[Posted early due to travel.]
College Football Quiz: Name the last five Heisman Trophy
winners. Answer below.
Most Underrated General
In a recent article for American Heritage magazine, historian
Roger Spiller labeled Lucian Truscott (1895-1965) as the most
underrated World War II general. [Since it’s Veterans Day, I
won’t get into Spiller’s pick for “overrated,” except to say it was
Lewis Brereton. It wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss his
shortcomings today.]
Truscott commanded at every level and his infantry divisions
were rated among the best the U.S. military has ever produced,
as Spiller writes that Truscott was “arguably the best American
division commander in the war,” fighting from Morocco and
Tunisia to Sicily and mainland Italy, with amphibious assaults at
Anzio and Salerno. Spiller:
“Not one of his campaigns could have been called easy; his
troops fought their way over some of the worst terrain and
against some of the most determined enemy the European theater
had to offer.”
But Truscott was also tied to General George Patton, as both
were rivals in Sicily, and it was Truscott who replaced Patton at
the end of the war when the latter was dismissed for his
transgressions. Patton requested a big ceremony to turn over the
Third Army to Truscott because, as he said, “I don’t want Ike or
anyone else to get the idea that I am leaving here with my tail
between my legs.” [Carlo D’Este, “Patton: A Genius For War”]
Patton’s farewell speech was brief:
“All good things must come to an end. The best thing that has
ever happened to me thus far is the honor and privilege of having
commanded the Third Army…Please accept my heartfelt
congratulations on your valor and devotion to duty, and my
fervent gratitude for your unwavering loyalty…A man of
General Truscott’s achievements needs no introduction. His
deeds speak for themselves. I know that you will not fail him.
Goodbye and God bless you.”
D’Este writes, “The band played ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ Patton
passed the Third Army flag to Truscott, who made a brief
speech, and then it was over.” A few months later Patton died of
injuries suffered in an auto accident and Lucien Truscott was
there at the funeral, afraid that Patton’s daughter, Beatrice,
wouldn’t speak to him. “When I offered him my hands, he threw
his arms around me and burst into tears,” she later wrote.
Lieutenant-General Truscott also wrote one of the great memoirs
in U.S. military history, “Command Missions.” Ironically, I just
noticed his son wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times
today, 11/11, concerning his father’s love of “Taps.”
Richard Rocco, RIP
I noticed Rocco’s obituary the other day. An Army medic in
Vietnam, he received the Medal of Honor for his heroism in
rescuing fellow crewmen from a downed chopper under heavy
enemy fire back in May 1970. Of the incident he later said, “We
started taking fire from all directions. The pilot was shot through
the leg. The helicopter spun around and crashed in an open field,
turned on its side and started burning. The co-pilot’s arm was
ripped off – it was just hanging.”
Despite being severely wounded himself and suffering from a
broken hip and wrist, Rocco pulled the other four, all shot, to
safety as flames engulfed the helicopter. It took two days (and
two other American choppers getting shot down), but despite
incredible odds all five were rescued, after they had called in
artillery and air strikes on their own position to turn back an
assault by North Vietnamese troops.
Rocco’s commander visited him in the hospital and told him he
was putting in for the Medal of Honor, but Rocco basically
forgot about it and so it was a great surprise when he got word in
1974 that he would be so honored, thanks to the efforts of the co-
pilot he helped save.
That man was Lt. Lee Caubarreaux, who told The American
Forces Information Service in 1998 that if not for Rocco, “we
would have burned to death in the helicopter…I can’t screw in a
light bulb with my arm, but I can still hug my wife.”
[Source: Richard Goldstein / New York Times]
Miscellaneous
–College Football’s Wild Weekend: Just two undefeated teams
left, Miami and Ohio State, following Oklahoma’s crushing
defeat to Texas A&M and Northern Illinois’s win over Bowling
Green. [Northern Illinois also beat Wake Forest in the opening
game of the season…ughh.]
But we must note the effort put in by 1-8 Navy, which almost
defeated 9-1 Notre Dame, as well as Syracuse’s win over
Virginia Tech.
Of course the biggest play of the weekend was LSU’s incredible
last second 75-yard prayer against Kentucky.
Meanwhile…your editor had picked Texas to go all the way at
the start of the season. Well, the Longhorns are back in the thick
of it, that’s for sure.
–So how about the Michigan basketball program and the way the
school came down hard on it to hopefully save their skin from
further NCAA punishment. The “Fab Five” years are now but a
memory, as the school took down the 1992 and 1993 Final Four
banners and all games have been forfeited. I still don’t know
what to think of this. The games have been played, after all, but
at the same time they broke the rules.
