July
30 - "Most opponents would rather beat us
than any other team. But that's not a handicap. I
just hope I'm never at a place where people are not aware
we're in business." Darrell Royal, all-time great
Texas coach
SCENES FROM 2002 CLINICS- ATLANTA - CHICAGO - SOUTHERN CALIF - BALTIMORE - DURHAM - TWIN CITIES - PROVIDENCE - DETROIT - DENVER - SACRAMENTO - PACIFIC NORTHWEST - BUFFALOTHANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO PATIENTLY WAITED FOR YOUR MATERIALS UNTIL MY RETURN FROM AUSTRALIA. YOUR ORDERS WENT OUT MONDAY. AND TO THOSE OF YOU WHO CALLED FRANTICALLY WANTING OVERNIGHT DELIVERY (WHILE I WAS 10,000 MILES AWAY) YOU'RE PROBABLY NOT READING THIS ANYHOW, OR YOU'D HAVE KNOWN THE DEAL, BUT NEXT YEAR ( YOU DAMN RIGHT I'M GOING BACK!) I'LL FIGURE OUT ANOTHER BETTER WAY.
- DON'T PUT IT OFF ANY LONGER - E-MAIL ME NOW AND ENROLL YOUR TEAM IN THE BLACK LIONS PROGRAM - IT'S A GREAT WAY TO RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT KIND OF KIDS! (SEE BELOW)
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: As much as any man, he is responsible
for the fact that professional football stood alone among
major sports in not allowing a concentration of power in the
so-called major-market franchises. Dedicated to the ideo of
a level playing field for all teams, and constantly fighting
to put the interests of the league first, he managed to
build the NFL to the point where it stood on equal footing
with college football.
Born to a wealthy Philadelphia family, he attended exclusive Haverford School, then enrolled at Penn where he was a four-year starter at quarterback. Unable to get football out of his system, he stayed on at his alma mater as an assistant coach. He developed a reputation as a hard-living playboy, to the point where his father disowned him.
He married a showgirl, and with $2500 he'd borrowed from her, joined with a few partners to buy into pro football in the depths of the Depression.
Along the way, he would own two NFL teams (three, if you count the year during World War II when he merged his team with another in the same state). For a brief period - a very brief period - he coached one of his teams. By most measurements - gate receipts or win-loss record - he was not a successful owner. By any measurement, he was an unsuccessful coach - his NFL record is 0-2. But when he was put in charge of the league's fortunes, he proved to be the indispensable man.
He succeeded the first commissioner the NFL had ever had, and immediately upon taking office, he had to deal with a well-bankrolled rival league, the AAFC, that challenged the NFL's domination of pro football. And after finally leading the NFL to a victorious "merger" with the new league, he had to contend with player raids by the Canadian Football League.
He also inherited a potentially-disastrous point-shaving scandal involving members of the New York Giants, and so worried was he about gamblers tainting the game that he established the NFL's anti-gambling stance that exists, even stronger, today.
During his term as commissioner, players' salaries increased dramatically.
Undoubtedly because he was a have-not owner himself, he was the one who first proposed the system that exists to this present day, by which NFL teams draft college players, and do so in the inverse order of their league finish the previous season.
He also established, while commissioner, the NFL practice, followed ever since, of starting every year by matching strong teams against strong teams, weak against week. "Weak teams should play other weak teams while the strong teams are playing other strong teams early in the year," he insisted. "It's the only way to keep more teams in contention longer into the season."
While baseball teams held onto their players for life through something called the reserve clause, he was responsible for professional sports' first - if limited - form of free agency, by which a player wishing to jump teams after his contract expired could play an "option year" with his old team, after which he'd be a free agent.
Under his leadership, football became the first major sport to become truly national, when Dan Reeves was given permission to move the Cleveland Rams to Los Angeles.
When Baltimore needed a strong owner, he persuaded a former player he'd coached at Penn to jump in and take charge. And that is how Carroll Rosenbloom came to own the Colts, then trade the Colts to Robert Irsay, who'd just bought the Rams, and then marry a former singer (some might say bimbo) named Georgia, and then die under mysterious circumstances and leave the club to Georgia, who would then marry a songwriter named Dominic Frontiere, etc., etc.
Pro football first played night games while he was commissioner, and the concept of sudden-death overtime, first used in an exhibition game in Portland, Oregon, was unveiled in front of a national television audience in the 1958 title game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants.
