Monday, November 25, 2013
ABOUT COLLEGE FOOTBALL...
Big, bad day for the sport in Texas: Baylor was exposed as a season-long straw
man and the Aggies had better hope Johnny Football gets out of BR with no
party-boy probs.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Go Nick Go!!!!!!!!!
No, no, despite how obvious it might seem, LSU did not originate the idea of
Saban to Texas!! Though it is brilliant as an Alabama distraction in the run-up
to Bama's hosting LSU on Saturday.
Nick--go where you must, and please let no distractions interfere with what you
do vs. LSU.
Or not.
Saban to Texas!! Though it is brilliant as an Alabama distraction in the run-up
to Bama's hosting LSU on Saturday.
Nick--go where you must, and please let no distractions interfere with what you
do vs. LSU.
Or not.
Prayers For Tony Dorsett
I am heartsick about former Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett's diagnosis. I covered
him for many years, and always found him cordial. When he spent a late-career
stint at Denver, I was assigned to cover him at the Broncos' training camp in
Greeley, Colo. He was hospitalized in Denver with an injury, and I was driving
back and forth like maniac. When I caught up with him, he was on crutches in a
rock garden near the training facilities. He not only told me his story, but
probably saved my job for another day.
him for many years, and always found him cordial. When he spent a late-career
stint at Denver, I was assigned to cover him at the Broncos' training camp in
Greeley, Colo. He was hospitalized in Denver with an injury, and I was driving
back and forth like maniac. When I caught up with him, he was on crutches in a
rock garden near the training facilities. He not only told me his story, but
probably saved my job for another day.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Cathy Harasta: BRAD & BABE RULE RADIO
Cathy Harasta: BRAD & BABE RULE RADIO: My Sunday pleasure: Brad and Babe calling NFL radio on the Cowboys home station. Who needs TV? Just heard Babe use the word "egregious&...
BRAD & BABE RULE RADIO
My Sunday pleasure: Brad and Babe calling NFL radio on the Cowboys home station.
Who needs TV?
Just heard Babe use the word "egregious" in connection with a penalty-- he
actually said it was not an "egregious" move. Love to hear a vocabulary range on
my football radio calls. Call me a sucker for descriptive modifiers. Don't even
care who wins when wordsmiths are at work.
I also love when Brad or Babe sounds petulant-- and the comrade catches it and
tweaks the petulant one.
Radio lives.
Who needs TV?
Just heard Babe use the word "egregious" in connection with a penalty-- he
actually said it was not an "egregious" move. Love to hear a vocabulary range on
my football radio calls. Call me a sucker for descriptive modifiers. Don't even
care who wins when wordsmiths are at work.
I also love when Brad or Babe sounds petulant-- and the comrade catches it and
tweaks the petulant one.
Radio lives.
Monday, October 28, 2013
ODE TO THE BCS
Ode to the BCS
Whenever I feel depressed
About the BCS
I take my major guess
That no one feels
A zest
For the BCS.
It loves the SEC
Which shouldn't bother me
But anyone can see
The BCS
Is free
To rig the game
So totally.
When the standings
Make me steam
I turn to my old dream
Of making a nice quart
Of luscious, homemade
Ice cream.
Yeah!
Whenever I feel depressed
About the BCS
I take my major guess
That no one feels
A zest
For the BCS.
It loves the SEC
Which shouldn't bother me
But anyone can see
The BCS
Is free
To rig the game
So totally.
When the standings
Make me steam
I turn to my old dream
Of making a nice quart
Of luscious, homemade
Ice cream.
Yeah!
LSU--TOO LATE?
See, LSU , how costly last week was?
It does not matter that you beat a no- name team by 48 because it is pretty much
too late.
It does not matter that you beat a no- name team by 48 because it is pretty much
too late.
Monday, October 21, 2013
TWO-LOSS LSU HAS TWO SHOTS TO GO ALL THE WAY, OR NOT
OK, here are two ways, both of which sound implausible, that might get LSU (6-2) to the BCS title game despite its disaster at Mississippi on Saturday:
No. 1--At No. 13 in the first BCS poll, the Tigers would need to win out, which means beating Alabama and Texas A&M in November, and have all 12 higher-ranked teams finish with at least two losses. LSU also probably needs some of the teams chasing the Tigers to go flat.
Turns out that Sept. 21 LSU triumph over Auburn, 35-21, looks more significant. But LSU needs not only to beat Alabama but also to hope Arkansas can find a way to beat Auburn (6-1) on Nov. 2 and then have Auburn figure something out to defeat Alabama on Nov. 30. Then LSU would have SEC divisional tiebreaker leverage, but still would need to prevail at the SEC Championship.
No. 2—Stephen Rivers, the 6-7 QB-in-waiting. Why wait? Give him a whirl on Saturday against Furman. It’s not often that Furman comes to town.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
WINNER WONDERLAND FOR U.S.
Winner Wonderland For U.s.
DALLAS — The addition of extreme sports has helped transform the United States into a Winter Games power.
A new Ice Age, edgy and madcap, has helped shift the balance of power in Team USA's favor, setting the stage for perhaps a record-setting Winter Games in the Italian Alps this month.
The U.S. has capitalized on the Olympic program's new twists and more extreme sports. Considering returning medalists from the 2002 Games and greater depth in consistently successful sports, the U.S. might even -- gasp! -- win the Turin Olympics.
How over the top would that be?
Much of the nation's improvement reflects success in events that are new to the Olympics since 1992. Team USA's medal production has increased almost six times since the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.
In the last four Winter Games, 44 percent of U.S. medals were won in sports not on the program until 1992 or later and in skeleton, which returned to the Games in 2002 after a 54-year absence. Almost half of the nation's record 34 medals at the 2002 Winter Games also came in the recently added sports.
Traditionalists might sneer at freestyle skiing's theatrics, short-track speedskating's bump-and-grind mayhem and snowboarding's off-the-wall antics. But the "hot dog" sports have been gold mines for Team USA.
"There's sort of a rebelliousness and youth culture making the Games fresher and hipper," said Mark Dyreson, an author on Olympic history and a faculty member in Penn State's departments of history and kinesiology. "Part of this perhaps is the Americanization of global culture. The International Olympic Committee was very shrewd. They definitely took a look at the winter program. You've got to have the United States watching."
Moguls and short track speedskating led the new-look Games with their 1992 Olympic debuts. At the previous Winter Games, in 1988, the U.S. won just six medals to finish in the middle of the pack. That mediocrity changed beginning in 1992.
The addition of women's events in ice hockey and bobsled also helped the U.S. medal count, which hit a record 34 at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. The U.S. finished second to Germany (36 medals), altering the general perception of Team USA as not ready for prime time. Its previous top medal count was 13.
Of the 71 medals the U.S. won in the last four Winter Games, 31 came in events that were not in the Olympics before 1992 and in skeleton. Team USA's 2002 Olympic medals included 16 won in events that never had been Olympic sports until 1992 or later and in skeleton.
