He was a small man. Back in 1962, National Football Conference scouts considered Nick Buoniconti too small, at 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds, to play professional football. As a senior at Notre Dame in 1961, he led the team with 74 tackles and made the All-America second team, but it took a while before a professional team drafted him...

Cooperstown, NY, provides a home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I mention this because six Greene County players recently visited Cooperstown to play in a 12 and Under baseball tournament as duly noted in a recent story and column. Hotel owner Stephen Carlton Clark established the Hall of Fame in 1939, and it was dedicated on June 12, 1939. His granddaughter Jane Forbes Clark has been chairman of the Hall’s Board of Directors for nearly 20 years...

One journalist said it was the last football game of their high school careers. However, I think one could say it was the first college game for many of the players, including former Eastern-Greene tackle Gage Baker. The caliber of play Friday, July 12, at the Indiana Football Coaches Association North-South All-Star game proved to be pretty high, as good as many a college game...

Porcine critters are airborne, the mountain came to Mohammed, they are ice skating in Hell. The Indiana High School Athletic Association recently passed a rule I actually approve of. Some of you readers may have already heard the news, but on April 30, the IHSAA approved the mercy rule for football players. ...

I thought this was an excellent track season for the county teams. The Shakamak girls compiled a 31-0 record in competition. They cruised to victory in the Southwest Indiana Athletic Conference meet, the Greene County Invitational, and the Keith Jones Classic at Clay City...

Once he played against them; now J.B. Neill may be the Cardinals’ next basketball coach. Neill, who coached the Edgewood Mustangs last season, said the Bloomfield administration has offered him the position of head boys basketball coach. If accepted, he would replace Ron McBride who retired after leading the Cards to the Washington Semistate last season. Neill cautioned his appointment must be okayed by the Bloomfield School Board...

Linton-Stockton will miss the three seniors on its softball team. First baseman Megan Eberhardt, pitcher Hannah Frady, and shortstop Erica Barker have graduated to the real world. “I hate to say goodbye to the seniors,” Linton coach Beth Wernz said Thursday, May 23, after they had played their final game, a 5-4 nine-inning loss to Shortridge in the Linton Sectional championship. “They are awfully good kids off and one the field.”...

Shakamak’s players agree they will need both good hitting and defense to progress in the post-season. The Lakers (14-7) crushed North Central 13-3 Monday night to win the White River Sectional. They will face Rising Sun (18-6) at 1 p.m. in the second semifinal of the Morristown Regional...

They admitted they were nervous. Shakamak enjoyed an 8-4 lead over Clay City heading into the final inning of the Clay City Sectional championship Wednesday night. However, the first three Lady Eels reached base on a walk and two singles. All of the Lady Lakers knew Clay City had scored seven runs in the seventh inning Tuesday night to edge North Central 13-12...

The Eastern-Greene Lady Thunderbirds are still searching for their first win. However, Ashlie Egan, in her first year as softball coach at Eastern, said the team continues to improve “day by day,” a process not helped by one of the rainiest Aprils on record...

This weekend’s rain has been a good thing in one respect. We can catch up on a few things, like publishing the All-County boys basketball team in Friday‘s paper. When we announced the All-County girls basketball team back in March, Bloomfield coach Ron Knepp sent me senior Malea Toon’s career stats. We didn’t have room to use them then, but I’m going to present them now...

They didn’t quite get the brass ring, but the Linton-Stockton Miners made a pretty good run at the Class 1A basketball championship. Andrean (21-8) closed the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run Saturday afternoon to defeat Linton 59-54 and win the title. Still, the Miners achieved a great deal, going 27-4, and winning a sectional, a regional, and a semistate. Only eight other teams made it as far as Linton...

A recent Bloomfield defeat will be immortalized on film. Craig Lunceford of Monster Films recently contacted me to announce that the company has released a new documentary, Kings of Indiana. The film documents a recent basketball season of the Barr-Reeve Vikings, cxurrently ranked second in the final Class 1A Associated Press poll...

Originally, I was going to write a column about the Cardinals’ reaction to winning Saturday night’s Clay City Sectional championship. However, we are putting out a special four-page broadsheet this Friday to commemorate the sectional titles of Bloomfield and Linton-Stockton. The original column will appear in that, but there are still a few observations to make about Sectional 57...

I’ll miss them. As our readers know, the Eastern-Greene School Board voted Monday night not renew the contracts of football coach Travis Wray and athletic director Aaron Buskirk. To make a prediction, letting these gentlemen go will prove to be a big mistake. From my dealings with them, they are competent, gracious, and concerned about the welfare of Eastern’s students...

Bloomfield will graduate five players from the team that won three straight sectional titles and gave North Central all it wanted last Saturday night in a 44-39 loss in the Bloomfield Sectional championship. Malea Toon, who has scored about 1,388 points in her career, Nicole Kilzer, Kayla Pinnick, Katie Small, and Julie Hudson will all leave after this spring...

I thought last week’s Graves Construction Services/MutualBank Greene County Invitational featured some pretty good basketball. Not only did the tourney see a great championship game, Linton-Stockton’s 49-43 victory over Bloomfield, the Miners’ fifth straight GCI championship, but several other games proved to be quite entertaining...

This Christmas Week brought local basketball fans a treat. First Financial Bank hosted the 19th annual Wabash Valley Classic. Sixteen teams from Indiana and Illinois are battling at Terre Haute South this week for the basketball bragging rights for the Wabash Valley...

Impressive. That was the first word that sprang to mind Wednesday night as I watched the Linton-Stockton Lady Miners demolish visiting North Central 68-36. Linton never trailed in the game, taking a 17-9 lead after one quarter of play as Hannah Frady scored two of her 27 points on a putback...

Greene County has sent several basketball players to various colleges over the last few years. Let’s take a look at how some of them are doing. Shannon Pittman Former White River Valley player Shannon Pittman has started three of Oakland City College’s five games this season...