THROW BACK THURSDAY:

The Breakfast Club was released 30 years ago this week.  Smoke up, Johnny!

NEW YORK POST SAYS . . . 

The best coach among the Sweet 16?

There ‘Iz’ no doubt

By Howie Kussoy

March 25, 2014 | 10:23pm

 

Tom Izzo Photo: Getty Images

 

The Sweet 16 is here. By Sunday night, only four teams will remain. This is when the good become great, when incredible seasons can become career-defining.

Sixteen coaches remain, with some trying to clear a hurdle they’ve never encountered and some trying to elevate a legacy measured against predecessors as much as peers.

Though some of college basketball’s best didn’t make it this far this season — Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Bill Self — many of the game’s greatest leaders are back in a familiar position.

We’ll soon find out which team is the best, but if the rosters of the remaining teams were reconfigured to create 16 nearly-even teams, which coach would come out on top?

Here’s how it would break down:

Billy Donovan vs. Steve Alford
Alford is in his first Sweet 16 — in his first season at UCLA — but he has had the talent to get this far before, making the NCAA Tournament three times at New Mexico — twice as a No. 3 seed, once as a No. 5 seed — but losing to double-digit seeds each time. Winner: Donovan

Johnny Dawkins vs. Archie Miller
Dawkins started at Stanford in 2008, but is just now making his first tournament appearance, while Miller, 35, has quickly made his name stand out from his brother’s (Arizona’s Sean Miller), with two 20-win seasons in three years and Dayton’s first Sweet 16 appearance in 30 years. Winner: Miller

Tony Bennett vs. Tom Izzo
Bennett already had a Sweet 16 appearance at Washington State before revitalizing Virginia with a slow, yet effective, style of play, but few coaches — past or present — can match Izzo’s 16 straight NCAA Tournament appearances at Michigan State. Winner: NMU Grad Izzo

Fred Hoiberg vs. Kevin Ollie
Hoiberg, in his fourth season at Iowa State, has led the high-flying Cyclones to at least one win in the NCAA Tournament each of the past three years after the school missed the tournament the previous five seasons. UConn’s Ollie may win a dance-off, though. Winner: Hoiberg

Sean Miller vs. Steve Fisher
San Diego State’s Fisher is one of the few remaining coaches with a national title, but Miller has done a remarkable job in not allowing Lute Olsen’s shadow to linger very long at Arizona, posting two 30-win seasons in the past four years. Winner: Miller

Bo Ryan vs. Scott Drew
Drew has gone under-the-radar at Baylor, making two Elite Eights since 2009, but Ryan has been as consistent as any coach in the country, reaching the tournament every year at Wisconsin since 2001. Winner: Ryan

Rick Pitino vs. John Calipari
What should be a Final Four matchup comes a week early. Calipari wins the recruiting battle at Kentucky, but Louisville’s Pitino is who you want on the sideline. With Calipari, there’s always a chance his title run won’t hold up, as two of his four Final Four runs have been vacated because of NCAA violations. Winner: Pitino

John Beilein vs. Cuonzo Martin
Beilein’s climb from junior college to NAIA to Division II to NCAA Tournament appearances with four different schools show he can win anywhere. Winner: Beilein

ELITE EIGHT

Billy Donovan vs. Archie Miller
Donovan is one of only two coaches — Krzyzewski is the other — since John Wooden to lead a team to back-to-back national championships. Winner: Donovan

Fred Hoiberg vs. Tom Izzo
Izzo has yet to have a senior who hasn’t made a Final Four at Michigan State, having made six since 1999. Winner: Izzo

Sean Miller vs. Bo Ryan
Ryan has never led Wisconsin to a Final Four, but if given control of some of the stacked teams he goes against this late, that wouldn’t be a problem. Winner: Ryan 

John Beilein vs. Rick Pitino
Beilein is one of the best X’s and O’s coaches in the country, but the chaos of Pitino’s relentless defensive pressure frustrates even the most efficient offenses. Winner: Pitino

FINAL FOUR

Billy Donovan vs. Tom Izzo
A rematch of the 2000 national championship game goes the same way. Winner: Izzo

Bo Ryan vs. Rick Pitino
Pitino would take Ryan’s squad out of its preferred pace, forcing the Badgers into an up-tempo game that doesn’t suit their strengths. Winner: Pitino

CHAMPIONSHIP

Tom Izzo vs. Rick Pitino
There is no right or wrong here; there is only preference. As successful as Pitino has been — the only coach to win national titles at two different schools — Izzo’s accomplishments are almost more remarkable, producing a consistent contender — built on defense and rebounding — despite usually having less talent than coaches of the same caliber. Winner: Izzo

ALL HAIL THE GLORIUS LEADER . . .

