Am sitting here watching The Orange Bowl on December 30th.  That is tough to do.  This used to fight with The Sugar Bowl on January 1st.  We had Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy calling the Orange Bowl on NBC after 8 PM EDT.  And we had Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles calling the The Sugar Bowl the same night.  If you remember it, you remember it fondly.  I sure do.

I remember when the January 1st meant the Cotton Bowl, The Rose Bowl, and then the Orange and the Sugar late at night.  Some time later the Fiesta Bowl came into play on J-1.  And a few others joined the fray along the way and were played on J-1, The Outback Bowl and The Capitol One…named The Citrus Bowl again.  Anyway, oh, I just watched the longest TD pass in Orange Bowl history.  Florida State is making Michigan look silly.  17 to 3 in the first quarter.  A 92 yard pass will do that to you.  There is still time for Michigan to rally.

I have so many great memories of watching bowl games.  One was lying on my Grandparents’ bed in Shreveport watching Notre Dame in 1978 Cotton Bowl.   Granny had a small black and white TV next to her side of the bed.  I tucked a pillow under my chin and watched Notre Dame and a guy named Joe Montana win a Nationals Championship.  I attended Shreveport’s Independence Bowl in 1986 and saw Ole Miss defeat Texas Tech.  Seven years later I was there watching Indiana get whipped by Virginia Tech.

Tomorrow my Dad is coming over to watch Alabama play Washington in The Peach Bowl.  One of the National Championship semi-finals.  I think Bama will beat them badly.  I could be wrong…but I doubt it.

Dad is coming over to watch The Rose Bowl on Monday.  That will be fun, since we were out there in November.  USC is playing Penn State.  We saw USC play UCLA there this year.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I saw Penn State play Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship.  Ironically enough, it will be the first time I get to watch a Rose Bowl featuring two teams I saw in person this season. The same year I got to see the place.   I have seen some Big Ten participants in the past when they played Indiana in Bloomington.

The Greatest Bowl games I remember?

The last year we lived in Brownstown, Alabama beat Penn State 14 to 7 on Jan. 1, 1979.  The name Barry Krauss are still three hallowed syllables to Tide Fans.

The 1983 Orange Bowl when Miami, coached by Howard Schnellenberger, beat Nebraska 31 to 30.  Miami hit the big time that night.  They have managed to stay significant.

Of the five Music City Bowls I have attended the 2004 game, when Minnesota beat Alabama, was a good one.  The crowd was great.  The Tide was not.

I wrote earlier this month about Indiana beating BYU in the 1979 Holiday Bowl.  I think that may be the best memory I have of a bowl game.

To be sure, I must add the 1988 Liberty Bowl to this list.  Indiana beat South Carolina to finish 8-3-1.  It was a great season.  Anthony Thompson was his usual brilliant.  But, Dave Schnell had a great game throwing the ball.  I think it was Rob Turner who caught 8 of his passes for nearly 190 yards, if memory serves.  The Hoosiers won 34 to 10.

I remember when Pitt played Georgia in The Sugar Bowl.  I want to say the 1982 season.  Dan Marino playing QB for Pitt and Hershel Walker playing for Georgia.

I could go on.

We have some good games the next couple of days.  I hope you can take a look, if you care to do so.

Speaking the Bowl Game rights…

Danny Johnson

I have been accused of having a museum opposed to an “office” on the East side of our house.

I have always contended that I have been surrounded by great people my entire life.  I am not sure why.  I know I have been blessed.  No question there.  Some of the folks I have happened on would be in the “most unlikely to…” category.  I do know this: opportunity knows no season. It is everywhere.  I have been taught and led by some great people.  The stuff in my office at home is a reflection of this, I think.  Around me are reminders of where I have been.  In that same collection is a glimpse of where I am going.  When the dust of the here and now clears, we are left with a clear path of reflection…if we choose to look back at it.  Sometimes it is better that we don’t look back.  But on those occasions when we do, and we look for answers to the future in the process, we can usually find the answer…if not a hint.  Warning though…it is not always immediate in the field of vision.  It may take years to figure out the wherefore and the why.  A few of those mysteries will remain just that.  They are supposed to.  You want to tell me there are no mysteries in life?  You woke up this morning, didn’t you? Mystery…opportunity…chance…thanksgiving….sometimes heartache…they can all be found in the day.

