Super Bowl LX (that’s sixty for you non-Latin majors!) takes place in Santa Clara, California, this coming Sunday between the Seattle Seahawks, representing the NFC, and the New England Patriots, winners of the AFC trophy. Both teams were solid throughout the regular season and made playoff runs worthy of champions so this should be a great matchup which will provide viewer entertainment between commercials and the halftime show (Bad Bunny?)!!
It’s difficult to make a prediction of who will take home the Lombardi trophy but I was pretty much on the mark for the last three rounds of the NCAA playoffs so let’s give it a shot! Both teams are defensively really solid so I think it will come down to which quarterback plays well and, as always in big games, which team delivers on a few clutch plays. I think I trust Sam Darnold to move the ball for Seattle a little more often than young Drake Maye of New England so I’m calling it the Seahawks by a narrow margin of 24-20. More importantly, make sure that you have your food, snacks, and beverages ready to go!!
It’s that time of the year when high school basketball tournament play is approaching. Seed and draw meetings for girls D-III through D-VII will be held this Sunday, the 2nd, while D-I and D-II will take place the following week on the 9th. On the 15th, the boys side of the brackets will be determined for D-III through D-VII with D-I and D-II to follow on the 22nd. Seeds for each division and district are determined by a computer formula similar to that used in football.
I had the chance to catch some local junior high school boys basketball action this past week, something I haven’t been able to do this season as Kathy and I have seen our two Granville grandsons play a total of 25 seventh-grade and high school games so far the past few months over in Licking County, east of Columbus. If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch roundball at the middle school level recently, put it on your “must” list of things to do. Nothing matches the enthusiasm of 12-14-year-olds, both players and cheerleaders, nor that of parents and grandparents as the contests roll on, giving fans a glimpse of future high school talent.
Greenville’s seventh and eighth-grade boys teams both pulled out hard-fought victories over squads from Piqua, the older group securing their first win of the year. There’s some individual potential on both teams from each school. It will be interesting to see the development of individuals and teams over the next few years as hard work and motivation, along with natural skills, will determine who ends up wearing varsity uniforms!
While watching the games, play was stopped two times to allow players to tie their shoes. This reminded me of a story I read about the great UCLA head basketball coach John Wooden, the “Wizard of Westwood”. Wooden led the Bruins to an unbelievable ten national titles in the ‘60s and ‘70s and authored one of the definitive books on basketball, “The Pyramid of Success”, which described his coaching as well as life philosophies. One thing that caught my attention was that one of the first items of business at the start of each season’s first practice was that he taught his players how to double-knot their shoelaces. There was never going to be a play lost due to a player tripping over an untied shoelace! This attention to detail, plus an abundance of talented hoopsters, made the UCLA dynasty one of the greatest in all sports history.
Two of my favorite Wooden coached teams were the 1964 and 1965 champions, neither of which had a starter over 6’5” but used a devastating “diamond” or “1-2-1-1” press along with a fast break offense to overwhelm opponents. Later, Wooden was able to adapt to offenses more suited for “big men” such as Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton, the latter who led the Bruins to an unbelievable 88 straight wins in the early ‘70s.
As an aside, my Aunt Eloise was a high school classmate of ”Johnny” Wooden at Martinsville High School in Indiana and a close friend of his future wife, Nellie, all graduating in the Class of 1928. While in high school, Wooden was a three-time All-State selection and led his team to the 1927 Indiana state championship. He then went on to Purdue University, where he became the first player ever to be named a three-time consensus All-American. A great individual as well as a coach, he passed away in 2010 at the ripe old age of 99!
We’re all familiar with Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs and the renowned Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, so we need to mention two events that have happened recently to one of America’s favorite wieners. First, a little background—Nathan’s Hot Dogs first arrived on the scene back in 1916 in Brooklyn with the opening of a hot dog stand on Coney Island, the concoction of Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker. Undercutting competitors by selling the dogs for only a nickel the brand eventually became a global name and thus the “Famous” was added to moniker. The original building is still there, operating as a modern Nathan’s location alongside the boardwalk stand.
According to the latest statistics, the hot dog industry is thriving. In 2025, hot dog sales in the US generated $3.1 Billion in revenue, with dinner sausages bringing in another $5.5 Billion last year. With Nathan’s being one of the foremost pioneers of the industry has come news that it has been named the official hot dog of Major League Baseball.
Also, Nathan’s was just sold for $450 Million in cash to Chinese-owned pork producer Smithfield Foods, a name familiar to most US consumers. The famed “food connoisseur” Joey Chestnut, the holder of the world record by downing 74 hot dogs and buns in a period of ten minutes and winner of many of the aforementioned Nathan’s contests, might have to learn to say “pass the mustard” in Mandarin!!
Have a great week, the frigid cold can’t hang around much longer!
