Boston Sports Then and Now

BST&N saltues all the men and women who have run the Marathon and made it a special event since 1897.

The Vintage Athlete of the Month for April was originally planned to be a baseball player, for obvious reasons. But for reasons even more obvious the events of this past week led to a change of plans. Instead, BST&N takes this month to honor the Marathon runners. This article will pay tribute to some of the most noteworthy, but the real honor goes to all have participated in this great event since its founding in 1897.

The Boston Marathon was founded in 1897, in response to the positive reception given to the marathon run at the first-ever Olympic Games the previous summer in Athens, Greece. It might sound easy  to say in our current context that the Boston Marathon has become a showcase for the best of the human spirit—persistence, courage and fortitude, but the following examples bear witness to the reality that it’s true.

*Roberta Gibb grew up in the suburbs of Boston and got started on running, when she jogged through the woods with her dogs. Later, she kept in shape by jogging the eight miles between her and nursing school. In the early 1960s there were no running shoes designed for women, so Roberta ran in leather nurse shoes.

In 1966, she decided to run in the Marathon. Women were still not allowed to officially participate, so she basically snuck in the middle of the pack. Eventually other runners realized a woman was running alongside of them, and they gave Roberta encouragement. She was further encouraged by the observers on the street who became aware of what was going on, and cheered her on. Roberta is the first female to complete the Boston Marathon.

*Geoffrey Mutai grew up in Kenya, one of eleven children. He couldn’t afford to continue with his education, so he worked on a farm and he ran. He ran so well that he earned a spot on his country’s team for a world competition in 2002. Nine years later he ran a record-setting time in the Boston Marathon.

*John Campbell is from New Zealand, one of six kids born to a factory foreman. He did his running while earning a living doing a variety of jobs form shopkeeper to fisherman to milkman. He delivered his own record-setting performance in the Marathon. “You do what you do and you get on with the job,” he said regarding his training and how it integrates into his daily life. Those words might well serve as the masthead for all Marathon runners.

Read the rest of this entry →

Marcus Camby gave the basketball fans of the Bay State a rare reason to cheer in March.

March Madness generally hasn’t produced a lot in the way of excitement for the good people of the Boston area, unless you happen to have some connection to UConn. Otherwise, Boston College had some good teams in the early 1980s and again recently, but hasn’t made a Final Four. The one exception to the rule came in 1996, when UMass capped off a fantastic regular season and made the Final Four. Today, BST&N pays tribute to this time of year and the ’96 Minutemen in particular, by honoring their star, Marcus Camby, as the Vintage Athlete of the Month.

Camby is originally from Connecticut, and as a high school senior he led Hartford Public High to the state title. Camby averaged 27 points/11 rebounds/8 blocks per game and was state Player of the Year in the process. He was recruited by UMass head coach John Calipari to join a program that was making good progress, but needed the kind of signature player who could get them to the proverbial next level.

Prior to Calipari’s arrival for the 1989 season, UMass had gone 26 years without making an NCAA Tournament. In 1992 and 1993 that changed. The ’92 team won the Atlantic 10 and reached the Sweet 16. They lost to Kentucky, one round prior to the Wildcats losing to Duke in a game widely considered the best tournament game ever played. A year later UMass earned its second straight #3 seed, but this time failed to get out of the first weekend. The program was clearly a factor, but whether it could break past the barrier so many teams that aren’t in power conferences crash into was a big question.

Camby came to Amherst and made an immediate impact on the defensive end. He set a freshman record for blocked shots with 105. This time the team got up to a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but a familiar result took place in March—a second-round loss to 10^th-seeded Maryland. It was more ammunition for critics who said the team would struggle in a deeper league.

1995 saw Camby make first-team All-Conference and his team was again considered one of the best eight in America on Selection Sunday, garnering a #2 seed in the East. And they backed it up on the first weekend, rolling into the Sweet 16. When UMass came to the Meadowlands for the regionals, the college basketball world was abuzz about a potential showdown of great big men. The region’s top seed was Wake Forest, with Tim Duncan. What a battle it would have been had Camby and Duncan gone head-to-head with a Final Four spot at stake.

The matchup didn’t materialize, but not because of UMass. They handled their business in a win over Tulsa, but another big man started to steal the show on the other side of the bracket. In spite of a big game from Duncan, Oklahoma State rode their own center, Bryant “Big Country” Reeves to an upset win. If nothing else, the path was clear for UMass to make the Final Four. Alas, “Big Country” had the highlight weekend of his career and Oklahoma State advanced. We have to point out in fairness to UMass that they were hindered in the regional final by struggles at the guard position, and that can be attributed to the loss of point guard Michael Williams for academic reasons.

Reasonable excuse or no, UMass was a hungry basketball team when the 1996 season began and Camby was coming into his own as he entered his junior year. Kentucky was the top-heavy favorite to win the national championship that year and the Minutemen beat them in non-conference play. Camby’s team moved to the top of the polls and won the first 26 games of the regular season.

Read the rest of this entry →

Ty Law holds Patriot records for interceptions and Pick-6′s, including some big moments in the postseason.

In 1966 there was a popular song by The Bobby Fuller Four whose refrain endured in popular culture. The title phrase went “I fought the law and the law won.” Those words aptly described what opposing offenses did against the New England Patriots for ten years from 1995-2004. In this case the law they fought was cornerback Ty Law. And more often than not, they didn’t win. One of Law’s seminal moments came in the franchise’s first Super Bowl win following the 2001 season, so on this Super Bowl Sunday, BST&N has chosen to honor Law as the Vintage Athlete of the Month.

