Wednesday, April 30, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAVORITE  NMU ALUM & 
PACKER EXEC, BILL HAWKER!

Terry Marquardt's photo.

COURTESY OF GOR

Why isn’t Jerry Kramer in the Hall of Fame?
      Posted by Cliff Christl on April 26, 2014 – 12:24 pm  
packers.com   

Jerry Kramer

As the Green Bay representative on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee for the past 13 years, there’s no question about which question is foremost on the minds of Packers fans when it comes to that subject.

Why isn’t Jerry Kramer in the Hall of Fame? After all, in 1969, the Hall selectors voted for him as the greatest guard in the NFL’s first 50 years.

For background, Kramer’s fate now rests with the nine-me mber Seniors Committee, and I was never part of that process. The Seniors Committee nominates two players who have been retired for 25 years or more for the 46-member selection committee to vote on at its meeting the day before the Super Bowl.

Dave Robinson, the Packers’ most recent inductee, was a senior nominee in 2013 and received the necessary 80 percent of votes cast to get in.

Kramer was the senior nominee in 1997, five years before I joined the committee, and fell short of 80 percent. That marked the 10th time Kramer was a finalist. No other player has been a finalist that many times and been shut out of Canton.

Never having been in the room when Kramer’s candidacy was discussed, I can only speculate as to why he hasn’t made it, based on bits and pieces of conversation I’ve heard outside the room.

1.   TOO MANY LOMBARDI PACKERS ALREADY.  Robinson was the 11th Lombardi Era player to be inducted into the Hall. Henry Jordan, the player selected previous to him, was posthumously inducted as a senior candidate in 1995. Paul Hornung and Willie Wood, the eighth and ninth inductees among Lombardi’s players, also waited a long time. Hornung was in his 12th year as a finalist; Wood in his 10th.

When Kramer was last a finalist, unlike today, there were still a number of veteran writers on the committee that grew up with the American Football League, and word is they were adamantly opposed to another Lombardi Packer getting in. Fair or not, it’s a notion others hold as well.

Not long ago, a presumably unbiased voice in the NFL office made the crack that if another one of Lombardi’s player was selected, maybe the coach’s bust should be removed – the point being what head coach couldn’t win championships with nearly a dozen Hall of Famers on his roster?
My retort would be: Keep in mind, Lombardi’s teams won five world championships over a seven-year span. More recently, San Francisco also won five, but it took 14 years, twice the time that it took the 1960s Packers. What’s more, the Packers won those titles with a suffocating defense, one that ranked in the top three in the league in four of those five championship years, and a running game that was virtually unstoppable at times.

They dominated a decade like no other NFL franchise ever by having really good to great players at nearly every position, not because they road the coattails of a superstar, a Johnny Unitas, for example.



2. NOT GOOD ENOUGH AGAINST KARRAS & OLSEN. Another criticism of Kramer, from what I’ve heard, was that he struggled against Merlin Olsen and Alex Karras, two of the game’s premier defensive tackles at that time.

With Karras, there’s some truth to that. Karras probably caused Lombardi’s teams more fits than any defensive player with the possible exception of Dick Butkus. Why Karras isn’t in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is beyond my comprehension. Read “Run to Daylight” to get a sense of what Lombardi thought of him. 


As for Olsen, maybe Kramer had some problems against him, too. But all I know is that if you go back and watch film clips of the 1967 playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams and their vaunted front four, the Packers won largely by running to the right behind Kramer and Forrest Gregg at Hall of Famers Olsen and Deacon Jones. 




3. NO BETTER THAN FUZZY? One longtime committee member who would have had a vote in 1997 told me several years ago that he didn’t think Kramer was any better than his running mate at guard, Fuzzy Thurston. In truth, Thurston might have been the better pass blocker. And as good as Kramer was pulling for the sweep and on short trap blocks, Thurston did that well, too. But Kramer was more physically gifted than Thurston and remained at the top of his game longer. Lombardi tried to replace Thurston as early as 1965 and did so two years later.

