Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Top 12 Sets of Athletic Siblings
Have you seen the Tv market for Oreos in which the Williams sisters and Manning brothers both appear, playafully bickering and bantering as real brothers and sisters do?
That got us to mental about other sublime American athletic brothers and sisters. The Williamses and Mannings are a good start as you couldn't think of great sports siblings ... Venus and Serena can boast 16 Grand Slam singles tennis championships in the middle of them, and seven in doubles; and Peyton and Eli both have won a Super Bowl as Nfl quarterbacks.
Here are some other families to remember, and the key to choice is that the siblings have to be similarly finished ... I.e., you could mention brothers Hank and Tommie Aaron as both appeared in the majors, but Hall of Famer Hank played in 3,298 Games and obscure Tommie in just 437, so they don't make our list. Sorry, ladies, the Williamses are the only sublime U.S. Athletic sisters we could come up with.
Here's the rest of our top 12 (we couldn't keep it to 10) and the decades of their main performance. Bear in mind, there have been more than 300 sets of brothers just in expert baseball and football each, so there's a lot to pick from and our apologies in strengthen if there's someone we should have mentioned and didn't.
The Barber* brothers, football, 2000s: Tiki was a star running back for the Giants; Ronde still starts at cornerback for the Tampa Bay Bucs. Both have made All-Pro.
The Browner brothers, football, 1980s: This is probably our championship set of athletic brothers with four ... Four! ... Of 'em having played in the Nfl. Ross, a huge star at Notre Dame, and Joey each spent 10 years in the pros but Jim and Keith also enjoyed important time.
The Dean brothers, baseball, 1930s: Colorful Hall of Famer Dizzy won 30 Games for the Cardinals in 1934 and 28 the next year; teammate and brother Paul won 19 games each those two years.
The DiMaggio brothers, baseball, 1930s, '40s and '50s: everyone knows Joe with the Yankees but Dom also excelled for the Red Sox, foremost the Al twice in runs and once in triples. A third brother, Vince, also made the majors and drove in 100 runs in 1941 with the Pirates but is also unfortunately noted for striking out 134 times in 1938, a huge whole and in fact a report back then.
The Grant* brothers, basketball, 1990s: Horace, 6-foot-10, started at power transmit for the Bulls' great three consecutive Nba championship teams (1991-93); Harvey, 6-8, spent 11 years in the Nba with assorted squads, and averaged over 18 points a game in three seasons.
The Mahre* brothers, skiing, 1980s: Phil took gold in the slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics, Steve finishing right behind him.
The Matthews brothers, football, 1980s: Bruce was a Hall of Fame nasty guard with the Oilers and Titans; Clay toiled an foreseen, 19 years as a linebacker with some teams.
The Perry brothers, baseball, 1960s and '70s: Spitballing Gaylord won 20 games five times with a high of 24 during 22 years with assorted teams; Jim also won 24 games with the Twins in 1970 as the feature of his 17-year career.
The Sharpe brothers, football, 1980s, '90s: Shannon was a star tight end mainly with the Broncos; Sterling had seven sterling years as a wide receiver with the Packers.
The Waner brothers, baseball, 1920s and '30s: 5-foot-8 Paul and 5-foot-9 Lloyd, outfielders together on the Pirates, both are Hall of Famers. Paul averaged .333 lifetime with 3,152 hits and led the Nl three times in midpoint among other accomplishments; Lloyd led the league in runs, hits and triples once each in assorted seasons and averaged .316 over his career.
Honorable mention: the Bryans* (Bob and Mike) and Gulliksons* (Tom and Tim) in tennis, the Hamms* (Paul and Morgan) in gymnastics, the Barrys (Brent, Jon and Drew), Kings (Albert and Bernard) and van Arsdales* (Tom and Dick), in basketball, the Boyers (Ken and Clete), Ferrells (Wes and Rick) and Niekros (Phil and Joe) in baseball, the Baileys (Champ and Boss), Bladeses (Bennie and Brian), Golics (Mike and Bob), Hannahs (Charley and John), Joneses (Thomas and Julius) and McKeevers (Marlin and Mike) in football, the Heberts (Jay and Lionel) in golf.
