Granny and I watched Football today.

I should have taken a picture.  I did not.  There we were, Granny and me, watching the Indianapolis Colts on television as Andrew Luck took care of business as only he can.  Where is there a stronger, more confident fella passing the football?  You won’t find him.  The Colts won 20-13.  Actually, I was the big winner.

For as long as I can remember my grandmother, Flo Johnson, has been keeping up with and watching pro football on Sunday afternoons after church.  She has lived in Indiana for the last twenty years.  Before that she lived all over…my grandfather retired from the military.  In the mid to late 1950s they moved to Shreveport, Louisiana.  Granny lived there until she moved to Indiana in 1994.  Living in Shreveport you were most likely a Dallas Cowboys fan.  Big D is the closest pro football team to Shreveport.  Check out your atlas and you will find that New Orleans is much farther than Dallas.  Grandma loved rooting for Roger Staubauch and Tom Landry.  When my grandfather was alive he was good for one game a day then he would go to the other room and watch Big Valley or Gunsmoke.  Granny can watch as many games as the television will put on.  I understand this.

“Get him!”  That is Granny’s signature phrase when it comes to football watching.  She likes to see the runner for the team is rooting against go down hard.  She’s tough that way.

Like I said, I wish I had taken a picture of us sitting there watching football together.  It was a very good time.  There aren’t too many guys my age that can say they spent part of their afternoon watching football with their grandmother.  I am a blessed man.

OLE MISS BEATS ALABAMA and other tales…

Wow.

The Ole Miss Rebels defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide on October 4th of this year (2014).  It was a long time coming.  What is the best thing about it?  The Rebs overcame adversity in the form of a no-call facemask that cost them a touchdown at the end of the half to make the score Bama 14 Ole Miss 3.  I thought that was it.  After that play I felt like the Water Pistol that shoots Jelly on the Island of Misfit Toys.  I was certain we were going to have to wait until next year.  Then, just like when Rudolph guides Santa’s sleigh back to the island to pick up the misfits…Bo Wallace led his offense methodically and without major error and while he was at it he picked the rest of us up and carried us to the smiling side of the scoreboard.  Ole Miss 23  Alabama 17 Final.  This is a memory I hope I never forget.

After the game I called my Mother and Father.  They were in Mississippi attending the family reunion.  They watched the game, of course.  Some of my relatives were at the game.  I am so happy for them.  The house where my folks were staying, Uncle Bob and Aunt Nell’s place, was a jubilant place.  You could feel it over the phone over 600 miles away.  I say it again.  I am happy for them.

Later in the evening I called my Ole Miss Football watching buddy….Aunt Barbara.

Aunt Barbara and I have seen some good times and bad times when it comes to Ole Miss Football.  We’ve attended Ole Miss games together at Oxford, Jackson, and Lexington over the years.  The last one we saw together was Eli Manning’s senior year in Oxford the day they beat South Carolina 43-40.  In 1999, my son Jarrett and I went to see Ole Miss play Georgia with Aunt Barbara.  That day we saw Eli, a red-shirt freshman, walking through the Grove as the team was heading to the stadium.  I remember thinking he could use a few biscuits for that frame of his at the time.  Needless to say, it has worked out for him.  Georgia won that game 20-17.  It was a heart breaker.

Yesterday though, Aunt Barbara and I could have talked all night about the big win over Bama.  I am so glad she was able to see it and we could talk about it later.  I have a feeling we will be talking about this one for some time to come.

Ole Miss is 5-0 for the first time since 1962.  I read that the new AP Poll for College Football is out for this week and Ole Miss and Mississippi State are tied at #3.  Good for the Magnolia State.  When the media wants to make Mississippi out to be a nice place for a change, it doesn’t take near as much effort as it does to make the place look unpleasant.

The Speak the Rights College Football Predictions for Week #6 went quite well.  Nine wins one loss.  The one loss?  Can you believe it…Kentucky beat South Carolina.

