It’s been over two decades since Bo Jackson made history by becoming the first and still the only athlete in American professional sports to be an All-Star in both Major League Baseball and professional football. The famous “Bo Knows” ad campaign fascinated the country, and Jackson’s exploits for the Kansas City Royals and (then) LA Raiders became the stuff of legend for a while. Perhaps his most famous baseball play was a throw he made from the warning track to home plate on the fly, throwing out the speedy Harold Reynolds. Reynolds had taken off from first on the pitch,…
Author: Ron Wynn
Bob Cousy was the forerunner for today’s generation of explosive and flamboyant point guards. He joined the Boston Celtics from Holy Cross College in 1950, and quickly established himself as a star. Cousy played 13 seasons and was an All-Star every year. But for the first six years of his career the Celtics were never able to win a championship. Things changed dramatically when Bill Russell arrived in 1956. To the outside world Cousy and Russell were the perfect duo. One was an offensive wizard, the other a defensive genius. They would team for six championships over Cousy’s final seven…
By Ron Wynn The Tennessee Titans fast start disappeared under an offensive surge by the Houston Texans Monday night as they dropped their second straight AFC South road game 34-17. The Titans’ record dipped to 2-2 in the division, and 5-6 on the season. Though four of the five remaining games are at Nissan Stadium, the team faces the task of winning out to have even a decent shot at the playoffs, as taking four of five and a 9-7 record probably won’t be good enough. The Texans continued their record streak, improving to 8-3, and becoming the first NFL…
Former (soon) Pittsburgh star running back Le’Von Bell is taking the ultimate gamble on his skill and marketability, and what happens may or may not mark a significant turn in terms of how the NFL values running backs, and what it’s willing to pay them. Bell announced last week that he would not be reporting to the Steelers this season. He is going to take the complete year off in order to become an unrestricted free agent, able to pursue what has been both his goal and that of his agent since this quest began last summer: becoming the NFL’s…
No one knows better than a former player the dangers playing football presents. So when Slade Norris, who spent four years in the NFL and played for the Raiders, Seahawks, Jaguars and Lions during an overall 17-year tenure in the sport, talks about concussions he has a perspective that can’t be readily duplicated and shouldn’t be ignored. “I never had a diagnosed concussion during my playing days and due to that I never considered it a problem,” Norris told me during a recent e-mail interview. There were plays when I would hit someone and be stunned for an instant, but…
No network has a bigger sports presence than ESPN. Conversely, no outlet finds itself in more thorny situations because ESPN wants to be both a journalistic center and a partner with various sports networks. That raises perennial conflict-of-interest problems, because inevitably something will happen that requires a more objective, potentially embarrassing approach than a league would prefer, or a commentator or guest will say something on air, in print or online that can be easily create a controversy. The latter happened last week when longtime Democratic Party strategist and rabid LSU sports fan James Carville was a guest on ESPN’s…
Wyomia Tyus is among a special group of women athletes. They were and are the Tennessee State Tigerbelles. Under the leadership of longtime coach Ed Temple, these women were pioneering champions decades before there was any such legislation as Title IX. They excelled in an era when women’s sports in general got scant coverage, and the achievements of Black women athletes even less attention. A lot of HBCUs didn’t even have women’s teams, or for that matter sufficient track facilities period, when Ed Temple began building one of the greatest sports legacies in college sports history. Over a 44-year-period Temple…
NASHVILLE, TN — Nashville doesn’t have a Major League Baseball team, but there’s still a strong hometown feel to the upcoming World Series that began Tuesday night. That’s because the Boston Red Sox have two key players on their roster with definite Middle Tennessee roots who still spend a lot of time in the area during the offseason. Those players are right fielder Mookie Betts and starting pitcher David Price. Both will be central figures as the Red Sox try to cap a remarkable season that’s seen them win 108 games in the regular season, then dismantle the Yankees in…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — No track coach on any campus in this nation ever matched the record set by the legendary Ed Temple and his amazing Tennessee State Tigerbelles squads. Under his leadership, TSU had some 40 athletes achieve national glory, many of them winning not only NCAA medals and notoriety, but Olympic medals as well. In addition, Temple would attain international recognition as a coach, later serving on the coaching staffs of both Pan American and Olympic teams. Finally there’s now a film available about Temple’s exploits and it’s coming to town this week at the Main…
Expectations in professional sports for coaches and managers are often ridiculously high, but in the case of Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts, they may be at the absurd level. Roberts, whose team at press tine was tied 1-1 with the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, is essentially operating without a contract. His option has not yet been picked up for 2019, and there is not only talk that if the Dodgers don’t win the World Series he’s out, it’s been said on both ESPN and Fox Sports by broadcasters who are reportedly knowledgeable about the situation.…