SPORTS LITERACY FOR BOOMERS: KNOW WHEN ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Sports literacy runs through all sports, not just your favorite team, or my favorite team, though that would make things so much easier.

It’s more than the Yankees, the Cowboys, or the Celtics; more than the Mariners, Seahawks, and your Portland Trail Blazers.

On Friday nights it’s more than the high school football playoffs, more than #1 Lake Oswego, #2 West Linn, and #3 Tualatin. (That they are all one-loss teams ranked ahead of an undefeated Central Catholic is no one’s business.)

For sports literacy, Saturday is more than the third ranked Oregon Ducks.

I don’t make the rules, but here we are.

Sports literacy for boomers runs through a longer lens than one sport, one season, one team.

We learn this from the youngs, so be prepared.

The younger the sports fan, the longer the shadow boomers cast.

NBA talk today is all about long range shooters like Damian Lillard and Stephen Curry. They drop it in from way out there. There’s never been anyone like them.

How Far Out

There was a college player named Pistol Pete Maravich.

Maravich holds nearly every major NCAA scoring record, including most career points (3,667), highest career scoring average (44.2 ppg), most field goals made (1,387) and attempted (3,166), and most career 50-point games (28). And he accomplished all this without the benefit of the 3-point basket, which wasn’t introduced into the college game until the 1986-87 season.

The kid in the baggy socks launched forty footers when some college coaches were still playing four corner stall ball.

Stall ball at North Carolina under Dean Smith:

UNC held the ball for roughly the last seven minutes of the second half to nurse a small lead, eventually winning 47–45.

If you get into it with a young fan, try not to reminisce about ‘pass the ball’ Ralph Miller’s teams at Oregon State.

To add clarity to basketball history, both Dean Smith and Ralph Miller played college basketball for Phog Allen at Kansas. Allen had also played at Kansas. His coach, James Naismith, was the inventor of the game.

Thankfully, the game has changed. Did any boomers think of Bob Cousy, the Houdini of the Hardwood?

Cowboys And Packers For NFL Sports Literacy

The New York Giants has two assistants who became head coaches a year apart; 1959 for Vince Lombardi in Green Bay and 1960 for Tom Landry in Dallas.

The Packers won the first two Super Bowls after defeating Dallas in the conference finals both years.

The Cowboys got their wins later, but losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 70’s, and the San Francisco 49ers in the 80’s, kept them from being the sort of championship dynasty built by the New England Patriots with Tom Brady.

Quarterbacks, usually the face of a franchise, defined both teams. Over time, the Packers have had Bart Starr, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers.

Over a similar time the Cowboys had Don Meredith, Troy Aikman, and Dak Prescott.

The Packers collected four Lombardi Trophies between three signal callers; the Cowboys got three with Aikman taking snaps.

But don’t forget Roger Staubach who went 2-2 in the big game.

In the years before and after Aikman the Cowboys had Danny White and Tony Romo who both had long careers but no rings.

About the quarterback list on both teams: Green Bay starts in 1921.

The Dallas list starts in 1960.

Where’s your team, boomer?

Roger Staubach Explains

In both football and business, Staubach said he learned to balance getting things done and “not being a real jerk” at the same time.

Sports literacy is all about balance for boomers. Try not to impress the younger generations with your steel-trap recall of everything from every sport in every era.

Do that too often and you’ll end up talking to yourself, which is fine for wireless communication, but not face to face.

Who wants to hear your breakdown of the Yankees golden run of World Series titles from the 30’s, the 50’s, or late 90’s comparing ERA and batting averages from each decade.

From my own experience I can tell you what it was like during the lower Manhattan parade after the ’78 win: crowded.

More Roger:

In 1969, Heisman Trophy winner and Navy veteran Roger Staubach joined the Dallas Cowboys as a 27-year-old rookie with a starting salary of $25,000 a year (a far cry from today’s rookie minimum salary of $610,000.)

After his rookie season in 1970, Staubach worked as a real estate broker for Henry S. Miller Co., one of the largest independent commercial real estate firms in Texas at the time.

“I was 27 and we had three children,” Staubach told Forbes in 2014. “If I got hurt, I knew I had a family to provide for, and it was not crazy money in the NFL then.”

(Crazy money came later.)

Today, Staubach, 78, is one of the wealthiest NFL players in history with an estimated net worth of $600 million.

Sports Literacy Blog Here

Alan Brown runs a good looking blog.

His sidebar on the left carries a list of individual and team sports that fills an entire screen.

From baseball to wrestling, each entry includes a long list of related books linked to a good looking purchase page.

I say ‘good looking’ here because I’m not breaking a blog and a bookstore down for sources and associations the way I do with other posts.

Either Alan Brown or his assistant did a ton of work here and it shows, beginning with a perfect introduction.

Welcome to my sports literacy blog. Here you will find resources for educators as well as sports-related young adult literature for middle and high school students. While many of these texts come from recommended lists from public libraries across the country, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Assembly on Literature for Adolescents(ALAN), and respected educators, librarians, and authors, I cannot personally vouch for every text/resource on this list. Instead, my goal has been to provide relevant options for individuals interested in various aspects of sports literacy. My hope is that teachers and students alike will make informed decisions on the texts they read and the resources they utilize.

My kind of guy right here, and not just because he included Vision Quest under the Wrestling title.

Will I send a ‘Thank You’ email?

That’s a Big Yes. Give him a look, find a book.

Do it for Jimmy.

Why not write a story of your own? You know you’ve got one.