Sports

HEAT Nation heart attack

The power and influence of the media and new social media was apparent yesterday when HEAT Nation experienced mild cardiac arrest upon the reporting of Lebron James's announcement of his free agency status. Hold up.

I do believe this was expected so it should not have been a surprise. Perhaps Savannah James's cryptic message on Instagram implying a possible move back to Ohio was the fuel for the fire. She could have meant the family would be returning for a vacation but skeptical fans thought otherwise.

Let's just wait and see what changes the Miami HEAT will make to next year's team. Exhale, people, exhale.

 

-vb

 


The Miami HEAT are headed to the NBA Finals and the Internet clowns Lance Stephenson

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The Miami Heat are again NBA Eastern Conference Finals Champions after thrashing the Indiana Pacers in a  Game 6 matchup that resulted a score of 117-92 but easily could have been a larger margin win/loss. Unfortunately way too much media coverage was given to Lance "Bad Boy" Stephenson because of his antics on the court, especially blowing in LeBron James' ear. 

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The internet went crazy with memes of Stephenson's flopping and blowing. Here are some of my favorite Lance "the Blowfish" Stephenson: 

Lance and Friends
You didn't Know Lance Stephenson had such great Friends did you?

 

Lance and game cartridge
Your game cartridge not functioning properly? No worries. Lance Stephenson to the rescue!

 

Lance sabotages 50cent
Hey, 50cent, we knew NO ONE could throw such a horrible first pitch! You were sabotaged by Lance Stephenson!

 

Hurricane Lance
Brace yourselves for an active hurricane season, Hurricane Lance is destroying cities all across the nation!

 

At the end of Game 6, there was this show of good sportsmanship but Lance Stephenson's face says it all. He looks ill.

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This is what was really going through Lance's head. At least this is what HEAT fans were thinking.

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LeBron covers Lance
LeBron is cool with his but he got his shots in too.

And this....

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Now we're getting ready for the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. Let's Go Miami HEAT! #3peat

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Spike Lee's mini-documentary on Miami Northwestern's former QB Teddy Bridgewater

 

Check out this very touching  video of Miami's Teddy Bridgewater and his mother, Ms. Rose Murphy. When Teddy was a little boy, he like many other young black boys, dreamed of becoming a professional football Player. Teddy also told his mother he would buy her mother a pink Cadillac Escalade when he went to the pros. As a nine year-old, he didn't know his mother would later be diagnosed with breast cancer. The signature color of the breast cancer awareness campaign is pink.

Of the hundreds of thousands of young boys throughout the United States who dream of playing sports, Teddy has succeeded and accomplished all of his goals thus far. Cadillac has partnered with famed film director Spike Lee to make a documentary on Teddy's life. If the film is anything like this clip we see here, the viewers should be proud of Teddy Bridgewater, his mother and his entire family. Be prepared to cry.

A side note not to be ignored is the incredible positive publicity this video/mini-documentary generates for Miami Northwestern High School. Prayerfully Teddy Bridgewater will be a role model for many children in Miami's inner-city and beyond.

 

Louisville Cardinals Adidas #5 Youth Red Replica Football Jersey (Large)




FAMU victory over UF goes largely unreported

"You're not playing the University of Florida, you're playing baseball. If you play the game of baseball the way it's supposed to be played, you never know what might happen." - Florida A&M University Baseball Coach Jamey Shouppe (Pregame speech)

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Since it seems as though mainstream media, excluding the Tallahassee and Gainesville areas, chose to ignore the historic win of Florida A&M University’s baseball team over #6 ranked University of Florida on Wednesday night, here is more coverage on the victory that still has Rattler fans talking. Thank God for Twitter and Facebook!

 

As a Florida A&M University alum, I have to tell that I’m proud but in some ways disappointed that the great FAMU Rattler confidence appears to have dissolved over the years until this win over the Gators. In the video, FAMU Coach Shouppe mentioned an expectation of winning. Well, when I was a student at FAMU we always expected to win no matter our competition. Whether it was an athletic field or an academic competition, we came to win.

Let’s pray this latest victory is another tipping point in the right direction for Florida A&M, Lord knows we can use it considering the challenges we have overcome and are still dealing with. Thank you, FAMU Baseball Team, Coach Shouppe and staff for demonstrating that ‘ole Rattler Spirit. 

 

 

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Photo:   Vaughn Wilson

Related Link:  Historic win: Rattlers stun No. 6 UF baseball

 

 

 

 

 


SOCCER MEGASTAR, DAVID BECKHAM, VISITS FLORIDA MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY

International Soccer Star, David Beckham and FMU President, Dr. Roslyn Artis

 

(BLACK PR WIRE) – Florida Memorial University (FMU) received an unexpected surprise by International Soccer Star, David Beckham.

Beckham was greeted by University President, Dr. Roslyn Artis, followed by a brief private meeting. The two discussed South Florida and Beckham’s upcoming plans to bring MLS soccer to the community. Dr. Artis shared some of the University’s history and discussed their upcoming development plans.

FMU is among the leading higher education institutions in our community and I am so pleased that Mr. Beckham took the time to come on campus and see what our University is about,” said Dr. Artis.

Following their meeting, Beckham and Artis surprised the FMU soccer team during an afternoon scrimmage. “I was thrilled to see him in person and here at FMU,” exclaimed soccer player Francisco Allegro. “It is good for the University and I hope his goodwill efforts help both our University and community, shared Head Men’s and Women’s Soccer Coach, Fernando Valenzuela.

Florida Memorial University’s Soccer Program is among the best in the Sun Conference. For a listing of the FMU soccer teams’ upcoming games, visit the website at www.fmuniv.edu.

 

David Beckham, Dr. Roslyn Artis, FMU soccer coaches and members of the FMU soccer team

 


NY TIMES AUTHOR TO SPEAK AT CHURCH OF OPEN DOOR ON HOW HBCU FOOTBALL CHANGED CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

“I’m looking forward to hearing what a white Jewish man found so significant in our African-American history that we miss.” - Rev. Dr. R. Joaquin Willis

Freedman_author photo_by Sara Barrett
Author Samuel G. Freedman to speak on the season in black college football that transformed the sport and changed the course of civil rights in America.

 

The ways football coaches at two historically black colleges changed the Civil Rights movement will be the topic when Professor Samuel G. Freedman talks about his book “Breaking the Line: The Season in Black College Football That Transformed the Sport and Changed the Course of Civil Rights” at the Church of the Open Door, 6001 NW 8th Ave, Miami, Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

“Breaking the Line” is Freedman’s second book on an African-American theme.

“Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church,” the first, profiles the Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood and his work as pastor of Saint Paul Community Baptist Church in the troubled East New York section of Brooklyn.

“I’m looking forward to hearing what a white Jewish man found so significant in our African-American history that we miss,” said Rev. Dr. R. Joaquin Willis, Church of the Open Door’s spiritual leader.

“Breaking the Line” tells the stories of two legendary football coaches and rivals — Eddie Robinson, at the pinnacle of his hall of fame career at Grambling College in northern Louisiana, and Alonzo S. “Jake” Gaither, nearing the end of his illustrious reign at Florida A&M in Tallahassee — who commanded two of the most storied teams black college football history..

It recounts how Robinson prepared the talented quarterback James Harris to be the first black starting quarterback in the National Football League. And, how Gaither, in turn, moved the white education establishment to sanction the first game in the South pitting black and white colleges against one another.

The 1969 sold-out game between FAMU and the University of Tampa drew 45,000spectators and was the largest integrated gathering in the South to date.

Breaking the Line” climaxes in December, 1967, at the Orange Blossom Classic in Miami, pitting Grambling’s Robinson against Gaither of FAMU in what was deemed the national championship for HBCUs.

Freedman is an award-winning author, journalist, and educator. A former New York Times reporter, he currently writes the paper’s “On Religion” column. He is a journalism professor and is the author of six previous book, two others on ethnic subjects.

 “Jew vs. Jew,” winner of the National Jewish Book Award, examines the American Jewish community’s internal schisms, divisions invisible to many outsiders.

“The Inheritance,” looks at the evolution of white ethnic Americans from Roosevelt Democrats to Reagan Republicans and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

For more information, call the Church of the Open Door at (305) 759-0373.

Breaking the Line by Samuel G. Freedman
 

PHOTO:   Sara Barrett

 


The Miami Dolphins - Richie Incognito - Jonathan Martin saga in the spotlight again

 

Sun Life Stadium - Home of the Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins organization is in the spotlight again as Jonathan broke his silence in an interview with Tony Dungy.

 

 

There might be some resolution to the Miami Dolphins-Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin situation soon. It has been reported that NFL special investigator Ted Wells’ report will be released after today’s Super Bowl. As that milestone is reached, several text messages exchanged between Incognito and martin were released and Martin spoke publicly in an interview by legendary NFL coach Tony Dungy.

Some football fans still make disparaging remarks about Jonathan Martin, referring to him as soft and questioning his sexuality. Other fans continue to condemn Richie Incognito for his crude and racial messages. Nobody wins but a detrimental culture was definitely exposed. The back story of all this is that this twisted relationship between the two players seemed acceptable to many in the Miami Dolphins lockkerroom. I understand being a part of a team but it’s difficult to fathom how these guys even tolerated each other. Some things are funny, others are not. Perhaps it’s acceptable behavior by an honorary black man but let me not go there.

Neither Martin or Incognito handled the situation appropriately but don’t miss Martin’s statement that it wasn’t just Incognito meting out the hazing even beyond Martin’s rookie year. So, who else on the Dolphins team should be given walking papers in addition to Incognito? Inquiring minds want to know what Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is going to do about that.

One of the more disturbing messages (and there have been many) from Incognito was: "I'm going to shoot you and claim self defense. I'm white ur black I'll walk.” The first reaction of most blacks would likely be anger but the reality is, Incognito is probably correct. Incognito clearly understands the privilege of being white in such a situation. He also either thought nothing wrong of writing such an assertion or simply didn't care. There are several recent incidents in the United States involving a white person shooting a black person let's see how they are resolved and if Richie continues to be right.

 

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HBCU football's attempt to bring racial equality to sports and through sports to American society

 

Breaking the Line by Samuel G. Freedman
The road to a landmark achievement was one little known in white America and shrouded by the passage of time even to many blacks.


Yesterday’s print edition of The Miami Herald includes an article and photos on black college football and its impact on civil rights. Please check out Section L, Issues and Ideas, for the article by Samuel G. Freedman, author of Breaking the Line: The Season in Black College Football That Transformed the Sport and Changed the Course of Civil Rights. The article is online at: Black Gridiron: Orange Blossom Classic -The first black Rose Bowl.

Before the Miami Dolphins and University of Miami fielded winning football teams, before FIU existed and before there were so many distractions for folks' time and money in South Florida, there was the Orange Blossom Classic in Miami’s Orange Bowl Stadium Blacks and whites came to see the game, in segregated sections, and enjoy FAMU’s marching band. The destruction of the Orange Bowl Stadium to make way for the Marlins Stadium razed a lot more than a stadium, it was a significant part of black culture not just in Miami, but throughout the nation.

Freedman will be speaking on Wednesday, September 18, 7:30 p.m., at the Wolfe Center at FIU’s north campus and at Books & Books in Coral Gables, on Thursday, September 19, 8 p.m. I'm taking my Dad since he actually played football at FAMU back in the day. No matter how warm it is on Wednesday evening, he will probably wear his FAMU football jacket.

The unfortunate by-product of breaking the color line in football led to black college football being relegated to second-class status in the minds of many. Books such as Breaking the Line provide an opportunity to expand family discussions of athletics from more than just a "means of getting out of the ghetto and making money" to an appreciation and respect for those who paved the way for athletes today.

 

Here’s an excerpt from the prologue of Breaking the Line:

In the tumultuous moments after the 2007 Super Bowl ended, the two contending coaches met at midfield. Standing only inches apart, the bills of then they embraced. Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears had been colleagues for five earlier years on the staff of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were friends who spoke by phone almost weekly. They shared a fervent Christian faith. And what ultimately bound them together on this rainy February night was the force of history itself.

Dungy and Smith were the first African-American coaches ever to lead a team into the Super Bowl, the most-watched game in the nation’s most popular sport, virtually a civic holiday for tens of millions of americans. While there were necessarily a winer and a loser in the game --- Dungy’s Colts had beaten Smith’s Bears 29-17 ---the adversaries were allies in the urgent and ongoing endeavor of bringing racial equality to sports and through sports to American society.

The road to their landmark achievement, however, was one little known in white America and shrouded by the passage of time even to many blacks. It started in 1837, when a group of Quakers founded a school in Philadelphia called the Institute of Colored Youth, which was subsequently expanded into a college and renamed Cheyney University. Over the succeeding decades, more than one hundred other colleges and universities for black students arose in the United States, with the vast majority of those institutions springing up in the South after the Civil War. Some of them were founded by white philanthropists or liberal religious denominations with an idealistic commitment to educating and elevating a formerly enslaved people. Many others, however, were created by governors and legislatures in the South as a means of preserving the iron rule of segregation and inequality in public schools.

 

 

If You Go:

 

'Breaking The Line' Events

Wednesday September 18

7:30 p.m.

Florida International University
Wolfe University Center Ballroom
3000 NE 151 Street
Miami, FL, 33181
(305) 919-5800

 

Thursday, September 19

8 p.m.

Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134
(305) 442-4408

 

-vb

 

 


Remember this Name: Victoria Duval

 

Victoria Duval
Victoria Duval


 

Yesterday, a Miami-born young lady of Haitian ancestry was probably the most talked about sports story on local television news stations. At seventeen years-old, Victoria Duval defeated 11th seed and former champion Samantha Stosur, in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the U.S. Open. 

Those of us who do not follow tennis closely, never heard of this young lady until. What an incredible personality and great athlete. This young lady’s sweetness and humility are such a breath of fresh air. 

In her young years, Duval has witnessed violence, tragedy and triumph. She and her family were held at gunpoint by armed robbers in Port-au-Prince. Her father was buried and near death until his rescue from rubble in the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Miraculously, he recovered with limited disability. 

She plays her next opponent, 48th-ranked Daniela Hantuchova, on Thursday. Duval has been compared to tennis great Venus Williams. Go, Victoria! Represent the 305 and the 509! 

 

 

 

-vb


Florida Gulf Coast University wins fans with huge tournament victories and Dunk City video

A couple of weeks ago most people in the U.S. probably never heard of Fort Myers, Fl or Florida Gulf Coast University. Wow, what a difference wining a basketball game makes. Since FGCU’s huge win over the No. 2 seeded Georgetown Hoyas, they have been on a roll. The team went on to beat No. 7 San Diego State and now they even have a rap song --- Dunk City

So simple. So viral. A marketer’s dream. I haven't seen them yet, surely there are t-shirts and other assorted paraphernalia sporting the town’s new nickname. Who knows how long this ride will last, just enjoy it for as long as you can, Florida Gulf Coast.

  

By the way, it’s safe to say lots of folks will be rooting for the underdog FGCU Eagles on Friday night when they go up against the University of Florida Gators. If the Eagles can pull off that victory, there will be pandemonium throughout the state for sure.

 

 

Photo:  Florida Gulf Coast University website