By MONTE DUTTON

Last season was fantastic. Seldom, if ever, has Furman been better at football and men’s basketball at the same time.

As no less an observer than Ronnie Milsap (who is blind) sang, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

It’s amazing such a small area of real estate was responsible for so much fun and enjoyment. It’s amazing how many great personalities practice and perform at Paladin Stadium and in Timmons Arena. Their coaches value them as athletes. I do, too, but what sets them apart, me being a writer of sports, is how they answer questions and what I see them do.

No one who ever appeared on Colbert, Kimmel or Fallon offers more entertaining talk than Mike Bothwell and Matt Sochovka. It’s tough to narrow it down to those two. As an interview subject, I haven’t found a bad one. It apparently comes with the territory of a Furman education.

My favorite quotation was from Jalen Slawson, a fierce, passionate warrior. He admitted he sometimes needed to control his emotions better and contrasted himself with a budding Furman star, Marcus Foster, who, Slawson said, was “a borderline Stoic.”

I’m going to miss Bothwell and Slawson and enjoy continuing interactions with Sochovka, but I’m also going to miss Jace Wilson, the quarterback who returned to his native state to play at Texas Southern, and Joe Anderson, the imaginative guard going back to Tennessee to play at Lipscomb. My expectation is that both will do well, and I’m rooting for them.

A great reason for Furman’s current success is that, in an age of mass athletic migrations, comparatively few do. Seven men’s basketball players at Presbyterian College entered the transfer protocol after the season ended. One reason is that the Blue Hose are currently burdened by Division I’s longest active losing streak, 18 games. Another is that it happens every spring. At least four new transfers are entering through the revolving door where seven are exiting.

Furman has neither a coach nor a player I don’t like. I don’t know them all, but I’ve collected a statistically valid sample. Bob Richey and Clay Hendrix are very different men, but I admire both. I love chatting with Clay. Bob is a reluctant chatter. I doubt he does many things without a tangible purpose. The wheels are always turning. Clay’s sense of humor is more highly developed. Some people’s idea of fun is achievement. In my opinion, Bob is one of those people. Where coaching prowess is concerned, it’s a long way from Vince Lombardi to Bill Walsh and from Bob Knight to Dean Smith. The profession accepts all kinds of applicants.

Stability is valuable if you can swing it. Winning is, too. Most Furman athletes remain because they love the school. They’re having fun. Nothing is more fun than winning.

I hope to cover the Paladins this fall and this winter because, at this point, it is my favorite of the tasks in my life. It remains to be seen whether or not I can swing it.

Furman has no baseball, but you’re in luck. I’ve written a baseball novel, The Latter Days, and I’d appreciate it if you’d buy it here or at many other sites where books are sold. Many of the books I’ve written are available through MonteDutton.net.