Archive For The “1968” Category

The 1968 Lehigh/Lafayette Game

By |

The 1968 Lehigh/Lafayette Game

I’ve written a lot about Lehigh/Lafayette history so much over the years.  I’ve written a book about the early Rivalry between Lehigh and Lafayette, and I’ve blogged and recapped many Le/Laf games over the course of my life. Lehigh and Lafayette h…

Read more »

Story Of Philadephia Eagles’ 1968 Mud Bowl Parallels 2016 Election

By |

Story Of Philadephia Eagles’ 1968 Mud Bowl Parallels 2016 Election
How do you write about sports when it doesn’t feel like a game anymore?

This is the crux of the question I’ve been struggling with over the last few weeks.

Like many of you, I was shocked at the election of Donald Trump to become our next President.  Also like many of you, I paid as he did things differently when it came to talking about the political foes he defeated, how he went about assembling a cabinet, and how he engaged the press.

Everything about this point in time in history feels historic.  No set of Americans have ever elected someone like Donald Trump as President.  Nobody, not Trump of the mobs of Twitter people that seem to follow him, have used Twitter to attack people so directly almost like a weapon, especially focused at journalists that are trying to get at the truth.

Frankly, nobody knows what’s coming next.

So how do you write about sports at a time like this?  How do you compartmentalize what you’re feeling about the election, and crack open the vault which waxes philosophic about Lehigh’s latest and greatest postseason award for football, or latest achievement in basketball or wrestling?

The answer appears to be to look to history – and to look to sports – to find narratives.  And I found one.

Read more »

Read more »

Lehigh 49, Penn 28 Postgame Thoughts: Both Sides Of Anthem Protests Need To Abandon Empty Gestures And Do Something Real

By |

Lehigh 49, Penn 28 Postgame Thoughts: Both Sides Of Anthem Protests Need To Abandon Empty Gestures And Do Something Real

(Photo Credit: Thomas Munson/The Daily Pennsylvanian)

The firestorm made its way to Franklin Field.

Few football fans may noticed it as the game was about to start, including myself.  I wasn’t focused on the cheerleading team during the national anthem, nor was anyone else that I confer with – I was a bit more preoccupied whether Lehigh was going to open the season 0-3.

But sometime on Monday, The Daily Pennsylvanian published a short piece detailing the planned protest event, done by Alexus Bazen and Deena Char.

It is the same act that 49ers backup QB Colin Kaepernick and many, many other NFL players have performed during the national anthem during the preseason and first weeks of the season – kneeling or sitting during the National Anthem, and raising a fist.  It’s an act meant to inflame and to get them noticed, and it did.

Why, though?

The “why” can and should be asked on both sides of the protest, those that find solidarity with it and those that are angered by it.

Let’s talk about it.
Read more »

Read more »

Skip to toolbar