Share: 
People in Sports

Ricky Ward celebrates 50 years by running 5 kilometers with his sons

October 20, 2015

Hey, Ricky! Hey, Ricky! Ricky Ward ran his first 5K Oct. 17 at the Herring Point Five and Dime on his 50th birthday with his sons Austin, 19, and A.J., 28. Ricky went “Great Santini,” beating both his sons before taking them out for breakfast followed by a long day of celebration. Ricky was on my track teams in the early 80s. He always was a great guy and still is. He joins a growing list of grandfather’s I have coached. Better mention daughter Tessa and wife Bobbi Brooks to complete the nuclear family. I told Ricky and Bobbi when they were in high school, "it will never work out.” Actually, I said “I would never work out.”

Cahoots in suits - Like many sports fans with a cable remote, I was pushing the “last” button, going between the Michigan versus Michigan State football game and the Toronto at Kansas City baseball game. I left football when it appeared settled, back to baseball on Fox Sports 1, two funny ha ha guys in studio and one said, “wait until you hear about the ending of the game at the Big House. Now back to Joe Buck.” Big Head Joe was “seething” and said “I guess we have to find out about that or our faces will melt.” Because the Fox contract with MLB, FS1 was constrained to talk only baseball, forcing me to search for the outcome of the football game. Scoop is important in sports and if a network won’t deliver, you go searching for any other sports channel that will. Amazingly, most of them were dragging their feet, locked in paid for advertised programming. I had to use my smartphone to find out what happened in the Michigan game.

O'Leary-O’Liar - University of Central Florida football coach George O’Leary will turn 70 on his next birthday. His winless 0-7 Knights lost in Philly to unbeaten Temple Saturday night, but gave the Owls a scare before falling 30-16. O’Leary, the 2000 National Coach of the Year at Georgia Tech, is best known for being hired by Notre Dame in 2001 then being fired weeks later due to discrepancies in his resumé, otherwise known as lies. O’Leary claimed he earned three varsity letters in football at New Hampshire - he didn’t play - and was earning a master’s degree from NYU-Stony Brook University, which doesn’t even exist in the world of hyphenation. My late Uncle Harry was an electrician, always claimed to have gone to Drexel for two years. It was “no shock” to learn he didn’t, but Harry lived that fabrication for a lifetime, a Drexel Dragon until the day he died. Grandma Rose: “Never embellish yourself in writing, exaggeration by spoken word is much easier to deny if captured.”

Big Thursday - Thursday evening, Oct. 22, is a sports extravaganza of competitive Cape sports, a virtual three-headed monster, featuring Caesar Rodney at Cape volleyball at 5 p.m., then soccer at 7 p.m. The Polytech Panthers are at Champions Stadium for field hockey at 6 p.m. in a battle of last year's state finalists.

The brace - A middle-aged woman wearing a knee brace while food shopping is ironically lame. Wearing a brace over sweet pants only plays at discount stores. Recovering athletes mandated by a doctor/trainer to wear a brace in competition for the most part would rather not. The brace doesn’t make an athlete slower it just makes them look slower. The coach may see the brace and not the person and it often impacts playing time. I have often wondered braces, harnesses, athletic tape and ace bandages were more psychological than effectual. I played college football with a skinny folded towel taped around my neck because I always led with my head. Now 50 years later that is called targeting and gets a game ejection.

Snippets - Forget that half full-half empty glass nonsense. Do you wake up in the morning thinking “what can I do?” or more often “what can I avoid doing today?” I am the guy that no matter what I’m doing it looks like I’m doing nothing.

The Cape soccer alumni game is set for Nov. 24 with kickoff at 7 p.m. Alumni will need to pay $20 for their Cape soccer shirt. All alumni should wear black shorts and black socks. Contact Nancy Ashby to reserve a spot on the alumni roster. Email Nancy your name, shirt size class and SAT scores to nancy.ashby@cape.k12.de.us.

I don’t like it and don’t trust it. Delaware field hockey, No. 15 in the country, lost in overtime last Sunday afternoon against No. 5 Virginia by a score of 3-2 in front of 462 fans. The game was tied at 2 in the 75th minute of play when the Cavaliers were awarded a stroke and converted to win the game 3-2. No joke, no strokes in overtime would be my rule change. Play a person down, but don’t lose a 75-minute game on a penalty stroke.

Go on now, git!