#HoosierNation mourns loss of seminal family member as Gold Medal-winning Olympian and Naismith Hall of Famer Walt Bellamy died this morning at the age of 74; #iubb, #Hoosiers

#HoosierNation mourns loss of seminal family member as Olympian, Hall of Famer Walt Bellamy died this morning, http://t.co/irn7BbgR7s #iubb
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) November 2, 2013

A starter on the basketball team from 1959-61, Bellamy was also IU's Most Valuable Player, an All-Big Ten and All American in his junior and senior seasons of 1960 and 1961, the starting center of the Gold Medal Olympic team at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and remains IU's all-time IU rebound leader. 1982 Inductee into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame

Rookie of the Year Roommates: Bellamy's freshman roommate was IU football star Earl Faison. Their first year away from IU, Faison, of the San Diego Chargers, was named AFL Rookie of the year while Bellamy, with the Chicago Packers, was voted NBA Rookie of the Year. 
More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Bellamy

The #8thStar fell in Alabama! Hoosiers’ Quest For Eight is Mission Accomplished! Hoosier goalie Luis Soffner pitches third shut-out in a row in leading Hoosiers to 1-0 win over Georgetown to earn their 8th NCAA soccer title; Jordan Hulls shows Hoosier Pride!; #Q48, #8thSTAR, @JordanHulls1

Today, when you go to the IU Athletic Dept.'s website, you're now greeted by this great photo of lots of happy Hoosiers celebrating their well-deserved NCAA title Sunday afternoon.

The way that IU was dominating Georgetown in the first-half with their sharp, up-tempo offense that saw them control the ball in front of the Hoya goal for minutes at a time, I actually thought the score could very well turn out to be something like a 4-0 rout.
But 1-0, on Nikita Kotlov’s lone goal in the 64th minute of play yesterday off a nice header by  Eriq Zavaleta, proved more than enough with Luis Soffner in goal for the Hoosiers to shut-out the Hoyas, his third shut-out in a row.

One minute-video of title game highlights at: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/soccer-men/d1

I must admit to feeling very dumbfounded at how little actual video of the game was available online yesterday, as the Indy TV stations have nothing and neither does ESPNU, despite the fact that they were the ones who televised the game.

Defense drives Indiana's title run
By Greg Ostendorf, ESPN.com
Updated: December 9, 2012, 8:05 PM ET
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8730456/with-stingy-defense-little-luck-indiana-won-national-title-men-soccer-college-cup

http://www.indystar.com/article/20121209/SPORTS0601/121209010/College-soccer-IU-captures-8th-national-title-1-0-win-over-Georgetown

http://btn.com/2012/12/09/track-live-indiana-plays-georgetown-for-ncaa-soccer-title/

Andrew Wittry YouTube Channel: Indiana Men's Soccer National Championship Reception Postponed. Uploaded December 9th, 2012. http://youtu.be/RpJAVPws_qE
Above, the great Chuck Crabb , IU Assistant Athletic Director, explains to some disappointed Hoosier fans Sunday night why the planned 8:30 p.m. reception for the team at Assembly Hall was postponed, owing to bad weather in Nashville, where the team stopped on their way from Birmingham back to Bloomington. 
More on Chuck at bottom.

It was great to see that Hoosier basketball star Jordan Hulls was in the stands for yesterday afternoon's game, and drove the 8 hours down to Alabama after the Hoosier basketball game Saturday night  against Central Conn. State, the school that my friends and I had never heard of, but which at Spring Break in FTL during early 1980's boasted a disproportionate amount of the most good-looking coeds.
Jordan Hulls @JordanHulls1  twitter.com/JordanHulls1


IU soccer championship gear is here: http://iuhoosiers.cbscollegestore.com/store.cfm?store_id=406 

-----
This is what I wrote about Chuck on my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, when I started it in 2007: 

The IU sports administrator most responsible for helping me make sense of all things Cream & Crimson, was IU's do-it-all, 24/7 Renaissance man, Chuck Crabb. 
With equal amounts of enthusiasm, hard work and patience, Chuck lovingly and masterfully managed IU's Student Athletic Board, an organization to which I devoted many thousands of hours to -and loved every minute.


Both the more difficult times, like trying to manage things and stay dry during downpours at IU soccer games at Bill Armstrong Stadium, and those that were more fun, like helping out with the logistics of running the lengthy IU cheerleader and pom squad tryouts, up on the HPER's beautiful second floor wooden gym, with very precise routines all set to Prince's genius music, circa 1982, which was blaring out of the speakers. 
Fun and hard work!

After all those hours and hours of watching those carefully choreographed routines to his music -routines that I can STILL see in my head- I could never hear Prince's songs again without thinking of those tryouts and smiling. 
And of all those eager but flushed and exhausted Hoosier faces, anxious to help project Hoosier Pride to Hoosier Nation.

Oklahoma's plays in his head, but IU's players on the field: ex-Sooner OC Kevin Wilson begins his coaching reign at Indiana rather ignominiously

IU Athletics video: Indiana University football head coach Kevin Wilson's press conference after the Hoosiers 27-20 loss to Ball State at Indy's Lucas Oil Stadium, his first game as Hoosier head coach. September 3, 2011.

http://youtu.be/GPRkx_-9eXU

Above, the crimson-colored "Win with Wilson" IU t-shirt I decided NOT to buy a few weeks ago. I decided that I would sit on my enthusiasm just a bit longer and wait and see via ESPN3 how my "Great Expectations" looked against Ball State Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy, five months before the Super Bowl is played there.

After all, you can't judge these things based on watching video and practices via the Big Ten Channel and the official IU Athletics YouTube Channel.

Good thing my intuition is so good!

Shirt is available at http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/

Well, he's got Oklahoma's plays in his head, but IU's players on the field: former Oklahoma OC Kevin Wilson opens the Wilson coaching era at Indiana in rather ignominious fashion, losing to Ball State and looking lackluster in doing so.