The bigger issue today, or so it seems, is that over the years a number of former Packers players and coaches have told people in the league and members of the media that Thurston’s successor, Gale Gillingham, was not only the best guard but maybe best offensive lineman in Packers history.

Moreover, Bart Starr publicly stated even before Robinson’s selection that he thought Bob Skoronski should be the next Lombardi Packer inducted into the Hall.

Skoronski split time at left tackle with Norm Masters early in Lombardi’s reign and never made an All-Pro team. But I’ve been told, yes, it’s possible that Skoronski might have received the best weekly grades among the offensive linemen over Lombardi’s nine seasons. Clearly, he was a player more respected in the locker room than outside it.

That’s the quandary the Hall’s selectors have faced. There’d be no way to justify selecting two or three more Packers offensive linemen from the same era. Yet, if they pick one, which one?
My personal opinion is that Gillingham and Kramer rank with Verne Lewellen and maybe Lavvie Dilweg of the 1929-’31 three-time champs as the most deserving of the Packers’ eligible candidates not in Canton.

In Kramer and Gillingham, the Packers had at guard more than 40 years ago what the Packers of the last 20-plus years have had at quarterback with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers: One great player following another. But because they were guards, not quarterbacks, and there’s a perception there are too many Lombardi players in the Hall, Kramer and Gillingham cancel out each other’s support, while Starr’s endorsement of Skoronski clouds the issue even more.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

 
2014 SCOUTING REPORT: 



Just How Bad Have the Lions Been?

grantland.com
It can’t exactly be easy to root for the Detroit Lions. I have my own hang-ups surrounding that particular team, but last year was — relatively speaking, of course — pretty successful! For Detroit, 7-9 and a glimpse of life atop the NFC North qualifies as an up year, given that the Lions have exactly one playoff appearance to their name in the 21st century. They’re even on a seven-game playoff losing streak: Their last playoff win came on January 5, 1992, one day before Ndamukong Suh celebrated his fifth birthday. 

That’s a brutal run. But how bad, really, has it been? Have Detroit fans been forced to suffer through the worst stretch of professional football ever witnessed?  


It depends on how you define “the worst,” but you can make a pretty strong case. In terms of playoff incompetence, it’s hard to sink lower than Detroit has in the modern era. The Lions were a football dynasty during the Bobby Layne era, winning three titles between 1952 and 1957, but they’ve been wretched since trading Layne.



They’re 1-10 in playoff games since trading Bobby Layne in 1958— no, that’s not a typo — having lost by an average of more than 13 points per contest (that includes losing a play-off game by a score of 5 to 0 to Dallas). To put that in perspective: Mark Sanchez has as many playoff wins over Peyton Manning as the Lions do over all of football in the last 55 years. 



Overall the Lions haven’t had much luck, either. Since the merger in 1970, Detroit has won just 40.7 percent of its games, a dismal figure edging only the Buccaneers. But the Bucs have a Super Bowl title and a pirate ship to show for their ineptitude! Detroit has nothing. Twenty-three of the league’s 26 franchises at the time of the merger have made it to a Super Bowl at least once during the ensuing 43 years. Only the Lions, Chiefs, and Jets have failed to make it back to the big game.1



That’s not to say the Lions have had zero positive seasons. They did have a run of relative success during the ’90s, when they made the playoffs six times across a nine-year stretch, but since the 21st century arrived, it hasn’t been good. To put it into a neat package, let’s look at the past 15 years and ask this question: Is this the worst run of football the NFL has ever seen? I went back and calculated rolling 15-year win percentages for every team in games played since the merger. Sorry to long-suffering Minneapolis Red Jackets fans; your pain lives on with the Vikings.

