by Steve Wulf
Hugo Friend, who won a bronze medal in the long jump at the 1906 Athens Olympics, later became the judge who presided over the 1921 trial in which members of the Black Sox were charged with throwing the 1919 World Series.
Bob Beamon breaks the world record in Mexico City.
SUPER STARS
SUPER BOWL SCORE—
CAROL CHANNING 2, LIONS 0
At the very first Super Bowl, on January 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the halftime entertainment was provided by the University of Michigan and University of Arizona marching bands. Since then, the halftime show has gotten bigger, sometimes better, and sometimes weirder. There’s Super Bowl XXVII, when Michael Jackson performed at the Rose Bowl with 3,500 children, and Super Bowl XXXVIII, when his sister Janet Jackson had her “wardrobe malfunction” in Houston. And remember XXIX, when an actor playing Indiana Jones tried to capture the Lombardi Trophy? But for the truly bizarre, consider this: Carol Channing has performed in two more Super Bowls than the Detroit Lions.
Here’s a recap of the halftime acts, numeral by numeral:
I University of Arizona and University of Michigan bands
II Grambling State University band
III Florida A&M University band
IV Carol Channing
V Florida A&M University band
VI Ella Fitzgerald; Carol Channing; Al Hirt; U.S. Marine Corps Drill Team
VII University of Michigan band; Woody Herman
VIII University of Texas band; fiddler Judy Mallett (Miss Texas, 1973)
IX Mercer Ellington’s band; Grambling State University band
X Up with People
XI Los Angeles Unified All-City Band
XII Tyler Junior College Apache Belles; Al Hirt; Pete Fountain
XIII Ken Hamilton; various Caribbean bands
XIV Up with People
XV Southern University band; Helen O’Connell
XVI Up with People
XVII Los Angeles Super Drill Team
XVIII University of Florida and Florida State University bands
XIX Tops in Blue (members of the U.S. Air Force)
XX Up with People
XXI Southern California high school performers
XXII Chubby Checker; the Rockettes; 88 grand pianos
The only reception tight end Percy Howard ever made in the NFL was a 34-yard touchdown pass from Cowboys QB Roger Staubach in Super Bowl X.
XXIII Elvis Presto (The King impersonator)
XXIV Pete Fountain; Doug Kershaw; Irma Thomas
XXV New Kids on the Block
XXVI Gloria Estefan; figure skaters Brian Boitano and Dorothy Hamill
XXVII Michael Jackson and 3,500 children
XXVIII Clint Black; Tanya Tucker; Travis Tritt; the Judds
XXIX Indiana Jones impersonator; Patti LaBelle; Tony Bennett; Arturo Sandoval; the Miami Sound Machine
XXX Diana Ross
XXXI Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, and James Belushi); ZZ Top; James Brown
XXXII Boyz II Men; Smokey Robinson; Martha Reeves; the Temptations; Queen Latifah
XXXIII Stevie Wonder; Gloria Estefan; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy; Savion Glover
XXXIV Phil Collins; Christina Aguilera; Enrique Iglesias; Toni Braxton
XXXV Aerosmith; ’N Sync; Britney Spears; Mary J. Blige; Nelly
XXXVI U2
XXXVII Shania Twain; No Doubt; Sting
XXXVIII Jessica Simpson; Janet Jackson; Justin Timberlake; Nelly; P. Diddy; Kid Rock
XXXIX Paul McCartney
XL The Rolling Stones
XLI Prince
XLII Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
XLIII Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
SECOND HELPING
ROBERT LANSDORP ON HOW TO
HIT A SECOND SERVE
Unless you can hit your first serve in every time (70 percent of the time is considered good), you need a second serve. So we asked Robert Lansdorp, the man who coached Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport, and Maria Sharapova to the top, for some advice on plan B. Here’s what the Yoda of tennis had to say:
When you have a great second serve, you don’t allow your opponent to take advantage of your missed first serve. If the second serve is weak, the opponent can step into it and punish you on the return. That’s why people like Pete Sampras hit what seemed like two first serves. There wasn’t really much of a distinction between his first and second serve, unlike in casual tennis.