Wise enough to recognize the potential of television to destroy the live gate that all NFL teams depended on, he rammed through the "blackout" policy which prohibited telecasts of any team's home games, sold out or not.
"Television creates interest and this can benefit pro football," he conceded. "But it's only good as long as you can protect your home gate. You can't give fans a game for free on television and also expect them to pay to go the ball park to see the same game."
He remained totally opposed to what is now the current NFL policy of waiting until a game sold out, arguing, "It's not honest to sell tickets to thousands of people on the premise of no television, and then after all the tickets are gone, to give the game away on television."
The proof of his wisdom was that during his tenure as commissioner, attendance per game more than doubled.
He died with his boots on, suffering a heart attack while attending a late-season game in 1959 between the Eagles and Steelers, the two teams with which he'd been involved as an owner.
Thanks to his leadership, his successor, Pete Rozelle, would take the NFL on its next step, to the very top of American sports.
He was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's first class, entering with the likes of Sammy Baugh, Joe Carr, DutchClark, Red Grange, George Halas, Mel Hein, Fats Henry, Cal Hubbard, Don Hutson, Curly Lambeau, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, John "Blood" McNally, Bronko Nagurski, Ernie Nevers, Jim Thorpe.
He was first to grant recognition to the NFL Players' Association, and the NFL Players' Pension Plan was named in his honor.
IDENTIFY THE MAN IN THE PHOTO - EXTRAVAGANT PRIZES FOR ALL WHO DO SO, INCLUDING GETTING YOUR NAME IN PRINT! BEATINGS AND DEPRIVATION FOR ALL OTHERS! E-MAIL YOUR ANSWER TO ME AT coachwyatt@aol.com - be sure to include your name and your town
*********** Those of you who have coached football at small schools and know what it's like to play at places where the visiting fans stand right behind your bench area and pitch crap at you all night will understand this one...
It is customary in the Australian Football League for the head coach to sit up top in the press box, and pass along instructions to "runners", often assistant coaches, so called because, since there are no stoppages of play except to return the ball to midfield after a score, they can only relay instructions to players by going onto the field of play during the contest. It is legal for them to do so, but the field is really big - at least three times the size of a US football field - so they really have to shag ass in order to get on and off without interfering with play.
Gary Ayres, head coach of the Adelaide Crows, was sitting in the box at last week's game against the Geelong Cats, and, owing to the setup of the Geelong stadium, had been taking abuse throughout the contest from Geelong fans. So when his team finally pulled out the win, when the game was over he did what we've all wanted to do at one time or another - he bombarded the fans with "F--k you! F--k you! F--k you!" whilst (did you catch that) giving them the Aussie finger - a backwards "V" shot skyward.
He will most likely be fined by the AFL, but he remained unrepentant, and several other coaches have come forward with complaints about the need to do a better job of keeping fans and coaches separate.
*********** Notes From a Large Island (with apologies to Bill Bryson)
My wife and I just returned from two weeks in Australia, visiting our son and daughter-in-law. It was great to see our son's in-laws again, and to finally meet people we'd only heard about and see sights we'd only seen in photos or on videotape.
I'd studied Australia for quite some time, and I was somewhat prepared for what I saw, but I can honestly say that absolutely nothing about what I saw disappointed me. It was everything I'd hoped for, and more. Most of my experience had been with Northern Europe, and although I like Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Northern Germany, I would have to say that Australia whips their butts.
A couple of things, though - Australia is far away. Really far away. From our house near Portland, Oregon to the point where we cleared customs in Melbourne, it took a total of 24 hours. Some of that was sitting around in airports - we had to change planes in San Francisco and Sydney - but there's no getting around it: it is a long way from San Francisco to Sydney. How about 12 hours in the air? To put that another way, we passed over Hawaii on the way back. At that point, we'd already been in the air eight hours.
Also, Australia is big. Really big. I started out with a very ambitious list of places I wanted to see, as if Australia were an amusement park, but my son brought me to my senses. We actually wound up spending most of our time in and around Melbourne, with a few days in Sydney. There is more than enough to do or see in either place to keep you busy for a couple of weeks and still wanting more.
Some random observations:
Prices - At the present time, the exchange rate is in your favor. The Australian dollar is currently about 60 cents American, which, since you're on vacation, means that a meal advertised for $12 is going to cost you roughly $7 in US funds. It isn't necessary to convert that much money, since most places will take charge cards, but there are some places - such as public transportation - where you simply must have coins. Oh, yes. Coins. You will soon find yourself with a pocketful. The smallest bill is a $5 note, which means you're going to feel weighted down with $1 and $2 coins, not to mention giant 20 cent and 50 cent coins about the size of our old silver dollars.
Sports - All sports, even the most trivial among them, are important to Aussies, and they all get a lot of play in the media - a lot more than you or I would give some of them. Even sports that Americans don't give a sh-- about. While we were there, there was a big kerfuffle (hubbub) about some pistol shooter representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games then taking place in Manchester, England, who flunked a drug test. But this is Australia, and they care passionately about competition of any sort. Saturday night on TV there were two footy games, an international rugby union match between Australia (The Wallabies) and South Africa (The Springboks). Meanwhile a "friendly" soccer match was taking place between English power Leeds and Colo Colo of Chile. (Even though Leeds had a few Australians playing for it, soccer is still a tough sell in Australia, and the game drew only 22,000.)
Australian Rules - I have never seen anything to compare with the grip that footy - Australian Rules Football - has on Melbourne. Melbourne is a big city, but you can't go anywhere or talk to anybody who doesn't have a favorite club and strong opinions about what they're going to have to do to improve - or stay on top. I met all sorts of people, of all ages, social classes, ethnic backgrounds and sexes, and I didn't meet one who wasn't passionately devoted to one club or another, and had been almost since birth. I saw several elderly ladies going to games to cheer for their teams. It is not uncommon to see three generations of a family at a game, all "barracking" (rooting - but it's best not to use that word in Australia, because it means doing the nasty) for the same team. Loyalties are lifelong - while I was there, some former mates of a recently deceased barracker (rooter - but remember, don't use that word in Australia) of the Collingwood Magpies put a paid ad in the paper saying good-bye to their old mate, signing off with, "Go Pies!" Rivalries are intense, but they are not ugly. Fans of both teams, proudly wearing their teams' colors, are able to ride together harmoniously in crowded trams (trolleys) and trains to the games. At the games, they often wind up sitting interspersed in the same section, where they might exchange good-natured taunts, but that's about it. There is little of what you could expect if you were to do the unthinkable and seat Clemson and South Carolina, Alabama and Auburn, or Oklahoma and Texas fans together.
City Life- The streets are safe, but be sure to look both ways before stepping off the curb (kerb) - they drive on the left, which can cause certain lasting problems should you look left and, seeing nothing coming, step into the street. Public transportation is on the European model, with central railroad stations into which commuter lines feed from all directions, and, in Melbourne, trams (trolleys) running throughout the area. It is possible to manage very nicely without a car.
Language - There will be a few problems, some with accent, some with terms that differ from ours, some with Aussie slang.
While at a wildlife sanctuary, I asked a young woman about to enter an owl's large cage if she were planning on feeding the bird. She said, "I'm giving him some moss." At least, that's what I heard her say. Only when I saw her place three tasty skinned mice on a log did I I realize that she'd said, as only an Aussie can say, "moyce."
You'd have to understand the accent to appreciate the mistake I made when I was introduced to a fellow named Michael, and I said, "nice to meet you, Markel."
Expect to hear "bloody" a lot. Once a vile swear word, it now seems to be fairly acceptable, in our terms fitting nicely between "darn" and "f--king." Expect to be called "mate" quite a bit, too. It isn't necessarily a term of endearment, although it can be. It's more on the order of our "buddy," "pal," "dude," "friend", which we might apply to friend or foe alike. But the absolute number one phrase to listen for is the one that seems to sum up the Aussie approach to life: "No worries." It is all-purpose. It could mean "no sweat," "no problem," "don't worry about it," or "don't mention it" (after you've said "thanks").
Food - They have just about anything Americans think they need to survive (McDonald's, Burger King, etc), and quite a bit more. A stroll through Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market and a look at the incredible variety and quality of food on sale there should be enough to reassure any American.
You don't have to worry about eating monkey brains or snake or dog or raw fish. Australians like the same things we do, and they eat at the same time and in the same way we do. They like steaks, chops, seafood.
Since Australia is a coastal nation, there is an abundance of great seafood. Some of the prawns I saw were as big as lobster tails.
It is important to remember that Australia is relatively close to Asia, and so there are Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian restaurants everywhere. Melbourne is a very cosmopolitan city, with large Italian and Greek populations, and the great Italian and Greek restaurants that you would expect. On one street, you literally have to run a gauntlet of Italian restaurants, fending off sales pitch after sales pitch as eager Italians jump out in front of you on the sidewalk, hot to tell you how wonderful their restaurant is, and how much they know you'll like it. At one point, our way was blocked by a rather hefty woman who insisted that we didn't need to go any further for the meal of our dreams. Vince Lombardi would have been proud of her blocking.
Yes, there is Mexican food, but I can't vouch for the quality or the authenticity (hint: Aussies don't say "tor-TEE-ya" - they say "tor-TILL-a").
Australians haven't learned the meaning of "Supersize It", and hopefully, for their sake, they never will, but no worries, mate - you will not go hungry. Especially if you like lamb. At one pub in Sydney, I ordered fish and chips, which cost $11 Australian (about $7 American). My wife ordered lamb chops - for the same price as me, she got three of them. I haven't seen lamb chops on an American menu since last summer when Jon McLaughlin and his girlfriend and I went to a restaurant in downtown Chicago. I had lamb chops there, and believe me, they were a lot more than $7 for three of them. I fell in love with meat pies. The favorite food at a footy match is a brand of pie called "Four 'n Twenty". There is a bakery on every city block, featuring all sorts of pies - steak and kidney, steak and onion, chicken and leek, etc - on sale for about $3 or $4 Australian. I liked meat pies so much that I had them for breakfast several times, convincing my Australian daughter-in-law that I was, indeed, crackers.
Patriotism - I doubt that Australians love their country any less than we do ours, and don't get me wrong - I love America - but it was refreshing to get away from the Star Spangled Banner preceding even the most trivial of sports events. Australians hear their National Anthem only before "test" matches - international competition in sports such as rugby and soccer. In the entire time I was in Australia, I saw two live Australian Rules matches and several on TV, and several rugby matches, both league and union. But only once did I hear the Australian National Anthem, "Advance, Australia Fair" - a very nice one, by the way - and that was before a rugby union match between the Australian National Team, The Wallabies, and the South African National Team, the Springboks. And it was sung straight. No dipsy-doodle "La-and of the Free-EEE" crap for the Aussies. No rock star trying to make a name for herself by seeing how slowly she can sing it, or how much she can deviate from the song most of the rest of us know. It was sung straight-up by an Aussie country music star, and the entire Wallabies team joined in, standing in a line with arms around each others' shoulders.
Drink - All the American soft drinks are available, although I didn't see Mello Yello, Big Red or Cheerwine.The beer is good and it is cold. Other than the occasional Guinness or Heineken or the hottest one, Stella Artois, a Belgian Beer, most of the beer drunk is domestic. I tried to taste every Australian beer I could. I didn't succeed, but I did give it a go, and I can say that I didn't taste a bad Australian beer. They know how to serve it, too, with a nice foamy cuff. Melbourne and Sydney have some great pubs - with male bartenders. (I immediately make negative pre-judgments about any place that has a woman back of the bar. Sorry, ladies.)
Sports News - You will miss your favorite sports page and your favorite sports magazine. But if you are into the sports they cover, there is a lot to read. It is now football season, which in Melbourne means Australian Rules gets several pages of coverage every day, and in Sydney means that rugby gets the same. The same with TV. In Melbourne, starting on Thursday night with the uproarious Footy Show, then the Friday Night Game of the Week, then two or three games on Saturday, then a game on Sunday, there is all the footy you would ever want on the tube. Because Australians love to gamble, gambling is neither illegal nor looked on as sinful. Books quite openly publish the point spreads on all games. There is always a place to "tip" (bet on) a football game or a race at one of several tracks holding meets at any one time. During stoppages in play at football games, race results are posted on the Jumbotron screens.
Cars and Trucks- Leave the big rig home. Streets are narrow and parking spots are dear. I wouldn't want to have to drive my Ford Econoline van around Melbourne or Sydney. One popular rig is called a "Ute." Think El Camino. You will see a very few large, American-style SUV's tooling about. They are derisively referred to as "Toorak Tractors." (Toorak being a well-to-do section of Melbourne.)
