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

Big evening planned tomorrow.  My only regret is that my dear wife, Carrie, won’t be there.  She likes to watch me when I go back to the place of my childhood.

I am going to attend a high school football game tomorrow night.  The North Harrison Cougars are going to be playing the Brownstown Central Braves at James T. Blevins Memorial Stadium in Brownstown.  I played my first football game on this field in 1977.  Pee-wee football is what we called it back then.  I’m sure they call it something different now.  I played on a team called the Bears.  It was a special season.  My Bears were 1-2.  We only played three games.  The 0-2 Bears were playing the 2-0 Cardinals the last game of the season.  The Bears won 30-26.  I caught a pass in that game.  We played our games on Saturday mornings.  On Friday nights my Dad was the head coach of the Brownstown Central Braves.  He had his best season with the high school team in 1977.  They finished the season 8-3.  I still call members of that high school team my friends this many years later.

Tomorrow night I will be there to report for speaktherights.com as to what went on.  I am looking forward to it.  You see, one of the best friends I have is a coach for Brownstown.  His name is Jerry Brown.  Jerry’s son Clay is the quarterback for the Braves.  They are having a great season.

They just so happen to be playing the North Harrison Cougars tomorrow night.  Many might think I planned such a game to attend.  After all, North is the high school I graduated from and played high school football for.  It was pure coincidence.

The bottom line is this is the only game I will be able to attend until October 31st.  My calendar is a bit busy, I suppose.

I want to visit my friend Jerry Brown.  We are getting together before the game for a precious hour or so that will help to define the great friendship we have shared since elementary school.

I will be rooting for the Braves.

Moving on to College Football Predictions for Week 4:

Va. Tech beats Ga. Tech…Beamer is still using a toothpick to clear all he chewed out after they got beat by the Fighting Ruffins of East Carolina last week.

Duke beats Tulane…the Dukies go to 4-0 for the first time in over 20 years.  Coach Cut gets it done.

Bama beats Florida…the Tide is tough on any Gator…this Tide will be very high.

East Carolina beats North Carolina….Ruffin gets a contract for life after he beats South and North (Carolina) in consecutive weeks.

Indiana beats Missouri….the players get it for IU…they need this to save their coach.  It has been a long time since the Hoosiers won a big road game.  They are due.  The Tigers won’t be ready.  This is my King upset.

Louisville beats FIU…as they should.

LSU beats Mississippi State….cow bells will be of little consequence at Death Valley.

Oklahoma beat West Virginia….even though they lose, couches will still burn in Morgantown.

South Carolina beats Vandy…the old ball coach will be making a tee time by the end of the second quarter.

Marshall beats Akron… they darn well better!

For the season,  the speaktherights.com College Football Predictions stand at 22 wins and 8 losses.  Yes, I like to pick some upsets…IU, I am all for you!  Still, I think it just makes sense to pick a dog now and again.

I’ll fill you in about the good times I will have tomorrow night.  I am toting the camera to the game and I am looking forward to it.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Twelve songs that moved faster than the speed of light.

That is how I describe the new Train release Bulletproof Picasso.  

My dear wife, Carrie, and I just listened to the new Train cd and were left to just look at each other in bewilderment…slash…sadness when the twelfth of twelve songs was over before we felt like we were getting somewhere.

Was it good music?  It sure was to us.  Otherwise we’d still be listening to it wondering when will it be over?

The official US release of this new collection was today.  When we got home today Amazon had come through.  They usually do.

Train has become my second favorite group….a VERY distant second to The Moody Blues.  What Train might have to offer that The Moodies will never offer up again is new music.  As much as I can listen to the music I love over and over and over again, the chance to hear some new tunes and have them appeal to my discerning ear makes me a winner.  When it comes to music…I am not very easily impressed.

Twelve songs.  Twelve songs that went much too fast the first time.  Like all Trains…this stuff will slow down eventually.  But it will still be a beautiful vehicle to behold.

Listening…and speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

I can count on one hand how many times I have returned to the place I got my formal undergraduate education for  meetings of professional nature.  In most cases when I am called to attend a gathering at the college level, I travel closer to the school I work at than the campus I attended a meeting at on this day in New Albany.  More often than not I go to Columbus to visit the campuses of Indiana University Purdue University-Columbus or its Learning Center sharing partner Ivy Tech State College.  One a few occasions I have even made my way to the Ivy Tech campus in Evansville.  When you drive 54 miles one way to work, you really don’t think too much about driving long distances.

On this day, I was back at Indiana University Southeast.  The place where I earned my undergraduate degree in Secondary English Education.

After my meeting, I took a few minutes to visit some places on campus that were important to me.  My head was on a swivel as I looked for things that were familiar.  Aside from the exterior of most of the buildings, there were many changes that rendered old spaces very unfamiliar.  What would one expect?

I found the classroom that changed everything I know about education.  Hillside Hall Room 205.

It was in this classroom that I met my mentor, my friend, my best teacher.  His name: Dr. Millard Dunn.  Don’t ask me why Millard and I got along.  I remember the first day of class.  I saw him walking down the hall laughing with a colleague…another English sort that I did not get along with.  I had been a student in this lady’s class during an earlier term.  My respect-a-meter for her was low.  Millard fell quickly to the bug-a-boo that is guilt by association.  This guy is laughing at something that old battle-ax just said, I thought.  She hasn’t said anything clever since the Nixon administration, I surmised.

Shame on me.

