The Immaculate Lateral [s]...

[Precise running patterns not to scale]

By now, most of you have seen the video of my alma mater, Trinity University, and their instantly famous "immaculate lateral" football game on Saturday. This is actually a play that the then Quarterback Forrest Dunlap and I drew up at the Nugget Lounge in 1970. I'm surprised they waited so long to use it, but glad it worked. Except for the 8th, or was it the 10th, pitch back they ran it just they way we drew it up!

To the uninitiated the play looks like a hodgepodge, or at best extremely complicated. Which is why I decided to recreate our original diagram above. When seen this way, the obvious simplicity of the plan becomes evident. Doesn't it?

Update: The Immaculate Lateral [s] has taken on a life of it's own. Here is the Wikipedia analysis of the game and the The Play, which ESPN is now speculating may be the longest play, timewise, in college history.

Christmas for Our Troops...

Our service men and women, volunteers all, do a magnificent, tough job of protecting our freedoms. You can do a small, but hugely important part in showing them that they are appreciated by sending a small token of thanks this Christmas. And it's pretty darned easy. Just go to Christmas for Our Troops check our "needs" page and then take your gifts to one of our pick-up points.

Thanks to the Midland Reporter-Telegram for today's front page story, if you didn't catch it in print, here it is online. Also, frequent reader Jeff, contributes an article that he wrote mentioning Christmas For Our Troops.

Malibu fires....

As some people know, I have a connection past and present to Pepperdinie University. Pepperdine, sits on one of the most beautiful spots of any college I know of and has been in the path of the horrendous wildfires raging around Malibu. I have had several people email me and one reader, a news anchor with a premier outlet even called to see if I had any news. I didn't at the time, but do now courtesy of a contact there, Ronnie Zamora in the sports information office.

Hey Wallace,
Thanks for the concern. We're all doing fine at the moment, the fires seem to be moving east, away from campus. There is no school today and offices are closed again, but there's been no word on tomorrow yet. The winds are supposed to calm down today, and that will help the firefighters contain the fire, because wind gusts have been crazy- up to 80 mph in some areas. The school hasn't been too affected, some trees and grass have burned and a few cars in the parking lot, but all the buildings are still intact. Hopefully the fires will be put out today and people can go about their lives again, because PCH has been closed throughout the city and that has really shut Malibu down. Thanks for your concern again. I guess we just need to pray that the fires get under control and stop spreading and affecting different homes and buildings.
-Ronnie

Tennis Final....

Although you'd always like to win the big enchilada, coming in as runners up in the womens singles and doubles at a major tournament is a grand accomplishment. That's what our Pepperdine girls did today. It could have gone either way in both finals. Not to take anything away from the girl from TCU in singles, nor the great doubles team from UCLA who defeated the Wave girls, but Sylvia Kosakowski our #1 player was in both the singles and doubles finals and to get there had to play three matches a day for three straight days. That's about six hours of continuous competition level tennis each day. She was tired. I was tired watching her.

We were proud of the girls, but since Sylvia has dominated the tournament for the last three years, having previously won championships in both singles and doubles, we wished that she could have taken home one more trophy. Still, a great match for the girls.

Tennis Time...

Perhaps the best tennis event occuring in the USA this weekend is underway in Midland. The best kept secret too, apparently, with hardly a word appearing in the local paper. The attendance by local folks is well, underwhelming. I am a great tennis fan, but it sure makes me wonder why we need to spend several million dollars on a new tennis center with 30+ courts and stadium seating when no one seems interested in attending a premier event at a facility we already have.

But, none the less, this is your chance to see some of the top college players in the nation at the Racquet Club NCAA Invitational. The number and quality of teams that I noted today in attendance is amazing. UCLA, USC, Duke, the University of Miami, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UT Arlington, North Texas, Oklahoma, SMU, TCU, Rice, Boise State, Arkansas, New Mexico..and I'm sure I've left some out. Like Pepperdine, my grad school alma mater and perennial top seeded womens contenders with players like Sylvia Kosakowski. I've known Sylvia for four years now through the tournament. Sylvia is a senior this year and is the 8th ranked doubles player in college tennis, she was also recently named an "All American". Sylvia won the womens tournament 2 years ago and was a finalist in womens doubles last year.

She looked good today winning all her singles matches and with doubles partner Anete Bandere from Latvia, she should be a potetial doubles champion again. Of course Anete always looks good, winning or losing. If you have any interest in tennis or just want to spend some time up close and personal with some great college athletes, try and make it to the Racquet Club this weekend.

The War.....

I've been meaning to comment on "The War" since it aired on PBS. I knew I would and seeing Ken Burns speak Tuesday night made me not let the opportunity slip away. I won't go into what a great series The War was, if you saw it you know, just what it meant to me. And that's a great amount.

