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.

This is post #200 on speaktherights.com.

It all started July 2014.  Carrie, my dear wife, said it would be a good thing for me to do.  She is usually right.  This time she was spot on.

I do enjoy writing.  I suppose it comes easier to me than most.  The thing is, and you may have noticed in our pictures, my head is much larger than Carrie’s or most others I come across. I have stuff in my head that just needs to get out!  My hat size in a comfortable 7 and 7/8.  I like to wear them a little loose.  In fact, I really don’t like wearing hats at all.  Not my style.  My Dad loves to wear hats.  If I get a hat, I pass it on to him.  I will say there are a few I have a penchant for wearing.  I won’t mention them, in fear I might hurt a feeling or two of ones that have bestowed upon me a hat thinking I would wear it.  I will say to my financial adviser, I LOVE the hat you gave me.

Post 200.  I must be dreaming.

What have we talked about?  Football.  Politics.  Social Issues.  Literature.  Music.  A great deal of music.  Family.  Faith.  Nature.  Travel.  Schools. Movies.  Influences.  History.  I suppose it is a case of whatever goes.

I don’t live a glamorous life.  I do, however, feel I live an interesting life.  I am fortunate to be able to share sights and written sounds of places I have been and things I have experienced.  I am blessed in that regard.  Rhode Island is the only State I have yet to visit east of the Mississippi River.  Maybe next summer.

Post 200.  How can it be?  What took you so long?  That is probably a question I know a few folks are asking.  They figured it would have been here a long time ago.  The truth is, when I started the wheels in motion of getting a new job last Spring, I cut back my speaktherights.com volume a great deal.  When I got my new job, I found myself engrossed with learning the ins and outs of it.  I didn’t have time to write as much as I once did.  I missed not posting more.  I enjoyed getting to know my new job even more.

I am blessed to know that there are some folks all over the map that look in on and follow speaktherights.com.  I have had fun with it.  I really have.  Never once did I sit down to write something out of obligation.  I wanted to write more on several occasions!

Let me convey to you a story right now.

I love my wedding band.  It was put on my finger on February 10, 1996 at Hancock Chapel Untied Methodist Church in Northwest Harrison County, Indiana.  This coming February it will have been placed there twenty years ago.  I cherish that.  I plan on it being there and having Carrie there along with it for many decades to come.

I thought I lost this ring on Saturday morning, October 17th.

Carrie and I spent the most wonderful week on Topsail Island. NC this past week.  The weather was perfect.  The food was great.  We did not run into a single knucklehead on our travels.  There was a group of three folks on Topsail Beach Point that were most likely from New Jersey.  They talked louder than anyone in North Carolina and they said nothing as they spoke.  We forgave them.  A lesson to learn here…when we travel up to the Northeast… New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont…folks fall in love with my southern accent.  Understand my parents are both originally from Mississippi and I, for whatever reason, have acquired a Southern tone of my one.  The folks up North tell me how lovely my accent is.  I am here to tell you…no one tells a Norther person how lovely their accent is.

Back to my lost ring.

Though we planned to stay until Saturday morning on the coast, I told Carrie it made plenty sense to me to head up to Raleigh on Friday evening and get a head start on the drive home. Look, we always hate to leave the coast.  That day was even tougher for some reason.  All we were going to do was go to sleep, get up, and make a long drive.  I proposed we make the drive shorter.  We did.

We spent the night near the RDU airport outside Raleigh.  Planes flew over our room and they were loud.  I loved it.  I watched football on the TV as I fell asleep.

Saturday morning we planned to drive to Cross Lanes, WV to stop for the night on the way home.

I opted not to get any coffee at the hotel we just left in hopes of finding a Starbucks up the road.  It was about 8 AM at this point.  We drove up the road about 12 miles and I indeed did find a Starbucks and it was BUSY.  It was much too busy for me to wait on a cup of coffee.  There must have been twenty people ahead of me.  I looked at Carrie and told her I was not going to wait that long for coffee.

