Back from the longest hiatus in speaktherights.com history…

Wow, to quote Justin Hayward, we are living in “Strange Times”.

A couple October’s ago my dear wife, Carrie, and I went to a concert at The Brown Theatre in Louisville.  It was one of those.  When I heard Roger McGuinn’s Rickenbacker play the opening strains of “Turn, Turn, Turn” I sat a little deeper in my chair.  Is this real, I asked myself?  It was.  In front of me and Carrie from our balcony seats in the quaint Brown Theatre were original Byrds members McGuinn and Chris Hillman joined with Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives.  They played the 1968 album Sweethearts of the Rodeo in its entirety, as well as other notable Byrds hits.  The Bob Dylan tune “My Back Pages” is a favorite.  “Mr. Tambourine Man”, Hey Mr. Spaceman”, and “So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star” were highlights also.  Personally, I like the Sweethearts of the Rodeo album.  Not a critical success, I can listen to it any day.  Critics don’t make music.  Some of us do.

I practiced a little social distancing the last two days.

Yesterday I went for a 5.08 mile walk.  The coast was clear.  The legs were sore!  So later I went downstairs for 2 miles on the elliptical.  Woke up this morning feeling better than I expected.

Today that walk was 5.64 miles.  I did not have the will to go downstairs to further my exercising endeavors.  I will probably feel it in the morning.

In this time of hiatus I am looking forward to getting back to work.  On Thursday, March 12, it was announced at the North Harrison Community School Board Meeting that I had resigned my position as Guidance Counselor effective March 30th.  At the time I thought Carrie and I might be in North Carolina for Spring Break this week.  So much for that.

I appreciate the opportunity to work nearly five full school years at NH.  The folks there were good to me.  I am thankful.  I will certainly miss the students.  They make the building come to life!

A new opportunity found me, as I was not actively looking to leave North.

I used to kick a football over this goalpost and aim for the scoreboard.  When the ball hit it there was a “PANG” sound that echoed for a while.

And so it goes.  I am back once again where I used to swing my leg for fun.

And just like that I am a Paoli Ram. I will be a guidance counselor at the Paoli Jr-Sr High School.  It feels good I can tell you.  Even in these uncertain, if not downright weird, times we are in the midst of, I am looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity to help the students of Paoli Jr-Sr High School.  I appreciate the kind words and gestures I have already received from a place I have visited in an official capacity a total of two times in the physical sense. I will be delighted when the day comes that we are back in full swing like a school full of eager students needs to be.  I don’t like schools feeling like museums.  We’ll get there eventually and we will celebrate when we do.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Where do I start?  There is too much symmetry for me to get.  The Chicago Bears made the playoffs in 1977 for the first time in my lifetime.  Walter Payton saw to that.

I texted back and forth with an old friend, Barry Hall, tonight.  He filled in the missing pieces for me.

A while back I swore off facebook.  Things were way too negative for me.  It was not helping me.  That is when it is over for me.  Lead. Follow. Or get out of the way.  I got facebook out of the way.

Funny though, today as I ate my lunch I grabbed my phone.  I was looking at instant messages from days gone by.  A few of them struck me as oh so pleasant memories.  One of those was from an old friend I found again thanks, ironically enough, to facebook.  I was reliving a message I had gotten from out of the blue from a guy called Terry Grider.

When I looked at facebook today for the first time in a long time, I found that Terry Grider passed away a few days ago.  It hit me hard.

Terry Grider played football for my Dad at Brownstown Central a long time ago.

In 1977, Terry Grider was my first football coach.  I was in the 4th grade.  Coach Grider’s team The Bears were 1-2.  We beat the heavily favored Cardinals is the season finale 30-26.  It was my first taste of we can do this after all.  I remember a tackle I made.  I didn’t make as many as I should have.

I look at this team and think about so many memories.

Chuck played quarterback.  I played tight end on offense.  In practice, after Coach Grider told Chuck over and over again to throw it to me, he did and I caught it.  In our next game Chuck threw it to me again and I caught it.

I have made over about this time in my life time and time again.  Why wouldn’t I?

