By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. It is glittering and bright, this brand-new Timmons Arena. On a campus of stately brick buildings and picturesque fountains, Furman University’s reimagined basketball arena more closely resembles the fountains. A little of the Williamsburg architecture remains on the sides, but from the outside, the edifice is overwhelmingly …
Author: wastedpilgrim
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Last of the red-hot promoters
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. When writing about stock cars became my principal way to make a living, one of the surprises was Howard Augustine “Humpy” Wheeler Jr., known for his flamboyant promotion of events at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I was expecting P.T. Barnum. What I found was the Wizard of Oz, a mild-mannered fellow …
One loss does not a season make
By MONTE DUTTON Seniors Kynius Williams (44), Noah Garrett (12) converge on Woodruff's Connor Davis (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. WOODRUFF – Man, I’ve seen a lot of Clinton-Woodruff football games. The game last year was the closest the Red Devils played en route to the Class 2A state championship. The first (I remember) was …
Friday night comes alive
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. A state championship is the ultimate achievement in high-school sports until, all of a sudden, it isn’t. Clinton High, like every other occupant of the proverbial mountaintop, enjoyed the experience so much that the prospect of another seems irresistible. It’s not easy. Last year, when the Red Devils were 12-2, …
It was a Gray heat
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. On Friday evening in Chapin, it was hot. Hot. Maybe I need to get out more. The stadium has a navy-blue concrete wall at the front of the visitors’ side. As I was my usual ridiculously early self, I sat on it for a while. No one else was there …
War Eagles, Red Devils slug it out
By MONTE DUTTON Angelo Cromer rambles for the Red Devils (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. CHAPIN – Gray Collegiate’s 7-0 exhibition decision over Clinton offered a complicated means of comparison on Friday evening at Chapin High School. There were similarities. The Red Devils are the reigning Class 2A state football champions. The War Eagles won …
Clinton to face unusual challenge in Chapin
By MONTE DUTTON Javen Cook (3) is little but loud (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. For the second year in a row, Clinton High School is off to Chapin to participate in the final exhibition warm-up to football season. For the second year in a row, the Red Devils are entering the season with one …
Continue reading Clinton to face unusual challenge in Chapin
Thoughts that have infected me recently
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Latest trends in the world of sports: Length and size have replaced height and weight. Groups have been replaced by rooms (“the quarterback room”) that I suspect do not actually exist. Some words have flip-flopped meanings to the point where anything goes. Citizens want governments to be “transparent” so they …
Devils fork the Fury
By MONTE DUTTON Javen Cook shifts gears (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Woodruff High School is a familiar place for Red Devils to play, though on Thursday night they were playing Class 4A Fountain Inn at W.L. Varner Stadium, where I once played and Varner was still the Wolverines’ head coach. As I sat on …
Bound to be better
By MONTE DUTTON Clay Hendrix (Furman photo) Click here. I am prone to overestimation of Furman’s football prospects. A year ago, as I perused Hunter Reid’s preview of the various position groups – the currently fashionable term is “rooms” – I discovered in the layout process that I had few action photos on file of …
Nightrider's Lament 