RenoVous

  One of my Facebook memories this morning was a photo from bowling, and then I remembered we are in the midst of the USBC Open Championship. This tournament runs from March to July, and has been around since 1901. The United States Bowling Congress merged with the American Bowling Congress, which has been the codifier of all tenpin bowling standards, rules, and regulations since 1895. I was in a youth league when I was in 5th grade.  Largely thanks to my partner, we won 1st Place. To this day, I love to bowl.  I'm not a big score, but I'm not a gutter ball.  :-P When introducing young ones to the game, or even an adult who's never really played, remember to teach etiquette.  I've noticed some folks don't yield, or even wait while the bowler next to them is already in approach. And yes, I'm one of those people who uses a step process. The movie Kingpin ends here in Reno.

 The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game on this day in 1927. They're not actually from Harlem though.  Their founder, Abe Saperstein, had taken over coaching duties for the Savoy Big Five in Chicago.  It was a specific choice to base the team out of the famous African American neighborhood in New York, as he wanted to promote their racial makeup. It wasn't until 1939 that the team started employing the tricks and the comedy bits, making the 40s-50s one of their most popular runs.  But for me, it's the early 70's team, and that's largely thanks to Scooby Doo. BJ Mason, Curly Neal, Geese Ausbie, Meadowlark Lemon, Gip Gipson, and Pablo Robertson. After Meadowlark retired, attendance started dropping.  But they have earned their place in America's history, with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute.  In 2002, players were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Bears do not play tonight, but they are leading their division in the NFC North. They are one of two original teams dating back to the NFL's inception in 1920. At that time they were known as the Decatur Staleys, becoming the Bears in 1922. In 1932, they were playing games at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. But on this day, the snow was waist-deep, so they moved the game indoors for the very first time.  The Chicago Stadium, which was the hockey rink, could only support a 60 yard field.  By mutual agreement, neither team attempted a field goal. This was also the first official Championship game in order to break a tie between the Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans.

 TIME has only been celebrating Athlete of the Year since 2019, but Caitlin Clark is the first WNBA player to earn the honor. She is the reigning Rookie of the Year, scoring 769 points over the season, which is a rookie record.  She also had 337 assists, 122 three-pointers, both records, and 2 triple-doubles, the first by a rookie in WNBA history. She led the Indiana Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016, and the team played the most watched WNBA games ever.  The entire WNBA saw an all-time record of 54 million unique viewers across all its national broadcasting platforms. When asked to define her year in one word, Clark chose "historic." The article mentions Serena Williams and Simone Biles, how it's one thing to rally around star athletes during global spectacles, but quite another to turn a regular season of a league long neglected into appointment viewing.

  On this day in 1987, Lynne Cox made the first recorded swim from America to the Soviet Union. First, in 1971, she swam the Catalina Channel off the coast of California. She then swam the English Channel, and broke the world record for men and women, finishing in nine hours and 57 minutes. Cox began training in cold water, and was not one to wear a wetsuit. She set out from Little Diomede, Alaska in water just above freezing.  Her swim across the Bering Strait to Big Diomede took two hours and 16 minutes.  It is considered one of the most incredible cold water swims in history. It also came as the Cold War was thawing.  Mikhail Gorbachev opened the borders for her reception, and later reflected: "She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live." I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate another swimmer, Katie Ledecky. She earned two more gold medals this Olympics, making her total nine - the most in history for a female swimmer.  Includi...

  I'm not entirely sure what all is happening in this design, but I wear it for my niece.  She's really been getting into softball and I hope she sticks with it. Softball was not created to be women's baseball - it was to be played indoors, so baseball could be enjoyed year-round.  This is why the field and diamond are smaller, not to make it easier. The balls are 3 inches bigger than a baseball, and less dense. The current fastpitch record is 77mph. The College World Series recently concluded, with Oklahoma taking the win for the 4th year in a row. I played on a local co-ed team a few years ago, just for fun for adults, and it was a lot of fun.