There are basically two different types of second serves: the kick serve and the slice serve. It takes a little more effort to use a kick, or topspin, second serve because it requires a grip change. You have to toss the ball a little bit over the head and actually brush up and over the ball to get the ball to bounce up. If it’s not a big enough topspin second serve, the ball sits up, and the opponent can take advantage of it.
The slice serve is effective because the ball stays low, thus forcing the returner to hit the ball up. It’s often hit in the deuce court. The kick serve bounces up, into the body, making it difficult to return. Even though it’s harder to master, young players should learn the kick serve. As they get older, they’ll be able to hit it harder, which will be important as they move up the competitive ladder.
The grip. Hold the racket with the Continental grip. The player grips the handle as if grasping a hammer to hit a nail. The V formed by the thumb and index finger points to the first right-of-center ridge on the handle.
The toss. Your feet should be a foot or a foot and a half apart. Bring the arms up together. Some people, like Sampras, brought the tossing arm up, and then the racket arm sort of dragged behind. As a whole, it’s easier to swing both arms together, for timing. If you’re right-handed, bring the right elbow up high. It should be as high as the height of your shoulder. Your right elbow should be slightly bent, and then your racket drops behind your upper back. The left arm should extend as high as it can on the toss. Every great server always has that arm extended. For the second serve, the placement of the toss is a little bit more above your head. That way you can apply topspin by brushing up behind the ball.
The coil. Then you bend your knees. You rotate the hip slightly to your right while your knees push towards the right net post. You don’t bend straight down, but you twist slightly towards the court. Your knees will be slightly more forward than your hips are. When you push your knees forward that way, your upper torso actually leans back a little bit. You end up in a position I always call the trophy position because most trophies given out to young players have a person just about to serve on the top. The racket then goes up behind your back with the racket face closed—that means the racket face is almost flat against your back.
The launch. Push up at the legs from the bent position and jump up and into the court with your left foot. Try to jump into the court about 12 inches. You could tell with both Sharapova and Pete Sampras how good their serve would be by how well they jumped up and into the court. If it was only a couple of inches, the serve was never good. So it’s an important part of the serve to generate more power by jumping up and into the court. While you’re pushing your legs up, you want to make contact with the ball on your way up—it adds to the power.
The finish. When you’re about to land with your left foot into the court, you should kick your right leg up and back a little bit. Maria does it to an extreme—it’s almost ridiculous to the extreme she does this— as does Marat Safin. It helps with the power if you time it right. Also, you stay in better balance.
One more thing:
You should also try to find a little bit of a ritual, like bounce the ball a certain number of times and adjust your hair. Something you do the same every time you serve. It relaxes you.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
WHAT THE QUARTERBACK
RATING REALLY MEANS
The NFL’s passer rating is an easy target for commentators and fans who are scared away by a system so intricate that the number for perfection is 158
.3. But it’s a useful measure of a quarterback’s worth, so we’re here to help you understand it. The calculation, devised by Don Smith of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973, is based on four factors: percentage of completions per attempts, average yards gained per attempt, percentage of touchdown passes per attempt, and percentage of interceptions per attempt. Here’s how to arrive at the number:
Take the passer’s completion percentage, subtract 30, and multiply by .05. If the number falls between 0 and 2.375, the player gets that number. Numbers less than 0 get 0, and numbers greater than 2.375 get 2.375.
Take total yards passing, divide by attempts, subtract 3 from that number, and multiply the result by .25. Again, the minimum number you can get is 0, and the maximum is 2.375.
Take the number of TD passes, divide by attempts, and multiply by .20. The max is 2.375.
Divide the number of interceptions by passing attempts, and multiply that number by .25; then subtract the result from 2.375.
The four numbers are added, divided by 6, then multiplied by 100.
Got that? Don’t worry if you’re not following. As Steve Hirdt, executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau (the NFL’s official statisticians), points out, “You may not know how outside air temperature is calculated, but you do know that when it’s 10 degrees, you should wear a coat. TV executives may not know how the Nielsen ratings are computed, but they do know that Desperate Housewives is a winner.”
But even Hirdt acknowledges that while the passer rating is an effective tool for measuring quarterbacks of the same era, it’s unfair to use it to compare, say, Tom Brady with Johnny Unitas. Explains Hirdt, “There were many more deep passes in Unitas’s time than there are today, so they had lower completion and higher interception rates. Consequently, most of the highest ratings belong to contemporary players.”
That said, here are the best passers of all time, by season and career:
By Season
Peyton Manning 121.1 2004
Tom Brady 117.2 2007
Steve Young 112.8 1994
Joe Montana 1124 1989
Daunte Culpepper 110.9 2004
By Career
Steve Young 96.8 1985-1999
Peyton Manning 94.7 1998-2008
Kurt Warner 93.8 1998-2008
Tom Brady 92.9 2000-2008
Joe Montana 92.3 1979-1994
PASS KEY
AN NFL QB GURU ON HOW TO
THROW A SPIRAL
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws a pass against the Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field.
What do Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Boller, David Carr, Trent Dilfer, A. J. Feeley, Joey Harrington, Akili Smith, and Billy Volek have in common? Well, they’ve all been NFL quarterbacks. And they were all coached by Jeff Tedford.
Tedford, now the head coach at the University of California, is what you might call a quarterback guru. A former QB himself, Tedford set several career passing marks at Fresno State University and was named an honorable-mention All-America in 1982 when he threw for a school-record 2,993 yards and 24 touchdown passes.
After his playing career was over, Tedford coached QBs and became the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, then moved to the University of Oregon before he got the head job at Cal in 2002. He has been instrumental in developing six quarterbacks taken in the first round of the NFL draft, as well as two other NFL signal-callers. If anyone knows how to teach the mechanics of throwing a perfect spiral, it’s Coach Tedford.
“It all starts with the grip,” says Tedford. “It has to feel comfortable.”
Typically, the middle and ring fingers should be on the laces, he says, and then the placement of the index finger can vary. As for the thumb on the bottom of the ball, you have to make sure you’re not palming the ball.
“If you hold the ball straight up and look between your thumb and your index finger, there should be some space, some daylight.”
As far as throwing the ball goes, you don’t want to grip it too tightly. There needs to be a pronation, or rotation, of the hand through the throwing process. The ball should come off the hand sequentially, with the pinky being the last finger to release.
Those are general tips for throwing a simple spiral. But becoming a truly consistent and efficient QB takes much more attention to detail. First comes ball placement.
“You should have two hands on the football,” Tedford says, “held as if there was a shelf coming off of the top of the numbers on the jersey, with the ball pointed slightly outward.
“As you separate the ball, you want the elbow to be at least shoulder height. Then, as you release the ball coming through, you want the elbow to be eye level.”
As for the follow-through, you want the throwing hand to end up in the opposite pocket. Tedford says it’s important for the head to stay still, and you want to end with the shoulder underneath the chin.
Unless you work on the mechanics, the motion won’t feel natural. One drill Coach Tedford recommends for younger players is to practice throwing the ball sitting only about eight to 10 yards apart with their legs spread. Then they should repeat the same drill on each knee, and then on both knees. This will simulate all the types of throws a QB makes.
When asked which member of his quarterback stable has the best mechanics, Tedford doesn’t hesitate in picking out Rodgers.
“I think he’s got a great career ahead of him,” Tedford says.
In other words, he thinks he can throw long.
VINE YARD
THE STORY BEHIND THE IVY AT WRIGLEY FIELD
It’s called Parthenocissus tricuspidata, and Wrigley Field would not be Wrigley Field without it. Better known as Boston ivy, it was first planted at the base of the red brick wall for the new bleachers in 1937 at the behest of Bill Veeck, whose father was the Cubs’ president. (Veeck also had fast-growing bittersweet strung from the top.) The effect of the East Asian vines was both ever changing—it’s green in the summer and red-orange in the fall—and eternal. The ivy has become so synonymous with the Cubbies that the team’s fan magazine is titled Vine Line.
Outfielders, however, don’t have quite the same appreciation for the botanical wonder. For one thing, it does nothing to cushion the blow of the bricks hidden underneath. For another, it makes caroms unpredictable. But no outfielder hated the ivy as much as Lou Novikoff, who patrolled Wrigley in the 1940s. The Mad Russian actually thought it was poison ivy and would veer off on deep fly balls, thus infuriating his manager, Charlie Grimm. But then Novikoff was such a bad outfielder that even his wife, Esther, booed him. After he washed out of the majors, Novikoff became a star in fast-pitch softball, eventually making the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame. He died in 1970 and is buried in a leafy Los Angeles cemetery.
Groundskeepers plant the ivy at Wrigley Field, 1937.
Cubs left fielder Moises Alou leaps into the Wrigley Field ivy to make a catch against the White Sox, 2002.
The ivy often snags baseballs and refuses to let them go—in which case, a ground-rule double is awarded. José Cardenal, an outfielder for the Cubs in the 1970s, tried to use that peculiarity to his advantage: He would hide baseballs in the vines so that he might quickly retrieve one and catch a runner unawares. Sounds crazy, but he did have 15 outfield assists in 1974.
In 2002, during a White Sox-Cubs series at Wrigley, a bleacher fan—no doubt from the South Side—poured acid on the vines in right center field, killing a section of ivy. But the grounds crew nursed the vines back to life, and now they are as robust as they’ve ever been. Bill Veeck would be proud. Lou Novikoff would be scared.
BAND LEADERS
THE FIVE GREATEST COLLEGE FIGHT SONGS
College football would not be as captivating as it is without the marching band, and the marching band would not be as stirring as it is without a signature song. So we asked David McKee, the longtime director of the Marching Virginians of Virginia Tech to name his five favorite fight songs. They are:
“The Victors” (University
of Michigan). Written in 1898 by Louis Elbel, a Michigan student, and often known as “Hail to the Victors.” John Philip Sousa himself called it “the greatest college fight song ever written.”
“Notre Dame Victory March” (University of Notre Dame). Written in 1908 by Father Michael Shea and his brother, John, both Notre Dame grads, and first performed in their hometown of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The song has some great lines, including “Wake up the echoes cheering her name” and “Shake down the thunder from the sky.” Even if you don’t like the Fighting Irish, you can’t help but “cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame.”
The Michigan Marching Band performs for the home crowd at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, 2006.
“Fight On!” (University of Southern California). Composed by a dental student named Milo Sweet in 1922 for a spirit competition. The song was used to inspire troops in the Aleutian campaign in World War II.
“Across the Field” (Ohio State University). Band members indeed “set the Earth reverberating” with this song, and the players sing it after every game. It dates back to 1915, and on the band’s website you can hear the composer, William Dougherty Jr. play it himself.
“Washington and Lee Swing” (Washington and Lee University). What’s a small-school song doing in a big-school list? Well, written in 1910 by three alumni, not only was it copied by many schools, but it also became a standard for such musicians as Pete Fountain, Red Nichols, Glenn Miller, and Louis Armstrong.
By the way, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen the tuba section of the Marching Virginians perform the Hokie Pokey.
Good choices: In the 1965 NFL draft, the Chicago Bears selected both Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus in the first round.
UNDERHANDED WAYS
HOW TO MAKE HITTING A SOFTBALL HARD
If you’ve ever played competitive fast-pitch softball, you know that hitting a soft ball 12 inches in circumference thrown from 40 feet away is just as difficult as hitting a hardball 9 inches in circumference thrown from 60 feet, 6 inches away. And one of the people who has made softball especially hard is pitcher Michele Smith, who has twice won Olympic gold medals for the United States and now plays professionally in Japan.