The calendar reads mid-August, the weather indicates early July, regardless, it’s now the traditional eve of the Michigan transition from linear focus to kaleidoscope. As the Tigers occupy the main headlines in mid-summer, dependent on the Pistons and Red Wings post-season advancements, the roars or groans of thousands are in preparation for the return to the gridiron.

   Whether Lion, Chippewa, Wolverine, Spartan or Laker, rest assured, football is upon us. The following six months will determine the Super Bowl contenders and decide the fate of more than one head coach and his tenure on the sidelines.

   On paper, every team and program shouts improvement (except Grand Valley State, who seem to be headed to unbeaten seasons annually) and the die is cast; draft choices join free agents in a sixteen game quest to mark the days, avoid injuries and see if effort truly equals results.

   Colleges and universities welcome returning lettermen, greet incoming freshmen and look to the heavens with transfers and walk-ons to test their fortunes, along with the nerves of a multitude of alumni, for the right to be playing after Christmas in warmer climes.

   It now becomes a race for the fit, the committed and sound leadership to steer their vessels into the emerging sunlight of accomplishment…not back to the darkness of underachievement!

   Let the coin toss begin.

When you hear about deaths, there is an old saying that they happen in threes.

In the past eight weeks, the sports world has been rocked with four legends passing away.

From the Midwest, to the West, to the Northeast, three major cities have lost iconic figures. I’m not going to get into a long drawn out story this time. I’ve already written two tributes already with another one on the way.

But here is a brief recap.

It began on May 4 when Cancer claimed the life of Detroit Tigers Hall of Fame Broadcaster Ernie Harwell. When I saw Ernie in December of 2008, I really thought he could have lived until 100, but at 92, Harwell came up eight years short.

One Month later, the greatest college basketball coach ever John Wooden (99) passed away on June 4 due to old age. He would have celebrated his 100 birthday on October 14 and I could just imagine the celebration there would have been on the UCLA Campus if he had reached that milestone. We all know that Los Angeles knows how to throw a great party. If there is a disadvantage to having a birthday late in the year, this was it.

It took five weeks as the ESPN family of networks pounced on another tribute. This one came on July 11 as long-time Yankees Public Address Announcer Bob Sheppard (99) passed away. Like Wooden, Sheppard was due to celebrate his 100 birthday later in the year on October 20. It’s unbelievable that Wooden is just six days older than Sheppard and they both died five weeks apart.

As if New York and Yankee fans had enough to grieve about, it took 48 hours for another legend to go down.

The baby of this group was Owner George M Steinbrenner.

He just celebrated in 80 birthday on July 4 and on July 13, the day of the All-Star Game, this controversial stick of dynamite found himself in heaven reunited with his old buddy and Manager Billy Martin watching the game at the old Yankee Stadium.

I’ll do a separate tribute on Steinbrenner in a couple days because I had a couple of interesting experiences with him that are worth sharing. But for now, I’m just amazed that as I was gearing up to watch the Mid-Summer Classic, I found myself listening to tributes on Steinbrenner all day as Fox and ESPN blanketed this story finding every credible person to voice their experiences.

When you add up the ages of these four men, we’re looking at 370 years worth of life. The memories and impact that they had on their communities will last forever. But to see them pass so quickly and close to one another is mind boggling.

There is no doubt that Harwell, Sheppard and Steinbrenner have seen a lot of curve ball’s in their baseball careers, so I’ve decided to throw one myself.

During this May 4-July 13, time frame, Diff’rent Strokes Actor Gary Coleman, who was 4 feet, 8 inches, died on May 28. He celebrated his 42 birthday on February 8, and while he certainly didn’t live as long as the other four legends listed above, his impact on television with those of us in our 30’s-50’s for his great sense of humor on that television show will never be forgotten.

So as the headline says, Who Is Next? I hope we don’t find out for a long while. But I have a feeling that won’t be the case. I hope I’m wrong.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

I was hoping I’d be wrong and there wouldn’t be another major death for awhile, but another legend is headed to his new eternal life.

