MidValleySports.Com

Joe T., always working hard…

By Joe Torosian

Kick it!

The first college football game I ever saw from start to finish was in 1974 when USC exploded in the second half and destroyed Notre Dame, 55-24.

It was the first time I put eyes on the Trojans Anthony Davis. To this point, he was always a mythic figure—I’d heard of him, but never saw him.

Then I watched him return the opening kickoff that second half to paydirt, and I got chills that still reverberate inside of me as I write these words.

As USC was hammering the Irish, there was a shot of Davis sitting on the bench. He was smiling, his hair was a mess, I have a memory of him wearing eye black, and then my brother, randomly, said, “How sad, it’s Anthony Davis’s last game at the Coliseum.”

I looked at him, stunned, because my first introduction to football was pro football, and for an instant, I thought he was crazy. USC would never trade Anthony Davis.

(My brother’s insanity, however, was confirmed a few years later when he said the Lakers should draft Sidney Moncrief over Magic Johnson because he believed Moncrief fit better into the Lakers’ style of play.)

Then my nine-year-old mind figured it out—Davis was graduating…and I was forever changed.

The tragedy, the urgency of college football and basketball (And yeah, you can say prep sports to some degree) struck me. There was only so much time, only so many chances, and it became clear not everyone was going to get an opportunity.

Yes, you could gather ye rosebuds, why ye may, but if you weren’t in the Big 10 or Pacific 8 conferences, you were never going to play in a Rose Bowl.

Never.

As we head to the NCAA Tourney…I remember that angst (urgency) watching Marquette go on its title run because I loved Al McGuire, those Warrior uniforms, Bo Ellis, Butch Lee, and Jerome Whitehead.

McGuire was retiring, and he had to go against North Carolina to get the ring.

I loved watching NC State’s run…Sidney Lowe, Derek Whittenberg, and Thurl Bailey in their final run…with no guaranteed tomorrow…going against Phi Slama Jama.

Villanova’s Easy Ed Pickney and Dwayne McClain getting one last shot—and never another—against Georgetown.

These college sports were all about making the most of time. And yes, I would have willingly sacrificed your right arm to play at that level, but like most of us, I never got the shot.

But what I did get and continue to participate in is today. You only have today. There will never be another March 10, 2026… There may be other days like it… But it will never be this one.

The lesson I learned all those years ago and have continued to appreciate is all about making the most of time.

The Dude abides…
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Galatians 2:20-21
jtbank1964@yahoo.com
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