My wife and I visited our daughter’s family in northern Indiana Sunday afternoon and Monday (nothing like grandparents’ day at Syracuse Elementary School and an outstanding first-grade music program!). On the way home, we stopped by Kathy’s alma mater, Manchester University, to drop off some materials for a friend. Traveling east on Indiana Route 114, we passed a sign pointing the way to the small unincorporated community of Bippus, which brings us to today’s trivia question: What nationally known sportscaster was a Bippus native? For all of you longtime sports followers, this might take some thought!!
Duke’s freshman sensation Cooper Flagg has declared, to the surprise of hardly anyone, for this year’s NBA draft. The 6’9” 18-year-old has all of the potential in the world and will make an impact in the pro ranks in a number of ways. However, in my humble opinion, he might be better off playing one more year of college ball, not so much to work on his skills, which are already impressive, but to mature physically, as he’ll be going up against grown men who are much stronger and experienced. The list of ex-players who weren’t ready at a young age is almost endless, leaving many disillusioned young men with crushed dreams.
I don’t think he’ll be hurt financially by waiting one more season; he supposedly drew almost $5 million in NIL money this past year, which ended with the Blue Devils’ loss in the national semifinals.
The NFL draft begins Thursday night in Green Bay with first-round selections, followed by the second and third rounds Friday evening and the fourth through seventh rounds on Saturday afternoon. It will be interesting to see what local (I use that term a little loosely) teams do with their picks. With the second overall pick, do the Browns go for a quarterback, a two-way star in Colorado’s Travis Hunter, or a pass rusher in Penn State’s Abdul Carter to pair with Myles Garrett on the defensive front line?
What about the Indianapolis Colts? With Anthony Richardson (picked fourth overall in ‘23) still struggling with the nuances of the pro game, will the team look for another quarterback even after signing Daniel Jones, late of the Giants, to give Richardson some competition for the starting job? That leads to today’s second trivia question: What former Bengals QB was a high draft choice even though, just like Richardson, he only started for one season in college before flopping as a pro?
Did you happen to see Reds’ shortstop Elly De La Cruz impersonation of Superman over the weekend? The multi-talented infielder made a diving stab of an Oriole line drive on the second base side of the diamond that was one of the best defensive gems in recent memory. Man, what range!!
Speaking of traveling over the weekend, there was a noticeable difference in the greening of trees and the blossoming of plants in various areas. Saturday, we were south of Dayton at our niece Stacie’s, and everything was ahead of the flora here in Greenville. As mentioned earlier, we were in northern Indiana the next day, and the plant and tree life was behind that of Darke County. Am I mistaken, or is the rule something like every 75-100 miles you go north, that spring is a week later? Help me out here!!
Eldora Speedway began its 72nd season of racing at the home of the late, great Earl Baltes this past weekend. For a complete schedule of racing events north of Rossburg, go to the Eldora website. The middle of July promises once again to be the highlight of the season as the Double Down Duels are held on Thursday the 16th, followed by the Joker’s Jackpot on the 17th, the Knight Before on the 18th, and the grand finale on Saturday the 19th, the 42nd running of the Kings Royal. Gentlemen, start your engines!!
Congratulations to Sidney senior Garrett Guinther who established a new OHSAA boys pole vault record, clearing the bar at a lofty 17’3.25”! Other area state record holders in track and field annals include Greenville’s Riley Hunt who set the girls D-I mark in the pole vault at 13’7” in 2019 ( she missed an opportunity to defend her crown in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic shutdown), Coy Hyre of Brookville who tied for the boys D-II record in the 100-meter dash at 10.48 in ‘24 (he’s back this spring to defend his title), and Coldwater’s Izzy Zahn who holds the D-III girls standard of 24.06 in the 200-meter run set last spring.
Here are the trivia answers for those of you still hanging in there:
Bippus, Indiana native Chris Schenkel was among television’s foremost sportscasters over a period from 1956 through 1997, being the voice of many of the sporting world’s most prestigious events, earning numerous honors from the broadcast industry. Among his most notable achievements, being the voice of the Professional Bowlers Tour for 36 years on Saturday afternoons as a lead-in to ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
The Bengals made a huge mistake in the 1999 NFL draft by selecting Akili Smith with the third pick overall. Smith had all of the natural ability in the world, but was hampered by having only started eleven games in his college career at Oregon. Combined with a lack of diligence in learning the Bengals’ playbook, he rapidly fell from favor in the Queen City and was released after four years, during which he started only seventeen games, throwing a career total of five touchdowns with thirteen interceptions. Colts fans are starting to notice the same tendencies with Anthony Richardson! Let’s hope he can get things squared away in short order or he’ll be headed down the path of Smith!