But then me being me, the optimist, I remember that things started out VERY BADLY for Joe Gibbs his first year with the Redskins, too, losing his first five games in 1981.

Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star starts his Sunday column on the ballgame in a rather droll way, perhaps to ward off the uncomfortable silence of a losing effort that was closer on the scoreboard than it was on the field.

Wilson era opens with dud

In theory, the Kevin Wilson era at Indiana could have started in a more ignominious fashion.

For example, the team bus could have gotten lost on the way from Bloomington to Lucas Oil Stadium, or the club could have arrived with its red uniforms instead of its road whites.

But this was pretty ignominious.

Embarrassing is another word.

Ball State 27, IU 20.

It wasn't just the result; it was the way it was achieved.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110904/SPORTS15/109040362/Wilson-era-opens-dud

Terry Hutchens at the Star's Hoosier Insider blog doesn't bother trying to humor IU fans and gets right to what bothered them -us- the most.

Where do we begin? The new Indiana under Kevin Wilson Saturday night looked a lot like the old Indiana.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/2011/09/03/looking-back-at-iu-ball-state/

You don't have to know much about Indiana Hoosier football to know from reading those two sentences above to know that isn't a good thing, and if you do know the subject like I do, it's like a chill going down your back.

That sense of unknown dread out there lurking below the surface...

The history of choking in the clutch... an errant throw right when you are close to pulling off the upset...the dropped pass in the end-zone in the first-half that you never get back...the huge second-half leads that you blow in consecutive weeks on the road against Northwestern and Iowa -last year.

This coming Saturday is the football home opener at Memorial Stadium against UVA, where niece #2 goes to school. They beat William & Mary 40-3 Saturday, so they must be looking forward to coming to Bloomington.

IU-Ball State highlights video: http://btn.com/2011/09/03/ball-state-knocks-off-indiana/

Recap of IU-Ball State game:

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/090311aae.html

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/IUAthletics

http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/

http://twitter.com/#!/indystar_hutch

http://www.youtube.com/user/InsideIndiana

http://indiana.247sports.com/

http://btn.com/

http://btn.com/schools/indiana/

http://bleacherreport.com/indiana-hoosiers-football

Finally something to smile about for Hoosier fans in a season of wasted opportunities

Been a little under the weather this weekend so my plan to drop a cache of posts here to get things stirring has taken a back seat to my health.
I did want to post this one, though, before IU's upcoming game in a few minutes against a reeling Michigan State team at East Lansing that I'll be watching on The BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610.


IU 52, U of I 49 - First win against ranked team while Tom Crean's been head basketball coach at IU.
Video highlights at:
http://www.bigtennetwork.com/generic/sports/video?autostart=true&bcpid=60234638001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEBQhU8~,kLn_EtefUBn-jd4QuQdKKKEE0M4y3HUj&bctid=766801782001

It's not by mistake that I've chosen not to write much about this disappointing college basketball season, the third in the Tom Crean regime in Bloomington. (Or even said anything about Kevin Wilson being hired as the new football coach, a move I welcomed.)

There's a lot of misgivings and discomfort among some Hoosier fans I know and communicate with on a regular basis, not only over players that have failed to develop as expected (or in some cases, even regressed) but about wasted opportunities on nationally-televised games, cementing the idea among key high school players -and some fair-weather fans- that IU can't show more toughness and grit in close games, and emerge victorious.

While this victory over the Fighting Illini was certainly nice, especially at a packed Assembly Hall where devout fans have been eyewitness to more losing than at any time since I've been a Hoosier -and more since these students have been alive- I still find that a lot of very frustrated IU fans living far from the Midwest, are having a hard time accepting "moral victories."

You can count me among them, and you can see that in the agitated and exasperated emails from Hoosier faithful that are sent to the Hoosiers homepage of the Indy Star
http://www.indystar.com/section/SPORTS0601?odyssey=nav|s|hoosiers&nav=2

That's especially the case with knowledgeable fans whose base of understanding for Hoosier basketball, both history and personality context, extends decades, many of frequently respond to Indy Star reporter Terry Hutchens' Hoosiers Insider blog at
http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/

Hoosiers Insider remains a great resource for Hoosier fans living far from the rolling hills of Bloomington, and remains one of the few places that I can consistently go and find out something, from either Terry or a reader, that I didn't already know or had considered about the team and its history.

People with an institutional memory about the team that recall things that happened before I got to Bloomington in the fall of 1979 the way I STILL remember things about the 1972 Dolphins Perfect Season -whether scores of the games, the team roster, mini-controversies, et al- which was my first year as a Dolphins season ticket holder.

When IU plays Kentucky in mid-December, that's almost always been a nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game that got lots of eyeballs coast-to-coast. Now, it's almost forgotten and on ESPN2 or wherever it was, and not even brought up until late into ESPN's SportsCenter or into their radio programming -an after-thought.

The annual Michigan at IU ballgame which had so many memorable and clutch finishes from 1980-2000 while a CBS nationally-televised staple, has also become a victim of the recent mediocrity.

When I watched it recently on TheBigTenNetwork, it was hard not to think of all those games with Coach Knight getting the better of whomever was patrolling the sidelines for the Wolverines, and the confidence IU fans had with Damon Bailey or Steve Alford bringing the ball up-court with less than thirty seconds to play against those excellent Wolverine teams.

You knew that the fundamentals would be there and that guys would come thru in the clutch, and if they lost, it would NOT be for lack of a proper understanding of what they needed to do and where they needed to be on the court for that last shot.

Now, I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen from play to play, and whether a player will repeat the same mistake twice before getting pulled from the game.

Rebuilding is definitely a bitch.

