Seems that an eighth-grade girl, winner of a contest to sing the National Anthem, got up to sing - and choked. Coach Cheeks went over to the young lady, put his arm around her, and helped her out, as the crowd joined in to sing. Great. Nice gesture. Letters are pouring in to the Portland newspaper, in praise of Coach Cheeks. Nice, but not so fast. In the "what-they're-really-paying-him-for" department, Coach Cheeks is also a nice guy, but one who all too often displays, in the face of misconduct by his players, what the immortal Teddy Roosevelt once called the backbone of a chocolate eclair. True, he has the assignment of coaching perhaps the most despicable collection of turds ever assembled in professional sport, but more often than not, he has been Chief Enabler. Up to this point, there hasn't been a single antisocial thing his players have done that he hasn't been able to find an excuse for. He appears to be a good man, and no one deserves to have to coach these jerks, but he has had one opportunity after another to show that he stands for higher values than his players exhibit, and he has consistently passed. Take Rasheed Wallace. Please. Wallace was true to form following Sunday night's game. Regardless of the question asked him by reporters, his answer was the same "It was a good game - both teams played hard." I swear to God - that's all the guy will say. That's all he's said to reporters all season, no matter the question. It's his childish little way of insulting the people who play a major part in putting money in his pocket. But this was a playoff game, and unlike regular season games, the NBA is in charge. And it requires players to be cooperative with the news media in post-game interviews, Maurice Cheeks or no Maurice Cheeks. But after several consecutive "It was a good game - both teams played hard" responses to their questions, the reporters gave up on 'Sheed. So the league stepped in, fining Wallace and the Trail Blazers' organization a total of $80,000, all because one uncooperative, overpaid ass refused to do one of the basic things expected of a professional athlete. Yet Coach Cheeks shrugged it all off, saying, in effect, "that's just the way Rasheed is." I mean, couldn't he at least have said, for the benefit of all the little kids out there, "I'm embarrassed. That's no way for a professional to act?" Meantime, all over the state of Oregon, schools badly in need of money are having to make cuts. Sports are being targeted. Just think how things might have worked out - Coach Cheeks could have demanded more of his players, Wallace could have acted like a professional, and the Blazers could have donated $80,000 to the Oregon High School Activities Association. *********** Huh??? Why in the hell would NASCAR, of all organizations, donate $250,000 to Jesse Jackson, of all people? *********** According to crackpot author Norman Mailer, "We went to war just to boost the white male ego." Now, I swear I saw some women over in Iraq. And I'm sure I saw some black men fighting over there. And wasn't that a black general on TV, briefing the news media? So, thanks, women. And thanks, black guys, for the ego boost. This is one old white dude who's grateful to you for laying your lives on the line just for the sake of bolstering my self esteem. (Didn't know that's why you were fighting, did you?) *********** Coach Wyatt, Just wanted to thank you for the excellent concept of your offensive system.I bought your playbook and two of your videos. In previous years, my teams were average at best. Although I've never had a losing season, I always seemed to come up short in the playoffs and the regular season. Well after installing your DWing in the 2002 season, my team went 12-2, undefeated in the conference, with an average of 21 points a game, which is huge in Youth football. Even though we lost in the Championship game, 6-0 in double overtime, your system once again proved that it takes a team of 11!!! At this time I would like to extend a personal invitation to an annual football event that I and an old NAVY buddy, who's in Iraq right now, have been putting on for the last few years..... The Atlanta Bowl of Champions If you could find it in your schedule, we'd like for you to come down and be on our V.I.P. list. When you get the chance, check us out @ www.atlantabowlofchampions.com Regards, A.L. Carney (AC), Director of Football, Flat Shoals Titans/VP, Operations & Management, III Kings Enterprises, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia *********** General Jim Shelton, Honorary Colonel of the Black Lions is shown below at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, home of the Black Lions, addressing the leadership cadre. General Shelton was a starting guard at Delaware (wing-T!) and he saw considerable combat in Vietnam. Among his many activities since retirement, General Shelton spent years writing a book on his experiences in Vietnam, with special emphasis on the bloody Battle of Ong Thanh, in which 58 Americans died - nearly half the total killed in the entire War with Iraq. Major Don Holleder was along with them.   The book is now in print. Entitled, "The Beast Was out There," by James M. Shelton, its subtitle is "The 28th Infantry Black Lions and the Battle of Ong Thanh Vietnam October 1967". It is published by Cantigny Press, Wheaton, Illinois. to order a copy, go to http://www.rrmtf.org/firstdivision/ and click on "Publications and Products") Or contact me if you'd like to obtain a personally-autographed copy, and I'll give you General Shelton's address. (Great gift!) All monies after costs go equally to the Black Lions and the 1st Infantry Division Foundation, (sponsors of the Black Lion Award).   I have my copy. It is well worth the price just for the "playbooks" it contains in the back - "Fundamentals of Infantry" and "Fundamentals of Artillery," as well as a glossary of all those military terms, so that guys like you and me can understand what they're talking about.        --- GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD --- HONOR BRAVE MEN AND RECOGNIZE GREAT KIDS IT'S NOT TOO EARLY TO START SIGNING UP FOR 2003 "NO MISSION TOO DIFFICULT - NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT - DUTY FIRST" inscribed on the wall of the 1st Division Museum, at Cantigny, Wheaton, Ilinois BECOME A BLACK LION TEAM (FOR MORE INFO ABOUT) THE BLACK LION AWARD