It was the place in time when, on practice days, 9 and 10 year-old boys road a bus from the elementary school to the middle school completely unsupervised and changed into our football gear in a locker room there with no one else around and then we would walk a couple blocks in our football practice gear to the town park where our coaches were waiting for us.  AND WE THOUGHT NOTHING OF IT.  OUR PARENTS THOUGHT NOTHING OF IT.  Yes.  It was a simpler time.

In high school my Dad was my head coach.  We did the best we could with that situation and I am glad it worked out that way.  But know I was glad to have Coach Terry Grider there for me when I was in the 4th grade.  I knew him.  He knew me.  He, like my Dad, was tough on me.  I am glad of that.

I wish I could have told Terry all these things.  Life is like that though.  The best of intentions that don’t come to fruition still live on in our hearts and our souls and make us better for the next day and the next time someone may need us.

There was a great deal of unspoken feeling between Terry and me.  Our instant message exchanges are testament to that.  We had our time.  I am so thankful for that.

To Coach Grider!  Amen.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Someone is paying attention, I found out.  They asked if I would comment further on some of the pictures I have put on speaktherights.com over the years.

Here’s the thing.  I keep moving.  I don’t stop and look around a great deal.  I wish I did that just a little more.  I was much better at that skill when I was 17 than at almost 52.  Responsibility to blame?  I don’t think so.  Things change.  Photographs don’t change.  That is part of their appeal I think.  When I stop and look at the catalog of photos on this page I look around and wonder how it happened.

No great order here.  But I will acquiesce and throw some meaningful photos on here.

At the top of the list is this photo of my dear wife, Carrie, and my Uncle Stanley Chambers.  Stanley is gone now.  I miss him.  He and I could relate like few I know.  I got Stanley.  And he got me.  This was taken in Forest, Mississippi during a Hines Family Reunion.  My mother’s family was from W.E. and Levi Jane Hines.  Seventeen young’uns for those of you keeping score at home.  Stanley was married to Aunt Reat, my mom’s sister.

Me pensively looking over The Moody Blues display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I did not think either of us would ever get there.

My Mom and Dad at a Moody Blues concert at The Louisville Palace in March of 2016.

Behind us was the fictional Hill Street Station from Hill Street Blues.  We walked through a COLD Chicago day to get to this place.  Still my favorite TV show of all time.

I don’t think I have a better football story than the one I can tell about taking my Dad to The Rose Bowl to see the UCLA play USC.  When we walked into that stadium it was the most surreal experience I had since placing the last punctuation mark on a 74000 word story I finished writing in 2007.

The first picture I ever posted on speaktherights.com.  Who could blame me?  I didn’t know what I was getting into to.  But did I ever have a great start!!!!

I miss this guy.  Luther was our pup for fourteen years.  He gave it up in 2010.  I still miss him so.  This photo was taken about a week before he died.  He looks tired.  He did not look so tired when he planted him near the walnut tree in the back yard.  I mean that.

I kicked, Samonhead held, and Pete snapped it…in this order.  I love these guys.

Me and Carrie at a Train concert in Kingsport, TN.  Were we really that young?

The closest I ever got to a hole in one.

The last time Jarrett and Cody and I went fishing together.  Proud of these boys!

My Dad and I saw the last Notre Dame game played on grass on ND Stadium.  The coldest I have ever been at a game.  It snowed.  Dad had the time of his life.  I thought I was going to die until I ate a whole pizza at the hotel afterward.

I started speaktherights.com in July of 2014.  Four months later we lost my Granny.  I chronicled her illness and it was a cathartic thing for me.  She was amazing.

There is only one place to KISS THE BRICKS…Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With my Uncle Roger at a family reunion.  He too taught English.  We are both still learning, I suppose.

Carrie and me atop the Empire State Building.

At the reflecting pools where the Twin Towers fell.  I don’t know that I have ever looked at a photo more.  She was there for someone I am sure.

My key to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on more than one occasion, Mr. Adam Disque and the 4th grade Medora Elem. class.

The NHHS girls on the podium at Banker’s Life in 2016.

Making music with Jeff Carpenter has been one of  the thrills of my life.

John Elway thanking me for sending him football cards of his Dad when Jack Elway coached in the World League.  It was the right thing to do.

Barry Hall and my Dad a week before they tore down Blevins Memorial Stadium as we knew it.

