On Saturday my dear wife, Carrie, and I went to see the Marshall Thundering Herd play the Florida International Golden Panthers (my FBS school #66 to see in person in my life) at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia.  I must say I am DELIGHTED that the Herd was ahead 38 to 0 at halftime.  We left at halftime.  The next morning I sang, along with my sister and my Dad, at the Brownstown Baptist Church.  It was Old Home Sunday.  We moved from Brownstown 36 years ago.  We sang and met with friends that had tears in their eyes because of the great memories we were able to bring back.  Thirty-six years on…that doesn’t happen just anywhere.  It was great to be back home.

When it comes to football, Carrie and I are at “home” at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium (The Joan) in Huntington, West Virginia.  I chronicled our journey and affinity to Huntington many posts ago.  We had driven past the exit to Huntington many times on Interstate 64 as we were hurtling toward the North Carolina coast.  We passed the exit and waved for years.  One year, I think it was 2008, we stopped by, trying desperately to extend our vacation a few more hours as we were coming home from North Carolina.

What did we find in Huntington?  We found our football home.  Like I have said before, I have seen many sports movies.  I saw We Are Marshall.  It moved me.  I enjoyed  the movie Miracle about the 1980 hockey team more.  I did not go out and buy a hockey stick.

What did we find in Huntington that July day as we were driving home?  We found a town consumed with its college football program unlike you can imagine.  At the gas station they were talking Herd football.  At a local diner they were talking Herd football.  Ironically enough, the Herd was having a season ticket selling drive and the Joan C. Edward Stadium was open that day to prospective season ticket buyers.  Carrie and I went in.  I walk down on the field and looked around.   It felt like we were at home.  In 2010 we actually had season tickets.

So far we have seen the Herd play no less than 22 games the last few years.  None of those games were as significant and meaningful as the game we saw last Saturday.

On Saturday morning, November 14, 2015, the 45th anniversary of the plane crash that killed 75 people including Marshall players, coaches, staff, boosters, and a Southern Airlines flight crew, there was a “Silencing of the Fountain” ceremony.  The fountain outside the Memorial Student Center was turned off…as is the custom on November 14th every year.  I can tell you that when I watched the water cease to flow…my heart hit the bottom of my feet.  It was a humbling experience.

Stephen Ward, whose father, Parker Ward, was on the plane that crashed 45 years ago spoke to a large, solemn gathering.  His words were hopeful.  His words were from the heart. Anyone that was there understood heart.

Coach Doc Holliday addressed the crown with an emotional tone.

Roses were placed next to the silenced fountain.  One for each of the crash victims as their names were called.

This picture is in the Memorial Student Center.

It was a beautiful day for football on Saturday.

The Herd wore their customary block “M” on one side of their helmets and the number “75” was on the other side of their helmets in honor of crash victims.

The Herd beat FIU 52 to 0.  Carrie and I enjoyed that.

We will be in Bowling Green for the game against Western Kentucky that will decide the C-USA East and a place in the C-USA title game.    Go Herd!

We were drawn to Marshall for good reasons.  The love of football.  The love of good people. The desire to pull in the same direction.  Is there a special element that is both spiritual and tangible?  I think so.  I think it was meant to be.  There are other campuses…and alma maters for that matter…that are closer to us.  But for college football for Carrie and me, there is nowhere closer to our hearts than Huntington.  It was meant to be.  And I am not sure why.

The fountain will flow again come spring.

Go Herd!

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Firstly…prayers go out to the folks in Paris and France after the tragedy that struck them last night.  I hate it.  But…I don’t know why we should be shocked.  There are bad guys everywhere.  There are bad guys in every town.  Given how the the world has been made a bit smaller with all of our social media…with the easy ability to broadcast anything anywhere…why should we be shocked at an attack?  Now I feel even more handcuffed as I try to learn about events from media outlets that are partly informative and large partly political windmills. Hard to know what to believe.  Where have you gone Walter Cronkite?

Last week my college football picks we awful.  7 winners and 6 losers. The season total is at 95 winners and 40 losers.

