College Basketball Quiz: [tons of ‘em coming up, sports fans] But to start out, name the school these players attended [some easy, some very hard…part of Black History month]…Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Zelmo Beaty, Al Attles, Elmore Smith, Marvin Webster, Charles Oakley. Answer below.
**Update, Thurs. Florida man killed in massive shark attack…more on Monday**
Super Bowl Music Acts
Don’t look for the NFL to address the Pete Townshend issue when The Who play at halftime on Sunday. Nor would I expect any of the announcers to say anything, but there will be protests no doubt as some child advocacy groups are “outraged” that Townshend is allowed to perform following his 2003 arrest in the UK for accessing child pornography on the Web, with Townshend admitting he used a credit card to view the images. He was placed on the sex offender registry list for five years.
But looking back at the Super Bowl, you younger folks are lucky. The halftime entertainment my generation got to see the very first title game consisted of the Univ. of Arizona and Grambling State marching bands, Al Hirt, and, get this, the Anaheim High drill team. In SB II it was just Grambling’s band, then in SB III, Florida A&M’s high-steppin’ unit.
Yes, while the bands are good fun, if you’re at a Grambling or Florida A&M game, it’s not exactly Bruce or U2, I think you’d agree.
But it got worse. It was in Super Bowl X that we were first entertained by “Up with People.” Good lord. Growing up in Summit, N.J., we had this troupe for our Fourth of July celebrations one year. I mean they are clean cut young people and all, but if we could hire them for like $2,000, what were they doing as the focus of halftime at the Super Bowl?
And “Up with People” kept being invited back! SB XIV…SB XVI…and SB XX!! It was as if the NFL had assigned one individual to find the halftime act and each time the schlub forgot until the last minute, whereupon he’d go into his boss’ office and sheepishly announce, “Ah, Mr. Thudpacker? Ah, I forgot to get an act again. What should I do?” “You idiot!…Well, with no time left we have to go with Up with People again. Tell them we’ll pay for the transportation and nothing else.”
Alas, by 1991 and SB XXV, real music acts began to be incorporated (New Kids on the Block that particular year), then Gloria Estefan the following one, and, in 1993, SB XXVII, Michael Jackson. Yes, it was Jackson who broke the mold and it’s basically been top names ever since, particularly the last decade.
Jackson’s three songs during the Cowboys’ 52-17 rout of the Bills produced a stunning result: NBC’s halftime rating was higher than the game action that preceded it. The NFL was hooked on big-name, broad-appeal entertainment after that. And eleven years later, sister Janet bared her breast. When Michael performed, he was warned ahead of time not to grab his crotch, though he did so anyway, repeatedly, especially as he sang “Billie Jean.”
XXXVI…U2
XXXVIII…Jessica Simpson, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy, Kid Rock
XXXIX…Paul McCartney
XL…Rolling Stones
XLI…Prince
XLII…Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
XLIII…Bruce Springsteen
XLIV…The Who
Back to the game, just play the thing. I think we are all in agreement that over the two weeks leading up to it, there isn’t a single story worth reading. Anything that the real sports fan has ever wanted to know about Peyton, or Reggie, or Joe Blowski has long been said during regular season commentary, NFL Today, etc. Plus, for the most part these athletes as people just aren’t that interesting. But you can’t help but like Peyton, and as a Wake alum I’m partial to Jim Caldwell, so that’s where my rooting interest lies.
But let’s take a look back at Sports Illustrated’s football maven Peter King and see how he did this year compared to his preseason predictions.
King had the Patriots defeating the Bears in the Super Bowl.
In fact he had the Pats beating San Diego and the Bears edging the Packers in the championship games, so King pretty much sucked, didn’t he? [At least my prediction, the Jets, made the final four.]
Further, King had the Saints going 7-9…and the Colts 10-6 (though sneaking in as a wild-card).
February 1, 1960
Fifty years ago, four young African-American men, freshmen at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, staged a sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth’s and helped change history; Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil and David Richmond. They sat down on stools and asked to be served, even though the seats were until that time only reserved for white customers. They were refused but rather than getting up and leaving, they launched a protest that lasted six months and helped accelerate the Civil Rights Movement.
As noted in the February issue of Smithsonian and a report by Owen Edwards:
“Joseph McNeil, 67, now a retired Air Force major general living on Long Island, New York, says the idea of staging a sit-in to protest the ingrained injustice had been around awhile. ‘I grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and even in high school, we thought about doing something like that,’ he recalls. After graduating, McNeil moved with his family to New York, then returned to the South to study engineering physics at the technical college in Greensboro.
