Last night was a great time. I was with friends. They are also folks I work with. We invaded the classic New Albany Country Club last night for our staff Christmas Party. We had a great time. I am fortunate to be surrounded by people I enjoy spending time with. Last night was not a case of “I have to go the company party…”. No. I was fortunate enough to attend! My dear wife, Carrie, and I sat and laughed and made joke about how the last of us in line for the food would have to forego the mashed potatoes. They ran out. For sure, someone will show up next year with a sack of potatoes for effect. It might be me.
So there I was. I was sitting next to Carrie, a blessing in itself, looking around and thinking of how very wonderful my life of making and having friends has turned out.
When I was a youngster my Dad was a high school football coach. I still go back and forth with players that I admired and enjoyed watching and being around 40 years ago…or more. They are important to me.
In my elementary school years I lived life and played baseball and football with some guys I still talk and text and email with that I last lived close to during the Carter administration. We are still friends. We went to Brownstown Elementary School together. I visited there not long ago…just for fun and because I could. Not everyone has that luxury…getting a private audience and a tour from the principal.
When we moved to Ramsey, Indiana and enrolled in North Harrison Schools, good fortune shone on me the first day of school. I was sitting there in Mrs. Lambert’s room by myself. Students familiar with each other started filing in one by one. They did not sit with or talk to the new guy. He sat there and listened and felt ever more lonely and homesick with each second that ticked off an antique of a clock above the door of an older and less modern school facility than he was accustomed to. Two guys walked in together. They were pals. An intuitive and caring young 11 year-old girl told these two to go sit by the new kid. Am I ever glad she did. I told them I was from Brownstown. One made mention that his brother played football and that he heard the new football coach was from Brownstown. I told him I had knowledge of that. The winning dominoes started falling from there. I accrued more good friends from this place. Some of these folks I still hear from now and again. It is like the time has been the only thing we have lost track of. We just go on where we left off. If I ever did anyone any favors, I think that is something I may offer. I have a memory like no one else I know. I hope I keep it that way…for the most part. I mean, I am not dumb…parts of that will go one day. But the point is…I think I can help keep us in the moment and it is a moment that has just kept on going. I think I can do that. I need help, of course. That friendship has to have a strong base and a body from which to work…and, well, remember.
Common interests are important too. That is what helps to sustain new friends that are made along the way. There is always room for more friendship. Spending time together and making memories with experiences together is the key to new friends and old friends. Sooner or later…you have more old friends. That is a special place to be.
I did not name names here. I would be mortified if I knew someone was sad because I left them out. Chances are, I remember them a great deal more than they remember me.
BOWL GAME PREDICTIONS 2016/2017
So I am late in posting my Bowl Predictions. I will tell you my technical difficulties are a thing of the past…for now anyway. My old reliable laptop is in fine working order now. Don’t know why? Don’t really care. Just glad I am back to my old keys.
Yes, I know the bowl games have already started and I can tell you I am off to a better start this year than I had last year. I was around .500 last year with my bowl picks. It is still early. Things can still go bad for me. They might.
I am on the honor system here…not the ornery system. Six bowl games have already been played. They are included in the picks I made before the bowls started.
New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico beats UTSA
Las Vegas Bowl: Houston beats San Diego State
Camellia Bowl: App. State beats Toledo
New Orleans Bowl: Southern Miss beats UL-Lafayette
Miami Beach Bowl: Tulsa beats Central Michigan
Boca Bowl: Memphis beats Western Kentucky
Poinsettia Bowl: BYU beats Wyoming
Idaho Bowl: Colorado State beats Idaho
Bahamas Bowl: Old Dominion beats Eastern Michigan….EMU in a bowl? Not a typo.
Armed Forces Bowl: Navy beats Louisiana Tech…though I am for the Bulldogs
Dollar General Bowl: Ohio beats Troy…Nebraska still looks silly for firing Frank Solich.
Hawaii Bowl: Middle Tennessee beats Hawaii
St. Petersburg Bowl: Miss State beats Miami of Ohio.