More observations to come
*********** I actually read newspaper articles that mentioned that the nine coal miners rescued in Somerset, Pennsylvania had prayed while stuck underground. Prayed. Now, what kind of an example is that for our young kids? And how are atheists supposed to feel?
It got worse as I read on. A couple of the rescued miners, as they were eating for the first time in several days, wondered when they could have a cold beer (probably Rolling Rock, the beer of choice in those parts). I couldn't believe that a responsible newspaper would print that. God help us all if our children read it.
A couple of questions: (1) with all the pretty, blow-dried media types reporting to us from the mine, and knowing Western Pennsylvania, do you suppose there was any place within 30 miles of that mine shaft where they could find a chilled bottle of chardonnay?
(2) How did they decide who went up first?
(3) Or who went last?
THANKS TO ALL
OF YOU WHO PATIENTLY WAITED FOR YOUR MATERIALS
UNTIL MY RETURN FROM AUSTRALIA. YOUR ORDERS WENT
OUT MONDAY. AND TO THOSE OF YOU WHO CALLED
FRANTICALLY WANTING OVERNIGHT DELIVERY (WHILE I WAS
10,000 MILES AWAY) YOU'RE PROBABLY NOT READING THIS
ANYHOW, OR YOU'D HAVE KNOWN THE DEAL, BUT NEXT YEAR
( YOU DAMN RIGHT I'M GOING BACK!) I'LL FIGURE OUT
ANOTHER BETTER WAY. I am now taking orders for "PRACTICE WITHOUT
PADS," my latest video production. It is geared
primarily to the youth coach, but it will be useful
to high school coaches as well. It deals with
subjects ranging from the organizational details
that you must cover before you even start to
practice, to pre-season workouts, and takes you all
the way through a practice to the sort of things
you might want to cover when you're wrapping things
up at the end. In between are drills dealing with
flexibility, strength, form-running and agility, as
well as the basics of proper blocking, tackling and
ball-handling. It ends with numerous fun-type
drills that you can use to build competitiveness
and morale among your kids, and send them home
wanting more. And the best part of it is, although
you might see players on the tape performing some
of the drills while wearing helmets and pads,
and
although these drills are still plenty useful once
you're allowed to hit, they are drills that you can
do in the off-season, or in pre-season before
you're allowed to have any contact! The
tape runs approximately 1-1/2 hours in length and
sells for $49.95 - mail check or money order to
Coach Hugh Wyatt - 1503 NE 6th Avenue - Camas, WA
98607
DON'T PUT IT OFF ANY LONGER -
E-MAIL ME NOW AND ENROLL YOUR TEAM IN THE BLACK LIONS
PROGRAM - IT'S A GREAT WAY TO RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT KIND OF
KIDS! (SEE BELOW)
*********** You know we've got too many f--king trial lawyers when Dickinson College feels it has to shoo off a bunch of little kids who'd been selling cookies and lemonade outside the Washington Redskins' practice site for fear that if someone were to get sick from something the kids sold them, Dickinson could be sued.
*********** There were a lot of eyebrows raised last year when Oregon spent some $250,000 to have a giant painting of then-Heisman hopeful Joey Harrington done on the side of a building in New York City. (Those of us who live in Portland, home of Nike, are used to seeing giant murals of Nike stars painted on downtown buildings, and so we can be excused if we remain a bit suspicious about the involvement of the athletic wear titan; I mean, the Nike Swoosh is quite conspicuous on Harrington's uniform, and Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight is a very active Duck alum.)
Not that the money wasn't well spent. When you're Oregon, it almost doesn't matter how good you are. You are simply not going to get the national exposure (i.e., TV games) of higher-profile programs such as Florida State, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan. Not unless you do something to raise your profile, which is what the sign was intended to do.
This year, the Ducks are at it again. And not just with another sign, this time of wide receiver Keenan Howry. They have also made a bold move to penetrate the New York market, signing on with YES, the Yankees' network, to show all 12 of their games on tape-delay. True, the games will air at 2 AM, but even at that hour, there are plenty of hard-core sports fans in the nation's largest TV market.
Pac-10 rival Washington State, meanwhile, capitalizing on their back-in-the-boonies image, did a parody of last year's Oregon/Harrington campaign by commissioning a similar painting of Cougar QB Jason Gesser. It is every bit as big as the Harrington painting, except it is on the side of a grain elevator. In downtown Dusty, Washington (population 100).