I write this post this morning from Huntington, WV.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I are in town today to watch the Marshall Thundering Herd take on the Florida International Panthers.  It is also the 45th anniversary of the Marshall Football plane crash that took the lives of 75 players, coaches, staff, boosters, and flight crew.  They will turn the fountain off on campus at 10 this morning, as is the custom.  It will be turned back on in the spring.  After the game, Carrie and I are driving back home and tomorrow morning I, along with my Dad and my sister, will be singing at the Brownstown Baptist Church.  A bit of an “Old Home Week” celebration that is going on for a month at the church as they celebrate their 20th year in their “new” facility after the old church burned down.

Florida beats South Carolina…Coach Spurrier is gone and he was not going to get beat by Kentucky and Florida in the same season.

Georgia beats Auburn…I may miss this one.

Tennessee beats North Texas…the tuba player better be in shape because there will be a great deal of “Rocky Top” being played today.

Ohio State beats Illinois…this is not the year of the Illini.  I wish it was. I want the Buckeyes to roast.

Northwestern beats Purdue…PU is better.  Northwestern having a stellar season.

Texas beats West Virginia…just can’t pick the Eers to win this one. Coach Strong has his team stronger.

Louisville beats Virginia…Cardinal football never looked better.

Marshall beats FIU…an emotional game that hopefully won’t take the legs out of the Herd.  Could be close.

Michigan beats Indiana…my dear friend Adam and his son are going to be my correspondents for this one.  Hoosiers lose their 6th in a row.  It is 1985 all over again.

Iowa beats Minnesota…Do the Hawkeyes still do the hokey-pokey after a win?  They did with Coach Hayden Fry…he told me so.

I would make a call on the LSU-Arkansas game.  I refuse.  This game is supposed to be played the Friday after Thanksgiving and it was rescheduled for bad reasons I am sure.  Another college football holiday tradition down.

Have a great weekend.

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

The Chargers are playing the Bears on ESPN’s Monday Night Football as I write.  Why?  Cos there is very little on television that interests me and watching Monday Night Football is what I do.

The best thing about MNF to me these days is the show’s opening.  At the beginning of the broadcast there is a montage of ABC’s Monday Night Football highlights from the past.  I can relive the night in 1978 that my Dad let me stay up to watch the Oilers, led by rookie sensation Earl Campbell, beat the Dolphins.  There are other great moments that are on display and I enjoy them.  That is the best part of the broadcast for me.  Monday Night games don’t hold the star power they once did.  MNF was, once upon a time, the most coveted piece of real estate in prime time television.  I don’t doubt that it still does well with its ratings.  I just know it used to win the ratings game.

The biggest problem is Sunday Night Football on NBC.  For whatever reason, that time and place has turned into the must-see NFL game of the week.  I think it may be an attention span issue.  That is a problem these days…attention span.  You can’t count on the masses hanging with you past Sunday.   Oh well.  I sound old.  I’m not.  I am a realist.

Many posts ago I railed about how I sang the national anthem at Banker’s Life Field-house in Indianapolis before a high school game there.  My rendition went over well and I was asked to come back to the place and sing the song again.  I was honored.  Then, a few days later, I was told I would be expected (as part of the deal) to sell tickets at a discount price in exchange for my pipes singing the song.  I was not happy.  I told them where they could stick their idea.

I wanted to do that again tonight…and every night I watch Monday Night Football.  With Veterans Day coming on Wednesday, I was even a little more miffed to hear the ESPN announcer say, after the singing of the National Anthem by a young lady in the military, that ESPN’s presentation of the National Anthem was brought to all of us by an insurance company.  Translation: If someone was not paying ESPN to show the singing of the Star Spangled Banner on television, the network would be showing a beer commercial instead.  That is pretty lousy.  Maybe that is one reason I have lost some of my interest in Monday Night Football.  In fact, the only time this season I have watched an entire game was the last time the New York Giants were on…and it was a nasty game for G-men.