Five of the record 10 gold medals in 2002 came in skeleton and in events that were not in the Winter Olympic before 1998 (snowboarding's halfpipe and women's bobsled).
But if the U.S. ends up topping the medal table in Turin, some purists will scoff at the achievement, said Derick Hulme, an international relations professor at Alma (Mich.) College who has written in depth about the politics of the Games.
How over the top would that be?
Much of the nation's improvement reflects success in events that are new to the Olympics since 1992. Team USA's medal production has increased almost six times since the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.
In the last four Winter Games, 44 percent of U.S. medals were won in sports not on the program until 1992 or later and in skeleton, which returned to the Games in 2002 after a 54-year absence. Almost half of the nation's record 34 medals at the 2002 Winter Games also came in the recently added sports.
Traditionalists might sneer at freestyle skiing's theatrics, short-track speedskating's bump-and-grind mayhem and snowboarding's off-the-wall antics. But the "hot dog" sports have been gold mines for Team USA.
"There's sort of a rebelliousness and youth culture making the Games fresher and hipper," said Mark Dyreson, an author on Olympic history and a faculty member in Penn State's departments of history and kinesiology. "Part of this perhaps is the Americanization of global culture. The International Olympic Committee was very shrewd. They definitely took a look at the winter program. You've got to have the United States watching."
Moguls and short track speedskating led the new-look Games with their 1992 Olympic debuts. At the previous Winter Games, in 1988, the U.S. won just six medals to finish in the middle of the pack. That mediocrity changed beginning in 1992.
The addition of women's events in ice hockey and bobsled also helped the U.S. medal count, which hit a record 34 at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. The U.S. finished second to Germany (36 medals), altering the general perception of Team USA as not ready for prime time. Its previous top medal count was 13.
Of the 71 medals the U.S. won in the last four Winter Games, 31 came in events that were not in the Olympics before 1992 and in skeleton. Team USA's 2002 Olympic medals included 16 won in events that never had been Olympic sports until 1992 or later and in skeleton.
Five of the record 10 gold medals in 2002 came in skeleton and in events that were not in the Winter Olympic before 1998 (snowboarding's halfpipe and women's bobsled).
But if the U.S. ends up topping the medal table in Turin, some purists will scoff at the achievement, said Derick Hulme, an international relations professor at Alma (Mich.) College who has written in depth about the politics of the Games.
"The sense would be that it happened because of these fake sports," Hulme said. "It's perceived by the purists as being a bastardizing of the Winter Games.
"I don't think it would translate into a better image of the U.S. being perceived more powerfully."
Breaking with tradition, U.S. Olympic Committee leaders declined to set a numerical target for medals in Turin. USOC chief Jim Scherr said the committee's goal in Turin medals was "not to decline."
"If we create expectations, we can put additional pressure on athletes that may be detrimental," said Jim McCarthy, the USOC's 2006 chef de mission, or delegation leader, in Turin.
The U.S.'s strong results in recent World Cup seasons and championships, however, bode well for Turin.
"The U.S. could win eight or even nine medals in snowboarding alone," said Tracy Anderson, senior editor of San Diego-based Future Snowboarding magazine. "It's hip. It's youthful. There are a lot of activities in the Winter Olympics that don't appeal to the younger demographic."
Anderson said snowboarders wanted no part of the Olympics in the early 1990s but have helped the sport join the mainstream since it first appeared in the Games in 1998.
"The Olympics was considered too uncool," he said. "Snowboarding was considered a fringe, subcultural activity. It was sort of a punk thing."
U.S. moguls medal contender Jeremy Bloom said the Olympics needed the new events, which help define a new style and dimension of athleticism.
"It's important to have freestyle skiing and halfpipe (snowboarding)," Bloom said. "I love to jump and I love to catch big air."
Anderson underscored Bloom's point by noting NBC's report of a 23 percent ratings increase among 18- to 34-year-olds for the 2002 Winter Games over the previous edition.
"The challenge has been to try to make the Winter Games as relevant as possible," Hulme said. "The pragmatists are saying, 'Listen, we're fighting for our lives here. We have to make these Games relevant to people who are going to be watching for the next 50 years.' "
"I don't think it would translate into a better image of the U.S. being perceived more powerfully."
Breaking with tradition, U.S. Olympic Committee leaders declined to set a numerical target for medals in Turin. USOC chief Jim Scherr said the committee's goal in Turin medals was "not to decline."
"If we create expectations, we can put additional pressure on athletes that may be detrimental," said Jim McCarthy, the USOC's 2006 chef de mission, or delegation leader, in Turin.
The U.S.'s strong results in recent World Cup seasons and championships, however, bode well for Turin.
"The U.S. could win eight or even nine medals in snowboarding alone," said Tracy Anderson, senior editor of San Diego-based Future Snowboarding magazine. "It's hip. It's youthful. There are a lot of activities in the Winter Olympics that don't appeal to the younger demographic."
Anderson said snowboarders wanted no part of the Olympics in the early 1990s but have helped the sport join the mainstream since it first appeared in the Games in 1998.
"The Olympics was considered too uncool," he said. "Snowboarding was considered a fringe, subcultural activity. It was sort of a punk thing."
U.S. moguls medal contender Jeremy Bloom said the Olympics needed the new events, which help define a new style and dimension of athleticism.
"It's important to have freestyle skiing and halfpipe (snowboarding)," Bloom said. "I love to jump and I love to catch big air."
Anderson underscored Bloom's point by noting NBC's report of a 23 percent ratings increase among 18- to 34-year-olds for the 2002 Winter Games over the previous edition.
"The challenge has been to try to make the Winter Games as relevant as possible," Hulme said. "The pragmatists are saying, 'Listen, we're fighting for our lives here. We have to make these Games relevant to people who are going to be watching for the next 50 years.' "
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Dave South
I remember writing about Texas A&M sports announcer Dave South decades ago, when
I wrote the sports TV-Radio column for The Dallas Morning News. I just tuned to
the radio pre-game coverage of the Auburn-A&M game and caught South's set-up for
the SEC matchup. I must say, South's thorough, neutral remarks and comprehensive
statistical rundown struck me as excellent. I was impressed, though I'd wager
that he might grow more emotional and verge on homerish in his play call after
kickoff! Anyway, it was nice to hear a local team sportscaster preview a game in
an informative, non-ridiculously biased fashion.
Saluting South, here (and I'm an LSU fan-mom).
I wrote the sports TV-Radio column for The Dallas Morning News. I just tuned to
the radio pre-game coverage of the Auburn-A&M game and caught South's set-up for
the SEC matchup. I must say, South's thorough, neutral remarks and comprehensive
statistical rundown struck me as excellent. I was impressed, though I'd wager
that he might grow more emotional and verge on homerish in his play call after
kickoff! Anyway, it was nice to hear a local team sportscaster preview a game in
an informative, non-ridiculously biased fashion.
