Mike Oravec sends this ESPN article on Gary Davidson and the World Football League.
Davidson was also involved with the creation of the ABA and WHA but it was the WFL that Davidson was most involved in and served as the league's commissioner.
It's a long article with interesting portions on how and why the Memphis Southmen targeted Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka, and Jim Kiick to poach from the Miami Dolphins, the always hilarious financial stories, the only World Bowl and others...
The Athletic has been working on a series based on football programs that have struggled to reach the level of their previous success.
The Texas Tech article discusses the Red Raider's struggles since the departure of Mike Leach and the three coaches that have tried to win in Lubbock Post-Leach and how they (Tommy Tuberville, Kliff Kingsbury, and Matt Wells), how they managed to not win with Patrick Mahones, and the hopes that Joey McGuire can return to Texas Tech at least a perennial bowl team.
The article on Arkansas might have been even better as it wrote about the Razorback's steep decline from the day that Frank Broyles took the Hogs from the now-defunct Southwest Conference for the trip to the SEC.
One fact that I didn't know and always wondered about was a claim by the now-deceased Broyles that had Arkansas not headed to the SEC and waited for the eventual Big 8 to add four SWC teams (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor) which would have seemed to be a better fit with long-time rivals than the SEC, Arkansas would not have been invited to join the new Big 12.
I didn't know that and it would have sent Arkansas to either an independent or group of five status in the AAC.
While the Razorbacks may have struggled on the field since joining the SEC, the financial coffers swelled by multiples over what they would have received had they decided to pass on the opportunity.
The article on Kansas shows just how easy it is for a program to go south with one or two wrong decisions.
It details how then-athletic director Lew Perkins was determined to fire head coach Mark Mangino, who has been the only coach in the last fifty years to get any kind of momentum going in Lawrence (Mangino actually finished 12-1 and won an Orange Bowl? I still can't believe that a decade and a half later) and hired Turner Gill over Jim Harbaugh, who actually interviewed for the job!
Kansas would later run through Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beaty, and Les Miles before their current hiring of Lance Leipold.
It's a great series and there are other schools written about as well.
The Athletic scores again as Brendan Quinn writes about what it is like for the regular everyday golfer to play at Augusta National during Masters week.
The Masters holds a media lottery each year before the tournament and allows the winner to play the course.
Quinn writes of his round, how the experience felt, and took questions from his readers.
Fred Landucci sends this from the New York Post as columnist Phil Mushnick writes of just badly the analytics crowd is damaging baseball.
I could write about the awful changes to the game that I once loved but Mushnick does a better job and hits all points as the Ivy League invaders that think that they are revolutionizing a game that they are actually slowly choking to death.
ESPN writes of the thirty-year anniversary of the basketball film "White Men Can't Jump", which I haven't seen in years but always enjoyed the many times that I have viewed the film.
The article tells the stories of the casting, filming, and the many bets that were placed during filming on the Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson led cast including the many bets placed on Harrelson's ability to actually dunk and how the bests were actually settled.
We wrap with this Washington Post article on Chiney Ogwumike, who not only plays for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks but spent her off-season this year on ESPN's NBA studio show as an analyst and I was impressed with her performance and besides her future with the Sparks and judging by this article Ogwumike has an excellent head on her shoulders and certainly has a future outside of basketball when and if she chooses to travel that path.
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