I sure felt badly for Peyton Manning yesterday.  He brought his Denver Broncos to the stadium he built and proceeded to play in a game that resulted in the first defeat of the season for his team and the most unlikely of victories for the team that used to be his team.  Even when he was wearing the Horseshoe,  he suffered some improbable and disappointing defeats.  Some things never change.

This morning I went out to get the paper and there was a great deal of frost on my car.  I usually go out to grab the paper at about 5:20 in the morning.  I thought I was gonna freeze this morning…but man was the sky ever so clear and the stars lit the place up like they are supposed to.  Later in the day clouds took over.  The rain came.  Later today I learned that today was the coldest day, as far as high temperature goes, since last March.

Stay warm and…speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

Tough weekend… this one is.  Great weekend…. this one is.

Tough:  Tomorrow the North Harrison Cougars won’t be playing tomorrow night.  That makes me sad.

Great:  On Saturday I meet up with my old cronies and we will play the Corner King Classic Golf Match.

On to this week’s College Football picks.

Duke beats North Carolina…Duke got snookered last week against Miami.   Refs lost it for them, really.

Georgia beats Kentucky…the natural order of things.

Northwestern beats Penn State…Not feeling good about this one.  If it was at Penn State, I would pick them by 20.

Pitt beats Notre Dame…The Irish are due a loss.  They are good…but they are not that good.  A turnover or two will hinder the Domers.

Texas Tech beats West Virginia…a many a couch has survived this year in West Virginia.  The ‘Eers are struggling.  Hope they don’t go after Doc Holliday.

Marshall beats Middle Tennessee…Might be trouble.  Herd does not play well on the road.

Louisville beats Syracuse…Old school ACC folks wondering why U of L is in the ACC?

Ole Miss beats Arkansas…Revenge is an overused word.  It fits here.  The Hogs deflated the Rebs last year 30 to nothing.  Hotty Toddy!

Iowa beats Indiana…I think.  The Hoosiers might find their day in the sun with this one.  If they can stop Iowa’s run…I don’t think they can…it might be sunny in Bloomington.

Michigan State beats Nebraska…The Cornfolks need a win in a bad way.  They won’t get it here.

UCLA beats Oregon State…Go Bruins.  You need a win.

Alabama beats LSU:  If the Tide beats LSU and the Rebels lose one more in conference, the Tide will go on to win a National Championship.  Yes, I really do believe that.

Ohio State beats Minnesota…I sure hope I am wrong.

The season record so far is 88 winners and 34 losers.

Have a good weekend and don’t forget to…

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

Today I did a bit of purging.  I got rid of some stuff.  Some of it was not easy to part with, I can tell you.  But…it needed to be done.  There is a time to move on in some cases.

I have a new job.  I kept some things from my old situation and I just came to the realization that I did not need to hold on to some of the “stuff” I still had from my old job any longer.  It could…and needed….to be gone.

In the process, I found a piece of writing that I did and I want to share it with you now.

As was the custom with much of my English teaching, I worked right along with my students.  If I assigned a writing task, I took it up right with them.  On occasion, some writing assignments were layered with multiple purpose.  Two years ago I assigned an essay that was to be themed around “Thanksgiving”.   What follows is my essay that I wrote right along with the students I made the assignment for.  The goal was to get them to write about what they were thankful for and to share it with someone close to them.  I thought I read this to some folks close to me.  That was my intent.  After asking my dear wife, Carrie, about it, I realize I had not shared it like I intended to.  I am doing exactly that right now.  I hope you enjoy it.  I certainly enjoyed writing it and reading it to my students in 2013.

Thanksgiving

With each passing year I find I have more and more to be thankful for.  I’m thankful for the past.  I am thankful for the present.  I am thankful for the future.

I have been hanging around this orb for over forty-five years.  When I look in the rear-view mirror of my life, I see a great deal to be thankful for.  I am thankful for my family.  I am thankful for the many wonderful friendships I have found, made, or in time just plain cultivated.  Many of my family members and friends are no longer around to hear me say thank you.  I hope and pray there is a way they know.

