Sports

Thu - May 28, 2009

You do not have enough to read; here, have thousands of old magazines

Nobody told me that Sports Illustrated has all its old articles online in the something they call the "SI Vault." Thanks a lot, people; I have to find these things out by accident.

So, here, to try it out, read two of my all-time favorite Sports Illustrated articles: "Bell of the Ball Game," about the Wabash-DePauw college football rivalry, from the September 10, 1973 issue, and "Nile Kinnick," about the greatest Heisman Trophy winner, from the August 31, 1987 issue. (I actually have saved those two issues in paper form, and they are around here somewhere, but who has the time to go find them?)

Alas, it appears that the photos and artwork that accompanied the articles are not included. Oh, well.

Last night I read seven articles from the 1950s and 1960s about the Indianapolis 500. This SI Vault is an absolute boon to mankind!

Posted at 11:33 PM

Fri - November 21, 2008

They used to shout "Kill the umpire!"

Here at the blog "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" we see an action photo of the time in 1940 when a fan jumped out of the stands at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and began pummeling National League umpire George Magerkurth.

(I apologize for the improper use of the past indicative "Was" instead of the past subjunctive "Were" in the the title of the blog, but that what it's called and I am just reporting here. Actually, since he is dead, maybe it should be "Had Been.")

Posted at 12:08 PM

Tue - August 5, 2008

"No job is too tough for BIcycle Repairman!"

I have written previously about the "How to Fix Bikes" blog. Here is another online bicycle repair resource, BicycleTutor.com.

It lists on its front page all kinds of bicycle repair how-tos, such as "How to Adjust V-brakes" and "How to Overhaul a Bottom Bracket." If you go to the linked pages, you not only get a list of steps, but also a video showing the maintenance actions in question.

I have not actually followed the steps listed to perform any of these repairs, so I cannot vouch for them. But it sure LOOKS informative.

Posted at 07:07 PM

Mon - July 21, 2008

Less hair on the Bear

From this photo, which I believe was taken at the Chicago Bears mini-camp recently, it appears Kyle Orton has removed the neck part of his neckbeard, and trimmed what was left, leaving only a normal beard. This is an improvement.

A better improvement would be to be clean-shaven. Apparently, he did shave for his wedding last February, a development I missed. So this more normal-looking beard is new growth.

I predict great things for the Bears this year, with the clean-necked Orton as starting quarterback. Now if he would just get a grown-up haircut.

Posted at 10:09 AM

Mon - April 14, 2008

Memories of confusion by a sibling

Reading about the victory in the Masters yesterday by South African golfer Trevor Immelman, and about his saying how much a message from South African golfing legend Gary Player had encouraged him, reminded me of this little anecdote from my childhood.

For this to be funny at all, you have to know that I grew up in Gary, Indiana, in a section of town called Miller.

My brother told me that in the mid-sixties, he would see headlines in the paper that said "Gary Player Wins Tournament," and he would read the article, and it would never say which Gary player had won. And it frustrated him. And there would be other golf stories headlined "Miller Barber Wins Tournament," and he couldn't figure that out, because the only barber in Miller was Rex, who cut our hair, and he didn't golf.

This was the brother who thought "Yosemite" was pronounced YOSE-mite, and thus would never connect the national park to the cartoon character "Yosemite Sam," whose name he only heard, not read, and who thought "fatigue" was pronounced FA-tee-gyew until he was in the army. But he turned out okay, mostly.

Posted at 01:35 PM

Fri - February 29, 2008

La mort sur le speed-way

The worst wreck in the history of auto racing was the crash at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, in which a Mercedes driven by Pierre Levegh drove up the back of a swerving Austin-Healey and launched into the air, flipped end-over-end into the stands, broke apart and flung the heavy bits into the crowd, and burned. Eighty-two spectators, and Levegh, were killed.

Here is a reproduction of the coverage of the wreck in Life magazine, including many photographs. And here is a Pathé newsreel documenting the crash.

Mercedes dropped out of auto racing for thirty-five years after that wreck.

Posted at 11:26 AM

Sun - January 27, 2008

Division III looks better all the time

The Seattle Times is running a series this week called "Victory and Ruins," about the criminality of the 2000 University of Washington football team, winners of that year's Rose Bowl, and the almost universal attempts by University officials and prosecutors to cover up and minimize the effects of this criminality.

It makes me ashamed to be a college football fan. If you are one, you need to read it.

It also makes me question whether I was right to help elect the prosecutors involved, although I'm not sure a different prosecutor would have done anything different. There seems to be a culture on the part of everyone, the Seattle Police Department excepted, to bend over backwards to find a reason to let UW football players get away with crime.

The first installment documents the story of Jeramy Stevens, focusing mainly on a rape case, in which charges should have been brought against him but were not. It also discusses his many, many other brushes with the law, and how he always was either not prosecuted or got the minimum punishment. And there were other alleged rapes by other team members that were not prosecuted.

I do not wish to make light of this story but I also am mad that this team of thugs, many of whom should have been in prison, beat Purdue in the Rose Bowl, with some of the prime thugs being largely responsible for the victory.

Anyway, it looks like UCLA got a bigger loser than I thought in hiring Rick Neuheisel as its coach, and I am much more sympathetic to Tyrone Willingham for the situation he inherited. Meanwhile, Todd Turner, the man brought in as athletic director to clean up the mess left by Barbara Hedges, was fired a few months ago -- not enough football success. "Success," like Neuheisel achieved. Madness.

Posted at 04:52 PM

Mon - January 7, 2008

Nelson Poll Update, Bowl Edition

Speaking of rankings, here is the final update to the Nelson Poll for the 2007 college football season.

1. Kansas (+1)
2. Louisiana State (+3)
3. Ohio State (-2)
4. West Virginia (+3)
5. Missouri (+1)
6. Southern California (+2)
7. Georgia (+3)
8. Oklahoma (-5)
9. Hawaii (-5)
10. Brigham Young (+1)
11. Virginia Tech (-2)
12. Texas (+3)
13. Arizona State (-1)
14. Cincinnati (+3)
15. Boston College (+5)
16. Boise State (-3)
17. Florida (-3)
18. Tennessee (+7)
19. Oregon (+9)
20. Texas Tech (+7)
21. Penn State (+5)
22. Wake Forest (+9)
23. Clemson (-2)
24. Wisconsin (-6)
25. South Florida (-9)

The Bottom Ten were not in any bowl games, of course, so they didn't change.

Posted at 10:55 PM

Sun - December 16, 2007

Don't forget your mouthguard

I don't think I ever wrote about Helmet Hut. I am not exactly sure if they are a store or what, but the web site displays lots of football helmets, both college and pro, from days gone by.

Some of the helmets are original, but most are replicas. Like this Purdue helmet, as used from 1949 through 1954:

Posted at 07:36 PM

Wed - December 5, 2007

This is not what colleges are for, Part 2

Fans of college football will want to read this article in USAToday documenting the compensation of all the head coaches in Division 1-A.

Okay, not ALL the coaches -- a few schools would not release the data.

When they talk about pay, they are talking about total compensation. Coaches tend to get a salary plus bonuses plus income from other sources, such as running summer football camps using the school's facilities, so USAToday admits it is a little hard to nail down exact numbers. In some cases, they actually got the coaches' income tax returns -- and I'd like to know how THAT happened.

Associated with the article is an interactive table that allows you to sort the list, or look at individual conferences, or whatever.

The highest-paid college football coach is Bob Stoops of Oklahoma at $3,620,000 a year. The lowest-paid coach in Division 1-A is Shane Montgomery of Miami University, at $144,225 a year. As far as conferences go, the Southeastern Conference has the highest average pay, $1,941,612, while the Mid-American Conference has the lowest average pay, $225,225.

The article has an interesting side table showing the most expensive wins and the cheapest wins, i.e., coach's salary divided by number of wins this season. Minnesota's wins were the most expensive, at $1,000,000 per -- coach Tim Brewster made $1,000,000 and the team won one game -- while Bowling Green paid the least for each of its eight wins, $22,989.

I like the Mid-American Conference.

Posted at 03:13 PM

Sun - December 2, 2007

Nelson Poll update, Week 14

Here is the final Nelson Poll for Division 1-A college football for 2007. Okay, maybe I will do one more after the bowls. Anyway, now you know which is the best team in college football -- this is the wheat, and all other polls and rankings are the chaff.

Once again, the number in parentheses is the change from last week's ranking.

1. Ohio State (0)
2. Kansas (+2)
3. Oklahoma (+3)
4. Hawaii (+1)
5. Louisiana State (+2)
6. Missouri (-4)
7. West Virginia (-4)
8. Southern California (0)
9. Virginia Tech (0)
10. Georgia (0)
11. Brigham Young (+2)
12. Arizona State (-1)
13. Boise State (-1)
14. Florida (0)
15. Texas (+1)
16. South Florida (+2)
17. Cincinnati (+2)
18. Wisconsin (+2)
19. Connecticut (+2)
20. Boston College (-5)
21. Clemson (+1)
22. Illinois (+2)
23. Virginia (+2)
24. Central Florida (+3)
25. Tennessee (-8)

And here is the Bottom Ten:

111. Rice (0)
112. Utah State (0)
113. Minnesota (+1)
114. Alabama - Birmingham (+1)
115. Duke (+1)
116. Northern Illinois (+1)
117. North Texas (-4)
118. Southern Methodist (0)
119. Idaho (0)
120. Florida International (0)

Posted at 12:26 AM

Sat - December 1, 2007

Old pigskin

Here is Time magazine's roundup of the results of the big games in college football 78 years ago this weekend.

Here is a particularly choice excerpt: "Pest Welch and the rest of the great Purdue backfield rollicked through Indiana's line to win a 32 to 0 game that Purdue did not need to make sure of the Big Ten championship."

I used to sit under the picture of Pest Welch that hung on the wall of The Sweet Shop in the Purdue Memorial Union. He later coached the University of Washington, for your information.

And then there is this one: "Iowa looked a shade better than Michigan but could not prove it. Neither scored." THOSE were the days -- nothing-nothing ties!

Posted at 07:28 PM

Sun - November 25, 2007

Nelson Poll Update, Week 13

Here is this week's update to the only accurate college football ranking, the Nelson Poll after this week's play:

1. Ohio State (0)
2. Missouri (+2)
3. West Virginia (+2)
4. Kansas (-2)
5. Hawaii (+2)
6. Oklahoma (0)
7. Louisiana State (-4)
8. Southern California (+5)
9. Virginia Tech (+3)
10. Georgia (+1)
11. Arizona State (-3)
12. Boise State (-3)
13. Brigham Young (+5)
14. Florida (+5)
15. Boston College (+1)
16. Texas (-6)
17. Tennessee (+7)
18. South Florida (+5)
19. Cincinnati (+2)
20. Wisconsin (0)
21. Connecticut (-7)
22. Clemson (+3)
23. Oregon (-8)
24. Illinois (-2)
25. Virginia (-8)

And here is the Bottom Ten:

111. Rice (-1)
112. Utah State (+2)
113. North Texas (+4)
114. Minnesota (+1)
115. Alabama - Birmingham (-3)
116. Duke (-3)
117. Northern Illinois (-1)
118. Southern Methodist (+1)
119. Idaho (-1)
120. Florida International (0)

Posted at 04:00 PM

Mon - November 19, 2007

This is not why we have colleges

Courtesy of CollegeGridirons.com, here is a list of all Division 1-A football stadiums ranked in order of size.

You can re-sort the list by date of first game, or by size within conference, et cetera, if you want.

For those who did not want to click on the link, the largest Division 1-A stadium is Michigan Stadium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, with 107,501 seats; the smallest is the Kibbie Dome at the University of Idaho, Lewiston, Idaho, with 15,820 seats. I will bet you you would be less likely to wind up sitting next to an obnoxious angry drunk at the Kibbie Dome. And you would have a better view of the action.

Posted at 08:52 PM

Sun - November 18, 2007

I'm sure many are killed

The Guardian newspaper of the United Kingdom shares with us the strangest sports picture I have seen Carter went canoeing:

The final heat of the 60 meter men's wooden shoes race in Guangzhou, China.

How is it that I have reached my advanced age and never seen nor heard of this sport?

If I were participating, I'd want to be the guy in the back. I'm just sayin'.

[Found at Deadspin.]

Posted at 02:56 PM

Nelson Poll update, Week 12

Speedy

Nelson Poll update, Week 11

Nelson Poll update, Week 10

Your triceps will be fabulous

Nelson Poll update, Week 9

Yet again, I must correct you

Nelson Poll update

Hot blades

Here is the genuine article

Vote for the Brazilian