Nittany Lions jumping through high hoops

February 15, 2020

(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 ...

Black coaches still a rarity in NCAA football

February 10, 2020

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 ...

Powerful messages for women

February 9, 2020

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 ...

BG deserves homecourt edge, too

February 8, 2020

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’ ...

He’s seen it all in KC: Altoona native Moore part of Chiefs’ lore

January 29, 2020

Bob Moore’s cell phone has been blowing up lately. That’s what happens when you work for a team set to play in the Super Bowl. Moore has spent 40-plus years with the Kansas City Chiefs organization, first as its public relations director and the last 10 as the team’s historian. “People are calling me that I haven’t heard from forever,” Moore, a 1965 graduate of Altoona Area High School, and a ’69 grad of Saint Francis, said. “They ask about the family, but I know what they want.” Of course, they want tickets. Moore, 72, has been through the drill so he ...

Excitement builds with start of D6 2A Duals

January 28, 2020

The excitement of the 2019-2020 wrestling season gets ramped up a little bit more tonight when the first round of the District 6 Class 2A Duals begins. Glendale (13-1) enters the Duals as the No. 1 seed, while returning runner-up Huntingdon (11-3) is the second seed. Yes, Huntingdon beat Glendale, 46-34, at the Juniata Duals, but the Vikings have more points, 147.69-143.08, in the seeding system. Other area teams participating are sixth-seeded Philipsburg-Osceola (10-5), eighth-seeded Penn Cambria (6-4), 10th-seeded Central (5-7) and 12th-seeded Tyrone (4-7). Glendale, Huntingdon, ...