I am thankful for the present.  As difficult as the day to day may be sometimes, I am still thankful for where we are in the here and now.  I have learned so much and have seen more places in recent times than I ever imagined possible.  Thanks to the information age we live in.  I can see moving pictures and get glimpses of cultures all over the world that were once just pages from the reference section of the library or points on a map.  I am also thankful for those around me these days.  I have had the good fortune to be surrounded by great people both young and old on a daily basis.  It is doubtful that I deserve to be so blessed in this regard.

I am thankful for the future.  This doesn’t just include things I have circled on a calendar in the very near future.  I am also thankful for the days, challenges, victories, and laughs that are ahead.  Though I know the future will also render some sorrowful goodbyes eventually, there will also be a time for beginnings that we will celebrate.  Whether it is a new friendship or a new job (when I read this to my students I substituted the word job with “challenges”…I did not want them to think I was leaving) or a new reason that is yet unfathomable.  I look forward to more of the goodness, trials, and the beauty this life has to offer.  For all of these things, I thank God very much.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Watching Game 3 of the World Series.

Watched North Harrison High School’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet tonight.

IT IS LATE….9th  inning of the World Series game.

Here are my pick for tomorrow’s college football action.

Penn State beat Illinois.

Nebraska beat Purdue

Ole Miss beats Auburn

Cincinnati beats USF

Western Kentucky beats Old Dominion

UCLA beats Colorado

Duke beats Miami

Tennessee beats Kentucky

Georgia beats Florida

Iowa beats Maryland

The good news?  Indiana won’t lose.  They don’t play!

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

In 1978 a guy named Jeff Wayne rang up Justin Hayward and asked of he was the guy who sang Nights in White Satin.  To hear Justin tell the story he says a guy “called” Jeff Wayne.  You are not named something you are called something.  It’s the English way.  Kind of cool to listen to him tell it.

Anyway, a guy called Jeff Wayne asked Justin if he would sing a song on an album he was producing.  It was a musical version of H.G. Wells “War of the Worlds”.  At first Justin dismissed the thought.  Justin was a guy that sang his own stuff.  Jeff Wayne had a song ready made for him to come in the studio and sing and be on his way.  Finally, after some coercing from a guy that worked for the Moody Blues, Justin said yes.  He then went on to record a song called “Forever Autumn”.  It was a hit all over the world, with exception of the USA.  I did hear it on WHAS 84 one late night with Joe Donovan.  That was a very long time ago.  84 WHAS has not spun a record in, well, I would hate to say just how long.  But I did hear Justin Hayward sing Forever Autumn on “84” that night.  Justin is glad he recorded it and so am I.  I heard him sing it St. Louis in September.

I don’t want this autumn to end.  In my mind and in my heart, I don’t think it will.  I have a new sense of ease that has calmed some of my world down.  This I attribute to not having to drive two hours and more to work and back every day.  That…and it seems this new situation has help me put behind some axes I buried a long time ago for things that seem like a distant memory now.

I got to enjoy football season at North Harrison again.  I had not done that in a very long time.  That will always be a part of this Forever Autumn for me.  I got the chance to go back to high school games with my Dad and have fun doing it.  I thought that day would never come back. We both enjoyed this high school football season.   The North Harrison Cougars were bested last Friday by a tough Southridge Raiders team.  It hurt.  It still does.  I miss the anticipation that you feel on a Wednesday leading up to the game on Friday.  That is what happens when you spent as much time around the game as I did growing up.

The season is over.  Nine wins and one defeat.  A season to remember.

So many times this year I have thought about the James Wright poem Autumn Begins in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio.  The Pulitzer winning poet brings forth a work that captures the essence of high school football better than any piece of literary work short or long ever did.  It is about wanting to hold on to Autumn.  But we know we can’t…not physically.  We see this:

and this…

We know the winter will soon follow.  I know that fall does not officially end until the second half of December.  Don’t tell me that.  High School football season is about over.  The College Football Season has another month left.  The leaves are falling and the frosty mornings are next.

