Cleaning out the inbox-Sports version

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It isn't often that women's basketball leads off the inbox.
It also isn't often that a women's basketball team wins 71 games in a row with a national championship and is on their way to the Final Four in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the number one team in the country.
Now, imagine how rare that it is to have that team come from my hometown and you have the Division II dominating Ashland Eagles.
Head coach Robyn Fralick has a career record of 103-2 (of this writing) and has a unique assistant coach in her husband Tim, the former head coach of Ashland High School.
Barry Fortune of the Ashland Times-Gazette writes of the unique working relationship and how coaches function with a home life built around basketball.
When I grew up, Ashland was more of a hoops school than a football school, so men or women, it's nice to see the hoops programs doing so well there.

More on Ashland basketball as Eric Musselman, the son of Ashland University (then college) legend Bill Musselman, has led Nevada to the Sweet 16 after a huge comeback to upset second seed Cincinnati.
Nevada will play Loyola-Chicago for a trip to the Elite Eight.
If I was Louisville or Pittsburgh (Especially Pittsburgh) -ACC schools with a massive rebuilding project ahead, I would be looking into Eric Musselman as an excellent choice to be their person to attempt to bring back their program to tournament status.

Surprised to see Penny Hardaway as the head coach at Memphis.
I understand that Memphis missed the tournament in both years under Tubby Smith, but in the past flashy hires of former great players without college coaching experience hasn't turned out well (Houston with Clyde Drexler and currently Georgetown with Patrick Ewing and St.John's with Chris Mullin to name just a few), but the one thing that makes me think that Hardaway has a better chance than the others is that he is a Memphis icon coaching Memphis with a built-in recruiting hotbed waiting for him.
I'm not saying Hardaway will succeed, but I like his chances better than others that attempted this in the past.

Eleven Warriors uses the tournament (and adds football) to explain just why entering the Big 10 may be a great idea for dollars, but not such a great idea for success as it looks at the adventures of Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland and of course Rutgers and their struggles with their occasional successes.
When you consider that the Big 10 likely has one more expansion left in them, future contestants may want to measure winning against the bank account...

One passing of note as Ed "the Glider" Charles passed away at the age of 84.
Charles spent most of his career with the Kansas City Athletics, but best remembered by many for his 1969 postseason heroics with many key hits for the Miracle Mets against the Braves and Orioles.
Charles saved the best for last in his career as he never played in the big leagues after the World Series victory.

We wrap with the O.J. Simpson interview,
No, not THAT O.J. Simpson interview- Simpson did one last week that he hasn't done even well before that night in Brentwood as he talked football, his career with the Buffalo Bills, USC, his potential to possibly contend with CTE and even some about his time in prison in Las Vegas.
The Buffalo News managed to get Simpson to talk about these and other things in what I thought was a very interesting piece if only to get Simpson's thoughts on topics other than the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

1969 Rose Bowl

On the eve of the Cotton Bowl between the Buckeyes and the Trojans of Southern California, I decided to pop in my DVD of the two teams 1969 Rose Bowl battle for the National Championship.

Even those to most fans, the Buckeyes-Trojans game is a mere appetizer to the national semi-finals, to those of us that grew up on these two teams battling on New Years Day, the only thing that is missing from this is the San Gabriel Mountains peeking over the Rose Bowl.
Jerry's World in Texas just doesn't possess the same beauty or tradition compared to that.
Still, just seeing those classic uniforms (and I do hope the Buckeyes use those classic uniforms!) against each other again in an important game brings back lots of memories.

In that spirit, the 1969 Rose Bowl was a natural choice, especially since I didn't have any of the other games available to watch!
Watching the game, the one thing that stands out other than the production values (more on that later) of the broadcast is this- the game is slow.
That doesn't mean that it isn't fun to watch and that doesn't mean that it isn't well played, it just means that it is far slower than the game that we watch every weekend today.
Compare it to going to your local high school game and judging the speed and hitting against the top college teams or the NFL, there is no comparison and with almost fifty years in between this game and today- there isn't much in common here either.