Humbled to be in this barn where Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville chewed the fat in Pittsfield, Mass.

The last Moody Blues concert we attended at The Ryman Auditorium.  No better place to end it.

Honored that Ben Waynescott presented me his road jersey for Senior Night.

Robert Becker, curator of Rock and Roll on 96.3 WJAA in Seymour, Indiana.  The best in the business.

Where The Miracle on Ice took place In Lake Placid 1980.  I need to go back and make sure I was really there.

Walking across The Brooklyn Bridge.

Carrie and me hanging with our friend Julie Ragins before a music gig she was playing and singing in at Kent, Ohio.  I am still hoping to write a duet good enough to talk her into singing with me.

Dining with Cody and Jarrett and Sarah in Florida.

No Pier Pressure under the Santa Monica Pier.

Carrie and me in an empty Rose Bowl where I was 2 for 2 kicking just beyond extra point territory in Brooks.  Look at the new field.  I was not about to put on my kicking shoe, though I had it with me.

Working through a musical part with Dan Trisko.

Brother Tim Petty finally got me to Alabama to see Ole Miss play Bama.

The last Justin Hayward gig we saw last October at The City Winery in Nashville.  Julie Ragins is to his left playing and singing as lovely as ever.

Watching the Hoosiers play with Adam Disque.  Love it!

Carrie and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.  No better way to wrap this up.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

The year is 2020.  For a few reasons I suppose, I just don’t feel quite as young as I used to.  I’m not complaining.  I’m just speaking the rights.

Yesterday, for a few fleeting moments I felt like a kid again.

As I sat on the couch and watched a recorded earlier in the day Eli Manning retirement speech, I felt a warm metal rail under my chin for just a minute.  Under my rear was another rail I was sitting on.  I was ten years old and it was 1977.  Behind me were the metal bleachers of the Wilmington College Football Stadium.  In front of me on the field was # 14 Ken Anderson and my eyes were affixed to every single move this quarterback made as the Cincinnati Bengals were deep into summer camp.  Anderson’s straight over the top delivery.  His foot work that was text book.  Throwing a deep out to Isaac Curtis and how Ike caught up to it when you never thought he could.  Waiting to get my autographs after practice.

As my chin was now resting on top of my folded arms, an older gentleman inside the rail  meandered over to me with his arms crossed looking ever so attentively at the quarterback play also.  He spoke up.

“You really like that Ken Anderson, don’t you?”  I responded, “He is the best ever, sir.”  The man walked side to side for a moment and said, “I really like him too.”

When I caught up with my Dad, who was in the stands, he asked what Paul Brown and I were talking about.  “Ken Anderson.  What else?”

And so that was how it was for me growing up as the son of a football coach.  Though I could throw a ball over sixty yards once upon a time and make a few good throws around the field in pick-up games, I was center and kicker material.  I was not quarterback material. As a senior in high school I saw Ken Anderson start the season opener against the Seattle Seahawks in 1985.  He got hurt.  So did I.  The last time I remember seeing him play on television, he was holding for points and field goals his last season in 1986 on a Monday night against the Steelers.  I was in a TV lounge at a residence hall across the rail road tracks from the Thomas Assembly Center at Louisiana Tech begging for another Bengal score so I could see him run out there just one more time.

On June 3rd of 1987 we opened up sports pages and found this.  What do I do now, I wondered?

My football rules go like this…Root for the home high school.  Root for your favorite college teams.  Root for your favorite pro player.  I have never been a die-hard pro football fan beyond rooting for my favorite player.  Ken Anderson did that to me.  When he was done, so was I.

Living in Southern Indiana, I was not even impressed when, as a high school sophomore, the Mayflowers delivered the Colts to Indianapolis.  That all changed in 1998.  Peyton Manning was now a Colt and I made it a point to get to see him play at least one game a year in the old Hoosier Dome.  I have yet to see the Colts play in the house that Peyton built.

A year later in 1999, while in Oxford rooting on the Ole Miss Rebels against the Georgia Bulldogs with Quincy Carter at quarterback in a game the Rebs lost 20-17, my Aunt Barbara and I were watching the team make the walk to the stadium in their suits and ties.  Eli was a scrawny little fart.  200 lbs was his weight listed in the program, only if his pockets were filled with biscuits.  But there he was.  Having been a Rebel fan, given my Southern lineage, I knew this was a big deal.  I knew that Archie caught some stupid grief when Peyton went to Tennessee instead of Ole Miss where Arch was and still is a legend.

