Sports Then and Now

Jack Youngblood played the 1979 NFC Playoffs with a broken leg.

A serious leg injury, particularly one in a key joint like the ankle or knee, reduces mobility to almost zero and brings an intense wave of pain. To study some of the technical details, check out https://www.vivehealth.com/blogs/resources/broken-ankle. Yet despite the often crippling nature of these injuries, a number of past and present athletes have stayed on the field when everything was on the line.

Shun Fujimoto, 1976 Montreal Olympics

Fujimoto was a 26-year-old Japanese gymnast when he competed with the national team at the XXI Olympiad. These were the first games played under the International Olympic Committee’s new rules that limited the number of participants. The clear intent was to level the playing field for smaller nations by keeping some prominent gymnasts from countries like the Soviet Union on the sidelines. Nevertheless, the USSR was still favored to win gold in the men’s team competition.

After taking a nasty spill during his floor exercise, Fujimoto fractured his knee. Nevertheless, he competed in both the pommel horse and the rings, earning marks of 9.6 and 9.7. At the end of his rings routine, his dismount aggravated his injury and doctors said that he risked permanent disability if he did not withdraw. Japan won the team gold over the Soviet Union by 0.4 points.

At the time, Fujimoto said that he stayed in so he would not let his team down. Some time later, when someone asked him if he would do it again, Fujimoto flatly replied “No.”

Jack Youngblood, 1979 NFL Playoffs

Coming off a year in which he had a career-high eighteen sacks for the Los Angeles Rams, Youngblood broke his leg in the second quarter of the Rams’ first playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. But he stayed in the lineup for the team’s entire playoff run that went all the way to Super Bowl XIV. Later in that playoff game, Youngblood came up with a critical sack of quarterback Roger Staubach in the game’s waning moments, with the Rams desperately clinging to a 21-19 lead.

Youngblood was in the starting lineup for the Rams’ 31-19 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He even played in the meaningless Pro Bowl on that same broken leg, but that might have been because the 1980 version was the first Pro Bowl to be played in Hawaii. Read the rest of this entry →

If you have a passion for sports, blogging is a great way for you to share your knowledge and insight with the world. Whether you want to blog for fun or profit, avid fans all over the world are looking for new sites to get their fix of sporting news and opinions, so there has never been a better time to join the blogosphere. A successful website could generate income or even lead to a career in sports journalism or game analysis; so, to help you get started, here’s how to create a winning sports blog.

Choose a Topic

Before you start writing posts, you need to choose a topic for your blog, such as your favorite sport, team or player. It’s important to identify a niche target audience early on, so try to be as specific as possible instead covering all sports.

For example, if you want to start a blog about American football, you could write about your favorite NFL player or create a website dedicated to their team’s victories. Sticking to a single blog topic means you’re always writing relevant content that your readers are interested in rather than trying to cover all bases.

Find a Blogging Platform

If you’re new to blogging, free software like WordPress is easy to use and requires very little technical know-how. However, there are two ways to set up a website using WordPress: you can visit WordPress.com which is free to use but has a lot of limitations, or you can use WordPress.org which gives you self-hosting and complete ownership over your site. WordPress is a great tool, but it’s not the only platform on the market. There are other free blogging sites too, like Blogger, Wix, and Tumblr, so do your research before you decide which one is right for you. Read the rest of this entry →

Whether you’re a player, coach, groundskeeper, or simply a sports lover, it might be easy to look at the gorgeous greens of artificial turf and think that this surface is always, only the best option. To be sure, artificial turf is a great option for many applications, and if you’re considering a new surface for your playing field from a company like Bourget Bros. Building Materials, this option should certainly be in the running. To allow you to make an informed decision, however, here are a few pros and cons to think about when considering artificial turf.

Pro: Less maintenance

For all the inherent maintenance requirements that accompany a natural turf field, an artificial turf field offers ease-of-use and ease-of-maintenance. Artificial turf doesn’t have to be cut, watered, fertilized, or have weeds removed. It can’t die, it doesn’t have to be restored after the winter, and it will always be the same thickness and consistency, no matter what the weather is. Not to mention, you don’t have to use dyes and paints to keep the turf looking great or draw the lines needed to play the various sports. Read the rest of this entry →

Hakim Warrick leaps to block the 3-point shot attempt of Michael Lee in the 2003 NCAA Championship game.

In one of the most thrilling finishes in NCAA championship game history, Syracuse beat Kansas 81-78 to clinch its’ first and only men’s basketball national title in school history in 2003. Hakim Warrick’s block of Michael Lee’s 3-point attempt with 1.5 seconds to play secured the title which became official when the Jayhawks’ ensuing possession resulted in a missed 3-pointer by senior guard Kirk Hinrich as time expired.

It was a euphoric moment in Orange history.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, in his 27^th year at the helm at the time, won his first national title in his third trip to the championship game. Boeheim and the Orange had come up short in two prior championship games against Indiana in 1987 and Kentucky in 1996. The third time for Boeheim as head coach at Syracuse (he was an assistant coach on the school’s first Final Four team in 1975), proved to be the charm.

The two met again on Dec. 2 as they dueled in the Hoophall Miami Invitational at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Fla. where Kansas won 76-60. Both teams were 6-0 entering the game. Each school posted home wins over Texas Southern, Oakland, and Toledo in earlier rounds of this Invitational in November.

Since their ’03 title clash, there have been many changes in the college basketball landscape. Conference realignment has dominated among the six power conferences and both schools have been impacted by this. The Orange left The Big East after the 2012-13 season to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in the summer of 2013. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks have welcomed in such teams as West Virginia to the Big 12. We’ve had mid-major teams like George Mason (2006), Butler (2010, ’11), and Virginia Commonwealth (’11) make The Final Four with Butler finishing as the national runner-up in both 2010 and ’11. Read the rest of this entry →

The Muay Thai is a great sport that trains a person to fight in a more agile way. Once you learn this sport, you can kick, box and many other things that you would ordinarily not be in a position to do, when trained in other martial arts techniques that only train one part of the body. For a person with a deep interest in Muay Thai, there is no better place to learn this sport than in Thailand. Just as the name of the sport suggests, it has its origins in Thailand, which automatically makes Thailand the best place to learn it. That’s why we have compiled for you 3 ways to train and learn Muay Thai in Thailand.

1. Join a Muay Thai camp

One of the best ways to learn this sport is to join a Muay Thai camp and get to train with other people who have an interest in this sport. The great thing about joining a Muay Thai camp is that it gives you access to the best gym facilities in the country. It is in such gyms that you get to train with the best, while at the same time having access to nearby accommodation so that you don’t get distracted during the training period.  On top of that, joining a Muay Thai camp allows you not only to train, but also enjoy different aspects of Thai culture. For instance, you can join a camp that allows you to train, and tour the country at the same time. Read the rest of this entry →

Every child grows up dreaming of becoming a professional athlete. Although every dreamer has their own unique journey, at some point, every future pro holds the title of student-athlete in college. Being a student-athlete requires you to take on all the responsibilities of a traditional student, along with the demands of practicing and competing at a higher level. The life of a student-athlete has its perks, but it also comes with inevitable stressors and disadvantages as well. Discrimination is something most athletes will face at least once or twice and can be hard to get past. Here are few areas where you can expect to encounter discrimination during your academic career.

Professors

At some point in your academic career, you will encounter a teacher or professor who simply does not like athletes. Certain faculty members have a misconception that student-athletes are only there for their sport, and do not respect academics. They believe you are used to having things given to you and want to overcompensate by holding you to a standard higher than all other students. Be prepared to show your professor that you are there to learn, work, and be attentive so you create that relationship early and develop respect between both parties. Read the rest of this entry →