During my growing-up years in Dallas, the name of Mildred “Babe” Didrikson was frequently written and spoken. Everybody, it seems, knew about this Norwegian-American athletic marvel. Born in Port Arthur, she moved with her family to...
The sports world is reeling after the death of Kobe Bryant in a Los Angeles-area helicopter crash Sunday morning. It is no surprise that this calamity has sparked intense media attention and over-the-top praise for Bryant, who lived just 41...
“Physical fitness is the foundation of national strength. We must not forget for even a moment that cultivating a strong and fit people, and making sport an everyday part of people’s lives will provide the vitality necessary for the task of...
Offense Quarterback—Roger Staubach of Navy (1962−1964) Running backs—Jim Brown of Syracuse (1954−1956) and Herschel Walker of Georgia, (1980−1982) Receivers—Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley State (1981−1984) and Larry Fitzgerald of Pittsburgh...
![Tommy Nobis Was not an [Bad Word]!](https://richardpennington.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Nobis-helmet-at-UT.jpg)
I refuse to take responsibility for the flaws of Texas Longhorns Football History A to Z (2007). For one thing, the Boston-based publisher assigned me a female editor who was clueless about sports writing conventions. And while I was happy to...
I spent most of 1995, 1996 and 1997 researching, writing and nudging Longhorn Hoops / The History of Texas Basketball toward publication. Funded on the cheap by the UT athletic department, it was brought out in 1998 by UT Press. I was in touch...
The fall semester has now begun at the University of Georgia, located in the charming town of Athens. I surmise that each of the 5,750 students in the present freshman class (largest in UGA history) has high hopes, dreams and aspirations. This is...
Marching and picketing, sit-ins, court rulings, freedom rides, grassroots activism, soaring oratory, physical resistance and fervent prayers contributed to the success of the civil rights movement. But minor league baseball also helped eliminate...
Robert T. Hill Junior High School was not exactly a cornucopia of athletic talent in the 1966−67 school year, at least among the ninth graders. The Highlanders football team went 1-8, and most of its top players were eighth graders like Blake...
Magnolia Park is just a few miles north of downtown Beaumont, Texas. That is where, in the early 1960s, high school football players gathered to practice and play informal games. Recreation for black kids then was minimal, so they created their...
According to Stanley Woodward of the New York Herald Tribune, some major fireworks went off just three weeks after Jackie Robinson began his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Certainly there had been opposition to Robinson...
I was on a radio show about 20 years ago. One of the other interviewees was Dr. John Butler, a faculty member at the University of Texas. Dr. Butler, a tall, savvy man of African descent, had helped integrate Louisiana State University as an...
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