I was the one that gave South Carolina all the love in the preseason.  They have not acquiesced.  I did call for Ole Miss to win.  I called for State to beat A&M.  The Indiana Hoosiers played well and whipped North Texas.  I think the boys from Texas were cold.  And the Marshall Thundering Herd….they won 56-14.  It wasn’t that close.  Hope they get their chance to play Cinderella in the post-season.

Right now we stand at 47 wins and 13 losses.

THE CORNER KING CLASSIC

Kelly Samons, Gus Stephenson, myself, Mick Rutherford

It took 19 holes…but I outlasted Gus in this year’s 15th annual Corner King Classic played at New Salisbury National Golf Course.

In earnest, I did not think I had a chance to win.  I was playing horrible…more so than usual.  At the end of 18 we look at the scores.  Gus and I were tied.  We went back to the last hole to play it again.  I bogeyed.  Gus doubled.  I won in a playoff.  It was a Corner King Classic first.

None of that really matters.  What is important is that I had a chance to play golf with these guys again.  We laughed.  We laughed some more.  Then we got together and had a hearty meal that my dear wife, Carrie, prepared for us.

Looking down the 8th fairway.

Mick Rutherford does a great job of addressing the ball.  He thinks they have previously met.

What matters is that we get together and remember our friend the Corner King, Todd Lincoln.  We all miss him so very very much.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

How can we be at week six already?   Well, it is October.

How can it be October already?

The air will be cooler this weekend all across the land.  In Oxford, MS the gametime temperature is planned for the upper 60s the last time I checked.  That is frosty at 3:30 in the afternoon this time of year in Mississippi.

You know things are heating up in college football when all the conference teams are playing each other and a degree of separation for conference supremacy is on the line.   You ask me the best division in football…I’ll tell you it is the SEC West followed by the NFC West.

Ole Miss will beat Alabama… Let’s just get this out of the way.  As disappointed as I was when Peyton Manning and the Broncos last the Super Bowl, I will be just as delighted.  I wrote in an earlier post that it is the Rebels time.  I watched a documentary about Chucky Mullins this week for the first time.  It alluded to the “this is our time” theme.  I believe this will be the one Rebel fans have been searching for.

Marshall will beat Old Dominion….This is ODU’s Super Bowl.  They will be ready to play.  They could give Marshall some grief early.  Marshall seems to start when they feel like it.  When they do…look out.  If they get going good in the first quarter, the score board might need another battery before the game is finished.

East Carolina will beat SMU…I feel bad for the Mustangs.  They will be no match for the Pirates of ECU.  Coach Ruffin is doing a great job.

Mississippi State will beat Texas A&M… If you root for the Rebels you probably won’t root for State.  I am indifferent.  No…I hope A&M whips them!  I don’t think they will.  State will beat the Aggies.

Virginia Tech will beat North Carolina…I have a penchant for the ACC.  I made note of that in a previous post.  Though North Carolina is our adopted home state, the Tar Heels need help.  They will get it eventually.  Beamerball wins out.

Indiana will beat North Texas…Up and down.  This week is up for the Hoosiers.  They need it to go to a bowl and stay out of the toilet bowl…where I think they will be by season’s end.

Auburn will beat LSU…my brother in-law, the legendary Stevarino, asked who will win this. I told him the Tigers.  The Auburn Tigers that is..not the Bayou Bengals.  Though it will be close…the homers come out for a reason.

Virginal will beat Pittsburgh…Mike London has done a good job with a UVA team that had low expectations.

South Carolina will beat Kentucky…UK, like IU, is victim to a natural order of things.  Steve Spurrier will not be beaten by Kentucky.  If he does…he will not coach another season.

P.S. I had faith in South Carolina at the beginning of the year.  They have been a major disappointment.

Michigan State will beat Nebraska…I predicted Sparty to have a good season.  It does’t stop this weekend as they handle a Cornhusker team that will make too many errors.

So far we are 38 wins and 12 losses with our speaktherights.com College Football Predictions.

