The Hype and the Hoopla: The Good and Bad of Sports
Quintessential sports writer Frank Deford will open TU's 2006-07 Presidential Lecture Series. Deford is the senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated; a commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition; a regular correspondent on the HBO show, RealSports With Bryant Gumbel; and the author of more than a dozen books, two of which have been made into movies.
Deford has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportcasters and Sportswriters and was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year six times.
The Sporting News describes him as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ calls him simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter."
The Presidential Lecture Series is free and open to the public. For more information, call (918) 631-2555.
7:30 PM at the Great Hall in the Allen Chapman Activity Center at TU (ACAC is on 5th Place a couple blocks west of Harvard).
Frank DeFord... the grand imperial wizard of soccer-haters... can I bring some rotten tomatoes?...[:D]
http://www.evenison.com/soccer-culture/hater-page/frank-deford
He was great at TU...funny, philosophical, and great stories. Told TU nicely they should be in division 3 and concentrating on the arts more than on sports.
I'd be inclined to agree somewhat with his statement on TU sports-- not Division III, but I-AA would be about right, at least for football.... I grew up with TU football (Coach Cooper, Dave Rader, Gus Frerotte, etc) and basketball (Nolan Richardson, Tubby, Bill Self-ish, etc...) and understand how they're really just as much Tulsa's teams as they are TU's teams...
good thing, since TU only has 4,000 students. but I never quite understood why a school with so few students has traditionally insisted on trying to compete in college football with the big boys...
and you'd think TU would have stronger dance and opera departments with all the years/decades Tulsa Ballet and Tulsa Opera have been in town...
I understand DeFord's mellowed a little on soccer (especially after last summer's World Cup) from his nearly two decades of hatchet jobs on the sport (he once compared soccer to tiddlywinks)... but he resorts to his own brand of hype and hoopla like this...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/frank_deford/01/17/beckham/index.html
"But the boast of MLS commissioner Don Garber, in which he declared that Beckham's arrival might be seen as perhaps one of the most crucial events in "the history of professional sport," is an hysterical athletic overstatement. Mission accomplished!"
Here's the REAL quote:
"David Beckham coming to MLS might be viewed by some as one of the most important moments for soccer in this country and perhaps the history of professional sport," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement.
and this beauty from DeFord...
"Pelé was a sensational draw when he signed with the North American Soccer League. The day he left, the league was a ghost in short pants."
The truth; Pele left after the 1977 season. The league expanded to 24 teams in 1978 and had its strongest attendances in 1979 and 1980... still had 21 teams and was averaging over 14,000 fans per game in 1981... and Pele never played a game in Tulsa...
Facts can be pesky things...