Mishandled Alabama case sending wrong message

March 18, 2023

By Gene Lyons For the Mirror My own basketball coaching career ended many years ago, when my 13-and-under Billy Mitchell Boys Club squad lost to the Guy Thunderbirds in a one-sided blowout. My guys had laughed their foolish heads off all the way from Little Rock to Guy, a little country town in Arkansas’ Faulkner County. What were they going to play with, cow pies? As an inveterate reader of the sports pages, I knew something they didn’t. Guy-Perkins won the Class B high school championship most years. It’s a basketball town. My guys were strictly Boys Club all-stars. ...

Mailbag

March 11, 2023

PIAA needs more flexibility to better reward top teams The most watched sporting event each year by fans is March Madness as 68 NCAA Division I universities compete yearly for gold in basketball. Up until a few years ago, this field consisted of 64 teams. For whatever reasons, four schools (considered on the bubble) were added, and a seventh round, too, in hopes of providing more teams that thought they were left out prematurely. Pennsylvania has its own March Madness yearly, offering six gold medals from 192 high schools in six classes. One thing that bothered me yearly was ...

Coaches’ attire can speak volumes

March 11, 2023

By Jim Caltagirone For the Mirror Not that long ago, a man who worked in sales for one of our country’s largest steel manufacturers was expected to wear a coat and tie to the office each day. That man took pride in his appearance and in the sense of obligation he felt to create a positive reflection on the company. Then one day, he came home from work and announced to his family that coats and ties were no longer required. In fact, business casual was the company’s preferred dress code. It may seem like a small adjustment, but for that man, it was a shock to the system. The ...

Star QBs need to uncloud free agency

March 11, 2023

By Rob Maaddi The Associated Press NFL free agency kicks off next week and the biggest questions surround two star quarterbacks who aren’t on the list. Will Aaron Rodgers retire, return to Green Bay or get traded to the Jets or another team? Will Lamar Jackson get a contract offer from any team knowing Baltimore can match it? The league’s legal tampering period opens Monday and plenty of free agents will be on the move when players can officially start signing new deals Wednesday. Quarterbacks, of course, get the most money and attention. Derek Carr, Geno Smith and ...

Mailbag

March 4, 2023

Athletes using their platform to speak out is a good thing I would like to talk about the rights of athletes and sports teams as a whole to protest. In recent history, we have seen many athletes protest for their beliefs and feelings, whether that be Black Lives Matter or whatever else they believe in. Colin Kaepernick comes to mind right away as one of the most prominent protesters in the sports world, known for kneeling during the national anthem to display his belief of racial and ethnic equality. The NBA playoffs from a few years ago also come to mind. Three games were ...

Despite extraordinary success, Franco Harris never changed

March 4, 2023

By Ron Rossi For the Mirror When Altoona Mirror managing Editor Neil Rudel reached out to me in December to ask for comment on the sudden passing of my good friend, Franco Harris, I simply responded by texting him, “There are no words.” Now, after reflecting more than two months, the words are slowly coming. In the fall of 1968, as a 17-year-old freshman at Penn State, the first new friend I made was Lydell Mitchell. The second was Franco Harris. Lydell had an outgoing personality and was a member of the freshmen football team. We initially got acquainted over a ...