Now let's be fair if we took the same athletes of today and subjected them to the training beliefs of the day, taking those huge steps back and conversely put these players under the advanced techniques of today-I think the athletes would be roughly the same.
The advances in athletes usually come along as we learn about better nutrition, better training habits, advances in so many different areas and that makes the difference between eras.

I wish I could say the same for the offenses because that is where you do see a huge difference and where the game has advanced a great deal.
The passing game is very primitive and the passers in this game- Rex Kern for Ohio State and Steve Sogge for USC both showed the type of passing skills that would likely be lucky to see them start at the Division II or III level.
The play calling isn't very creative and is a sign of the times in football, if not the country- bland, basic and wait for a mistake by the opponent.
I'm not sure a John McKay or especially a Woody Hayes offense could win big in today's game running such offenses.
I'd say the closest reminder of someone in today's game to these offenses would be the offense of someone like Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, who wins enough to keep Iowa competitive, but not enough to make them national title contenders year in and year out.

While watching the game, there are only two players that stand out that I see and say "yep, he could play in today's game and do well"- one of each side of the ball and one from each team.
On defense from the Buckeyes, safety Jack Tatum and representing the Trojans none other than Orenthal James Simpson at running back.
Tatum could certainly thump on an even level with the best of today's hitters, but I'm not sure you could play him at safety all the time and he might wind up being like the Browns are finding out with Jabrill Peppers- he might not have a true position in today's game and only on a good team where you could move him around for use in certain situations for his best use.
In other words, In some formations,Tatum could be in the box as an extra linebacker and in others used at safety as another defensive back, but would likely be exposed if he played in either position full time.
Still, I could see Tatum being a solid player in today's game, if not the standout that he was in his time.

As for O.J. Simpson- Simpson would have been a star in any era that he played and there are only a few players that you can truly say that about.
Big enough (6'1 210) and fast enough that his game would have easily translated on its own merits even before the previously noted advances in athletic preparation-there is no doubt in my mind that this O.J.Simpson would at least be on the level of the better NFL backs in today's game and assuming he had the benefits that today's athletes have, he'd be the best back in the game.
Through all the craziness over the last two decades of the O.J. Simpson saga, it has become very easy to forget just how good of a running back O.J. Simpson really was.

The other funny thing was the television and not just the primitive colors and graphics either.
Curt Gowdy talked about the Ohio State fans singing "Hold Out Sloopy" and told lots of stories about O.J. Simpson and his best friend, a defensive lineman that you might remember better as a driver of a White Bronco named Al Cowlings with my favorites being Cowlings wrestling with Simpson until Simpson left crying and discussing with a chuckle how Simpson stole his then-wife from Cowlings, who was with Cowlings then as his girlfriend!
Ah,the good ole' days of sports television.

Hope you enjoyed a look back at the 1969 Rose Bowl.
Back tonight with a review of the latest encounter between the Buckeyes and Trojans...

Cleaning out the inbox

Time to clean out the inbox with a few things that have piled up!

The 1968 Topps set is a real love or hate it with its "Burlap" background.
I like it,but my favorite set of the 1960's is 1965 with 1963 and 1968 battling for the place spot.
With the set being my birth year,you would figure that would be a set that I would work on,but the oppressive cost of the Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench rookie cards have scared me off through the years.
1968 Topps also has my favorite insert set of all time with the Baseball Game set that came one card per pack in that years set.

The 1968 Topps design is back in the headlines this season as it is the chosen design for the Topps Heritage line.
Heritage is pretty much the only major league cards that I buy to have a set of for personal collection and for the occasional major leaguer that I would see on the trail.
Topps takes a gander at their own product here.

I'm working on a future post on one of my all time favorites-"Mr.Perfect" Curt Hennig and found this terrific article from SI in 2016 that looks back at the "Perfect Athlete",but does it with his son,current WWE wrestler "Curtis Axel" Joe Hennig.
That adds a special spin on the article as it talks just as much about Hennig the man as the wrestler and it allows his son to be more than just the current performer.
I found it quite absorbing...