But for me, this one particular fall, this Autumn of 2015 will live on livelier than most in my head and in my heart.  I will remember this fall.  And like the song suggests…”my life will be forever Autumn…”  At least the memory of 2015 will be.

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

I recently shared my post about Dr. Millard Dunn with the man himself.  It was good to hear from him.  It always is.  He is a great guy.  He told me he was both humbled and frightened that I knew so much about him.  What a compliment.

It really was great to hear from him.  I miss him.

My College Football Predictions for Week #8 were good ones.  14 winners and 2 losers.  The ones I lost were Auburn losing to Arkansas in 4 OTs and I FINALLY picked Utah to win and they lost.

The season total is 81 winners and 31 losers.  I feel better now.

Right now I am watching Monday Night Football.  Every single time I tune into Monday Night Football I have good memories.  In 1978, when I was 10, my Dad let me watch Monday Night Football past halftime.  That night Earl Campbell led the Oilers over the Miami Dolphins.  Earl was a rookie that year.

I also think about Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Dan Dierdorf.  They were my favorite Monday Night Football announcers.

The North Harrison Cougars ended their season Friday night.  They were bested by the Southridge Raiders by a score of 28 to 21.  I was sad to see the season end.  9 wins and 1 loss for the best season in North history.  I am so glad I was there to witness this season.

I am also glad that I witnessed the North Harrison Theatre Department’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet.  It was fantastic.  I saw it on Sunday afternoon.  I will be going again this weekend.

Have a great week and…

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Stop the hour-glass.  Week 8 means we over halfway through the college football regular season for even most that had a bye week.  This makes me sad Paw.

When Goldie Hawn took over as coach of the Central Wildcats in the 1986 movie Wildcats and started winning games, the principal of the school played by Nipsey Russell said…            “I must be dreaming…”    I feel this way.  The football team at the high school I attended and played football for and my Dad coached at for seven years is undefeated and heading into the playoffs with a 9-0 record.  I must be dreaming.  The best thing is there is not a real knucklehead in the bunch.  I am quite proud of Coach Williamson and his squad.

Onto this week’s picks.  Well, first…I need to acknowledge my implosion of last week.  I picked 8 winners and 6 losers.  I did pick Michigan State and their miracle finish saved me from finishing .500 and eating it more. For the season we have 67 winners and 29 losers.  Should be better than that.

This week:

Auburn beats Arkansas…The Tigers need another victory.  The Razorbacks need one worse.  The pucker factor will hit the Hogs in a close one.

Clemson beats Miami…The Tigers from Clemson are having a great season.  The Canes won’t move them.

Northwestern beats Nebraska…Tough call.  This one is in Lincoln and the Cornfolk rarely lose there. The Wildcats still have hope for a great bowl game.  This game keeps them there.

Southern Miss beats Charlotte… Charlotte?  I didn’t even know they still had a team…(line from baseball movie Major League)

Louisville beats Boston College…A football game will be a welcome respite on campus this week.

Duke beats Virginia Tech… Last week was a good time to be idle for a Duke team that made it into the Top 25 and avoided a fart the following week.  Coach Cut will keep them together and they will find a way to beat the Hokies in a close one.

Michigan State beats Indiana…College Football’s little engine that could just can’t…sad to say.

Marshall beats North Texas…Homecoming at The Joan will be fun.

Penn State beats Maryland… Is this really a Big Ten game?

Alabama beats Tennessee…and I said it hear…The Tide will Roll through the last College Football Game if the season.  Yes, that is what I mean.

North Carolina beats Virginia…I wish it were the other way.

Swissconsin beats Illinois…pretty badly I would say.

Ole Miss beats Texas A&M….To save a great season, the Rebs need this home game.  The place will be wild for the evening kickoff.

LSU beats Western Kentucky….Too much defensive backfield for the pass happy Hilltoppers to deal with.

Mississippi State beats Kentucky…The Cowbell ringeth.

Utah beats USC…I have picked against them too much.  The Utes will win.

