Blue & Gold

I'm one of the 500! They posted a nice picture of Coach Bowden with Reggie Corner. It's great to see Coach Bowden reaching out to former Zips and making them feel welcome, wanted, and still an important part of the progrum.

This is an interesting conversation and lies at the root of my disdain for Cleveland. Technically it's the Cleveland-Akron market, but in practice, that is tragically laughable for anyone who wants to see Akron duly recognized and advanced. For at least 20 years now, Cleveland has literally almost completely refused to even acknowledge the existence of Akron. The region was force fed almost daily updates on the progress of the construction of the new Cleveland Brown's Stadium. But what did we get for the opening of the Info? A 4-minute segment the night before opening day? That should have been an ongoing story. Would the Cleveland tv media shine more light on Akron were we to join the Big East? That's a serious question, the answer to which our admittance to that conference just might hinge upon. Sadly, it seems that if it's at all within Cleveland's media power, they'd do anything possible to actually see Akron's Vision 2020 thwarted, or at least have as few people know about it as possible. How's that television coverage been for our big BracketBuster contest tomorrow? Oh, right, the "Cleveland-Akron Market" hasn't even been made aware that there's even a game being played. Screw you, Cleveland.

Just dropping this in here, though these thoughts are scattered over many threads. I grew up enjoying the city of Cleveland and pulling for the Browns, Indians & Cavs. However, I'm also a Zips fan, and began religiously following the Zips about 20 years ago. I began watching the Cleveland televised news for mentions of what the Zips were up to. While the Indians, Cavs & Browns all had show, after show, after show, after show, with plenty of additional coverage during the 6:00 & 11:00 news, pregame shows, postgame shows, etc., it didn't take me long to see that not only did Cleveland not cover Akron, but they literally almost never even acknowledge the existence of UA or the Zips. As a sincere Zips fan I found this both infurriating and unacceptable. After a few years of hoping for change, I had had enough and realized that northeast Ohio does not sit in a circle, holding hands, singing Kumbaya. Cleveland doesn't want to share any of the pie. So if Cleveland refuses to support us, out of principle, I refuse to support them. It's just a simple matter of self-respect. However, I'll be the first to say that if Cleveland tv would change their ways and give Akron even a fair portion of the coverage/attention UA & we deserve, and northeast Ohio could actually be considered a cooperative as opposed to competitive region, then I'd be very quik to forgive and forget. But until then, sadly, we've just gotta hold our own. Forget about getting an assist from the city up north. But we don't have to willingly bend over for them.

+1. And I was one of the more disappointed folks when he took over for Gaffney. So glad to be proven wrong!

Ouch, we lost our season opener 7-1 to some school named Elon.

Terry Pluto is one of Akron/UA's public enemies. He used to write for the Akron Beacon Journal and now he writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. For the past twenty years, he's been subconsciously indoctrinating our region against the legitimacy of the UofA with passive-aggressive articles belittling the significance of the U, and Akron in general. I don't know what's been more harmful/destructuve to Akron's psyche, the fact that the Cleveland tv media has literally gone out of their way to ignore the very existence of Akron, or Terry Pluto, who would write about Akron, but only in condescending tones.

Zips Notebook by George Thomas.

I think an arena between 8,000 -10,000-seats is appropriate. Of course this is just my uneducated opinion. The U will have much consulting on this issue, probably receiving much input from the Big East, if, in fact, they are in discussions with the conference.

Marla Ridenour chimes in on Zips' at-large resume. But I don't appreciate the last sentence of her story!

Awesome! Thanks, Big Zip!

Miami postgame wrap from George Thomas. Someone had commented about Charlie Coles saying something to Quincy. Well, according to the article, it sounds as though Charlie may have been frustrated because Q so effectively shut down Miami's 3-ball.

How did the interview go, Scott?

So, can anyone report how this went?

Those were basically my thoughts a few posts back. I think the high tech gear, quite counter-intuitively, may actually increase the liklihood of serious injury.

I think the jerseys are fine. Whatever. You do whatcha gotta do.

Actually, I'd love to hear their comments. Unless they're dropping perpetual F-bombs, why mute them?

I was able to watch some of the game online tonight. Tree's matchup with Mavunga is what stood out to me. He went toe-to-toe with possibly the single best player in the league - freshman -vs- senior - and did just fine. The sky is the limit for Tree. Also, though I was planning on coming tonight, as I've previously stated, I don't invite friends or take guests to the Miami game anymore. As we all know, Miami plays a boring brand of basketball. W's are important, but none-the-less, a night of basketball is supposed to be an entertaining evening. I've been personally embarrassed by those ugly Miami games too many times. Bye, bye, Charlie! Oh, and btw, I really like Miami's 6'8" F Jon Harris. He's from Twinsburg & I was able to see him play in the Summit -vs- Stark County All-Star Game a couple years back against Josh Egner. He was the best player on the floor that night. He's smooth with the ball, 6'8" and can hit the three off a stop-n-pop. If Charlie Coles retires, I wonder if Jon would be interested in transfering to UA?

Unfortunately they've yet to pull off a live feed without a hitch. And I wonder if whoever is in charge of hitting the un-mute button after time outs is embarrassed with their effort? Do we have middle school students running the A/V equipment?

Here's a counter-inuitive thought. Could the advanced padding/helmets that players now wear actually be the cause of the problem? I'll explain my thought. When players wore less sophisticated padding (ala, JoePa's leather helmets, whatever) I highly doubt players were engaging in the collisions they are nowadays. They just couldn't. They'd kill themselves and they probably knew it. At the very least they were probably hitting more with their shoulders than with the crowns of their heads. Take rugby as the prime example. Everyone thinks rugby players must be so outrageously tough because they don't wear any padding. But what people don't realize is that there actually aren't that many severe injuries in rugby precisely because the players don't engage in collisions like they do in American football. They just can't - they'd kill themselves. Today's football players, contrarily, feel invincible with the advanced helmets that they wear. But, invincible they are not.

My sincere apologies, but I can no longer make tonight's engagement. I now have to do a counseling session tonight. My job is like that; much pops up unexpectedly. It's why I'm not a basketball season ticket holder. I have to miss far too many games. George, when you read this, I just want to say that I appreciate the job you've been doing. Go Zips!

I hope you're right about the W, but not the process. However, you probably are. I don't invite friends to the Miami game anymore, precisely because of what you noted about Miami's style of play.

I agree. This article in the ABJ is a relatively big step in getting the ball rolling. The U is going to have to publicly demonstrate the need for a new arena, above and beyond the simple fact that their diehard fans simply want a new facility. This article gets the ball rolling publicly - though there are surely many steps in the process. I just hope they don't take a decade to talk it over, like the article states they did for the football stadium.

The way in which we've been using the term is in regards to labeling the average, uninterested-in-Akron athletics area resident. You are describing who we on ZNO refer to as diehard Zips fans.

I love Cincy. Great town. But I'm sure glad you're in Akron now! Go Zips!

Zips Focussed on Finishing Strong. George Thomas for the ABJ.