JD’S MONDAY MORNING MUSINGS….
I traveled to Tallahassee over the weekend to pay my respects to the great Bobby Bowden, who I worked with in the 1980s. There have been a million words written about the man in the last couple of weeks. All I can really add to them is that there was never a coach like him before and never will be another like him again. What really makes his legacy special is that, unlike Notre Dame, Penn State, Alabama, USC, and other great programs, all of which had great programs and great coaches in the past. Bowden built the Florida State dynasty from scratch…
Among his many attributes, Coach Bowden was a great evaluator of coaching talent. In the summer of 1998 I had an early morning tee time at Eastwood Golf Club in Orlando and when I checked in the pro told us we had to be done by noon because the course was closing. I asked why and he said they were hosting an FSU Booster Tournament with Coach Bowden starting at 12:30. We finished our round at about 11 a.m. and I walked through the clubhouse I saw Coach Bowden sitting at a table by himself. I walked over and said “Coach, you may not remember me but I worked with you about a decade ago and I just wanted to say hello. He looked at me for a second and immediately said “Danny Pearson, of course, I remember you, you worked with Wayne Hogan in sports information.” That alone kind of blew me away that he would remember an anonymous assistant from his past. He then asked what I was now doing. When I told him I was the public relations director of the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League, he asked who the coach was and when I said Jay Gruden, he replied “The Louisville quarterback? I really liked him….good player and a smart kid…I bet he’s a really good football coach, isn’t he?” It was Jay’s first year as a head coach, but Bobby was right, he was a good coach who went on to win two ArenaBowl titles and become an NFL head coach…
Saw a video the other day from the 70s TV Show The Partridge Family singing “I Think I Love You” in front of about 20 people at a city park and got to thinking, the Partridge Family had 16 top 40 hits in the 1970s and yet their TV Show manager Rueben Kincaid had them traveling in a crappy old school bus (that Mom was forced to drive) and kept booking them to play shopping mall gigs and high school assemblies. He either was robbing family blind or was the worst music manager in history…
JR Smith, who averaged 12.4 points per game and made more than $90 million in a 16-year NBA career, has enrolled at North Carolina A&T, where he will be a 36-year-old freshman. What’s really interesting about this is that Smith, who carries a USGA handicap of +5, intends to play varsity golf for the school. NCAA rules say a player has five consecutive calendar years to complete four years of competition and also does not prevent an athlete who was a professional in one sport from retaining collegiate eligibility in another sport (remember 28-year-old former pro baseball player Chris Weinke winning the Heisman at Florida State). Because Smith went directly to the NBA out of high school, his five-year eligibility clock never started and although he has made millions as a basketball professional is still an amateur athlete in golf. Best guess here is Smith will not be living in a dorm or having to get a work-study job to pay tuition…
Does it bother anyone besides me that April Fools’ Day is the only day of the year that the general population will critically analyze the news to determine whether it is true or not?…
The great Roger Federer has announced that he will miss the US Open due to injury and is not expected to play again for at least several months as he undergoes a third surgery on his knee. As much as I have loved watching him over the years, this could very well spell the end his tournament career which reminds me of the old adage Father Time remains the undisputed, undefeated champion of all time (well except for Tom Brady)…
This day in history: Babe Ruth passes away of throat cancer, Aug. 16, 1948, at age 53…
It really deserves a whole column (or more) but this name, image, and likeness thing in college athletics is going to get really interesting – especially for non-power five conference members that rely on boosters for a large portion of their operating income. There is a real fear among athletic directors that boosters will look to pay players directly rather than donating to the school’s general athletic fund that is often used to pay debt service on facilities and scholarships for non-revenue sports. There are many other issues dealing with this subject that will bear watching in the future…
Y’all Have a Great Week.
By J. Daniel Pearson
For Positively Osceola
J. Daniel Pearson, a long-time resident of Osceola County, has joined Positively Osceola as a freelance contributor. His JD’s Monday Morning Musings column will be a regular feature and he will be covering events for us throughout the year. Dan is a former Public Relations Specialist for Florida State University, Boardwalk and Baseball, the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the Orlando Predators, and other professional sports teams and has been a freelance reporter to many newspapers in the state.
