By MONTE DUTTON

I watched the ceremonies from Normandy on Thursday morning, and it made me wish America could come together like that on anything now.

Culture shock hurts.

Growing up, World War II veterans were prevalent. Teachers showed us mementoes in class. People told stories. The most mild-mannered fellow in town led a raid on a German command post. The mailman flew bombers.

All but a few are gone. Is there anything more touching than watching a 103-year-old veteran insist on rising from his wheelchair to be honored by the presidents of the United States and France?

My grandfather was in the Army but never left the States. He was a bit long in years for a soldier, so he wasn’t drafted until the losses mounted. He was still training in Texas when it ended. I don’t think I ever remember him telling me anything about the experience that wasn’t funny.

My mother was born on June 6, four years early. I’ve always been a history buff. I realized this when I was about seven.

When I was in high school, at least half the football team sang along with the national anthem. Not well, but we sang. Admittedly, I considered it something of a good-luck charm. I still do. I stick out like a tongue, but it’s bad form to complain about someone singing the national anthem, so I get away with it.

Whaddaya know? Fatso’s singin’ the anthem.

One reason less people write is that names are getting harder and harder to spell. Kristaps Porzingis? How does one rhyme that? How does one assign Porzingis a nickname?

He’s the Latvian Leaper from Liepaja.

Porzingis has what looks like a comma hanging from the “n” and hovering above the “g.” I don’t do the alternative keyboards or convert one word to Latvian. No offense. I’d have to learn how.

I don’t want to watch four games on TV at the same time. One game while writing about another game is quite enough. Not everyone has this difficulty.

In sports, “dropping a dime” is gradually coming to mean almost anything.

“It’s been a minute.” I’ve written it. I’m tired of it.

Meanwhile, back on campus …

Furman football has added three graduate transfers.

Joining the reigning Southern Conference champions are Mo Perkins, a 5- 10, 172, cornerback from Midwestern State; Jalen Tate, a 6-0, 198, safety from Georgia State; and Joshua Burrell, a 6- 2, 216, tight end from Florida State.
Perkins, from Allen, Texas, and Tate, from Pelzer, have one year of eligibility remaining, while Burrell, a Blythewood product, has two years of eligibility available.
Perkins earned playing time in 31 games and registered 20 starts over four seasons at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Tate, a Shrine Bowl selection at Greenville High before signing with Georgia State, HAD 56 tackles in three seasons of play with the Panthers.
Burrell, who ranked as the state’s No. 4 prospect and was a Shrine Bowl pick out of Blythewood High School, saw action in 21 games over three seasons at Florida State.
Perkins, Tate and Burrell are on campus and taking part in Furman summer workouts.
Furman, coming off a 10-3 campaign, kicks off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 at Ole Miss.

Bob Richey has bolstered the men’s basketball staff with the additions of Khyle Marshall, Kip Owens, Jon Uribe and Rett Lister.

Marshall joins the coaching staff after three seasons as an assistant at South Dakota State. Prior to his arrival at South Dakota State, Marshall served as an assistant coach at Florida Southwestern College, as video coordinator for Florida Gulf Coast, and as director of scouting at Illinois-Chicago. He started 89 games during his four-year playing career at Butler, averaging 9.8 points per game.

Marshall was a part of 91 wins and played in eight NCAA Tournament contests with the Bulldogs, including the 2011 National Championship game. He finished his career with 1,373 points and 609 rebounds while shooting 54.2 percent.
Owens joins the Furman staff after five seasons at NCAA Division II Flagler University. He spent three seasons as an assistant coach for the Saints before being promoted to associate head coach on April 21, 2022.

Working alongside head coach Chad Warner, now an assistant for the Paladins, Owens helped guide the Saints to an 18-3 overall record, 11-1 league mark, Peach Belt Conference regular season and tournament titles and a trip to the national semifinals in 2020-21. The following season, Flagler went 23-8 and made a return trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Owens played at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for head coach Lennie Acuff (currently the head coach at Lipscomb University).

Uribe is set to serve as Furman’s director of men’s basketball sport performance. The Houston Texas, native spent the past four seasons as the head strength and conditioning coach for UAB men’s basketball. With the help of Uribe, the Blazers posted a school-record 27 wins and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022.

Former Paladin guard Rett Lister is returning to Furman to join the men’s basketball staff as assistant coach/director of operations. Lister, a native of Easley, served as a graduate assistant for the Kent State Golden Flashes during the 2023-24 campaign after completing a four-year playing career with the Paladins. He helped Kent State to a 17-17 overall record and an appearance in the Mid-American Conference championship game.

“Rett Lister bleeds Furman purple,” stated Paladin head coach Bob Richey. “I couldn’t be more excited to have him back as a part of our program.”

Lister graduated from Furman in 2023 with a degree in education. His father, Chad Lister, has served as the head men’s basketball coach at North Greenville University for more than 20 years.

Furman football’s Philip Kreidler has retired following a highly successful career as a scout with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Kreidler joined the Steelers in 1992 and in 2013 was promoted to the position of college scouting coordinator.  In 33 years with Pittsburgh he played a key role in the franchise winning 328 games, including two Super Bowls (2005, 08), making four Super Bowl appearances, claiming 15 division championships and capturing four AFC titles.
He worked with NFL Hall of Fame coaches Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher, and during his time was part of a Steeler scouting operation that signed 41 Pro Bowlers.

Among the most notable were Jerome Bettis, Antonio Brown, James Harrison, Cameron Heyward, Troy Polamalu, Joey Porter, Maurkice Pouncey, Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and T.J. Watt.
Kreidler, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a four-year member of Furman’s football program as a defensive back, whose Paladin tenure included one of the greatest seasons in school history — a 1985 campaign that saw the Paladins go 12-2, defeat N.C. State, 42-20, claim a Southern Conference championship, and finish as NCAA I-AA (FCS) national runnerup under College Football Hall of Fame head coach Dick Sheridan. He graduated with a degree in history.

“I don’t know if you could have done it much better than Phil Kreidler did it at Pittsburgh,” said Furman head coach Clay Hendrix, Kreidler’s former Paladin teammate and longtime friend. “The success and career he had with the Steelers is quite remarkable.  The Furman family is incredibly proud of his accomplishments.   He was a terrific teammate and friend to so many during his time as a student-athlete, and that friendship continued during his time with the Steelers.”

Furman senior Dylan Schubert competes at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Friday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

A native of Loveland, Colo., Schubert will run in the finals of the men’s 5,000 meters at 10:55 p.m. ET. He won the event at the NCAA East Preliminaries, where he shattered the facility record with a time of 13:50.99. 4th place.

Anna Morgan has been named a Golfweek second team All-American. A recent Furman graduate from Spartanburg, Morgan competed in her fourth-straight NCAA regional last month and concluded the season ranked 17th nationally in the final Scoreboard by clippd rankings. 

A three-time Southern Conference Player of the Year and two-time SoCon Female Athlete of the Year selection, she recorded a 70.1 stroke average over 33 rounds this season, the lowest single-season stroke average in the history of the Paladin program.

Morgan, who appeared in her third straight Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April, won her second-consecutive SoCon individual championship in 2024. Morgan’s honor is the 12th Golfweek All-America citation awarded to members of the Furman women’s golf team since Stefanie Kenoyer won the program’s first Golfweek citation in 2010.

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