The 1999-2013 Lions aren’t the worst team over a 15-year stretch in league history, but they’re awful close. There are several consecutive 15-year stretches for the Lions that would come close to qualifying as such, with the worst of those runs being from 1996 to 2010. Those Lions teams — despite an MVP season from Barry Sanders in 1997 — won just 31.3 percent of their games. That’s equivalent to a 5-11 season … for 15 consecutive years.

Several other franchises also had the same sort of rolling mediocrity over 15-year stretches, of course. So let’s celebrate their terribleness, shall we?! In order of their winning percentages at their absolute nadirs, here are the five worst franchises of the modern NFL era: 

 


5. 1989-2003 Cincinnati Bengals, .333 winning percentage. In January of 1989, the Bengals held a three-point lead over the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII with three minutes to go, only for Joe Montana to drive the 49ers 92 yards for a game-winning score. That concluded the 1988 campaign, and the franchise never really recovered. Cincinnati went 8-8 the following year and then 9-7, winning a playoff game before losing to the Raiders in the divisional round.


The Bengals proceeded to miss the playoffs for 14 consecutive seasons without as much as a single winning campaign along the way. As much as Cincinnati fans might be sick of losing in the divisional round, things used to be a lot worse.



4. 1999-2013 Cleveland Browns, .321 winning percentage. The second edition of the Cleveland Browns just finished its 15th season in the NFL, and thanks to the horrors of expansion and the joys of rebuilding, they’ve managed to produce a historically notable record of futility. That .321 winning percentage over the past 15 years is tied with, of course, your Detroit Lions as the worst in the NFL.
It’s probably been less fun to be a Browns fan over that time frame, too. The Lions have had Calvin Johnson; Cleveland had that one year where Braylon Edwards looked great, Josh Gordon’s 2013 season, and the time Jerome Harrison ran for 286 yards and three touchdowns against Kansas City. The Browns’ one playoff appearance came all the way back in 2002, when Butch Davis coaxed Tim Couch into a 9-7 season before Couch broke his leg in Week 17, only for Kelly Holcomb to nearly pull off an upset victory in the wild-card round over Pittsburgh. 



Just for fun, here’s a roughly chronological list of their starting quarterbacks over that time frame: Couch, Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Luke McCown, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey, Bruce Gradkowski, Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Brandon Weeden, Thaddeus Lewis, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer.

Is Kelly Holcomb the best quarterback in Browns 2.0 history? Is it even really close? 



3. 1996-2010 Detroit Lions, .313 winning percentage. This, of course, cuts out just before the 2011 Lions started 5-0 en route to a 10-6 season, which might be the best post-merger season this franchise has seen other than its 1991 team. It’s an era that began with firing Wayne Fontes and then enjoying Barry Sanders’s incredible MVP season in 1997 (2,053 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns) before Sanders retired in 1999. Even that wasn’t enough to force the Lions down into the doldrums; they went 8-8 the year after Sanders retired, which was enough to make the NFC playoffs, but starting quarterback Gus Frerotte’s tearful return to Washington ended with the Lions getting blown out. The Lions even went 9-7 the following year, but with head coach Bobby Ross resigning midseason, the rudderless franchise turned to Matt Millen to rebuild the team. 

Millen took over a 9-7 team and immediately saw the Lions go 2-14. It was an omen. During Millen’s eight years at the helm, the Lions were a staggering 31-81, winning just 27.7 percent of their games. That’s the worst eight-year stretch since the merger. Expansion teams were better. Tanking teams were better. Even the Browns with that list of quarterbacks have been better than the Millen-era Lions were. If this article were being written in 2009, Lions fans would have been able to peek through their paper bags and proudly say that they’d sat through the least successful football team in league history. But the longer time frame and their success in the late ’90s (and relative success recently) leaves the recent Lions just short of worst-franchise-ever honors.


