By Tom Mattingly
In another long-ago lifetime, I was a daily blogger for the local newspaper, along with writing a weekly column much like this one. The task was to write commentaries each week on various happenings in the daily world of sports I thought might be of interest to local readers. It was definitely a challenge.
Here are three entries I thought fit the bill.
(1) “Whither Tiger High?”
I found this brief post many years ago on a Commercial Appeal chat board that often went ballistic on any number of issues in the Bluff City.
Here’s what one poster, obviously with way too much time on his hands, wrote about one hot button issue, perhaps with a straight face and a definite holier-than-thou attitude.
“I would like to suggest to the moderators that comments that use derogatory terms like ‘Tiger High’ to describe the University of Memphis be removed,” the unknown reader began.
“Name-calling is not an opinion, which is what these comment sections are for. It is rather an attempt by someone who has a low self-image to make himself feel better by denigrating others.
“And it has no place here.”
“Derogatory” may be a stretch. The term might be rude or impolite, but doesn’t really mean much beyond that. It’s all part of the ambience of rivalries, much like Bear Bryant calling Auburn that “Cow College” or Vanderbilt calling itself “THE” University of Tennessee.
“There’s also ‘Nothing sucks like a Big Orange’ or the ‘one-finger salutes’ Tennessee teams have traditionally endured at numerous venues. Talk about low self-image.
“We’re all adults here, hopefully. If you can’t take the heat, you know what to do.”
– Saturday, April 2, 2016
POSTSCRIPT: One other poster on this site wrote that the term “Tiger High” was “Hate Speech” and should be treated as such. Go figure.
(2) “Holding the Game”
Sometimes a casual comment elicits a response that is totally unexpected.
Lindsey Nelson often told this story stemming from his coverage of the 1958 Tennessee-Auburn game for NBC. The morning of the game, Lindsey was staying at the Tutwiler Hotel in downtown Birmingham and was talking with LSU Athletic Director Jim Corbett.
There was a game that night down the road in Mobile matching LSU and Alabama, the debut game for new Alabama head coach Paul William (Bear) Bryant. Why that game wasn’t hyped to the heavens and played in Birmingham or Tuscaloosa is a matter for other historians, but Lindsey told Corbett about wanting to see the game and thought no more about it.
Sometime in the fourth quarter, a mysterious man appeared in the television booth.
Lindsey asked what he could do to help.
“I’m your pilot,” he responded. “Mr. Corbett sent a plane to bring you to Mobile after the game.”
Lindsey flew to Mobile and found his way to the press box just before kickoff. Corbett was in a skybox high atop Ladd Stadium. Corbett then waved a white handkerchief in the general direction of the field.
Thus alerted, the officials brought the captains to mid-field for the coin toss. “How does it feel to have them hold the game for you?” Corbett said, perhaps triumphantly.
LSU began a run to the national championship that night under the tutelage of head coach Paul Dietzel, Bryant began a 25-year reign (of terror, opponents said) at Alabama, and Jim Corbett held up a major college football game until Lindsey Nelson arrived and was seated and comfortable.
All because Lindsey casually mentioned he would like to see the game.
As scripture says, you have not because you ask not.
– Wednesday, June 5, 2013
(3) “Divergent Roads”
Writer Roger Kahn (author of the “The Boys of Summer”) had covered the Brooklyn Dodgers during their glory days of the early 1950s, before moving to a fledgling publication called Sports Illustrated a few years later.
Herman Michael Hickman was a former Volunteer lineman who was an oversized tackle in the program’s early days from 1929-31. He earned a spot on Grantland Rice’s All-American team with a scintillating performance in the 1931 Charity Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
That was the Depression-era game the Vols won 13-0 over New York University (the “Violets”) with the city of Knoxville receiving a check for $18,583 from game proceeds. Hickman became a member of the College Football Hall of Fame in 1958, the year he died on April 25.
Kahn was a prolific author and maintained he had never escaped the lure of writing about sports.
The duo’s paths had crossed at the new magazine, but Kahn felt some frustration in his new role. “Sadly, it was no go at the magazine,” said Kahn. “Sports Illustrated was improving, and I was growing, but along divergent roads. When I found myself assigned to ghost-write the football articles of Herman Hickman, my patience snapped and I resigned.”
He always said he thought about going back to cover baseball, but “I had seen carpeted offices and Marilyn Monroe.”
More than one writer has observed that students who skipped journalism class were in training to become ghostwriters, facing a career of writing brilliantly conceived copy to be published under other people’s names. It takes patience and absolutely no ego. Here’s a salient conclusion.
Sometimes it works, and there are great rewards.
Sometimes it doesn’t, and another line of work seems to be beckoning.
– Friday, April 29, 2016