This is a great time of the year.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

My Mom and Dad have the car packed and will be hitting the road in the morning to head to Mississippi.  On Saturday, October 4th, the Hines Family Reunion will be held outside the town of Forest.  It has been this way for as long as I can remember.

The Hines family is a unique lot.  My maternal grandparents were made up of Walter Earl Hines and Levi Jane Robbins Hines.  My Grandmother Hines died in 1965.  Ironically, on the day of the reunion Saturday she would have been 114.  Granddaddy Hines died in 1979.  I remember that time.  It was the last time all of their children were together.  I am proud to say I was there.

There were seventeen Hines children.  Same mother.  Same father.  Same patch of Central Mississippi.

My mother, Tressie Hines Johnson, is the youngest of ten girls.  Eight of those girls are still around.  Most of them will be attending the reunion.  These girls had seven brothers.  Three of these gents are still with us.

I suppose the greatest regret I have in the time I have traveled on this orb is that I don’t know any of my cousins all that well.  I can’t tell you off the top of my head how many first-Hines cousins I have.  I don’t know.  I think I could find out very easily.

Why have I not had close relationships with my cousins?  Proximity would be a good…safe answer.  I am in Indiana and they are not.  A scarce few of them have ever stepped foot onto Hoosier soil.  I can’t blame them.  What is here for them?  An aunt and uncle and a few cousins they know little about.

Last fall I was very excited when Dale Fulton, the husband of one of my first cousins, and his son Cam came up to do some deer hunting.  Cam and his family came first.  He did some scouting.  Later he and his Dad came to hunt.  I remember walking through a cornfield explaining to Cam how delighted I was that he was there and how he was the first of the Hines branch that I had ever walked a cornfield with.  It was a special time.

We’re all busy.  We all have our own lives.  We all have our own interests.  We cousins.

We also have a great deal to live up to and that is kind of intimidating, to tell you the truth.  This Hines family is the stuff of legend.  A Mom and Dad that had seventeen kids living a life of meager economic means…but plenty of love and life’s lessons to live on.  They went to church on Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, and Sunday night.  I used to do that too when I was a kid.

Seventeen kids.  Not a single Aunt or Uncle I can look at a say weird things about.  Oh they may say side-bar things about us grandchildren or even the ones they married.  Still…when you are among this group you know you are in the presence of greatness.  I can’t say that very often.  Perhaps I should look a little harder.

Perhaps I should just shut my mouth and be thankful that I can convey anything about a special family like the one brought forth into this world by W.E and Levi Jane Hines.

Speaking the Rights, indeed.

Grandson-Son-Nephew-Cousin (many times over) Danny Johnson

My niece, Katie, is a better writer than I am.

I read  a piece of her writing that appeared in the local paper last week and it made me feel like I need to go into typewriter maintenance.  It was that good.

Here’s the thing…Katie is a freshman in high school.  Her command of the English language and her ability to turn a phrase with so much ease it slides like a Scrambler at the fair in slow motion is a joy to take in.  Though it was just a few solid paragraphs, what she offered was a portent of goodness to come.

Katie’s writing acumen is so far ahead of the ballgame compared to most youngsters her age it is amazing.  I know a thing or two about the various abilities you will see when grading…and sometimes just try to get through an essay written by a 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade student.  I have assigned and graded thousands of them in the past twenty years.

My prayer is that Katie continues to make progress.  I hope she develops a thick skin.  Sooner or later she will run into a red pen that wishes it could write like she can.  Press onward, Katie.  Take your lumps and at the end of the day…remember what a wonderful gift you have.  Your friends may not always understand why you are toting around a notebook and writing down this and that.

One day they will.  We all will.  I am looking forward to it.

Speaking the rights.

Uncle Danny Johnson

I was asked today how the Marshall Thundering Herd did this past weekend.  I told my friend they did not lose.  They did not play.  This week they will be visiting Old Dominion on Saturday for C-USA tilt scheduled to kick off at noon.  Early prediction…ODU will be a pesky handful, though the Herd goes home victorious.