“On the way back to school after Christmas vacation during his freshman year, he observed the shift in his status as he traveled south by bus. ‘In Philadelphia,’ he remembers, ‘I could eat anywhere in the bus station. By Maryland, that had changed.’ And in the Greyhound depot in Richmond, Virginia, McNeil couldn’t buy a hot dog at a food counter reserved for whites. ‘I was still the same person, but I was treated differently.’ Once at school, he and three of his friends decided to confront segregation. ‘To face this kind of experience and not challenge it meant we were part of the problem,’ McNeil recalls.”
Edwards writes that news spread quickly, thanks in large part to a photo taken of the four at the counter by Jack Moebes of the Greensboro Record and stories in the paper. Nonviolent demonstrations were carried on outside the store, others sat down, and sit-ins erupted across North Carolina and other states.
By February 4, African-Americans, mainly students, occupied 63 of the 66 seats (the other three taken up by waitresses).
This past Monday, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum opened on the site in Greensboro, the original Woolworth’s having been shut down in 1993, after which it took 17 years for community leaders to establish the museum.
College Basketball
Men’s AP Poll
1. Kansas
2. Villanova
3. Syracuse
4. Kentucky
5. Michigan State…then lost to No. 16 Wisconsin on Tuesday
6. West Virginia
7. Georgetown…lost Wednesday to South Florida
8. Purdue
9. Texas
T-10. Kansas State
T-10. Duke
27. Cornell [No. 25 in ESPN/USA TODAY poll]
29. Wake Forest…looked like crap in defeating Miami at home on Tuesday, but nonetheless 5-3 in conference. As Ronald Reagan said, ‘Not bad…not bad at all.’
Rutgers won its second Big East game, defeating an equally dreadful St. John’s squad.
Women’s AP Poll
1. UConn
2. Stanford
3. Notre Dame
4. Nebraska
5. Tennessee
6. Duke
7. Xavier
8. Ohio State
9. North Carolina
10. Oklahoma State
UConn’s women extended their winning streak to 61 on Tuesday by destroying No. 11 West Virginia, 80-47. So the Lady Huskies continue to win by an almost 40-point margin every game. Last year, in going 39-0, the winning margin averaged 35.4 points. So just as Phil Taylor of Sports Illustrated first pointed out last week (and I’m amused how others have copied this thought since then), there’s a real question whether UConn is good for the sport. ESPN analyst Jay Bilas added his two cents, comparing the Huskies to Tiger Woods and former UCLA coach John Wooden (whose UCLA teams hold the men’s mark for consecutive wins at 88 from 1971-74). “It’s a fair fight, and they’re knocking everybody out. It’s up to everybody else to meet their standard.”
In that respect the Tiger comparison is an apt one. Look at all the players who didn’t step up when Tiger had a lead heading into the final round until Y.E. Yang broke the spell at the PGA last year?
–I said the New Jersey Nets needed to win at least 2 of 4 in a just completed home stand to have a real shot of avoiding the Philadelphia 76ers record for futility, 9-73, in 1972-73, but instead the Nets won just one of the 4 so they sit at 4-43 and now head back on the road for far tougher opponents than their last three, Washington, Philly and Detroit (after beating the Clippers).
But you want a further idea of how bad it’s gotten? Assistant coach Del Harris, 72 and in the game forever, called it quits after Tuesday night’s loss.
“I had not experienced such a losing situation since 1983, but because the players are such good people, the losing of games did not become the chaotic situation that has happened to so many teams.”
The Nets, incidentally, are being outscored by an average of 12 points per game, which is exactly the margin for the ’72-’73 Sixers. But Harris is right on the people situation. It’s not like the players are doing a lot of backstabbing. They just aren’t performing, especially down the stretch of games. They also have some talent and, assuming they sign a good free agent or two (plus get lucky in the draft lottery), could have one of the great reversals in sports history next year.
–Champions Tour golfer Jim Thorpe, headed to prison for one year per my earlier writings, failed to pay income taxes for 2002-2004, a period during which he was credited with a combined $5.169 million in earnings. He is eligible for four tournaments before he reports to authorities on April 1 and thus far the PGA Tour hasn’t said whether Thorpe will be disciplined by them, thus precluding him from playing.