North Korea: Men required to get Kim Jong-un haircuts

By News from Elsewhere... ...as found by BBC Monitoring

Men in North Korea are now required to get the same haircut as their leader Kim Jong-un, it is reported.

The state-sanctioned guidelines were introduced in the capital Pyongyang about two weeks ago, Radio Free Asia reports. They are now being rolled out across the country - although some people have expressed reservations about getting the look.

CHARTER AFL OWNER &

MICHIGANDER RALPH WILSON DIES AT 95

Founder of  successful construction and insurance firms, he was inducted into the Pro Football HOF in 2009.

By Mark Gaughan | News Sports Reporter | @gggaughan | Google+

on March 25, 2014 - 3:05 PM

, updated March 25, 2014 at 3:22 PM

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Another giant in the sporting and business worlds who is from Michigan has passed, Grosse Pointer and charter AFL owner Ralph Wilson.

Ralph Cookerly Wilson Jr., founder of the Buffalo Bills and the most influential sports figure Western New York ever has known, has died at age 95.

His death was announced by Bills President Russ Brandon today.

“No one loved the game of football more than Ralph Wilson,” said Brandon.
Wilson did not put Buffalo on the map, but he did as much as anyone to keep it there during his lifetime.

A Michigan native and long-time resident of Grosse Pointe Shores, Wilson formerly owned a minority owner in the Detroit Lions. He brought major-league sports to Buffalo in 1959, when he joined a group that became known as “The Foolish Club,” made up of eight businessmen led by Texas oilman Lamar Hunt, who founded the American Football League. 

The Foolish Club with AFL Commish Joe Foss

The initial cost to Wilson was $25,000, and it was considered a risky venture to challenge the established National Football League.

The investment became a stroke of genius, as pro football blossomed into America’s favorite sport. Wilson’s team is valued today at roughly $870 million, based on estimates by Forbes Magazine. The Bills arguably are the single most-identifiable and unifying institution in Western New York. 

“The strength of the Bills franchise is the passion of the fans,” Wilson said after signing a 15-year lease deal in 1997. “Buffalo is a community of down-to-earth, hard-working families who, in large numbers, are also avid sports fans. You know how the people here feel about you because they are very straightforward. That is a quality I admire.”


EDITOR'S NOTE:  Here is what NMU alum and former Bills LB Mark Maddox had to say about Mr. Wilson

Mark Maddox 

 

9 hours ago 

 

It's a sad day for those who knew Ralph Wilson Jr. A great man who took the time to know everyone in the organization from Will the security guard, office staff to kids from small schools in North Dakota, Anderson, IN and Marquette, MI.  

 I remember him coming into the offices of Hansen Maddox enterprises and giving me the nickname of Mr. Telephone lol.  

 He'll be missed greatly by many. I pray that his family finds strength during these troubling times. May he rest in peace.

   NY TIMES OBIT        

Ralph Wilson, Founding Owner of the Buffalo Bills, Dies at 95

By RICHARD GOLDSTEINMARCH 25, 2014

Inside                    

   

Ralph Wilson playing catch with members of the Bills in 1988. Credit Joe Traver

 

Ralph Wilson, who founded the Buffalo Bills as an original member of the American Football League in 1960 and saw them go to four Super Bowls as the only owner in the team’s history, died on Tuesday at his home in Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. He was 95.

 

The Bills’ president, Russ Brandon, announced the death at the annual National Football League owners’ meeting in Orlando, Fla. Mr. Wilson had expressed the wish that when he died, the commissioner would announce it first to his fellow owners.

 

When word came of his death while the owners were meeting, Commissioner Roger Goodell cleared the room of team executives so that only the owners remained. He then told them Mr. Wilson had died.

 

In obtaining an A.F.L. franchise for $25,000 in 1960, Mr. Wilson joined seven other founding A.F.L. team owners in a daunting challenge to the long-established N.F.L. They were nicknamed the Foolish Club. He was the last survivor of that club remaining in the N.F.L. Of the original eight, only Barron Hilton, the founder of the Los Angeles Chargers (now the San Diego Chargers), survives.

Photo

Ralph Wilson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009. Credit David Duprey/Associated Press

The A.F.L. had a rocky financial start, but it ultimately thrived, and Mr. Wilson played a leading role in talks that led to its merger with the N.F.L. in 1970. His Bills won two A.F.L. championships and played in four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s, but lost each time, to the Giants, the Washington Redskins and twice to the Dallas Cowboys.

 

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

 

When Mr. Wilson, a Michigan businessman, applied for an A.F.L. franchise, he wanted to put a team in Miami but could not reach a deal for use of the Orange Bowl. He settled on Buffalo, and revived the name of the team that played there in the All-America Conference of the 1940s.

 

“I thought it was a big gamble to go into a new league and certainly a very big risk — like starting an automobile shop in our garage and bucking Ford and GM,” Mr. Wilson told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2009. 

