Search results

Perhaps surprisingly, there was some information on the Wonderlic scores of some well-known players from the 1989 draft in Rick Telander's 1989 book, The Hundred Yard Lie. According to Telander, the average systems analyst scores 32, the average meter reader scores 23, the average football...

They are showing Marciano's win over Louis on Friday night, July 15. Also Marciano's KO of Rex Layne in 1951 is on July 20. Check the ESPN Classic site, there are other good ones on this month. ESPN Classic has shown Dempsey's best fights in the past, but not this month. If they do, I'll try...

The 1933 fight between Max Baer and Max Schmeling is being shown on ESPN Classic on Monday night, July 11. It is on at 10:30 pm ET and again at 3:30 am ET. ESPN Classic is showing famous fights at this time on weeknights this month.

As soon as the accusation was made, a drumbeat of attacks on the accuser began. A "fan" even threatened to kill her. At the preliminary, the judge was cracking jokes with the defense lawyer, and allowed the accuser's name to go out on court documents. The local DA, whoapparently did not pay...

I have a couple of interesting anecdotes about Hank Stram. Around 1970, I was listening to KMOX St. Louis and their sports talk show, the most listened to of it's time. Jack Buck was on and he was talking about Hank Stram. Buck had broadcast AFL games in the early 60's and said, "Hank Stram had...

I recall an article in Sports illustrated about Mel Blount by Roy Blount, sometime in the 70's. I remember one sentence in the article that stood out. Roy Blount wrote something like, "Pittsburgh, where white ethnics tend to rule is not a particularly good city for a black athlete." Roy...

In1991, the Yankees drafted a pitcher named Brien Taylor out of high school. The Yankees offered him first $650,000. Then, they offered $855,000. Taylor and his parents angrily refused these offers. It seems a pitcher named Todd Van Poppel got over a million a few years earlier. The Taylors...

A previous thread about Doc Ellis alluded to Ellis and Vida Blue being the starting pitchers for the 1971 All-Star Game. The main feature of the 1971 season was the enormous publicity that Vida Blue got that year. Vida was on track for a 30-win season (he finished 24-8)at the all star break...

The complaints by the press that Major League Baseball was becoming "less black" started thirty years ago. I remember in 1975, there was an article in Sport Magazine on the subject. It was titled "The Black Minor Leaguer is Becoming An Endangered Species." The theme was that the major...

Don, thanks for your comments. Yes, celebrity candidates are becoming common. Arnold becoming Governor of California, for instance. I've been seeing Condi Rice being promoted for President by some of the "conservative" sites, TAS especially. I don't recall Dean Rusk, William Rogers, George...

I remember reading a quickie book published after the O.J. Simpson murders titled Raging Heart by Sheila Weller. It told of the Simpson marriage, Nicole's family helped the author. Buried inside the book was an interesting anecdote. It seems that after Tom Bradley narrowly lost the 1982...

Tennessee was in the Top Ten every year from 1965-72, 2nd in 1967 and 4th in 1970. Their "skill" players were mainly on defense, especially at LB. They had All-American LB's in Frank Emanuel (1965), Paul Naumoff (1966), and Steve Kiner and Jack Reynolds (1969). However, they were a "team"...

I can recall watching the 1957 Sugar Bowl on TV when six years old as the announcer kept saying, "Johnny Majors carries the ball." Tennessee led Baylor 7-6 late in the game when Majors decided to field a punt inside his 15 yard line. He fumbled and Baylor scored to win 13-7. We Vol fansstill...

I remember Wilt shooting free throws underhanded. It was pretty painful to watch. Sometimes he would even try them "overhand," still pretty bad. I have read that he had a mental block in that he could make them while practicing in an empty gym, but couldn't hit them in a game. Ironically, Wilt...

Faulkner had a problem with a wrist that had been broken at some time. He even announced in Spring 1993, that he was giving up football. However, he went on to play in 1993, very well. It was said that the NFL had no interest in him because he was a "medical reject," plus "too small" at around...

Yes, the white Tennessee WR you speak of was Craig Faulkner, whom I mentioned in my previous post. He wore #4 and had excellent hands and speed,wasa bit small.There was a Dickie Lyons who played for Kentucky in the 60's. He used to give Tennessee trouble. Is the Dickie Lyons now at Kentucky related?

The receiver that White Lightning mentioned is named Austin Rogers. He played RB, WR, and Free Safety in high school. He was a long and triple jumper in track at David Lipscomb HS in Nashville. Tennessee had a white WR named Craig Faulkner from 1991-93. He played better than the others they...

Don pointed out that the piece mentioned Jim Taylor's numbers for his last year in 1967, but not his great years, except that he beat Jim Brown for the rushing title in 1962 and had five straight 1000 yard seasons. The numbers Jim Taylor put up during 1960-64 were really phenomenal. Taylor's...

I have seen Lapchick quoted several times over the yearsin articles such as this. They always bring him in to say that athletes "aren't arrested more often than the rest of the population." I told in an above post how Lapchick came to Nashville in the late 70's and staged a "racist assault"...

I just glanced at the June 20 issue of Sports Illustrated. In their "Catching Up With" section, the current issue features former Packer FB Jim Taylor. Taylor had a stroke in June 2004, which I hadn't seen any news of. He seems to be recovering, but has an irregular heartbeat.

The following was told to me by a co-worker. My friend, whom I will call Ken, played high school ball in the South. His coach in his first year of high school ball, would allow blacks only to play running back. Eventually this coach, who was very unpopular, lost his job. Ken could then play...

I finally got to see Cinderella Man today. I heartily recommend it. Yes, Max Baer is portrayed as the "bad guy" of the movie for dramatic purposes, sort of a Mike Tyson type. He was apretty nice guy, with a sense of humor. Still, the actor playing Baer really looked like him. Max Baer had...

Tonight, ESPN Classic has a one hour program on James J. Braddock. It will be on at 9pm and 12am ET.

There have likely been more successful running backs with speed closer to 4.7 than to 4.4. Also the forty times are thrown around very loosely by announcers and writers.

I asked Mr. Brutal to name one running back from Texas Southern, Grambling, or Southern, who gained more yards than Jim Taylor during the 1960's. He mentioned Prairie View's Clem Haskins (a very good back, but not as significant as Jim Taylor) and Tank Younger, who didn't play at the same time...