Friday, July 11, 2008
After rock music and fast food, do sports fans dig movies?
Tech signee Mackey tackling eligibility online
Doug Doughty
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It was about 10 years ago that I received a phone call from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Brian O’Neill, who said he was writing something about the fascination men have with lists.
O’Neill previously had written a column for the Roanoke Times but was best known for his time at the Danville Register and Bee, where he had been washed into a sewer during a violent rainstorm and had lived to write the story, an award-winning story, in fact, that landed him at a paper with a higher circulation.
I never read his column on lists, nor am I sure that he wrote one, although it is correct that I keep lists. Lists of states in which I have stepped foot (41), lists of high schools I have seen, lists of Virginia counties I have “visited,” lists of football recruits, lists of college athletes from Timesland high schools, lists of Virginians in the NFL, etc., etc., etc.
So it was the other night at dinner, when my wife informed me that our youngest son had been watching a countdown on Bravo of the 100 greatest movie comedies. We had dinner guests at the time but that didn’t stop me from getting up from the table, googling Bravo and producing the list, which we then discussed with our guests.
None of us had any problem with the Nos. 1 and 2 choices, "Animal House" and "Caddyshack," although we all agreed that "Vacation" – the original "Vacation" and its cross-country trip to Wallyword – was way too low at No. 36.
Of course, I couldn’t stop there and later came up with the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest comedies, which had the 1959 flick, “Some Like It Hot,” at No. 1. I was around in 1959 but never saw “Some Like It Hot,” in which Marilyn Monroe was one of the stars. Another Google confirms that a personal favorite, Jack Lemmon, was in the same picture.
"The Odd Couple," with Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau, was No. 17 on that list. I can’t argue with that, but "Animal House" and "Caddyshack" were way too low at Nos. 36 and 71, respectively.
My sister used to take me to see old Marx Brothers’ movies when I was a kid and I was glad to see that Groucho and Co. were well-represented at No. 5 ("Duck Soup"), No. 12 ("A Night at the Opera"), No. 59 ("Day at the Races") and No. 65 ("Horsefeathers")
SOME OF THESE MOVIES, like No. 2 "Tootsie," No. 4 "Annie Hall" and No. 9 "The Graduate," I don’t remember as comedies, but the various lists took me back to a year, 1980, when my wife of one year and I visited her parents in New Jersey.
While in Union County, we saw two first-run comedies, “Used Cars” and “Caddyshack.”
My wife would tell you that she preferred "Caddyshack" but there was no doubt in my mind which movie was funnier. I chose “Used Cars.”
Maybe that was because I was a golfer – more of a golfer than I am now – and wanted the action to be more true to life. But I remember years later, renting “Used Cars” and laughing so hard one night that I awakened my wife.
I won’t bore anybody with details of the plot, which involved rival used-car operations, but Jack Warden and Kurt Russell were fabulous in a cast that included Lenny and Squiggy (Michael McKean and David Lander) from the old "Laverne and Shirley" sitcom.
I haven’t seen “Used Cars” on any list of top comedies, although I did find it described on one website as an “underrated comedic gem.” Of course, if you keep looking long enough, you can find a list for anything.
After writing this column for 10 years, what I’ve found (aside from a legion of critics) is that there’s nothing that interests Internet sports fans more than rock music and fast food. Oh, yes, and television sitcoms.
Two of my favorite long-forgotten TV sitcoms were "He and She," with Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss and Jack Cassidy. It ran for one season, 1967-68. Another was "Buffalo Bill," with Dabney Coleman, that began as a summer replacement in 1983 and lasted through the 1983-84 season.
Dabney Coleman, by the way, was a member of the VMI class of 1953 but lasted only two years on the post. That could be another list – film “stars” who are alumni of Timesland-area colleges.
IN THE MORE formal print version of this column, Thursday’s College Notebook, I wrote this week that 23 of Virginia Tech’s 31 signees are on campus but that’s not totally correct.
Twenty-one are on campus and another two (Ju-Ju Clayton and Antoine Hamlette) are expected in August. That makes 23.
Two are going to prep school (D.J. Coles and Tony Gregory). That makes 25.
One is going to junior college (Derrick McCoy). That makes 26.
Three are enrolling at mid-year (Ben Barber, Eric Martin and Kendrick Pressley). That makes 29.
One was released from his scholarship (Peter Rose) after an arrest on felony drug charges. That makes 30.
The 31st was Leon Mackey, a defensive end from New Castle, Del., who spent his final year of high school at Hargrave Military Academy, where he played on the postgraduate team.
Mackey currently is taking on-line courses that he hopes will qualify him as a high-school graduate but it is not known if he will arrive at Tech in August of this year, January of 2009 or August of 2009.
THE HOKIES WILL hold their second one-day football camp of the summer and are expecting as many as 200 college football hopefuls, many of them rising juniors.
One of those juniors is Keevon Newsome, whose older brother, Kevin, is rated the No. 1 or 2 prospect in the state by most services and will spend his senior year at Hargrave.
Kevin Newsome, who until this point has played for Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, committed to Michigan earlier in the spring but has had to deal with persistent rumors that his recruiting will re-open. The younger Newsome is transferring to Churchland High School, a knowledgeable source reports.
Also headed to Blacksburg this weekend for a look-see are defensive end Tyrell Wilson from Hampton High School and linebacker James Gayle from Bethel High School in Hampton.
It was a screw-up in Tech’s recruiting of Wilson’s father, James, that led to a lengthy freeze in relations between the Hokies and longtime Hampton coach Mike Smith that did not thaw until Tech hired Smith’s buddy, Curt Newsome, off the James Madison staff. In very short order, Newsome got a commitment from Hampton quarterback Tyrod Taylor.
ON THE SURFACE, there does not appear to be a relationship between Virginia football signee Austin Pasztor and fellow Canadian Brent Urban, who has committed to the Cavaliers for 2009, but a Canadian connection wouldn’t hurt the Cavaliers.
Pasztor was on a Canadian travel team that stopped at Fork Union Military Academy this past summer and ended up returning to FUMA for his senior year in high school. Shuman was asked to help coach a Canadian all-star team this summer and has become something of an authority on the subject of Canadian football.
Shuman said he’s heard a lot about Urban.
“Our guy, my contact, talked about him a lot,” Shuman said. “He’s fast, tall, lanky, like Al [Groh] likes ‘em. Good prototype. Good, fast kid. Good motor.”
Shuman says that Fork Union has a 6-foot-8, 245-pound tight end on the way from Canada this year. However, he will be playing for the Fork Union high-school team coached by Mickey Sullivan.
