This past Valentine’s Day, the NFL felt obligated to ruin the mood for one of their own, announcing that Baltimore Ravens’ tackle James Hurst will be suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2020 regular season for violating league policy on performance-enhancing substances. ...
Penn State’s 2020 team deserves an NCAA banner This is in response to the March 29 question of the week of whether Penn State should hang an NCAA banner for this year’s men’s basketball team. Can anybody think why the banner should not be hung? My answer is a thundering yes that ...
As the play-by-play announcer on Saint Francis men’s basketball home games, I have enjoyed courtside seats along with my broadcast partner, Bernie Jubeck, at the Stokes Center and witnessed a renaissance period for Red Flash hoops. After decades of mediocrity, the Flash of the past four ...
Link upheld standard for area officials In my 45 years of basketball officiating, I had the pleasure to know Tom Link. My first encounter was many years ago when he was the athletic director at Cambria Heights High school and had called me to officiate junior high and junior varsity ...
My best wishes for everyone to stay safe and healthy. It appears that spectator sports will be suspended for months, but I will continue my Ira on Sports show, and its focus will remain sports, even if no sports will be played. I have had coaches and players from all sports as well as ...
Syracuse played great football, too I just read Cory Giger’s piece (March 19) on Pearl Washington and how he started following Syracuse. Giger said that Washington put Syracuse on the national map. I am sorry that none of his family members never mentioned Syracuse as the university ...
“B ... Bear ... Barbell ... Beerbelly ... Berardinelli!” This was the chant echoed by many Bishop Guilfoyle football players during the 1970s to honor our iconic line coach/defensive coordinator, Lou Berardinelli, and he loved it. The chant began during my junior year and was arguably ...
Here in Arizona, upscale bistros that offer fresh guacamole prepared tableside are all the rage. Savvy restauranteurs know they won’t stay in business long if they select rock hard, unripened avocados from the local grocer as it results in a bland, tasteless product. The same principles ...
Name: Joe Landolfi Age: 69 Residence: Altoona High school: Bishop Guilfoyle College: UMass My favorite sport: Basketball I usually attend games with: My friends Favorite high school team: Altoona and Bishop Guilfoyle Favorite college team: Duke Favorite pro team: Boston ...
John William “Bill” Robison, also known by his friends as Billy, Willy, Rob or Robby, died Feb. 26. Robison and I graduated from Altoona Area High School in 1971 and were members of the Mountain Lion football team. During our junior year, I had the pleasure of watching from the sidelines ...
By Jay Cohen The Associated Press MESA, Ariz. — Gaylord Perry threw a spitball. Joe Niekro had an emery board and a piece of sandpaper. Whitey Ford used his wedding ring. Pitchers have been tinkering with the ball for years in search of an advantage, skirting and — occasionally — ...
Rob Manfred’s actions regarding baseball’s latest scandal mirrored the country’s attempts to quarantine the coronavirus, a pathetic attempt to prevent the spread of his sport’s contagion from infecting spring training games where fans lather themselves in SPF-50 then fork over top ...
I read with great interest and enthusiasm Neil Rudel’s Feb. 15 column, “Nittany Lions jumping through high hoops” that focused on the recent, long anticipated resurgence of Penn State men’s basketball. Let’s face facts: For most of the 21st century, Nittany Lion hoop ...
I am writing about Mike Boytim’s column Sunday (“BG deserves homecourt edge, too”) on the Bishop Guilfoyle-Altoona basketball game. As a former Marauder of the class of 1975, we were the first BG team to play Altoona at the AAHS Fieldhouse. The year before, as was tradition, we ...
By Ralph Russo The Associated Press College football needs to place a moratorium on the use of the words loyalty and commitment. Everybody involved, coaches, administrators and, yes, even players have ceded the right to demand it from others. “I think what we have created is a ...
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, ...
By Steve Reed The Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — While Cam Newton remains optimistic about his chances of playing for the Carolina Panthers next season, the team is remaining mostly silent on the quarterback’s future. “He’s rehabbing, that’s all I can say,” Panthers general ...
Name: Mike Allison Age: 42 Residence: Altoona High school: Altoona College: Penn State Altoona My favorite sport: Basketball I usually attend games with: Family and friends Favorite high school team: Altoona Favorite college team: A tie between Penn State and North ...
MIAMI — Jerry Izenberg can still write, as anyone who reads his columns in the Star-Ledger in New Jersey knows. Just the other day he wrote a good one about an aging sports writer who has been to every Super Bowl since the first one in 1967. That sports writer won’t be in Miami this week. ...
Aaron Rodgers had a dream to make another Super Bowl, but it wasn’t to be. Fans will remember his legacy of performing that magic touch of coming from behind to win so many times. He has been my favorite professional quarterback as he’s been a person of integrity and role model for so ...