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Category: sports culture (Page 1 of 4)

90s Girl Problems: Why Verne Lundquist’s Voice Always Takes Me Back To 1992

Veteran sports broadcaster Verne Lundquist is calling NCAA Tournament basketball games for CBS this weekend. I don’t know about you, but even fourteen years after CBS broadcast its last Winter Olympics, Lundquist’s voice will still always be associated with Olympic coverage for me.

If you grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was high probability that one of your childhood dreams was to be a well-trained, calm and composed figure skater representing the United States at the Olympics. Part of that dream included Lundquist narrating your life story – or at least pertinent biographical information – to the masses. And then when Scott Hamilton, his color analyst, would flip out and talk nonsensical about your performance, Lundquist would bring him back from spaz-ville.

“She landed a triple loop,” Hamilton would comment, then start shrieking like someone turned his personal energy throttle up to Micro Machine Man. “OH MY GOODNESS, THIS IS THE BEST MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. NO MANKIND. NO, ALL OF THE UNIVERSE.”

Lundquist would cut through the energy and translate Hamilton’s insanity to the masses. “I think what you’re trying to say, Scott, is that she’s doing quite well.”

Childhood Olympics junkies, like myself, would take to the nearest tiled floor in my house during Olympic coverage commercials and “skate” around in our footy pajamas. When I did so, I always could hear Lundquist’s voice right before I manically started jumping around in my tiny kitchen. “The first to skate, the ten year old from Rochester, New York, Katie Hasenauer.”

You wanted Lundquist to tell America your own personal story of adversity, you wanted Hamilton to over-caffeinatedly swoon over your jumps and artistry, and you wanted to skate like Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi. That was life as a ten year old girl in 1992, back when the Olympics were the national equivalent of the Super Bowl, March Madness, a Mad Men season premiere and a Harry Potter film opening all in one. (Or at least, that is what it felt like.)

When I had Syracuse-Wisconsin and Ohio State-Cincinnati basketball on my television Thursday night and heard the now 71 year old Lundquist calling the game, I was instantly taken back to those days where I spent my entire February school vacation glued to the television watching Olympics coverage and hanging on to his every word. For me, there are few childhood memories clearer or fonder than that.

Here’s Lundquist calling one of 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi’s programs.

Roy Halladay and Blue Jays Fans: Where Does Your Allegiance Go When A Fan Favorite Leaves?

While trying to find my seats at the Rogers Center for the Philadelphia Phillies – Toronto Blue Jays game I attended last month, I met a retired couple from Mississauga, Ontario whose season tickets were nearby our seats. Quite friendly, they started sharing all of their knowledge of their beloved ballpark to me.

I took the opportunity to ask them their thoughts about the Phillies starting pitcher that day, former Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay. I gestured around the park. “Do you think he’s going to get some boos?” Continue reading

What Are Your Sports Superstitions?

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The TD Garden lit up with Bruins spirit. (Photo by me and my iPhone.)

The Boston Bruins are going to lose tonight because I am wearing pants.

Preposterous, you say. What does making a choice between a black skirt and black pants have to do with if the Bruins will tie up their Stanley Cup Finals series against the Vancouver Canucks this evening? Continue reading

Why Taking An Anti-Gay Marriage Approach Is Bad For Hockey Business: A Statistical Look At The Uptown Sports Controversy

Hockey fans throughout the social media sphere were up in outrage on Monday afternoon when the Twitter account representing the hockey agent/PR firm Uptown Sports proclaimed statements against gay marriage. Representatives from the firm ended up on sports radio in Toronto, Canada Monday night further talking about their view.

Uptown Sports has a small stable of NHL players it represents, including Mike Fisher, the husband of American Idol winner and country music sweetheart, Carrie Underwood.

Aside from the moral argument for gay marriage (because gay or straight, everyone deserves the right to have someone to argue with over what to have for dinner and putting your shoes in the boot tray), there are statistical and marketing reasons why those who don’t agree with gay marriage may want to keep their thoughts personal. From a statistical perspective, hockey businesses of any kind may need to stay away from an anti-gay marriage perspective. Continue reading

The Good, The Bad, and The QB: Why Did The Stereotype of the NFL Quarterback Decline?

Remember the days of the NFL Quarterback Club? As I watched Ben Roethlisberger (he of a more unenviable last name spelling wise than my own maiden name) win the AFC championship game two Sundays ago, I wondered to myself, “what ever happened to the quarterback as hero?”

When I was growing up, the group of elite NFL quarterbacks included two men who promoted advocacy for two diseases that were woefully under funded at the time (cystic fibrosis and Krabbe’s disease), a law school student, and men who worked to be the face of a franchise and never would dream of leaving.

I am not saying they were saints (for example, Jim Kelly’s wife’s recent book shatters most of our good conceptions of Kelly thanks to his infidelities), but we were shielded from it while they played. Instead of talking about their most recent rape charge at a stoppage of play, they would talk about Boomer Esiason’s son’s progress as he battled cystic fibrosis, something Dan Marino did for the community, or Steve Young’s bar card. We only knew Joe Montana as Joe Cool, not the anti-social teammate who laughed at his tough-but-tiny teammate at Notre Dame, the one and only Rudy. We bought candles to support Kelly’s son Hunter as he battled a rare disorder. Drew Bledsoe was a good guy from Washington state, and John Elway made Colorado relevant beyond skiing. Quarterbacks weren’t bad – they were golden.

Continue reading

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