Of the ten picks this past weekend on speaktherights.com, we managed to get 8 of them correct.

I did pick Cincinnati to beat Ohio State.  Wishful thinking on my part.

I did pick Duke to beat Miami.  Wishful thinking on my part.

I did pick Maryland to beat Indiana.  Smart thinking on my part.  Remember on an earlier post…I wrote about the natural order of things.  Enough said; I do believe Indiana will beat North Texas this coming Saturday.

What possessed me to think Ole Miss was playing in Memphis this past weekend is beyond me.  I commented that the Rebs would be riding the bus back to Oxford after the game against the Tigers.  They played a home game.   They play an even bigger home game this coming Saturday.  The Rebs will win this game.  For the first time in all my following of the Rebels, I think they will beat a team ranked much higher they they are.  Having spent the weekend in Alabama, the Tide is ready turn.  Not because it wants to…because it is time.  Time to get hit upside the helmet by a powerful defense.  This is the Rebels’ time.   We’ll be talking about this one for a very long time.  In earnest, providing they protect the football and do well with field position, Ole Miss will win.  I said on the radio over and over again and I will say it on speaktherights.com:

“Field position and turnovers, Gus (my radio partner)…that will be the key to the game.”

For the first time in a long time I feel Ole Miss’ defense has the lateral and vertical speed to stay with any team.  So my final edict:  Protect the dadgum ball!  My apologizes to Coach Bobby Bowden.

In other news:

My dear wife, Carrie, and I attended a wedding in Alabama this weekend.  It was good to see old friends and enjoy the post-wedding ceremony that included watching football afterwards.  The weather was great.  If you have ever traveled down Interstate 65 through the state of Alabama, you know they possess the greatest rest area landmark in the country.  It is a Saturn 5 Rocket that welcomes you to Alabama.  The thing is awesome.  I wish I had taken the time to take a picture to share with you.

Good job yesterday by Teddy Bridgewater.  He is the NFL’s first rookie quarterback to direct his team to victory this season.  Johnny Manziel has yet to do that.

My friends at Brownstown Central were big winners this past Friday night.  They defeated the county rivals, the Seymour Owls, 75-14.  Clay Brown threw 5 touchdown passes.  My friend, Jerry Brown, must be proud of his team.   I wish Seymour wasn’t so pitiful.

Thanks goes out to the Mellow Mushroom restaurant in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Carrie and I ate lunch there yesterday.  The place was spotless and the food was even better.

Just speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

In Decatur, Alabama today I was in a large bookstore.  My purchase was that of 5 items.  As is the custom, I inspected my receipt after the transaction to scrutinize its accuracy.  I was not charged for the Huntsville newspaper I bought.

I did an about-face in the parking lot.  I went back into the store and informed the young lady that I had not been charged for my Huntsville paper and I needed to make good on it.

Her comment to me:  “You could have gotten out of here with it and no one would have known.”

I told her I would have known.

She was right, of course.  So was I.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

How can it be?

How can we be talking about Week 5 of the college football season already?  Well…we are.  The season is taking shape a bit and this week and next week will help decide what direction things will really be going as we head to late fall.

At this writing I am sitting here watching the Giants and my favorite player, Eli Manning, play well against the Washington Redskins.  I must say I am not a great fan of Thursday Night NFL Football.  I am old school.

High Schools on Friday.  College on Saturday.  Pro on Sunday.  And Monday Night Football.  That was when football was the most fun for me.

Now to Eli…don’t throw any more passes to Rashad Jennings…and Eli thinks he has a touchdown…but the refs disagree.  I think Eli may be right after watching the replay.

On to Week 5 College Football Picks:

Maryland will beat Indiana:  The Hoosiers are at home and though they beat Mizzou in the Show Me State, as I picked them to do so, they still are due to lay an egg in the Big 14 opener.

Iowa will beat Purdue:  I still have faith that the Hawkeyes will finish well.