Above my desk you will find the images above.

Merry Christmas!  Today is Christmas Eve and we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I wish I could have been there the day He was born.  Can you imagine what was in the air that day?  It is our job to hang onto it.   In these strange times we are living in…we better.  I am thankful for this picture.  It was on display when I went on what is called an “Emmaus Walk”.

This photo above is a favorite.  It was taken the day I got married to my dear wife, Carrie.  That is me with my close friend Corner King Lincoln.  The photo was taken in February 1996.  My  friend died in August 1997.  Little did we know what this picture would look like now…what it means now.  Twenty years this August.  We packed a great deal of living in the few years we got to hang out together.  I still miss him.

I also miss Tim Krekel.  We made music together.  I listened to him a great deal.  In his music, in his words as a friend, and as a musical mentor.  I never walk into a recording session without thinking about him and remembering that …”We have to do what is right by the song…”  Tim always did.  I hope I do too.  He died in June 2009.

I would not consider myself a musician of any kind without at lest one Fender amp to go with my three guitars.

My affection for Ole Miss and Eli Manning are on display.  My Aunt Barbara and I saw Eli in Oxford his senior year.  He threw for over 390 yards in a win against South Carolina.  It was the most yards he passed for in a game Ole Miss won.  A New Orleans native, Eli is, if you look close you can see a glass on the right from Pat O’Brien’s  in the quarter.  When Eli quits playing for the Giants I will be looking for another player and team to follow.  That, my friends, may not happen.

A couple of important milestones next to each other.  A plaque my Dad got after winning 50 high school games.  It was given by the Indiana Football Coaches Association.  Next to that is an award much more important to me.  The scoreboard at The Louisville Bats’ Slugger Field declaring our son, Jarrett, was back from a deployment in the Afghanistan.  That is a winning scoreboard.  There are some parents that never had the chance to see such a beautiful sight.

The cup from the Rose Bowl Dad and I saw a little more than a month ago.

My 1979 Brownstown Little League Championship Trophy.  Back when one earned the trophy they were handed.  As far as I know, none of the kids playing that year that did not get a trophy had to go to therapy.  It was a simpler time.  Next to the winners’ trophy is photo of The Mississippi Melody Makers.  That is my great-grandmother, my Granny’s mom, in the photo.  When it was taken is a mystery.

A photo of my 1979 team draped by a visor given to my in 2011.  I was bestowed a member of the Brownstown Central Football Alumni.  Though I did not play during the time the others being honored did…and though I was on a team that beat Brownstown 59-0 a few years after those being honored played…I was told by the powers that be, when I questioned my qualifications, that I belonged there as much as anyone else did.  “You are one of us.”… I was told.  I did spend a great deal of time there when my Dad was the head coach in the 70s.  Dad too was announced and honored that night at the James T. Blevins Stadium.  I was the youngest there to have his name called.  Behind it all, you can see one of my Punt Pass and Kick Trophies from the late 1970s I won on the same field.

The church Carrie and I were married on a  warm February 10th day in 1996.   That day made me look much smarter than I will ever deserve credit for.  But I don’t mind.

The football in honor of Granny.  The kicking shoe that was all too true.  A blue helmet.  Go Cougars! An Asheville Tourist cap.  A NY Giants tin from a dear friend.  And a Wheaties Box that Granny gave me.

M

From Left to RIght:  The Moody Blues in 1986.  The Outfield’s Play Deep CD from 1986.  My original Moodies’ Days of Future Passed cassette I bought in 1983.  I graduated from high school in 1986.  That was the Spring of the Moodies’ last Top Ten hit, Your Wildest Dreams.  The Outfield was all over the radio with the song Your Love.  It sounded to me like an older tune I would have heard in the football locker room growing up in Brownstown.

I have been fortunate enough to visit both Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.

