What a year in sports! Surprise winners such as the Chicago Cubs and USA Ryder Cup team, and sad farewells to greats of the past and present such as Muhammad Ali, Jose Fernandez, Gordie Howe and Arnold Palmer. Here’s our top-10 and the names of...
The news hit us like a ton of bricks. Muhammad Ali. Gordie Howe. Just like that, both men that we looked up to and admired are gone from our midst. One cannot imagine a worse week for sports fans – in Detroit especially – as we lost “The...
In 1973, I taught what is arguably the first accredited baseball history course on a college campus in the Midwest. My course emphasized the fact that more than any other sport baseball reflects the American spirit. Jackie Robinson’s crashing the...
Deep in every human heart is the wish to make a contribution to humanity. Not necessarily a big one like finding a cure for a disease, inventing a labor saving device, or ending a war. Just something that makes the world at least a little bit better...
In January of 2013, there were two funerals, almost at the same time, of men I had known briefly in this life. One was Stan the Man Musial who died on the 19th. His funeral approximated that of kings, queens and powerful heads of state. Everyone who...
What a year in sports. 2015 was as crazy as they come as the sports scene was dominated by American Pharoah, the New England Patriots (and Deflategate), the Kansas City Royals, Golden State Warriors, Jordan Spieth, Serena Williams and the sad...
Since 1934, Detroit Lions football on Thanksgiving Day has been an American tradition. Recently, I asked three people – Frank Beckmann, the former Detroit Lions radio and television announcer, inductee into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame;...
Competing on the Pro Bowlers Tour for 22 years, Aleta Rzepecki-Sill was the first woman bowler to earn $1 million in a career. Now, she’s a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. “It was obviously a milestone and a great accomplishment and...