But there’s another side to Thorpe. In 2005, he donated his winner’s check of $247,500 from the FedEx Kinko’s Classic to his church in Lake Mary, Fla. He cited the church’s activities in helping troubled children. [Golfweek]
–Finally, a very solid field for the PGA Tour event this week at Riviera, including Phil, Vijay, Ernie, Freddie, Furyk, Padraig, Leonard, Donald, Rose, Romero, Love, Kim, and Scott. The perfect lead-in to the Super Bowl.
–And, in the controversy over the Tour’s new policy on grooves, Scott McCarron claims he never actually called Phil Mickelson a “cheater.” In responding to a question from the San Francisco Chronicle, McCarron says, “I responded, ‘It’s cheating and I am appalled Phil has put it in play’…I never called Phil Mickelson a cheater. That being said, I want my fans, sponsors, and most importantly, my fellow players, to know that I will not be silenced and I will continue my efforts to get the groove issue resolved."
Mickelson maintained during last week’s tourney at Torrey Pines that McCarron had “slandered” him. The two talked for ten minutes on Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday, Lefty said he would not use the controversial Ping Eye2 wedge this week, but threatened to use it again if the loophole involving the new grooves regulation isn’t closed.
“Out of respect for (the players), I do not want to have an advantage over anybody, whether it’s perceived or actual.”
“We all make mistakes. We all say things we wish we could take back. I’ve done it a bunch in my career. The fact is, it’s not easy to come up and face that person…I appreciate him being a big enough man to do that.”
–The Mark McGwire controversy is far from being over, much as McGwire himself thought it would be. Ben Shpigel of the New York Times weighed in from St. Louis.
“When McGwire ultimately confessed, during an orchestrated series of interviews Jan. 11…many (fans in St. Louis) were left with a hollow feeling. Despite several opportunities, McGwire repeatedly dismissed any link between performance-enhancing drugs and his remarkable power. If McGwire had acknowledged even receiving an inadvertent benefit from taking steroids, [Bernie Miklasz, a longtime sports columnist at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch] said he thought a majority of local fans would forgive him.
“ ‘This is a very loyal town, but people are having a very hard time processing all of this,’ said Tom Burke, a lawyer… ‘For most people, that just isn’t complete enough of a story. It’s not realistic enough. To me, it seems like the Cardinals underestimated the fallout that was going to occur.’
“First and foremost was the recent criticism of McGwire by several members of the Cardinals family. Adolphus Busch IV, scion of the family that once owned the team, said in a statement that McGwire ‘deliberately cheated the game,’ ‘stole its most coveted records’ and ‘was paid millions while perpetrating a fraud.’ [Ed. Go Adolphus!] Jack Clark, a popular first baseman on two pennant-winning teams in the 1980s, said that seeing McGwire in uniform made him want to throw up and that McGwire, like all steroid users, should be barred from baseball forever.
“Perhaps the most resonant criticism came from Whitey Herzog, a beloved former manager, who at a dinner in Appleton, Wis., said he could not fathom how McGwire received a standing ovation at the Winter Warm-Up and that Clark was roundly booed. ‘Now what the hell is the matter with society when that happens?’ Herzog said.”
Rick Kordenbrock, a high school social studies teacher from Ladue, Mo., said he felt “duped and hoodwinked” into thinking that McGwire’s prodigious power was all natural.
“All these great players like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and Frank Robinson – that’s who McGwire cheated,” he said. “He cheated the history of the game.”
But Bob Gibson has come out in support of McGwire, saying it was time to move on.
Boy, I couldn’t disagree more. In fact I get more and more upset thinking about the topic. What makes what McGwire (and Sosa that ‘magical’ summer of ’98) did even worse than Barry Bonds, in my mind, is how he jerked around the Maris family. What Bonds did, in cheating to pass Aaron, is of course the height of dirtballdom. But McGwire was out and out cruel. He toyed with the Maris’ boys and his widow. It’s even worse than “perpetrating a fraud.”
It’s the Maris aspect, alone, that truly sets Mark McGwire apart from the rest. It’s why no one should ever again cheer this guy. And in no way should he be considered for the Hall of Fame. I wish baseball would just take him off the ballot now.
–You know, just a month ago I wasn’t fired up in the least for the Winter Olympics, but I’m beginning to be, particularly for the alpine skiing events as America cheers on Lindsey Vonn!!! Time to be a major homer, folks. The pressure on her will be immense but she has to win at least one gold.