I was fortunate enough to see Eli play at least one game in each of the seasons he played at Ole Miss.  I found my favorite player again.  Then he joined the New York Giants and I was able to see him play a couple NFL games in person also.  Now there is no reason to think about the NFL Sunday Ticket again.

Both Ken Anderson and Eli Manning played sixteen seasons with the same team. Both were quiet leaders.  They are both Hall of Fame guys in my heart and that is where they will stay.  In football, as in music (The Moody Blues), I have known how to pick’em.

As I raised up off of the couch to walk away after Eli Manning’s announcement, I realized I will never sit on that rail again.  But is sure was fun while it lasted.

Speaking the football retirement rights…

Danny Johnson

Listening to a remastered version of The Moody Blues’ 1986 The Other Side of Life.  That was the one that is credited to bringing the last great wave of fans to the band.  I can tell you that not many from that generation showed up in great numbers in the last years of the band’s touring life.  Not to say they won’t tour again, but, they won’t tour again.  And that is okay.  In July of 2017 I walked out of The Ryman holding Carrie’s hand having just heard the band play Days of Future Passed in its entirety.  I’m done! That is what I told myself when I walked out and that is what I meant.  A solo show to be had by Justin or John is always a possibility I suppose.

We had to put Holiday Pete away.  But every year he finds his way to be affixed to a kitchen cabinet.  This picture was taken long before I knew Mick Rutherford or had stepped foot onto the North Harrison campus.  But, I did.  And it has been a good thing.  I only wish I had been his classmate when he was sporting this getup.  I would have probably hit him in head with that broom instead of the silver metal lunch box I clocked him with one day in Mrs. Lambert’s room in the back of the room by the coat pegs.  He forgave me.

After Christmas my dear wife, Carrie, and my sister, Lynn, and I went to Mississippi for a few days to look around and visit kin.  It was a marvelous time.  The last time I was on the Ole Miss campus for a football game was Eli Manning’s senior year.  I have made it to Nashville and Lexington, and even Winston-Salem to watch the Rebs play since.  The campus at Oxford has grown up a bit.  Somebody added water and money and the place really grew.

The stadium has grown.  Carrie and I were there in 1996 for a record crowd of 44,000-plus. Both end-zones have since been filled and the last record crowd was in 2016 against Alabama with over 66,000 in the house.

You know, I would give anything if this guy would sign with the Indianapolis Colts for a year or two.  That would be fun.

The square in Oxford was a beautiful sight.  The place has a true charm that doesn’t work you over. This charm takes you in.  That is a compliment I don’t dole out lightly.

It was a good time.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

With a nod to Billy Joel, I am not Saying Goodbye to Hollywood, though I was unimpressed with the place when I saw it.  I am Saying Goodbye to Facebook.

This is post number 548 of speaktherights.com.  On these pages, that began in July of 2014, I have type nearly a half a million words.  I have enjoyed them all even when I wasn’t enjoying them.  My long-time readers know what I mean.

I made a conscience effort this past fall to cut back on speaktherights.com.  It has not worked out very well.  In the interim I have paid more attention to facebook than I have speaktherights.com.  It has not worked out very well. I say it again.

I was not made for facebook.  I realize most of the folks I know on facebook would never fathom having a blog that produced a half a million words.  I don’t expect them to.  It is not what they do.  It is, however, what I do.  And what I need to get back to on a more regular basis.

Facebook is a vehicle that I don’t travel well on.  I love words.  I dissect them.  I breathe them.  I look at them upside down.  Know that I will never ask anyone to understand any of this.  It is my bane and my glory.  I smile when I think about writing.

I thank Mr. Bart Bigham for allowing me to come into his 11th grade classroom each Spring to expound on writing in one shape or another whilst tying it to a guidance lesson for life.  Even if he reads this, he will never know how important this is for me.

When I taught English I imparted on my classroom that I believe firmly in what is right and wrong and what is good and bad.  Fair, I told them, is either a degree of something or a place where you can get a really good corn dog along Indiana Highway 250 outside of Brownstown around the last week of July.