*********** "... a recent clinic with the local HS coaches. They chided -- actually, ridiculed -- youth coaches for teaching kids to block with a "forearms" type of blocking surface. Their message was that a heels-of-the-hands strike to the sternum -- the drive-blocking technique explained, for example, in Christensen's, "Coaching Offensive Linemen" -- is "the" way to do it, and that anything else is archaic and wrong ("Hey, if you are still doing that, Coach, get some Grecian formula in your hair and teach your kids the right way to block."). Just like that. My HC's feelings were a little hurt until I gave him about 5 quick reasons in the parking lot why he should not be bothered or feel incompetent based on their blocking spiel (or the 12-route passing trees they urged, or the "installing an option attack during the first couple of weeks" that they urged, etc.).
We'll be teaching drive blocking next month the way you have historically taught it, and with your drills. It is not far removed from, but significantly improves on, what we have always done and had success with. Your "ice picks" arm action, with the explosive rotation and upward thrust into the target about a millisecond before numbers to numbers contact, is really all we have to add. Your drills (various pancake drills) are significant improvements over our old lesson plans, we think they will really improve players getting the feel of the proper mechanics and confidence building, and we're going with them. Plus they look fun as hell, confirmed already by some preliminary backyard testing with my 105 pound DW crash test dummy. I want to do them myself, but nobody will hold the damn shield for me.
Anyway, sorry to bother you while on vacation, but I do want to call you to hear your thoughts on the blocking technique issue when you get back. A number of people are interested to hear what you have to say about it.
I advocate an obsolete, outdated blocking technique because we are running an obsolete, outdated offense.
The people who are lecturing you about football are ignorant of what we are all about. They are probably 30- and 40-year-olds whose knowledge of the game doesn't go back past the liberalization of blocking rules to allow what amounts to legalized holding. I doubt that they coach blocking on the run the way we do.
They are, of course, free to coach what they like, but they have no qualifications to criticize someone else for coaching the techniques that are best for them.
Yours in senility, Hugh Wyatt
*********** "One time we put in a running play off of punt formation, and on this play, I was supposed to snap the ball wide so as George McAfee could catch that ball on the run and have a fast start. Well, we tried that fake punt play and it failed. I laid that ball right where I was supposed to, right in George McAfee's hands, but they caught him for a loss. The next day the newspapers said, 'Due to a bad pass from center, McAfee had to run the ball.' It didn't seem to me like there was much justice there." Bulldog Turner, Bears' Hall-of-Fame center, quoted in "The Game", by Myron Cope, 1970
*********** Dave Kilborn, from Gorham, Maine, is on the staff of one of the teams in the annual Lobster Bowl All-Star game. He writes that he has managed to install a bit of Double-Wing, but admits, "' a double edged sword. I love the offense and also love to show it off but I don't want more DW schools in the state. It keeps them guessing."
I told him not to worry about the double-edged sword. Human nature will be enough to keep most coaches from venturing seriously into the land of the Double-Wing.
*********** We had our family reunion a few weeks ago at our place, with three of our four kids, our three sons-in-law, and our 10 grandkids with us for a week. Trust me: it is a great thrill when you are able to play touch football with your grandsons - and they can give you some competition.
*********** We also one of our daughters and her husband and three boys to the St. Paul Rodeo.
Held in St. Paul, Oregon (population 300), the four-day rodeo is held annually around July 4, and this year, same as always, it drew over 40,000 people. There were over 10,000 in attendance the night we went, and it was a slice of America at its best.
Down-to-earth? You bet.
Sexist? Haw! To hear the the guys on the PA tell it - and they are a show in themselves - the cowboys were all brave and strong and tough; the cowgirls were all pretty. (Not a word about their brains.) Not that the girls were weenies. You have to be right on top of the action, as we were, to realize how hard they are riding out there. One little 11-year-old girl actually won the junior "bull-riding" competition. It was, we were told, her last ride. Everybody knew why - from that age on, the rough rodeo events are for boys only.
With the exception of the steer wrestlers, the cowboys are not very big. But it would be redundant to say that they are tough. I could not believe how hard some of those guys hit the ground after being "th'owed."
Although they spend mere seconds on the back of a horse or a bull, they work hard for their money. Several of the cowboys managed to work a couple of different rodeos while they were in the area.
