The real fan’s pendulum: The swing from agony to ecstasy  My Tennessee Vols were hit in the mouth by nouveau Vandy for 17 first quarter points this past Saturday. In the previous 11 games this season, we had given up a TOTAL of 16 in the initial stanzas. That’s when the Saturday morning creeping sickness of dread began attacking me. A slight

Music City Center and Bridgestone Arena are examples of Nashville creating a vision and executing it well. A new Titans stadium can do the same. In the last 25 years, two seismic waves of historic change swept through our city, collectively giving us the Nashville of today — the 2.0.22 version.  Another wave is now quickly rolling forward, ready to

Tennessee State University Coach Ed Temple’s Tigerbelles sent many champions to Japan. When the national teams paraded in the Opening Ceremonies at the Tokyo Olympics on July 23, many viewers with Tennessee connections watched with pride while recalling and reliving the first Tokyo games in 1964. A compelling highlight from that 1964 competition saw two close friends toe the starting

When NashvilleNext, the community-driven process for guiding Metro Nashville through 2040 recently began pondering what we should look like as a city 27 years from now, one indelible image came to mind: a climate-controlled football stadium.  Our own Music City Dome? First, let me document precisely how sports have broadened Nashville’s appeal and the profound impact which sporting events have

Edwards worked on World Fair, 2000 Gore staff and Sports Authority, among others Emmett A. Edwards, a businessman and public servant for more than three decades, died Monday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center due to complications from lung cancer. He was 59. Born in Covington, Tenn., in May of 1953, Edwards graduated in his high school’s first racially integrated class

Cleveland’s mammoth 80,000-seat Memorial Stadium, square on the banks of Lake Erie, provided the genesis for my love of baseball. I was just 5 when my father took me to my first game, I remember thinking with wonderment that the whole world could fit right inside. We arrived when the gates opened, thrilled to see the infield and outfield drills,

Just when I thought it was safe to dip my toes into the turbulent waters of admiring a baseball hero, the “steroids” shark emerged and tried to rip them off once again. Last winter, just after the San Francisco Chronicle printed grand jury testimony about the Balco steroids case, I wrote an article that lamented, after four generations in my

Thousands of 15-, 16- and 17-year-old athletic girls in Middle Tennessee will be devoting countless hours to sharpening their basketball skills over the next few years. Out of the millions of shots, dribbles and rebounds, a few will emerge with skills that will allow them to play college basketball at the highest levels.  A few of them may even have

Completely compelling! That sums up my reaction to the summer Olympics in China so far.  I wasn’t sure whether or not the actual games themselves could possibly live up to the spectacle of the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing, but then, the human drama began unfolding on the international stage. I was particularly taken by the vast difference in population between

There’s been a lot of conversation and consternation recently about the Nashville Predators tying up their skates and leaving. Named as the number one culprit for this potential departure?  The “business community.”  There has been no shortage of finger pointing as many have said that area corporations need to step up and prevent this exodus from Nashville. What is needed