Peterson: More to the game than winning

January 15, 2020

It’s a subject that has been discussed endlessly ever since the first cavemen started playing competitive marbles. Is winning the main objective to any activity? Vince Lombardi had it all figured out. The legendary Green Bay Packers football coach simply said: “There is no substitute for winning, it’s the only thing.” After watching sports, amateur or professional, for the better part of 65 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that it all depends on the level being played. I’ve watched teams that were outstanding in the regular season. And many more that often struggled ...

Peterson: Tech’s Monroe similar to ‘Duke’

January 8, 2020

The first time I saw Kyle Monroe put up a shot I was instantly reminded of another player. It was, as they like to say, deja vu all over again. Monroe, who will likely become the all-time leading scorer in Michigan Tech men’s basketball history this winter, reminded me of Dominic Jacobetti of Negauee St. Paul High. Now, only sports fans over the age of 50 are likely remember Jacobetti. He played his ball between 1962 and 1965 for a team that lost in the 1963 Class D state finals to Britton-Macon by a single point. Britton-Macon was a two-time state champion and boasted of a ...

Peterson: Change on the way

January 1, 2020

I’ve never claimed to a be a seer of the future. Or even a modern day Nostradamus. But I do believe that there are changes coming on the sports scene in 2020. High school football figures to be the most obvious area for changes. Shrinking enrollment at many Michigan schools has led to the increasing number of programs adopting 8-man football. Munising, for one, has already opted to go that route this coming season. And it seems almost certain that Lake Linden-Hubbell will have to take a very close look at doing the same. The Lakes were the smallest school in the state to ...

Peterson: My top sports movies

December 26, 2019

It used to be there was no choice when it came to choosing a sports movie to watch. There was William Bendix playing a very poor rendition in The Babe Ruth Story. Or Jimmy Piersall playing himself in Fear Strikes Out, also not an Academy award winner. But the last couple of decades have brought out a flood of movies about sports figures or events that have been average at best. But there a few that were very good. Here’s a few of my favorites: 1. “Miracle” Based on the 1980 Olympic hockey upset of the USSR by a young United StatesTeam. I was curious to see how they would ...

Peterson: Packers have a coach, Lions don’t

December 18, 2019

Contrary to what propaganda the Ford family is putting out these days, they don’t have a football coach running the Lions. Matt Patricia has clearly shown that he belongs on the long list of Motown coaching/front office failures — people like Marty Morhningweg, Darryl Rogers, Matt Millen, Monte Clark etc. Patricia’s method of coaching is to stand on the sidelines with a pencil in his ear and basically ignore what’s taking place on the field. He doesn’t know when to call timeouts or challenge a bad call. Those two misgivings have been displayed many times. For a guy who ...

Peterson: Weather has final say on sporting events

December 11, 2019

I used to have a saying that you can always tell a newcomer to our area by his/her reaction to the first heavy snowfall of the season. Someone who had never been to the Copper Country between late November and early April would always talk abut the volume of snow. But to local residents, the amount of snow we can get here comes as no surprise. They’ve literally seen it all when it comes to Mother Nature. The one thing I’ve learned about weather up in this neck of the woods is that it always has the final say. There are many instances when weather did just that in a sports ...