Separately, once again Bode Miller, regardless of how you feel about the guy, will supply his own drama as he’s set to compete in all five events. What if out of nowhere he comes through this time?
—Jets coach Rex Ryan was fined $50,000 by the team for extending his middle finger at a mixed martial arts event in Miami last weekend. Of course larger than life Rex forgot that everyone over the age of one has a cellphone camera these days. [By the way, not to get off on a rant here, but why the heck do some insist on spelling it “cell phone” when “telephone” is one word?! Use some common sense, editors.]
A Ryan interview was put on the big screen for the audience wherein he said “I’d like to thank everybody here in Miami. I know they love me. I want to just tell everybody, hey, we’re coming to beat you twice next year.”
So the audience booed him, of course, and that’s when Rex gave some fans the finger, though he was smiling.
Well, it was indeed “stupid and inappropriate” as he himself said in apologizing, and the fine was justified, I guess, though I would have made it $25,000, not $50K, but you should hear some of the chatter on the talk radio shows, like how Rex is ready to implode, blah blah blah. Rex is Rex. You either love him or hate him. Almost every Jets fan loves him, including yours truly. It’s certainly more entertaining than his predecessor’s act, the dour, humorless Mangenius. And, heck, I haven’t taken my Jets pullover off since they lost to Indy.
“He is not everyone’s cup of tea. He went out of his way to incite Giants fans last week, calling the Jets ‘the biggest show in town,’ and to listen to the resulting outrage was to think he’d spoken ill of every mother of every Giants fan in the tri-state area. He went out of his way earlier in the year to incite Dolphins fans, and Miami LB Channing Crowder, and Bill Belichick, and offended certain media caretakers who somehow believe dull and colorless is the only way to win a football game.
“Here’s the thing, though: The Jets loved this. They lapped it up. They loved seeing themselves on the back page every day. They loved the interest it drummed up, the business it drew: merchandise, PSLs, tickets, the whole nine. They knew what they were getting. They knew what Rex being Rex meant.”
But the fine – “coupled with GM Mike Tannenbaum’s harsh rebuke immediately after – flies in the face of what the Jets have asked Ryan to be, what they expect him to be, and sure sounds like pandering for forgiveness where very little, if any, was demanded. This was a place where men pummel each other to a pulp, after all, not High Mass.
“The Jets want it both ways, which is just as impossible a request as the act the Dolphins fans in that audience suggested Ryan perform. Forcing an apology was one thing. Adding a fine is downright disingenuous.”
–Speaking of the Jets, they have lowered the prices on some tickets and seat licenses in the lower level section near the goal line as they struggle to sell out their new stadium this coming fall. Seat licenses fell to $6,000 to $7,500 from $10,000, with game tickets dropping to $125 from $140.
But this is actually a good deal, because the Jets Flight Crew (the cheerleading squad) stations itself between the goal line and the ten! Ergo, goal line seats are far more valuable than those on the 50-yard line!
–The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir had a rather humorous story on all the White House’s maneuvering prior to President Obama appearing on CBS’ telecast of the Georgetown-Duke basketball game last weekend. A White House detail met at the arena beforehand with the CBS contingent, announcer Verne Lundquist said, “to see where the president would sit, which headset he’d use, who else would be at the table, and what the camera shot would be. We agreed on an angle that would eliminate the potential for anyone to make an improper gesture or hold up an improper poster behind us.” Obama’s people also got assurances Rex Ryan would be down in Miami, not up in D.C.
On Sunday, Obama is being interviewed by CBS’ Katie Couric before the Super Bowl. Again? Geezuz. I have no problem with a president going on right before kickoff and saying how this is a great American tradition, along with a shout out to the troops, but….oh, never mind. This is why I’m hoping the PGA event goes sudden-death right up to the very start of the game.
— “Girl fights off shark with board”
“A teenage girl bitten by a shark told how she fought off the creature, smashing it over the head with her body board until it let her go.
“Lydia Ward, 14, was in waist-deep water with her brother at Oreti Beach, on New Zealand’s South Island, when what was believed to be a broad-nosed seven gill shark grabbed her hip. She said she did not notice the shark until the attack was under way.
“ ‘I saw my brother’s face and turned to the side and saw this large grey thing in the water so I just hit it on the head with a boogie board,’ Lydia told National Radio….
“Lydia’s mother said the shark’s bite had ripped Lydia’s wet suit and penetrated her skin, but luckily the teenager required no stitches.