Facebook, to me, is good to a degree.  My problem is I get hung up on words…words my friends have not thought about or examined that I turn my head sideways at have brought me here.  I see way too much “Re-post and make a rational decision (or no decision at all) later”.

Guess whose problem this is?  Mine.  I will OWN IT.  There is novel idea these days.

So there it is.  I am not unfriending anyone!!!  I am suspending my facebook account tomorrow evening.  This is the right thing to do. Perhaps I will be back.

I will still have my twitter account.  I encourage you to stop in to speaktherights.com to see what is new or browse some of the old material.  I have been blessed beyond measure in this writing endeavor.   Hopefully I will pick it back it up a bit.  I told my dear wife, Carrie, I would like to put a few quick hitters on more often instead of 700-1000 word columns.  For better or worse I am driven by the 700 word column.  If I don’t get there I feel like a weenie.  I must get over that!

Thank you.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Two days in and the Indiana Hoosiers are still playing football.

Happy New Year, Everyone.  Let’s hope 2020 is as clear as it name suggests!

The Indiana Hoosiers play the UT Vols tonight in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL.  It should be a good one and I BELIEVE the Hoosiers will win the game and their season will end with nine wins against four defeats.  Know that I have never seen a Hoosier football team win 9 games in my lifetime and I got here in 1968.

If the Hoosiers win, I think they will have a chance to be in the final 2019 Top 25 for the first time since Anthony Thompson was a junior in 1988.

I think he could still play myself.

It has been a great season and I certainly appreciate the efforts of Coach Tom Allen and his staff.  Thanks also goes to Athletic Director Fred Glass for helping the football program gain some ground.  It is amazing what can happen when a school administration gives a program the support and resources it needs to be successful, be it on a high school level or the college level.  No one can do it alone.

This year I was fortunate to attend some great college games.  Got to see five Indiana games, three Marshall games, and attended the hottest game of the year when Ole Miss played at Tuscaloosa against BAMA in late September.

I won’t be holding down the couch tonight watching the Hoosiers.  I will be pacing the floor I would say.  I have not done that since the last Eli Manning/New York Giants Super Bowl.

It is going to be fun.  We don’t want to listen to Rocky Top all night, I assure you.  Been there and done that in Neyland Stadium watching the Rebs get their Hotty Toddies handed to them.

Go IU!

Speaking the rights,

Danny Johnson

Indiana…Maybe a tie here with Sparty.  Don’t want to go too crazy.  8-4 before the bowl.  Never seen 9 wins in my lifetime. I don’t rule it out.  Coach Allen will get us there.      I BELIEVE!

I wrote the above in the speaktherights.com College Football Preview back in August.  Obviously I was expecting more from Michigan State.

The Hoosiers had a special season and I never doubted they would.

I must say it was a dream come true to share a little Hoosier magic with this guy, Adam Disque.  Though a loss, the Michigan game was good times.  We also saw the Northwestern game together, along with Andrew and Susan Evertts and my brother-in-law Stevarino.

Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

I took a hiatus after week 7 of the College Football season.  But I can’t let the bowl games get away from us.

The Bowl Games, let’s pick’em.

Bahamas Bowl:  Charlotte beats Buffalo.  Did I just type Charlotte and Buffalo about a football game?  Gads, maybe there really are too many bowls.  Go 49ers!

Frisco Bowl:  Utah State beats Kent State.  I will be for the boys from Kent.

New Mexico Bowl:  San Diego State beats Central Michigan in a close one.

Cure Bowl:  Liberty beats Georgia Southern.  No cure for this bowl.

Boca Bowl:  SMU beats Florida Atlantic in their backyard.  Boca Burger, any one?

Cameillia Bowl:  FIU beats Arkansas State.

Las Vegas Bowl:  Boise State beats Washington.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.  At least they’ll stay at a cool place.

New Orleans Bowl:  The curfew bowl of the east. App State beats UAB.

Gasparilia Bowl:  Marshall beats UCF.  Can’t pick against the Herd!

Hawaii Bowl:  Hawaii beats BYU and they all go surfing on the North Shore later.