Saluting South, here (and I'm an LSU fan-mom).
Friday, October 18, 2013
HotVSNot.com
You can <a href="http://www.hotvsnot.com/Add-Site/Add-Site.aspx">add your link to HotVsNot.com</a> improve your internet marketing This site is listed under <a href="http://www.hotvsnot.com/Sports/Multi-Sports/Events/">Events Directory </a>
Presence of Herschel Walker can only help the Cowboys
Monday, July 15, 1996
Presence of Herschel Walker can only help the Cowboys
By Cathy Harasta
The Dallas Morning News
(July 15, 1996)
http://www.texnews.com/cowboys/walker071596.html
DALLAS - Quit snickering about the no-cut clause in Herschel Walker's new contract.
"No-cut" is Walker's middle name. The clause seems redundant, considering that a city bus has a better chance of a cunning, on-the-dime directional shift than the old/new Dallas Cowboy.
But then, Walker's running back resume never played him up as a cut artist. As a ball-carrier, he led with his head. In the uniforms of four NFL teams, one thing never changed: He ran with his head down as though an arrow emblazoned on the field kept him hypnotically on course.
Now that No. 34 is 34, he came cheap to a team whose image has suffered a cheapening in this very stinky, very "off" off-season. A prominent receiver now is reduced to representation by a lawyer on a smear campaign to discredit a topless dancer. But enough about Michael Irvin and what he has done for the perception of the pro athlete. Just look at the terrible things Walker has done.
Uh ... that'll just be a minute.
I'm still looking.
Bear with me.
In 10 NFL seasons, Walker had to have amassed a series of conduct-related incidents and prickly symptoms requiring critical attention.
There MUST be something.
Well ... Walker wasn't a very good bobsledder back in his Albertville Olympic run. You could savage him for that, except that few of Team USA's men immortalized themselves at those Games.
And didn't he fall asleep in his garage a few years back? Something about dozing off with music playing in his car.
And then there was the time he took ballet lessons. The nerve!
Plus, here's a guy who recently was released by a team with DAVE BROWN at quarterback. That tells you something.
But the reason a posse must be assembled is that Walker was a constant source of irritation; you hated to see a guy who did four-figures in daily sit-ups when he wasn't giving thanks to his Provider.
Where did the Cowboys come up with him, anyway? Herschel might spoil their image.
By now you know where I'm going with this. Walker will help the Cowboys.
They gave him a chance to ride off into that sunset that comes too soon for most running backs.
Dallas sounds like the sunset of Walker's choice. He will have a chance at a Super Bowl ring. Name me somebody more deserving of that shot than a veteran who only once has played for the winning team in a playoff game. Few entities, other than the Texas Rangers, have a shorter post-season history.
Walker seemed lately to get lost in various shuffles, having done next to nothing with New York last year. But when the Giants released him earlier this summer, an era seemed to end. The cut was not particularly big news. It made sense for the Giants.
Herschel, however, constituted a pro football time-line and a bargain for the Cowboys. As far as anybody can tell me, he avoided off-the-field trouble in travels that included stays in plenty of legendary trouble spots.
Walker gave the USFL enough credibility for the league to get a temporary leg up. He rode out the Tom Landry tenure with Dallas' first coach and made the turn into the Jimmy-Jerry experience.
Walker figured as the linchpin in what arguably was the NFL's most notorious trade. He became an NFC nomad, sometimes finding himself a bad fit, sometimes finding himself accused of being afraid of taking severe physical punishment, sometimes just about vanishing.
From Dallas, he went to Minnesota, Philadelphia and New York before completing the circle.
Naturally, he will not complete it with any form of upstaging Emmitt Smith. Walker, whose one-year contract worth $275,000 has a no-cut clause, mostly can help on third down. He'll toil on special teams. He'll be a backup and, maybe, a booster.
If somebody gets hurt, he'll be there.
And by what appear to be Cowboys' standards, he'll be square.
That will be a nice twist.
Welcome home, Herschel.
All content copyright 1996, KRT, The Abilene Reporter-News and Reporter OnLine
Presence of Herschel Walker can only help the Cowboys
By Cathy Harasta
The Dallas Morning News
(July 15, 1996)
http://www.texnews.com/cowboys/walker071596.html
DALLAS - Quit snickering about the no-cut clause in Herschel Walker's new contract.
"No-cut" is Walker's middle name. The clause seems redundant, considering that a city bus has a better chance of a cunning, on-the-dime directional shift than the old/new Dallas Cowboy.
But then, Walker's running back resume never played him up as a cut artist. As a ball-carrier, he led with his head. In the uniforms of four NFL teams, one thing never changed: He ran with his head down as though an arrow emblazoned on the field kept him hypnotically on course.
Now that No. 34 is 34, he came cheap to a team whose image has suffered a cheapening in this very stinky, very "off" off-season. A prominent receiver now is reduced to representation by a lawyer on a smear campaign to discredit a topless dancer. But enough about Michael Irvin and what he has done for the perception of the pro athlete. Just look at the terrible things Walker has done.
Uh ... that'll just be a minute.
I'm still looking.
Bear with me.
In 10 NFL seasons, Walker had to have amassed a series of conduct-related incidents and prickly symptoms requiring critical attention.
There MUST be something.
Well ... Walker wasn't a very good bobsledder back in his Albertville Olympic run. You could savage him for that, except that few of Team USA's men immortalized themselves at those Games.
And didn't he fall asleep in his garage a few years back? Something about dozing off with music playing in his car.
And then there was the time he took ballet lessons. The nerve!
Plus, here's a guy who recently was released by a team with DAVE BROWN at quarterback. That tells you something.
But the reason a posse must be assembled is that Walker was a constant source of irritation; you hated to see a guy who did four-figures in daily sit-ups when he wasn't giving thanks to his Provider.
Where did the Cowboys come up with him, anyway? Herschel might spoil their image.
By now you know where I'm going with this. Walker will help the Cowboys.
They gave him a chance to ride off into that sunset that comes too soon for most running backs.
Dallas sounds like the sunset of Walker's choice. He will have a chance at a Super Bowl ring. Name me somebody more deserving of that shot than a veteran who only once has played for the winning team in a playoff game. Few entities, other than the Texas Rangers, have a shorter post-season history.
Walker seemed lately to get lost in various shuffles, having done next to nothing with New York last year. But when the Giants released him earlier this summer, an era seemed to end. The cut was not particularly big news. It made sense for the Giants.
Herschel, however, constituted a pro football time-line and a bargain for the Cowboys. As far as anybody can tell me, he avoided off-the-field trouble in travels that included stays in plenty of legendary trouble spots.
Walker gave the USFL enough credibility for the league to get a temporary leg up. He rode out the Tom Landry tenure with Dallas' first coach and made the turn into the Jimmy-Jerry experience.
Walker figured as the linchpin in what arguably was the NFL's most notorious trade. He became an NFC nomad, sometimes finding himself a bad fit, sometimes finding himself accused of being afraid of taking severe physical punishment, sometimes just about vanishing.
