Over the course of the last week, the sport I consider the best one on the planet, hockey, kicked into high gear. Locally, the Michigan Tech Huskies started their season with a loss to No. 12 Wisconsin, and then followed that loss with a pair of victories over Union and Minnesota-Duluth. ...
With three weeks of the regular season remaining, the Copper Country could possibly end up with as many as four 11-person football teams reaching the postseason — in addition to the Ontonagon Gladiators in eight-person football. Here is a rundown of where each local team currently ...
When the baseball historians file a 2017 report on the Detroit Tigers, it will be one filled with disaster. The Tigers, once a legitimate contender for at least ten seasons, fell swiftly to the bottom of the league. How bad were the Tigers this season? Well, they will get the top pick in ...
This past Sunday in the National Football League wasn't about who won and who lost. It was about who stood up for the national anthem, and who didn't. In other words, the whole controversy started a year ago by then San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick, has become a political ...
It’s a scene I've seen many times in my sportswriting career. It's a fall Friday night and the local high school football teams are playing as usual. But on this foggy evening, which is not unusual up here, this was a game that had extra meaning. Just who the teams were is not ...
Over the years, I've had the opportunity to see many coaches in many sports. But I can tell you unequivocally that good coaches are hard to find. There are only a select few that fall into the great category. Included in that lot are such legends as John MacInnes of Michigan Tech, Ed ...
This summer, I had the opportunity to sit down with each of the four incoming freshmen from the Michigan Tech Huskies volleyball team. I interviewed each person for about 25-30 minutes and then ended up conversing with them for another 20-25 minutes each. I was struck by one thing about all of ...
The prime sports season is upon us. By that, I mean the time of the year when baseball, football, and yes, even hockey and basketball, converge on the sports scene. The fall has always been my favorite time of the year. Maybe it's because the weather is gradually cooling off and the sports ...
NFL exhibition games are about as meaningless and inane a sports event as you'll find going. In terms of importance, the preseason in pro football would rank below such red-hot items as the Bundesliga Soccer League, the Pro Rodeo League in Mesquite, Texas, or maybe the Drone League (believe ...
Maybe more than in any local football season I can recall, the operative word will be transition in 2017. There was an unusual number of high-quality athletes who graduated a year ago, for one thing. Calumet and Lake Linden-Hubbell, the two most successful area squads in recent times, were ...
I have started this column several times over the past week in my head. I have even tried to sit down and tried to write some of this. It has not gone well, to say the least. I have tried to come up with smart, witty ways to write the words I am about to write, but all of those attempts have ...
I have to admit that I really wasn't expecting it. But when the news of Don Michaelson of L'Anse being selected for the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame came out last Saturday morning, I was pleasantly surprised. I had been advocating Michaelson's induction for a number of years, just as I ...
If you have a spare million or two dollars lying around, you might be able to wangle a couple of tickets to the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor “super” bout coming up. Many of you are probably wondering just who Mayweather and McGregor are? The name of Mayweather is vaguely familiar to ...
We’re barely a few days from August, but football is just around the corner. It seems just like yesterday the Atlanta Falcons suffered the all-time choke job in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. But the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers are starting training camps this ...
Just the other day while driving through the north end of Houghton County, I came across the old ballpark in Ahmeek. While the park is still in the same location, it's been modified as a Little League facility. It's not the same place where Twilight League teams once played. But it struck a ...
HANCOCK — First it was the feet that went numb, and then it was the knees. With just two miles left in the Canal Run, I was reminded why I loathe running so much. It felt like only muscle memory was propelling me forward as I wondered why I decided that running 10 miles would ever be a good ...
Late President Gerald Ford once described the state of the nation as “not good.” That statement, made in 1974 after Watergate and the Vietnam War, could very well describe the Detroit Tigers right now. At the halfway point, the Tigers have stumbled to eight games out of first place in the ...
One of the things I've noticed about July Fourth celebrations nowadays is the lack of sports activities connected with the day of celebration. Looking back in the dusty files of the Daily Mining Gazette, I often find news about significant sports events taking place on the Fourth. One of the ...
The last time the San Jose Sharks played a game without forward Patrick Marleau on the roster, the year was 1997. They went 27-47-8, which was good for dead last in a Pacific Division that featured an extremely strong Colorado Avalanche, who racked up 49 wins en route to a President’s Trophy, ...
After an absence of a few years, the Copper Country Women's Softball League has returned this summer. The CCWSL was formed originally back in the late 1960s by a small group of women. It's operating with seven teams this year and is off to a strong start. Lois (Larson) Knuutttila recalls ...