It did not take long to realize that Millard Dunn was the real deal.  What this guy possessed was intelligence that I keenly appreciated and…not to sound ostentatious…related to.  The things he said and how he said them.  I got it.  Others in the room were there to get their credit and do their time.  Me, I was finally ready to learn and found someone I could relate to in doing so.  That classroom is still very important to me.

The thing is…I respected Millard.  I asked questions.  He gave careful answers.  I asked more questions.  He gave more meaningful answers.  I asked even more questions.  He rolled up his sleeves as to acknowledge he got me.  We were going to work together.  Did we ever.  I took every class Millard taught.  We ran through Grammar and Usage.  We hit Western Literature.  We took on poetry and creative writing.  We got immersed in studying the New England Renaissance as we broke down the Transcendentalist and the Anti-Transcendentalist.

When I visited Walden Pond a few years ago for the first time, I thought of Millard Dunn.

When I visited the Herman Melville Room of the Berkshire Athenaeum

in  Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I thought about Millard Dunn.

It was in the room above over twenty years ago that I pulled off my most daring effort during my time at IUS.

It was mid-September of the fall term.  Dr. Dunn was making an assignment.  Each class participant was to give a presentation that included the works of a major author and a multi-media type device to share with students…be it a poster, a tri-fold board of facts and interesting information, or a recording of the work…something we could tangibly share with our fellow students that was more than just standing there reading about someone.  These were due at the end of the semester

Dr. Dunn was taking volunteers.  The earlier you volunteered, the earlier you got to choose the author you wanted to present on.  Everyone in the class had to choose a different author.   I threw up my hand first.  The exchanged that raised Dr. Dunn’s eyebrows and drew the ire of my classmates went as follows:

Dr. Dunn:  Who would like to volunteer to present first?

Me:  I’ll volunteer to do mine on Henry David Thoreau.

Dr. Dunn:  Thank you, Mr. Johnson.  Mr. Johnson will lead us off.

Me:  No, Dr. Dunn.  I don’t think so.

Dr. Dunn:  What do mean, you don’t think so?

Me:  Well…the way I see it, I can’t go first.  I’m volunteering to go last…because no one is going to want to follow me.

Dr. Dunn: This had better be good.  I won’t forget this.  But I will grant you the last spot.

My classmates were not impressed.  I think Dr. Dunn, however, was.

The weekend before the end of the semester, in December, I went to the woods to live deliberately.  Actually, I went to Washington County to a very large farm pond that belonged to a friend of mine.  What I did was turn this pond and the woods around it into Walden Pond Southwest.

I took a video camera and taped the scenery around the pond as I read passages from Walden.  I took the video camera and put it on the ground with the pond in the background and in front of the pond I built a Lincoln Log home to represent the cabin Henry David Thoreau built near Walden Pond.  Honestly, I was off the charts.  This was truly one of the most creative things I ever put together.

Why?  Because Millard Dunn made me believe I could do it.  He showed me it was okay for a Moody Blues loving, football playing, poetry writing hayseed to really turn up the volume and enjoy what the work ahead of us was.

On the last day of the semester, I gave my presentation…last.  I turned off the lights.  I fired up the antiquated VCR that was quite state of the art at the time.  I let it happen.

At the end of my presentation, Millard turned on the lights as he stood in the doorway.

He said:  I don’t want to follow that either.  We’ll let Mr. Johnson have the last word of the semester.

Dr. Dunn walked off.  When we came back for the new term in January we talked about that day.  We both enjoyed it.

At this writing, IUS is building a permanent amphitheater on the spot where they used portable shell-like structure to feature graduation the day I received my undergrad degree.  My mom and my dear wife, Carrie, bought me a class ring to commemorate the event.  I wear the ring every day.  On occasion I have to explain that no… I did not get it at a pawn shop.  While some don’t have the faith they need in people, Millard Dunn had faith in my ability as a student and a teacher.  I hope I have not let him down.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

My dear wife, Carrie, and I saw the Marshall Thundering Herd dismantle the Ohio Bobcats today at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia.  The Herd’s offense was shelling the corn today.  They gained over 700 yards on offense for the second consecutive week.  Rakeem Cato, the great quarterback, passed for 425 yard…almost all of those came in 3 quarters.

Even better than this, the Herd’s line played well and they ran the ball well again too.

We must give credit to the line as well as the quarterback.  Without protection, the qb is on his back making shapes out of clouds in between plays.

There was a good crowd at The Joan today.  This is going to be a good season for The Herd.

The Louisville Cardinals lost today.  I was delighted.  On talk radio coming out of the River City this past week all I heard was put down after put down of the Virginia Cavaliers and the school they represent.  It was pathetic.  I hoped the Cavs would win and they did.  I don’t quite get the empowerment/entitlement that so many Cardinal fans/media types have bestowed upon themselves as they embark on being a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference this year.  If they had class, they would be deferring a little and acting like they appreciate the chance to be there.  I have visited a few ACC schools.  When they come to Louisville to visit, I have no doubt they will be glad to get back home.

Indiana lost today.  They got beat by a MAC school.  The mighty Bowling Green State Falcons…they are located in Ohio, not Kentucky…beat IU 45-42.  Good thing they fired Doug Mallory as the defensive coordinator last year.

The Ole Miss Rebels are for real.  They have a defense that is excellent.  They have an offense that is capable.  If they are hitting on all cylinders and not turning the ball over, they can beat everyone on their schedule, I believe.  I can’t say I have ever believed that before.  It is true…defense wins championships.

Their game against Alabama on October 4th will be the game of the year.

Keep on thinking free.  And…keep speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson