Happy 51st Birthday Andrew!

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Time marches on . . .

Another year has passed. Today we all celebrated our oldest son Andrew's 51st birthday.

How is that possible?

Young Andy in Little League

playing for the Indians in 1982

The back of his card says that he was 8 years old, 3'6" tall and weighed a strapping 60 lbs.

A slightly older and taller Andrew

with a big birthday cake today

Time really does not march, it flies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANDREW!

As usual, Jacob and Michael joined

us to watch the postponed Sugar Bowl

SEC Champion Georgia was favored over a Notre Dame team that was battling both the Bulldogs and decades of poor play in big post-season matchups.

WOW!

Notre Dame is for REAL!

Notre Dame (13-1) 23 - Georgia (11-3) 10

The Fighting Irish's Defense was outstanding!

Hard to believe that this team lost to Northern Illinois, 16-14, at home in Game Two of the season.

The Huskies went on to finish 8-5 on the season and tied for Sixth Place in the Mid-America Conference. They beat Fresno State (6-7), 28-20, in Boise's Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

These anomalies are what can make college football so interesting over the course of a campaign. 

Notre Dame's Sugar Bowl Championship

team now moves on the the CFP Semifinals

ND's Sugar Bowl win set up a good

Orange Bowl, CFP Semifinal next Thursday, 

And then there were four . . .

Orange Bowl CFP Semifinal

#6 Penn State (13-2) vs. #7 Notre Dame (13-1)

Cotton Bowl CFP Semifinal

#5 Texas (13-2) vs. #8 Ohio State (12-2)

In this first year of a 12 team College Football Playoff, two interesting trends have arisen.

In Round 1, all four teams playing in their own campus stadiums, the higher seeds, won their games.

In the Quarterfinal games, the top for seeds that had Round 1 byes all lost.

What does it all mean, who knows?

I'll be in Spain when the Orange and Cotton Bowls are played this year and with the time difference I'm not sure that I'll be able to see either of the games.

Regardless, I like Notre Dame's Defense to get the job done over Penn State. Both of these school's have had Big Game issues for several years, one will continue to have them.

Ohio State is on a roll and Texas is struggling a bit.

My picks for the Championship Game are Notre Dame and Ohio State with the Buckeyes bringing home the National Championship.

Still, they all have to play their games.

From the net . . .

COOL!

Welcome to 2025!

Wednesday, January 1, 2024

What else is there to say except . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We planned to watch all three College Football Playoff Quarterfinal playoff games today in the comfort of our home with Michael and Jacob.

Life got in the way.

We awoke to the horrific news that a madman in New Orleans this morning at about 3:00 a.m. ran his truck, fired a weapon and perhaps had explosive devices as he rammed into the New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street.

Having experienced that street on that night back in 2004 before the LSU-Oklahoma Sugar Bowl game, I can assure you that it would have been wall-to-wall people for blocks.

At least fifteen people have been reported as dead with upwards of another 20 hospitalized in serious condition. The assailant was killed by local police in a quick gun battle that included two wounded police officers.

The Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia that was to be played tonight was rescheduled for Thursday because of the potential terrorist nature of this deadly encounter.

By the way, in 2004, LSU (13-1) beat Oklahoma (12-2), 21-14, to win Coach Nick Saban his first ever National Championship. He would win six more as the head coach of Alabama.

The first pancake flip of 2025

was successful!

Great hand, eye, plate coordination on Jacob's part saved a rather poor, low trajectory flip by me.

On to college football . . .

A fun to watch DOUBLE-OT Peach Bowl

#5 Texas (13-2) 39 - #4 Arizona State (11-3) 31

The Longhorns Peach Bowl Champions

move on to the CFP Semifinals

The Rose Bowl was not as close

as this lopsided score indicates

#8 Ohio State (12-2) 41 - #1 Oregon (13-1) 21

Everyone wants to jump on the Playoff Selection Committee for not picking more SEC teams.  No thanks by the way.

A favorite buzz phrase after the six playoff games so far has been "that team looked like they did not belong in the playoffs."

