NFL Quiz: Following are some pairs of old time running backs
who were teammates, or contemporaries, for a significant part of
their careers. Who had more career rushing yards in each case.
Answers below.
–Hewritt Dixon or Pete Banaszek?
–MacArthur Lane or John Brockington?
–Walt Garrison, Dan Reeves, or Don Perkins?
–Jim Kiick or Mercury Morris?
–Don Nottingham or Don McCauley?
Senator Max Cleland
I came across this story written by Neal Thompson of the
Baltimore Sun. Cleland is currently a Democratic Senator from
Georgia and his personal story of courage is inspiring. He is a
triple amputee, having suffered a terrible injury in Vietnam. It”s
the story of the explosion that ripped through his body that is
our tale today.
Cleland had once served a semester in Washington as a college
student. He toured the Oval Office three days before John F.
Kennedy was assassinated. The death of Kennedy gave Max a
“sudden inner drive to serve my country.” After a year of
graduate school, he joined the Army. He was 24 when he
volunteered for Vietnam.
In early 1968, the Viet Cong launched the Tet offensive. By
March, after suffering some initial devastating blows, the
Americans had the situation fairly under control (in war, it”s all
relative) except for a remote village, Khe Sanh. The Marines
there remained under seige, prompting an Army-Marine rescue
mission.
Cleland volunteered. He spent five days in a bomb crater,
watched friendly fire kill four men, but emerged alive. On April
8, with a month left in his tour, Cleland was ordered to set up a
radio relay station on a nearby hill. As writer Neal Thompson
writes, “A helicopter flew him and two soldiers to the treeless top
of Hill 471, east of Khe Sanh.”
“When the helicopter landed, Cleland jumped out, followed by
the two soldiers. They ducked beneath the rotors and turned to
watch the liftoff. Then Cleland looked down and saw a grenade.
Where”d that come from? He walked toward it, bent down, and
crossed the line between before and after.”
The details that emerged in the aftermath of the explosion were
sketchy. Cleland, meanwhile, assumed it was his grenade and had
blown himself up. For years he thought that the grenade had
popped off his flak jacket. For years he blamed himself. The
Silver and Bronze Stars he received only embarrassed him.
Few soldiers returned home as severely damaged as Cleland. Of
the 6,878 who lost limbs in Vietnam, 52 were missing three.
Cleland has become a hero to many with the life he has led since
the war. In 1996 he was elected to fill retiring Senator Sam
Nunn”s seat. Nearly every day, someone calls to thank him for
the inspiration he provides. Then one day a fellow by the name of
David Lloyd called.
Lloyd was a 19-year old gung-ho Marine who was in a mortar pit
on April 8, 1968 when he heard an explosion. Thompson picks
up the story.
“Shrapnel bounced off his flak jacket. He ran to the injured
officer, a man named Max Cleland. ”Hold on there, Captain,”
Lloyd told Cleland. ”The chopper will be here in a minute.””
“Lloyd took off his web belt and tied it around one of Cleland”s
shredded legs. When the medics arrived, he left to help another
injured soldier – one of the two who had gotten off a helicopter
with Cleland. The soldier was crying. ”It was mine,” he said, ”it
was my grenade.””
The private had evidently failed to take the appropriate
precautions when he grabbed the grenades from an ammo box so
that they wouldn”t accidentally dislodge. This soldier”s flak
jacket was full of grenades with pins that were no properly bent.
Lloyd said “He was a walking deathtrap.”
Lloyd never assumed that Cleland would think it was his own
grenade. It wasn”t until Lloyd saw a History Channel program
earlier this year where he saw Cleland explain how he “blew
himself up” that Lloyd was able to set the story straight. Imagine
the weight now off of the Senator”s shoulders.
AP Top Ten Male Tennis Players of the Century
1. Rod Laver
2. Pete Sampras
3. Bill Tilden
4. Bjorn Borg
5. Don Budge
6. Lew Hoad
John McEnroe (tie)
8. Roy Emerson
Ken Rosewall (tie)
10. Jack Kramer
David Letterman on the Year 3000
The Sunday Times magazine asked Letterman to come up with
Top Ten”s for the Year 3000, just to give these folks a sense of
what we were all about. Here are a few…
–President Clinton put the “oh” in the Oval Office. (This joke
wasn”t funny in 2000, either).
–We also buried a case of Bud, 43 degrees north, 102 degrees
west. Go Nuts, Dude.
–The Great Pyramids were a gift to David Letterman from his
adoring Egyptian viewers.
–Large hole in the ozone? It was there when we got here.
Top 3 songs for the week of 12/12/64: #1 “Mr. Lonely”
(Bobby Vinton) #2 “She”s Not There” (The Zombies…yeah,
Baby!) #3 “Ringo” (Lorne Greene…yes, it”s true, kids).
NFL Tidbits:
–Jack Kemp had a career completion percentage of 46.7%. He
threw 114 TDs and 183 INTs!! No wonder he couldn”t be
elected President.
–For four seasons, 1967-70, the “Mad Bomber,” Daryle
Lamonica, hooked up with Warren Wells. After the 1970
season, Wells was arrested and out of the NFL (if I recall
correctly). Lamonica was a shell of his former bomber self. But
check out Wells” four years; passes caught, yardage, avg., and
TDs
1967 – 13-302 (23.2) 6 TDs
1968 – 53-1137 (21.5) 11
1969 – 47-1260 (26.8) 14
1970 – 43-935 (21.7) 11
Quiz Answers:
–Banaszek, 3772 – Dixon, 3090
–Brockington, 5185 – Lane, 4656
–Perkins, 6217 – Garrison, 3886 – Reeves, 1990
–Morris, 4133 – Kiick, 3759
–McCauley, 2627 – Nottingham, 2496.
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
