Watching the Cotton Bowl

 

The Cotton Bowl, which had been one of the traditional New Year’s Day bowls is being play today, Friday, December 29^th, in prime time.  The game features #7 Ohio State and #9 Missouri.   

Ohio State, of course, is from the Big Ten.  Pardon the double negative, but they are not used to not playing on New Year’s Day.  Their first-string quarterback, Kyle McCord, is not playing have entered the portal after the Michigan loss and has already transferred to Syracuse.  They are without their All-Everything wide receiver, Marvin Harrison Jr.  He opted out of the game presumably to enter the NFL draft.  Their solid linebacker, Tommy Eichenberg, is injured.  One of the hard driving running backs, Chip Trayanum, is also in the portal.  They started with Devin Brown at quarterback.  It was his first start.  He got hurt, ankle injury, in the first half and had to leave the game.  He was replaced by freshman Lincoln Kienholz.        

Missouri, on the other hand, has everyone on their roster wanting to play in this game.  They are a surging team under the coaching leadership of Eliah Drinkwitz.  They were picked to be second to last in the SEC.  They have came into the Cotton Bowl 10-2.  They only lost to Georgia and LSU.  They beat Florida, Kansas State, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  They are a tough running team with a very good defense.

As kick-off approached, I was actually debating if I should root for Ohio State, as they are a Big Ten team, or for Missouri simply because they are not Ohio State.  I actually did debate it and was leaning toward the Buckeyes.  I thought Ohio State would want to trounce Missouri show the world who they were… transfer portal and opting out be damned.  As soon as the broadcast started, I saw Missouri sporting their black helmets with… a very maize-like block M.  Well, that settled it. Screw it.  Go Mizzou! Pound Ohio State.

Defenses dominated, especially in the first half.  Ohio State managed to get a field goal in the first quarter.  That was all the scoring in the first half.  Period. In the Cotton Bowl.  The offensive output was dismal.  Ohio State was held to a measly 76 yards in total, 20 passing and 56 rushing.  Boy were they missing Kyle McCord.  Missouri only did a bit better with 112 total yards, 28 passings, and 84 rushing. 

There was no scoring in the third quarter.  Ohio State attempted a 48-yard field goal which banged off the left upright.

In the fourth quarter, Missouri stepped up their offense and defense.  They simply took over and won the game.  They had two long drives for TDs.  The Missouri offensive line started opening up holes for their gutty running back Cody Schrader who carried the ball 29 times for 128 yards.  It was impressive… for Missouri and, no doubt, for everyone that roots against Ohio State.

For Ohio State, I can only imagine the tone and tenor of the ranting and raving about this loss in the Buckeye Nation.  Their stats were dismal.  They were held to a field goal.  They never got in the red zone.   They had 203 total yards.  They were held to 106 yards passing and 97 yards running.  Their third down efficiency was 2 for 15.  Wow. 

They, the Ohio Statesfans and coaching staff, drove Kyle McCord into the transfer portal.  They dissed and discarded a quarterback that had 3,170 yards passing and 24 TDs who led the Buckeyes to an 11-1 record.  He lost to Michigan but he was driving his team for a tie or win on the last drive of the game.  The Michigan defense caused an errant pass and interception that ended the game.  McCord is a pretty impressive QB.

I was glad to see Ohio State lose but I cannot and will not gloat.  I remember our dismal Rich Rod and Brady Hoke eras and the gloating coming our way from the Buckeye fans.  Furthermore, we have Alabama in the Rose Bowl on January 1 that has to be our focus.

I can, however, congratulate Mizzou on a gutty hard fought win.

Next year the College Football Playoffs expands to 12 teams.  Perhaps this new format will stem the tide of premier players opting out of bowl games.  Perhaps, what I am guessing is an 11 game tournament, will make several bowl games more relevant and well attended than they were this year

 

My John Hancock

 

John Hancock (1736-1793) had an iconic signature.  It was the first and most prominent signature on the Declaration of Independence.  Hancock was President of the Second Continental Congress.  His signature on the Declaration of Independence was so much larger than everyone else’s.  That signature became a symbol of bold and defiant patriotism.  His name became and still is a colloquial synonym for one’s signature in the US e.g. “put your John Hancock on the dotted line.”  Hancock was a politician and a very successful businessman.  Beyond his role in the Continental Congress, he was the first and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Buildings are named for him in Boston and Chicago.  In 1862, an insurance company was founded, adopted his name for the enterprise, and, to this day, uses his famous signature as their corporate logo.  