Quick Lane Bowl: Boston College beats Maryland
Independence Bowl: NC State beast Vandy
Heart of Dallas Bowl: Army beats North Texas
Military Bowl: Temple beats Wake Forest…without any cheat sheets.
Holiday Bowl: Washington State beats Minnesota…Swing your Sword!
Cactus Bowl: Baylor beats Boise State
Pinstripe Bowl: Northwestern beats Pitt…and maybe the Big Ten coach will appreciate Yankee Stadium this year.
Russell Athletic: West Virginia beats Miami…proof I did not pick with my heart here.
San Fran Bowl: Utah beats Indiana.. Bowling in consecutive years for the Hoosiers…a first since 90/91. The Hoosiers last bowl win was in 1991’s Copper Bowl. They shut of Baylor 24 to 0. It can happen.
Texas Bowl: Texas A&M beats KState
Birmingham Bowl: USF beats South Carolina
Belk Bowl: Arkansas beats Va.Tech
Alamo Bowl: Colorado beats Oklahoma State….Proof of bowl saturation…more than one game has conference teams matched up. This ain’t March Madness.
Liberty Bowl: Georgia beats TCU…and I still look at this game each year and sigh a bit. It was where Coach Bear Bryant prowled the sidelines the last time in the 1982 game. The Tide beat Illinois. The Bear died less than a month later. I was in my high school gym when I heard the news. College Football turned on a dime that day.
Sun Bowl: North Carolina beats Stanford…if there is one bowl game I hope to get to one day…this is it. I doubt it will happen.
Music City Bowl: Nebraska beats Tennessee…been to five of these. Great time in a great town. Nice match-up for the good folks in Nash Vegas.
Arizona Bowl: South Alabama beats Air Force…Coach Joey Jones pulls off another big one in a great season for the Jags.
Orange Bowl: Michigan beats Florida State
Gator Bowl: Kentucky beats the Georgia Tech…I still call it the Gator Bowl. Ohio State fans call it a bad memory.
Citrus Bowl: Louisville beats LSU…providing they don’t get caught looking at LSU’s playbook.
Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State beats Clemson in National Semi-Final
Peach Bowl: Alabama beats Washington in National Semi-Final…of course
Cotton Bowl: Western Michigan beats Swissconsin…Cos they want to play the Cheese more than the Cheese wants to play them…and have you seen their QB? My paper says Wisconsin. I just called an audible. The heart still matters.
Outhouse…I mean…Outback Bowl: Iowa beats Florida
Rose Bowl: USC beats Penn State…in what should be a great game. Looking forward to watching this one.
Sugar Bowl: Auburn beats Oklahoma
Championship Game: Alabama beats Ohio State and I am glad. Put Brutus in a fire and roast him.
In 1988 when the Indiana Hoosiers defeated South Carolina in The Liberty Bowl, there were 17 bowls played that year. I think I just picked over 40 games. I liked it better in 1988. I like watching the games on TV in 2016. Don’t get me wrong. I would tune in to any of them…because I can. It was better though, when your team played in a bowl game that was covered in syndication by the likes of RAYCOM Sports and the color commentator, Dave Rowe (in 1988) called Anthony Thompson, the nation’s leading rusher and scorer, Anthony Thomas, as he referred to the school as the University of Indianapolis. About as good was 1979 when the Hoosiers beat BYU in the Holiday Bowl. I think Harry Kalas may have called that game. It ended past midnight. The TV picture was provided by rabbit-ears. My Dad and I were rooting the Hoosiers on. I remember hoping the game would slow down so my Mother could catch some of it. My Mom, who worked 3 to 11 that night, got home in time to catch the end. Behind a bowl of Raisin Bran, she did just that. Lee Corso got his victory over an undefeated BYU team ranked in the top ten. Most have forgotten that.
I told you I have a good memory.
These words all written with Brian Wilson’s 1988 solo effort “Imagination” playing in the background of all this football madness.
Earlier this year, Brian Wilson, at the Tanglewood Shed, Lenox, Mass.
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson