There’s a chance that both Penn State and Saint Francis will be playing in the NCAA Tournament in two weeks. I honestly cannot believe I just wrote those words. The Nittany Lions have been to a grand total of five NCAA Tournaments since 1965. Saint Francis has been to only one, in ...
Jarrod Klausman has spent his life in sports, often alongside his dad, Jim. They were part of a championship team in Little League, including the prestigious Dean Patterson Little World Series, and later coached in the Hollidaysburg basketball program under Mick Pentoney and Brad Lear. ...
(This column was published Saturday and updated with the latest AP ranking today.) There’s never been a Penn State basketball season quite like the one that’s developing before our eyes. Yes, the Nittany Lions have had great players (Jesse Arnelle, Joe Crispin, Talor Battle), and yes, they’ve had great moments (beating North Carolina and UCLA in the NCAA Tournament to go with a pair of NIT titles). But the only team that comes close to this one is the 1995-96 entry. Rewinding the tape: The Lions moved into the freshly-minted Bryce Jordan Center in January of 1996. Bruce ...
Colleges around the country wrapped up their football signing classes this week, proudly touting scores of African-American athletes as the next big stars. It’s a whole different situation on the sideline. Segregation still rules the coaching ranks. And not just the top guys. A review of all 130 Football Bowl Subdivision schools found shockingly low numbers, with blacks still largely shut out of head coaching positions and, to an even greater degree, the prime coordinator spots. While the NFL has come under fire for its lack of minority coaches, the situation appears more ...
What a week it was. Sports headlines should have been dominated by preparations for the Super Bowl, but instead, the biggest show on earth was overshadowed by the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others in a California helicopter crash. In the days that followed, Bryant, his fellow parents, their daughters, coach and pilot were remember with tributes from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to Italy. But it was an old clip from an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show that provided a special, girl-power smile for many. Kobe was talking about people telling him he should ...
Perhaps the most interesting boys basketball game of the season in Blair County is set to be played Monday night. The concern centers around how many people will actually get to watch it. Altoona will visit Bishop Guilfoyle’s Pleasant Valley Gymnasium for the first time in four years, and with both teams playing well, tickets are hard to find — impossible, in fact, for some people. Bishop Guilfoyle’s gym seats about 700, and BG sold around 600 tickets, including for its student section, which is positioned on a stage below one of the baskets. According to Altoona athletics’ ...
