Search results

Brutal, Nameone running back from Grambling, Southern, or Texas Southern who gained more yardage in the NFL or AFL than Jim Taylor during the 1960's.

The movie about James J. Braddock, Cinderella Man, starts today. I saw a special on the film on A&E last night. This film is being heavily advertised, even called the best film of the year. It looks good to me. It shows how it was during the depression. The major part of the film is...

I just read J.B. Cash's column on Richard Lapchick. There is an incident in Lapchick's career that people on this Forum should know about. It took place in either 1977 or 1978. A South African tennis team came to Nashville to play some tennis matches. They were being held at Vanderbilt...

Don's comment that "Southern white men are the worst promoters of theCaste System" has sometruth to it. Members of the media have a built-in loathing for white Southern men, unless they have the "right" views. These men may be trying to make sure they are "acceptable." However, this works in...

Yes, Franco ran harder early in his career as Don says. I remember reading an article on pro prospects in 1971 where a scout was quoted as saying, "We used to like Franco Harris better than Lydell Mitchell." In 1971, Joe Paterno gave Mitchell most of the carries for Penn State and Lydell got...

A few years ago, I saw a film of Riggins running 69 yards for a TD against Oklahoma in a 1970 game. I was amazed at how fast he was. I have a paperback book about Riggins titled Riggins In Motion (1985) by Denis Harrington, the only bio of John Riggins ever written. The author never gives any...

ESPN Classic is showing a 1972 Jets-Colts "NFL Game Of The Week" at 8am ET Tuesday morning May 31. In this game Namath and Unitas combined for 872 yards, with 496 and 6 TD passes for Namath. This game was 2 weeks before Unitas was replaced as Colt QB. One of the TD passes was a short pass to...

ESPN Classic has apparently pre-empted this program. They are showing Muhammad Ali all day.

ESPN Classic has a SportCentury show about Pat Tillman. It will be shown on Monday at 4pm ET.

ESPN Classic is showing the film of the 1954 Indiana State Championship Basketball game at 5pm ET on Sunday. This game is the inspiration for the film, Hoosiers. I haven't seen it, don't know how good it is.

This is especially true among football coaches. I can remember when college coaches called their players "boys." I don't think I have heard a college football coach call his players that for 25 years. They always say, "my kids." The term "kid" is acceptable, but "boy" isn't. The system we live...

Don, that series that SI ran on the black athlete in 1968 was big news at the time. However, it was mainly about discrimination "against black athletes." The theme of the series was that blacks were "stacked on the depth chart," or were "kept on the bench and held back by racist white coaches...

Don, that 1965 game was the first major league game I ever saw in person. Both Johnson and Lefebvre's HR's were hit on the right field roof. Sandy Koufax had pitched and won, the night before. I recall seeibg Koufax running in the outfield before the game. As I recall, Dick Groat singled with...

I saw Bob Gibson pitch against Don Drysdale in a 1965 game in old Sportsman's Park. Gibson gave up HR's to Lou Johnson and Jim Lefebvre, leaving the game trailing in about the 8th inning. The Cards rallied to win in the bottom of the 9th with Ron Perranoski blowing the game for the Dodgers...

In the late 70's, there was an arm-wrestling contest for pro football players on CBS. A white OL named Ed White won it every time.White would pin well-known black defensive linemen in less than 10 seconds.

I remember Walton was really playing the self-loathing white liberal when he entered the NBA in 1974. Once he said something like, "If a black guy shot me, I could understand it. It's the racism that this country stands for." I don't remember his exact words, but Walton said something like this...

It's interesting that Bobby Bowden couldn't use Dan Kendra on his football team while the U.S. Navy Seals were glad to have him.

A few years ago, I had an acquaintance who was once Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro's agent. Sometime in the mid-60's, Tony C was in a bad slump and the Boston fans were riding him very hard. The Yankees were in town and Ed (Tony C's agent) decided to call Mantle at his hotel and ask him for advice...

The following information is from the book, Explosion!: Mickey Mantles Legendary Home Runs (1987) by Mark Gallagher. A Chicago Tribune reporter established that the ball landed 478 feet from home plate. It was the first to clear the centerfield wall at the 436 foot mark in Forbes Field by a...

When I was a child, Mickey Mantle was the No. 1 American pro athlete. He gained this status with his Triple Crown season of 1956. His numbers were: Avg .353, HR 52, RBI 130. No other player of his time ever hit over .350 with over 50 HR in a season. Mantle hit the ball farther from either...

Yes, Tennessee plays South Carolina. It's a big thing for Tennessee fans to beat Steve Spurrier. Since Spurrier now coaches South Carolina, this will be a bigger game than it has been. I must point out that the Orange jersey is considered mystical by UT fans. Some of them think that just...

I see that 11 Tennessee football players have been arrested in 15 months. As I have said in other posts, I am a long-time Big Orange fan. I can tell you that most UT fans don't care very much about this. They want to beat Florida, Alabama,etc. Their main concern is that enough players can be...

I recall that over a decade ago, Barkley was saying that he wanted to run for Governor of Alabama. Some "conservative" talk radio types thought this was a good idea. Rush Limbaugh was one of them.

Oh yes, I remember Joe Schmidt when he played. In his 1964 book, Jim Brown said, "Schmidt has the best tackling technique I have ever seen. When Schmidt tackles you, you're tackled." Another time, I saw where Brown said that " the Lions and the Giants played me tougher than anyone." Schmidt and...

I mentioned in my post on John Riggins that my favorite runner was Jim Brown. It might surprise younger fans that Brown had a very positive image during most of his playing career. He had a reputation much like Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith, or like most of the white sports stars ofhis era. He...