ETSU Football in prose

From the Elizabethton Star comes another letter to the editor about East Tennessee State University cutting football.  Rather than a normal rant on why the administration has made a poor choice or why the students voted down the return of football, a local reader puts an interesting spin on his feelings.

 

    There is an administration we all know,

    Which a great athletic program they did blow.

    Under the guise of saving money,

    And aspiring to be a school of athletic honey,

    They, in all their wisdom made the call,

    Totally without logic, to drop football.

    Then as we all know,

    The so-con said, you must go.

    So after all was said and done,

    E.T.S.U. had no choice but to enter the Atlantic Sun.

    Now their athletic trips are far and wide,

    It’s the next thing to impossible for us to ride.

    You can follow their basketball to Hawaii for 1520,

    But only if you have money aplenty.

    I’m sure the A-Sun trips are of no worry,

    We can travel by plane and not have to hurry.

    Following the Bucs in the so-con wasn’t by chance,

    To follow our team in the A-Sun requires a re-finance.

    E.T.S.U. fathers have a 1 hundred million vision at best,

    One can only wonder if this they can digest.

    There is no money for football, and the students won’t pay,

    I wonder if the students would mind paying for the soccer the Bucs play.

    If losing money warrants giving athletic programs a toss,

    Then all programs must go, because everything left is a loss.

    Regardless of E.T.S.U. releases Buc fans, do not despair,

    There is a strong movement to restore football in the air.

    All Buc fans the writing is on the wall,

    Nothing brings pride and recognition to a college campus like football.

 

Richard L. Dykes

Elizabethton

U.S. Open

So as most of the sporting world knows the U.S. Open ended yesterday with a very unexpected champion. Angel Cabrera, a 37-year old from Argentina, bested Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by one stroke.

Cabrera became only the second Argentine to win a major event. It may not seem like much but I think it’s great to see people from other countries and cultures excel in a sport that has been dominated by Americans and Britons.

Additionally, I’m one of those people who likes to hate on Tiger Woods. So Cabrera’s victory over Woods was just icing on the cake for me. I completely admit that Tiger is incredibly talented I’m just at that point where I’m sick of him. The media follows him like he’s the second coming and his attitude just annoys me. I guess it’s also the fact that I think it’s really scary when someone is so focused on one thing from a young age. I’m sure he loves golf but from the way he talks it seems more like an obsession.

Of course it is entirely possible that I’m wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

While at work today, like most days, sports radio was on and the station that my coworker listens to is a sports talk station out of his hometown of Chicago. When The Dan Patrick Show came on today the promos kept asking the question: “Did Angel Cabrera win or did Tiger Woods lose?”

The question just irritates me! I realize that questions like that are what drive sports talk, but really is there not some other more pertinant question that could be asked?

Anyway, enough of my rant. In other U.S. Open news Rhys Davies, one of the former golfers at the school I work for (East Tennessee State University) participated after winning the qualifier at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.  Davies finished the first day with a 4-over score which for an amateur who had just wrapped up his collegiate career a few weeks earlier seems to be pretty impressive. Unfortunately he didn’t make the cut after struggling on the second day but it’s always good to see an ETSU alum see a little success.

A Little Background Never Hurt Anyone

As a grad student studying sport management I’ve been exposed to a lot of different ways to look at sport. I’ve been a fan of sports since I was a child but until I started this program I never really thought of other aspects of sport outside of competition. The purpose of this website is just to talk about the impact that sport plays on popular culture. Sport is everywhere. You can see it in movies and TV shows and it can be heard in music. Whether you like it or not sports impact your lives on almost a daily basis.

 

My big plan for this blog is just to discuss a little bit of everything. I hope to be reviewing some sports related films such as Brian’s Song, Field of Dreams, Rocky, Bend it Like Beckham and The Natural. I may look into some older films as well. I will also gladly review any movies that anyone asks me about. The films will be reviewed not just for entertainment value but also picking up on some of the social aspects as well.

Current sports news will definitely be open for debate here and if you’re reading this you’re going to be stuck reading about some of my favorite teams and why they’re important to me. This may be the only place in the world where you’ll read about the University of Georgia and East Tennessee State University in the same place.

So now that I’ve gotten this out of the way, feel free to leave me some feedback.