AWOL alumnus

On Saturday afternoon, I covered a game in one of the true temples in America sports: Memorial Stadium, home to the University of Nebraska football team. There were 90,614 souls there, the 330th consecutive sellout in the ever-expanding venue. Some 6,000 seats were added prior to this season, part of a $63.5-million upgrade.

Meanwhile, Fury spent that same day – I’m assuming – glued to a web feed, a ham radio or a Morse code translator in order to follow his beloved St. John’s Johnnies in their rivalry contest against the dreaded St. Thomas Tommies. Juco transfer or not, Fury is a Johnny for life. His knowledge and passion is completely legit.

Lincoln and Collegeville are examples of why college football is so successful: Some love it for the sheer magnitude and excellence and others buy in because it’s theirs. Both lines of reasoning seem plenty sound and can be traced back to feeling a genuine sense of loyalty to a school, be it a major NCAA Division I power or a quaint Division III outfit.

So where did I go wrong?

Podcast: Football Preview Spectacular

This week on the TVFury podcast, the guys lose their way.

What was supposed to be a football preview show turns into a rambling conversation about unseasonably warm weather, the methods of funding at American universities, English soccer and Keith Olbermann.

Oy. Here’s the link, nonetheless.

That old (frayed) college connection

When I arrived home Monday night I listened to a voice mail from an earnest young man at St. John’s University who was calling to remind me that my class is celebrating its 15th reunion at the school’s upcoming homecoming festivities.

Members of the class of ’97 will gather in Collegeville to exchange stories about old professors and vomit-polluted evenings, all while showing off their two kids and pretty wives, most of whom graduated from St. Ben’s. Under sunny skies — because the heavens wouldn’t dare open up on a St. John’s football game, except perhaps during those seasons when they lose more than three games — the Johnnies will battle St. Olaf. At least 10,000 fans will attend the game, though the announced attendance will likely be extraordinarily, and, perhaps suspiciously specific, something like 11,876.

And I’ll be 1,500 miles away, holed up in an apartment in upper Manhattan, listening to the game on the Internet. I’ll miss the atmosphere and the scenery, the sights and the sounds. But I can’t say I’ll miss my old classmates. How could I? I never knew them.

TVFury turns 1! TVFury turns 1!

Terry came up with the idea. Terry dreamed up the name. Terry designed a logo. Terry secured the address. Terry solicited the first guest pieces. Terry created the Facebook and Twitter pages. Terry came up with early ideas. Terry wrote the first post. Terry remains the driving force.

So I guess it’s time I drop my lawsuit to get the name changed to FuryTV.

TVFury was born a year ago today, when Terry wrote a short, somewhat cryptic message that included a picture of a headless torso wearing a shirt emblazoned with his name. Since then we’ve published something every weekday, haven’t missed a one. We’ve written a lot about the St. John’s football team and even more about the Lakers (well, I’ve written about those things). We’ve written about technology and the future and school reading programs. We’ve written about life in New York City and life at a modern newspaper. We’ve welcomed numerous guest writers and attempted to make them feel at home, even while reminding them to use coasters and take their shoes off before entering. We’ve conducted podcasts with each other that ones of people have listened to and done pods with business owners that hundreds have listened to. We’ve conducted interviews with some of the best writers in the country.

It’s been a fun year.

The Fury Files: Pat Coleman

Welcome to the latest edition of the world-famous Fury Files, where we chat with writers, athletes, former newspaper reporters, current media critics and others who respond positively to my requests for their time. The entire collection will be available in book form just in time for Christmas (not really). Check out previous versions with Tom Linnemann, John Millea, David Brauer and Joe Posnanski.

This week’s guest is quite unique: He doesn’t sleep. At least that’s what I suspect, and it’s really the only explanation for how he does what he does.

The Guru. (Courtesy D3sports.com)

Pat Coleman is the Executive Editor of D3sports.com, but that title doesn’t do him justice. He’s a passionate champion of Division III athletics, an outstanding writer who shines some light on a corner of the sports world usually ignored by major media outlets, a go-to analyst for playoff questions or hard-news items about schools that are dropping programs, and the leader of a team that now includes d3football.com, d3hoops.com, d3soccer.com, d3baseball.com and, most recently, d3hockey.com.