Somewhere around the age of 11 or 12, I became fascinated with Hancock’s signature.  It was due to reading the Declaration of Independence both in a social studies class and in seeking a Citizenship in the Nation merit badge Boy Scouts.  Needless to say, Hancock’s signature stood out.  I admired penmanship to be sure.  But the part that fascinated me was the loopy artistic adornment that was below his name (is there actually a name for such an adornment?).  I thought it was sophisticated, elegant, and evoked a level of education and confidence.  I spent some time copying the ornamental doodle and practicing it until it became routine.  I then began to apply it to my own signature, not that I had very many occasions to use it.  It made me feel a grown-up and definitely a bit Hancockian.  

 

After a while, it began to feel a bit awkward, a bit contrived, and just not me. 

When it came time to sign things, my signature has evolved.  In my twenties,  I used my full first, middle, and last name.  That became my first name, middle name initial, and my last name in my thirties.  In my forties and fifties, I simply used my first and last names.  More recently, I use my first and middle name initials and my last name and I have added a swoopy graphic under the signature that feels more natural, more me.  

Over those years, I noticed that others had stylized and unique signatures.  Certainly, artists like Picasso, Rembrandt, and Matisse, politicians such as Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and many other noted writers and celebrities.  While working in Latin America, I noticed many of the executives I worked with had very elaborate signatures.  I assumed that they had put some serious creative thought into designing and considerable practice into making the signature incredibly repeatable.  I was impressed that I did spend some more time on mine.  I am happy with my signature.  It is not overly ornate nor is it always look the same.  As a statistician, I like that there is some variation in it and I love the little swoopy graphic under it.

     There are websites that will generate a signature for you.  Before the internet, notable people of means would contract specialists to design a signature for the them.  One example is the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who employed an Armenian, Hagop Vahram Çerçiyan, to do just that.  Çerçiyan was a professor of mathematics, geography, and calligraphy at Istanbul’s Robert College, now Boğaziçi University.  You can’t make these things up.

Here are a few webite of a few other famous signatures:  Quora and Tamino Autographs. 

 

 

Christmas 2023

   

   At 6:18 this Christmas morning I got a text from a dear friend, “Merry Christmas Mark!  I assume you up writing…”  I texted a Christmas greeting back and noted that I was just about to start my annual Christmas post.

I try to write a Christmas post every year.  It began in the early 2000s when I would email my work colleagues a Christmas greeting.  It was a bit selective in that I wrote the ones I really liked and valued, the people who were my indirect reports that were scattered around world, but mostly Latin America. 

This tradition migrated over to this blog in 2010.  At that time, due to the Great Recession, I was unaffiliated with any company or enterprise at the time.  The post was simply titled:  Christmas 2010.  In 2005, when This Side of Fifty was still a monthly e-letter, I wrote December 2005:  Christmas Holiday/Letters which was for the most part a parody of the letters that we receive in Christmas and holiday cards.  Since 2010, I have written a Christmas post every year except for 2017 which was a very unproductive year for this blog.  In 2020, I actually wrote two posts one on Christmas Eve and another on Christmas Day:  Christmas 2020.

I like to write my Christmas posts early on Christmas morning beginning while it is still dark, very quiet in the house, and using the “not a creature was stirring” image from the famous Christmas poem. By the time the post is crafted and sent, the day has usually dawned.  In these posts, I always note that it is Christmas morning, it is still dark, and that all is quiet and not a creature is stirring.  It has become my version of “It was a dark and stormy night…” popularized by Charles Schultz via Snoopy.  As cliched this is, and often pointed out by another dear friend, this is something magical about writing in the predawn on Christmas morning.