This poster commemorated the Moody Blues 25th Anniversary of Days of Future Passed.  It was a big deal that was celebrated with a concert at the Red Rocks venue outside Denver.  Accompanied by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in early September, the concert was recorded on both audio and video tape and became a PBS fundraising staple.   This was in 1992.  It seemed like such a long time from 1967 to 1992.  Do the math.  This year will be the 50th Anniversary of Days of Future Passed.  I have no idea how.

The last time the Moodies played at Red Rocks was in 2011.  My dear Carrie and I were there. The symphony was not.   Notice the guy behind him with the camera.

The Brownstown Baptist Church on the left and the Jackson County Courthouse on the right.  The church burned down many years ago.  They rebuilt outside of town on Hwy 135 Southbound.  The courthouse…three blocks up the hill from my childhood home, you could hear the bell strike at the announcing of the hour.  I rode my bike around the curvy sidewalks of the courthouse.  On some days I imagined I was Mario Andretti.  On some days I imagined I was Paul Crockett.  No matter, I was a winner.

God Bless you and your families as we celebrate Christmas.  Thanks be to God!

Now that is speaking the rights!

Danny Johnson

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

I have been having computer problems.  My trusty ancient laptop does not want to work.  I am typing on a machine that is a bit foreign to me.  I am screwing up left, right, and sideways.  I will press onward and keep the faith.

I know a few have asked for some pictures of the visit to Lucas Oil Stadium to watch the Big Ten Championship game.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I had a great time.  It was my first trip to Lucas Oil Stadium.  The place, the place that Peyton Manning built, is a testament to his endearing career and mark he put on the landscape of football in the Indiana…a basketball state.  If you look at downtown Indy, it does not look like a basketball town.  The football palace dominates downtown.

Carrie and I were for the Penn State Nittany Lions.  We spent the night in State College a couple summers ago.  It is a unique place.  The school is the town and the town is the school.  Kind of like another place I know rather well.

The first picture I ever took in Lucas Oil Stadium.

What a nice place.

The Penn State team won in a dramatic comeback.   Down 28 to 7…they came back and won 38-31.  Amazing.

On a display of Indiana Football legends, I found Vagas Ferguson.  It was 1975 I think it says, maybe 1974.  Vagas was the MVP of the Indiana North-South All Star Game.  He then went on to Notre Dame to become their leading rusher at the time.  He then played for a while in the NFL.

“Give it to Vagas!”  “Give it to Vagas!”  That was the battle cry of one of Vagas’ relatives at the Indiana All Star Game.  My Dad and I were there in Bloomington that day at Memorial Stadium.  They gave him the ball.  He played well.  It was another great memory I can reach in a pick out and see and listen to when I visit the home of the Indiana Hoosiers Football Team.  Though I feel a little distance from them…for a variety of reasons….when I get into Memorial Stadium I still have fun remembering the good times.

I do hope I get my computer working again.

I need that old relic to help me to…

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

I wish I would of had a digital camera twenty five years ago.  I would have pictures to show you. In 1991 my Granny and I visited The USS Arizona Memorial.  It was a humbling experience.  I still remember riding on the boat that took us to the site.  It was surreal.

Having had a son fight in a war, having had grandparents in World War II, my dear wife, Carrie, and I are rather dumbfounded when it comes to the remembrances of military conflict. I suppose one reason we so enjoy spending time near Wilmington, North Carolina is that Camp Lejeune is near.  There is a military presence and a reverence for our men and women in uniform unlike we have around Southern Indiana.  We appreciate those in uniform.  We thank them.  We need them.  We don’t remind ourselves until it is too late too often.

God Bless our men and women in uniform.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

December.

Carrie and I watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer already.  Can it be?

It can.  It is.  And 2017 is just around the corner.  2017.  I didn’t think we would go that high.

