Spandex

What do football players, Dutch speed skaters, and bobsledders all have in common? Spandex, an anagram of the word expands.

In a football fashion sense, spandex "works" when worn by the backfield. When trying to contain the girth of certain lineman, though, spandex reaches its maximum level of expansion tolerance as shown in close-ups via select television camera angles.

Camera angles also showed television viewers more than they wanted to see during the Olympics. The full-body speedo worn by the Dutch speed skaters should have come with the warning, "Due to the graphic nature of the following program, small children and people with weak hearts should leave the room."

Bobsledding wasn't much better. Many of those competitors had silver tracings on their spandexed backsides. The silver was probably specially added to give their uniforms a touch of flash, but cameras focused on the bling just a touch longer than was absolutely necessary, IMHO.

Two nonverbal communication concepts apply to spandex. Rules dictate what is an acceptable appearance, and clothing can deliver messages that offend. Elliott School faculty need to keep those clothing rules in mind before donning uniforms for next year's Comm Week whiffle ball game against the ESC students. Can you imagine any of us in spandex? Yikes!!

I was inoculated with Purple at age 1 when my oldest sister enrolled as a freshman at K-State. Some of my earliest sports memories include watching homecoming football games at Memorial Stadium and listening to WIBW broadcast K-State basketball games. The one fly in the ointment was that my local television station only broadcast basketball featuring the WSU Shockers.

For years I was mad at WSU and the TV station because when I wanted to see Purple, the only color available was Yellow.

Then, as irony would have it, I was hired to teach at WSU, had Shocker athletes in class, and discovered I could cheer for both teams.

One semester, star basketball players Cliff Levingston and Ozell Jones enrolled in my Comm 111 class. Even though they could make dazzling plays in front of screaming fans, the idea of giving speeches made them very uncomfortable.

In fact, Ozell kept telling me he thought he might faint. At 6’11”, Ozell would have wiped out the first row of students if he had carried out his threat.

At the end of that year, Ozell transferred to Cal State Fullerton when he and WSU lost a lawsuit against the NCAA. He left the same time I had baby #2, so I lost track of him until I saw a very small article about him in the Eagle.

Ozell Jones, a 6-foot-11 center who played on the Wichita State basketball team that reached the Elite Eight in 1981, was killed by a gunshot on Thursday in Lancaster, Calif.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported Monday that LA County Sheriff's Department homicide detectives are investigating.

Jones, 45, played two seasons at WSU before being ruled ineligible by the NCAA late in the 1980-81 season because of an irregularity with his high school transcript. He didn't play in the Shockers' 1981 NCAA run, then transferred to Cal State-Fullerton.

Joining the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, he averaged 3.7 points and 3.6 rebounds in the 1984-85 season, then played briefly the next season for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Jones, originally from Long Beach, Calif., ran a big and tall men's clothing store in LA, one of his sisters told the Daily News. He is survived by his wife, Daphney; his mother and three sisters.

For more, check Wednesday's Eagle.

Published in Wichita Eagle on September 12, 2006

While I never learned if the shooter was caught, I did learn that school colors don’t matter—people do.

Give my ears a break

When I first began watching the Olympics (about the time dirt was invented), sportscasters talked about the huge rivalry between the USA and USSR. The rivalry died when the Soviet Union collapsed for good in 1991.

So, it was almost refreshing this week to watch the figure skating competition without Dick Button frothing at the mouth while complaining that the Soviet Bloc judges stole another medal from the Americans.

After the first few men completed their jumps, spins and glides Tuesday, I decided Scott Hamilton is every bit as annoying as Button ever was but for an entirely different reason. Hamilton criticized everything.

I wanted to listen to the music and watch the "artistry" of the skaters, but Hamilton's non-stop chatter annoyed me so much I found myself talking back to him.

The mute button was not really an option. Figure skating without music doesn't hold much appeal to me. Figure skating without endless, technical commentary would be delightful, however.

Future sportscasters take note: although TV stations hate the idea of dead air, there are times when silence is golden.

Global Sports

Sportswriters need to think globally as well as writing locally.

Sure it's important to write about the popular sports from one's geographic area, but it is also important to know what sports are popular in the rest of the world. Knowledge about global sports gives you an edge as a sportswriter.

My international students are interested in this blog, and one in particular made this observation, "I am certainly amazed when I see the number of Americans who do not watch or are not even interested in watching a football [soccer] game when their national team is playing in the World Cup."

Is he stereotyping Americans as clueless or is that really the case?