One of my favorite posts was a December 2004 e-letter.  I penned Peace on Earth on the last day of 2004.  It focused on Luke 2:14 which includes “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men” that is oft quoted in Christmas cards and carols.  I think about that phrase more and more with each passing year.  It is a wonderful, aspirational, image and goal.  It is also a goal, an ideal that, we have never fully achieved on any sustained level.  And this is our challenge.  We need to learn to do this on our heavily populated planet to stem both the global warming and the senseless wars that result in too much death and displacement of large numbers of people.  Peace on Earth can only begin when we collectively have Good Will Toward each other.  It is a centuries old message that we nod in agreement to but have failed to put into action.

Beyond the joys of the day, being with family and friends, in-person or through the wonders of FaceTime, this is what is on my mind this Christmas morning:  Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

 

 

 

 

We Still Have Dreams

 

     I was in Michigan for Thanksgiving.  I found myself in a Kroger in Plymouth, Mi picking up a few things.  Standing in line for the check-out I noticed a news and magazine stand.  I did not recall seeing the same at grocery stores in IL.  While contemplating this irrelevant observation, I noticed a Star tabloid on the rack.  John Travolta’s photo was on the front page with the headline of the lead story – John Travolta:  Starting Over at 70.  There was a starburst with a quote from the celebrity, “I still have dreams.”

I never knew Travolta was the same age as me.  I always thought he was several years younger. Why did I think he was younger?  Well, he played a high school student in a TV series, Welcome Back Kotter, that started his meteoric career.  That series first aired in 1975 when I 22 years old.  I simply assumed Travolta was 15 or 16 years old at the time.  A quick internet check verified that Travolta was born on February 18, 1954 in, no real surprise here, New Jersey.

Actually, John Travolta is still 69.  I am eight months older than him.  While we are both septuagenarians, we don’t have much in common.  He is a global celebrity and successful to the point he could fully retire into a lavish lifestyle I can barely imagine. He starred in many successful movies, but I only started admiring his movie roles in the 1990s with Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, and Broken Arrow.  He was married once, to Kelly Preston.  They were married in 1991 until her untimely passing in 2020.  For a movie star, that is impressive for sure. 

So, he wants to start over, realize some dreams he still holds, and perhaps even reinvent himself.  This I can relate to.  Many folks my age can.  I could say something cliché like 70 is the new… new what?  Forty, fifty sixty?  That sounds good when your fifty perhaps.  70 is a cusp age for sure.  Our bodies have more aches and pains to the point everyone admits we are starting to really feel our age and realize the how finite our remaining year, and remaining productive year, are.  It is a bit sobering.  It is a time for reflecting on what have done, what we have not done, and what we coulda, shoulda, mighta done.  It is a time for reflecting on what we might want yet to do.

I have often commented on colleagues and friends that have retired.  Some say they want to play golf 24/7.  Others want to pursue other pastimes such as woodworking, gardening, civic involvement.  Some of us, life a Facebook friend of mine from kindergarten, are travelling the world and posting amazing photos of her travels.  People move to warmer climes and more scenic places.  Others, sadly turn into couch potatoes.  This is an option I could easily slip or settle into if I let my guard down.  We all seem to revel in the joys of family, especially the pure joy of grandchildren.

Me?  I am doing what I always wanted to do.  I am a full-time college professor.  I am writing.  I am playing music in a variety of groups and middle eastern genres.  Unexpectedly, I have found the joys of photography.  I am thoroughly enjoying all of these activities. 

I never read the article about Travolta in Star, but I can imagine he could easily be moving in directions that intrigue him, doing projects or taking up a hobby he always had passion for but never the time.  As unique as we think we are, one thing is certain, we tend to deal with the same general stages of life.  There is a predictable sameness to that.  The uniqueness is in the personalization. 

While many of us are planning, reinventing, and doing.  Some of are dealing with health worries.  Some of us, have already passed.  I think of a few friends that have passed all the time.  The sobering part of this age that I spoke of earlier is the realization that frequency of health issues and deaths will only increase. 