This time, former New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox Manager Ralph Houk died Wednesday night peacefully because of natural causes at the age of 90 at his home in Winter Haven, Florida. He would have turned 91 on August 9 but was born in Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the Jayhawks.

Here is a trivia question.

Who was the first manager that worked for the late George Steinbrenner?

You guessed it, it was Ralph Houk.

He managed for Steinbrenner for one season in 1973, then resigned to accept a position for the Detroit Tigers where he piloted the club from 1974-1978.

Houk has nine World Series Championship titles. He earned six as a player with the Yankees a pair as manager of the Bronx Bombers and another as a Vice President in 1987 with the Minnesota Twins.

During his managerial career, he had a winning percentage of .514, and won 1,619 of 3,157 games. He is 15th all-time in wins in MLB history.

In Detroit, he compiled a 363-442 mark with a .450 percentage.

Of his three stops, this was undoubtedly his most challenging position. During his tenure, the team sunk to 102 losses in 1975 and had only one winning season. In three other seasons, the team lost 87, 88 and 90 games.

But in his final campaign of 1978, the Tigers finished with his lone winning year compiling an 86-76 mark.

I’ll never forget the only time that I interviewed Houk in 1983 during Spring Training when he was managing the Boston Red Sox. I asked him about his experience in Detroit and I found “The Major” to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

He took the job as Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline was retiring.

I asked Houk if the Tigers job was a bigger challenge than he expected. He laughed with a big grin and said it was but never regretted taking the position.

In fact, he told me because of the support from the Tigers front office, he worked harder to rebuild the franchise and bring it back to respectability.

Despite all of the losses, in 1976, the Tigers were the most exciting 74-87 team in baseball history and Houk had the best seat in the house on the perch of the dugout.

While fans paid good money to see a young pitcher by the name of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, the skipper watched the AL Rookie of the Year compile a 19-9 record, with a 2.34 ERA and 24 complete games.

Fidrych finished second in the AL Cy Young Award voting and along with Rusty Staub, Ron LeFlore, played in the 1976 All-Star Game and was the starting pitcher.

As I heard the announcement of Houk’s death during the Washington Nationals VS Cincinnati Reds game featuring baseball’s newest upcoming star Stephen Strasburg, be limited to 97 pitches and 5.2 innings, it made me think of Fidrych.

It’s already been said that the Nationals will shut Strasburg down when he’s reached the clubs innings limit for the season.

How many pitchers, especially Strasburg, would ever do what Fidrych did in 1976 when he had two complete game 11 innings wins? One of Fidrych’s victories was over future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. Would Strasburg have amassed 24 complete games? Absolutely Not!

In Houk’s old Yankee Stadium stomping grounds, 52, 707 fans watched the skippers prize rookie win a 3-0 decision over Dock Ellis as “The Bird” talked to the ball, along with the rest of his mound antics, thus leaving more New Yorkers talking about what they saw on that September 12 evening.

To go along with Fidrych’s memorable season, Houk piloted the Tigers against the Milwaukee Brewers as Hall of Famer Hank Aaron had his last at bat which was an RBI single to short stop off Dave Roberts in the bottom of the sixth inning on Oct 3 in Wisconsin.

In the end, Houk is the man that build the nucleus of the Tigers 1984 World Championship team which Sparky Anderson managed. Then, in 1987, with the Twins, it was Houk who saw his Twins defeat the Tigers and Minnesota won the World Series.

While Houk has nine championships, he’s really responsible for 10 titles!

Houk’s work in Boston from 1981-84 enabled him to build the core of this franchise that reached the 1986 World Series.

With all that he accomplished with four cities and even the lessons todays baseball people have learned how to handle young pitchers despite Fidrych’s short and sweet career, it’s unfortunate that I’m writing another tribute and feel like an obituary story.

Now the total is five legends since May 4 and it gets strange wondering when the next icon will pass. But stay tuned, we’re on a roll for all of the wrong reasons. I hope another one doesn’t bite the dust anytime soon!

