*********** Oo-wee. How'd you like to be Firestone? Because of reports of an unusual number of fatal accidents caused by failures of Firestone Tires on Ford Explorers, the company has recalled some 6.5 million tires. (What are they going to do with all those tires? Free all-weather tracks for everybody!) And all this horrendous news is coming at a time when Firestone is running an ad campaign celebrating its 100th birthday. So what does it do now? Some advertising experts say it is stupid to pull the "birthday" ads and allow only negative things to be written and said about Firestone; others say it is cold and callous for a company to be running feel-good ads when at the same time it is dealing with a life-and-death issue. The latter people point out that it is typical after an airplane crash for an airline to pull its advertising for a few days. Others argue that the public sees an airplane disaster as a one-of-a-kind thing, affecting one isolated airplane, while Firestone finds itself having to deal with a we-could-be-next sort of public hysteria.
*********** "After the scrimmage we had, all of my coaches are on board with the Double-Wing System. I have one Defensive Coach that is a Head Junior Varsity Coach at a private school in our area. He was a bit uneasy with pulling the guards and tackles, questioning is it possible. But after seeing it done at our level (7-9 year olds) he is a true believer.
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*********** Aw, c'mon, Dad. Let the kid play. Last week, a 17-year-old La Center, Washington (does that name ring a bell?) kid pumped 10 bullets into his parents' bedroom as they slept. He said he did it "just to scare them," but he didn't even awaken them. Which is fortunate, because if they had sat up, a deputy sheriff said, he'd have killed them. Seems he was upset with his father, according to court documents, for not letting him play football. Now, one guy I feel happy for in this whole episode is John Lambert. John, a former student and player of mine and an assistant to me at La Center High, is now the head football coach there. No telling what might have happened if the kid had been allowed to play - and then John didn't let him play quarterback.
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*********** California seems to have detected some correlation between literacy and crime. The more there is of one, the less there is of the other, or some such theory. (It probably took a 10-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded study to discover this.) So the state is pushing programs in its prisons to teach inmates to read and write. And when they get out, having finally discovered the joy of reading, will it be a parole violation if they don't pay their overdue book fines at the library?
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*********** Jim Sinnerud has coached football at several high schools around the US. He's not coaching this year, but he's teaching, and he's getting ready for the first day of classes at Creighton Prep, in Omaha. Jim is a Jesuit priest and my very unofficial "theology consultant"; actually, I value Jim's views on a wide variety of topics, including religion, football, education and life itself. I certainly respect him as a teacher, and I may have mentioned once how careful Jim is at the start of every school year to outline his rules and expectations for his kids. I have always been a believer myself, as a teacher and a coach, in doing the same thing, even to the point of showing my teams a video on the subject, and I'm always interested in others' ideas. Jim told me once that he eliminated the minefield of bookbags that you find in the aisles of most classrooms by telling kids that there are two places for bookbags in his room, and two places only: (1) on the floor against the back wall; or (2) on the floor against a bookbag that's on the floor against the back wall. He wrote to me about getting ready for this school year: "Come Monday I'll be telling my kids where I want them to put their bookbags. We're about to crank it up. In the past--after they've gotten to read me and I know them better--students have humorously told me that they're a bit scared or intimidated during those first couple days when I go over my "ground rules" to make sure everyone's on the same page. They remind me that no one says anything during and for a short while after that time. They don't really know what to expect until they have a little more experience of me, but it's clear to them that prudence is the better part of valor. I don't think that my manner is mean or rough or frightening, but I do try to be cleanly and unambiguously firm about the way "we" are going to enjoy each other's presence. But, at the beginning, especially, a little fear can be salutary, anyway, I've always felt. As the semester moves on we do joke and have fun, but they seem to be aware it's on my terms. As I tell them in the course of it all, 'I am not interested in setting up a dictatorship here, probably more of a benevolent dictatorship. Be alert for what I want and act accordingly.' My opening line of my first ground rule is, 'You are responsible for everything that goes on in class, whether you are here or not.' Then I proceed to explain to them that when I've told the class something--a test date, a revision of class matter, whatever, etc.--I've done my job. If they weren't here, it's up to them to get the information from one of the other students in the class. Don't ask me. I am one and you are 25 and I may confuse your class with another to whom I said something different. That way I'm not running after my tail trying to bring someone up to speed when I may inadvertently omit something. Then I'd get the timeless response, "But YOU told me that . . . ." And pretty quick others in the class are riding you double. Way back early in my teaching career I decided I was not going to teach grade schoolers. I profoundly despise babying high school kids. The ball looks so much better in their court than mine. It so often happens, too, that while the kids see my game face, I'm smiling and laughing on the inside. When it's all said and done, they're great." *********** Best fans in the country? I dunno, but South Carolina's have got to be in there somewhere. The Gamecocks have the nation's longest losing streak right now, yet game after game, without fail, 78,000+ show up in Williams-Bruce Stadium to watch them play. What will it be like when they win?
*********** A kid in Gaston, Oregon, where I first coached high school football, was killed early Tuesday morning, just after celebrating his 16th birthday. He was a passenger in a car when a truck coming in the opposite direction hit an elk, sending it flying. It landed on the hood of the car, breaking the windshield, collapsing the roof support on he passenger's side, and crushing the roof. I don't know if you've ever seen an elk, but those suckers are big. Police estimated this one weighed between 1200 and 1500 pounds. |
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THIS
WEEK'S TRIVIA ANSWER: This photo was taken while
TOM NUGENT was head
coach at Maryland, where he served from 1959 through
1965, compiling a record of 36-34. (He was succeeded at
College Park by Lou Saban, who lasted exactly one year
before moving on.) Coach Nugent came to Maryland from
Florida State, which was not then the power that it is
today. In fact, Coach Nugent played a major role in
Florida State's transition from a formerly all-female
institution: he also served as Florida DState's athletic
director, and it was during his tenure there that FSU
first played Florida. Before Florida State, he was head
coach at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) where he is
credited with having invented the I-formation, in 1949. A
1950 VMI upset of mighty Georgia Tech earned Nugent and
his formation some recognition in the South, but it was
not until Bernie Crimmins, a Notre Dame assistant,
visited VMI the following spring that the I-formation
became nationally famous. Coach Nugent later recalled
that he actually staged a spring game just for the
benefit of Coach Crimmins. Crimmins returned to South
Bend with films and notes, and the Irish' successful use
of the I that fall, at a time in those early days of
television when Notre Dame was on the tube almost weekly,
brought the formation to the nation's attention. Although
it became identified with Notre Dame, Irish coach Frank
Leahy wrote an article giving full credit for the
invention to Coach Nugent. It was a "Stack I" from which
Coach Nugent's teams frequently shifted into more
conventional pro sets. Hank Stram's "Offense of the
Future" with which he won a Super Bowl would seem to have
owed a lot of its inventiveness to Coach Nugent. I copied
the Chiefs and ran quite a bit of the Stack I in the
early 70's, often shifting in and out of it but
frequently running from it. Later, I found it to be a
useful gimmick as part of my Delaware Wing-T offense, and
so it wasn't that difficult for me to install it as part
of the Double-Wing attack when I saw what a California
Coach named Jerry Pugh was doing with it. (It's shown and
explained in
*********** USA Today's Christine Brennan was all over Anthony Ervin last week. Ervin, on the outside chance that you're not a rabid swimming fan, is a sophomore at Cal-Berkeley who qualified to represent the US in the Olympics by finishing second in the Olympic trials in the 50 freestyle. He is a rarity in swimming in that he is black - actually, being 3/8 black, he is of mixed race - but what gets him in the doghouse with Ms. Brennan - who, if her photo can be believed, looks to be white - is that he refuses to make a big deal of race. See, he won't cooperate with the media types who insist that he be a pioneer. He jusy wants to be a great swimmer and a good guy. Brennan wrote that she asked Ervin what he thought he symbolized to black children who swam, and Ervin, who seems to prefer to live in the America we all once dreamed of, replied that he'd like to be "a role model for just about anybody." So what's wrong with that? Tsk, tsk, went Ms. Brennan. Those poor black kids. "If only they had a role model." What is this role model crap , anyhow? Why do black kids require black role models? Will those black swimmers sink, now that Anthony Ervin wants to be a role model for all kids? Does this mean that Tiger Woods can't be a role model for white kids? (I won't even bring up the subject of Michael Jordan.) So while I fumed about this attempt by a white liberal media type to tell a young athlete how to live his life, to dragoon Mr. Ervin into being something other than a top swimmer and a good person, I came across a story Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly did on Grambling's Eddie Robinson, back in 1985, shortly after Coach Robinson had passed the great Bear Bryant to become college football's winningest coach. There was some concern at the time about how white southerners would "accept" Coach Bryant's being surpassed by Coach Robinson, a black man who spent his entire career at a historically-black college. No big problem, as it turned out. Coach Robinson was enough of a diplomat to know how to handle that one. There was also some talk about placing an asterisk next to Coach Robinson's name in the record book, since his record had not been built against "big-time" opposition. (Or perhaps, in the eyes of some, because it now belonged to a "black coach?") What Coach Robinson had to say on the subject ought to be required reading for all Americans: "People can do what they want with the record," Coach Robinson told Reilly."They can put an asterisk on it if they want. That's their business. But look, I got my inspiration from all coaches, from college coaches and high school coaches, black and white. I remember Willie Davis would come back and tell me all about Vince Lombardi. Man, that lit fires under me. That got me burnin'. I took my inspiration from the great American coaches - Warner and Stagg. Man, I got to watch the Bear work! And I worked hard, too. I busted my butt. I always knew my part to play, and if my part ended up having something to do with history, then I'm happy. I never let anybody change my faith in this country. All I want is for my story to be an American story, not black and not white. Just American. I want it to belong to everybody." So answer me this, Ms. Brennan: Why can't we honor the wishes of Coach Robinson, an American coach who wanted his story to be "an American story?" Why can't his story, his record and his career "belong to everybody?" Why can't Coach Robinson be a role model for white coaches? Why can't he be a role model for me? Why not, like Anthony Ervin, for "just about anybody?" *********** Three of our children went to Stanford. It is wonderful place. It takes great pride in managing rather successfully to combine top-rate academics with a quality athletic program. Last year, Stanford turned down over 1,000 applicants with perfect (1600) SAT scores. It kicks butt in sports like water polo, but it doesn't do too bad in the major sports, either. I am very high on their basbeall coach, Mark Marques, their basketball coach, Mike Montgomery and their football coach, Tyrone Willingham, who is featured in the latest Sports Ilustrated as a potential NFL head coach. Nice article. But guys... check out page 52, and next time you let an SI photographer into your locker room, have someone look the place over first. Maybe he would have noticed the grammatical error in that little threat on the blackboard: "UCLA your next." *********** ACTUAL VIAGRA AD ON TV: Husband: "We used to make love..." Wife (Interrupting him): "Whenever we wanted." (Me: "What did the people in the 7-11 say?") *********** This is the time of year when the sport of football takes some of its worst hits in the public eye, and it's got to worry those of us who know the way people use the "brutality" issue against us. It's the early days of football practice, and for some reason, the places where it's hottest and most humid seem to start the earliest. So now we occasionally read of that lone youngster, out of the million or so who are playing football, who collapsed during practice and died of heat-related causes. All too often, it is a death that has nothing to do with football's "brutality" and, possibly, something to do with questionable drills and a lack of proper pre-conditioning of athletes. I have no intention of serving as an expert witness for the lawyers who represent the parents of a young man who dies under such circumstances; the death of a young man is a great tragedy for all, and the acrimony of a lawsuit can only make matters worse. But guys, I've been reading about big kids - 250 pounds and up - collapsing after having to run long distances - in high heat and humidity. So what was the point? Thise kids aren't built for long-distance running. And football is not a long distance run. It is a game of brief bursts of intense activity, rarely requiring exertion for much more than 10 seconds. When, during a football game, will a kid be required to do anything closely related to 10 minutes or more of sustained physical effort, in the hot sun, without a pause? Is the purpose of such early-season marathons to "test" kids, to see if they've been running all summer? Is it to punish them if they haven't? Is it to weed kids out? I don't know about you, but I can just look at some big kids and tell you right away there is no way they will be able to run any distance. If you are going to require a kid to do something like that, it seems to me that you have an obligation to make sure that he has first been properly pre-conditioned to perform the activity. It is not enough to give him a handout in May telling him that he'd better be ready. We are the adults here, and we know the nature of kids. That kid is not going to be up and out every morning of the summer on a daily three mile run. Junk these distance runs. Pre-condition your kids for football by having them perform drills and run sprints, going hard for fairly short intervals, then give them time to recover after each