2. 1970-1984 New Orleans Saints, .310 winning percentage. The Saints were already three years into their existence when this stretch started, but their record of futility might put Detroit’s to shame. The Saints played 33 NFL seasons during the 20th century. They won exactly zero playoff games during that stretch. They failed to make the playoffs in each of their first 20 seasons before finally making it four times in a six-year stretch under Jim E. Mora, who was unquestionably the best coach in team history before Sean Payton rolled up. Put it this way: Mora and Payton have combined to win more games (172) in their 18 years at the helm than the team’s other 13 head coaches have in their 28 combined campaigns (152).



The truly scary thing is that the Saints actually had a pretty good starting quarterback for a chunk of that run: Archie Manning. It didn’t help. Manning was perpetually throwing to catch up during the first half of his career, and by the time he got good, his defense was brutal. During Manning’s final five years with the team, the Saints finished in the bottom six in scoring defense four times. They didn’t have a team that finished in the top half of the league in both scoring offense and scoring defense until 1987. 



1. 1982-1996 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, .297 winning percentage. Want to know how bad the Buccaneers were before Tony Dungy showed up? They had five different 15-year periods with winning percentages worse than that .313 figure the Lions and Saints put up. In this particularly brutal run, the Buccaneers made the playoffs just once, and it was in the very first year, when they went 5-4 during the strike season of 1982. Not only did they fail to make the playoffs in each of the ensuing 14 seasons, the Buccaneers were unable to muster even a single season with a .500 record, finishing 6-10 or worse in 13 of those 14 campaigns. 



A bad NFL team might hope to improve by picking high in the draft. The Buccaneers laughed at such frivolity. They dealt their 1984 first-round pick away for busted quarterback Jack Thompson, whom they cut two years later. The pick they traded became the first overall selection (Irving Fryar). In 1990, they dealt their 1992 first-rounder to the Colts for Chris Chandler; by the time the Colts actually used the pick, which had become the second overall selection (Quentin Coryatt), Chandler was a Phoenix Cardinal, having been cut by the Bucs after 13 games. Even more staggeringly, in 1986 the Bucs used the no. 1 overall pick on Bo Jackson, who had announced before the draft that he would refuseto sign with the team. Tampa Bay lost his rights without acquiring anything in return. I suddenly have a newfound appreciation for the Greg Schiano era.

If there’s anything Detroit and Cleveland can look toward with a glimmer of hope, it’s that the other teams on this list came out of their respective funks after regime changes brought them each a quality head coach. The Bengals hired Marvin Lewis, the Bucs hired Tony Dungy, and the Saints brought in Jim E. Mora. Now the Lions are bringing on Jim Caldwell, while the Browns — who have been trying to make this new coach thing work on an annual basis — have hired Mike Pettine. In either case, Detroit fans haven’t had to deal with the worst team in league history over the past 15 years. But it’s been pretty darned close.

Monday, April 28, 2014

MONDAY MEME


Photo: LOL!!!
MONDAY MOANIN INFOGRAPHIC

Green Bay Packers Infographic - 2014 Season

Thursday, April 24, 2014


DRUMROLL PLEASE . . . .



FOR THE 9TH TIME IN 25 GAMES,
THIS YEAR'S OPPONENT IS . . . . . 
 


 
THE  DETROIT LIONS!!!!
 
See you the weekend of December 27-28 here . .
 
 
for our 25th Anniversary!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

 

Generation X Is Sick of Your Bullshit



Mat Honan 
Gizmodo 4/23/14

    Generation X Is Sick of Your BullshitSExpand
You're going to read this, and you're going to say, how is this about tech? I'm gonna head you off at that pass: This is a message from Internet, the generation that became the voice that set the tone for everything you love about the Net. And it's pissed. -Editor
Earlier generations have weathered recessions, of course; this stall we're in has the look of something nastier. Social Security and Medicare are going to be diminished, at best. Hours worked are up even as hiring staggers along: Blood from a stone looks to be the normal order of things "going forward," to borrow the business-speak. Economists are warning that even when the economy recuperates, full employment will be lower and growth will be slower-a sad little rhyme that adds up to something decidedly ­unpoetic. A majority of Americans say, for the first time ever, that this generation will not be better off than its parents. New York Magazine
Generation X is sick of your bullshit. 
 
