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Thank you, Ryan Malone: Celebrating the Lightning’s title

Thank you Ryan Malone. You changed my life. There was no hockey culture in Altoona in the late 90s. The sports gods played at Three Rivers Stadium and Beaver Stadium. When I learned how to skate, you had two options in the area and only one of them had ice — Sir Skate behind the VA Hospital and Greenberg Ice Pavilion in State College. But when Galactic Ice opened, a small, but strong hockey culture started to grow and so did my love for the game. Along with that grew a love for the Pittsburgh Penguins. In my house, I’m not sure I would have been fed if I wasn’t a ...

Made-for-TV golf pretty enjoyable

They aren’t real competitions, but somehow I find myself enjoying the made-for-TV golf exhibitions that have been aired in recent years. The latest, dubbed the Match IV, took place earlier this week and featured the team of Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady versus Bryson DeChambeau and Aaron Rodgers. Each competitor is miked up, so it’s fun to hear the needling and other banter that goes on between shots. Each player also wears an earpiece so they can also interact with the announcers and other commentators. It is definitely a change of pace when compared to the calm and cool ...

A few puffs, bad rule hurt Richardson

She could have — make that should have — been a breakout star in an Olympics desperate for any kind of positive jolt. Sha’Carri Richardson has the look and she has the goods, and it wasn’t out of the question to picture her walking around Tokyo with a pair of gold medals draped around her neck. That it won’t happen is as much Richardson’s fault as it is the doing of arcane doping rules. A few puffs of marijuana wouldn’t have helped her win the 100-meter race at the Tokyo Olympics, but they were enough to get her booted from the U.S. team even before it was officially ...

Mickelson uses power play on media

Phil Mickelson’s diet these days appears to consist of coffee and low-hanging fruit. And it’s turning into quite a feast. The early summer months on the PGA Tour should be on the sleepy side as players recharge from the U.S. Open during a three-week window before the British Open, and it gets even more crowded for the Olympians. The Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit came roaring to life long before Cam Davis of Australia won a five-hole playoff. It started the day Mickelson arrived to play the tournament for the first time. The Detroit News ran a story from a 2007 ...

Local girls team reaches national finals

Marc Frye’s U-13 Classic Division 1 Energy girls soccer squad, out of the local FC 814 Soccer Club, made a huge mark as one of the best teams to come from our area when it recently won the Regional Presidents Cup Tournament in Barboursville, W.Va. The Energy are only the third team in the ...

Ranking the area’s top golfers by decade, part two

The following is a list of the area’s best golfers over the most recent five decades. The list includes amateur golfers only, which affects the likes of Jimmy Gillam, who has spent the bulk of his golfing career as a professional. The list is also limited to members of Altoona-area courses only, so golfers like Ed Strickler and Frank Frontino, who played most of their golf outside of Blair County are also not included in this summary. A look at the past five decades: 1970s: Wes Lingenfelter A standout athlete at Juniata College, Lingenfelter was one of the founding ...