Law was born into the football hotbed of Beaver County Pennsylvania in the town of Aliquippa. In addition to football, he also excelled on the basketball court, where he was the MVP of the high school team. It would be the gridiron that got him to college though, and Law signed on at the University of Michigan.

Even though Michigan was rolling along as one of the top programs in the nation and racking up Big Ten titles year in and year out, Law was able to make an immediate impact. Midway through his freshman year of 1992, he got into the starting lineup and he went on to be a key contributor of a team that won the Rose Bowl. As it turned out, this was Law’s last trip to Pasadena, but he made All-Big Ten each of the next two seasons and All-American in his junior year of 1994. There was really one down note in his college career—in a September game in 1994 he was the main defensive back on Colorado receiver Michael Westbrook when the latter caught an epic desperation pass from Kordell Stewart on the game’s final play and signaled an early end to Michigan’s national title hopes.

Law opted to enter the NFL draft after his junior year. Bill Parcells had just finished leading the Patriots back into the playoffs in ’94, and decided to strengthen his secondary in choosing Law with the 23^rd overall pick. By 1998, Law was leading the league in interceptions and on his way to the Pro Bowl. The ’98 season was the first of five trips to Hawaii for his career, and the first of two times he was named first-team All-Pro.

Read the rest of this entry →

If you don’t love Tommy Heinsohn, you should really re-evaluate your life.

Every sports franchise has their own broadcasting team. Some do television and some do radio, but all of them have a strong passion for what they do every time their team plays a game. Here in Boston, we have a great collection of broadcasters which includes Jerry Remy, Gil Santos and Jack Edwards but any true Boston sports fan knows the one commentator who is far and above better than all the rest: Tommy Heinsohn.

It may not be soon, but it is clear that Tommy’s career in broadcasting is on the decline because of his health complications which also keep him from traveling with the team on the road, but there is no doubt that Tommy is the Boston Celtics’ biggest fan. He and Mike Gorman have been calling Celtics games for over 30 years, which makes them one of the longest running broadcasting duos in sports history. Throughout those 30 magical years, Tommy has brought us many classic moments and thanks to the world wide web those moments will forever be remembered by Boston sports fans.

Read the rest of this entry →

One-time Boston College hero Matt Ryan faces the challenge of his NFL career in January.

The most of America, Matt Ryan is better known as “Matty Ice”, the engineer of the Atlanta Falcons’ high-powered offense, the possible MVP, whose preparing for a January that he hopes will vanquish the doubts that exist about his ability as a big-game quarterback. But before Matt Ryan was in Atlanta, he belonged to Boston College. So in this month of January when we first focus on college football and the BCS National Championship, and then move to the NFL playoffs, BST&N’s Vintage Athlete of the Month is Matt Ryan, with the focus on his college years.

Ryan was born, grew up, and played high school football in eastern Pennsylvania, but he had BC blood in his family—his uncle, John Loughery, had been a quarterback for the Eagles from 1979-82. Uncle John started in 1980, but was eventually replaced by an up-and-comer named Doug Flutie. Little did Loughery know, that he would one day have a nephew that would not only start in Chestnut Hill, but break a lot of Flutie’s records along the way.

After an acclaimed high school career in three spots—Ryan was a successful small forward in basketball, along with playing shortstop and pitcher on the baseball diamond—he took budding football career north. Ryan got occasional playing time in 2004 as a freshman and again through the first part of 2005 as head coach Tom O’Brien went back and forth between Ryan and Quinton Peters.\

Ryan got the job for good in the final games of the’05 season and Boston College promptly beat N.C. State and Maryland, then won a bowl game against Boise State—one year before Boise would become a household name, using much the same cast to go undefeated and win the Fiesta Bowl. In those three games, Ryan’s offense scored a combined 88 points and the young quarterback was made an increasingly bigger part of the game plan each week.

Read the rest of this entry →

Has any kick ever been better than this 45-yarder Adam Vinatieri hit in a blizzard to beat Oakland and save a Super Bowl run?

The night was January 19, 2002 and a blizzard was enveloping the New England area. As the night wore on, football despair was about to as well. Because the New England Patriots trailed the Oakland Raiders 13-10 in their second-round AFC playoff game. The Patriots had the ball on the Oakland 28-yard-line, but with only time for a field goal remaining, the cause still looked close to hopeless.

Even with Raider fans, players and coaches fuming over what they believed was a blown officials’ call on the infamous “Tuck Rule” play where what the Raiders believed was a game-ending fumble recovery was ruled in incomplete pass, they surely believed the play was about to slide into the area of historical irrelevance. Because who was going to make a 45-yard-field goal in blizzard conditions? Adam Vinatieri strode onto the field and calmly hit the kick. Then he hit another, shorter field goal in overtime. And the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl.

Vinatieri left the Patriots after the 2005 season and has been with the Indianapolis Colts ever since. During Indy’s recent visit to Foxboro, Vinatieri was booed. Perhaps it’s time for a reminder of just how much Vinatieri meant to the franchise, what a clutch kicker he was and why gratitude over his achievements ought overshadow any disappointment over his departure.

It was just prior to the 1996 season that Vinatieri hooked on with New England. He’d done his college kicking at South Dakota State, near his home, and won two national titles at the Division II level. Unable to connect in the NFL straight out of college, he spent time in NFL Europe kicking in Amsterdam and from there got himself a job in Foxboro. He made his first significant mark on the team on September 22, 1996, when he hit a 40-yarder to beat Jacksonville in overtime. The game proved to be an AFC Championship preview and the Pats went on to the Super Bowl in ’96, with Vinatieri notably delivering a 3-for-3 game against Baltimore in October, including a 50-yarder, as he provided the margin of victory in a 46-38 shootout.

Read the rest of this entry →