The first generation to do worse than its parents? Please. Been there. Generation X was told that so many times that it can't even read those words without hearing Winona Ryder's voice in its heads.


 Or maybe it's Ethan Hawke's. Possibly Bridget Fonda's. Generation X is getting older, and can't remember those movies so well anymore. In retrospect, maybe they weren't very good to begin with.

 
But Generation X is tired of your sense of entitlement. Generation X also graduated during a recession. It had even shittier jobs, and actually had to pay for its own music. (At least, when music mattered most to it.) Generation X is used to being fucked over. It lost its meager savings in the dot-com bust. Then came George Bush, and 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Generation X bore the brunt of all that. And then came the housing crisis.
 
Generation X wasn't surprised. Generation X kind of expected it.
 
Generation X is a journeyman [kind of like Konsdorf]. It didn't invent hip hop, or punk rock, or even electronica (it's pretty sure those dudes in Kraftwerk are boomers) but it perfected all of them, and made them its own. It didn't invent the Web, but it largely built the damn thing. Generation X gave you Google and Twitter and blogging; Run DMC and Radiohead and Nirvana and Notorious B.I.G. Not that it gets any credit.
 
But that's okay. Generation X is used to being ignored, stuffed between two much larger, much more vocal, demographics. But whatever! Generation X is self-sufficient. It was a latchkey child. Its parents were too busy fulfilling their own personal ambitions to notice any of its trophies-which were admittedly few and far between because they were only awarded for victories, not participation.
In fairness, Generation X could use a better spokesperson. Barack Obama is just a little too senior to count among its own, and it has debts older than Mark Zuckerberg. Generation X hasn't had a real voice since Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, Tupac was murdered, Jeff Mangum went crazy, David Foster Wallace hung himself, Jeff Buckley drowned, River Phoenix overdosed, Elliott Smith stabbed himself (twice) in the heart, Axl got fat.
 
Generation X is beyond all that bullshit now. It quit smoking and doing coke a long time ago. It has blood pressure issues and is heavier than it would like to be. It might still take some ecstasy, if it knew where to get some. But probably not. Generation X has to be up really early tomorrow morning.
 
Generation X is tired.
 
It's a parent now, and there's always so damn much to do. Generation X wishes it had better health insurance and a deeper savings account. It wonders where its 30s went. It wonders if it still has time to catch up.
 
Right now, Generation X just wants a beer and to be left alone. It just wants to sit here quietly and think for a minute. Can you just do that, okay? It knows that you are so very special and so very numerous, but can you just leave it alone? Just for a little bit? Just long enough to sneak one last fucking cigarette? No?
 
Whatever. It's cool.
 
Generation X is used to disappointments. Generation X knows you didn't even read the whole thing. It doesn't want or expect your reblogs; it picked the wrong platform.
 
Generation X should have posted this to LiveJournal.
 
Republished from Mat Honan's tumblr.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014




NMU HAS A NEW PRESIDENT 
 . . . NAMED FRITZ

MARQUETTE, MI--   The NMU Board of Trustees (pictured below, that's Rick Popp on the right) 

has selected a new university president.  



At a public meeting Tuesday morning the trustees voted unanimously for Fritz Erickson, current provost and vice president for academic affairs at Ferris State University (Ferris?! Not a good start).



Trustee Steve Mitchell says it was a difficult decision between the four presidential finalists, but Erickson had certain qualities that distinguished him from the rest.

“The fact that he has overseen enrollment and retention, which is very important,” he said.  “The fact that he understands the community college aspect of what Northern Michigan University is.  And the leadership he has shown throughout his career and the background and the deep depth that he has I think is going to make him a terrific new president.” 

The Board will now negotiate a contract with Erickson, w hose employment will be effective July 1.
Erickson will greet the campus community Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the University Center's Brule Room.
Tags: 
 
      
A LITTLE WISCONSIN HUMOR . . . 

 
 
"MICHIGAN MAN" DAN DIERDORF TO
JOIN BRANDSTATTER ON U of M
FOOTBALL RADIO TEAM 
 
2014 Schedule continues the tradition of calling OSU "Ohio,"
but adds the new twist of calling MSU "State."  

Looks like "Big Brother" is finally catching on that they have a rival in EL as well as Columbus.   The only self-admitted Michigan fan in our group that I know of is Stew
so this one is for him.
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, April 21, 2014

MONDAY MOANIN

I caught most of the 30 for 30 on the Detroit Bad Boys of the late 80's/early 90's.  Forgot how much I loved Mahorn & Laimbeer.




Also, Adrian Payne did a "silent dunk" tribute for the late Lacey Holsworth this past Friday.

Friday, April 18, 2014

 
FLASHBACK FRIDAY

Jerry Woods's photo.

Thursday, April 17, 2014


STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN MARQUETTE COUNTY



Photo

Vicky Chrystal
uppermichigannewssource.com
April 17, 2014

MARQUETTE COUNTY -- Much needed relief will soon be coming to Marquette County. Governor Rick Snyder has issued a state of emergency for the county. This will clear the way for federal funding. Severe winter weather has hit the Upper Peninsula especially hard this year.

The following is the press release issued by the governor's office:

Governor Rick Snyder today declared a “state of emergency” for Marquette County communities responding to widespread, severe damage to water and sewer lines caused by this winter’s extremely cold temperatures and deep frost levels.  

“This record-breaking winter has severely crippled the water and sewer infrastructure of Marquette County,” Snyder said. “I admire the public works personnel who have been working around the clock thawing and repairing water and sewer mains. They are the heroes in this situation. We will use all state resources available so Marquette County communities can respond and recover from this crisis.”

By declaring a “state of emergency,” the state of Michigan will make available all state resources in cooperation with local response and recovery efforts. Snyder's declaration authorizes the Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division (MSP/EMHSD) to coordinate state efforts.

Marquette County communities have been coping with frozen water and sewer mains throughout the winter. The deep frost levels have caused widespread and severe damage and failure of water and sewer systems, fire hydrants and public roads, compromising public health and safety due to delayed fire suppression and emergency vehicle response and reduced capacity the to treat wastewater.

“I have directed my staff to work closely with Marquette County emergency management officials to ensure all communities can respond and recover from this incident,” said Capt. Chris A. Kelenske, deputy state director of emergency management and homeland security and commander of the MSP/EMHSD. “As temperatures warm and the ground thaws, we expect this situation to worsen before it gets better.”

The county previously requested a governor’s declaration on March 4. At that time, damage estimates were around $400,000 and resources had not been fully exhausted by local communities. On April 2, Marquette County submitted a second request outlining severe public health and safety concerns and more than $1.6 million in damages.

 Since Feb. 21, Marquette County has been under “local state of emergency,” which activates local emergency response and recovery plans. By requesting a governor’s declaration, the county has determined local resources are insufficient to address the situation and state assistance is required to protect public health, safety and property to lessen or avert the threat of a crisis.
U.P. WEATHER REPORT


The road to Marquette/Sawyer Airport yesterday courtesy of NMU Trustee Steve Mitchell

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

HAPPY 80TH JOAN NYSTROM!

Not sure who the other clowns are, but best wishes from all of us!

Tuesday, April 15, 2014


NMU football completes spring season


NMU football completes spring season
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The Wildcats football team began and finished the spring season with two freshman quarterbacks. By the time the spring game was finished on Saturday, the two young signal callers didn’t look like freshman.

Shaye Brown and Jaranta Lewis each led an offensive unit during the spring game. While Brown made more plays with his arm, Lewis was able to show off his wheels and make a few plays with his feet.

Wildcats head coach Chris Ostrowsky said that only a small percentage of the playbook was used during the spring and that both quarterbacks executed those plays the way he wanted them to.
The two other Wildcat quarterbacks on the roster, Ryan Morley and Dustin Thomas, missed the entire spring due to injuries.

Friday, April 11, 2014


FLASHBACK FRIDAY 



NMU Homecoming festivities. What was your favorite Homecoming theme at NMU?
Strube & Aloywishious from the NMU Alum Assc Pinterest Page.
 That's what I'm here for, finding cool shit on the Net so you don't have to.  

NMU Football Closes Spring Practice with Spring Football Weekend


MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University football team will host its spring football weekend April 11 & 12.

The weekend kicks off with the Spring Showcase from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Friday (April 11) at the Vandament Arena. The Spring Showcase will feature the NMU football players participating in a bench press showcase, pie eating contest and dunk contest. 

The Showcase will also feature prize drawings, a silent auction and a motivational video. Admission for the Spring Showcase is $1.

On Saturday (April 12), NMU will host a free Youth Showcase from 2:45 p.m. – 3:10 p.m. at the Superior Dome. As a part of the Youth Showcase, children 5-13 are invited to warm up with the team and will then participate in offensive, defensive and special team drills with the Wildcat coaching staff and players.  Children participating in the Youth Showcase should dress appropriately for the event and meet in the east end zone of the Superior Dome at 2:45 p.m.
NMU will play their Spring Game from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the Superior Dome, which is also a free event.

NMU's offense, wearing all-white, will face off against the Wildcats defense, donning all-green, in a live game using a special scoring system which is listed below.
 
2014 Spring Showcase Schedule
5:30 p.m.        Opening Comments
5:40 p.m.        NMU Motivational Video
5:45 p.m.        Coach Ostrowsky Introduces Host
5:50 p.m.        Bench Showcase
6:15 p.m.        Pie Eating Contest
6:25 p.m.        All Prize/Silent Auction Drawings
6:35 p.m.        Dunk Contest
7:00 p.m.        Closing Remarks
 
Spring Game Scoring System
 
Offensive Scoring System
First down: 2 pts
PAT: 1 pt
Play over 20 yards: 3 pts
2 Pt. Conversion: 2 pts
4th Down Conversion:  2 pts
Field Goal: 3 pts
Touchdown: 6 pts
 
Defensive Scoring System
Tackle for Loss: 1 pt
Turn over on downs: 2pts
Sack: 2 pts
Safety: 2 pts
4th Down Stop: 2 pts
Turnover (Interception, Fumble Recovery: 3 pts
Touchdown: 8 pts

Thursday, April 10, 2014




TODAY'S MOMENT OF ZEN







FROM THE SAD NEWS DEPARTMENT:


'Princess Lacey,' friend of MSU's Payne, dies after battle with cancer



Adreian Payne walks on the floor for Michigan State senior night with Lacey Holsworth, an 8-year-old from St. Johns, in February. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

Tom Izzo said when he’s out recruiting he’s looking for difference-makers.
Little did he know he would find one in an 8-year-old girl, and her relationship with one of his best players, Adreian Payne, would prove Payne was one, too.
 
Lacey Holsworth, the young girl from St. Johns who during her two-year battle with cancer befriended the entire Michigan State basketball team and especially Payne, died on Wednesday.
 
Her family made the announcement with a post on Lacey’s Instagram and Twitter accounts that read, “Princess Lacey has achieved the ultimate victory. She now dances among angels. … The world is a better place because you were in it. Our hearts are broken. We love you Doll. Dance all night. … Mommy and Daddy, Will, Mitchell, and Luke. #LoveLikeLacey.”
 
The friendship between Payne and Holsworth became the feel-good story of the NCAA Tournament as Lacey was with Payne to cut down the nets after the team won the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis. She also traveled to New York for the East Regional and even went to Dallas last week for the college dunk contest Payne took part in.
 
Izzo said he spoke with Payne early Wednesday morning.
 
“I thought we had a little more time but I think in last couple weeks he knew he didn’t,” Izzo said.
 
 “The ironic or strange part about it is she almost got to do everything she could do with him if you look at last four weekends. She is at our place for senior night, she’s in Indy cutting down the nets with him, she’s in New York with all the shows she was on, staying in hotels. She was in our meeting room with us before we played UConn and then got to go down to Dallas with him when he was in the dunk contest. So pretty cool that he had that impact and helped her live eight short years.”
While in New York, the story of Payne and Lacey really took off as she appeared on the Today Show and Good Morning America. Along the way, the nation marveled at the commitment between the 23-year-old basketball giant and the little girl.
 
Everybody talks about what we can do for kids,” Izzo said, “but it’s amazing what that little girl did for all of us, and that’s a very good legacy to leave behind when you think of the impact she had on all these big, strong, incredible athletes and this little tiny girl maybe impacted them as much as anybody.
 
“Plus she was incredible for Adreian. This helped teach me a lot and, as I told him, what an impact he can have on a person. You can go lifetime and not impact somebody; people go a lifetime without really, truly helping someone else -- and he did it (starting) at 21 years old. It’s pretty cool.”
 
The pair met two years ago when the team visited patients at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital. Lacey, 
diagnosed with neuroblastoma, had undergone surgery to remove a tumor on her spine and she and Payne quickly became friends.
 
From there it grew.
 
They were together last spring when her cancer was in remission and they attended a gala held by Dick Vitale to raise money and awareness for cancer research. And they were together when the cancer returned last fall.
 
Izzo remembered the day he and Payne went to the hospital after Lacey had surgery in the fall. She wouldn’t wake up -- until Payne showed up, that is.
 
“That visit was just amazing how she lit up to him,” Izzo said.
 
She had been continuing to go through radiation treatments as the tumors returned this winter and was set to begin a study at the University of Michigan.
 
Through it all, their bond strengthened as she became a fixture at Michigan State games, even joining Payne on the floor at the Breslin Center for senior night after Michigan State’s final home game on March 6.
 
That was the last time Vitale got to see Lacey and the news of her death devastated the ESPN analyst.
“It just breaks my heart,” said Vitale, who spoke with Lacey’s father, Matt, on Wednesday morning. “No child should be put to rest at 8 years of age. It just tears my heart out.”
 
Vitale has been the forefront of raising money for cancer research and in the nine years he has held his gala event, he has raised $10.7 million. At last year’s event, Lacey and Payne were the stars.
 
“She was the star of stars last year,” Vitale said. “She stole the show with Adreian and I will never forget her.”
 
He is also setting up a grant in Lacey’s name with the goal of raising $250,000 by the time this year’s gala is held May 16. He said it will take a couple of days to be set up, but donations can be made at dickvitaleonline.com to the grant in Lacey’s name.
 
Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis issued a statement on Lacey’s passing: 
 
“Today, our Michigan State family mourns the loss of 8-year-old Lacey Holsworth. Our thoughts and prayers are with her parents, Matt and Heather, as well as her three brothers, Will, Mitchell and Luke.
“It’s remarkable how many lives Lacey touched in her short life here on earth. She had a zest for living and was so courageous in her battle against cancer. Lacey impacted not only our Spartan basketball program but the entire university community. And through her special relationship with Adreian Payne, Lacey captured the hearts of many people throughout our state and nation. All people had to see was that radiant smile that could light up an entire arena.
 
“Our hearts are heavy today, but we’ll never forget the life lessons Princess Lacey taught us.”
 
There will be a memorial service for Lacey Holsworth on Thursday, April 17 at the Breslin Center on Michigan State’s campus. More details will be announced.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140409/SPORTS0202/304090032#ixzz2yPvnTaP0