Chicago Cubs’ legend Sammy Sosa. Photo by Jerry Coli This column seeks to profile important events in the history of sports. As baseball fans are painfully aware, the Chicago Cubs do not have too many seasons in their long history to be proud of. Their World Series win in 2016 was their first since 1907…
Sports in this Day and Age: Number one goes down, no longer unbeaten and invincible
This column seeks to cover significant current events in the sporting world as it navigates the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. College football provided plenty of memorable games and even more memorable upsets this past week, while several streaks came to a close. Most notable of these, of course, was top-ranked Clemson (7-1) falling to fourth-ranked Notre…
College Football Retrospectives: The badness of Billy Cannon
This column seeks to look back on memorable moments in college football and offer commentary on what makes them unique. In my last column, I failed to mention one of the other most significant contrasts between the world of the 1960s and 2020s — that of segregation. Teams on the Pacific coast, in the Midwest…
Sports in this Day and Age: Football from this past week
This column seeks to cover significant current events in the sporting world as it navigates the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Most sports are finished now, leaving the spotlight this past week on football, although this week’s election has by far been the biggest story of the past week or so. With games…
This Week in Sports History: John Madden wins hundredth game as head coach
This column seeks to profile important events in the history of sports. Considered one of the greatest head coaches of all time (and an even better announcer), John Madden’s legendary status is not unwarranted. As the head coach of the then Oakland Raiders, Madden picked up 103 wins with the team in nine years and…
This Week in Sports History: The Rumble in the Jungle introduces the world to the Rope-a-Dope
Muhammad Ali employing his famous Rope-a-Dope technique. Photo from Media Punch. This column seeks to profile important events in the history of sports. Dana White and the Ultimate Fighting Championship might have taken the spotlight off of boxing, but there is no denying that some of the best fights ever came from the sport. Mike…
Sports in this Day and Age: Batter up! The 2020 World Series
This column seeks to cover significant current events in the sporting world as it navigates the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The National Basketball Association (NBA) finished their season a few weeks ago, and now Major League Baseball (MLB) is doing the same, as the Los Angeles Dodgers played the Tampa Bay Rays in the World…
College Football Retrospectives: The pork feast that bites back
This column seeks to look back on memorable moments in college football and offer commentary on what makes them unique. There is a graph that often makes rounds on various social media platforms that illustrates scientific progress over time with no real defined benchmarks for what constitutes progress. The most recent one charts International Business…
Sports in this Day and Age: Upsets, records and close calls
This column seeks to cover significant current events in the sporting world as it navigates the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. College football is always wild and full of surprises. This past week was no different, as we saw four ranked teams lose to unranked teams, and three barely squeak by. One of the biggest…
This Week in Sports History: Kyrie Irving burns Timberwolves for 50 in Brooklyn debut
This column seeks to profile important events in the history of sports. In a league so infatuated with the prospect of a “super team,” it’s refreshing to see NBA stars driven by something other than a championship. For Kyrie Irving, his move to the Brooklyn Nets was far more sentimental than most. After six seasons…