"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. It was a tiring weekend. I’m glad I’m tired. On Friday, I drove to Blacksburg for a high-school football game in which there was no doubt which team, Clinton, was going to win. It was a fair jump up the interstate for 48-7. I got back home, …
Continue reading The exhibition was a fleeting thing, but the venue is here to stay
By MONTE DUTTON Gavin Hall rushed for 101 yards against East Tennessee State (Monte Dutton photo). Click here. As Furman prepares for homecoming and the annual invasion of The Citadel, it would be helpful to develop some of that old-fashioned distaste for the combatants of Charleston. Forty years ago, The Citadel was the last game …
(Furman photo) Click here. Not only did Furman not come to play at Western Carolina. As it turned out, I didn’t come to watch. I followed the Presbyterian game electronically. It started at 1 p.m. – PC has played at 1 the last four weeks – and the plan was, to borrow from the TV …
By MONTE DUTTON Owen Glenn (10) fakes to Javen Cook (3) as Zy Butler looks for someone to block (Monte Dutton photo). Click here. A team begins its season and, despite the best of intentions, isn’t as good as expected. It’s a nightmarish realization for coaches. The atmosphere accelerates. Already obsessed with preparing for each …
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 …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Every single kid who announces he is going to college to play a sport cites academics. They mention what they want to be (assuming it’s not a pro ballplayer). Many disclose a planned academic major and cite it as an important reason for their decision. Then some of them go …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I have concluded that actual names are going out of fashion, particularly among the showboats who tell us all about them on television. The Most Valuable Player in the NBA is SGA. Do fans even know his full name? I didn’t. I never hear it. SGA slams! A steal by …
Continue reading The players get longer; the names get shorter
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Lord, have mercy on the Presbyterian Blue Hose. If not for bad luck, the baseball team would have no luck at all. High Point just wrapped up the Big South regular-season championship by sweeping the Blue Hose 10-4, 8-5 and 15-5 on PC’s home field. Presbyterian has lost 11 of …
Continue reading The question at PC is will it get any better?
Zay Pulley (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Laurens crossed the lake as if it was Washington crossing the Delaware on Wednesday night, defeating Greenwood, 8-6, behind three hits from third baseman Coleman Coker and a leadoff homer from second sacker Zay Pulley. Pulley’s blast and Avery Madden’s double staked the Raiders to a 4-0 lead, …
Bryanna Belton (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. From the time she first stepped on a District 56 gym floor, it has been obvious that Bryanna Belton was going to find herself a place to play college basketball. That place is Columbia International University, which while international, is still in the capital city of South Carolina. …
Nightrider's Lament 