From Dallas, he went to Minnesota, Philadelphia and New York before completing the circle.
Naturally, he will not complete it with any form of upstaging Emmitt Smith. Walker, whose one-year contract worth $275,000 has a no-cut clause, mostly can help on third down. He'll toil on special teams. He'll be a backup and, maybe, a booster.
If somebody gets hurt, he'll be there.
And by what appear to be Cowboys' standards, he'll be square.
That will be a nice twist.
Welcome home, Herschel.
All content copyright 1996, KRT, The Abilene Reporter-News and Reporter OnLine
Madness marches its way into Bowl Alliance
Madness marches its way into Bowl Alliance
By CATHY HARASTA / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.texnews.com/sports/alliance120996.html
Someone forgot to tell college football that it is not supposed to deliver late hits.
But somebody must have reminded the Big 12 that it is supposed to flex some muscle in the football department.
Surprise, surprise. The Bowl Alliance had to eat its script on Saturday, when conference championships acted part spoiler, part savior.
If anyone had said beforehand that almost 12 hours of college football would wrap March Madness-style tentacles around a December day, especially a critical shopping day, I would have said, "Dream on."
Texas did, turning its dream into about $8.3 million and assuring the Big 12 of a second team in the Bowl Alliance. Enter renewed faith in the conference's identity as a football heavyweight. With Texas in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and Nebraska in the FedEx Orange Bowl, the Big 12 equals one-third of the Bowl Alliance, after the league opened its first football season without the expected punch.
A rogue elephant, wearing burnt orange, upended the post-season pairings and charged the atmosphere with unseasonable excitement.
March is when the Cinderella season is supposed to strike, not December. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is the brainchild that includes daylight for teams to play their way in. But the bowl system traditionally had more Scrooge than sizzle. At least it did until Saturday, when the set-up got a workover.
Talk about changing the face of the bowl season; Texas, in upsetting Nebraska in the inaugural Big 12 championship, altered just about every bone in the post-season's body. The plot thickened through Sunday, when Bowl Alliance announced its matchups in a TV selection show similar to the pairings program that comes on the heels of college basketball conference tournaments and sets up the Big Dance.
The past weekend revolutionized college football, not to mention the Longhorns' reputation and the Big 12's football credibility.
The Western Athletic Conference and the Southeastern Conference championships later Saturday acquired new meaning after Texas ruined Nebraska's day. In the end, the three Alliance bowls had to settle for the truth: Three will not do the job of delivering justice.
Three's not a crowd. Three's not enough.
The process, fortunately, is open to evolution.
The Alliance knew going in that its most glaring flaw was the absence of the Rose Bowl, which matches the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions. With the Alliance's intent of providing a national championship settled on the field, the capacity for trouble lurked in the Rose Bowl's detachment. Undefeated Arizona State could steal the Alliance's thunder this time by emerging with the national title.
But that problem exits with the 1998 season, when the Rose Bowl joins forces with the Alliance to make a foursome. The most serious injustice this season, however, concerned the WAC.
Any cooperative that excludes the WAC is unconscionable. WAC champion BYU, at 13-1, fell out of Alliance at-large consideration because even at 10-2, Nebraska was more desirable to the Orange Bowl and Penn State (9-2) appealed to the Fiesta Bowl as a strong generator of TV ratings.
Texas did BYU no favor by bouncing the Cougars from the Alliance payday. But the Longhorns did tremendous favors for the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl and for the longterm bowl outlook.
By introducing Cinderella to college football's post-season, Texas demonstrated that the Alliance can't assume anything too soon when it comes to pairings. If you are a fan, any time spontaneity asserts itself in sports, you can't complain.
The Cotton Bowl, with a 13-1 team in No. 5 BYU and a Big 12 team in No. 14 Kansas State, certainly can't complain.
"We have two teams that have never been in a New Year's Day bowl," Cotton Bowl chairman W. Mike Baggett said.
Though the Cotton Bowl failed in its bid a few years ago for one of the three coveted spots in the Alliance, the fact that a 13-1 team was shut out of that trifecta proved that the Alliance has room for improvement.
In 1998, talks among conferences and networks will begin, while existing contracts still are operating. Non-Alliance bowls will have an opportunity to assert their presence. Baggett said the Cotton Bowl wants to get into the Alliance-level act. "We are going to do everything we can," he said.
The excitement has only just begun.
All content copyright 1996, AP, KRT, The Abilene Reporter-News and Reporter OnLine
By CATHY HARASTA / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.texnews.com/sports/alliance120996.html
Someone forgot to tell college football that it is not supposed to deliver late hits.
But somebody must have reminded the Big 12 that it is supposed to flex some muscle in the football department.
Surprise, surprise. The Bowl Alliance had to eat its script on Saturday, when conference championships acted part spoiler, part savior.
If anyone had said beforehand that almost 12 hours of college football would wrap March Madness-style tentacles around a December day, especially a critical shopping day, I would have said, "Dream on."
Texas did, turning its dream into about $8.3 million and assuring the Big 12 of a second team in the Bowl Alliance. Enter renewed faith in the conference's identity as a football heavyweight. With Texas in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and Nebraska in the FedEx Orange Bowl, the Big 12 equals one-third of the Bowl Alliance, after the league opened its first football season without the expected punch.
A rogue elephant, wearing burnt orange, upended the post-season pairings and charged the atmosphere with unseasonable excitement.
March is when the Cinderella season is supposed to strike, not December. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is the brainchild that includes daylight for teams to play their way in. But the bowl system traditionally had more Scrooge than sizzle. At least it did until Saturday, when the set-up got a workover.
Talk about changing the face of the bowl season; Texas, in upsetting Nebraska in the inaugural Big 12 championship, altered just about every bone in the post-season's body. The plot thickened through Sunday, when Bowl Alliance announced its matchups in a TV selection show similar to the pairings program that comes on the heels of college basketball conference tournaments and sets up the Big Dance.
The past weekend revolutionized college football, not to mention the Longhorns' reputation and the Big 12's football credibility.
The Western Athletic Conference and the Southeastern Conference championships later Saturday acquired new meaning after Texas ruined Nebraska's day. In the end, the three Alliance bowls had to settle for the truth: Three will not do the job of delivering justice.
Three's not a crowd. Three's not enough.
The process, fortunately, is open to evolution.
The Alliance knew going in that its most glaring flaw was the absence of the Rose Bowl, which matches the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions. With the Alliance's intent of providing a national championship settled on the field, the capacity for trouble lurked in the Rose Bowl's detachment. Undefeated Arizona State could steal the Alliance's thunder this time by emerging with the national title.
But that problem exits with the 1998 season, when the Rose Bowl joins forces with the Alliance to make a foursome. The most serious injustice this season, however, concerned the WAC.
