BULLDOG

At midseason 1979  I promised my team I would paint my car in the new school colors if we won 25 matches.  (25/3 ! ).  I took it to STEVE’S CORVETTE with the instructions to paint it royal blue and white, with a thin gold trim–as these were the new choices.  

It was really my wife’s car and when we picked it up and she saw TWO FOOT GOLD STRIPES,  she dropped  to her knees and cried.  I only laughed and blurted,  “… it looks like a Pepsi ad.”

Looking at the front end  one can see a blurred silver hood ornament.   It is a 10 inch Mac truck

Bulldog hood ornament— Our team’s mascot.  

Earl Boykin and some Tanquaray gin affixed it to the hood, in between laughing at it. 

It was easily unique and people knew where I was  (“ You’ve been spending a lot of time at the ELK’S Club, Coach ).   When I rode around Wilson, NC most cars would blow their horn or surely someone would wave.  Religiously,  I would wave back.  

After a few years I changed jobs.  So we painted THE BULLDOG a pleasant green.  

Before moving to the new town,  I waved at a lot of people that didn’t wave back.

Tee called last night.  He wants to know if he can get some help with his 10 years old basketball team.  Maybe one of the Odom boys.  

There are nine players.   Son Lennox warned his Dad on the way to the first practice :  ” … Four of these kids are crazy!”

Coach Tee spoke about 15 seconds before “the worst of the four” emptied his water cooler on the floor.  Tee said “the four” have never since acknowledged that Tee  was there.

Luckily 1.  The other five are pretty good, And 2, the gym has two goals. 

The  4 took off to goal 2.   Tee’s 5 worked hard interrupted by several fights and obscene language from the 4 goal.    Tee admitted seeing one 4 kick a wet floor pylon that drew blood from another.  

He also confessed he told his five— I will bring them up to play.  Beat them bad.

Worst 4 beat best 5.  Worst of the 4 hit the winner.

Team vote on team name —BOULDER MAYHEM.

Russell Rawlings is coming tomorrow.  He is not only a four graduate, but revelled in coaching them.  He’ll help.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15zWY9rk1cHJCUkbnNuS_Nrs0nIUjhst_3jUDxoWiUDk/edit?tab=t.0

Great birthday card — Front:  This is Edith ( beautiful Pin-Up ) and this is your cake ( Giant slice with a lighted candle ). 

Inside :  “You can have your cake, or you can have Edith–but you can’t have your cake and Edith too!”

As the man said–It is time to make some “chawses” ( Choices )

The just released survey by the Elon Poll requested solutions to college athletics problems.  Between the Portal and Likeness changes,  a Rubicon moment,     Teaming with the NCAA, they listed ten pages of questions and suggestions to summarize  how to reign in this “conundrum”.

Some years back I played in a local poker game with John McQuire, brother to Al,   and poster for Octogeneran Curmudgeons.  Occasionally he would blurt out angry admonitions to shut up and play.  Upon enduring  one cliched dissection of the past hand,  and it’s theories and what-ifs,  John concluded “… NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING! “

Apt description of the above Elon/NCAA poll.  

What seems apparent is that a square peg- round hole problem is at the core. 

Education and greed don’t jibe.  The POWER conferences have made their choice.  The rest may too “ante up “.   Hopefully some avenue to EDUCATION as a choice will emerge.  Some are already available.

“Bad luck women stick like glue.  You can have one or the other, but never the two.”  B. Dylan

Fiend At CourtUSTA Sport Science Research 2026: High Performance Player Development By Teresa Merklin on November 2, 2025—Two excerpts:

Playing high-performance junior tennis is expensive and often prohibitively so. Families drop out of the competitive pathway not because their children lack talent or passion, but because they simply can’t afford to stay in the game. Travel, equipment, and coaching costs create barriers that exclude many promising athletes long before their potential can be realized. The USTA needs to explore sustainable, transparent ways to subsidize training and travel that are accessible, fair, and equitable.

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 Elite-level player development doesn’t just happen in academies; It starts with the local coach who spots a spark in a kid at a park court and knows how to nurture it.

Of the three grant categories, I suspect this is the one that will attract the most proposals. Everyone loves the idea of developing the next great American champion. That’s understandable, but it also misses the point. The most impactful research might not be about training elite juniors at all, but rather creating an environment where excellence can grow naturally. That starts with broad participation, access to affordable instruction, and community-level engagement.

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Another Reality

“ For every Serena or Naomi, there are thousands of families who went all in, only to come up empty-handed. It’s a system built on dreams, but powered by delusion.

And yet… that delusion is part of what keeps the junior tennis engine running.”

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Playing high school team tennis is about the only way to inexpensive match experience in the  U.S.  (Tom Parham ).  

The SHOT DOCTORS

https://tomparham.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5840&action=edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sg8qPj4zvCNPhYlKy0mHe9ByIkTA-JHsUAywiW9Jv0E/edit?tab=t.0

NEWSWORTHY  ELON UNIVERSITY

Interesting happenings at Elon:

ELON/QUEENS !  Check it out. 

ELON POLL :  The Elon Poll is doing well. The Elon / NCAA  report is thorough, but sadly exposes NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO DO!

https://www.elon.edu/u/news/elon_departments_cat/elon-university-poll/

George Kirby:  Breathes there a soul so dead that doesn’t know about this former Elon baseball pitcher?

 ( He started the 7th game of the pennant playoffs.  Google George Kirby, click on highlight clip featuring 14 KO outing ).

Coach Cignetti and Indiana University football.   Former Phoenix head coach.  Nuff said.

” I learned to listen to an old man who had been there, even though I didn’t think he knew much .” ( Thomas Linne )

I taught THE CARE OF ATHLETIC INJURIES for twenty years. I had a confrontation with football people in 1968. Spearing, or the helmet to helmet and helmet to knees technique, was killing and maiming football players. ( still a problem ).

I believe I have been presient on several issues because of direct experience. Some serious ( Iraq, sports gambling–see news today, current events ). Probably have written more about International college tennis players than anybody. You can read about that growing like kudzu in college basketball in today’s news also.

Tennis evolution ( see dropshots , drop shot defense, topspin lobs, the circle stinger, match length).

Politics today ? James Carville amonished a mythical Oshkosh Wisconsin couple recently : ” You thought if you voted for Trump he’d get you that new refrigerator. But you f&^$#ed up. It ain’t happening. You made a mistake!”

The NO KINGS protest gave us our slogan ( “We are the leader we have been looking for.”)

Some see mocking him is the ploy. Carville doesn’t self censor much but

“Always remember, if you mud wrestle a pig, the pig likes it.”

From Dylan -IT’S ALRIGHT, MA

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he’s in.

If he can’t stand criticism —-Enough paper cuts may do the job.

“We are are the leader we have been looking for!”

1945

“Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world.

Red and Yellow, Black and White,

they are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the children of the world.”

2025

Jesus loves most of our children.

Almost all of them are white.

Wetbacks, commies, jews and queer,

we gonna make em disappear.

Jesus love only those who white ?

By Elon University News Bureau, staff

October 9, 2025

The link below is to an article written January 2004. Twenty one years seems a long time for an argument to last, but the truth is this conundrum began at the begining of American college sports. ( 1852–Yale vs Harvard rowing teams )

Winning (money ) vs Education (people ). Bare bones.

How to let wallets rule one and separate the “student/athletes “into their own strata?

What would emerge? No one seems to know.

If the gamblers continue at the current rate they will create pain. If, as suggested , the Government engineers the future, grab your ankles .

https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/?s=square+peg%2C+round+hole