 

His friends in Detroit were skeptical. “I was ridiculed, all around the area,” he said.

Photo

Mr. Wilson, here in 1972, had said that his family would not run the Bills after his death and that the team would be sold. Credit Charles Gorry/Associated Press

The team originally played at War Memorial Stadium. Built in the 1930s, it was known as the Rockpile. The Bills moved to a new stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., a Buffalo suburb, in 1973; it has been known as Ralph Wilson Stadium since 1998.

 

A small-market franchise, the Bills were valued in August 2013 at $870 million by Forbes magazine, 30th among the N.F.L.’s 32 teams. In December 2012, the team reached a $130 million deal with New York State to renovate the stadium and keep the Bills in Orchard Park for at least seven years. 

 

The Bills had been playing one regular-season game a year in Toronto in recent seasons, a move that led to speculation over their future in Buffalo, but they recently announced they were suspending that arrangement.

 

Mr. Wilson had said that his family would not run the Bills after his death and that the team would be sold. Mr. Brandon said in a statement that ownership matters would be addressed “in the near future.”

 

Ralph Cookerly Wilson Jr. was born on Oct. 17, 1918, in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in the Detroit area, where his father owned an insurance company. He became a Detroit Lions fan.

Photo

Mr. Wilson, left, with Marv Levy, the Bills’ coach, in 1993. Credit John Hickey/Associated Press

He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, attended the University of Michigan Law School and served in the Navy during World War II.

 

Mr. Wilson expanded the family business into Ralph C. Wilson Industries with interests in insurance, television stations, highway construction, oil and gas drilling and automotive parts, and he owned a small stake in the Lions before he got his A.F.L. franchise.

He made his presence felt behind the scenes during the league’s early years, lending $400,000 to the Oakland Raiders in 1962 to keep them afloat. His Bills, led by Jack Kemp at quarterback and coached by Lou Saban, won A.F.L. championships in 1964 and ’65.

 

Mr. Wilson was an A.F.L. representative in preliminary talks toward a merger with the N.F.L. in 1965, then served on the leagues’ joint committee that arranged the first Super Bowl, between the A.F.L.’s Kansas City Chiefs and the N.F.L.’s Green Bay Packers, in January 1967.

 

The Bills made the playoffs only once in their first decade in the N.F.L., although they had one of football’s greatest running backs in O. J. Simpson. Mr. Wilson laid the groundwork for a reversal of their fortunes when he named Bill Polian as general manager and Marv Levy as coach in the mid-1980s. They built his four Super Bowl teams featuring quarterback Jim Kelly, running back Thurman Thomas and defensive end Bruce Smith, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, together with Mr. Wilson.

Photo

Mr. Wilson, here in 2007 with then Bills General Manager Marv Levy, left, led the Bills to A.F.L. championships in 1964 and ’65. Credit David Duprey/Associated Press

Mr. Wilson had an unassuming manner. “No one wants to see the white-collar owner who’s the corporate type,” Mr. Kelly was quoted by The New York Times as saying. “He comes out and catches passes. He treats us just like one of his kids.”

Mr. Wilson sought to reprise the Bills’ success of the 1990s when he brought back Mr. Levy, this time as general manager, in 2006. But Mr. Levy, who had coached the Bills through the 1997 season, remained as general manager for only two seasons, and the Bills generally floundered in Mr. Wilson’s final years.

 

His survivors include his wife, Mary, and his daughters Christy and Edith, known as Dee Dee.

 

 In August 2012, when Mr. Wilson attended the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he opened a center he financed to preserve millions of its documents and photographs. On New Year’s Day 2013, he gave up his title as team president to Mr. Brandon.

 

Mr. Wilson talked about the passing of the generations in a city that has lost much of its industrial base but remains fervent about the Bills, Buffalo’s only major pro sports team except for the National Hockey League’s Sabres.

 

“It’s the most passionate city in the country for pro football,” he told Jeff Miller for “Going Long,” a 2003 oral history of the A.F.L. “The old families went to the game at the Rockpile and took their little boys. Now those boys are grown up, and they have kids, and they come to the games. It’s sort of the fabric of the community.”

SPRING IN MICHIGAN, PART DEUX . . . . .

SPRING IN MICHIGAN . . . . 

 

HOW'S YOUR BUFFETT BRACKET DOING? 

 

 

HAPPY FRIDAY:

MARCH MADNESS EDITION

SO LONG BUCKEYES . . . .

I know our group has split Bit 10 loyalties generally running towards Wisconsin, MSU & Michigan, but I think we can all agree that we don't like THE Ohio State University.

MYSTERY SOLVED . . . 

 

THROW BACK THURSDAY

Jud Heathcote's influence

still seen in current Spartans

Tom Izzo (right) learned a lot as an assistant to Jud Heathcote (left) - even the same nervous look on the bench, as seen in this 1985 photo. In the middle is assistant Mike Deane, who went on to become head coach at Siena.