Any cooperative that excludes the WAC is unconscionable. WAC champion BYU, at 13-1, fell out of Alliance at-large consideration because even at 10-2, Nebraska was more desirable to the Orange Bowl and Penn State (9-2) appealed to the Fiesta Bowl as a strong generator of TV ratings.
Texas did BYU no favor by bouncing the Cougars from the Alliance payday. But the Longhorns did tremendous favors for the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl and for the longterm bowl outlook.
By introducing Cinderella to college football's post-season, Texas demonstrated that the Alliance can't assume anything too soon when it comes to pairings. If you are a fan, any time spontaneity asserts itself in sports, you can't complain.
The Cotton Bowl, with a 13-1 team in No. 5 BYU and a Big 12 team in No. 14 Kansas State, certainly can't complain.
"We have two teams that have never been in a New Year's Day bowl," Cotton Bowl chairman W. Mike Baggett said.
Though the Cotton Bowl failed in its bid a few years ago for one of the three coveted spots in the Alliance, the fact that a 13-1 team was shut out of that trifecta proved that the Alliance has room for improvement.
In 1998, talks among conferences and networks will begin, while existing contracts still are operating. Non-Alliance bowls will have an opportunity to assert their presence. Baggett said the Cotton Bowl wants to get into the Alliance-level act. "We are going to do everything we can," he said.
The excitement has only just begun.
All content copyright 1996, AP, KRT, The Abilene Reporter-News and Reporter OnLine
Lady Tigers shrug off distractions, remain focused
Lady Tigers shrug off distractions, remain focused
Updated: March 17, 2007, 6:56 PM ET
By Cathy Harasta | Special to ESPN.com
Family, friends relishing Folk's hero status
Family, friends relishing Folk's hero status
Those who know him best aren't surprised that kicker Nick Folk has achieved hero status in Dallas, writes Cathy Harasta.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3057103
Originally Published: October 10, 2007
By Cathy Harasta | Special to ESPN.com
Track star girlfriend pushes Texas' Ross
Track star girlfriend pushes Texas' Ross
Former Texas Longhorns cornerback Aaron Ross might have an extra edge among NFL draft hopefuls, Cathy Harasta writes. He gets to train with his girlfriend, Sanya Richards, a world-class track star.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft07/news/story?id=2822133
Updated: April 2, 2007, 4:23 PM ET
By Cathy Harasta | Special to ESPN.com
Strengths: Has fluid hips, shows a second gear when tracking the ball and can turn and run with receivers vertically. 
Malone Beats Odds to Reach Vancouver: Texas speedskater wouldn't be denied after trading in his wheels for blades
Malone beats odds to reach Vancouver
Texas speedskater wouldn't be denied after trading in his wheels for blades
Updated: January 24, 2010, 3:21 PM ET
By Cathy Harasta/Special contributor | ESPNDallas.com
Thursday, October 17, 2013
As Century Ends, Legend of Thorpe Stays Strong
As Century Ends, Legend Of Thorpe Stays Strong
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19991205&slug=2999609
The Dallas Morning News
SHADY SHORES, Texas - Bob Wheeler parted the weeds at a northeastern Pennsylvania grave site 31 years ago to find a piece of American history shrouded in mystery. Then and there, Wheeler - a high-school student from Rochester, N.Y. - vowed to move whatever mountains stood in the way of justice for the late Jim Thorpe.
Wheeler and his family had attended a game at Yankee Stadium. He persuaded his parents to make a side trip to the town of Jim Thorpe, Pa., before driving home.
The detour was only the beginning of Wheeler's 15-year, 28-state, 12,000-mile odyssey. After viewing Thorpe's mausoleum, untended and forgotten, Wheeler devoted himself to getting authorities to reinstate the 1912 Olympic gold medals that had been stripped from Thorpe.
"Jim Thorpe had been my hero since I chose him for the subject of an oratory contest when I was in the seventh grade," Wheeler said recently at his home near Denton. "He riveted me and inspired me because of the honor and sincerity with which he competed."
Wheeler, president of an Arlington, Texas-based public relations firm, and his wife, Dr. Florence Ridlon, a sociologist, united their skills and tenacity to champion the cause of the great multi-sport athlete, a Sac and Fox Indian born in Oklahoma Territory in 1888.
Ridlon, as it turned out, found the critical evidence that proved Thorpe had been improperly stripped of the medals he won in the pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics. She found the pivotal document in 1982 - 69 years after the medals were revoked.
In 1913, the Amateur Athletic Union and the American Olympic Committee (now the U.S. Olympic Committee) found Thorpe guilty of professionalism because he had played in some baseball games with the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Railroaders of the East Carolina League in 1909-10.
Avery Brundage, Thorpe's teammate on the 1912 U.S. Olympic team, served as International Olympic Committee president from 1952-72. Brundage, who finished sixth in the pentathlon and failed to complete the decathlon in Stockholm, never used his power to restore the medals to Thorpe, who died in 1953, or to his survivors.
Wheeler said that travesty and an atmosphere of rigid mind-sets impelled him on his quest.
He chose Thorpe for the subject of his thesis toward his master of arts in American history from Syracuse University. In 1975, Wheeler published a wrenchingly detailed biography, "Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete."
Thorpe, a world-class high-jumper and three-time All-American in football, played pro football and baseball. He was an outstanding golfer, swimmer, rower, gymnast and tennis player. He excelled at basketball, bowling and billiards. He was masterful at handball, figure skating, hockey, lacrosse, hunting and fishing. And Wheeler cited a 1913 news clip that listed Thorpe as the winner of a ballroom dancing contest.
Thorpe's son Bill, 71, a retired LTV employee who lives in Arlington, said he admired the energy and persistence of Wheeler and Ridlon.
"You've got two of the finest people alive in Bob and Flo," Bill said. "Bob went on the road with his tape recorder. His biography of Dad was the best to ever come out. Bob and Flo never gave up."
Said Wheeler: "It would have been unconscionable not to pursue setting the record straight about Jim Thorpe.
"In my heart, I wanted to get Jim Thorpe's medals restored because it was the right thing to do."
Across the country
In gathering material for his book, Wheeler began by spending one summer hitchhiking to towns in 17 states. He interviewed Thorpe's family, friends, teammates and competitors.
Wheeler said he left home that summer with $200 and returned with about the same amount. He said people were eager to help him, often inviting him to stay in their homes.
From a rocking chair in Gettysburg, Pa., former president Dwight Eisenhower, who played football at West Point, told Wheeler what it had really been like to try to tackle Thorpe. Ike had missed, colliding with a teammate instead, the general told Wheeler.
"It was like interviewing your grandfather," Wheeler said. "When I was getting ready to leave, he pulled out his wallet and offered me money because he didn't want me hitchhiking."
During his quest, Wheeler shot holes in a number of myths that surrounded Thorpe. There had been accounts making the rounds for decades questioning Thorpe's grades. Among Wheeler's discoveries was a report card in the possession of a retired schoolteacher who had instructed Thorpe at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The teacher's notation indicated he was a "very good" student.