The IU homepage at The BigTenNetwork website, full of IU-related stories & videos: http://www.bigtennetwork.com/subindex/schools/indiana

Miami Herald's first online story about Lou Saban's death -wire copy without U-M record. Typical!

Lou Saban, IU football, 1941, 1942, 1942 MVP as QB.

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/trads/ind-trads-hof-1982.html

Wrote this first just a little while ago at my other blog, Hallandale Beach Blog.


The Herald's first online story about Lou Saban's death came at 4:40 pm via some wire copy that neglected to include his record at U-M in 1977 and '78 of 3-8 and 6-5, and with a photo that wasn't even of him at Miami, a photo that goes un-credited, like so many photos at the Herald these days not taken by Herald photographers.
I guess the photos just magically appear out of thin air!-

The former IU Hoosier player (IU Hall of Fame, Class of 1982; while I was there) and Hurricanes head coach certainly deserved much better than this crummy lite story, but then so do the much-abused Herald readers!

(A forthcoming blog post here and at South Beach Hoosier, already written, will count the myriad ways that the Herald's sports section has become a veritable laughingstock
over the past five years to any serious sports fan.)

And in case you forgot or never knew, Lou Saban's last game as head coach of the Hurricanes was a 22-21 defeat of the Gators in 1978.
At Gainesville.
That's how you do it!

My guess is that when Randy Shannon finally gets fired early next year, one year too late, it'll be after another in a long line of the very confusing and half-assed losses that have become commonplace under him, begging once more the inevitable question that never really quite goes away: why was someone without any prior major college head coaching
experience ever hired in the first place?-

http://www.miamiherald.com/614/story/973815.html

Longtime football coach Lou Saban dies

BY SPORTS NETWORK

THE SPORTS NETWORK

March 29, 2009

Lou Saban, the longtime college and pro football coach who led the Buffalo Bills to a pair of AFL championships, died early Sunday morning at the age of 87.

Saban coached professional football for 16 years, and most notably led Buffalo to back-to-back AFL titles in 1964-65. He also coached the Boston -- now New England -- Patriots for their first two seasons, in 1960-61 before moving on to Buffalo from 1962-65.

He spent five seasons with Denver (1967-71), overseeing the team through the AFL-NFL merger, and returned to the Bills from 1972-76. Saban's pro teams went 95-99-7.

Away from football, Saban was also president of the New York Yankees from 1981-82.

"He has been my friend and mentor for over 50 years, and one of the people who helped shape my life," Yankees owner and chairperson George M. Steinbrenner said in a statement. "Lou was tough and disciplined, and he earned all the respect and recognition that came his way. He spent a lifetime leading, teaching and inspiring, and took great satisfaction in making the lives around him better. This is a tremendous loss to me personally, and I extend my deepest condolences to his wife, Joyce, and the entire Saban family."

Saban's coaching career also included stints at numerous colleges, Northwestern, Western Illinois, Maryland, Miami, Army and Central Florida.

Saban played college football at Indiana and was with the Cleveland Browns from 1946-49 before moving onto coaching.

___________________________

Former Herald sports writer Jim Martz sets some folks straight who seem

confused about the role of Hurricane QBs in their modern football history.

My first Hurricanes home game was in 1972, and until I left for Bloomington

in August of 1979, I went to well over 95% of their home games at the

Orange Bowl.

Miami Herald

An open letter to UM quarterback Jacory Harris

By Jim Martz, Canesport magazine

October 30, 2008

An open letter to Jacory Harris:

Allow me to invite you to a new history course: Miami Hurricanes Quarterbacks 101. You can bring along fellow freshman quarterbacks Cannon Smith and Taylor Cook. This class should be required for all incoming quarterbacks at the "U." It's not about X's and O's, it's about learning how the great UM quarterbacks became great, how they all needed to be patient and wait their turn.

I'll be the instructor, and I'm not going to talk about reading defenses or calling audibles. I didn't play college football, unless you count being a wide receiver and cornerback on a fraternity flag football team at a Division III school in Michigan. But I have seen every Hurricane team since the 1970s, and I watched the program become Quarterback U, a tradition that has taken a hit lately.

In the modern era of Hurricane football, beginning with 1979 and the arrival of Howard Schnellenberger as coach, there have been seven great quarterbacks: Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Walsh, Craig Erickson, Gino Torretta and Ken Dorsey. Five of them won national championships. Of the two who didn't, one (Testaverde) won the Heisman Trophy and the other (Kelly) was injured most of his senior year but went on make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Here's your first quiz: Do you know what these quarterbacks had in common?

True, they were all right-handed. But that's irrelevant. Answer: Each sat on the bench most or all of their freshman season. They waited their turn. Obviously none transferred. There have been several UM quarterbacks who did transfer. And each one virtually disappeared from the face of college football. The ones who stayed, who paid their dues, so to speak, saw their patience rewarded. You've been patient this season, too, and that paid off in a 49-31 victory at Duke. When Robert Marve struggled, you came in and led the Hurricanes to 35 unanswered points and threw four touchdown passes.

I liked what you said after the game on the Hurricane Sports Network: "I appreciate all the times that Coach Shannon puts me into the game. Whenever it is I'm happy to go into the game, whether it's to bring my team back or keep them ahead. It doesn't matter when I get in or if I get in. I just want the team to win, that's all I worry about."

That's the kind of patience the great ones at UM have needed. Take Testaverde, for instance. He sat for three years before he became "the man," then he led the Hurricanes to the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls, came within one play of winning the national championship and won the Heisman Trophy. He also went on to an NFL career that started before you were born and just ended after 22 years.

Kelly, Kosar, Walsh and Torretta all were redshirted their freshman season. They didn't get quality playing time like you are getting in every game. Yet each one, when he got his chance, played well and took command of the offense.

KELLY'S ODYSSEY

I'll begin these history lessons with Kelly, who was part of Lou Saban's great recruiting class of 1978. That was in the days when the Hurricanes invariably had three quarterbacks -- one departing, one coming and one playing. One quarterback quit in the summer. One incumbent, a senior, was moved to receiver. Another, Kenny McMillian, was injured in the first game. Saban had three freshmen -- Kelly, Mark Richt (now coach at Georgia) and Mike Rodrigue. He went with Rodrigue, who spent most of the season handing off to senior tailback Ottis Anderson, who is still UM's all-time rushing leader.

Saban resigned after that 6-5 season, Schnellenberger took over and started Rodrigue the first seven games in 1979. For the eighth game, the coach decided at the last moment to go with Kelly, who barfed in the locker room before the game, then went on to lead a shocking 26-10 victory at Penn State. That was the genesis of Quarterback U.

The next year Kelly spearheaded the Hurricanes to the Peach Bowl, their first bowl game in 13 seasons. His junior year they went 9-2, losing only to fourth-ranked Texas and 16th-ranked Mississippi State on the road in close games. In the third game of his senior year, 1982, he sustained a dislocated shoulder at Virginia Tech in the third game and was lost for the season.

That same season, the Hurricanes had two freshmen quarterbacks, Kosar and a guy listed in the media guide as Vincent Testaverde. Neither was among the six quarterbacks on the Parade Magazine All-American high school team, but Schnellenberger and his staff rated them as two of the top three quarterbacks in the nation. Plus there was Richt, a senior, and Kyle Vanderwende, a redshirt freshman, who had been all-state at Palm Beach Gardens. That year the Hurricanes arguably had the greatest collection of college quarterbacks in history. Earl Morrall, a former Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins star quarterback, was their coach. He attended the flag football game between the Canes and Dolphins in the Orange Bowl's farewell several months ago and agreed this was the best quarterback group ever at one college.

And none transferred.

WAITING THEIR TURN

Jacory, if you want to learn about patience, talk to Kosar and Testaverde. Kosar, who had been Mr. Ohio Football, didn't play at all in 1982. Testaverde, an honorable mention All-American in high school, was fourth string and played briefly in the ninth and 10th games, completing 5 of 12 passes for 79 yards.

Going into the 1983 season, Vanderwende, who went 2-1 as the starter at the end of 1982, and Kosar and Testaverde were considered equal. Schnellenberger picked Kosar "by a whisker" based on "a combination of intelligence, leadership and ability." The Hurricanes lost the opener at Florida 28-3, but Kosar's performance convinced Schnellenberger he had made the right pick. They didn't lose another game, knocking off heavily favored Nebraska in the Orange Bowl Classic to win UM's first national championship.

Testaverde didn't play a down that season. And he was the backup in 1984, Jimmy Johnson's first season, playing in six games and completing 17 of 34 for 184 yards and no touchdowns.

In 1985, when Testaverde became the starter, Walsh arrived as a freshman and was redshirted. As the backup on the great 1986 team, he appeared in two games and completed 1 of 2 passes for 5 yards. He started every game in 1987 as the Hurricanes reloaded and went undefeated to win their second national title. In 1988 he was a first-team All-American as the Canes finished No. 2 behind Notre Dame, which beat them 31-30 at South Bend.

Then it was Erickson's turn. He had been Walsh's backup for two seasons, mostly seeing mop-up duties in lopsided victories. He completed 22 of 37 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns in 1987 and went 26 for 49 for 379 yards and six TDs in 1988. When he got his chance in 1989 (Dennis Erickson's first year as coach), he led the Hurricanes to their third championship, and in 1990 they finished fourth in the nation.

Enter Torretta, who was redshirted in 1988. As a second-year freshman in 1989 he was thrust into the starting job for four games when Erickson was injured, and he played in six other games. He was Erickson's backup again in 1990, playing in nine games and completing 21 of 41 for 210 yards. When Torretta received his turn, he never lost in two years until his final game and he won the Heisman Trophy. The Canes won the 1991 national title and in 1992 their streak ended in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama.

THE LEAN YEARS

After Torretta, the program went into a lull at quarterback. The Hurricanes had good ones but not great ones -- Frank Costa, Ryan Clement, Ryan Collins, Scott Covington, Kenny Kelly. Also, NCAA sanctions in the mid-1990s cost the team several scholarships. At the end of the decade, Butch Davis built the foundation for the program's rise back to the top. Kenny Kelly might have been the quarterback to take them there, but he was doing double duty as an outfielder in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization and opted after the 1999 season to leave school for baseball.

And that opened the door for Dorsey, who in 1999 he became the first true freshman to start at quarterback at UM since Rodrigue in 1978 when he filled in for injured Kelly in three games. Then he started every game for three years, losing only once during the regular season (in 2000), winning the national championship in 2001 and nearly repeating in 2002 while winning the Maxwell Award as the nation's top quarterback. Jacory, you know the history since then, how Brock Berlin and Kyle Wright didn't live up to expectations, how the talent level dropped significantly and the program failed to sign a quarterback in 2005 and 2006.

Now you and redshirt freshman Marve are battling it out. Maybe battling is the wrong word. You guys call it a "partnership," which is rare and I believe is healthy competition. You sounded much older than an 18-year-old after the Duke game when you said, "Robert is a great quarterback and I want everybody to know, because Robert is one of my good friends, I love Robert. So whenever Robert is hot, I want him to stay in. That's how I feel. And vice-versa. We care about each other."

Over the years there have been several quarterbacks who became impatient or frustrated and decided to transfer. Can you name any of them?

Since 1980 they have included Bill Turkowski, Greg Jones, Joe Cole, Bryan Fortay, Alan Hall, Chris Walsh, Steve Kelly, Marc Guillon and even Kirby Freeman, who saw the handwriting on the wall when Marve and you became the heirs apparent.

