Updates in Totally Unrelated Things: Red Klotz, "The Best Outside Shooter Ever" and Higgs In Action!

As sports go, I was originally hoping to be a world-renowned basketball player.  My game didn't quite live up to my dreams, so I reluctantly turned to a more solitary sport, running.

Red Klotz, the long-time Coach of the Washington Generals and the greatest ambassador the sport of basketball has ever known, died last week.  His snub at the Basketball Hall of Fame (They let Nike Chairman Phil Knight in recently!) needs to be corrected.

Player/Coach/Owner Red Klotz in his 70's against the Harlem Globetrotters.

Long-time runner and good friend Tim Kelly recently finished a book on his life that is garnering praise from every angle.  It is being mentioned on national sports shows to highlight a remarkable man and promote his inclusion in Basketball's most prestigious organization.  Red represents the best of America's great sport of basketball, but more importantly, he represents the greatness that America can produce outside the sport. May he RIP.  (Red is probably just now taking over the coaching duties of the top team in Heaven and upping their game.) I recommend the book as a companion to the book Pistol (about "Pistol" Pete Maravich) as the 2 books to read to appreciate the history of America's home-grown sport. I'll bet Coach Red is allowing Pistol Pete to fire away from anywhere on the Heavenly court.  Red certainly knew a customer draw when he saw one!

And I was once the 2nd leading scorer on my Junior High team at 2.8 points per game.  Yeah, you read that right, 2.8 was second best on my JH team.  That's because Curt Clawson, a seventh grader was on my team averaging 18.4 points per game against 8th and 9th graders!  Curt eventually became what his Coach, Gene Keady of Purdue called "the best outside shooter he has ever seen." (Curt never played a game with a 3-point line though!) He said this with Michael Jordan sitting next to him at his retirement celebration.  With Curt just a man in the back of the auditorium.  When Michael demanded a 3-point shoot-out (with substantial wagering!), Curt beat him like a rented mule with the whole crowd moving to the gym for the spectacle.

Congressman Curt Clawson

Now Curt is the newly elected member of the US House of Representatives for his district in Florida, replacing the disgraced former member caught with cocaine.  Curt is also someone who upholds the ideals our Founders wanted America to reflect.  As a Mormon, he lives up to strict standards in his personal and professional life some of us can only wonder about.  His lessons from his sporting career mirror those all of us have been exposed to.  Coach Keady and Coach Groves may have never met, but they were both old-school types with similar views on what coaching means.  I wish Curt well in the cesspool that is our Government.  I really want him to make a difference.

And in lighter news, the Higgs Boson was finally seen in action!