Have a great weekend and…

Speak the Rights!

Danny Johnson

Carrie, my dear wife, and I were in Wilmington, North Carolina last week.  Each and every time I venture to New Hanover County, I think of Millard Dunn.  That was just the first time I have ever referenced him as Millard in anything that measured more or less as casual discourse.  Heck…maybe ever.  Today, it just came out.

I owe my career in great part to Millard Dunn.  Dr. Millard Dunn, that is.

I don’t know what day Dr. Dunn was declared such.  I am sure there was a ceremony of sorts.  A commencement to celebrate the event was due.  I hope there was some sort of celebration that Millard had the chance to bask in.  I know I had my day in the sun when I graduated from college thanks to him.  I went through commencement that May day.  It was a special day.  When I was not thinking about myself and my family, I was thinking about Millard Dunn.  Last September I chronicled how and why he was and is so important to me.  I was back on campus for a meeting of a professional nature that day.  Again, I was thanking Millard Dunn for seeing me through college.  He made sense of what I was doing when many others on campus were not making any sense to me whatsoever.  That experience may be exactly what we all need.  Sure there are the chestnuts that roast about why on earth I am made to take another algebra class in college…especially when I did so poorly at it in high school and had not been asked about x over y plus seven since the last time I had last seen an algebra book. Still, know that I had that factoring thing down.  So much so that I had this conversation with Millard about it one day.  He said it like no one else ever could or ever has before:

Me:  I was hearing this conversation about factoring between some of my classmates and I actually knew what they were talking about more than they did.

Millard:  And what did you do about it.

Me:  Well, I went over and asked them what the problem was.

Millard:  That was a good start.  What else?  (Millard could forever pepper you with yet another question that was an end to means of accountability)

Me:  I looked at it.

Millard:  What did you do then?

Me:  I started to explain the process.

Millard:  Did that work out for you or them?

Me:  Well, give me a minute.  (I could forever give it back to him) What I did was grab a piece of chalk and I went to the board (the chalkboard age…Millard was an artist at the chalk board).  I wrote out the problem.  I felt like John Madden up there. Chalk flying as I made the point and helped them to realize the answer.  To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what I was doing there myself.  It was the darndest thing.  I don’t know what I was doing.

Millard:  (He said something I never thought I would hear.  They were words that gave me the confidence to do anything.)  I know what you were doing.  What you were doing was teaching algebra and it sounds to me as though you were doing it effectively.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.  I had arrived.  If I could teach algebra…anything was possible.  Anything is possible.

So I thought about Millard last week while Carrie and I were in Wilmington. Wilmington, NC  is where Millard went to high school.  He headed up I-40 on scholarship to finish (that is what they say in the south about one who graduates from the school…they “finish”) at Duke University.  He was declared my Dr. Dunn by way of Indiana University.

Millard is a gifted poet.  I hope one day the rest of the world knows what I know about his poetry.

His Chapbook Engraved On Air was a winner at the Kentucky Writers Conference in 1983.

I have a copy.

I also have a copy of Places We Could Never Find Alone from 2011.  I love this collection.  In it I can hear the Millard I knew…I know.  Find a copy if you can…thank me later.

And I have a copy of a book of poems he would later refer to as “vanity publishing”.  An ambitious Duke sophomore found a way to get a collection of his poems published and bound in a nice book.  This was 1960.  Nearly forty years later, Millard spoke of it with a wistful tone.  It was a tone of a poet knowing his voice had not been cultivated in 1960. He was seemingly apologetic.  Ever the teacher…he gave me a lesson to fulfill with regard to this work.  I have never stopped thanking him.

Foothills was published in 1960.

I want to believe that is a view down a corridor of Duke Chapel.  I have seen it.  It is beautiful.

The following are pictures of Millard.  One from the jacket of Foothills and the other from Places We Can Never Find Alone.

I am fortunate to say I feel like I know both of these guys.  I am a blessed man.

Speaking the Millard Rights…

Danny Johnson…oops…for Millard, I best say Dan Johnson.