Rolling Stone writes about the 40th anniversary of Slap Shot and why it is the quintessential sports movie of the 70's.
One of the best parts of the movie (besides the Hansons!) is just looking around an average small city in the 1970's and what it looked in an era when I was a child.
Slap Shot is truly a funny movie and ranks with some of the best sports movies made for fun and laughter..
Toe Blake! Eddie Shore! Old Time Hockey!

Wired has an oral history of the O.J.-Made in America documentary,which not only I recommend,but won an Oscar for best documentary.
It focuses on the making of the film and the people being interviewed more than Simpson,so if you've seen the film,it is a nice companion piece and if not,a good starting point for knowing a few of the interviewees before you start....

Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes of the rise from almost nowhere for Ashland tight end Adam Shaheen,who could be drafted as high as the third round in the NFL Draft,depending on what draft meister that you choose to read.
The 6'6 tight end is a former basketball player,which seems to attract players to the tight end position...

Cleaning out the inbox

Time to clean the inbox.

We start with a blog that I found that does reviews of 1970's and 80's DC comics named Chris is on Infinite Earth's.
Chris is reviewing tons of great comics from that age,including my guy Floyd Lawton or Deadshot.
Well before the Suicide Squad,you might remember my post on Floyd from 2013 and how he was perhaps my favorite villain in the DC universe.
I need to break out my collection sometime and look back the way Chris is doing right now.,but it's fun reading his reviews and all the fun memories from long ago....

Richard Deitsch writes the Media Circus columns at SI.com and he put together a massive list of terrific articles written in 2016 from both sports and the outside world.
I spent most of a night looking them over and grabbed a few of interest for the inbox....

The read of the night comes from Pamela Colloff of Texas Monthly entitled the Reckoning-the story of Claire Wilson.
The story of Wilson is what happened in her life fifty years after being wounded in the 1966 shooting from the tower at the University of Texas that killed 15 and injured 31 others.
Colloff had written about the shooting for Texas Monthly ten years earlier in a prize winning article "96 Minutes",but this article uses the shooting for background and focuses on the years following the shooting for Wilson.
I couldn't stop reading,just a tremendous piece of writing..

David Ng of the Los Angeles Times writes about O.J. Simpson,which seems to be a market all by itself,but Ng writes about something that hadn't previously been discussed as Ng writes about what Simpson's life is like behind prison walls.
It's an interesting look about the current life of Simpson,which often isn't discussed when dealing with the topic of O.J.Simpson...

Jordan Ritter of the Ringer writes about the talented former Jaguar receiver Justin Blackmon,who will likely never play in the NFL again after numerous suspensions.
Ritter goes deep into the background of Blackmon and goes to his hometown of Ardmore Oklahoma to see what the locals think of Blackmon.
Blackmon was such a talented receiver and really lost it all due to his battle with the bottle.
I really loved Blackmon's skills coming out of Oklahoma State and proves the one point that I (and many draft observers) make-the one thing that the franchises have over the rest is the ability to look beyond the film due to access to so many off the field items.,,

Stacey Gotsulias writes for the Hardball Times and her article on her late father was very touching.
Gotsulias reflects on her dad and her memories of spending time with the games and rooting for the Yankees.
It's the type of story that so many of us that are fans have with someone important in their life,but few can put it into the type of words that she does.

Justin Heckert of ESPN writes about the rarest game made by the original Nintendo-Stadium Events from 1987 and the value of what seems to be a pretty crummy game.
I never realized people actually collected video games,but it makes sense as everything has value to someone.
Stadium Events was rebranded as World Class Track and Field for those Nintendo mats that you "ran" on to move your avatar on screen.
Just like baseball cards,it's all about how few are made,not about how good the product is.....

We wrap with another loss from the Apollo years as the last man to walk on the moon passed away as Gene Cernan died at the age of 82.
Cernan,who was a Gemini veteran as well as Apollo,was one of the Apollo astronauts to somewhat stay in the public eye as he was an ABC News contributor for space and science.
Cernan was also noted for the difficulties that he had in his Gemini spacewalk that resulted in some training changes and doing things differently on spacewalks.
Cernan was very outspoken on issues that involved NASA and their decisions that ended manned space missions further than Earth orbit and could always be relied on for honesty when discussing issues involving our investment in space...