Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as
an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25
years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach.
This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John
Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose
contributions Wooden ignored and tried to bury.
Compiled with
more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man
behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.
Click the book to read the first chapter and for
ordering information. Also available on Kindle.
|
Sports Medley: Would
You Send Your Child to Baylor? 10 Apr 17
by Tony Medley
Baylor is a private
Baptist University in Texas. One would think that sending a child to a
Christian-based school would be relatively safe. But Baylor is anything
but a safe place. A lawsuit filed against the University in January
alleges that 31 Baylor football players committed 52 acts of rape
between 2011 and 2014. The stonewalling by Baylor about these
allegations resulted in the dismissal of the football coach, Athletic
Director, and, finally the President of the University. Clearly, at
Baylor, sports are more important than integrity.
Now, a movie that is
presently appearing on Showtime, entitled Disgraced, showcases
the murder of one Baylor basketball player, Patrick Dennehy by teammate
Carlton Dotson in 2003. That’s bad enough, but what the film reveals is
the extraordinary lengths that then Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss
took to cover it up. According to the film, he was secretly recorded by
one of his assistant coaches, Abar Rouse, suborning other players to
falsely accuse the deceased player of being a drug dealer.
Worse, the film shows
interviews with heretofore respected NCAA Head Coaches Mike
Krzyzewski of Duke
and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse being starkly critical of Rouse! In my
world, Rouse is a hero. And in that same world, people who act as
Krzyzewski and Boeheim have in this instance are disgraceful.
This is an
exceptionally informative film that I highly recommend.
As a postscript,
Bliss was recently hired by
NAIA
school Southwestern Christian University after the 10 year ban imposed
upon him by the NCAA expired. After the film made its appearance on
Showtime, Bliss was fired from this position. Rouse, on the other hand,
has not found another job coaching.
Not a Baywatch Babe:
Anybody who believes there is not sexism in TV is whistling Dixie. And
anybody who believes that males are not discriminated against on the
basis of sex on TV is whistling an advanced version of Dixie.
Exhibit number one is
comprised of all the female pre-, mid–, and post–game interviewers on
sporting events, who are almost all female. They are not hired for their
knowledge of the sport or of the participants. They are hired because
they are female (and generally attractive females), period, end of
story. Their questions, which have been documented here for several
years, are inane and exhibit their ignorance of the sporting event that
just took place.
That’s why it was a
pleasure to see that CBS had Jim Nantz as the interviewer after the
Masters Tournament Sunday. Here are some of Nantz’s questions to winner
Sergio Garcia, none of which would have occurred to the bimbos employed
as on-field interviewers for the networks:
-
“You had a couple
of moments I’d like to talk about. First off, the par at 13. It was
called ‘the par of a lifetime’ for you because here you were at that
point in danger of falling perhaps four strokes behind Justin and
somehow you faced that adversity and made a par. (Okay, that’s not a
question, but it is an obvious request for him to discuss a key
moment in the match).
-
“The last player
to Eagle the 15th in the final round on his way to
winning was José
Maria Olazabal
in 1994. Tell us about that one.
-
“How about a
comment about the back-and-forth between you and Justin showing
sportsmanship out there every step of the way when it was so
intense?”
These are the types
of questions that sports fans want to hear answered, not nonsense like
the Michele Tafoya-types regurgitate, “What were you thinking when (that
ball was hit to you, that ball was thrown to you, etc.”). The networks
should dump of all these ignoramuses who insult the intelligence of
their viewing audience with their senseless, simplistic questions.
|