Some reports had said Thorpe spent the sea voyage to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in a hammock, basically goofing off. Wheeler opened a streamer trunk owned by one of Thorpe's survivors and found a photograph showing the decathlete jogging around the ship's deck to train during the passage.
Wheeler also documented that Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, the legendary football innovator who coached Thorpe at Carlisle, sent the athlete to the playing stint of summer baseball that formed the crux of the medal-stripping.
"You could say Pop Warner mandated it," Wheeler said. "Pop made the telephone call to the manager."
Thorpe made $15 a week playing summer baseball.
Despite Wheeler's discoveries that aided the public perception of Thorpe, Wheeler still lacked documentation that could hold up legally in reclaiming the medals. In 1973, the AAU had restored Thorpe's amateur status, but nothing had changed regarding the Olympic medals.
In February 1982, Wheeler and Ridlon founded the Jim Thorpe Foundation in Washington, D.C., using proceeds from sales of his book.
"The Summer Olympics were coming up in Los Angeles in 1984," Ridlon said. "We were afraid it might be the last time for the Summer Olympics to be in this country, and that it might be Jim Thorpe's last chance. It was a matter of timing."
Desperate to keep the quest alive, Wheeler chose to make ends meet by caddying at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., where he could talk up his foundation's work.
"We were living on nothing," Ridlon said. "All these people did what they could to help us."
At the country club, the golfers not only embraced the Thorpe cause in spirit, but they opened their wallets. Wheeler opened his hand one day to look at the tip from a golfer and found $2,000 with a note to use it for the foundation's crusade.
Florence Ridlon said she and her husband had found the IOC unresponsive and arrogant. She sought a rule book from the 1912 Olympics.
"The IOC said there were no rules or regulations written for that Olympics," Ridlon recalled. "These international Olympic people still had no sense of the issue."
So, on a July day in 1982, she stood among the metal shelves in an off-limits area of the Library of Congress. The sports archivist had given her permission to search the stacks. Some instinct she still can't pin down made her stick her arm down behind the shelves.
She groped around until her hand made contact with . . .
"It was a little pamphlet kind of thing with an orange cover," she said. "It had slipped down behind a set of metal shelves. When I saw it, I just stood there in shock. Nobody was around; I probably could have screamed, but I was actually breathless. I don't think I could have spoken. I still get emotional about it."
Wheeler said he remembered she was crying when she phoned him at the foundation that day.
She had found a copy of the Swedish rules and regulations for the 1912 Olympics. Rule 13 read: "Objections to the qualification of a competitor must be made in writing and be forwarded without delay to the Swedish Olympic Committee. No such objection shall be entertained unless accompanied by a deposit of 20 Swedish Kronor and received by the Swedish Olympic Committee before the lapse of 30 days from the distribution of the prizes."
Almost seven months had passed between the time that Thorpe was awarded his medals in Stockholm and the revelations that led to his disqualification. The document that Ridlon found contained the legal technicality that she and her husband could take to the authorities.
"Flo is the smartest person I've ever met," Wheeler said of his wife of 28 years. "The historical ending wouldn't have been possible without her."
Wheeler said he found an ally in William E. Simon, a former USOC president who lobbied the top levels of the Olympic movement. Simon urged Samaranch to propose restoring Thorpe's amateur status. The IOC executive board passed the resolution on Oct. 13, 1982. Thorpe's daughter, Gail, was quoted at the time: "My father is the only person who has had to win the same medals twice."
The original medals, believed to have been stolen from a museum in Scandinavia, never turned up. Samaranch gave replicas to Thorpe's children during a Jan. 18, 1983, ceremony in Los Angeles.
Wheeler and Ridlon were included in most of the festivities. The next year, Wheeler went to work in public relations for ABC Sports, whose officials told him they liked the thoroughness of his Thorpe crusade.
Crusade created new career
Red boxing gloves used by Muhammad Ali decorate one wall of the study in Wheeler's lakeside home, where he and his wife live with their son, Rob, 10.
Wheeler is president of The Avail Group, which handles public relations and event management.
Most of the artifacts in the Wheeler home reflect sports history.
The upstairs hallway is a literal shrine to the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. One collage features a picture of Vinko Bogataj, whose spectacular fall during a ski-jumping competition provided the signature "agony" video for ABC's "Wide World of Sports."
Wheeler, ever the sports documentarian, matter-of-factly said Bogataj now drives a forklift in a chain factory in Transylvania.
One wall is dedicated to Thorpe. The words, "To Great Friends," are inscribed on a photograph of Thorpe's son, Chief Jack Thorpe, posing with Wheeler and Ridlon.
"When I walk down the hall," Wheeler said, "I just get such a great feeling."
As the 20th century winds down, sports historians and media companies, reviewing a hundred years of athletic achievements, have sought out Wheeler. ESPN interviewed him as a source for its countdown of the century's best athletes.
But does Wheeler think Thorpe has the support to outduel more recent superstars, such as Ali and Michael Jordan, for the honor of the century's top athlete?
"If people are informed, Jim Thorpe would win," Wheeler said. "What he's got against him is that voters were not alive when Thorpe was in his prime."
Wheeler and his family had attended a game at Yankee Stadium. He persuaded his parents to make a side trip to the town of Jim Thorpe, Pa., before driving home.
The detour was only the beginning of Wheeler's 15-year, 28-state, 12,000-mile odyssey. After viewing Thorpe's mausoleum, untended and forgotten, Wheeler devoted himself to getting authorities to reinstate the 1912 Olympic gold medals that had been stripped from Thorpe.
"Jim Thorpe had been my hero since I chose him for the subject of an oratory contest when I was in the seventh grade," Wheeler said recently at his home near Denton. "He riveted me and inspired me because of the honor and sincerity with which he competed."
Wheeler, president of an Arlington, Texas-based public relations firm, and his wife, Dr. Florence Ridlon, a sociologist, united their skills and tenacity to champion the cause of the great multi-sport athlete, a Sac and Fox Indian born in Oklahoma Territory in 1888.
Ridlon, as it turned out, found the critical evidence that proved Thorpe had been improperly stripped of the medals he won in the pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics. She found the pivotal document in 1982 - 69 years after the medals were revoked.
In 1913, the Amateur Athletic Union and the American Olympic Committee (now the U.S. Olympic Committee) found Thorpe guilty of professionalism because he had played in some baseball games with the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Railroaders of the East Carolina League in 1909-10.
Avery Brundage, Thorpe's teammate on the 1912 U.S. Olympic team, served as International Olympic Committee president from 1952-72. Brundage, who finished sixth in the pentathlon and failed to complete the decathlon in Stockholm, never used his power to restore the medals to Thorpe, who died in 1953, or to his survivors.
Wheeler said that travesty and an atmosphere of rigid mind-sets impelled him on his quest.