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

Dave Villwock captured his eighth Gold Cup with a dominating performance on the Detroit River in the 101st running of the Jarvis Property Restoration/Grosse Pointe Yacht Club APBA Gold Cup over the weekend. With this 8th win, in the super bowl of boat racing, Villwock, piloting the Spirit of Qatar, equaled the mark of the legendary Bill Muncey and is only three behind all-time leader Chip Hanauer.

With 60 overall wins in the unlimited class, he is but one shy of Hanauer and two behind Muncey. Villwock powered his way to four preliminary heat wins and a maximum of 1600 points and had little trouble in the final cruising to a several boat length victory over Steve David in the Oh Boy! Oberto averaging 143.971 mph. David, the two-time defending high points champion, clocked 141.170. Villwock has won the last three Gold Cups; 2007, 2009 and 2010. The race was canceled in 2008 due to constant high winds on the river.

“The course was very rough," said Villwock. "The Oberto was really good in the rough water but I think we were set up well for all types of conditions."  There was a 25 minute delay in the final as winds were reported at near 30 mph, at the start it was more like10-12 said course referee Lee Hertz.

Following Villwock and David to the checkered flag were:

J Michael Kelley-Graham Trucking. 133.471
Greg Hopp-Jarvis Construction. 130.935 
Jeff Bernard-Formula-boats.com. 124.512

A very scary moment on Saturday, in an otherwise great weekend of boat racing that included Off-shores, Vintage and other classes, was the accident of JW Myers, whose boat lost it’s left side skid fin (that holds the boat on track for the difficult left turns) and sent Myers into the Roostertail point. Myers has broken bones in his  foot but returned to the pits on Sunday and was greeted by well-wishers throughout the afternoon.

