It's The Dog Days For America's Sports Dynasties
Since that devilish little morality saga with Linda Evans and Joan Collins left television in 1989, there have been no dynasties in our world outside of sports.Today, nobody says that William and Kate...
View ArticleAn Oft-Told Tale: The Beauty Queen And The Quarterback
Gentlemen of a certain age might make a nostalgic note that today, Valentine's eve, is the 80th birthday of Kim Novak.One of Miss Novak's most famous movie roles was in Picnic, where she played the...
View ArticleReminders Flood In: Athletes Are People, Not Heroes
These have certainly been dispiriting times for those who admire athletes, who proclaim that sports build character. The horrendous shooting by Oscar Pistorius is of course, in a category mercifully...
View ArticleDear College Presidents: Break The NCAA's Vise Grip On Athletes
The great social quest in American sport is to have one prominent, active, gay male athlete step forward and identify himself.But I have a similar quest. I seek one prominent college president to say...
View ArticleCatholic Universities See True Path To Salvation: Basketball
I've always felt it's no coincidence that some basketball powerhouses — let us say, off the top of my head, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Indiana — get a few better players because those hoops museums...
View ArticleSchool Bands Should Not Be Entertainment Adjunct For Sports
Several years ago I gave a speech in which I mentioned that athletes tended to be the only college students who were awarded scholarships for what is an extracurricular activity.Afterward, Myles Brand,...
View ArticleWhat's The Score On Spirited Sports Banter At Bars?
The more I travel, the more I see sports bars. They've been around for years, usually in obvious places, like in college towns or near arenas.But now they're everywhere, even in airports and hotels,...
View ArticleIt's Been An Ugly Year For College Basketball
There once was a wise old basketball coach named Arad McCutchan who led the Evansville Purple Aces to five national championships in the small-college division, dressing his Purple Aces in bright...
View ArticleBaseball Isn't Dead; It Just Takes More Work To Appreciate
It being the start of baseball season, that means we've been inundated by predictions — who'll win the divisions and the pennants and the World Series? We know two things on this subject. In every...
View ArticleTiger At The Masters: The Juncture Of Exhilaration And Peril
Let us now ponder the exquisite status of Tiger Woods, who has clawed back to the top of the charts thereby to proclaim, with the help of his Nike mouthpiece, that his ragged and raw past few years...
View ArticleThe Pitch For More No. 42s
Yet another movie about Jackie Robinson arrived as baseball held its annual commemorative celebration of No. 42, but officials of the game are fretting over the fact that only 8 1/2 percent of current...
View ArticleGet Off My Lawn! And Other Grumblings About Sports Today
My friend the Sports Curmudgeon called me the other day: "Hey, Frank, I got a few things to get off my chest." He was about to take off on a Fantasy Fan cruise, where devoted sports buffs are drafted...
View ArticleLadies, Want Women's Sports To Get More Attention? Pony Up
Fans of women's sports often maintain that female athletics get short shrift from the media, so it had to be something of a surprise gift when ESPN presented the start of the WNBA's draft live.This...
View ArticleNo. 1s: The Latest Greatest Of All Time
The Great Gatsby is on the screen again, re-opening the perennial debate about whether or not it is the great American novel. Or was that Huckleberry Finn? Or are we still waiting for the great...
View ArticleBacking Becks: Don't Knock The Soccer Star's Talents
The most unforgiving criticism in sport is directed at any athlete who fans believe is celebrated too excessively above his true talent level — especially those stars who are gloried because they're...
View ArticleTake Golf Out Of The Rough, Into The 21st Century
When my old pal the Sports Curmudgeon had some mildly churlish things to say about golf a few weeks ago, both he and I were upbraided by loyal linksters.
View ArticleBasketball: The 'Ultimate Contradiction'
Basketball offers its fans the ultimate contradiction. On the one hand, it's the sport that most depends on its stars. On the other, it's the most intimate — even organic — of all the team games, with...
View ArticleTick Tock: Make The Serve, Pitch, Putt Or Shot
In Milwaukee, cartoon characters dressed up like various sausages race at each Brewers' game; in Washington, five of our beloved presidents do their own bratwurst ramble. But the character I want to...
View ArticleLet's Separate The Schoolin' From The Sports
We usually think of college sports in terms of classic big-time schools, polls and bowls.But, in fact, our athletics are intertwined with — and complicate — all higher education.The University of North...
View ArticleRoger Federer: Leave While He's Good Or Play Because He Can?
It's been a week but tennis fans are still talking about the big loss of a big favorite at Wimbledon. This is sports drama, a heartbreaking soap opera as only Frank Deford can imagine it:She brushed...
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