He chose Thorpe for the subject of his thesis toward his master of arts in American history from Syracuse University. In 1975, Wheeler published a wrenchingly detailed biography, "Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete."
Thorpe, a world-class high-jumper and three-time All-American in football, played pro football and baseball. He was an outstanding golfer, swimmer, rower, gymnast and tennis player. He excelled at basketball, bowling and billiards. He was masterful at handball, figure skating, hockey, lacrosse, hunting and fishing. And Wheeler cited a 1913 news clip that listed Thorpe as the winner of a ballroom dancing contest.
Thorpe's son Bill, 71, a retired LTV employee who lives in Arlington, said he admired the energy and persistence of Wheeler and Ridlon.
"You've got two of the finest people alive in Bob and Flo," Bill said. "Bob went on the road with his tape recorder. His biography of Dad was the best to ever come out. Bob and Flo never gave up."
Said Wheeler: "It would have been unconscionable not to pursue setting the record straight about Jim Thorpe.
"In my heart, I wanted to get Jim Thorpe's medals restored because it was the right thing to do."
Across the country
In gathering material for his book, Wheeler began by spending one summer hitchhiking to towns in 17 states. He interviewed Thorpe's family, friends, teammates and competitors.
Wheeler said he left home that summer with $200 and returned with about the same amount. He said people were eager to help him, often inviting him to stay in their homes.
From a rocking chair in Gettysburg, Pa., former president Dwight Eisenhower, who played football at West Point, told Wheeler what it had really been like to try to tackle Thorpe. Ike had missed, colliding with a teammate instead, the general told Wheeler.
"It was like interviewing your grandfather," Wheeler said. "When I was getting ready to leave, he pulled out his wallet and offered me money because he didn't want me hitchhiking."
During his quest, Wheeler shot holes in a number of myths that surrounded Thorpe. There had been accounts making the rounds for decades questioning Thorpe's grades. Among Wheeler's discoveries was a report card in the possession of a retired schoolteacher who had instructed Thorpe at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The teacher's notation indicated he was a "very good" student.
Some reports had said Thorpe spent the sea voyage to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in a hammock, basically goofing off. Wheeler opened a streamer trunk owned by one of Thorpe's survivors and found a photograph showing the decathlete jogging around the ship's deck to train during the passage.
Wheeler also documented that Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, the legendary football innovator who coached Thorpe at Carlisle, sent the athlete to the playing stint of summer baseball that formed the crux of the medal-stripping.
"You could say Pop Warner mandated it," Wheeler said. "Pop made the telephone call to the manager."
Thorpe made $15 a week playing summer baseball.
Despite Wheeler's discoveries that aided the public perception of Thorpe, Wheeler still lacked documentation that could hold up legally in reclaiming the medals. In 1973, the AAU had restored Thorpe's amateur status, but nothing had changed regarding the Olympic medals.
In February 1982, Wheeler and Ridlon founded the Jim Thorpe Foundation in Washington, D.C., using proceeds from sales of his book.
"The Summer Olympics were coming up in Los Angeles in 1984," Ridlon said. "We were afraid it might be the last time for the Summer Olympics to be in this country, and that it might be Jim Thorpe's last chance. It was a matter of timing."
Desperate to keep the quest alive, Wheeler chose to make ends meet by caddying at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., where he could talk up his foundation's work.
"We were living on nothing," Ridlon said. "All these people did what they could to help us."
At the country club, the golfers not only embraced the Thorpe cause in spirit, but they opened their wallets. Wheeler opened his hand one day to look at the tip from a golfer and found $2,000 with a note to use it for the foundation's crusade.
Florence Ridlon said she and her husband had found the IOC unresponsive and arrogant. She sought a rule book from the 1912 Olympics.
"The IOC said there were no rules or regulations written for that Olympics," Ridlon recalled. "These international Olympic people still had no sense of the issue."
So, on a July day in 1982, she stood among the metal shelves in an off-limits area of the Library of Congress. The sports archivist had given her permission to search the stacks. Some instinct she still can't pin down made her stick her arm down behind the shelves.
She groped around until her hand made contact with . . .
"It was a little pamphlet kind of thing with an orange cover," she said. "It had slipped down behind a set of metal shelves. When I saw it, I just stood there in shock. Nobody was around; I probably could have screamed, but I was actually breathless. I don't think I could have spoken. I still get emotional about it."
Wheeler said he remembered she was crying when she phoned him at the foundation that day.
She had found a copy of the Swedish rules and regulations for the 1912 Olympics. Rule 13 read: "Objections to the qualification of a competitor must be made in writing and be forwarded without delay to the Swedish Olympic Committee. No such objection shall be entertained unless accompanied by a deposit of 20 Swedish Kronor and received by the Swedish Olympic Committee before the lapse of 30 days from the distribution of the prizes."
Almost seven months had passed between the time that Thorpe was awarded his medals in Stockholm and the revelations that led to his disqualification. The document that Ridlon found contained the legal technicality that she and her husband could take to the authorities.
"Flo is the smartest person I've ever met," Wheeler said of his wife of 28 years. "The historical ending wouldn't have been possible without her."
Wheeler said he found an ally in William E. Simon, a former USOC president who lobbied the top levels of the Olympic movement. Simon urged Samaranch to propose restoring Thorpe's amateur status. The IOC executive board passed the resolution on Oct. 13, 1982. Thorpe's daughter, Gail, was quoted at the time: "My father is the only person who has had to win the same medals twice."
The original medals, believed to have been stolen from a museum in Scandinavia, never turned up. Samaranch gave replicas to Thorpe's children during a Jan. 18, 1983, ceremony in Los Angeles.
Wheeler and Ridlon were included in most of the festivities. The next year, Wheeler went to work in public relations for ABC Sports, whose officials told him they liked the thoroughness of his Thorpe crusade.
Crusade created new career
Red boxing gloves used by Muhammad Ali decorate one wall of the study in Wheeler's lakeside home, where he and his wife live with their son, Rob, 10.
Wheeler is president of The Avail Group, which handles public relations and event management.
Most of the artifacts in the Wheeler home reflect sports history.
The upstairs hallway is a literal shrine to the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. One collage features a picture of Vinko Bogataj, whose spectacular fall during a ski-jumping competition provided the signature "agony" video for ABC's "Wide World of Sports."
Wheeler, ever the sports documentarian, matter-of-factly said Bogataj now drives a forklift in a chain factory in Transylvania.
One wall is dedicated to Thorpe. The words, "To Great Friends," are inscribed on a photograph of Thorpe's son, Chief Jack Thorpe, posing with Wheeler and Ridlon.
"When I walk down the hall," Wheeler said, "I just get such a great feeling."
As the 20th century winds down, sports historians and media companies, reviewing a hundred years of athletic achievements, have sought out Wheeler. ESPN interviewed him as a source for its countdown of the century's best athletes.
But does Wheeler think Thorpe has the support to outduel more recent superstars, such as Ali and Michael Jordan, for the honor of the century's top athlete?
"If people are informed, Jim Thorpe would win," Wheeler said. "What he's got against him is that voters were not alive when Thorpe was in his prime."
Copyright (c) 1999 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Cathy Harasta: Michael's Life: A Gift To All Who Knew Him
Cathy Harasta: Michael's Life: A Gift To All Who Knew Him: Michael’s Life: A gift to all who knew him Young Knight championed the cause of epilepsy awareness By Cathy Harasta The Texas Catholic Debb...
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
MITT SAVES THE GAMES
Mitt Saves The Games
DALLAS — Meet Mitt Romney -- or you'll wish you had.
For those not yet acquainted with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's president, ``smooth'' doesn't even begin to describe this man's methods in bringing respectability to a financially challenged Olympic Games edition.
Every Olympic move Romney has made has been swift to the extent that you wonder if he is Mark Spitz in a business suit.
Romney might not have intended to maneuver himself into the role of resurrector of a needy U.S. Olympic movement. But that's what happened.
The latest in a series of significant milestones for the Romney tenure occurred last week. SLOC -- a candidate for last rites not so long ago -- moved into the realm of potential profitability. This is the same SLOC that owned a $379 million budget deficit in February 1999, when Romney took control of a scandalized outfit that had sponsors turning squeamish.
But deals with Allstate Insurance Co. and Campbell Soup Co. last week helped balance SLOC's books
, and then some.
This positive news for the Salt Lake City Winter Games, just more than six months away, followed a mid-July International Olympic Committee session in Moscow that underscored the United States' position as an outsider in the global Olympic movement.
New IOC president Jacques Rogge of Belgium has recognized the necessity of making the IOC's relationship with the U.S. Olympic Committee more buddy-buddy. He will visit Salt Lake City and USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs next month.
But the USOC still struggles in the leadership department. The able Scott Blackmun still retains the title of acting CEO. New USOC president Sandra Baldwin has demonstrated she wants to play ball with the global sports powers. But Baldwin still is new on the job, having won the post in December.
So make it Romney. No question he is the most plausible individual to shape the U.S. Olympic movement's charge toward improved status within the IOC. Watch him shape it by using charisma and contrivance -- quite a one-two punch.
From wondering if Salt Lake City should bow out and return the 2002 Games for re-assignment, Romney emerged as a capable budgetary wizard.
He has said the taxpayers would end up with a windfall -- magic words to taxpayers.
After the Olympic movement's worst scandal -- an influence-peddling saga that savaged Salt Lake City's image -- Romney has the 2002 Games positioned to make money. A sponsorship gap of about $47 million remains, but SLOC's contingency fund more than makes up for it. A recent report put SLOC $9 million in the black.
And to prove Romney has a sense of humor, SLOC recently released a list of Mitt's top 10 bloopers and a special commemorative pin embossed with ``Mitt Happens.'' The pin is shaped like a catcher's mitt.
Romney might not have intended to maneuver himself into the role of resurrector of a needy U.S. Olympic movement. But that's what happened.
The latest in a series of significant milestones for the Romney tenure occurred last week. SLOC -- a candidate for last rites not so long ago -- moved into the realm of potential profitability. This is the same SLOC that owned a $379 million budget deficit in February 1999, when Romney took control of a scandalized outfit that had sponsors turning squeamish.
But deals with Allstate Insurance Co. and Campbell Soup Co. last week helped balance SLOC's books
, and then some.This positive news for the Salt Lake City Winter Games, just more than six months away, followed a mid-July International Olympic Committee session in Moscow that underscored the United States' position as an outsider in the global Olympic movement.
New IOC president Jacques Rogge of Belgium
has recognized the necessity of making the IOC's relationship with the U.S. Olympic Committee more buddy-buddy. He will visit Salt Lake City and USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs next month.But the USOC still struggles in the leadership
department. The able Scott Blackmun still retains the title of acting CEO. New USOC president Sandra Baldwin has demonstrated she wants to play ball with the global sports powers. But Baldwin still is new on the job, having won the post in December.So make it Romney. No question he is the most plausible individual to shape the U.S. Olympic movement's charge toward improved status within the IOC. Watch him shape it by using charisma and contrivance -- quite a one-two punch.
From wondering if Salt Lake City should bow out and return the 2002 Games for re-assignment, Romney emerged as a capable budgetary wizard.
He has said the taxpayers would end up with a windfall -- magic words to taxpayers.
After the Olympic movement's worst scandal -- an influence-peddling saga that savaged Salt Lake City's image -- Romney has the 2002 Games positioned to make money. A sponsorship gap of about $47 million remains, but SLOC's contingency fund
more than makes up for it. A recent report put SLOC $9 million in the black.And to prove Romney has a sense of humor, SLOC recently released a list of Mitt's top 10 bloopers and a special commemorative pin embossed with ``Mitt Happens.'' The pin is shaped like a catcher's mitt.
http://articles.courant.com/2001-07-28/sports/0107281625_1_romney-sloc-new-usoc-president
BELA-FORCE PUSHES GYMNAST PAST THE LIMIT
By CATHY HARASTA The Dallas Morning News
Bela-force pushes gymnast past limit
The way Bela Karolyi saw it, you go for two.
He will be second-guessed for the rest of the Atlanta Games, maybe forever, but gymnastics was a team sport on this historic Tuesday evening. It was not just any medal, but a team gold medal. A team gold medal for a nation that had never won one in women's gymnastics.
So when Kerri Strug sprained her left ankle on the next-to-last vault in the final rotation, Karolyi did not stop her from vaulting once more."The team was a team formed by very strong personalities," he later would say.
What he did not say was that his personality prevailed, with the force of brass knuckles. Bela-force pushed gymnastics to this point, and, by gum, it would not let up now.
Karolyi did not stop Strug, though she told him she was unable to feel any sensation in her left leg after landing her first vault."She is a tough girl," he said. "This is toughness. We needed the second vault." He needed it.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-07-25/sports/9607240640_1_bela-karolyi-olympic-gymnasts-kerri-strug
Bela-force pushes gymnast past limit
The way Bela Karolyi saw it, you go for two.
He will be second-guessed for the rest of the Atlanta Games, maybe forever, but gymnastics was a team sport on this historic Tuesday evening. It was not just any medal, but a team gold medal
. A team gold medal for a nation that had never won one in women's gymnastics.So when Kerri Strug sprained her left ankle on the next-to-last vault in the final rotation, Karolyi did not stop her from vaulting once more."The team was a team formed by very strong personalities," he later would say.
What he did not say was that his personality prevailed, with the force of brass knuckles. Bela-force pushed gymnastics to this point, and, by gum, it would not let up now.
Karolyi did not stop Strug, though she told him she was unable to feel any sensation in her left leg after landing her first vault."She is a tough girl," he said. "This is toughness. We needed the second vault." He needed it.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1996-07-25/sports/9607240640_1_bela-karolyi-olympic-gymnasts-kerri-strug
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