Other students offered information about sports from their countries. See if you can identify the country of origin and tell a bit about the following: Sand Driving, Falconry, Camel Racing, Drifting, Ssi-Reum, Tra-Kow, One Foot, Badminton, Ping-Pong, and Panjat Tebing.

If you don't have plans Friday night, think "global" and watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Check out this link to the latimes to see one sportswriter's view of all the unusual events that will be happening in Vancouver the next two weeks.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-olympics-plaschke12-2010feb12,0,4124346,full.column

Extreme sports have a "high level of inherent danger" or so says Wikipedia. I have lived though my own foray into a high level of inherent danger because I was required to by law, not once but twice, so I find I am creeped-out by hyperactive athletes trying to kill themselves for fun.

I competed in X-treme driving, not as the actual driver but as the high-on-adrenaline passenger. If you need an adrenaline fix, you should give this sport a chance.

The rules are simple: be the adult supervisor of a teenager acquiring his/her 50 hours of supervised driving and make sure the driver is deaf.

Regular teen drivers watch the road while their parents speak, shriek, or groan suggestions/directions. Deafness is what makes this sport extreme because deaf drivers have to watch hands signing to them at the same time they are supposed to be attending to the road.

For instance, if the deaf driver drifts into another lane, needs to hit the brakes in an emergency, fails to pull over for emergency vehicles, etc., the driver can't hear the screams of the frantic passenger. The passenger has to move his/her hands into the driver's visual field so the driver can simultaneously watch the passenger's hands while concentrating on safely piloting a potentially lethal ton of metal down the street.

Next time you want an adrenaline high, try communicating via sign language in Wichita traffic during peak rush hour with an inexperienced driver. If you think that is too tame, try the Winter X-Games version, which adds icy streets to the mix.

Mommas, don't let your babies group up to be deaf

During a time-out at the WSU-NIU basketball game, the camera panned the fans, stopping momentarily on a dad cuddling his newborn. Seeing that baby in the noisy arena made me cringe.

The decibel level at sporting events is dangerous for everyone, but it is especially hazardous for babies and children.

Sound levels are measured in decibels (dB) with a conversation calculated around 60 dB. A poster on the K-State basketball board measured the combined volume of fans and sound system at 114-116 dB with occasional bursts to 120 dB during the KSU-KU game last Saturday.

Too many basketball fans think louder is better, but OSHA disagrees because permanent, irreversible hearing loss occurs from prolonged exposure to high sound levels.

Here are the facts: 70 dB is 10 times more intense than a 60 dB conversation, and 120 dB is 10 to the 6th power or 1,000,000 more intense than conversation. OSHA says 7.5 minutes is the maximum work time anyone should be exposed to 120 dB.

At 120 dB people don't have a sensation of pain when the tiny hair cells in their inner ears are being damaged.

My advice to fans is to leave the babies at home, put ear protectors on children, pop ear plugs in their own ears. They shouldn't be fooled into thinking louder is better.

However, if you or someone you know loves to bump up sound 1,000,000 more intense than normal, come see me next week to start sign language lessons. People who aren't careful with their ears can expect signing to be their second language.

kstatefootball.com: Not just purple

When I have spare time in front of a computer, I go to kstatefootball.com to find the latest sports stories. While most people think that link will connect them to anything and everything purple, that is not always the case.

There is an area on that site called "Timeless News" that features two, in-depth sport stories from biggie newspapers. Today, an article from the NY Times explains why kids participate in youth sports. The other article from the Philadelphia Inquirer chronicles the first football postseason game played 1932.

As interesting as today's offerings are, they don't hold a candle to a 2008 story from NPR about football in Alaska. Here is a sampling:

This Saturday, Alaskans will be watching the state's first-ever high school football playoff game north of the Arctic Circle. The Barrow Whalers host the top-of-the-world game against the Houston Hawks.

David Gerke, the father of the Whalers' 17-year-old quarterback, Albert Gerke, tells NPR's Melissa Block that a polar bear was wandering near the field a couple days ago.

He says someone will keep an eye out for polar bears during the game this weekend.

Google "Alaska Football" to find out how football in the frozen North differs from football in Kansas on a cold weekend.

And, in case anyone is interested in current football news with a Wichita connection, this link to the Sun-Sentinel says that Arthur Brown, Wichita East High School, has left the University of Miami.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/um-hurricanes/fl-college-football-0203-20100202,0,1227777.story

For more details about AB from another website check out this story:

www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/1459302.html