I was asked a few weeks ago if I would be interested in writing a story for Elon University's alumni magazine about the magical season then unfolding for the Phoenix football team. As a former (or reformed) sports writer from my newspaper past and a sometime contributor to the Magazine of Elon I was a … Continue reading One more view from the press box
About sports
Updated 2021: Joe Morgan gets it right about the Baseball Hall of Fame
UPDATE January 27, 2021: This is a post from November of 2017 containing a letter written by a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame -- Joe Morgan -- during that year to the baseball writers who decide what former players and manages are in or out. It also contains a column I wrote in … Continue reading Updated 2021: Joe Morgan gets it right about the Baseball Hall of Fame
Another pitch for Bill Hunter’s addition to the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame
They buried Caulton Tudor the other day, an occasion for more than a few stories among sports writers who covered the ACC and other events in North Carolina the previous four decades. Lots of tall tales, lots of laughing, lots of memories shared of games covered and late nights afterward, when the deadline was history and … Continue reading Another pitch for Bill Hunter’s addition to the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame
The endgame for UNC and the NCAA is nothing to cheer about for anyone
For the University of North Carolina, seven years of scrutiny by the governing body of collegiate athletics, the NCAA, came to a close Friday. It ended not with a bang, but hardly a whimper either – unless UNC’s “Anybody but Carolina” rivals can be counted. Upon further review I might classify the latter’s response more … Continue reading The endgame for UNC and the NCAA is nothing to cheer about for anyone
Throwback Thursday: Not a football-related incident — really?
This is a column I wrote a couple of years ago for the Burlington Times-News about an incident that occurred in Alamance County back when I was a young sports writer in 1987. This involved something at a local high school and the actions of a coach and something he told me as if to … Continue reading Throwback Thursday: Not a football-related incident — really?
Honoring Elon football coaching legend Red Wilson
I stopped by my old newspaper office for a visit on Thursday. Bob Sutton, the longtime sports editor for the Times-News asked me what I might know about a reunion at Elon this weekend around the season-opening football game with Charleston Southern. "Nothing," I told him. Bob proceeded to fill me in. Apparently a group … Continue reading Honoring Elon football coaching legend Red Wilson
The Durham family business
UPDATE on March 7, 2018: Today the retired and longime voice of UNC basketball and football Woody Durham passed away at age 76. This is something I wrote three years ago when the Mebane native was honored by the Naismith Memorial National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. with a lifetime achievement award for broadcasting. … Continue reading The Durham family business
‘Black Coach’ revisited: Before ‘Remember the Titans’
“Black Coach”; by Pat Jordan; 1971; The Cornwall Press, Inc.; 248 pages. Late summer was dissolving into early fall the first time I walked into Burlington Memorial Stadium to watch a high school football game involving Walter Williams High School. The year was 1985. I began working as a sports writer for the Burlington Times-News … Continue reading ‘Black Coach’ revisited: Before ‘Remember the Titans’
Throwback Thursday: Under those Friday Night Lights
This is an editorial I wrote for the Burlington Times-News in August of 2014 to kick off the start of high school football season. Many forget that I began my newspaper career as a sports writer -- dating back to when I was 12 years old writing for a weekly publication in my hometown. Most … Continue reading Throwback Thursday: Under those Friday Night Lights
Dan Collins, a ‘Book of Fame’ worthy sports writer
When I was a shaggy young sports writer with a scraggly chin beard that was far more goat than tee, I cut an impressive figure in press boxes and press rows around the Atlantic Coast Conference, so outstanding almost no one noticed me at all. Typically I wore an outsized sports jacket courtesy of my … Continue reading Dan Collins, a ‘Book of Fame’ worthy sports writer
Madison's Avenue 