TRANSFER? PERISH THE THOUGHT

A recent newspaper story quoting your father indicated you might transfer. I know this is a different era than the days of Kosar and Testaverde. These are the days of instant gratification.

But if you want to be one of the great Hurricane quarterbacks, if you want to help build something special with your former Miami Northwestern High School teammates who came to UM with you, eliminate "transfer" from your vocabulary.

I know it has been awkward at times. You started the opener because Marve was suspended for a disciplinary reason, and you looked great, though you beat a Charleston Southern team that your Northwestern Bulls might have defeated. Since then Marve has started every game, but you've seen action in the first half each week. That's meaningful game experience.

There's no way to predict how this will unfold. Marve might struggle so much that coaches have to start you.

Conversely, he might settle down and play great. And you might end up being redshirted next year, creating some separation between you. That's what happened in the Kosar-Testaverde situation. It also helped that Kosar earned his degree in three years and turned pro. Or you and Robert might develop into a two-headed quarterback. I'm sure you've heard the adage that if a team has two quarterbacks it really has none. That's not necessarily true. Florida State ranked sixth in the nation in 1979 and reached the Orange Bowl Classic led by the quarterback tandem of Jimmy Jordan and Wally Woodham. And Florida won the national championship two years ago with Chris Leak starting and Tim Tebow contributing significantly.

Jacory, you remind me and other veteran observers of Dorsey, who was as skinny as a freshman as you are. He was smart and tried to get the ball to the playmakers rather than win the game by himself.

You sounded just like him when you said after the Duke game: 'I'm just having fun running coach [Patrick] Nix's offense. It's a great offense to be in. It gives you a lot of opportunities to make things happen but also to put the ball in playmakers' hands."

You don't have the veteran playmakers he had, but you will. And you have something he lacked -- the ability to run. Just don't run from the "U." Your time will come.

Jim Martz is editor of Canesport magazine.

Below, permanent anchors from my other blog, South Beach Hoosier

IT'S ALL ABOUT "THE U"

South Beach Hoosier's first U-M football game at the Orange Bowl was in 1972, age 11, against Tulane in the infamous "Fifth Down" game. In order to drum up support and attendance for the U-M at the Orange Bowl, that game had a promotion whereby South Florida kids who were school safety patrols could get in for freeIF they wore their sash. I did.

Clearly they knew that it was better to let kids in for free, knowing their parents would give them money to buy food and souvenirs, perhaps become a fan and want to return for future games. The ballgame made an interesting impression on The New York Times, resulting in this gem from the "View of Sport" column of Oct, 14, 1990, labeled 'Fifth Down or Not, It's Over When It's Over.' -"In 1972, aided by a fifth-down officiating gift in the last moments of the game, Miami of Florida defeated Tulane, 24-21.

The country and the world was a much different place that fall because The New York Times took time and space to editorialize on the subject.

''Is it right for sportsmen, particularly young athletes, to be penalized or deprived of the goals for which they earnestly competed because responsible officials make mistakes? The ideal of true sportsmanship would be better served if Miami forfeited last week's game.'

South Beach Hoosier hardly needs to tell you that this was YET another New York Times editorial that was completely ignored!

SEBASTIAN THE IBIS, THE SPIRITED MASCOT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HURRICANES

Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.) After that first ballgame against Tulane, as l often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the State Road 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in North Miami Beach, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl. Onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio.

A few times, I was just about the only person onboard besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside. I probaly had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on everyone's list of things to do.

Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!)

For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game.

(Against FSU?)

I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0. Their rationale?

To score another TD and impress the AP football writers;

final score 44-0. Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl.

A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone

-in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Alabama and Bear Bryant, a rematch of the '73 national title game.

I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, below.

I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.

THE ISSUE I TOOK WITH

ME THE NIGHT OF U-M'S

20-15 UPSETOF #1

TEXAS AT THE

ORANGE BOWL

College Football,

Texas No. 1,

Hook 'em Horns,

Sept. 10, 1973.

Living in North Miami

Beach in the '70's,

my Sports Illustrated

usually showed up in

my mailbox on the

Thursday or Friday

before the Monday

cover date.

And was read cover-

to-cover by Sunday

morning.

Canesports is at http://miami.rivals.com/

Hallandale Beach Blog is at http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

See also: http://www.collegefootballhistory.com/index.htm

Finally! South Beach Hoosier is Back on the Job!

It's hard to be humble when you're a Hoosier-by-choice!

Assembly Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

One of the places where, once upon a time, it really did all come together.

Sorry for the VERY LONG break from my duties here at South Beach Hoosier, as I've rather foolishly allowed myself to become too preoccupied with the internecine political fighting here in the duchy of Hallandale Beach, Florida and writing on Hallandale Beach Blog, to the neglect of my SBH responsibilities.

Trust me, nobody feels worse about the matter than I do.

Not to worry, as I have a ton of already-written material that I will be posting here over the next few days to get you al back up to speed on what's on my mind as it involves my interests, like the Indiana University Hoosiers; the myriad ups and (mostly) downs of the Dolphins and Hurricanes in this season of inconsistent coaching; the latest doings of South Florida's thoroughly under-reported public policy scene, and the neverending media keffuffle that is South Florida's current sorry state of journalism, where old-fashioned notions about thoroughness and fairness have been completely cast aside for all to see.

Another trend that you may notice is that I will no longer be holding my punches quite so much about individual South Florida and Washington media personalities that I know and have dealt with, as I have done perhaps a bit too much in the past.

That's all in the past, as in the intervening months, per the last paragraph, the gloves have most definitely come off!

No point holding my tongue when I can enlighten everyone to some egregiously bad, sloppy or incomplete reporting.

In another media matter, I will also mention and comments on some recent Hoosier additions to the South Florida news media scene.