As we were pulling out the parking lot to head back up the road, I noticed my wedding band was missing from my left hand and I went into implosion mode.  I opened the back hatch of the Ford Edge and looked through stuff I had put in the car when we loaded it at the hotel.  I walked over to our original parking spot at Starbucks.  I looked.  I found nothing.  I panicked.  I got in the car and raced back to the hotel to look.  We retraced every step.  We got a key to get back into our room.  We looked and literally turned the place upside down.  We were there for at least an hour.  We went up and down the stairwell we traveled.  We looked everywhere we had been.  Nothing.

We went back out into the parking lot and looked some more.  It was twenty minutes into this looking that I resigned myself to try to believe that I would never see my wedding band again.

Carrie and I drive in silence, the occasional tear rolling down my cheek, back to Starbucks a few miles up the road.  I made my way into the store to ask if anyone had found a ring.  Carrie went over to the spot where we had parked and was looking around the cars that were now parked there.  A nice lady came to Carrie and asked if she was looking for anything.  Carrie told her she was looking for my wedding band.  The lady held the ring up with two fingers and she too seemed overwhelmed that she had found the rightful owner of a ring of the obvious significance this one seemed to have.  If only she really knew.

Before I got into the store I noticed Carrie talking to these people and I thought I saw a ring in Carrie’s hand.  I walked toward them.  Not much was said.  I was numb.  It was my ring.  The couple had stayed to fight the line and get coffee and get something to eat.  They also did not want to leave the premises yet because they wanted to find the owner of the ring.  I’d say we showed up just in time.

The thing is, I was a bit larger when I got married.  I wear my college class ring on my right middle finger now and my wedding band, I have tried a couple of jewelry store aids, is very loose on my ring finger.  I assure you, I plan to get it sized now.

I am blessed again.  I would have been in a bad mood for month had I lost this ring.

I want to share a few more images of our trip to Topsail.

On Friday, we witnessed the release of a sea turtle that had been nursed to health by the folks at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital in Surf City, NC.  We have been friends of this place for a long time.  On Thursday we went to the turtle hospital to visit.  On Friday, we saw one of the patients go back home.

This was Bristol at the Turtle Hospital on Thursday.

This was Bristol about to be released into the Atlantic Ocean on Friday.  I think it was ready to go.

Have a good life, Bristol.

Speak the rights…

Danny Johnson

My dear wife, Carrie, and I have spent more days away from home at the location we are than any other place.  Today was the nicest day we have ever known here.  We are in North Carolina on a place called Topsail Island.

The day has been clear.  The temperature is great.  The humidity nonexistent.  You  can see for miles.  Not only that, it made for some nice pictures today too.

This is part of yesterday’s shell collection.

The sun rise this morning.

My heroes.  Men on a shrimp boat.

Carl enjoying some sun.

This helicopter from nearby Camp Lejeune.  Jarrett told me the model of this thing.  It is a CH-47 or something like that.  Sorry guys.

A boat dock on the sound side of the island where we ate lunch today.

Now on to the College Football Picks:

Marshall beats FAU…and continues CUSA dominance.

Iowa beat Northwestern…My Hawkeye love knows no limits.  This proves it.

Indiana beats Rutgers…The sore thumb of the Big Ten learns a lesson.

LSU beats Florida…the Tiger run game is too much.

Michigan State beats Michigan…the Harbaugh lovefest will lose a tire this weekend.

South Carolina beats Vandy…Win one for the Spurrier?  No…he is g-a-w-n…gone.

Ole Miss beats Memphis…and it might be a tussle.

Notre Dame beats USC…shouldn’t they be playing this one in November?

Kentucky beats Auburn…that is right UK over Auburn.  First Thursday game in Lexington since 1937.  Parking will be a mess.

UCLA beats Stanford…the Bruins need this one to stay in the PAC 12 race.

Swissconsin beats Purdue…ugly.

Florida State beats Louisville…the ‘Noles have the advantage here.