The USC Sports Scandals centering around former basketball player O.J. Mayo and Heisman Trophy Winner Reggie Bush are just the latest pitfalls as to what’s really wrong with major collegiate athletics. The whole system is completely corrupt! When it comes to major revenue sports such as football and basketball, it’s hard to name a major university which hasn’t had problems over the years. What factor is attributed to all of these probation’s that have led to reduction of scholarships, revocation of wins, championship banners removed from the rafters and no participation in future post-season games, statistics not counting in the team’s record books, etc.? Money! Cash! Money! Cash! Who is taking advantage of who? To me, the answer is simple. The university’s are making tons of money off the athletes and it appears as though the student falls short on cash because rules prohibit them from accepting part-time jobs to dedicate themselves to work in the classroom and practice time. There is no question that there is such a high premium placed on winning that there isn’t enough time to hold a job. Therefore, athletes turn to boosters and other avenues as a way to put money in their pocket to get buy. The NCAA has to increase the value of the scholarship and pay the athletes some extra money. It may not solve the problem but it should help take the pressure off. Yet, being a former college student myself at the University of South Florida, it’s permissible for other students to work jobs but not athletes. I had friends that had academic scholarships that worked as well and as long as their grades were high enough, there was no problem. While the immediate focus is on USC Athletics and what doesn’t help matters is the fact that former Coach Pete Carroll returned to the NFL to run the Seattle Seahawks operation perhaps anticipating there would be severe sanctions coming, thus it was tough to turn down the millions he’d get in the pros, I’m going to name a bunch of schools that have crossed the line over the years in both basketball and football. There is a reason that Rick Pitino’s name hangs in the rafters at Rupp Arena. In 1989, he rescued the program from a major recruiting scandal by former Coach Eddie Sutton and led the Kentucky Wildcats to a national championship in 1996. It was the school’s first in 18 years. The reason that Kelvin Sampson is an assistant coach in the NBA is he has the dubious distinction of bringing down the Oklahoma Sooners and the Indiana Hoosiers. For years, Bobby Knight ran a clean program and won three national championships for Indiana. Now Tom Crean, who was hired on April 1, 2008, must feel like an April fool because of the mess that he inherited with the Hoosiers. The Michigan Wolverines Basketball scandal centered around booster Ed Martin which led to the firing of Coach Steve Fisher in 1997. Four eventual pro players, Chris Webber, Louis Bullock, Maurice Taylor and Robert Traylor borrowed a total of $616,000. This scandal cost the Wolverines the 1997 National Invitation Tournament, the 1998 Big Ten Championship, as well as appearances in 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament Final Fours. The program hasn’t been the same since. Yet, the players moved on and made their money. Over the years, the following football programs have faced the wrath of the penalties levied by the NCAA. Oklahoma, Auburn, Alabama, the Miami Hurricanes, Florida Gators and Michigan State Spartans have had the hammer drop on them. Nobody in Gainesville is saying anything nice about Charley Pell who caused the Gators aggravation in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s as Pell was suspected of 107 infractions and was fired three games into the 1984 season. He was replaced by Galen Hall, who won the SEC Championship, only to see that title stripped because of the violations. Darryl Rogers bailed the Spartans out of some tough times after inheriting a mess left behind from Coach Denny Stolz in the 1970’s. The list of problems goes on and on. Yet, we know the reasons for them. The NCAA has no problem forcing schools to vacate titles, scrap past records, etc. But lets face the reality, the NCAA profited on all of these scandals. They made money just has baseball did during the steroid era. You can’t erase the memories for those who witnessed these moments. In the NCAA’s eyes, the games never happened, therefore, the tapes and videos should be destroyed and never be shown again on ESPN Classic. Refunds should be granted to those that deserve them, yet we know that would never happen. The Media Guides have become wasted paper. College coaches have become the highest paid baby sitters. For every Butch Davis that turns the fortunes around like he did with the Miami Hurricanes, only to see Larry Coker win the national championship, there are the politics of a flawed system which forces these men to consider playing ping pong on whether to stay in college or go to the pros. Michigan State Basketball Coach Tom Izzo is facing the toughest decision of his life whether to stay employed at $3 million per year until 2016 or double his salary to $6 million working for the Cleveland Cavaliers Owner & Spartans alumnus Dan Gilbert on a 4-5 year contract. For Izzo, if he makes the jump to the NBA, all he has to do is coach. Izzo knows that while he’s done an outstanding job running a clean program, it takes one major incident to wreck a situation. Current Gators Basketball Coach Billy Donovan has all of the security he needs but did leave to take the Orlando Magic job, however, he changed his mind to stay in school in 2007. Izzo must be going through this right now talking to close family and friends. With the recent football firings this past year, and current conference realignment leading to the emphasis on super conferences, the whole system is flawed. The NCAA will continue to exploit its players to make profits and the coaches and players are the monkeys in the middle of all the politics. Before I criticize USC and the tough job Coach Lane Kiffin has in front of him and if he thought working for Oakland Raiders Owner Al Davis was tough, then this challenge is much more difficult therefore, I’m not going to be as hard on the Trojans because over the years there is one logical explanation. NCAA Sports Are Corrupt!

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

The last football game I saw was a dandy as the New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

On Friday Night, it was nice to see the pigskin flying around again. And it was flying around often as the Orlando Predators defeated the Jacksonville Sharks 70-48 at the Amway Arena in Central Florida.

The last time I saw an Arena Football League (AFL) game was on August 18, 1989 when the Detroit Drive defeated the Pittsburgh Gladiators 39-26 in Arena Bowl III at Joe Louis Arena as 12,046 watched Owner Mike Illitch hoist the AFL Trophy. The Drive won its second of four championships in a six-year period.

At that time, I was very speculative about whether the league could survive with too much scoring. Boy, was I was wrong. With the exception of last year’s one season hiatus due to economic regrouping, the league is back in business.

The Predators have a tradition which dates back to 1991, have qualified for the playoffs in 17 straight years, the longest streak in the original AFL, have won seven Division Titles along with two championships in 1998 and 2000.