Most of you know that my Dad died last November, one of a trilogy of tragedies in my life that occured last Fall that I'm still dealing with. My Dad fought in Italy and like most veterans of that age talked about it very, very little. Only in the last 5 or 6 years of his life did he reveal anything other than than he'd been in Italy, saw his best friend killed the first day there, later had his feet frozen and had been evacuated back to England for the duration of the war.

In going through records my Mom has had but had not shown me until my Dad's death, I've learned more. I knew that he'd been in the 45th Infantry Division but that was the extent of things. I've recently learned that he was a replacement in the division, sent to re-man the 179th Regiment after the horrendous losses they had sustained after they landed in Southern Italy. My Dad landed at Anzio.

Many people think of the ground war in Europe as starting with the "D-Day" invasion in France. "The War" did a brilliant job of portraying, in detail, that the war in Europe had started in violent fashion in Italy more than year before our forces landed at Normandy. Italy saw some of the bloodiest fighthing with the heaviest ground losses of the war. My Dad was with the 45th in their march up Italy, until two months after "D-Day" when they were sent to start a second front in France; they landed in Southern France near St. Tropez and started slogging towards Germany. My Dad didn't finish the march. After 8+ months in combat his feet were frozen in the French Alps.

What made "The War" very special for me occured in one 3 or 4 second clip in the 2nd episode. In this small slice of video a group of soldiers was shown standing around talking in Italy after the Anzio breakout. Nothing special about a group of grunts standing around talking except that one of them was the spitting image of my Dad. This was a fairly close shot, the soldiers being without helmets and one looked just like my Dad, young and handsome. Now, I know, the odds against this being my Dad are great...but wasn't it wonderful to believe it was and to get to see him all those years ago.

Sputnik....

I couldn't let today's anniversary go by unnoticed. Frankly it would have been lost on me unless I had read a small blurb in today's local paper. Today, 50 years ago, the world went into space. The Russian's launched the 183 lb Sputnik I into orbit to do nothing more than to prove it could be done and send out weak radio signals to prove that it was there.

I remember the day, or rather night, well. I was a young lad living with my family in New Orleans and vividly remember the entire neighborhood being out front in the street trying to catch a glimpse of Sputnik. I don't believe that we did, but just knowing it was there was science fiction come to life.

Just 12 short years later the US would land men on the moon. Fairly amazing considering the technology of the time.

Hear Sputniks actual transmission......

One more Air Show...

The 2007 version of the CAF Air Show is a done deal. I'm always excited when Air Show weekend arrives and equally glad when it's over. I had some great friends, new and old, help me out with my responsibilities all went well and we all had a great time. I got some great photographs from the ground and in the air....

The Big Gold Dog...

This week marks one year since the passing of Tres, The Big Gold Dog. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about that sweet big dog and all he meant to me. When he slept at night in the hallway, sometimes his paws would be touching the wall and when he was dreaming his feet would make a running sound as they brushed the walls. Sometimes I think I can still hear that sound as I go to bed at night. It is sad, but most of all he makes me remember what true loyalty, love and friendship is all about.

Destroy it and they will come...!

It's very interesting to me that some people, and frankly some that I know quite well, seem to think that tearing down buildings in downtown Midland is the solution to redevelopment of the area. Especially when the replacement is a parking lot.

Having been in the office building business in a prior life I know from an economic standpoint it is hard to redevelop some of these older buildings; still with some vision it has been done in other cities and quite successfully.

But perhaps my friends have a vision too. Midland as the parking capital of Texas. I suppose they see people from Dallas, Houston and Austin coming to Midland to park. Locals too. "Say Honey what do you want to do tonight"? "Well Bobby Sue let's go to downtown Midland and park, I hear there are some real parking bargains down there".

Off and running....!

Some projects that you undertake reach a point at which you know, "this is the break through". Today was that day in our efforts to restore the Chaparral Racing test track back to it's important place in auto racing history. Today we got owner and racing legend Jim Hall's enthusiastic approval to begin.

Our first goal will be to host a regional competition of the Society of Automotive Engineers Formula SAE competitions. Several years ago I had met Midland native Dr. Ron Matthews, the Formua SAE's founder and director of the University of Texas' General Motors combustion engineering research center. Formula SAE has grown to be the largest student engineering competition in the world with over 300 universities around the globe participating. In a strange twist, Jim Hall was one of the first judges of the competition in 1983. Today Dr. Matthews flew out to visit with Jim , the first time they'd seen each other since the original event and the reconnection was immediate.

Hosting this event next summer will require the track to be resurfaced and draw national attention to the Chaparral facility, a good start to further plans.

Life....!

If you don't already, I hope that you have the opportunity to live in the same city as your aging parents. You'll enjoy the experience.

This afternoon at 2:58 my cell phone rang, showing my mother as the caller. You'll learn that when aging parents call your cell phone in the middle of the day, nothing good can come of it. In that microsecond when you see their name in the caller ID you pray that nothing serious is happening then wonder what the hell is wrong now.

Today it was a flat tire. "Hell-o, I must have run over something, I'm in a parking lot and my tire is flat. I wonder what I should do"? You think......"gee Ma I wonder too" knowing full well that I'm on my way to change a tire. So after I changed clothes there I was. Luckily she was on a good flat surface and not in the middle of the street. So after reading the manual on jack placement etc. for that car I got started. Lug nuts loosened, small doughnut spare tire out of the back, car jacked up. So I go to put the spare on and its as flat as the doughnut that it is named after.

My Dad came to the rescue once again. He had had a micro air compressor in his car which I, luckily, took for my own when we sold his car. It actually worked very well. As I was changing the tire I noticed that there were some severe scruff marks around the edge of the original tire, then I spied the valve stem.....completely chewed up with the end broken off.

I asked Ma if she had hit a curb anytime recently. "Well", she says, "I did just now as I was pulling into the cleaners. I like to get real close to the drive in window." And indeed she did! "I did hear a hissing sound but I thought it was the steam cleaners inside the laundry".

But all is well now, I got the tire changed and followed her over to the Exxon station that still has full service, and in a twinkling of the eye they had the valve stem changed, the tire was OK and off to home we went to await the next "event". And I have no doubt that this is God's plan, payback for all those telephone calls from me when I was a kid, when they undoubtedly thought in that microsecond...."What's wrong now?"

Attention racing fans....!

I've been away, been busy and had out of town company. Not a whole lot of interesting news there.......but. One of the things that I've been interested in for the last several years is revitalizing the old Chaparral Racing test circuit, Rattlesnake Raceway south of Midland. This Friday I hope the dream will start to come true.

Late last year I was invited to be on the advisory board of the Chaparral Racing Museum at the Petroleum Museum, thus allowing me to "officially" start talking to people I had met who were interested in preserving this piece of racing history. Friday some of these interested parties are coming to Midland to discuss details and talk about development plans with owner Jim Hall. Should be fun, but more importantly productive in once again having world class racing machines, including the Chaparrals, back on the track.

Happy Labor Day..!

Hope you and yours have a happy Labor Day. I'm taking my Mom out to dinner and then we thought we'd visit the local Teamsters Union.

The Big Ride...

Like most dogs, D. Daphne loves to hear the word "ride". She may be having second thoughts in the future though. Her normal "ride" is to the store or post office so she couldn't quite comprehend how a "ride" turned into a 900 mile trek where she slept in various locales without coming home. But she did well and had some grand times having never seen mountains, streams and cows and horses up close. All in all Daphne's big adventure...

Be back soon....

Streams will be closed temporarily...we've gone to New Mexico. Be back shortly. Please come again...!

Mississippi Kites.....

If you've never seen a Mississippi Kite in action....come to the 1400-1600 blocks of Country Club, Bedford and Harvard. I counted at least 14 birds hovering and hunting this morning, they've been here most of the week; mornings and evenings are best for viewing. Thought not rare, they are not too common in the US and to see this many in one spot is an experience. Kites are falcon-like hawks that eat mainly insects, but with 14 overhead they are causing quite a stir among the dove population. They're pretty amazing as they hang in the air then fold their winds back and dive bomb insects at 6000 mph...or somewhere thereabouts. They've also been known to dive bomb golfers at Midland Country Club who get too close to their nests...

The Night Sky..

I have just returned from the semi-darkness of the Sibley Center grounds where we went to watch one of those events in the night sky that is not all that spectacular unless you consider what you are seeing, then it becomes pretty amazing.

At 10:04 pm, both the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle were in view as they sped over West Texas. Not only in view but one [the shuttle] pretty much right behind the other [the space station]. Flying in tandem at around 18,000 mph they were only clearly visible for less than a minute. It is, I suppose, rather natural, but still sad that so much of the population has become so blase about the thought of two huge man made objects flying together at 18,000 mph in space.

In 1996, courtesy of my brother at NASA, I had the opportunity to be in the VIP seating area, three miles from the launch pad, for a night time space shuttle launch. I think truly the most amazing, spectacular and awe inspiring thing I've ever seen in my life. I try not to get too blase after that. Sometime soon I'll describe what it's like seeing an object the size of an office building go from zero to 6000 mph in one minute....

Meet the Dawgs....

A large crowd of media, family and fans was on hand on a beautiful night to meet the 2007 Dawgs!

My, how things change...

Cody Parker is one of the players on the MHS Bulldog football team who is expected to make a difference this year. Cody is a nice kid. A big one too, to be that athletic.

I had a nice talk with Cody's mom tonight at the first Bulldog Booster meeting. She's very nice also, a teacher. Although I've seen Cody at the first practices, I still asked Mrs. Parker how her son was doing.

"Well", she said, "he gained some weight over the summer but he's lost 25 pounds, he's back down to 317 pounds". Down to 317......Lordy!

Man that's a big kid! In my ancient days, we had one kid on our football team who weighed over 200 pounds and he struck fear into opposing teams. Luckily for the Dawgs, Cody is not the only one breaking the 300 pound mark....by my count with have 3 more!