We are nearing the end of the “Bowling for Dollars” season. What am I referring to has nothing to do with pins, alleys, strikes or spares. It is about a plethora of college football bowl games. Some are the best teams in the country jousting to see who is best. Some are just an extra [...]
The December 28th issue of Sports Illustrated arrived this past week with Will Smith and the movie “Concussion” featured on the cover. As compelling as that issue is I was drawn to an article by Mark Bechtel titled “Farewell.” This article was about the sports figures that had died in 2015. It seemed to be [...]
In the game of basketball, the people who are supposed to know (odds makers) say the home court is a 6 to 10 point advantage. Playing and coaching in college leagues where teams play each other twice (home and away) the theory seems to hold up. So what has this home court advantage happen? I [...]
I am watching the Army-Navy football game from Philadelphia, PA. The 116th game between these two storied institutions. When I was a kid the game was held in wartime. It was toward the end of World War II and was watched by a nation who needed this moment of pride. Since that time, the Navy [...]
In September, 1951, I enrolled at the College of the Sequoias (COS), Visalia, CA ... what one would call a "junior college." At 5’7”, 135 lbs. I was determined to continue to play sports just as I had in high school. I was naive enough to think I could compete, so I never had a [...]
As we make our journey through life things happen that are out of the realm of our experience. We write them off as weird, strange or certainly not worthy of our attention. How about this idea? They are symptoms of something and it is so big that it needs our full attention. Change is always [...]
When you get to be my age you are reminded of the journey you have made on a daily basis. And, a big part of it is the people you’ve met along the way. When I stop to look at that, it is clear to me that I have experienced knowing so many great ones. [...]
You hear all the time that it is a competitive world out there and rightfully so. My question is, “if that is the case, why aren’t we raising our children to get the point?” Why are they consistently given a trophy for just showing up? Of course we want our children to have a great [...]
The way that I see any upset is that it is a reaction triggered by something incomplete from our “way” past that is often repeated. I am certainly not the originator of this idea and I am more just sorting it out for myself. So, what does knowing this tell us? In reality, just knowing, [...]
This weekend I had the opportunity to reaffirm the rewards of coaching as former players of mine gathered to honor their relationships formulated some 30 years ago. Most of the people attending brought their wives or significant others who had been hearing the stories about their husbands’ experiences for years. As the head coach I [...]