I always took note when Frank Howard stepped to the plate: he was a giant of the game in every way.
when he was coaching the Mets, he got angry at Craig Swan (6â 3" 220?), picked him up and pinned him against a bus
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Not for the RIP Sports Thread, but in case anyone thinks Bobby Knight was a great person:
In case you donât have an LA Times (or affiliate) subscription:
Summary
News of Bobby Knightâs death last week produced thousands of words, with descriptions ranging from sadness to admiration to disgust.
Many even wrote that he was an âenigma,â which is a mysterious person, somebody difficult to understand. That was rationalizing. It was also incorrect.
John Feinstein, who wrote a best-selling book about Knight years ago, hit closer to the truth last week in his assessment of a man who gave him complete access for the book and then hated it so much that he barely spoke to Feinstein for the rest of his life. Thatâs because Feinstein told the truth. In his story the day after Knight died, Feinstein wrote of the infamous college basketball coach that âmany swore by him and many swore at him.â Feinstein was being kind. It never was 50-50.
Knight was never an enigma. He was a jerk and a bully. To some, those in the school of âonly wins and losses count,â his behavior was to be forgiven by his marvelous coaching record. Throw a chair, berate hundreds of referees, verbally assault just about anybody who played for him â or against him. Tell female sportswriters that their only worth is âto have babies and make bacon,â tell a sports official from Puerto Rico that his countryâs only value is to âgrow bananasâ â thatâs all OK to those who subscribe to âJust win, baby.â
Over time, the timid or those wired to avoid confrontation just stayed out of his way. Others stopped fighting back or trying to get him to see himself. He wore them down.Thatâs what bullies do.
One person who seemed to survive this all, a genuinely kind and soft-spoken man, who had the hardest job in sports journalism in America, was Bob Hammel, longtime sports editor and sports columnist of the local paper in Bloomington, Ind., where Knight rose to fame at Indiana University. Hammel and Knight battled early, then gradually reached a working truce and became lifelong friends. Thatâs not an ideal situation for any journalist, but Hammelâs choice was to get on the bus or get out of town. Indiana basketball was the only sports show in town â ever watch Indiana football? â so Hammel stayed and did his best. If there were a Nobel Peace Prize for sports journalism, the first one would go to Hammel.
Even that relationship was rocky. In the end, everything was always about Knight.
Years ago, Hammel was honored at a special dinner in Bloomington. It was a great night, lots of people showed up. Hammelâs sportswriting friends from around the country flew in. There was a speakersâ table and Knight, as well as several sportswriters, were seated there, scheduled to give tributes to Hammel.
The speakers were there for one reason. To honor Hammel. To praise him, kid him, tell stories about him. Then Knight got up, said almost nothing about Hammel and started berating one of the sportswriters at the table about something he had written a year or so earlier. It became a lecture on the evils of sportswriting and the incompetence of the writer. The mood in the room went from warm and joyful to uncomfortable frowns and embarrassment.
By the time the sportswriter had a chance to get up and hit back a bit at Knight, or joke about it, or attempt to loosen up the room again, Knight was gone â out the back door â and Hammelâs night was much less festive.Thatâs what bullies do.
For those who wish to maintain an image of Knight as merely a tough guy who thought he had to be unlikable and dictatorial to win, there is one facet of the man that says it all.
He didnât like John Wooden.
That puts Knight in a fractional minority of sports fans and humanity in general. Wooden didnât set out to be universally loved. He just was. He won 10 NCAA titles at UCLA and spent most of his life giving credit to others for that. He was scholarly, thoughtful, generous, interesting and a great basketball coach. Knight lived and died basketball. Wooden lived and died life.
The berating of the sportswriter at Hammelâs dinner was directly connected to Wooden. In 1993, Indianaâs Calbert Cheaney won the John Wooden Award as the nationâs best basketball player. It was an award coveted and prestigious. A big part of the thrill for the winner was getting to go to Los Angeles to meet and spend time with Wooden, who treated each honoree like deity.But Cheaney didnât attend and reporting showed later that, while the excuse from Indiana had been that he had school work responsibilities, he had spent the evening of the Wooden Award at a school-sponsored basketball event. A sportswriter saw Knightâs hand in that, wrote about it and that same sportswriter was berated at the Hammel dinner.
