A walk down memory lane

April 2, 2019

When I first heard that the Calumet Colosseum was up for Kraft Hockeyville again this year, my first thought was a very simple one: They wouldn’t award this thing to another U.P. rink so soon after Marquette’s Lakeview Arena, would they? In fact, I admit that I did not put a lot of effort into even following it because I figured there was no chance Sunday’s monumental announcement was on the horizon. Then, I jumped on a team for the Old-Timers Tournament. I had been to a game or two of the Calumet Copper Kings during the high school season, nothing like the previous years ...

MSU or UM potential NCAA champs

March 27, 2019

With that annual sports phenomena of March Madness here, the prospects of a national championship in NCAA basketball coming to Michigan are good. I firmly believe that either Michigan State or the University of Michigan can walk away with a title in the next couple of weeks. I’m aware there are plenty of other teams in the field capable to taking all the marbles at the end of March Madness. Duke, with freshman superstar Zion Williamson, is certainly one of them. Coach Mike Kryzewski certainly has the background to win another crown. Williamson is one of those freakish players ...

Public versus Private

March 26, 2019

I was walking around the Michigan Tech campus Saturday doing the same thing almost everyone else I saw around campus doing: playing Pokemon Go. There is very little that convinces average Michigan Tech students to leave the safety of their dorm rooms, but apparently Pokemon Go does a pretty good job of convincing them that getting that specialty Pokemon once a month is a good idea. Anyway, while I was near the Memorial Union Building, I ran into Dollar Bay athletic director and Hancock Bulldogs football coach Ted Holmstrom. He stopped his car and we chatted for a bit about a wide range ...

No question: Mountaineers were robbed

March 20, 2019

There is no question about it: The Iron Mountain High boys basketball team was robbed of a state championship last Saturday at Breslin Center in East Lansing. The Michigan High School Athletic Association can sugar-coat it all it wants, but this was a pure case of highway robbery. The officials working the game botched up the final 20 seconds of Iron Mountain’s game versus Pewamo-Westphalia. Their biggest error was calling a traveling violation against an I.M. player in the waning seconds. There’s no way the player traveled, and there is no way an official makes a call like ...

Confessions from a last-place tournament team

March 19, 2019

“Know anybody over 30 who would be interested in playing this weekend in old timers?” was the question that hit my phone via text message on Monday afternoon while I was in the office. “Ambo is a few short apparently,” was the message that followed. Those two texts were from a friend of mine, Ryan Gray, who had joined my Sunday night hockey rental within the past year and whom I have enjoyed having on my rentals, both in the winter and the summer, because he works very hard and seems to have the type of personality that fits well with our group. “I could probably do ...

Toughness is mental and physical

March 13, 2019

One often hears about a sports team being physically tough. But that’s a term, while overused, that also pertains to being mentally tough. A good example of that came during the Michigan-Michigan State basketball game this past weekend. The Spartans, missing two starters in Josh Langford and Nick Ward, and having a third player, Matt Ahrens, slowed by a back injury, rose up in the second half and won a game they probably shouldn’t have. Ahrens made a couple of big baskets and went to the floor for a loose ball to save a State possession. Coach Tom Izzo pressed all the right ...