Montana, Gretzky and Smith on Same Team (not Joe, Wayne or Will)

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

All 3 sons seems to have a good future. The link to the full story is below.

Happy Gswede Wednesday!
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Quarterback Nick Montana is the son of Joe Montana, who led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl victories and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. His backup is Trevor Gretzky, whose father, Wayne, won four Stanley Cups and proceeded directly to the Hockey Hall of Fame after retiring as the N.H.L.’s career leading scorer.

One of Nick Montana’s favorite receivers is Trey Smith, a junior who is developing into a Division I prospect, Redell said. Trey’s father is the actor Will Smith, who has cleared his schedule so he can attend every game.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/sports/14oaks.html?emc=eta1

The Greatest Team You Never Heard Of

Kareem has always been an ispiration both on and off the court - this story is one of the reasons why. A few paragraphs and the link to the entire NY Times article are below.

Happy Gswede Thursday!
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Abdul-Jabbar’s Labor of Love

By HOWARD BECK
Published: September 30, 2009

Based on Abdul-Jabbar’s book of the same name, the documentary summons the musical, cultural and intellectual history of the Harlem Renaissance to tell the story of the Rens, an all-black New York team and, as Abdul-Jabbar calls it, “the greatest team you never heard of.”

The book was published in 2007. Abdul-Jabbar has been working on the film since then, with an expected release in February, during Black History Month. His mission is to convey the rarely told story of professional basketball’s roots.

“Everybody thinks it started in 1947, with the N.B.A., and they have no idea what professional basketball was like prior to the N.B.A.” Abdul-Jabbar, a Hall of Fame center who is now an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, said during an interview at the Armory. “In that era, it was a time when sports were segregated. A lot of people I talked to, interviewing them for the documentary, didn’t even know that the N.B.A. itself was segregated for its first three years of existence.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/sports/basketball/01jabbar.html?emc=eta1

Becoming President easier than Head College Football Coach?

You wouldn’t think that in 2009 it would be more likely for an African-American to become president of the United States than to be hired as head coach of a top-20 football program. But that seems to be the case.

Of 120 teams in the N.C.A.A.’s Bowl Subdivision, the top tier of play, only seven have black head coaches.
(Above is from the NY Times link below)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20dungy.html?ref=opinion

Two African-Americans have won the Super Bowl in recent years yet the top level of college football has a weak record of black head coaches.

Why?

This paragraph, written by former Indianapolis Colts Coach and Super Bowl champion Tony Dungy sums up the why: (full article is on link above)

With the progress that has been made in terms of diversity in politics, in other collegiate sports and in professional football — Edwards, Smith and Tomlin all got top jobs in the N.F.L. — why is college football hiring so far behind? At a seminar last spring in Indianapolis with other N.F.L. and college head coaches and university athletic directors, I asked that very question, and was enlightened by the responses of those directors. The biggest factor, they said, was the involvement of other people associated with the universities. It was not just the president and the athletic director who made the hiring decisions — alumni and boosters were involved, and the presidents often felt pressure to hire coaches the boosters would support.

One reason colleges should improve in this area comes from the same article:

February is also the month that high school football players choose the colleges they will attend in the fall. While it’s an exciting day for those seniors, it’s a disappointing day for me. You see, many of those players who choose the top schools are African-American and yet almost none of them will get the opportunity to play for an African-American head coach. Of 120 teams in the N.C.A.A.’s Bowl Subdivision, the top tier of play, only seven have black head coaches.

Will they bold enough to do the right thing? I hope so as we don't want to see the great strides made in racial relations begin to go the other way.

Gswede