drill or sprint. Look carefully for the ones who are starting to have trouble. Get them rest, or shade, or water or all three if necessary. Increase the number of drills and sprints at every workout. Before practice officially begins.. We are talking about the future of our game and your future as a coach - not to mention the most important thing of all, the lives of kids we are entrusted with. (As an example, even though our school district had a no-cut policy requiring us to keep any kid who passed a physical and paid his fees, and our state only stipulated three practice days without pads or contact, I required every player to complete eight pre-conditioning workouts before issuing him pads. We started opening up the gym for workouts three weeks before the official start of practice, and coaches were on hand for morning and evening sessions every day except Sunday. It was not mandatory for players to complete these eight workouts in the pre-season: they knew that they had the option of waiting until football practice officially began, and then doing them early in the morning, before practice. But they also knew that they were not going to be issued gear until they had completed those eight workouts, and that meant they would be behind everyone else until they made up the work. And not too many of them were particularly excited about getting up early and getting in a workout before practice every day, either. Most of our kids figured it out real fast, so when actual practice started, they were prepared for the rigors of football, No one stumbled or staggered or puked out there on the first day. They knew they had paid a price to become a part of things. And, almost as important as the safety factor, because kids who are hot and tired and sore have trouble paying attention, our kids were better able to learn.) *********** This week's edition of Monday Night Football had its moments. Humor: "The referee has to put in a token to get that thing going," said Dennis Miller, talking about the instant-replay machine. Sucking up: "The great man has come into our booth," said Al Michaels (he really said that), bowing in obeisance to very rich and very powerful former Dolphins' owner Wayne Huizenga. A couple of very strong arguments for doing away with the whole concept of the sideline reporter: Melissa Starke and Eric Dickerson. The perky Ms. Starke, tastefully dressed (that is, if she was auditioning for a place with the Dolphins' Star Brights), chatted away about what Jimmy Johnson is doing these days, right over the action on the field, which happened to be a dropped 4th-and-short Dolphin pass; Dickerson, who got the job with no apparent qualifications and gets worse by the week, should be put on waivers before the regular season starts, and could have spent the evening up in the stands, doing viewers a favor by circulating a petition to give his job to Solomon Wilcots. *********** I'd heard so much about some supposed "brotherhood" that existed all over the world, uniting American submariners with their Russian counterparts, that I had to call my son-in-law, Rob Tiffany, in Houston. Rob served on a "boomer" - a nuclear missile sub - and was stationed at Bangor, Washington when he met my daughter, Cathy. The job of Boomers is basically to cruise the world's oceans, silently and undetected, keeping us safe by letting the creep nations believe that they are toast if they make a false move against us (unless, of course, they've made a sizeable donation to the DNC). The job of "fast attack" subs, such as the "Kursk," the ill-fated Russian sub in which more than 100 Russian sailors met an untimely death, is to locate boomers, hunt them down, and, if necessary, kill them. I asked Rob if he really felt the kind of "kinship" with the Russians that the touchy-feely commentators said bound all submariners together. Having spent as much as two months at a time underwater, making sure not even to cough too loud for fear of being detected by a Russian fast attack sub such as the Kursk, he was sorry about the tragedy, but he still saw the Russians ("my Slavic brothers," he said snidely) as the enemy.
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*********** "Coach- We started practice this week and we have some big kids. Our 7th and 8th graders average over 200 pounds on the line. In our league, anyone who is eligible to touch the ball must be under 140 pounds. Unfortunately, our linemen are as fast as our backs. Fortunately, we should be able to grind out drives all year long. I don't think we will score as many TD's as last year but I suspect we will win our share. I also think that other teams are going to know they were in a game after playing us. "I let one of our 5th/6th coaches borrow the DW tape I received last year. He thought it was too complicated for his guys. I explained to him that he just needs to run the base plays and the kids would pick it up easily. A few days later he told me that he had researched the DW on the internet and that his initial assessment was wrong. In other words, I think we got another convert.
*********** It appears as though March 31, Cesar Chavez' birthday, will become a state holiday in California. Actually, it sounds more like a clever attempt to suck up to state employees, who pick up another paid holiday at taxpayers' expense. Meanwhile, the late farm workers' family says Chavez himself would have preferred that the money the holiday will cost taxpayers be spent on farm workers, who as it stands now won't be getting the day off. School kids aren't likely to be too excited about their new "holiday," either: they'll be expected to spend the morning learning about Mr. Chavez, and the afternoon performing "community service."
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*********** It's your money, but... Over the years, I have paid thousands in union dues. And received zero in return. Our union, the Washington "cell" of the National Education Association, stood idly by while our state adopted a statewide salary scale, then remained in idle while Washington plummeted from top-ten in average teacher pay to middle-of-the-pack. Not that the Union wasn't doing something. There was always money to build new offices, and to lobby legislators and support political candidates, so long as they were Democrats (and then the NEA whined when Republicans captured the statehouse and didn't support them). And there was always some union publication trying to tell me what my opinion should be on gun control, abortion, gender equity, school prayer, sex education, gay rights, library censorship and so forth, and there was always union (members') money to donate to those causes. And there was almost some union rep standing by to take up the grievance of some sorry-ass teacher who couldn't maintain discipline in her class and would have been canned years ago in any other line of work. But once - just once - when I believed I was wrongfully terminated (still do), when after eight years I was "non-renewed" as a coach and given no reason for the action, the one time I needed help, I was told, "sorry-y-y-y-y-y. There's nothing we can do for coaches." Basically, I was told, you coaches are on your own. So perhaps you'll cut me a little slack when I say I'd like to see the National Education Association - Clinton's and Gore's best friend - stuffed somewhere. Either cut out the "Education Association" crap and be a real, honest-to-God union with stones - the Teamsters come immediately to mind - or leave me and my dues money alone. Did I say "dues money?" Last month, it was reported by the Boston Globe that the NEA "spends 10 times as much of its budget on political activity ($34.7 million) as on ensuring excellence in public education ($3.3 million) or improving professional standards and working conditions for all educational employees ($3 million)." By "political activity," the Globe means that the NEA is one of the largest contributors to the Democratic Party. 356 delegates of the 4,000 or so at the Democratic convention were NEA representatives; no doubt their week in Los Angeles "serving you" was paid for with your dues. In other words, if you are a teacher, that hose sticking out of your back pocket is sucking money fout of your wallet and pumping it into Democratic pockets. *********** "Coach, I have watched your tackling video several times. I really like it. What I like best about it is that it reinforces many of the ideas and techniques I already use in football. It is nice to know that I am not alone in many of my ideas. I really like the theme of getting kids over the fear of hitting. That has become more of a concern with me over the years. It is strange how one's coaching philosophy changes as they age. Is your defense as good as your offense? Have you ever considered adding defense to your website? Best Regards. Bryan Oney, Norwalk, Ohio" (Coach, my teams don't play bad defense. I guess you could call what we play a "Bluegrass" defense because its roots are in Kentucky, inspired in part by Coach Jimmy Feix and the Split 4 he ran at Western Kentucky and in part by Coach Jerry Claiborne, best known for what he did at Maryland, but who learned his wide-tackle six defense from Coach Bryant while a player at Kentucky and later as an assistant. I will give your idea some thought.) *********** This weeks "flush 'em" award goes to two UC Davis football players, one of them the likely starting quarterback, suspended for coming up with a unique fund-raiser. Police arrested them for a number of violations, including confronting a couple on the streets of Davis and demanding a $5 donation to the football program. (Kids- don't try this at home!)
*********** Twice last week I received the same e-mail from an anxious coach. Eager to get some materials, he had sent his order by Airborne Express, but twice, they had told him it was "undeliverable to that address." Now, FedEx, UPS, the US Postal Service and Domino's Pizza are able to find my place, but not the Airborne Express driver. Finally, after those two abortive tries, we received a call at 7 AM Monday morning from Airborne Express, telling us that the driver "can't seem to find your place." Well, duh. So my wife very politely gave the caller directions. If I had answered the phone, I wouldn't have been so polite. I'd have suggested that the driver on those two earlier missions might have considered doing what my wife always tells me to do when she suspects I might be lost (even though I never am) - get out and ask directions. (Which I never do.) *********** Anybody else snicker when the Democrats claimed to be aghast at the idea of holding a fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion, because Hugh Hefner - get ready for this, you Clinton-lovers out there - "exploits women?" *********** I spoke on the phone last week with Rich Ottley, coach at Lincoln County High in Panaca, Nevada, and when he learned that I was in Wells, Nevada at the time, he informed me that his team had lost to Wells in last year's semi-finals. He said he suspected he might have a few problems with Wells' Double-Wing when he began preparing for the game. Coach Ottley had actually been running the Double-Wing himself on his JV team, so he figured at least he'd get a good look from his scout team offense. But when his JV's lined up and on their first play ran 2-Wedge, and gained eight yards... *********** "Coach; We won handily last night 35-0 over Gibson Southern. Had about 380 yards rushing. Almost a perfect night, but we messed up and threw the ball 2 times! Very good game for our kids." Paul Maier, Mount Vernon, Indiana (Coach Maier starts his second year as Wildcats' head coach with a big win.) *********** Hey Coach.Hope all is well for you and your team.Well we have had one official scrimmage and one benefit game.Scrimmage we won 11 to 1.Game we won 46 to 0.Doing it just like you taught us.I'll keep you posted.Coach A.Castro(Roanoke,Va.) *********** "First of all we won 21-0, we scored on 47 Criss Cross, 7X Corner(it worked great from inside the 20) & Tight Rip 2 Red. The 2 wedge was devastating..5 yds a pop... we pulled off 46 Plays in a regulation time Pop Warner game..Not Bad... " I used your wristband idea...what a timesaver... the most plays we ran last year was 38 plays in a 32-6 win. I am here to testify, the wristband for the offense WORKS!! No confusion with the shuttling in/out of plays..Just wonderful!!. "Total Offense 232 Yds 166 Rushing 66 Yds Passing 3-5 Completions, no Int. We ran Slot Rip 6G...Just one word for this play...DEADLY!! "We ran Mostly Tight the first half and came back unbalanced the second half, we need a little more work on that... Overall I was very pleased... The parents were ecstatic with the offense. I have to send you the Video of the TR 47C Lead Criss Cross..It was sheer perfection.. "Be well..& once again, Many thanks Hugh. Coach Christian Thomas" - Cypress Chargers Pop Warner, Cypress, California *********** Hearty congratulations to the team from Eloy, Arizona that "won" the Senior Little League "girls'" softball tournament in Kalamazoo - with five boys in the lineup. Bet they'll really be whooping it up on the streets of Eloy over this monumental win. Course, they "won" two of their games, including the final, by forfeit, when coaches of all-girls teams refused to play them. (See, they thought this was a girls' tournament.) But still, I'll bet those Arizona coaches are really proud of what they've accomplished. I mean, this is America, isn't it, where it doesn't matter how you win, as long as you win? Bet those young fellers are proud of themselves, too. So they were playing with girls. So what? They won, didn't they? Isn't that the only thing that matters? Hey, folks - we're not talking little girls. Or little boys. Those five boys playing on that Arizona team were 16 years old! By that age, boys are a lot bigger, faster, stronger and a lot more aggressive than girls. I'm sorry, but there's something wrong with those boys if they take any pride in what they've done. How can they? It's as sporting as jacklighting deer. What kind of parents would allow their sons to take part in a stunt like that? What kind of a community would stand by and let such a team represent it? Did its merchants donate money so that this farce could be carried out? Doesn't anybody in that town have any shame? And those Arizona coaches - they sound like one of the lamer bunches I've ever heard of. First they tried the "fairness" excuse. You know - "girls play football, so why can't boys play girls' sports?" To which I would throw the old "two wrongs don't make a right" cliche back at them. Ever heard of sportsmanship? Of taking the high road? Hey, just because soccer coaches let their players act like jerks, does that mean football coaches should do the same? Just because everybody in the world is doing the wrong thing, that still doesn't make it right. Their second excuse was even better: there was no team for those poor boys to play on, and there was a shortage of girls, so... To which I respond: tough. That's the way life is, sometimes. If there was no team for those 16-year-old boys to play on and a shortage of boys on the 11- and 12-year-old boys' team, I suppose it would have occured to those geniuses to "solve" the two "problems" by letting the older kids play on the little kids' team. No team for the boys? A shortage of girls? I suggest they get off their dead asses back in Eloy and go out and round up some sponsors and get a team for 16-year-old boys and a developmental program for younger girls. Oh - and leave the trophy back in Kalamazoo - for one of those teams that went there to play in a girls' tournament. *********** Does this sound familiar? A coaching friend in the Midwest writes, "We have been plagued in our pre-game practices by parents who ground their kids. Allow them to stay home sick." There they go, overparenting again.
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TRIVIA
QUESTION: Now that I've spotted you Jim Marshall
(article, August 17), can you name the other three Purple
People Eaters? (Left)
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***********
Most Americans have never heard of Allen Pitts.
Too bad. The Calgary Stampeder slotback caught nine
passes Wednesday night to become the Canadian Football
League's all-time leading receiver with 920 career
receptions. In his 11th CFL season - and his 11th with
the Stampeders - Pitts is now the CFL leader in career
receptions, yards receiving and touchdowns receiving, as
well as most 100-yard receiving games (he had 125 yards
receiving Wednesday night) and most games catching at
least one touchdown pass. Pitts played his college ball
at Fullerton State, which, sadly, no longer plays
football. (Thanks for the tip to Kyle Wagner, Edmonton,
Alberta, who sent me the tip in the spirit of true
sportsmanship, because he is definitely NOT a Calgary
fan.)
*********** Minnesota Vikings' great Jim Marshall, who never missed a game during a 20-year NFL career - 19 with the Vikings - has cancer. ``It's true; it's serious,'' Marshall told Charley Walters, of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The cancer was diagnosed nine months ago, but Marshall, 62, making it clear he is not interested in anyone's sympathy, had told only close friends. Finally, when rumors recently began to surface, he confirmed the diagnosis to Walters, while requesting that the type of cancer remain confidential. Marshall a defensive end and member of the famed Purple People Eaters defensive front line under coach Bud Grant, played in 409 straight games, counting exhibitions and playoffs. His number 70 has been retired by the Vikings, but perhaps because he was overshadowed by some even better-known teammates on those great Vikings' teams, he has yet to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Marshall is scheduled go to the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to consider various treatment options. ``It's one of those things that we're faced with today,'' Marshall told Walters. ``I've got some options, and I plan on exercising those options. There's chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It seems to have spread to the bone. Right now I'm in the process of choosing a method of treatment that might be available to me at this stage.'' Marshall has not allowed the cancer to slow him down. He has been active in Life's Missing Link, a non-profit organization that aids troubled youngsters, and when he spoke with Walters, he was in Albany, N.Y., working through the NFL Alumni Association to raise funds for his organization. When asked if he has ever been afraid, Marshall told Walters, ``I have been afraid of some things in my life, but I really can't think of anything, can't single anything out. But fear seems to kind of invoke my survival instincts, and I concentrate more on what I need to do to overcome whatever's happening.
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LAST
DAY: Ohio State will retire the numbers of two of its
Heisman Trophy winners, the number 31 of Vic Janowicz,
and the number 40 of Howard "Hopalong" Cassady. They
become only the second and third men to be so honored at
Ohio State. Who was the first - and until recently, the
only - Buckeye to have had his number (45) retired? HINT:
He is the only man to have won TWO Heisman Trophies!
FURTHER HINT: He played in the NFL for the Cincinnati
Bengals, and has a brother who wasn't too bad, either.
ANSWER: Archie Griffin was called "the
greatest football player I've ever coached" by Woody
Hayes, who coached a few pretty good ones at Ohio State.
In his college career, Archie rushed for 5,176 yards,
with a run of 31 consecutive games of 100 yards or more.
He was a model of the old-time football player, modest,
unselfish and not given to drawing attention to himself.
His actions spoke eloquently for him. Everybody knew what
a great football player Archie Griffin was, so Coach
Hayes frequently spoke, instead, about what a great
person he was, always giving credit to Mr. and Mrs.
Griffin, the mother and father who raised him and shaped
him. (Archie's brother, Ray, was also an outstanding
football player at Ohio State.) In 1986, Archie was voted
into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of
Fame, and he now serves as Associate Director of
Athletics at Ohio State. ANSWERED BY: Adam
Wesoloski- DePere, Wisconsin... Joe Daniels- Sacramento,
California... Kevin McCullough- Lakeville, Indiana ----
Sam Knopik, Moberly, Missouri --- Ron Timson- Umatilla,
Florida--- Jon McLaughlin- Olympia Fields, Illinois---
Dan King- Evans, Georgia... Greg LaBoissonniere-
Coventry, Rhode Island... Dwayne Pierce- Washington,
D.C.... Tom Hensch- Staten Island, New York.., John
Torres- Manteca, California... John Reardon- Peru,
Illinois... Ted Brown- Boothbay Harbor, Maine... Mark
Kaczmarek- Davenport, Iowa... Kyle Wagner- Edmonton,
Alberta... Glade Hall- Seattle, Washington...Paul Herzog-
North St. Paul, Minnesota ("I didn't answer right away, I
thought everyone would know instantly.")... Pete Smolin-
Pasadena, California... Greg Stout- Thompson's Station,
Tennessee... Bruce Eien- Los Angeles... Whit Snyder-
Baytown, Texas... Mark Hundley- Columbus, Ohio... Jim
Kuhn- Greeley, Colorado... Steve Staker- Fredericksburg,
Iowa... Al Andrus- Salt Lake City, Utah...
What to do? I might suggest tearing out all the seats in the stadiums and replacing them with folding lawn chairs, but I won't. Why should I? They came up with an even stupider idea of their own. Check their web site if you don't believe me. They're conducting a poll right now. (www.mlsnet.com in case you want to vote.) What's it all about? They're going to turn this whole attendance thing around by redesigning the ball, for crying out loud. Now, that's going to pack 'em in! Everywhere I go, I keep running into people who say how much they would enjoy going out to watch a good, exciting 1-0 (that's "one-nil") soccer match, if only it weren't for "that ball."
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*********** It was Mike Muniz who arranged for a me to put on a combination practice/clinic for his brother's Pop Warner Pee-Wee (9-10-11-year-old) team in Sparks, Nevada last week. Mike is a career youth coach. So is his brother, Milton. So, too, at various times have been brothers Mark and Marvin. The Muniz brothers, needless to say, are well known in Sparks. Mike, a career military man who is now employed by the Nevada Air National Guard, fell in love with the Double-Wing in the off-season, but he is devoting this season to being equipment manager for the entire 430+ player Sparks Pop Warner organization, so he sold brother Milton on running it with his team. Milton and his chief assistant, Dan Gettings, were familiar with the offense, and many of their kids had already seen my video, so they turned the practice over to me, and we got right to work installing plays, two offensive units at a time, as the Sparks coaches joined in. For me, it was smooth going, largely because the kids were unusually attentive and focused. When I called for a volunteer, I would get a half-dozen. When I asked a question, hands shot up. When I corrected a youngster, he made the correction and got on with it. The reason was obvious: Milt is a no-nonsense guy. He has high standards and expectations, and the kids all know what they are. Fun is a part of the whole deal, of course, but the coaching was businesslike and the kids responded to the coaches' touch. I felt as though I had been transported back in time to a day when coaches could actually let kids know when they made a mistake, without being afraid of reducing them to tears. Mike, meanwhile, stood back in his fatigues watching practice and eating his heart out. He has aspirations of coaching high school ball when he retires in a couple of years, and I hope I was encouraging when I told him of several men I know who have done just that. Ron Timson, in Umatilla, Florida and Nick Mygas, in Virginia Beach are two of them. I have a feeling that Mike, who is quite knowledgeable about the Double-Wing, will find a way to help Milt once he gets the equipment situation under control. Milt couldn't possibly turn down Mike's offer to help, because he owes Mike one: years ago, when they were growing up in Fresno, Mike, then an 18-year-old high school senior, took eight-year-old Milton by the hand and, unbeknownst to