Wooden stopped coaching in 1975, with his 10th NCAA title. Knight got to Indiana in 1970 and won three NCAA titles. Their coaching paths didnât cross much. But Knight took several opportunities to be critical of Wooden, saying publicly, âIâm not a fan of John Wooden,â and saying that his reason was the Sam Gilbert recruiting scandals of the early 1980s. That NCAA penalty came more than five years after Wooden retired. But Gilbert was certainly around in Woodenâs time and has remained an eyesore on the Wooden legacy.
But it turned out that Knightâs concern for UCLAâs recruiting practices was not the main reason for his stated antipathy toward Wooden. It was much more petty than that.
Rick Majerus was a great college basketball coach. He took his Utah team to the NCAA final in 1998. He was a protege of Knight and an admirer of Wooden. One night, well into one of those dinners of fine food and finer storytelling, Majerus answered the puzzling question of why Knight bad-mouthed Wooden.It had less to do with Gilbert and more to do with Knightâs longtime friend and mentor, Pete Newell, Majerus said. It was about Wooden having eclipsed Newell in success and stature. Newell was the coach at California, and a great one, even beating UCLA frequently. But those were the years when Wooden was winning everything and Newell was left in the background. As Majerus put it, Newell didnât care, but Knight did. Newell was Knightâs guy. Wooden wasnât.
It was as simple as that. Wooden was stealing Newellâs thunder, and Knight didnât like it.
That, of course, was silly and petty, probably even a little bit evil. But that was also Bobby Knight, who made a bit of a campaign of it for years.
Thatâs what bullies do.
i suspect that for every individual/former player who is always on record saying âcoach knight alone believed in me and made me who i amâ there are like 100 behind him silently wishing that the a-hole had died in pain.
Bobby Knight was a petty vindictive asshole that was pretty damn good at his job. This description of him as a nearly Shakespearian character hit the mark with me.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/11/02/bob-knight-john-feinstein/
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RIP thread guys, make another thread for this
RIP Frank Wycheck 
Ex-Titans TE Frank Wycheck, 52, dies after fall at home - ESPN
RIP
I remember Frank Ryan when he was with the Cleveland Browns but he was overshadowed in my view by Jim Brownâs prowess as a running back.
I did not know that Ryan earned a PhD in mathematics and had many notable achievements after football.
RIP Frank Ryan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/sports/football/frank-ryan-dead.html
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Franz Beckenbauer, 78:
Reading wiki:
Ryan learned computer programming and software through the Chi Corp., Case Western Reserveâs then newly launched private computer company. He compiled advanced statistics to apply what he learned to football. The Browns were shown his results and liked the project but didnât offer the extra cash to move it forward.[3]
I still donât think the CLE use analytics.
In retirement, he ran a self-designed program that helps micro-analyze statistical behavior of the up-and-down pricing movement that underlies the pricing behavior of the futures market. He also worked on Oppermannâs conjecture about the distribution of prime numbers.[3]
All after he had been concussed on at least one occasion. Save that brain!
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The only time I followed soccer was in the late 70s when The NY Cosmos acquired Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia and Pele - all gone now
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The Curse of the NASL!!
Bud Harrelson - Mets Shortstop and one of my childhood favorites
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RIP Carl Weathers.
Played linebacker here in Vancouver for the BC Lions but fortunately pursued an acting career afterwards where he was much more successful.
Rich Caster - NYJ TE - age 75
Big and fast and hands of stone. Also, didnât block
As a TE he must have averaged around 20 yds per catch, unheard of for a TE at the time
Hands of Stone and Didnât block doesnât sound like a very flattering description for a guy who is supposed to catch passes and block opposing linebackers
He and Jerome Barkum were basically the same player. Huge and fast, but neither was Don Maynard.
Still childhood favorites - and Eddie Bell who I met
Maynard was definitely ahead of his time. The others I didnât really know. But RIP