By the way, since I last commented in this space, I've had the good fortune to run into the mother of a former IU basketball player a few times, and will hope to fill you in on what she had to share with me about her talented son.

Surprisingly, I've also discovered that a very trustworthy news source is now MUCH CLOSER to someone within the inner orbit of Hoosier athletics than I ever could've guessed.

Could it be, you know, a possible future "South Beach Hoosier World Exclusive" he said, laughing at the very idea.

Not yet, but...

-Dave at South Beach Hoosier

Finally! Miami Norland vs Boyd Anderson, Sat. @ 3 pm on Sun Sports

Finally!

The Miami Norland High School vs Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson High School 6A title basketball game will be televised Saturday the 15th at 3 p.m. on Sun Sports.

Well, that would be the Boys' title, though Sun Sports described it as Girls...
Sun Sports' website read thusly,
http://www.sunsportstv.com/news.jhtml?method=view&news.id=532

FHSAA BOYS BASKETBALL FINALS
(Sun Sports)
This year Sun Sports will televise all 12 of the FHSAA Girl’s & Boy’s Basketball Finals. The boys Finals air this week on the heels of the girl’s Finals which wrapped up last week. Whit Watson calls the play-by-play action with Mark Wise serving as color analyst.
... Sat., 3/15 at 3pm Girls 6A: Miami Norland vs. Boyd Anderson

The encore telecast will be next Sunday, March 23rd at 4 p.m.

Finally, two weeks after the fact, you can see for yourself why the Miami Norland Vikings are
now ranked No. 25 in the USA Today Super 25 national poll.

Typically, with all the aplomb of a dying newspaper gasping on its deathbed, the Miami Herald doesn't even list this game in their Weekend Sports TV box on page 7-D in today's Herald.

But don't worry, they compensate for this slight by finding the space to list Sunday night's PBR Bull Riding event in Tacoma!

Over the weekend, I'll be commenting on the two-week delay in televising this ballgame, which
only highlights South Florida's continuing Banana Republic sports status.

I should mention here that within the next few days, l'll also be posting a series of essays that absolutely zeroes in on both WQAM and 790 The Ticket's station management, for their
continuing pattern of poor programming choices, especially for what they consciously choose NOT to do.

Sadly, for South Florida's sports fans, everything I'll say will ring 100% true.

I'll also take the Herald to the woodshed for a number of sports-related crimes of omission that, rather curiously, have never been examined to any real degree on WQAM or 790, despite the fact that they are self-evident in the extreme.
That's especially the case in the area of sports media! (Barry Jackson)

Such will be my quest, and trust me, I'll have more than enough ammunition to get it done.

Like low-hanging fruit, just waiting for somebody to come by and bash it like a piñata, my real problem will simply be trying to decide what to bash now and what to leave to a future date.

Though some of you might reasonably guess what some of these subjects might be, I suspect that much of it will cause you to say, "Hmmm... Now that you mention it..."

As with most things I've observed and found interesting or curious over the years, I've taken copious notes over the past four years since returning here from Washington.

I've shared much of what I've observed with several friends and acquaintances at the Herald who are either reporters or editors in other departments, as well as with other local media folks.

Without exception, the Herald employees acknowledge the truth of what I've told them since they've caught that same thing themself when reading the paper, or say, almost forgetting what they're implying, "Well, you think that's something, did you ever notice that..."

And trust me, it's not just other Herald employees in other departments who are well aware of the curious omissions and strange bouts of forgetfulness in the Herald sports section, since even when they're not wearing their Herald hats, they're still sports fans, too.

No, it also includes a handful of national sports writers and columnists I know or have a good relationship with, most of whom you'd probably either recognize by face or byline instantly if you're a real sports fan.

Honestly, at some point with the Herald under the McClatchy regime, it really stops just being about simple incompetence, and becomes the foundation for company policy.

Before you check out the game, check out Roy Fuoco's Lakeland Ledger story of March 8th on the declining attendance at the FHSAA basketball tourney in Lakeland, which, naturally, gets blamed on so many teams being from South Florida.
"[Polk County Athletic Director Don Bridges said] he knew it wouldn't be good news when he saw which teams qualified for the tournament."

Fewer Fans Make Trip To Finals
http://www.theledger.com/article/20080308/NEWS/565895247/1002/SPORTS

Meanwhile, Buddy Collings in today's Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-hsclanton1408mar14,0,582918.story
reports that Viking senior Antonio Hester and Head coach Lawton Williams are candidates for 2008 Dairy Farmers Mr. Basketball and Coach of the Year, respectively.

South Beach Hoosier hardly needs to tell his regular readers that one of his first friends at IU was James (Jim) Thomas of Ft. Lauderdale NOVA High School, the 1978-79 Florida Basketball Player of the Year. (Don't recall if they had a corporate sponsor back then.)

Jim was the immensely talented yet modest and steady guy who almost singlehandedly was responsible for dashing the hopes of SBH's beloved North Miami Beach Chargers in the FHSAA state basketball playoffs one year.

Sadly, that was the one year out of four when through dint of some hard work, serendipity and finally, some real height, the Chargers were not only a very good basketball team, but in the opinion of some, perhaps the favorite to win the Florida state championship.
Did I mention that the NMB-NOVA game was at NOVA's gym?

(I'd been there once before for a gymnastics tri-meet, and recall that for the vault, we had to prop open a door leading outside, so as to ensure enough distance to get a good running start.
That was very weird!

I can still picture my wonderfully talented and enthusuastic friend, Linda Zobler, such a bundle of positive energy, waiting anxiously outside the gym door jamb for the vault judges to signal with their hands that she could start her run.
Naturally, because Linda was a champion, she stuck the landing!)

On the chance that you've never noticed it before, here's what I've written about Jim on one of the anchor posts on the SBH front page:
#20, Fort Lauderdale Nova's James (Jim) Thomas, a member of IU's 1981 NCAA basketball championship team and the 1981 NCAA All-Final Four Team, and the 1978-79 Mr. Florida Basketball.

A forensics major who was self-less and generous to a fault, Jim was also one of my very first friends at IU, and a very talented and thoughtful guy who possessed a tireless work ethic and a sense of dedication that was palpable at all times.

Those qualities weren't just on display at Assembly Hall during IU's games and practices, but at many other times and places over the years, with yours truly as a witness, when there were no cheering crowds around.

For instance, on those cold days and nights when I'd meet Jim over at the HPER track, and we'd go up to the upstairs basketball court, where for about an hour, I'd help Jim with various skill drills by throwing or passing him basketballs and watch him go thru his paces: shooting, rebounding, passing and free throw shooting.

It was just Jim and his desire to be the sort of IU student & player who made his family, friends and teammates proud to be around him -and Hoosier Nation proud that he chose to wear the Hoosier cream and crimson with so much grace and dignity;

Miss Indiana may have TV reality hijinks in store for us!

My comments follow this story.
_______________________________
The South Bend Tribune
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071230/Ent/712300445/1041/Ent

December 30, 2007
On TV
Queen strives to restore Miss America's luster
Amanda Petrucelli, Tribune Correspondent

Nicole Rash is not like the other girls. Really.

For starters, Miss Indiana has her motorcycle license, likes to camp and is fluent in Spanish. (She was an exchange student to both Bolivia and Chile.)

"I can get my hands dirty. It's not like I'm a prim, proper debutante who sits in the house all day," the 2003 Plymouth High School graduate says.

And if you don't believe she's not a "big-haired, pageant girl," you'll get a chance to get to know her on the Miss America Pageant's "Reality Check" series, starting at 10 p.m. Friday on TLC.

"It's really fun," the 23-year-old Rash says.

"We had a lot of fun with it. There's some drama with it.

"For the series, she says, all state titleholders were housed in the Hollywood home where "The Biggest Loser" was filmed.

No TV, no music and no Internet.

"It's a really, really gorgeous, huge property -- a really nice house," Rash says, "but for 52 girls, we had seven bathrooms."

Contestants are presented with challenges, she says, and Hollywood icons show up with tips about how to be the next "It Girl."

"We're just trying to appeal to when Miss America was at its highest point," Rash says. "When little girls wanted to be Miss America."

Rash notes that a woman can be relevant, fashionable and pretty but not have to get into the trouble of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan to make headlines.

She works with the Children's Miracle Network, which is the national platform of the pageant and is affiliated with Indianapolis' Riley Hospital for Children.

As the Las Vegas pageant date looms, you can find Miss Indiana substitute teaching in the Plymouth school system. The daughter of Bill and Cindy Rash, longtime LaPaz/Plymouth residents, Rash's personal platform is "breaking down language barriers."

"Miss America is so much more than just about the pageant," she says.

But don't worry boys: Rash says there will be swimsuits in the reality show.

Tune in.

The Miss America Pageant's "Reality Check" will at 10 p.m. Fridays on TLC beginning Friday. The Miss America Pageant airs at 8 p.m. Jan. 26. _________________________________________

The TLC show has an encore time of Mondays at 10 p.m.

According to http://www.missindianapageant.com/history.htm

"Barbara Mougin (Miss Plymouth) became the 1977 titleholder and then went on to tie the best-ever finish for a Miss Indiana at the Miss America Pageant with a First Runner-up placing to the new Miss America Susan Perkins of Ohio."

Not that any stats mean as much as they do in baseball, but at least Nicole's got the advantage of being from the county that's done better than any other Hoosier candidate, so she has the county's tradition going for her if nothing else.

Call me old fashioned, but I liked the days back when I was in Bloomington, when the Miss Indiana was so often a smart, funny and attractive IU coed from SouthBeachHoosier favorite, the Tri-Delt house, which I think happened twice in 4-5 years in the early '80's.

I'd be minding my own business, reading my ids, http://www.idsnews.com/news/index.aspx over breakfast of some eggs and bacon and a bagel on a Monday morning and read that yet another sorority sister of my personable and charming friends Gail Amster and Terri Kearns -the two greatest IU Redsteppers ever!-had persuaded some very discerning Midwestern judges with their impressive talents, abilities and sheer nerve to put themself on the line.

(Even though I wasn't in a fraternity myself, one year, as a personal favor to a Tri-Delt friend of mine, a wonderfully funny, smart and sweet Hoosier-by-choice -like me- named Faith "Gus" Lawler, who was then the Panhel president (head of all the presidents of the IU sororities which composed the Panhellenic Council), because Gus knew I was already giving walking tours of campus to prospective IU students for SAC (and VIP tours for others) due to my knowledge of of IU trivia and facts and "talking points," I agreed to help lead the walking tours of the fraternities as well, though to save my voice, I usually stayed outside near the sidewalk.

While living in Evanston in the mid-80's, one year I went back to Bloomington over Thansgiving to visit my younger sister -and my mom, who was visiting from Miami. It was a really great trip, only one of my best ever, since we hadn't been together since the previous Christmas.

Just as it always seemed that I spent so much of my time in the IMU while going to school there, a few days later, probably the Saturday, I swung by to purchase a couple of IU souvenirs for my apt. up in Evanston, look for some pocket IU basketball schedules over in the Biddle Hotel, plus, leave some notes underneath the office doors of SAB and SAC with my contact info, so that if they heard from anyone I knew who'd left for jobs or grad school, they'd pass it along -and vice versa.

(This was before I knew that Wendy Mulholland, my amazing Alpha Chi and IU cheerleader friend, was living in Evanston like me, and going to Kellogg.)

Anyway, while either in the cafe writing the notes or while watching something on the giant TV in the IU Trophy Room, I ran into a mutual friend of Gus and I who had some good news.

(I don't know what it's like now, but back then, the Trophy Room was one of the most popular places on campus, since the giant TV screen there was where soap operas, news and other TV shows were watched by the hundreds everyday, in between classes, as well as ballgames by those with small TVs on weekends, and seminal events, like finding out that President Reagan had been shot the day we were all psyched to play and beat North Carolina in the 1981 NCAA title game.

Not to date myself, but among the things I watched there were the "Luke & Laura" wedding on General Hospital, the series finale of M.A.S.H., North Carolina State's frentic upset over Houston in the NCAA title game, which featured so much screaming that the walls seemed to be shaking, the Orioles' clinching victory in Game 5 of the 1983 World Series over the Phillies, and many others.

I loved that room which featured old basketball and footballs lining the walls and ceiling with the scores enscribed on them, as well as IU team photos in glass cases.
My personality being what it is, I tended to know just about every inch of that room!)

This mutual friend said that the last she'd heard, Gus had moved out to L.A. after graduation for an upscale retail management program of some sort, possibly with the May Company, which I could totally believe. Someone like Gus would've been absolute catnip to them!

She was charming as could be and clever as a whip!

Though I could be wrong, I seem to think that Gus was also on what can only be called a ridiculously talented Tri-Delt flag football team, a team whose games I often saw up on the Fee Lane fields on many cool nights, who seldom came across an opponent they couldn't handle with ease.

And their lanky but quick, dark-haired QB from roughly about '80-'82, was an absolute High Definition vision of loveliness, running thru flimsy and pointless grabs for her hip flags.

At times, I could practically feel myself faint when I watched her run and outmanuver some befuddled opponents. It was like watching a Roadrunner cartoon, since they could never lay a finger on her, much like Wile E. Coyote's success rate.

What can I say? Smart, good-looking and very athletic! That was/is my type!

Why didn't I ever think to bring my camera with me?!

Wow, I could SO kick myself now, thinking about all those great shots of Gail and Terri at the IU football and basketball games, or Gus up in her office at Panhel, which I could've shot back then to help illustrate how great they were, and such absolute delights to be with.)

Back to the Miss Indiana winner, though, if I didn't recognize the name right away, and there was no photo, though there usually was, I'd write it down and make a mental note to compare it to the house photo next time I was over there.

I really loved that house, too! It was just as great inside as on the ouside.

See photos at http://www.indiana.edu/~tridelt/home.html and http://bloomingtown.blogspot.com/2007/10/homecoming-at-delta-delta-delta.html

Trust me when I tell you, it wasn't luck that it was chosen by the producers of Breaking Away ( see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078902/ and http://www.bloomingpedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Away ) to serve as the sorority house used in the famous faux Romeo & Juliet scene, when Dave serenades Katherine, was no accident.

It's absolutely gorgeous!

While two Miss Indianas from one sorority in such a short period of time might not be quite as impressive a feat as the number of MLB shortstops that have come out of the town of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic, "The Cradle of Shortstops," that's still pretty impressive.

(See Baseball Posse for some interesting background on baseball's hold on Dominican life. http://baseballposse.us/ )

Having somebody you actually knew in the national competition or a close friend who had a friend in it, gives you some sort of rooting interest, at least, and always made it easier to watch and overlook the often blah look of the telecast, other than the perennial questions.
Perennial questions? Why yes!

Would Miss Rhode Island be the palest competitor, yet again?

Would Miss New York continue to be represented by some small upstate town or a college town instead of someone from NYC?

Which college would have the most number of contestants, if not UCLA, some community college in Dallas or Missouri?

Who would go onto prominence first as a nationally known, ahem, "news" reporter or sports (sideline) reporter, Miss California or Miss Texas?

The current contestant from Florida, Kylie Jean Williams, is a 24-year old FSU grad from Jasper, east of I-75 up near the Georgia border.

The last pageant of any sort that I ever watched more than ten minutes of was the Miss Teen USA in 1999, where within ten seconds of ever seeing Miss Tennessee, Rachel Boston, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1036340/bio I knew that she had "it," that undefinable star quality that you know when you see it.

I even said it to a friend who had literally shown up a few minutes before.

My friend's exact quote in response to my eureka moment: "Whatever."

Rachel, one of my all-time favorite names, was absolutely awesome in one of my favorite cancelled TV shows of the past 10-15 years, American Dreams, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319930/ playing a wonderfully-written character who was about as realistic as you ever see on TV. I never ever missed that show.

The show's possible cancellation almost got me to the point of signing one of those crazy online petitions I always dismiss with derision whenever I hear about them.

Now I now better.

Rachel just knocked me out in my favorite episode ever -in 2005- of The Closer, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0542955/ a terrific ensemble show I've watched since episode one, and which only gets better and better each season.

No matter how many times I've seen an episode, if there's one on TV at the time, that's what I watch.

Henceforth, anything Rachel Boston is in, I'm watching.

Consider for a moment this thoughtful answer to a question posed to her in 1999: http://www.geocities.com/ehhhh_mon/Tennesse99.htm

Describe how you envision yourself in five years.
An honors graduate from Columbia University with a theater background from Julliard, with at least on Broadway play under my belt. I will probably living in a tiny apartment without air conditioning, pursuing my performing arts dream in New York City. By continuing my public speaking, I will be know as the actress who is determined to use talents for the benefit of worthy causes.

The hypothesis is thus proven!: http://alumnae.gps.edu/?page=boston

Apropos of pageants in general, I'll have a post in the future on a most remarkable woman I once knew and spent a fair amount of time with at IU, who not only was a very successful
pageant contestant, but who's continued to do some really amazing things in her community of St. Louis. It's quite a story.

See http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/miss-america/miss-america.html and http://www.missamerica.org/