“Conservation Department marine scientist Clinton Duffy said broad-nosed seven gill sharks grow up to 10 feet long and had attacked swimmers at the Oreti Beach in the past….
“Lydia, a former competitive swimmer and regular beach swimmer, said she would be sticking to rivers and lakes in the future.”
No doubt the International Shark Attack File folks will attempt to cover up this latest assault.
–From Paul Raffaele, author of “Man-Eaters of Tsavo,” and a story on lions in Africa in Smithsonian.
“In 1898, two lions terrorized crews constructing a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River, killing – according to some estimates – 135 people. ‘Hundreds of men fell victims to these savage creatures, whose very jaws were steeped in blood,’ wrote a worker on the railway, a project of the British colonial government. ‘Bones, flesh, skin and blood, they devoured all, and left not a trace behind them.
“Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson shot the lions (a 1996 movie, The Ghost and the Darkness, dramatized the story) and sold their bodies for $5,000 to the Field Museum in Chicago, where, stuffed, they greet visitors to this day.
“Bruce Patterson (no relation to John), a zoologist with the museum, continues to study those animals. Chemical tests of hair samples recently confirmed that the lions had eaten human flesh in the months before they were killed. Patterson and his colleagues estimate that one lion ate 10 people, and the other about 24 – far fewer than the legendary 135 victims, but still horrifying.
“When I arrived in Nairobi [2009], word reached the capital that a lion had just killed a woman at Tsavo. A cattle herder had been devoured weeks earlier….
“Still, today’s Tsavo lions are not innately more bloodthirsty than other lions. Patterson says; they attack people for the same reason their forebears did a century ago: ‘our encroachment into what was once the territory of lions.’ Injured lions are especially dangerous. One of the original man-eaters had severe dental disease that would have made him a poor hunter, Patterson found. Such lions may learn to attack people rather than game, he says, ‘because we are slower, weaker and more defenseless.’”
–Goodness gracious…there are 250 black bears in the immediate Anchorage, Alaska area. That’s almost a full battalion.
–Johnny Mac broke the sad news that Sammi the Pocono groundhog died on February 2nd.
“According to members of Groundhog Lodge No. 6…Sammi was not feeling well several days prior to her big day and summoned the lodge’s weatherman Harold Kreger to her side to issue an early prediction.
“Kreger quoted Sammi, ‘Whether or not if the sun would shine I think that it would be six more weeks of winter. Some of this cold weather; and I hate it, will be here, some snow, wind and maybe some rain again. I want you to say hello to all my friends. Sorry if I don’t make it, but don’t worry. I’ll be where there is a lot of alfalfa, dandelion leaves, and soy beans.’” [Pocono Record]
And then Sammi died. Most groundhogs, by the way, don’t speak English, making Sammi rather unusual in this regard.
Meanwhile, my brother passed along word that Essex County (N.J.) Groundhog Ed saw his shadow Tuesday. Dr. Jeremy Goodman, director of the Turtleback Zoo, said, “Ed was up early doing his circuit and he says we have six more weeks of winter to go. He has been right the last seven of eight years we have done this.” Goodman’s task was complicated by the fact Ed speaks Romanian.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/2/80: #1 “Rock With You” (Michael Jackson) #2 “Do That To Me One More Time” (The Captain &Tennille…do what? I don’t understand…) #3 “Coward Of The County” (Kenny Rogers…before he had extensive work done on his face)…and…#4 “Cruisin’” (Smokey Robinson) #5 “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (Queen) #6 “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” (Rupert Holmes…no relation to Sherlock…or former running back Robert “Tank” Holmes) #7 “Sara” (Fleetwood Mac) #8 “The Long Run” (Eagles) #9 “Yes, I’m Ready” (Teri DeSario with K.C.) #10 “Don’t Do Me Like That” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
College Basketball Quiz Answer: Earl Monroe (Winston-Salem State, 1963-67; averaged 41.5 ppg his senior year on 60% shooting from the floor); Willis Reed (Grambling, 1960-64; averaged 26.5 ppg, 21.3 reb senior year); Zelmo Beaty (Prairie View A&M, 1958-62; averaged 19.4 reb. for his college career…always thought his last name was spelled ‘Beatty’…); Al Attles (North Carolina A&T, 1956-60); Elmore Smith (Kentucky State, 1968-71); Marvin Webster (Morgan State, 1971-75); Charles Oakley (Virginia Union, 1981-85).