Independence Bowl:  LA Tech beats Miami.  The boys from Ruston are 70 miles away on I-20 and want some respect.

Quick Lane Bowl:  Free oil change for one lucky section.   Pitt beats Eastern Michigan.  But how refreshing that Eastern Michigan doesn’t have ten losses!

Military Bowl:  North Carolina beats Temple.  Mack Brown is back home.

Pinstripe Bowl:  Hopefully neither coach blows off about not being a baseball fan.  Wake bests Michigan State.

Texas Bowl:  OK State beats Texas A&M cos Mike Gundy is a man!  He’s 50!

Holiday Bowl:  USC beats Iowa.  Glad USC is holding on to Coach Helton.  Great Bowl game.  Hope Iowa wins.

Cheez-it Bowl:  Air Force beats Washington State.  Sword is kind of rusty this year.

Camping World Bowl: Notre Dame beats Iowa State.  Irish tickets advertised on facebook this year was the worst thing I saw in football with the exception of Mason Rudolph cheating death on a couple occasions.

Cotton Bowl:  Memphis beats Penn State.  Want to see a fired up bunch!  Tigers will be and will back it up.  Never seen Memphis on such a large stage.

Peach Bowl CFP:  LSU beats Oklahoma.  Geaux Tigers!

Fiesta Bowl CFP:  Clemson beats Ohio State.  Trevor Lawrence will carve this bunch up and make it look easy.

SERVPRO Bowl:  WKU beats Western Michigan.  The Hilltoppers have had a good season.

Music City Bowl:  Louisville beats Mississippi State.  Cards finish their own dream season.

Red Box Bowl:  Cal beats Illinois.  Red Box Bowl…otherwise known as bowl working on its tenth name change.

Orange Bowl:  Florida beats UVA.  The SEC is too much.

Belk Bowl:  Hope no one gets caught shoplifting this year during the shopping spree.  Virginia Tech beats Kentucky.  Bud Foster will finally contain the UK QB and Coach Foster rides off in the sunset.

Sun Bowl:  Arizona State beats Florida State.

Liberty Bowl:  Kansas State beats Navy.  Though I will be for the Middies.

Arizona Bowl:  Wyoming beats Georgia State.  Wow.  What a match up!

Alamo Bowl:  Utah beats Texas.  How much burnt orange there after a sub-par season?

Citrus Bowl:  Bama beats Michigan.  The Tide could line Tim Petty behind center and win this game if he had any eligibility.  Shea Patterson relives what it felt like to get hit by Tide safety.

Outback Bowl:  Auburn beats Minnesota.  Minnesota is gonna be Minnie Pearl, just proud to be there.  Auburn just won the Iron Bowl and may be unstoppable.

Rose Bowl:  Oregon beats Swissconsin.  The last team I want to see on that beautiful field is the Badgers. Go Ducks Go!  Quack on!

Sugar Bowl:  Georgia beats Baylor.  No I don’t have that much SEC love in me.  I just think Jake Fromm will have a monster game.

Birmingham Bowl:  Cincinnati beats Boston College.

Gator Bowl:  Indiana beats Tennessee.  Ironic.  If memory serves, and it usually does, Indiana’s Peach Bowl loss to the Vols was on January 2, 1988.  These two meet up again on January 2, 2020.  We don’t have AT or Ernie Jones or Van Waiters.  Feed Stevie!

Idaho Potato Bowl:  Nevada beats Ohio.

Armed Forces Bowl:  Southern Miss beats Tulane.  Good times for the Golden Eagles.

Lending Tree Bowl:  Miami Ohio over Louisiana Lafayette.  Did I just type that?  Lending Tree or Leaning Tree?

CFP Champ: Clemson  beats LSU.  Not sure what made me type that.  Never thought it before right now.  Clemson is well rested.  They didn’t have much resistance in the ACC this year.  They didn’t show up to play Carolina.  Clemson Tigers beat the LSU Tigers.

Enjoy the bowl games everyone.  I hope your team wins, unless you root for the Badgers.

Lets get the clever photo out of the way.

Yes.  I am serious this time.

I don’t get too serious often.  Ask those who know me.  Laid back?  Oh they know that guy well.  This, however, has been brewing since I was eight years old in 1976.

