The late Shirley Povich had the "Sportswriter" look, that made you want to get into sportswriting...
Good Afternoon! Happy Thanksgiving!
...then again so did Oscar Madison.
What am I thankful for?
I get paid to do this…Seriously, too many guys walk around in this business with chips on their shoulders or a major poles in their kiesters when doing this job…how ridiculous…if you don’t love it then get out…
“There’s nothing like practicing on Thanksgiving,” West Covina’s Mike Maggiore told his team last Friday night.
Well, there’s nothing like writing sports. If you look at it in the temporary, I guess its easy to lose the thrill or the passion, or the drive…But if you see it as something eternal (stay with me on this)…if you see placed in your hands the opportunity to record history…then you have the privilege/responsibility to capture a moment that will be referenced for generations to come. Don’t believe me?
How do you think I get all my information for “On this Date”… Do you think I get into a time machine and go back to 1963…I’m following the history other sportswriters from another time have written down.
I guess if you are lucky you get to cover the Declaration of Independence or the Gettysburg Address, or the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ… “Love the one your with” as Stephen Stills once sang…and I have been placed here…So here is where I record history in sports…
It is a blessing to be a sportswriter…If it’s not, then do something else…
What else am I thankful for?
Jim Singiser allows me to call him “His Arroyo Baldness”…
Matt Koffler allows me to link him with every gig from Treasurer of the United States to barmaid at the Silver Dollar…
I’m thankful I wasn’t Anthony White or anybody on the Temple City coaching staff after being eliminated from the playoffs a few weeks back…
And yes I am thankful I am healthy, blessed with a home, family…and to work for the best of the best in Connie Keenan.
I’m especially thankful/grateful to the troops…
I’m thankful I wasn’t at Arroyo’s game with Whittier Christian (Bah! Humbug!).
I’m thankful I have a energy hogging 52-inch flat screen to watch football on…
I’m thankful I got turned on to Survivor about six years ago…
I’m thankful every time Notre Dame loses, Andy Villathedevil’s wrong, and when I conn Peterson or Bad News Barker into picking up the check when we go out to eat…
I’m thankful I’m old enough to remember when music was good, and when men were men not men in skirts, who ink a tat to demonstrate some sort of pseudo toughness that shrinks in the face of life’s real challenges.
I’m thankful George Hernandez is with us when we hit Alfredo’s after football…
I’m thankful I don’t buy groceries for Big Tony Solorzano…
I’m thankful for bulldogs like Matt Schuler, Saile Ramirez, and Josh Ouellette…
I’m thankful for pretty boy Juan Carlos Salas who not only brought in Rio’s pizza and wings for the staff last Friday night but for the job he will give me when I’m in my old age and he’s calling the shots at ESPN.
On this date in 1963 Muir beat Arcadia, 20-14, in the first round of the CIF playoffs. The contest, played in front of 8,000 at Citrus College, was moved to a Tuesday following the assassination of President Kennedy.
Kelly Whitehill’s 43-yard touchdown pass to Tom Maves with 3:09 left in the fourth quarter gave the Mustangs the win.
Muir’s Ron Pritchett went 61-yards on the game’s first play to put the Mustangs up 6-0. Arcadia took the lead 7-6 on the next drive when quarterback Dave Vallone scrambled in from 17-yards. In the third quarter Vallone scored again from a yard out to make it 14-6.
Pritchett pulled Muir to within one later in the third on a 30-yard run down the southern sideline. Prior to Whitehill’s game winner to Maves, the Apaches stopped the Mustangs on four downs inside their own ten. The goal line stand was keyed by Arcadia linebacker Jim Schultz’s pass deflection.
Last Add Arcadia: For Paul Duhart’s Arcadians this would be their last playoff appearance until 1970. The 1963 loss also was the second time in three years the Apaches had lost to Muir in the playoffs (28-7, December 1, 1961 at Rose Bowl).
Last Add Muir: Art Teixeira’s Mustangs defeated Anaheim, thanks to the solid running of Cliff Coker, and advanced to the semifinals where they would play Long Beach Poly…Or so they thought.
Poly had beaten El Rancho in the second round, but was disqualified and placed on one year’s suspension along with head coach Bill Mulligan. Centennial HC Aaron Wade also received a severe censure from CIF and his program was place on suspension for a year.
The crime? They exchanged game film. Wade provided Mulligan with film from El Rancho’s 27-20 victory over Centennial in round one…and Mulligan “studied it”.
Last Add El Rancho: Given new life the Dons defeated Muir, 11-0 going into the game at the Rose Bowl, 32-20 and advanced to the CIF Finals. ER fell to Loyola, 21-0, in the title tilt at the L.A. Coliseum.
Las Add 1963: 23,681 fans saw a finals double-header that night, along with ER-Loyola, St. Francis beat La Mirada, 7-0, on Richard Zak’s 21-yard run with 2:53 left to play.
Finally: I wonder if the psychos offended by Ralph “Bingo” Lawler’s and Michael Smith’s comments about Iranian basketball and Iranian basketball players ever had a problem with the movie “White Men Can’t Jump”?
Stay thirsty my friends…
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