Yeah, “I am talking about my generation” and invoking a saying from back in the day to “keep on truckin’.”

 

Keep On Truckin’ Poster, R. Crumb, 1967

 

Win Number 1000

 

The University of Michigan has played football since 1879.  Their first game was on May 30^th of that year.  Their first opponent was against Racine College and the game was played in Chicago at White Stocking Park.  Michigan won that first game.  Clearly, the scoring was different in that era as the score was 1-0.  In those days, it was called rugby football an early variant of today’s game.  In their first 11 seasons, where they racked up a record of 24-10-1 they didn’t even have a coach. 

On the way to play Racine for that first game, the Michigan team stopped in South Bend, Indiana and introduced the game to some students at the University of Notre Dame.  On November 23, 1887, Michigan returned to South Bend to play Notre Dame in their first official game.  Michigan won that game 8-0.   In Notre Dame’s first season, they had only three games.  All were against Michigan, which Michigan won as well.

Racine College?  Racine College closed its doors as a college eight years after Michigan’s football game with them.  Michigan continued to play football and is the win leader among all football playing universities.  Yesterday, November 19, 2023, Michigan beat Maryland 31-24 to win their 1000^th game.  The first university to do so.

Michigan fans takes great pride in the fact that we are the all-time win leader and the first to achieve 1000 victories.  We used be the leader in percentage of wins as well, but after the lackluster Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke years, Ohio State now holds that honor at 73.5%.  Michigan is tied with Alabama for second at 73.3%.

In terms of on the field performance, Michigan is riding high the past three seasons.  We were 12-2 in 2021, 13-1 in 2022, and 11-0 so far this year with The Rivalry Game against Ohio State looming next week in Ann Arbor.

The 100^th win took place in SECU Stadium in College Park.  I was planning to

attend the game and attend with my Michigan alumnus son and my nine-year-old grandson.  We had made this plan around Labor Day, well before we knew the game would be for the 1000^th win in program history.  As circumstances would have it, my son had business out of town this very weekend and we had to cancel the plans.  So, I facetimed my grandson and we watched it together.  There was a lag in our viewing.  His broadcast was about 30-40 seconds ahead of mine.  As a result, he was seeing the plays before I did.  So, I had his play-by-play setting me up for what I was about to see.  It was like we were at the game together.  It was very cool and perhaps one of the best times I have had watching any game.

Maryland was fired up and came to play.  They came to upset Michigan, deny them their 1000^th win, and basically making their season with an upset.  Michigan was favored by over 30 points.  Michigan had a few key injuries.  A starting offensive lineman who covered JJ McCarthy’s blind side and JJ’s favorite target, wide receiver Roman Wilson, were both out.  In spite of this, Michigan scored two touchdowns one by the offense and another by the defense to take a 14-3 lead in the first quarter.  Special teams almost scored another on a blocked punt in the endzone, but the alert Maryland punter kicked the ball out the back of the end zone for a safety.  Early in the second quarter Michigan had a nice 64-yard drive to up the score to 23-3.

It seemed the rout was on.  But Maryland’s passing attack kicked into gear and marched down the field for a touchdown and narrowing the score to 23-10.  Michigan drove for what appeared to be a half ending touchdown, but JJ threw an interception in the end zone.  In the third quarter Maryland drove for another touchdown.  Michigan answered but did not convert on a two-point attempt making the score 29-17.  Maryland drove 84 yards for another score to narrow the score to 29-24.  It looked like the momentum was all with Maryland.  At this point, Michigan’s defense kicked in.  Mike Sainrisitil got his second interception ending a Maryland drive.  Then the defense pressured and forced Maryland QB Tagovailoa to draw an intentional grounding from his own endzone resulting in a safety.  The score was Michigan 31 – Maryland 24.  Michigan ran out the clock to end the game.

It was not a pretty win, but it was a W.  We could have had fourteen more points if the punt block was a TD and if JJ had not thrown a TD at the end of the first half instead of an interception.

We were the first college football team to win 1000 games and I got to watch it with my grandson.