Working On A Dream.  That is my Bruce Springsteen induced theme for tomorrow.  If I am going to sit through cold, damp conditions at age 51, it better be worth it.

In 1976 my Dad and I sat and watched the #1 ranked Michigan Wolverines shove around the Indiana Hoosiers.  Final Score:  Maize and Blue 35  Cream and Crimson 0.  I still remember that day.  I hated it.  I was glad to be watching a game with my Dad.  We’ve seen many together.  I hated the result.

In 1999 I witnessed the Indiana Hoosiers almost pull off a miracle finish against the Michigan Wolverines. An Indiana receiver had a chance to haul in a pass that would have won it.  I have no doubt he is still haunted.  I can commiserate.  I missed a 44 yard field goal wide left in the first game of my senior high school season.  Had plenty on it.  The score was 0-0 after that missed kick in the 4th quarter.  We lost 7-0.  It will haunt me forever.

That 1999 season Michigan finished 10-2 and Indiana finished 4-7.

After that IU loss, it was tough to take I can tell you, I have avoided games in Bloomington when Michigan has come calling.

The Indiana Hoosiers have beaten the Michigan Wolverines one time in my lifetime.  I got here in 1968.  A 14-10 victory in the rain in 1987 was the last time the Hoosiers beat Michigan.  That’s it so far.  Until tomorrow.

I was a believer in this Indiana Football team from the beginning.  My faith stems from the hiring of Coach Tom Allen.  Thank you, Fred Glass.

In my prediction post in August I said these guys would win at least 8 games.  I meant it.

Want some perspective?

In the Associated Press era, the Michigan Wolverines have been ranked in the polls a total of 862 weeks.  Indiana?  56 weeks.   Sixteen and half years to a year and four weeks.  That is what we have before us tomorrow.

And it is time.  I think the Hoosiers will win tomorrow and get that elusive 8th win.  The last time Indiana won 8 games was 1993.  I watched that team in the Independence Bowl.

It is time.  I BELIEVE.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Last Saturday I got together with my friends Gus Stephenson and Mick Rutherford and Kelly Samons to play the 20th Annual Corner King Classic.

In honor of our old friend, Malcolm “Corner King” Lincoln Sr., this was a good day of good laughs and bad golf.  None of us had played since last year’s Corner King Classic.

We played at Lucas Oil Golf Course in English.  We just call it the English Golf Course, no offense to the lubricators.  I still think the Colts play in the Hoosier Dome until I have to think about it.

Gus and Samonhead tied for 1st.  I was two shots behind.  Mick was 5 shots behind.  It was the most competitive leader board in the history of the tournament.  I suppose we will play as long as we can.

Gus Tees Off

Samonhead admiring a great tee shot.

Porter teeing off

Watching Gus tee off.

When we got back to the house, Carrie was ready for us old duffers.

Last night Carrie and I were at The Joan C. Edwards Stadium as Marshall defeated Louisiana Tech 31-10.  It was a cold night.  The Herd started slow but gained momentum.  Not unlike the football program did many years ago.

This is a special game.  They call it the 75 Game in honor of the 75 who perished on the Southern Airlines flight returning from a game against East Carolina in 1970 on November 14th.

The team does not run out on the field for this game.  They lock arms and walk across the field in silence.  The number 75 was one side of the helmet and the Young Thundering Herd logo was on the other side of the helmet.

The Herd started the season 2-3.  They are now 7-3 and should play for the C-USA Championship on December 7th.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I had a great time.

I am not going to pick college games this week.  After taking many weeks off I was awful last week in a return to predictions that were laughable.

We will be keeping our eyes on several televised games today including:

IU v. Penn State

Alabama v. Miss. State

Minnesota v. Iowa

LSU v. Ole Miss

I talked to Aunt Barbara yesterday for the first time in a long time and she told me some kooky things are being said in SEC country.  Ole Miss fans hoping they lose so they get a new coach and State fans hoping to lose so they can get a new coach?  Good grief.

But we are talking the SEC.  In September I watched Tua throw 6 TDs for Bama and heard Tide fans complain about “leaving some yards out there they should of had…”  I thought I was going to faint.

Go Hoosiers!  Go Tide!  Go Hawkeyes!  Go Rebels!

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson