Time to say a few goodbyes before we move on to yesterday's hockey thoughts.
I missed this last week,but former Memphis State basketball coach Dana Kirk passed away last week at the age of 74.
Kirk coached my favorite ever non-Maryland team with his run with the 82-85 Memphis State Tigers with one of my all time favorite players in Keith Lee starring along with William Bedford and Andre Turner.
Kirk led MSU to the 1985 Final Four,where they were the only non-Big East in the group that season,but would last just one more season in coaching as MSU was nailed for recruiting violations and Kirk was convicted of income tax invasion and spent four months in jail.
I loved those Tigers teams and to this day,I try to get as many of their games on VHS/DVD as I can.
Goodbye to Mosi Tatupu at the age of 54.
Tatupu was known by recent fans as the father of Seattle linebacker Lofa Tatupu,but by older fans as the Pats ace short yardage back and finished his career with an excellent 3.9 yard per carry average.
The stocky fullback was devastating on those third and short runs and I cannot help but think about him in those red jerseys with the old Pat the Patriot helmet.
Mosi will also be remembered as a star in the Tecmo Bowl video game,which was the first game to truly feature actual NFL players and he was just as tough to stop in that game as well...
Finally to those of you animal lovers out there,goodbye to " Daddy" the faithful companion of Cesar Millan "The Dog Whisperer".
Daddy seemed like such a neat dog on the show (I watch regularly)to the point of almost changing my mind on pit bulls,but I am smart enough to realize that the breed is not for me!
Daddy was 16.
On to Hockey,where I was right on three of the four picks and I even give myself a little credit for seeing that Slovakia was a live underdog in their game against Sweden,but not too much or I would have picked them outright.
Who would have thought the worst game of the day would be Canada-Russia?
Russia mailed it in and watching the disappearing act of Ovechkin,Kovalchuk and company makes me wonder about their capabilities in the big game and with Kovalchuk now a Devil-I am concerned!
Big points to Switzerland for making the USA sweat,great game from Jonas Hiller in the loss.
The Swiss lose points for the unis which looked like the dress uniform from an old Star Trek movie combined with a Swiss Army Knife.
International hockey needs to lose the helmet rule as it ruined a great game between Finland and the Czech Republic,when Finland scored late in a scoreless game because Pavel Kubina had to pick up a lost helmet,which allowed the Finns to score uncontested in front of the net.
The rule states if you lose your helmet,you need to pick it up immediately or get off the ice.
Kubina had no choice and it cost the Czechs the game.
Want to know the difference between Slovakia and Sweden in their game?
Underrated Jaroslav Halak for Slovakia and overrated Henrik Lundquist for the Swedes and no I don't want to hear about Lundquist's goals against streak in the games either as the streak was accomplished against the weakest offense of the better teams in Finland and pop gun offenses Belarus and Germany.
Photo Credits
Kirk/Lee:CommercialAppeal.com
Tatupu:Unknown
Daddy:Mark Theissan
No comments:
Post a Comment