their parents, signed him up to play Pop Warner football. And when Milton threatened to quit, Mike wouldn't let him. *********** During my recent swing through Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Northern California, it was hard to ignore the forest fires sweeping the West. We saw large fires near Mountain Home, Idaho and, later, near Lovelock, Nevada; charred land in several other places served as evidence of earlier fires that had swept through. One football player at Wells, Nevada, told me that half the land on his family's ranch had burned - some 25,000 acres! There were firefighters everywhere. Several of them had been camped on the football field at Wells, and a semi-trailer had peeled off a strip of sod as it pulled off the field, leaving a nasty trench a yard or so wide, from the 10 yard line out to about the 40. When the firefighters offered to repair the damage, some genius settled for having it filled it with sand, creating a rather unsafe condition. Nice grass fields are at a premium in desert country, so the football team also practices on the game field, and the frustrated Wells coaches wondered how they were going to manage to avoid injury. Until Dan Kessler showed up, that is. Dan is the dad of Wells quarterback Mark Kessler. Until his recent retirement, Dan was General manager of the local rural electric utility, and he is a man who can get things done. He started the youth football program in town, and spearheaded the effort to get lights for the high school football field. So when he showed up at practice one afternoon, took one look at the sand trap running down the field, and said, "This is B---S---!" I somehow knew that everything was going to be all right. *********** On the Joe Paterno-Rashard Casey matter, Mike McGovern, sports columnist for the Reading Eagle, writes, "Last week, on a call-in show that passes for sports-talk radio, the host conducted an informal poll about Penn State's handling of the Rashard Casey situation. By the time I got out of the car, the result was 12 in favor and one against coach Joe Paterno's decision to allow Casey to play. (This overwhelming approval -- by Penn State fans calling a Pennsylvania radio show -- was about as surprising as polling Nebraska fans about their favorite color and finding out it's red.)" McGovern doubts that the outcome of the poll would have been the same if the callers had been voting on the fate of a starting quarterback at Florida State, or Michigan, or Notre Dame, or Ohio State who faced similar charges. "Guaranteed," he writes, "if Bobby Bowden or Lloyd Carr or Bob Davie or John Cooper allowed his quarterback to play, most Penn State fans would be howling in outrage that such behavior by an athlete was condoned." (Thanks to my niece, Bonnie Wyatt, who lives in Reading, for the article)
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*********** Philadelphia Eagles' Pro Bowl cornerback Troy Vincent was spied by the Atlantic City Press' David Weinberg leaving the field after a recent practice and headed toward the locker room, when he heard some kids, standing behind a fence 100 yards or so away, calling his name. "Jump the fence," he called to them, "and come on over here!'' "We're not allowed,'' the kids hollered back "Jump the fence," he told them again. "It's OK. Tell them I said it's OK.'' The kids did as he suggested, but were quickly intercepted by security. But as they were being shown to the gate, Vincent and Eagles fullback Cecil Martin jogged over to them them and spent about 15 minutes signing autographs and talking with them. "Whenever that kind of situation comes up, I always think about my 4-year-old son,'' said Vincent, a married man and father of a daughter and two sons. "I saw those kids standing out there for hours just to wait for me, and there was no way I was going to let them down.'' Quarterback Donovan McNabb, the Eagles' most popular player if the number of kids wearing his number 5 jersey is any indication, also goes out of his way to sign autographs. Weinberg says McNabb will spend as much as an hour after practice with fans, signing until his hand gets tired. (He signs left-handed, but throws right-handed.)
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*********** "Hugh, Just finished reading your "news page" and could not help thinking about coach Rogerson. I had just been hired as the head football coach at Old Town High School, a community just down the road from the UMO ( University of Maine Orono). Orono high School was our big rival and coach Rogerson had a son who played for them - a real fine player. Anyway, I called him to get some help with the Wing - T we were running. He spent an entire afternoon with me reviewing film and talking about the Wing-T. He was a perfect coach giving of his time from his own busy schedule to help the new coach down the road. It would have been very easy for him to ignore a new high school coach especially during that time of the year and him being the head coach of the state university. However he was not that kind of man and the lesson he taught by example that day by helping me is one I never forgot. His untimely death was a real tragedy. (Coach Rogerson died of a heart attack while jogging, the summer before his first season as head coach at Princeton.) He was a real gentleman and is still remembered by many in this state." Jack Tourtillotte, Boothbay Harbor, Maine *********** In a recent Wall Street Journal, Walter S. Mossberg, the Journal's technology editor, wrote a column of interest to anyone contemplating buying a computer for the purpose of video editing. He tested and reviewed the Sony VAIO J100, calling it "the least expensive computer I've seen ($799 after rebate) with both a camcorder port and a video-editing program built in." For example, the lowest-priced comparable iMac sells for $999. No contest, right? Wrong. Like iMacs, the Sony has the FireWire connection (that's what Apple calls it; Sony calls it iLink, and generically it's known as 1394) that allows you to hook up a digital camera to your computer and exchange data back and forth. Like iMacs, the Sony works with digital cameras only. Like iMac's iMovie software, Sony's video editing program, called Movie Shaker - which comes bundled with all Sony VAIO computers - allows you to gather scenes in the computer, where you can then eliminate unwanted scenes, crop scenes (trim them to the desired length), rearrange their sequence, and add titles, transitions (the way one scene changes to another) and audio. However, says Mr. Mossberg, for some reason, , unlike Mac's iMovie, you can't import video directly from your camera into your computer, and you can't export an edited production directly back to your camera. (At which point I would ask, then why bother? An iMac with iMovie does both with no problem.) All Movie Shaker does, he says, is create files on your computer. (And lemme tell you, those files can get to be humongous!) Says Mr. Mossberg, "I think it's significantly inferior to the original version of iMovie, let alone the newer version 2 Apple just released."
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TRIVIA
QUESTION: He is a present-day Big
Ten coach*, but when this picture was taken, prior
to the1963 season, he was an outstanding 230-pound Big
Sky Conference tackle for Montana
State's first-year coach Jim Sweeney (* HINT: it
is not Joe Paterno). He has made his team competitive
with an offensive style of play sometimes derisively
called "grass basketball."