Penn State will beat Ohio State…a well-disciplined team will bring down the Buckeyes and we won’t be hearing much about them anymore after this Saturday.  The Nittany Lions were not as lucky in 1994 when Indiana played them close.  It cost them a national championship.

Arizona State beats Utah…call me crazy.

Virginia Tech beats Miami…With Spurrier gone, Beamer is the truest of elder statesman.  his team will respond this week.

Alabama beats Texas A&M…The Tide is still has all the marbles to play for.  Watch out for them.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Last night my dear wife, Carrie, and I witnessed one of the most beautiful skies we have ever seen anywhere.  Pictures do not do it justice.  I will share these anyway:

This is my favorite.

Like the fleeting gift it was, these colors lasted only a few minutes.  They will be etched in my mind beyond mere photographs for many years.

Then…the sun came up this morning.

What a beautiful sunrise it was.

Carl enjoyed it thoroughly.

I’ll tell you what I enjoyed thoroughly Sunday night…dinner.  Carrie cooked shrimp and onion rings and flounder.  And I won’t leave out the green beans, corn, and those tiny potatoes.  Those are okay too.  But I can buy those things in Corydon or Salem or New Albany.  The fresh shrimp and the fresh flounder.  Well, that is another story.  How do I know this stuff is fresh?  I will show you.  With a nod to Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan, I have seen a few shrimp boat captains right outside the deck of the place we are staying.

My hat is off to these guys.  They must be used to all the birds flying around.  I’d be firing off a cannon to get rid of those things.  I’ll give it to the birds though, they are smart.

I must say I was the true fortunate one in this equation.  I didn’t have to put up with birds and I still, thanks to a modest market trade, got my hands on these:

And they turned into these:

Notice the taters, corn, and green beans did not make this picture.

What a meal it was.

Today Carrie and I sat on the porch after the sun came up.  The mixture of sun and fierce wind was a good problem to have.  Nonetheless, we are worn out and feel beat up.  I hate to sound like a wimp but that is what one gets when one has not spent more than a few minutes at a time in the sun for a long time.  Save a golf game, or a long walk about campus, I have not spent much time out in the elements in a while.  Two weekends ago I did nearly freeze after all watching IU play Ohio State in Bloomington.

That leads us to football.

Editorial note…in context, know that I type this as the Cardinals are playing the Cubs in Wrigley Field, Chicago.  Chicago is ahead 5-4 in the 7th.  The Cubbies have never won a series at Wrigley.  History is knocking.

Back to football.

History knocked hard and heavy today.  The Old Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, walked into the sunset during a noon press conference to announce his resignation as the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks.  He coach South Carolina to the most wins in school history.  He won more games as the Florida Gators’ coach than any other.  He won the Heisman Trophy at Florida in 1966…I think it was.  He also coached the Duke Blue Devils with success in the late 80s.  Spurrier coached the Washington Redskins too.

As I watched the coverage and read print media yesterday and today of Coach Spurrier’s saying good bye to Carolina, I was upset that none of the reports mentioned his time as the head coach of USFL’s Tampa Bay Bandits.  This morning I sent out a Twitter post with those sentiments.  A media type retweeted it.  A few hours later I saw mention of Spurrier’s USFL stint rolling at the bottom of the screen on ESPN.  Did I do that?  No, I don’t think so.  I think it was neat timing.

I will miss Spurrier.  College Football will miss him.  It is bad enough this year not seeing and hearing Coach Lou Holtz speak, spit, and pontificate about the college football games.  I miss him and I will miss the Old Ball Coach.  He said what he meant and meant what he said.  He was not handcuffed by the police that is political correctness.

So…what did Coach Spurrier in?  I think it was losing to Kentucky two years in a row.  It was too much for him to take.  That is what I told my UK fan-father-in-law as the moments of that game were winding down.

Did he quit?  No.  He left on the terms he thought best.  A last and lasting life lesson in a sermon of many for the players and personnel fortunate enough to be within earshot for the last four decades.

Speaking the sandy rights.

Danny Johnson