Coleman and the D3football.com crew also produce the annual Kickoff, an online publication that previews every D3 team in the country – all 239 of them. It analyzes the conferences, ranks the teams and profiles the players.

During the fall, the D3Sports sites get more than a million visits a month. Many of the people who come to the site also interact on the sites’ message boards. Remarkably – and thanks to the efforts of Coleman (who has a mere 28,000-plus posts on the boards) and the others who work for the sites – the message boards are unlike most Internet forums. The well-moderated boards remain free of mindless insults, racist comments and cruelty. People gather to talk Division III sports, beer and tailgating, and in doing so often end up meeting people who become great friends, even if they’re from hated rivals. A certain poster with a name similar to mine spends some time there chatting about St. John’s and its inevitable victory in the 2012 Stagg Bowl.

Coleman started on this odyssey when he took over the site that became D3hoops.com in 1997 and created D3football.com in 1999. Fans of Division III sports have plenty of memories of being unable to ever find scores on their favorite teams, forced to scour the Sunday newspaper’s agate section results. Division III is filled with small schools. But Coleman’s work means the teams and players receive big-time coverage.

And he basically does all this as a volunteer  – while working media jobs in the real world. Again: Does he sleep? Coleman grew up in Minnesota but graduated from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1994. He has worked at USA Today, USA Today Baseball Weekly, USA Today Sports Weekly, nbcsports.com and Verizon Headlines. After spending years on the East Coast, Coleman is back in Minnesota, where he lives with his wife, Cate, and three kids.

With the D3 football pairings being announced this weekend, it’s a perfect time to chat with Coleman. Here, Pat talks about the Mount Union-Whitewater rivalry, how he ended up at Catholic, how to improve the D3 playoffs, the 1936 Orange Bowl, the best game he’s ever seen and a lot more. Thanks a lot for your time, Pat.

The Tapes 10/14

Time to watch The Tapes. We promise there will be no baseball-style celebrations. That reminds us – how is there not an unwritten rule prohibiting “beast mode” and “snake bite”? Come on, baseball. You can’t have stupid rules and stupid hand signals.

* Somebody threw a wiener at Tiger Woods this week. Why? Maybe because Tiger Woods has thrown his wiener at so many people. (Rim shot.)
Also, the guy missed so badly that it almost shouldn’t count. I just threw an apple core in the garbage at my home and it came just as close to hitting Eldrick.

* In other non-news news, my 10-year college reunion is this weekend. But this is not a way for me to squeeze in some Concordia talk on a St. John’s-dominated site. Rather, I won’t be there due to work commitments. And I’m a little bummed about about that.

The 10-year college reunion seems to come with far less trepidation than the 10-year high school reunion. My guess as to why: You were forced to attend a certain high school; you chose to attend a college. Also, you met college friends further along in life (read: more mature) and at a place that implies a certain level of conventional success. Plus, people drank a lot of beer so they’re more likely to forget if not forgive a good chunk of the stupid things that happened.

* I’m going to be honest – painfully and stupidly honest: I have no idea what this Occupy Wall Street movement is all about. Could I easily read a story – say, this one – and quickly figure it out? Sure. But I haven’t. It’s entirely possible that this says something about me. That I’m isolated. That I’m ignorant. That I’m lazy. Guilty on all accounts. However, I’d also like to think it says something about the state of things in America. That, for whatever reason, I’m disillusioned by a good chunk of what’s going on in the political world.

Then again, maybe I’m just lazy.

* Fury here. I’m still delighted by the collapse of the Red Sox. It’s my old small-market Minnesota roots mixing with my New Yorker blood. A piece in the Boston Globe this week generated a lot of news, as it dissected how the team fell apart, or at least offered up stunning, amusing, bizarre and controversial anecdotes that attempted to explain the whole fiasco. Fried chicken is involved. A lot of people criticized the piece for its use of anonymous sources and the shots at outgoing manager Terry Francona, who has his failing marriage and use of pain pills offered up as possible reasons the team crumbled.

On Grantland, Chris Jones and Jonah Keri debated the story. Also on Grantland, Michael Schur – of Parks and Recration and Fire Joe Morgan fame – offered his own take.