*********** Sunday, I talked with my high school coach, Ed Lawless. He's been retired for some time now, but he's quite sharp, with a great sense of humor, and it's always interesting to get his slant on things. This time he mentioned watching the Pacers play the Lakers, and seeing Dick Harter on the Pacers' bench next to Larry Bird. As athletic director at Germantown Academy, Ed gave Harter his first coaching job. In the mid-70's, Harter's "Kamikaze Kids" brought an excitement to University of Oregon basketball that hasn't been seen there since. (But give the Ducks' Ernie Kent a chance.) Come to think of it, we had some decent basketball coaches at GA: Harter succeeded George Davidson, who went on to coach at Lafayette College; and Davidson succeeded Jack McCloskey, who went on to coach at Penn and Wake Forest before winding up in the NBA as the GM who put together the Pistons' "Bad Boys" dynasty. When I told Ed that Ken Keuffel had retired at Lawrenceville School, he reminisced about the time GA and Lawrenceville met, in 1957, and GA won the battle of the single wings, 3-0. Ed said that as he walked across the field after the game to shake hands, he thought back to ten years before, when Ken played at Princeton and Ed played at Penn, and Ken's last-second field goal upset the unbeaten Quakers and knocked them out of the Top Ten. As they shook hands at midefield, Ken said, "You SOB. I knew you'd get back at me." *********** A year or so ago, Pitt's AD told anyone who would listen that he had decided that he wanted Pitt to be referred to as Pittsburgh. More dignified, I guess. Army is ditching its mule mascot in favor of a knight on horseback, and calling its teams the Black Knights, rather than the Cadets. There is some precedent to those moves. What happens, though, when Hawaii tries to do something similar? Look out. Hawaii, whose football program is definitely on the climb with June Jones at the controls, is getting hammered by homosexuals and those in the news media who like to make themselves appear enlightened and educated by supporting homosexual causes. Why? Because Hawaii has expressed a wish to be known henceforth as the Warriors. No more "Rainbow" Warriors. The "Rainbow" bit, you see, is often associated with homosexuality. Hawaii AD Hugh Yoshida admitted as much when in an unguarded moment he told Honolulu's KGMB, "That logo (of the Rainbow Warrior) really puts a stigma on our program at times in regards to it's part of the gay community, their flags and so forth. Some of the student athletes had some feelings in regards to that." Also, it has been reported, some recruits. Had it not been for Mr. Yoshida's remarks, the change might have slipped by without incident. All it would have taken was some lame-ass explanation. As it is now, though, it is being called bigoted. "It sends a very bad message, " said Ken Miller, co-chairman of Honolulu's Gay and Lesbian Community Center, "not only to the students but the athletes who happen to be gay and struggling with that issue." Yep, Mr. Miller. It sure does. *********** Be very careful if someone asks you if you'd like to go see a movie, and "The Broken Hearts Club" is showing. All of its characters are gay.
*********** Jim Hawn, a youth coach in northwest Philadelphia, is busy scrambling for sponsors. He needs more uniforms, and so does the rest of his organization. Last year, he had 23 kids on his 75-pound team; this year, he has 60 kids out, allowing him to field both a "varsity" and a "jv " team. The entire organization, the Wissahickon Athletic Association, with 235 kids out compared with 155 last year, expects to field seven teams, from 55 pounds up through 105. All will run the Double-Wing.
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*********** I fly a lot, and over the last year or so, I've noticed that I'd get off a plane after a long flight and I'd have a splitting headache. Now, when you live in the upper left-hand corner, near Portland, Oregon, every flight is a long flight, so I've had a lot of headaches. I've tried everything - giving up reading on planes to avoid eyestrain, drinking only bottled water, wearing loose clothing, avoiding beer the night before and, of course, during a flight, wearing one of those inflatable neck cushions, using nasal sprays, etc., etc. I've read a lot lately about the cruddy air in planes and figured maybe that was it. Didn't matter - what are you going to do if you don't like the air in an airplane - hold your breath? And then, while visiting from Durham, North Carolina, my son-in-law Rob Love told me he'd taken to wearing ear plugs when flying. Doggone! I picked up some earplugs in the airport before flying to to the East last week. No problems. I couldn't remember when I'd felt better getting off a plane. Coming home, same thing - I got off the plane at midnight Pacific after having been up since six AM Eastern - and I felt great. Perhaps the headaches have been owing to the fact that although eventually you grow accustomed to the constant roar of the jet engines, they are nevertheless pounding on your eardrums the entire flight. |
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*********** "All this negativity that's in this town sucks," said Boston Celtics' Rick Pitino in a fit of temper following a game last season. Some would say he has a point. During last spring's McDonald's All-Star game in Boston's Fleet Center - successor to the Boston Garden - a 7-foot-6 high school basketball player from nearby Worcester missed a dunk. His effort was rewarded by boos from the crowd of over 18,000. Says the Patriots quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, "There is a sense in Boston that it's almost something to take pride in to be nasty." Former Red Sox relief pitcher Dick Radatz remembers Boston as "the greatest place to play if you win and the toughest if you lose." Once the American League's top relief pitcher, Radatz recalls how as a rookie he had gone more than 20 innings without allowing a run. Until finally, when he was brought in against the Yankees with the base loaded, Moose Skowron managed barely to get his bat on a ball and sneak it through the infield, knocking in the tying and winning runs. Radatz was roundly booed as he walked off the mound, and when he arrived in the dugout, veteran third baseman Frank Malzone said to him, "Tough town, huh kid?" |
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*********** Following are the first three paragraphs of Coach Dana X. Bible's "Championship Football," (Prentice-Hall, 1947). Written at a time when all those "Greatest Generation" guys had just returned from fighting World War II, and now, older and harder, were attending college on the G.I. Bill and kicking some serious ass on the football fields of America, it is just as true of our sport today as it was then. Show it to your principal or A.D. the next time they start hinting about "all those guys walking the halls who ought to be playing football." "As the name implies, this is to be a book about football. That means it will be a book about individual techniques and skills,team maneuvers and coaching problems. It will concern offense and defense - blocking and tackling. it will stress headwork, footwork, teamwork and HARD WORK. |
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*********** Famous advertising executive Jerry Della Femina, writing in the Wall Street Journal, chimed in with his observations on air travel, which, in case you haven't flown lately, rates several Hoovers (for suction). On checking your bags: "The next question is a doozy. 'Has your luggage been out of your sight since you packed it?' Now what kind of a question is that? Who do you know who'd say no, and miss his plane? Often, I want to say, 'As a matter of fact, I rode here, with my suitcases, in the trunk of a cab.'" On getting through security: "the woman who is supposed to study that X-ray machine pays no attention at all to the screen. Instead, she talks up a storm - in a language you've never heard before - to a colleague 10 feet away. Is that your underwear or an Uzi going through the machine? No one knows. No one cares." He offers the airlines a tongue-in-cheek plan to permit them to squeeze even more of us on board: "I suggest they rip out all the seats from their planes. On a 757, say, which has 188 seats, they can then install about 300 hooks on the ceiling. Instead of 188 seated travelers, they can have 300 harnessed passengers, all suspended from those hooks. Of course, hanging for hours can be a tad uncomfortable. So for an extra $600, a passenger can have a first-class harness, upholstered with imitation bunny fur for the ultimate in armpit comfort." |