I like December.  I think back to the days when I worked in a large department store…there was a 7 on the end of one of those years too.  1987.  Working at the store during Christmas time was fun.  It was hard work.  Boy was it hard work.  Never stopped.  Always something.  Very exciting.  I was a Christmas Eve shopper.  Back then the store closed at 5 PM on Christmas Eve.  We were also closed on Thanksgiving.  Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day.  Those were the three days we were closed.  I volunteered to work on Christmas Eve.  I didn’t have much money.  I looked for Christmas Eve bargains and found them.  Stores would lower prices after 3 o’clock just trying to move stuff.  But I was concerting in my shopping.  I didn’t just grab something.  I took a nice long late lunch.  After 1 pm the place was rather desolate anyway on Christmas Eve.  The mall was giving way to folks prepping to head to Grandma’s house for dinner.

Me, I just took my bags out to the car after I made my purchases, then before I left the store, I made a deal with the store manager who drew the short straw and had to be there that day.  I got some wrapping paper for a discounted employee discount.  No, I did not take that much advantage.  I never walked out of the place without paying for it…sometimes more ways than one.  Here is to Ed Calldemeier,  Brother Love Kahl, Gary Beckley, Wanda, Dave Hussung, Davey Cochran, Christy Adams, Jude Smith, Dave Killebrew, Guy Williams, Duncan Hines, Casper, Bill Barnes….the Barnesman…and I could go on.  Merry Christmas to you all.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I are going heading to Indy tomorrow.  We are going to watch the Big Ten Championship game tomorrow night.  Penn State is the designated home team against Wisconsin…or should I say…Swissconsin.  I usually do.  I have seen both of these teams play on multiple occasions in Bloomington.  One year I saw Wisconsin in the Music City Bowl against Auburn.  That was a good game too.

So we are heading for one more game in the sun.  Well, not really.  It kicks off at 8:17 and is being played in the Lucas Oil Stadium.  That is the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.  Given I have made trips to Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and The Joan in Huntington (just one game…though we had tickets for more)…everyone I tell that I have yet to see the inside of the Lucas Oil Stadium is surprised.  I suppose I have made an effort to avoid it.  But that time has passed.  I so enjoyed watching Peyton Manning in the old Hoosier/RCA Dome.  That is how I wanted to remember Colt football in person.  I’d imagine the place will be adorned in Big Ten field.  But I don’t know.  Heck, it is almost 2017 so it is time.  I was at The Rose Bowl two weeks ago.  It is time to check out that stadium two hours up the road…not five hours by plane.

I have seen my share of stadiums.  After the Rose Bowl, they’re all like tater tots.

This week’s games I better hurry with the first one.  I am not watching…but ethically, it kicks off in less than 10 minutes:

Western Michigan beats Ohio…I want to pick Coach Solich’s team…I really do.  Can’t.

Penn State beats Wisconsin….There will be tears in the eyes of some of the Mt. Nittany faithful tomorrow night.  I hope so.  They need to win.  They need some good.

Alabama beats Florida….then they beat the next team and the they beat the next team and then they are National Champs again.  Rumor has it Coach Saban ordered the Bama Wood Shop class to offer 3-d renderings of the new cabinet they are looking to put the new trophy in.  Who could blame him?  Then after that, he can find a new offensive coordinator.

Western Kentucky beats Louisiana Tech….I hope the Bulldogs win this one.  I have been to Ruston.  I like the people there better than the folks in Bowling Green.  But the pizza is better in Bowling Green.

Colorado beats Washington…I really think they will.

Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State…my DVR will get a work out tomorrow.  Won’t be watching these while we are in Indy taking it in.

Baylor beats West Virginia…that is a heart call.  Can’t call those Mountaineers winners!

Navy beats Temple….Anchors Away!

Virginia Tech beats Clemson…Does anyone out there know what the “pucker factor” is?  Clemson has had the puckers on occasion this year.  They will tomorrow too.

New Hampshire beats James Madison…They are on the road, but I like my UNH Wildcats here.

Kansas State beats TCU….Bill Snyder for President in 2020.

Grambling beats Alcorn…Might be a kicker’s battle.  That would be fun.

The Citadel beats Wofford…That is for my old friend Pat Conroy.

The next set of 2016 picks will be the Bowlapalooza Picks…including Bama as National Champs.

Stay warm…it is going to get cold out there.

And go Nittany Lions.  I will be pulling for you tomorrow night.

Speaking the Rights…

Danny Johnson