* I realize I’m one of 13 people who cares that the NBA canceled the first two weeks of the season and could eliminate many more by the time the lockout is finished, but for those who do care, this piece by ESPN’s Jeff MacGregor does a great job of taking apart the owners. Much of the public probably sides with the owners – greedy players, wanting all that money to play a kid’s game, etc., etc., – but remember: it’s not a strike; it’s a lockout. It’s the owners keeping the players out. Simplistic? Yeah. And mostly correct.

* If you’re into teams that beat St. John’s 63-7 in football – and if you are, please don’t speak to me – you’ll enjoy this Pioneer Press piece on St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso, who’s done an amazing job in a short time. God that sentence killed me.

* New York Magazine wonders: Where are all the good young actors? I say: community theater.

The Johnnies – and their fans – melt down

Not sure what the big deal is about St. John’s 63-7 defeat at St. Thomas on Saturday afternoon. In 1930, St. Olaf beat the Johnnies 82-0 in a game the old-timers say wasn’t even that close. Now that was a crushing loss.

John Gagliardi was not actually on the sidelines for that particular matchup 81 years ago but Saturday’s game was unlike anything he’s experienced in his reign as the St. John’s coach. It’s the most points the Johnnies have given up under Gagliardi and their worst defeat under the legendary coach. To hear some fans talk – including ones who graduated from SJU – those 63 points the Tommies scored might somehow tarnish the 63 years Gagliardi has been a head coach. It’s an absurd belief, about 56 times more embarrassing to the school than that 56-point defeat.

But it’s the way the world works now. Maybe it’s always been that way, it’s just easier now for the disgruntled to voice their opinion minutes after a game ends and speculation about the future begins.

A handful of frustrated St. John’s fans – perhaps concerned about the taunts they’d hear from their Tommie co-workers come Monday morning – speculated that perhaps, just maybe, and we’re only saying this out of concern for the football program, while acknowledging that, yes, Gagliardi has been a good coach and has done some nice things for the school, the team and the community, it was time for SJU to consider a change on the sideline.

Of course, Gagliardi knows this is the way things go in sports. He’s predicted it for decades, always noting – usually when referencing other coaches whose tenures are measured in decades and not years, guys like Eddie Robinson and Joe Paterno – that when an older coach struggles, people say “the game has passed him by.” Gagliardi’s always been a step ahead of the competition – he’s also a step ahead of the critics’ barbs.

There’s no question this is an abnormal year in Collegeville. The Johnnies sit at 2-3, have been embarrassed twice and lost in improbable fashion to Augsburg – and St. John’s never loses to Augsburg. One of their wins came in overtime, the other against Northwestern – not the Big Ten version.

The offense can’t find a quarterback and the defense can’t stop anyone – SJU has already given up nearly as many points as they usually give up in playoff seasons that run 13 or 14 games. The Johnnies look slow, confused and overmatched. It sometimes feels like imposters are wearing the red and white. To tweak an old SJU line, it seems like they now have ordinary players doing ordinary things extraordinarily poorly. This comes after a season when the Johnnies missed the playoffs by going 7-3, although last year’s team lost by a total of seven points and the offense put up seven games of 500 yards.

The success of the Tommies probably fuels some of the frustration from Johnnies’ supporters. It’s one thing to lose to Bethel’s Royals, which has happened six times since 1999 – they’re just a bunch of good ol’ Christians who love to run. It’s one thing to lose to Concordia’s Cobbers – they’re just a bunch of good ol’ farm boys who love the option.

But to lose to St. Thomas two straight seasons? To trail 49-0 in the first half? It frightens St. John’s fans, sparks fears of a run of Tommie dominance, fueled by a new coach, new facilities and a bit of old money. Considering the way St. Thomas dominates in other sports in the MIAC, maybe – the worries go – football is the next thing St. Thomas will conquer. Maybe they’ll join other purple powers in Wisconsin-Whitewater and Mount Union, who take turns winning the Division III national title.