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SPOKANE, WASH. — Tom Izzo’s team piled onto the bus on Jan. 18 in frigid Champaign, Ill., and as it pulled away from State Farm Center after a 78-62 win over Illinois, he pulled out his phone.
Izzo wanted to talk to Jud Heathcote. Heathcote wanted to talk to Denzel Valentine.

So Izzo passed the phone to Valentine, allowing his mentor and Michigan State predecessor — a guy who played the game in the 1940s for Colorado College and Washington State — a chance to give his sophomore guard some pointers. That’s the gentle way to describe Heathcote’s teaching style.
“He gave me some advice about my game — and he gave me some crap,” said Valentine, a knowing smile crossing his face, countless Jud stories from his father’s playing days at MSU stored in his memory.

“I just said, ‘It’s time to give up the Harry High School stuff and realize you’re in a college environment,’” Heathcote recalled Monday of their conversation, which came after a 15-point, 11-rebound, four-assist night for Valentine. “’Once you do that, you’ll be a great player.’”
In fact, Heathcote told Valentine this MSU team would be his in the future if he kept progressing as a player and leader. Anyone inside the MSU program would say the same. But then, it’s still tightly connected to Heathcote in so many ways.

“His handprints, fingerprints and footprints are all over it,” said Carlton Valentine, Denzel’s father and an MSU forward under Heathcote from 1985-88.

The 86-year-old retired coach, who won MSU’s first national championship with Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser in 1979 and fought to make sure Izzo replaced him in 1995, will be in Spokane Arena on Thursday to watch East region No. 4 seed MSU (26-8) take on No. 13 seed Delaware (25-9) to open the NCAA tournament.

He’ll have to get to his seat with the help of a cane and perhaps his wife, Beverly — “I’ve got a 10-cent body and a million-dollar mind,” he joked — but Heathcote said he’s thrilled to get the chance to watch MSU live, in the town he’s called home since retiring. He used to jet to every NCAA site to support Izzo’s teams, but the plan this year is to travel only to Arlington, Texas, for the Final Four if the Spartans make it.

Heathcote likes those chances a lot more after watching MSU storm to the Big Ten tournament title with wins over Michigan and Wisconsin. Or at least he did until he realized ESPN’s Digger Phelps is one of countless analysts picking the Spartans to win it all.

“So there’s no chance,” Heathcote joked of a friend and former Notre Dame coach he beat en route to the 1979 title. “Digger doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

The Heathcote wit is as sharp as ever, the jokes as biting. He adds levity to any situation, as he no doubt did Tuesday after watching the Spartans practice at Gonzaga’s McCarthey Center. What people may not realize is how much he still adds to MSU’s brand of basketball, and how much of it can be traced to his era.

Anyone who used to watch his teams may have had flashbacks over the weekend as MSU’s fast break got rolling. A few of them ended with spot-up 3-pointers in the corners, Keith Appling zipping the ball to Valentine and Gary Harris. Think Eric Snow to Shawn Respert.

“It’s the same fast break,” said MSU associate head coach Dwayne Stephens, who played for Heathcote at MSU from 1989-93. “Pretty much exactly how we ran it when I played for Jud.”
There are still plenty of Heathcote-devised sets in the encyclopedia known as MSU’s playbook — and not just the groan-inducing “weave” — and his basic philosophy of turning good defense into transition offense occupies a prominent spot on Izzo’s priority list.

Izzo added rebounding as a staple — out of necessity because his first couple teams couldn’t shoot, he said — and he added more great players, more consistent Big Ten and NCAA success, and more emphasis on cutting-edge scouting techniques that pay off especially well during this time of year. He ditched the zone defenses Heathcote liked to employ as changeups, though Heathcote still pleads regularly with the current staff to reconsider.

Izzo’s recruiting prowess and penchant for dissecting opponents through video were two keys to MSU’s resurgence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and two of the reasons Heathcote chose him as a successor. But Izzo’s basic basketball beliefs and coaching style are very familiar to anyone who witnessed the Heathcote era.

“I see Jud’s influence on (Izzo) all the time,” Carlton Valentine said. “He’s sort of a smoother, cleaner-cut version of Jud. He says some of the same stuff. Like they both say ‘cut-out’ instead of ‘box-out.’ He’s intense like him. He’s heavily influenced by Jud, whether he wants to admit it or not — and I’m sure he would.”

And Heathcote would point to the late Marv Harshman as the inspiration for many of his offensive beliefs. Nearly 20 years after playing the role of sixth man small forward for Washington State, Heathcote joined Harshman’s staff with the Cougars from 1964-71. It was a staff of two and Heathcote said Harshman considered them “co-coaches.”


Now he watches every MSU game on TV and he calls often. Early in the season, Heathcote told Stephens that MSU center Matt Costello’s free-throw form was way too flat. Costello added arc and is 28 for his last 35 after a 3-for-8 start.

“I don’t know how much I really influence what they do anymore,” Heathcote said. “Sometimes I watch and I can’t pick out much. But if there’s one thing, I believe you have to continue to teach as a coach to be successful. I don’t think there are a lot of teachers of the game in the game anymore. But Tom is one of them.”

And he teaches with the Heathcote edge. Carlton Valentine, who led Lansing Sexton to a pair of state titles, credits Heathcote for shaping him as a coach and laughs to think back at how tough he was on him as a player.

The ribbing never ends. After talking with Denzel Valentine, Heathcote said he mailed him a Sports Illustrated article that included his picture and wrote: “Your dad never made Sports Illustrated.”

“I really appreciated Denzel just talking to me,” Heathcote said. “He’s a nice kid and I’m a big fan of his. Frankly, I think he should have the ball in his hands more. He always makes something happen.”

Pause.

“It’s not always good, but he makes it happen.”

Joe Rexrode is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press.

 

SPRING IS HERE!

NMU Football Opens Spring Practice

The Northern Michigan University Football team, under second-year head coach Chris Ostrowsky opened spring camp Tuesday on the practice fields outside the Superior Dome.
NMU will hold 13 more practices leading up to its annual spring game at 4:30 p.m. April 12. All NMU football practices are open to the public.

2014 Spring Practice - Day 1

NMU SPRING FOOTBALL UPDATE

It's cold & shitty!  Nice to see em outside! 
Thanks for the photo Julie Rochester (one of our beloved trainers). 



 

BACK TO THE LIONS . . . .

Mitch Albom: After William Clay Ford's passing, Detroit Lions' operations likely business as usual

   

Lions vice chairman Bill Ford Jr., general manager Martin Mayhew and president Tom Lewand walk off the field at training camp on Aug. 1, 2013. / Kirthmon F. Dozier/DF 

By Mitch Albom

Detroit Free Press Columnist  3/16/14

“If my being more ‘public’ helps our success, sure, I’d do it. But I never felt that it would win a football game or help us catch a pass or score a touchdown.” 
— William Clay Ford, 1997

In death, he found new life. There has been more praise of William Clay Ford this past week than he received in the last two decades. Normally the target of Lions fans’ grumbling, Ford, after his passing last Sunday at 88, was hailed as a good, a loyal man and a caring, devoted NFL team owner. Former coaches, players and colleagues stepped forward to say that Ford was not only smart, but he was funny, he was quick, he was knowledgeable about football and — a surprise to many — he was very involved.

I can’t tell you how much of this is polite and proper reaction to a venerable man’s passing and how much is fond remembering. As for his ownership legacy, few people can recall when the Ford family didn’t own the Lions, so what are we comparing him to? 

But there will be comparisons now, because, for the first time since 1963, the question “Who is running this crazy football team?” isn’t just a rhetorical scream, it’s a legitimate question.
Tom Lewand, the Lions’ president, was quick to answer when I spoke to him last week during a radio interview.

“Mrs. Ford and her children,” he said. “They’re perfectly capable of doing that and will do that in a way that’s different than the way Mr. Ford did and, I think, in a way that will be very impactful.”

Lewand, Mayhew key figures

Now, to be clear, Lewand is talking about Martha Ford, William Clay’s 88-year-old widow who now has the title owner/chair, and — of her four children — chiefly Bill Ford Jr., who is executive chairman of the Ford Motor Co. (not a small job) in addition to being vice chairman of the Lions.
At first blush, this does not suggest an ownership that will steer the Lions in a new, winning direction. Bill Ford Jr. has long been juggling roles; there are limits to his wearing two hats. And Martha Ford, having just lost her husband of 66 years, likely has better things to do than weigh in on what defensive linemen to draft.

But Lewand insists that their involvement is deeper than fans think. And that such set-ups can work. “You see models around the NFL where there is a strong matriarch who’s taken the team over,” he said. “The Chicago Bears have operated that way for a long time.”

Lewand refers to Virginia Halas McCaskey, daughter of the legendary George Halas, who is indeed the owner of the Bears, having inherited them after Papa Bear died in 1983. But at 91, she is a hands-off owner. The team president largely calls the shots.

And, to be blunt, I envision that being the case in Detroit as well. Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew are given direction and a budget, but after that, things operate more like a car company than the Dallas Cowboys. Bill Ford Jr. doesn’t write on the board in the “war room” for the draft. Every marginal free agent won’t be run past Martha Ford for approval.

The Fords traditionally trust their people and measure them in annual evaluations. In other words, the Lions are most likely to continue the way they have been operating.

For better or worse.

Different models of success

Now, I can hear you moaning. Arms-length involvement — or even perceived arms-length involvement — does not inspire confidence in fans, who prefer the Jerry Jones/Robert Kraft approach: news conferences, stated sense of direction, vocal anger at losses, etc. And to be honest, I have been critical of Ford Sr. in the past for his low profile, his honorable but misplaced loyalty (Russ Thomas, Wayne Fontes, Matt Millen) and a seeming acceptance of long-term football mediocrity.

But there is no perfect model. The Washington Redskins have a highly active owner, Daniel Snyder, and they are a hot mess. The Green Bay Packers are owned by a public corporation, and they are one of the NFL’s most successful franchises.

The problem with Ford Sr.’s ownership wasn’t the model, it was the results. Ford admitted as much to me in a conversation 17 years ago. “Probably a lot of the criticism is justified,” he said. “If the results haven’t been there, and I can’t say they have, the results speak for themselves. I’m not happy with it, but I probably deserve criticism for that.”

That was a rare candid moment. But, as mentioned, it was 17 years ago. Most of the time, the ownership of the Lions has followed the credo of Henry Ford II, “never complain, never explain.”

Maybe you wish that was going to change. But based on what we’re seeing, why would it?

MONDAY MOANIN -

 

ST. PATRICKS DAY EDITION 

"When we drink, we relax.
When we relax, we go to sleep.
When we go to sleep, we don't sin.
When we don't sin, we go to Heaven.
So let's all drink and go to Heaven."  

 





Don't forget to tip your barstaff.

 

PEPPERS TO THE PACKERS?

No, not those Peppers!





This Peppers!



This looks familiar . . .

Sparty is the first Big 10 U to win the FB Championship Game and the BBall Tourney in the same year.

THINK SPRING PART II

MSU Students today in EL. Remind you of anyone?

HAPPY FRIDAY & THINK SPRING

 

THROWBACK THURSDAY

WEATHER REPORT

RIP HELGA FROM HOGAN'S HEROES

Actress Cynthia Lynn of Hogan's Heroes fame dead at 76.

MARQUETTE MOMENT OF ZEN   

I'm guessing Little Presque or perhaps Middle Point Island.
Taken this week by former State Rep. Steve Lindberg

Packers' Aaron Rodgers Has an English Comedian Doppelganger

By Tyler Brooke , Featured Columnist

Bleacher Report

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is one of the more recognizable players in the NFL, and it looks like we've found his doppelganger.
 

Jason Wilde of ESPN Wisconsin passed on this picture of a man who looks almost exactly like Rodgers. The resemblance is definitely there.


The man in the picture is Tom Wrigglesworth, an English comedian. While he does look a lot like Rodgers, I'm pretty sure he isn't as good of a quarterback.
[Twitter]

William Clay Ford helped steer automaker into modern era

  

This is a picture of William Clay Ford, the new Lions Football President on January 24, 1961.

 

By Alisa Priddle, Bill Laitner,

Lori Higgins and Dave Birkett Detroit Free Press

Purchase Image Zoom

William Clay Ford talks with his son, Bill Ford on the sidelines of a Lions game against the Houston Texans on Sept. 19, 2004. / Rashaun Rucker/Detroit Free Press

 

William Clay Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions, celebrated philanthropist and the last surviving grandson of Henry Ford who helped steer the company into a modern design era, died Sunday morning of pneumonia. He was 88.

“My father was a great business leader and humanitarian who dedicated his life to the company and the community,” said Bill Ford Jr., one of Ford’s four children and executive chairman of the automaker and vice chairman of the Lions. “He also was a wonderful family man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him, yet he will continue to inspire us all.”

As a younger son and grandson, William Clay Ford was not chosen as the company heir with his brother Henry II, instead, taking over the family business. Over his life, Ford struck out more on his own. While he worked as a Ford executive, his legacy is firmly linked to the Lions, for better or worse. He carved niches for himself as a significant philanthropist, a family man and as an ardent Lions fan, who was loyal, extremely loyal, to his employees and his city. 

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Gov. Rick Snyder praised Ford for his commitment to metro Detroit, the state and philanthropy. Ford executives, directors and recipients of his generosity described a caring man with a genuine interest in their lives and their work. 

Already the Lions team president and Ford Motor executive in the early 1960s, Ford bought the Lions for $6 million in the fall of 1963 and ran the organization for the past 50 years. He made waves in the early 1970s when he announced plans to move the Lions to the Pontiac Silverdome. But he helped push the evolving redevelopment of downtown by moving the team back to Detroit in 2002 into a newly built Ford Field.

George Jackson, president and CEO of Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said Ford’s role in bringing the Lions back was a key turning point. “It definitely was a major building block for improving the quality of life for residents and visitors,” Jackson said. “It brings people to town.”
Ford and his new stadium persuaded the NFL to select Detroit as the 2006 Super Bowl host. The week was considered a big success and for some the dawn of a new fascination with the city and its fortunes. 

A Super Bowl appearance of its own famously eluded the team, which seemed jinxed at times. But Ford’s passion and commitment were never questioned. Team leaders on Sunday said they would continue to pursue the championship goal in Ford’s memory and honor.

“No owner loved his team more than Mr. Ford loved the Lions,” team President Tom Lewand said in a statement. “Those of us who had the opportunity to work for Mr. Ford knew of his unyielding passion for his family, the Lions and the city of Detroit. His leadership, integrity, kindness, humility and good humor were matched only by his desire to bring a Super Bowl championship to the Lions and to our community. Each of us in the organization will continue to relentlessly pursue that goal in his honor.” 

The Lions organization said Sunday that details of “ownership succession” would be discussed at a future time. Forbes listed the team’s value last year at $900 million, 28th out of the 32 NFL teams.

“Like his grandfather, he was passionate about automobiles and the auto industry, the city of Detroit and his family.”

Ford was equally passionate about giving back. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Henry Ford Museum from 1951-83, after which he was named chairman emeritus. He was an honorary life trustee of the Eisenhower Medical Center and a national trustee for the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of America. He also was an honorary chair of the United Way for Southeastern Michigan and served on the Texas Heart Institute National Advisory Council.

In 1996, Henry Ford Hospital opened the William Clay Ford Center for Athletic Medicine, a leading sports medicine treatment and research institution. In 1997, the outdoor courts of the University of Michigan’s new tennis center also were named in his honor. The Great Hall of the Henry Ford museum — the William Clay Ford Hall of American Innovation — also was named in recognition of his support.

“He was just a great human being,” said Dr. Scott Dulchavsky, Ford’s personal physician for the last 10 years, and CEO of the Henry Ford Innovation Institute and chairman of surgery at the hospital.
Ford, he said, enjoyed telling stories about growing up with his grandfather. “Mr. Ford would often talk about his involvement and side trips with his grandfather and meeting with Thomas Edison and folks such as that as if it was every day for all of us. They were wonderful, amazing museum quality stories that I will always miss,” Dulchavsky said.

Brought Ford design into modern era

Ford retired from the automaker’s board in 2005, when his son Bill was still chairman and CEO of the automaker at the time. Alan Mulally was not recruited as CEO until the following year.
“Mr. Ford had a profound impact on Ford Motor Company,” Mulally said Sunday. “While we mourn Mr. Ford’s death, we also are grateful for his many contributions to the company and the auto industry.” 

When Ford announced his pending retirement in 2005, son Bill called it “a bittersweet moment for me and everyone who loves the Ford Motor Co. “I speak frequently about the family values that define our company’s culture. But in doing so, I am simply echoing everything my father taught me about the importance of embracing principles, setting high standards of behavior and acting responsibly toward the people with whom we work, the customers we see and the world in which we live.

“My dad helped lead Ford into the modern era and make us who we are,” Bill Ford said at the time as he vowed to continue seeking his counsel. “His institutional knowledge is an incredible asset and his love for the company is unmatched.” 

The youngest of Edsel Ford’s four children, Ford was born in 1925. He married Martha Firestone, granddaughter of Harvey Firestone and Idabelle Smith Firestone in 1947, bringing together two great automotive legacies. The couple had four children: Martha, Sheila, Elizabeth and William Clay Ford Jr., better known as Bill.

He spent 57 years of his life working for the automaker, more than half the company’s 110-year history. He was elected to the board of directors on June 4, 1948, after serving with the U.S. Navy Air Corps during World War II.

After graduating from Yale University in 1949 with a bachelor of arts/science in economics, he began working for the family business. He held a number of executive positions leading to his appointment as vice president and general manager of the Continental Division in 1954, where he updated the car his father created and oversaw the launch of the classic Continental Mark II in 1955.

There were only two pictures on the wall in his Ford headquarters office: his father’s Continental and the new Mark II. In 1956, he took over corporate product planning and design, becoming vice president of product design in 1973.

When the design committee was formed in 1957, Ford became its first chairman and he kept that post until he retired from the company in 1989. In 1978, Ford was elected chairman of the executive committee and appointed a member of the office of the chief executive. He was elected vice chairman of the board in 1980 and chairman of the finance committee in 1987. He retired from his post as vice chairman in 1989 and as chairman of the finance committee in 1995.

Disappointment for young Ford

In David Halberstam’s “The Reckoning,” a profile of Ford Motor and Nissan, he described Henry II’s ascension to lead the company as a disappointment for younger brother William, also known as Bill Ford Sr.

“For a time that was hard on Bill Ford Sr., who had a genuine love of cars and probably a more natural affinity for the product side than his older brother. He spent much of a lifetime in jobs with titles, but he rarely had power, and on more than one occasion he saw his pet projects dismantled,” Halberstam wrote.

During the infamous showdown in 1978 between Henry II and Lee Iacocca that led to Henry firing the charismatic executive, Halberstam portrayed Bill as offering a sympathetic ear to Iacocca, but he lacked the power to reverse his firing.

But he played an important, if spur-of-the-moment, role in reinforcing the family’s firm control of the enterprise, according to Halberstam.

In 1956 when Henry II was working with Goldman Sachs on the company’s initial public stock offering, the older brother was prepared to sign off on a plan that would keep 30% of the voting power in the family’s hands through a special class of shares.

Just before the decision was made, Bill walked into brother Henry’s office and said, “I don’t know about you, Henry, but I like owning this company. Let’s be a little more on the safe side and make it 40%.”

David Lewis, 87, a retired University of Michigan history professor and author of “A Public Image of Henry Ford,” published in 1976, and now working on a biography of Henry Ford II, interviewed William Clay Ford in May 1990, taping a 2½-hour recording of his lifelong reminiscences.

“He was asked in the early 1950s by Ernest Breech, the company chairman, to study whether to revive the Lincoln Continental. He gathered a little staff and talked the company into going ahead. There were about 10 designs for styling and it’s well known that Bill’s design won out. So the company used his design for several years in the early 1950s for cars that sold for a princely $10,000.”

A few years later, the Continental Division was discontinued as the only Ford division that was unprofitable.

Bill Chapin, 65, of Grosse Pointe, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn and grandson of the founder of Hudson Motor Car Co., which later became American Motors, said Ford’s work on the Continental gave the company newfound prestige.

“Although the Continental Mark II was not a successful product, it certainly brought prestige and prominence to Ford Motor Co. Some people consider it the most beautiful American car, ever. And that was Bill Ford’s project, all the way through. If you look at what Ford Motor is trying to do with Lincoln today ... I think they could take some thoughts from his playbook.”
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Lions era begins with broken leg

Ford broke his leg severely in the 1950s and was in a cast for many months, Lewis said. It was then that he became a Detroit Lions board member. He couldn’t participate in athletics anymore personally but he could be involved.

“He did want to be chairman of the company after Henry II retired, but he didn’t want to be CEO. Henry said, you’ve got to be CEO to be chairman, and to do that you’ll have to give up the Detroit Lions,” Lewis said. “He refused to do that. His blood ran Ford blue, of course, but on the other hand, he loved the Lions. So he gave up that ambition to be chairman.”

As Lions owner, Ford was known as a generous man to players and employees but often loyal to a fault.

Ford, who grew up a fan, became the NFL’s second-longest tenured current owner, second only to Grosse Pointe Shores’ Ralph Wilson, who founded the Buffalo Bills in 1959.

Former players swear by Ford’s kindness and save their harshest words for some of the managers he employed. Old coaches appreciate his loyalty that fans came to question. And people across the league insist the NFL — and football in Detroit — wouldn’t be where it is today if not for Ford’s decision to rescue the team from a syndicate of 144 stockholders. 

He helped Detroit keep its Thanksgiving game tradition and brought two Super Bowls to the city, though Detroit was only the host and not a participant.

The Lions made just 10 playoff appearances in Ford’s 50 seasons as owner and won only one postseason game, a 38-6 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in 1992.

After Bobby Ross quit midway through the 2000 season because of health problems, Ford hired Matt Millen as general manager, and the Lions endured one of the darkest periods in NFL history for any team, going 31-84.

Millen said Ford was driven to win. “People have the wrong thoughts on him when I read different comments or I hear things,” Millen told the Free Press on Sunday. “People don’t have any idea of what Mr. Ford was or is. ... He was loyal. He was just one of the best people I’ve ever met.”
Lillian Schemansky, 42, of Eastpointe, has worked the last decade as the senior Ford’s personal assistant at Ford’s lakefront Grosse Pointe Shores estate. Schemansky said “he was hilarious, very soft-spoken, and he never put on airs with anyone. I can’t speak on his personal life because I am under a confidentiality contract. But I will deeply, deeply miss him — miss seeing that smile every morning.”

Schemansky said she was upset Sunday when she saw reactions to Ford’s death on the Internet from disgruntled Lions fans. “It’s very upsetting to see people bashing Mr. Ford as a football owner who lost. He gave everything he had to give people a winning team. I know from talking to him — that’s all he wanted, and it wasn’t for selfish gain. He was as much of a fan as you and I are.”

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Martha Firestone Ford; daughters Martha Ford Morse (Peter), Sheila Ford Hamp (Steven), and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis (Charles); son William Clay Ford Jr. (Lisa); 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held privately.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent in the name of William Clay Ford to the Henry Ford Museum at 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn 48124 or to Dr. Scott Dulchavsky’s Innovation Institute at Henry Ford Health System at 2799 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit 48045.