But here are some things which stood out as I spent June 18 “Inside The Jungle.”

*Can’t have a better seat than I had in the Press Box than at the 25-yard line.

*When you think of the Predators and the Sharks playing in “An Arena,” the match-up which comes to mind is the NHL’s Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks. The scores are much lower than 70-48. They play on the Frozen Pond, not Artificial Surface.

*A crowd of 14,010 were on hand as Orlando improved its record to 5-5 while Jacksonville dropped to 7-3. The energy and noise levels were incredible and the game was televised on the NFL Network. I even found myself sweating heavily in the press box loading up on soft drinks to keep plenty of fluids inside.

*At halftime, the AFL announced that the Philadelphia Soul which will be owned by former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, will return to the league in 2011. The Kansas City Brigade and the San Jose SaberCats will also be suiting up next year.

*The salary for an AFL game is $400 while three marquee players earn $1,000 per-contest but they also have to make public appearances.

*The fans get to keep the footballs that go into the stands and an average of 4-5 souvenirs at $50 per ball are handed out each night.

*The Michigan connections for the contest between the Predators and Sharks included Josh Bush (Western Michigan) for Orlando who is 5-9, 165 and is a wide receiver and defensive back. Another Predator who is on injured reserve is defensive lineman David Stanton from Michigan State. Former Spartans kicker Paul Edinger has the challenge of kicking into the narrow end zones for the Sharks.

But the league is back and you never know where the next Kurt Warner is going to come from.

One thing is for certain, I was convinced that if you’re a football writer, then it’s worth the four hour drive from South Florida to Central Florida to see a game especially in a city where there is plenty to do with all of the various theme parks in Disney, Epcot Center, Wet N Wild and Universal Studios.

Since the NFL doesn’t have a professional feeder system to compliment college football, this league is exciting to watch and just seeing skill players like quarterbacks, wide receivers, kickers and deep cover positions against potent aerial attacks could be the difference in which teams win future Super Bowls.

I’ll be curious to see how much better the crowds get next season at the Amway Center for the Predators, but it just might be worth another trip to the Amway Arena and see one more event before this facility eventually falls victim to the wrecking ball later this year.

I’m sure the Predators will put on a great show at 600 West Amelia Street as they will be the last team to play in this arena which was built for $110 million and opened on January 29, 1989.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

During the past 12 months, the network executives of FOX, NBC ABC and CBS had to be gleaming.

When was the last time the top three television markets won major championships to compliment a feel good story? Never! Read the rest of this blog and you’ll see the “feel good story of the century.”

In November, FOX hit a home run with two historic franchises as the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees won their 27 championship and opened up their new stadium the same way they opened up their old one.

The No.1 media market in the country prevented the Phillies from repeating as World Champions.

The No.2 media market in the country, Los Angeles, won its second straight NBA title and earned revenge over the Boston Celtics, which defeated the Lakers two years ago. ABC had the opportunity to see superstar Kobe Bryant earn his fifth championship and he matched Lakers legend Magic Johnson.

ABC had a dream scenario as this series went seven games as the Lakers emerged with its 16 championship in franchise history, trailing the Celtics (17) by one for the most in NBA history.

I’ll bet that ABC never thought it would see the Lakers and Celtics meet for the second time in three years since the Celtics had to defeat the Miami Heat led by Dwyane Wade, LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and the defending Eastern Conference Champions Orlando Magic, led by Dwight Howard. But ABC got lucky as it had the biggest rivalry in Pro Basketball.

When the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins met in the Stanley Cup Finals with each team winning a title on the others home ice, the NHL had to be thrilled as the model franchise faced it’s upcoming star Sidney Crosby for two seasons in a row.

How could you top this when the Lakers and Celtics were battling on ABC? There had to be a lot of nervous executives at NBC as the Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks were marching their way through the playoffs.

But when the Chicago Black Hawks and Philadelphia Flyers match-up materialized, this six game series was a battle of long championship droughts.