Speaking of the Tommies, yes, they surely ran up the score on Saturday. The 63rd point came in the third quarter, courtesy of a TD reception by star receiver Fritz Waldvogel. And that’s fine. Worthy of applause, even. It’s what dominant teams do to lesser ones. The Johnnies are infamous for running up the score. When it happens to SJU – as it did in 1993 against Mount Union and as it did Saturday – you hear people from other schools cackling and can practically see them smirking. All Johnnie fans want is for those same people to quit complaining when it’s again SJU passing and scoring when up six or seven scores. And that day will return. Right?

So all of that plays into the misguided calls for a new coach, a laughable idea that is, unfortunately, taken all too seriously by a few people. Just be thankful the Internet didn’t exist in 1986, or even more people would have been calling for a new coach. That year, the Johnnies finished 4-4-1. The St. Thomas game that year? A 56-21 loss. Perhaps Tommies coach Glenn Caruso learned the lesson from that game, which was told by former St. Thomas coach Mark Dienhart in The Sweet Season. Dienhart’s defensive coordinator in 1986 was Jerry Miller, who died in 1998. His last words to Dienhart, as relayed in the book, were, “I’ll never forgive you for not scoring 60 on Gagliardi.” For the Johnnies, that 1986 season also included a tie to Macalester. Macalester! A perennial punching bag the Johnnies had defeated every season since 1968. In 1986, it had been 10 years since Gagliardi had led the Johnnies to a national title. And now they were giving up 56 points to the Tommies, tying Macalester and finishing .500 for the season. Maybe the game had passed by the 60-year-old Gagliardi. Fortunately the old coach stayed on.

In 1997, you heard similar whispers when the Johnnies went 6-4, a season that included losses to Augsburg and St. Thomas. Both times – after 1986 and ’97 – Gagliardi and the Johnnies figured things out and went on dominating runs, the most recent of which included a national title in 2003. And it’s not like the dominance completely ended when Blake Elliott graduated. The Johnnies enjoyed unbeaten regular seasons in 2005, one-loss regular seasons in 2006 and 2007 and a conference title in 2008. In 2009, they also went unbeaten in the regular season. What have you done for me lately? A hell of a lot. And the players all still graduate and don’t get arrested and become good citizens and good employees of Target or other major corporations and do all the other things that make Division III football what it is.

But now Gagliardi’s 84 years old – 85 in less than a month – and the Johnnies are looking at a three or four or – good God, no – perhaps a five-loss season. People talk about recruiting and complacency and say the program’s grown arrogant, a particularly ironic statement when it comes from one of the most arrogant fan bases in all of Division III. Many D3 fans tout the level of play for its purity and compare it to Division I ball and the scandals and money that dominate that level. Division III football does things the right way, the argument goes.

Yet many of those same folks can now be heard wondering if it isn’t time for Mike Grant or Kurt Ramler or someone…else, to right this St. John’s ship, which has now gone two whole seasons without an unbeaten regular season. D3 football – so different.

People always talk about how difficult it is following in the footsteps of a legend. Legions of coaches who came after John Wooden at UCLA and Bear Bryant at Alabama learned that lesson. For years people talked about how tough it’d be for whichever coach does eventually replace Gagliardi. But maybe it’s even tougher following in the footsteps of your own legend. Everything you do is compared to what you’ve done, and when what you’ve done is win four national titles and more games than any coach in college history – all while utilizing the most unique coaching methods the game’s ever seen – failure is always one loss away, catastrophe three.

John Gagliardi has seemingly been around forever but it’s absurd to think he’ll coach forever. No way he’ll be on the sidelines when he celebrates his 98th birthday on November 1, 2024. But this isn’t simply about nostalgia or history or doing what’s right or letting a legend go out on his own terms – though all of those things are applicable. He remains the best coach for the Johnnies now, in 2011 and beyond, and not just because of what he’s done the previous six decades. He remains the best coach for the Johnnies because he’s still sharp and hungry, and, yes, a little arrogant, even after Saturday. He’s also in charge of a struggling team, but one that’s still a superior program. And he remains motivated. Sixty-three points won’t eradicate that motivation – it might even spark it.

The school’s not named after him, but the football program is him. It’s been an ugly season. Could get uglier. But it’s happened before – yes, it’s happened before in Collegeville. And the Johnnies always bounce back. The Johnnies are down. But John Gagliardi won’t ever be out.