University officials felt compelled to act once booster Ed Martin
pled guilty to a federal conspiracy, Martin having given
$616,000 to superstar Chris Webber and 3 other players on the
squad. For his part, Webber has been indicted on perjury
charges, with Martin claiming he gave him $280,000 of the
funds. Webber continues to deny everything and I understand
that on Monday, the Fab Five, which included Jalen Rose and
Juwan Howard, are going to release a statement blasting the
school for its actions.
Pity poor Tommy Amaker, who walked into this mess last season
to become the new coach. But because the school put itself on
probation for two years, with no post-season play for the coming
campaign, Amaker was awarded with an extra two years on his
contract.
–The greatest high school basketball coach in history retired last
week, Morgan Wooten of DeMatha High School in Washington,
D.C. He is the winningest boys coach of all time, with 1,274
wins and just 192 losses over 46(!) seasons, all with the same
school.
Wooten’s teams won 5 national championships and 150 of his
players earned college basketball scholarships, while at least a
dozen played in the NBA, including Adrian Dantley, Danny
Ferry and Joe Forte.
One of the program’s great moments came in January 1965 when
DeMatha beat Power Memorial of New York, a pretty fair club
with one Lew Alcindor and a 71-game winning streak, which
Wooten’s boys ended, 46-43.
–Remember my little bit on PGA players last week and the
money they make compared to other athletes? The #125 tour
player earned $515,000 this year, well under $400,000 after
expenses. I only bring this up again because I noticed a contract
signed by Seattle catcher Dan Wilson, 33, who had a career year
this past season, a whopping 6 HR and 44 RBI in 115 games.
Wilson just received a two-year contract worth $7 million. Of
course I also noticed the New York Knicks’ Latrell Sprewell,
still sitting on the bench because of his self-inflicted hand injury.
Latrell will earn about $12 million this season!!!!!
–Yup, the city of New Orleans is going crazy over its new NBA
franchise, the Hornets. I saw where there were about 6,000
empty seats for just their second home game.
–Final update on that Pick Six fiasco at the Breeders’ Cup…I
promise. The three under question didn’t test their theory out at
Saratoga, but at a harness track in Crete, Illinois and Belmont
Park. They should be arrested this week.
–High school basketball sensation Lebron James, the second
coming of Air Jordan, Larry Bird, and Kobe Bryant all rolled
into one, will have his games this season on pay-per-view
because the Akron, Ohio area school he attends already sells out
the 6,000 seat arena where the games are held.
–In the latest Golf Digest, Tiger Woods says that at the Ryder
Cup, all the players agreed with Curtis Strange’s back-end
loaded lineup when they met that Saturday night.
–The front page of the Sunday Washington Post had a story on
the worldwide ivory ban and the impact it is having on some
parts of Africa. A UN conference on endangered species is
taking place this week and there is some question whether or not
the ban should be lifted. Kenya, for one, still favors the ban, as
tourism dollars exceed the value of selling the ivory. Others are
not so sure.
There are about 600,000 African elephants today, the same as in
1989, but if the ban was lifted, the elephants don’t stand a
chance. [There is still a considerable amount of poaching as it
is.] Of course the pachyderms are also destroying crops in a lot
of areas, plus they are crushing a few humans along the way,
kind of the way Tony Soprano did last night. [Oops, hope I
didn’t spoil it for any of you…and I watched the Jets victory
too!]
–Meanwhile, elsewhere in the animal kingdom, San Jose,
California is having a real problem with wild pigs, and these
babies are nasty. Thousands are in the surrounding hills, but as
development encroaches on the pigs territory, the pigs are
wandering around the condo developments, looking for trouble.
And just a hint, if you come across them while picking up the
morning paper, never call them “pigs.”
–Finally, “Trader George” passed along the tale of the bighead
carp. It seems that back in 1972, some of these monsters were
imported from Asia to suck out algae from aquaculture ponds.
Then one day in 1994 there was a big storm, the ponds
overflowed, and before you could say “Carp!” the bighead made
it into the Mississippi River basin.
Some of these suckers can grow up to 100 pounds, or so the
fishermen say, but, more importantly, they can leap anywhere
from 6-10 feet out of the water! Boaters and passengers have
been literally attacked by the fish. One official up north – where
the carp are threatening Lake Erie, and, by extension, the rest of
the Great Lakes – said that 4 guys are on workmen’s comp
because of bighead attacks.
I’m tellin’ ya, this needs to be incorporated into homeland
security.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/11/67: #1 “To Sir With Love”
(Lulu) #2 “Soul Man” (Sam & Dave) #3 “It Must Be Him”
(Vikki Carr)
College Football Quiz Answer: Last five Heisman winners:
Eric Crouch, 2001 (QB, Nebraska), Chris Weinke, 2000 (QB,
Florida State), Ron Dayne, 1999 (RB, Wisconsin), Ricky
Williams, 1998 (RB, Texas), Charles Woodson, 1997 (DB,
Michigan).
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