The Flyers won a pair of titles during the “Broad Street Bullies” era in the mid 1970’s. Meanwhile, Chicago’s last championship occurred in 1961.

The Black Hawks, playing in the No.3 media market in the country turned the city of Philadelphia into a runner-up again by winning the Stanley Cup Championship. An Original Six team ousted an Original 12 squad.

For years, CBS held the rights to NFC games and televised the New Orleans Saints when they were known as the “Aints” and the fans wore bags over their heads at the Louisiana Superdome. The quarterback was Archie Manning.

In February, the New Orleans Saints won their first Super Bowl by defeating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17. The signal caller for the Colts happened to be Archie’s son Peyton.

No Big Market teams were needed as the Saints triumph was the “feel good story of the century” after the area was blasted by Hurricane Katrina.

These four Championships saw two franchises enhance their traditions, while two others finally broke through. The Black Hawks broke a drought and Saints won their first.

In the end, each network made out quite well in the past 12 months in all professional sports.

During “March Madness” CBS was fortunate enough to have Duke playing Butler in the NCAA Championship Game.

It’s was a good six week period for Indianapolis based teams while even though Philadelphia came up short twice, the City Of Brotherly Love still had a lot to cheer about.

It will be neat to see what transpires during the next 12 months but what I do know is that with these three top media markets, their respective parades produced some very large turnouts downtown as well as excellent television ratings.

There were nothing but winners during the past 12 months in sports.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be read at www.scottsports33.com.

During the past 30 days, ironically, on May 4 and June 4, my eyes have been quite misty due to the deaths of longtime Detroit Tigers Hall of Fame Broadcaster Ernie Harwell and legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden.

Harwell’s death was extremely difficult because the last time I saw him was on my 46 birthday on December 29, 2008, just a few days after FAU defeated Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit. Ernie was an uncle to me as well as a colleague, who I met in 1982 in Clearwater, Florida during Spring Training. He passed away at the age of 92 due to Bile Duct Cancer on May 4.

What made the last trip to Detroit so special was being able to see Ernie and watching another dear friend FAU Coach Howard Schnellenberger lead the Owls to their second straight bowl victory. Even though this trip was the last time I saw Harwell, we did exchange e-mails and spoke on several occasions.

During this trip, after the Motor City Bowl, I took the nine hour drive down I-75 South to see the FAU Basketball Team face the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena on December 27. I had the good fortune of writing a story on legendary Wildcats Coach Joe B. Hall.

I came away from Rupp Arena with the feeling that Kentucky Basketball is in a class by itself with 24,000 passionate coaches screaming, cheering and second guessing every play.

On Friday Night, Wooden passed away due to Natural Causes at the age of 99, just four months shy of his 100 birthday on October 14, 1910.

I feel very privileged that I had the opportunity to meet Coach Wooden on January 4, 1992, when I was in Los Angeles to cover a UCLA game against the Georgia Bulldogs.

I don’t remember the score of the game nor do I care to research it. When I entered Pauley Pavilion in Westwood, all I remember were the championship banners in the rafters.

During half-time, as I did with Hall, I interviewed Coach Wooden for 20 minutes.

It was the best 20 minutes of my life!

I learned so much from Coach Wooden and he was kind enough to sign my media guide. I have that interview stored away in a safe place.

Schnellenberger, Harwell, Wooden and Hall are icons.

As fans and media members, we need to appreciate not only the championships and big victories between the lines, but the legacies they leave us outside the lines.

Schnellenberger has his national championship with the Miami Hurricanes and his name will be at the new on campus stadium at FAU.

He is “The Father of FAU Football.”

Harwell is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, while Wooden and Hall are NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions with legendary programs who are beloved in their communities.

My advice to FAU football fans this fall is even though there are only four home games at Lockhart Stadium this fall, enjoy Schnellenberger’s tenure. When his coaching days are over, his shoes will be as large to fill as Harwell’s Wooden’s and Hall’s.

Scott Morganroth’a blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com. and he can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com.