* denotes twins.
One parting shot: how about a few sublime brother/sister athletic duos? We nominate 1) Billie Jean King and Randy Moffitt. Billie Jean, who grew up Billie Jean Moffitt, of course went on to win a dozen Grand Slams in tennis; Randy spent 12 seasons in the majors as a reliever, going 8-4 in 70 games in his best season in 1978 with the Giants. 2) Reggie and Cheryl Miller. 6-foot-7 Reggie spent 18 years in the Nba, all with the Pacers, and holds the league occupation report for three-pointers (2,560); 6-2 Cheryl remains the all-time foremost scorer at Usc (3,018, 23.6) and led the U.S. Women's hoops team to 1984 Olympic gold. 3) Candace and Anthony Parker. 6-foot-4 Candace, a basketball star at Tennessee and known for being the first women's college player to dunk, now is with the Los Angeles Sparks and was the Wnba's No. 1 overall draft pick; 6-6 Anthony has started at shooting guard for the Toronto Raptors, averaging 12.5 points a game last season.
One more parting shot: if we vast this to include foreign siblings who excelled in U.S. Sports, we could mention the Alomar (Roberto and Sandy) and Alou (Felipe, Jesus and Matty) brothers in baseball and the Sorenstam (Annika and Charlotta) sisters in golf.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Rock and the House, Nicknames For Memorial Stadium, Where Indiana University (Iu) Hoosiers Play
Memorial Stadium is the name of the football stadium that the University of Indiana (Iu) Hoosiers play their home football Games in. The beloved campus fixture in Bloomington, Indiana is ordinarily referred to by a join of endearing nicknames by students, alumni, and fans in general. The most beloved of these nicknames are "The Rock" and "The House."
The nickname The Rock started in 2005 as an endearing nickname for the Indiana University football stadium that can hold a capacity crowd of 52,692 screaming fans. Although the original architecture firm of Eggers & Higgins (based in New York City) never planned for the stadium that first opened in October of 1960 to ever be called anything other than Memorial Stadium the nickname shift occurred in 2005.
In 2005 the head football coach at the school was a man by the name of Terry Hoeppner and fans who appreciate the nickname "The Rock" have Mr. Hoeppner to thank. Although Terry Hoeppner was only with the Indiana Hoosiers for two seasons he left a continuing patrimony in terms of a nickname for Memorial Stadium that so far has proven thriving in standing the test of time. Perhaps the most beloved decision Coach Hoeppner ever made was having a large piece of limestone driven in and placed as a landmark in the north end zone. The large limestone bolder originated locally in Indiana and actually first appeared on the football convention field before being moved to the north end zone in Memorial Stadium.
During the two season tenure that Coach Hoeppner enjoyed as the head coach of the Big Ten Hoosiers he instituted a short lived tradition of having every player touch the rock before taking the field for each home game. This ritual inspired the nickname "The Rock" for Memorial Stadium. Sadly, on June 19, 2007 Coach Hoeppner lost his battle with brain cancer and passed away at the age of 59.
Bill Mallory was a predecessor of Terry Hoeppner as the head football coach at Indiana University. Coach Mallory served the agenda dutifully from 1984 through 1996. It was while the reign of Coach Mallory that Memorial Stadium was predominately referred to simply as "The House." Over the years "The House" nickname has faded with time and "The Rock" has predominately taken its place as a nickname for Memorial Stadium that honors the late Coach Hoeppner.
Exactly what hereafter nicknames will one day be beloved in Bloomington, Indiana remains to be seen. For the time being though fans of the Hoosiers football agenda are more than happy to refer to their beloved Memorial Stadium as "The Rock."
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