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*********** In Garrison Keilor's fictional town of Lake Woebegon, "all the children are above average." That seems to be true of America's colleges, too. According to an article by Ben Wildavsky in US News and World Report, America's students are working less - but earning better grades. And feeling a lot better about themselves! Researchers at UCLA asked 261,217 college freshmen at 462 colleges and junior colleges to answer questions about their political views, study habits, extracurricular activities, and so forth, and found that as high school students they earned record numbers of A's. This year, more than 34 percent of them reported having earned an A average in high school, compared with just 12.5 percent in 1969. Meantime, the C has become as scarce as the A once was: just 12 percent of the freshmen surveyed had earned C averages in high school, down from 32.5 percent in 1969. Students smarter than they used to be? Hardly, says Linda Sax, director of the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute's annual freshman survey. Instead, what we are witnessing is something commonly called grade inflation: higher grades for the same - or even lesser - quality work. "We don't think this grade inflation is happening because these students are getting any smarter," Sax says. "There are no other indicators that would suggest that students' level of achievement has gone up over the past 30 years." In fact, the College Board, which administers the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) reported last year that those rising grades were accompanied by a drop in SAT scores. The higher grades reported certainly didn't come from harder work. Just 31.5 percent of the students surveyed said that they spent six or more hours weekly doing homework or studying in their senior year of high school, down from 33 percent last year and 44 percent when the question was first asked in 1987. Over 36 percent of the freshmen said they overslept and missed a class or an appointment in the past year &endash; nearly double the figure of 1968, and evidence that the phenomenon of "senioritis" seems on its way to being established as an American institution. "Among a large group of students," says Cynthia Rudrud, principal of Cactus High School in Glendale, Arizona, "there's this perception that senior year should be the easy year: 'You've earned it,' " seems to be the attitude of students - and their parents - she says. One result of grade inflation is that the much-maligned SAT is not likely to go away any time soon, because grade inflation in the high schools means that the high school GPA means less and less in evaluating college applicants. As College Board research director Wayne Camara points out, "If you've got 100 openings . . . and you've got 300 applicants with a 4.0 average, it's very difficult to use grades as the sole criterion." UCLA's Sax speculates, "It seems that teachers are feeling some pressure not to give students esteem-damaging low grades." The eseteem-protection seems to be working - students may know less, but they don't know that they don't know: nearly 59 percent of the freshmen rated their scholastic abilities as "above average" or in the top 10 percent. Not that the colleges, which do so much comlaining about grade inflation in the high schools, are themselves blameless: Arthur Levine, president of Columbia University's Teachers College, says his surveys show that enormous grade inflation has hit the nation's colleges, as well. *********** Father Theodore Hesburgh was interviewed on Public TV last week. He was in Washington, D.C. to receive a great award, and although at first I was suspicious of another Clinton stunt to buff his own tarnished image, this award came from Congress. It's called the Congressional Gold Medal. Father Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987, is a great American and highly-deserving of such recognition. In his lifetime he has been involved in first-hand in trying to resolve the conflict in a major college between its high academic aspirations and the big-time sports programs that "represent" it; he has worked at the highest levels on behalf of civil rights; he has served our nation as a diplomat. He is a brilliant, highly articulate man who reflects the strong religious and academic training he advocates, and when Father Hesburgh speaks, I stop whatever I am doing and listen. Now 83 years old, he said in the interview that he had delivered perhaps 140 commencement addresses in his lifetime, and that more and more, he focuses his talk on the "Three C's" : Compassion, Competence and Commitment. Compassion, he said, is wonderful - no one questions that - but too many people are content to stop there. It is enough for them that they feel your pain. And that's as far as it goes. But not for Father Hesburgh. "Compassion of itself, " he said, "doesn't get you anywhere." What the world needs, he said, is not compassionate people - which our touchy-feely educators seem to be doing a fine job of turning out - but rather, compassionate people who are also competent and committed. "The world is full of people who are compassionate," he said, "but they don't do anything about it." To do something about it, he said, one must be competent. Which often requires hard work and an education. And then, one has to be committed to doing something about it. The interesting thing about comitment is that what we often view as apathy is really a lack of commitment. It is apathy, Father Hesburgh suggests, that causes us to stand by and allow all manner of unmentionable things to occur. We may pause and observe, and even feel someone's pain - we are, of course, compassionate - but then we get back to our own lives. Above all, he said, "we should never lose our ability to be outraged." (Even, I might add, if that means being less "accepting" and more "judgmental.") |
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*********** TODAY'S SAFETY TIP: From the law-enforcement folks in Washington County, Oregon, after the recent drowning of two non-swimmers who waded into the deep waters of a lake: "People who can't swim should wear life preservers when they go swimming." |
*********** Bet you didn't know this is BLT season. That means bacon, lettuce and tomato, as in sandwich. I now know this, because I read in the Wall Street Journal the other day that BLT season hits in July, and creates a large demand for bacon. This is important, I guess, if you invest in pork bellies futures (I don't). Why July, and not sooner? Because, genius, to make a BLT you have to wait until the tomatoes ripen! *********** "The offenses I see are all so stereotyped and each team looks like a mirror of the next team." No, it's not Hugh Wyatt, year 2000. It's Bennie Friedman, old-time pro quarterback and operator of QB camps for kids, talking about the NFL - in 1969. |
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*********** "I enjoyed your "rant" (about losing the hot dog-eating championship to a Japanese competitor - on July 4th, yet) but wish to point out that Americans have done well in traditional Japanese pursuits. The main example is Akebono, a Hawaiian, who became Yokuzuna (Grand Champion for Life) in that most traditional of Japanese pursuits, Sumo. At 6 foot 9 inches and 570 pounds, Akebono dwarfs other wrestlers and, in the Sumo tradition, is very humble. I lived in Japan when Akebono was rising through the ranks. The fact that he was not Japanese was thought to have been too great an obstacle to overcome to become Yokuzuna. He overcame it by beating everyone. The avid Japanese Sumo fans experienced far greater angst over an American becoming Sumo Grand Champion than many hotdog eaters now feel. So we can maintain a small measure of national pride vs. Japan. Football starts August 14th. I can't wait! Regards, Keith Babb, Northbrook, Illinois" |
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July 3-4 - "I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign states; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies." William Tyler Page, "The American's Creed," adopted by the House of Representatives, April 3, 1918 (and seriously in need of re-adoption, July 4, 2000)
***********The top 50 per cent of American wage-earners pay 95 per cent of all taxes, meaning that we are just about at the point described by Scottish historian Alexander Tytler: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess (generous gifts) out of the public treasury." So enjoy your Fourth, but don't overdo it. You've got to get back to work on Wednesday, because for every one of you who pays taxes and votes, there's now at least one guy out there who also votes - and wants your tax money. |
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