Kentucky will beat Vandy:  They will try to lose it…but someone will hold on for the Cats.

Georgia will beat Tennessee:  Todd Gurley may run for 300 yards.

Duke will beat Miami:  The Dukies go to 5 wins and 0 losses and they are fun to watch.

Ole Miss will beat Memphis:  Though they are looking to Bama next week…the Rebs will handle Memphis and enjoy the short ride home to Oxford as they study the Tide by bus light.

Louisville beat Wake Forest:  The Deacons will be glad to get back home after this tail whipping.

Texas A& M beats Arkansas:  This will be very entertaining.  Offense and offense and some more offense.

Notre Dame will beat Syracuse

Cincinnati will beat Ohio State:  Upset of the week.  The Riverboat Gambler, Tuberville, is ready to pull this off.  Ohio State fans will have injuries to blame.

Enjoy the games.

While you are at it….speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

I alluded to The Corner King Classic (Version 15) in the last post.

What follows is a column that ran in another publication eight years ago.  Every syllable written then still hold true today.   With that said, I’d have to indicate that the four of us, the ones to gather next Friday, are very fortunate fellows.

Here’s to The Corner King!

Corner King Classic VII

By the time this story goes to print, the book will be written on the seventh annual Corner King Classic.  I get a kick out of this event every year.  When co-workers ask if I have any plans for this particular weekend, I just do my best Barney Fife and sniff a little bit as I shrug my shoulders and confidently tell them I am playing in a golf tournament.  Most react with raised eyebrows and nods of impression.  Upon this exchange, I walk away ready to bust a gut with laughter.

The seventh annual Corner King Classic.  Has it been that long?  Yes, I suppose it has.  Every year I play in this tournament at the New Salisbury Golf Course.  No other course would do.  It is close to where the Corner King lived and spent many weekend nights as king of the corner as he was parked at the Gulf turned BP station and held court over the old four-way stop in New Salisbury.

Malcolm Todd Lincoln, Sr. was one of the best friends I ever had.  He stood seven feet tall in his boots.  Lord he was big fella.  Nothing, however, was bigger about him than his heart.  He’d do anything for you at any time in any place.  He was the most gentle, even spirited person I ever knew.  Nine years after his death, I still find myself in lonely, quiet moments thinking about the good times we had.  I think about the last time I saw him.  I think about the last time I talked to him…it was on the phone.  “Later on, brother” were the last words he ever spoke to me.  I think about The Moody Blues concerts we attended together.  I think about the eulogy I gave at his funeral and what else I could have said.  I think about Malcolm Jr. and how I hope I can talk to him one day about his Daddy.  Though I don’t do it, some days I could still cry.

Without fail, I am quite certain I will once again get a little choked up at the first tee at New Salisbury Golf Course as I always make a short impromptu speech about the Corner King before the first player tees off.  I get to tee off first this year because I won last year.  This year, however, Gus is the favorite.

We gather at the first tee each year, the four of us: Mick Rutherford, Kelly Samons, Jason “Gus” Stephenson, and me. Like Corner King, we are all graduates of the North Harrison High School class of 1986.  How we’ve gotten to the seventh one of these things so quickly is a mystery.  How we have survived the laughter and the bad golf is an even greater mystery.

In addition to the laughter, two other things involved with the Corner King Classic have stayed intact.  Each participant gets a trophy at the end of the round of golf.  We have a first place trophy, a second place trophy, a third place trophy, and a fourth place trophy. We just trade at the end of the round.  As I said, I currently hold the first place trophy.  I have won it twice in the history of the tournament.  One other staple of tradition we hold to is to have a ceremonial bite of SKOAL at the first tee.  In our younger days, we chewed acres of tobacco.  We relive that too.  In honor of the King, we all partake from the same can…believe it or not; it is one the more emotional moments of the day.  When that seriousness is over, however, it’s every man for himself and you’d better keep your head up.  Who knows where that little white ball is going?

