NASHVILLE, TN — The Tennessee Vols head to Athens, Georgia Saturday for a showdown with the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs. Both teams will enter the game undefeated, and Georgia has been at the top of the polls for much of the season. Tennessee will enter the contest ranked either second or third, depending on which poll you choose. But should Tennessee defeat Georgia, they will be the consensus number one. Both teams come in off big victories. Georgia rolled over Florida 42-20, while Tennessee had an ever easier time with 177th ranked Kentucky, defeating them 44-6. They scored early and often…
Author: Ron Wynn
An old issue got a boost from a new and unexpected source last week. At at the latest NFL meetings, some new voices were heard, and they weren’t the usual speakers. Instead four of the NFL’s top white head coaches spoke directly to the owners, urging them to stop excluding worthy Black candidates from the head coaching ranks. John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens, Pete Carroll from the Seattle Seahawks, Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs and and Frank Reich of the Indianapolis Colts didn’t hold back in their statements to owners about the importance of hiring Black coaches…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — It took several years to return, but finally the reworked, updated version of “The Game” debuted last year on the CBS streaming service Paramount +. It didn’t take nearly as long for the decision to be made on renewing it. Paramount + announced last week that a premiere date had been set for the second season. It will begin December 15. Paramount + released this description, saying “The Game” offers a modern-day examination of Black culture through the prism of pro football. The team tackles racism, sexism, classism and more as they fight for…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — The Tennessee State Tigers are now playing their best football of the season and hope to keep things rolling Saturday against Eastern Illinois. That will be their OVC home opener, and seventh game of the year. Things look much brighter in the wake of their second straight victory, a 30-14 romp over Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. Head coach Eddie George had told fans his team would be much better once it got some of its top players back from injury. That’s proven the case as starting QB Draylen Ellis has been at the helm…
It’s no secret that there are many in the HBCU ranks who are at best indifferent and at worse openly hostile to Jackson State Head Football Coach Deion Sanders. There were many who thought when he took over the program he would be more PR flash than substantive coach, someone who would keep the focus squarely on himself while doing very little for either Jackson State or HBCU football. Well that assumption has been thoroughly disproved. With Saturday’s 48-6 romp over Bethune-Cookman, Sanders’ JSU team is 6-0, 4-0 in the SWAC, and squarely in line to win another SWAC title.…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Now that they’ve finished their latest run through top ranked SEC programs, the Vanderbilt Commodores are anxious to turn their attention towards a team that they at least have a reasonable chance of beating. No one expected them to do much against number one ranked Georgia, and they didn’t. The Commodores were overwhelmed 55-0 in a game that was over at halftime. Georgia was ahead 28-0 and they nearly duplicated that in the second half, winning the final 30 minutes 27-0. The Bulldogs finished with 579 yards of total offense. So Vanderbilt has now…
NASHVILLE, TN — Henry Mancini wrote many of the greatest themes in film and television history. A winner of four Oscars and 20 Grammys, Mancini created music that made good films and television shows better and great ones unforgettable. His career covered more than four decades, and also extended into records and radio. Mancini’s TV hits included “Mr. Lucky,” the “NBC Mystery Movie” theme, signature tunes for “Newhart” and “Remington Steele,” and the score for the wildly popular 1980s miniseries “The Thorn Birds.” He died of cancer in 1994. Several of the nation’s premier jazz and soundtrack musicians gathered…
Anyone who grew up following the NBA in the 60s and 70s barely recognizes today’s edition. A league that once had its championship games shown on tape-delay and didn’t even have regular season contests televised until late in the season is now a major part of the celebrity entertainment culture. A new television deal next season is expected to add even more billions of dollars to its coffers, and the league has a global presence in addition to its own 24/7 network, and team deals with a host of cable networks in various cities. Expansion franchises are coming soon in…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — The Vanderbilt Commodores and Tennessee Volunteers each face one of the nation’s top teams this coming weekend, and they’re coming into these games coming off very different results. Vanderbilt, which encouraged by its first half performance against ninth ranked Ole Miss, still has to be discouraged about the second half collapse and ultimate 52-28 wipeout at home. Tennessee is sure to advance in the rankings as they routed number 25 LSU 40-13 in Baton Rouge. The SEC losing streak has increased to 23 for the Commodores, who now head to Georgia for their game…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Charles Fuller, one of America’s greatest playwrights and a Pulitzer Prize winner, passed Oct. 3 at 83. He was a Philadelphia native and army veteran whose plays sought to portray Black Americans authentically as multidimensional, complex characters rather than restrict them to stereotypical roles and in cliched stories. His works often highlighted uncomfortable truths about racism in the US and were written with mainly Black audiences in mind. For “A Soldier’s Play,” which highlights tensions between Black servicemen on a segregated army base, Fuller was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in drama and, nearly 40…