Rodeo is great entertainment for your dollar. By now, the people at St. Paul know how to put on a show, keeping things moving with no dead time. My grandsons came away really impressed. They live in North Carolina and had only seen rodeos on TV, and said they had no idea from watching TV what it was really like.
It was the first time I'd been back to St. Paul since 1976. That was my first year of coaching high school ball at tiny Gaston, Oregon, and the St. Paul Buckeroos were our archrival. We played them in the rodeo arena - they grow a lot of turf in that area, and by football season there was a nice grass playing surface - and the "crowd" - there couldn't have been 1,000 people on hand - got lost in the large, circular arena.
*********** (Regarding ESPN's decision to give us their made-for-TV version of "The Junction Boys")
Coach Wyatt, Oh God, it had to happen. The liberal, Hollywood-too educated- elitist sect is going to butcher yet another one of football's storied coaches. Haven't we had enough of this? Sadder yet, there's not a thing we can do about what these SOB's do to sports with their "made for mush brains" movies (other than to not watch.) These idiots need to get a hobby other than the one they have, reconstructing the history of hard nosed sports. Matt Bastardi
*********** Hugh, Just a note to let you know we made the trip to Galva-Holstein Iowa to take part in the Pirate Linemen's Challenge last Saturday. There were a number of teams from Iowa and a two teams from Minnesota. I'm sure Pirate head coach Brad Knight will fill you in on the details but from my view and from my players' point of view it was a blast. It was competitive, entertaining, and a lot of fun. More importantly the time my kids spent together helped them tremendously in becoming a more tightly knit unit. The success we had at the challenge has carried over to the team mini-camp we are holding this week. The linemen have taken active leadership roles in camp, and the other players have responded well. The team is beginning to come together, and the kids who attended the challenge are still talking about it.
My hat's off to Coach Knight and his assistants for putting it together, and hope they continue to hold it each year because we would very much like to take part in it again.
Hope your summer is going well. Talk to you soon. Joe Gutilla, Benilde-St. Margaret's HS, Minneapolis
*********** I am a basketball player for a D 2 school. I am 150 lbs., but I want to get up to 165, because I am said to be to small for my position on the court. When I lift I don't see myself getting any bigger or definition to my body. What should I do to increase my size?
My Web site is meant to provide a service for football coaches, and we steer clear of prescribing individual workout programs. I would suggest you try contacting one of your coaches. (You would be amazed at the number of requests I get similar to this. My answer is always like this one - contact your coach. I am not a big one for promoting outside consultants or individual coaches. I know what kind of grief they can cause coaches of team sports.)
*********** Well, duh.
My wife and I occasionally enjoy watching the Home & Garden Network.
The other night, we saw a feature on the home of figure skater Brian Boitano.
"He could have lived anywhere," the hostess told us. "But he chose San Francisco."
REMEMBER THIS? HAVE YOU SIGNED THE PETITION ASKING THAT RICK RESCORLA BE AWARDED THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF HONOR? DO IT NOW, AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO DO IT, TOO! I was #3533. Bill Livingstone, of Troy, Michigan, wrote to tell me he was #4290. Mick Yanke, of Cokato, Minnesota was #4268; Greg Koenig, of Las Animas, Colorado, was #8192 - Doug Gibson, of Naperville, Illinois was #10,413 - as of April 28 the total was 10,430 - on May 30, it was 11,751. Come on, guys - how tough is it to go to a web site and do what little we can for a great American?
GO TO THE SITE AND READ WHAT SOME OF THE SIGNERS HAVE TO SAY, AND YOU'LL FEEL A GREAT SENSE OF PRIDE WHEN YOU JOIN THEM- http://www.petitiononline.com/pmfrick/petition.html
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Buff Donelli is undoubtedly the only
American college football coach ever to score a goal in a
World Cup soccer game.
Hi
Coach: I believe that the coach you were presenting
information on today was Buff Donnelly When I was playing at
Killingly High School many years ago, he was our end of the
season banquet speaker. At that time he was the Head Coach
at Boston University. They were running a Wing T formation
similar to what we run at Ledyard now. Almost like a Veer
with a wing. I will let you know how our pay to play works
out. Have fun on your trip. Your friend, Bill Mignault,
Ledyard, Connecticut
***********
Nobody will ever accuse Paul Herzog of letting grass grow
under his feet.