The Corner King Classic has made its own memories.  Every year Gus says I am the favorite.  One year, as he was teeing off first in defense of his title, his shot took a 90-degree angle to the right and hit the shed they keep their golf carts in.  After my side quit hurting from laughter, I told him maybe I was the favorite.  I also remember the time Mick was playing with an orange ball and finding that thing was like an Easter egg hunt in all the leaves.  Kelly always takes his sweet time sizing up his shots only to use the word “dagnabbit” every third shot.  One year I rolled in a birdie putt at number eight off the fringe only to lose three balls in the woods off the following tee.

What I remember most is the Corner King and knowing we play in a classic because he was one.

Wow.

This past weekend’s speaktherights.com College Football Predictions worked out very well.

I was in earnest when I said the Hoosier would beat Mizzou.  They did.

I was in err when I reported that East Carolina had beaten South Carolina earlier.  They beat Virginia Tech instead…no simple task.  They put 70 points on North Carolina.  Time to retire Ruffin McNeil’s jersey.  He played defensive back for them back in the day.  He is a good Pirate.  Speaking of which, who has cooler uniforms than ECU?  I hope you did not say Oregon.

When it was all said and done, the week was 8 for and 2 against.  I thought Va. Tech would beat Ga. Tech.  I thought LSU would take care of Mississippi State.  Between the two of them the State boys from Starkville and Ole Miss are 7 wins and 0 loses.

Back to IU.  I did think they would win.  Mizzou was ripe for the picking.  Face it, it is difficult to get excited to play Indiana.  The Tigers thought they just had to show up.  The Hoosiers were there to show them up.  And Coach Wilson needed this game badly.  Hopefully it will spark some enthusiasm and the Hoosiers will beat Maryland as they come calling to Bloomington this Saturday.  I would not hold my breath.  If I made the pick today, I would give it to the Terps…though I would hate to do so.  I’d be delighted to be proved wrong.

After 4 weeks the season tally on College Football Predictions stands at 30 wins and 10 loses.

So what is with the golf picture?  This is a question I was asked today.

Yes, that is as close as I have ever gotten to a hole-in-one.  Maybe…I think I was a little closer one time at hole #4 on the Old Capital Course…but I didn’t have a cell phone back then to take a picture.  Come to think of it, I didn’t even know what a cell phone was on that day.

Symbolism.  Yes, yes, I know it is football season.  I know some folks out there think I am not getting enough oxygen to my brain, given there is a golf ball at the top of the page.

Back to Symbolism.

I commented in an earlier post about a golf tournament I would be playing in this fall.  I commented in another earlier post…a little less than a month ago…about how my friend Malcolm Todd “Corner King” Lincoln, Sr had died suddenly in 1997.

In 2000, four us, some friends and myself, began playing a golf game we called “The Corner King Classic” at New Salisbury Golf Course.  It is to commemorate the life of a good friend as we share our own friendship.  The golf is terrible.  The laughs make up for it.  The memories are priceless.

As time goes on, my friends and I see less and less of each other.  That would be life.  It happens.  Like I wrote in another early post…some friends fade away.  I am fortunate to call these three my friends: Kelly Samons, Mick Rutherford, and Gus Stephenson.  We are still at it.

Why “The Corner King Classic” in New Salisbury?   The course is close to the corner where our friend the Corner King would sit holding court at the old gas station in front of the old four-way stop…high above his subjects in a red Jeep that sat well off the ground.  The golf course is…well…just around the corner.

Speaking the rights….FORE!

Danny Johnson

Tonight I had a wonderful time in my hometown.

The Brownstown Central Braves played host to the North Harrison Cougars.  Brownstown won 35-13.  It was much closer than most of us thought it would be.  I was delighted to see the Braves win…for many reasons.  One included the fact that I wanted to see my friend Jerry Brown, a coach for BCHS, come away with a victory.

This is a picture of of me and Jerry after the game.

You can see how miserable we are.

I am so blessed to have such good friends.

I will give a full account of my wonderful evening with many friends tomorrow on speaktherights.com

Danny Johnson