Today, #1 seeded, 13-0 Oregon looked like they did not belong in the playoffs. Ohio State led 34-0 in the Second Quarter.

Ohio State, the 2025 Rose Bowl Champions

beyond any shadow of a doubt

A truly impressive win by the

#8 Buckeyes over the #1 seeded Ducks

Up next for today's winners is

a trip to Dallas, Texas for the Cotton Bowl

This CFP Semifinal will be played on Friday, January 10th between #5 Texas (13-2) and #8 Ohio State (12-2).

It should be a barn burner!

Fun from the net . . .

I would love to ship a few boxes of

these awesome uniforms to a deserving

EuroBall team!

Maybe we can reach this ferocity

level next season with my beloved

HUSKIES!

I'm NOT a team player when it comes

to these two essential nutrients

Adieu to 2024

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

New Year's Eve 2024 was a good one filled with family time, food and, what else, football.

The day started in the early morning hours with our final shipment of donated, used football gear.

In this case it was the last of the 33 red UnderArmour pants that had been donated by La Salle H.S. Head Coach Mark Servé.

The key thing with this shipment was that as I am now in my final week preparing to leave, I am leaving Laurie with a garage for once finally devoid of any football gear awaiting a new home overseas.

As for this final shipment via Poland's Polonez Shipping Co., it fittingly goes to a team actually in Poland.

Polonez has been a godsend to what Laurie and I do for EuroBall teams. Using Polonez is a slow route via truck to the East Coast and then an even slower ocean voyage that usually takes a total of 4-6 weeks to reach the various clubs that we service throughout Europe. The economic tradeoff for lack of speed is that Polonez's shipping fees are about 50% less than that of any U.S. postal Service, FedEx, UPS or the like.

Poland's Zabki Dukes will soon . . .

. . . receive these 33 red pants

Thank you Laurie for another year

of incredible packing skills

When it comes to the use of duct tape, Laurie is an absolute Rembrandt of an artist.

At 11:00 a.m., we gathered at Casa Contreras for the Big Game of the day.

GO HUSKIES!

Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas

Who has it better than us?

Well, for a bowl game location, pretty much everybody.

Jacob had his Game Face on

All wearing our 1938 replica

Washington hats from Ebbets Field

Flannels in Seattle

Every group has one and we

all love ours a ton!

RING THE BELL!

When I coached the Thun Tigers in Switzerland back in 2012, my parting gift from the team was this huge cow bell.

In Switzerland, these cow bells are given out as awards at the various dairy related festivals that our so much a part of the fabric of life in the scenic, pastoral countryside.

Getting one was a big honor and I still regard it as the best coaching gift I ever received.

While watching Husky games at home since then, each time the Huskies score one of us grabs the bell, goes into the front yard and rings it wildly.

Good times!

But not good enough

A great play by a Louisville DB to break up the Huskies two-point PAT pass with four seconds left in the game sealed the win for the Cardinals (9-4) over the Huskies (6-7), 35-34.

This transition season over, now it is on to next year with lots of hope, faith and Transfer Portal/NIL shenanigans on the horizon I'm sure.

I guess that Alabama did NOT

belong in the playoffs after all

Congratulations to the

Michigan Wolverines!

To add symmetry to the Wolverines year, on the first day of 2024, they beat Alabama 27-20 in the Rose Bowl game.

On the last day of 2024, Michigan beat the Crimson Tide again, 19-13, in the Reliaquest Bowl.

By beating blue-bloods Ohio State and Alabama in their last two games of the campaign, the Wolverine's fanbase will definitely be bolstered going into the off-season.

The Fiesta Bowl was the first Quarterfinal

of the of the next few days

Penn State was just too much

for #3 Boise State (12-2)

The #6 Nittany Lions (13-2)

will now play the winner of

the Sugar Bowl game

Their opponent will be either #7 Notre Dame (12-1) or #2 Georgia (11-2). 

This Semifinal game will take place in Miami's Orange Bowl on Thursday, January 9th.

Love the old school Ram

with the conquered

NFC West helmets in its mouth

That about sums it up for me