  On this day in 1923, the first all-Black basketball team is organized - the New York Renaissance, or Rens, as they'd come to be known. Wanting to give New York City's young athletes a better opportunity, Robert L. Douglas struck a deal with a Harlem real-estate developer who owned the Renaissance Ballroom and Casino. The team traveled across the country, most often competing against all-white teams.  Their first game was November 3, 1923 where they beat the Collegiate Five 28-22.  In 1925, in their fifth encounter with the team, they beat the (Original) New York Celtics. From 1932-1933 they won 88 consecutive games.  In 1939, they won the World Professional Basketball Tournament.  To 1948, their record was 2588-529. For the 1948-1949 season, the team was relocated to Dayton, Ohio to replace the Detroit Vagabond Kings, which was part of the racially integrated National Basketball League.  The Rens disbanded afterwards as the NBL merged with the Basketball ...

  On this day in 1975, Arthur Ashe defeated the heavily favored Jimmy Connors to become the first black man to win Wimbledon, the most coveted championship in tennis. Arthur received a tennis scholarship to attend UCLA and was under the tutelage of Pancho Gonzales.  He graduated in 1966 and in 1968 he became the first black man to win the US Open. This took place while he was on leave as an Army lieutenant, and during ongoing Civil Rights protests.  Ashe helped desegregate tennis and he was also an activist for economic empowerment, opposition to Apartheid and AIDS awareness. He retired in 1980 after suffering a heart attack.  Following double bypass surgery in 1983, he was infected with HIV during a blood transfusion.  Upon revealing his condition in 1992, he set about educating the public.  He passed in 1993. His legacy lives on through the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, for athletes whose actions "transcend sports...possessing strength in the face of adversi...

  On this day in 1953, Tenley Albright became the first female US figure skater to win a world title. All seven judges gave her the first place vote. Tenley had contracted polio as a young child, so her accomplishment was all the much greater. She landed a double axel, double loop, double rittberger and double salchow - "Such combinations never have been seen performed before by a woman," the Associated Press reported. Three years later, Tenley became America's first female skating gold medalist.  After the Olympics, she attended Harvard Medical School and was a noted surgeon for 23 years.  In 1976, she was chief physician for the Winter Olympics team, and she is currently the director of the MIT Collaborative Initiatives.   In 1983 she was inducted into the International Women's Sport Hall of Fame.  ***** Also in the world of figure skating, remember 2002 in Salt Lake City?  It was on this day that the IOC confirmed fraud by a French judge.  As p...

  Google is kicking off the month with a little history on North American Stickball. Invented as a ceremonial sport by native tribes - such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Yuchi - it is one of the oldest team sports. Elder tribal leaders would organize games of Stickball to settle disputes without violence. There are a few versions of the origin story, but it always comes down to the land animals challenging the birds to a game.  Like the hare with the tortoise, they assume it will be easy, but they are defeated. To play, grab a stick!  The goal is to move the ball towards the other team's goalpost, scoring a point when hitting said goalpost.  You cannot touch the ball with your hands.  Various tribes continue to play the sport along with its ceremonial traditions. Modern day field lacrosse originated from Stickball. Alf Jacques, of the Onandaga Turtle Clan, has been making sticks for over 50 years, helping to preserve the culture.  He's also...

  We're in Beijing, for the first ever 100% fake snow Winter Olympics. In fact, some recent snow actually fell there and had to be removed. An estimated 49 million gallons of water was needed, diverting water from the Baihebao Reservoir.  Officials state that when the snow melts, it will be collected into another reservoir and two lakes for irrigation and agriculture, as well as tourism and landscaping. The first to claim a gold for Team USA was Lindsey Jacobellis in snowboard cross. In case you're wondering, that is a downhill race that includes narrow passages, cambered turns, with various jumps, berms, rollers, and drops. The United States is currently in 3rd place for medal count, with 19 overall: 8 gold, 7 silver, and 4 bronze. First place is Norway, with 28 overall: 13 gold, 7 silver, and 8 bronze. I've always liked watching figure skating, especially the couples with all the tricks. This year, Madison Chock and Evan Bates perform in their second Olympics together. Th...

  Simone Biles is a force of nature, defying gravity as she flies through the air.  She has moves named after her and has the most World medals of any gymnast. But even the greatest can suffer. Expectations were high, so when she came off the vault doing less rotations than planned, there was immediate concern.  Shortly after, she withdrew from competition citing mental health. What happened is something gymnasts call "the twisties."  When you're spinning in the air, you have to be able to know where the ground is and where you are in rotation.  If you lose your sense of space and dimension, you can lose control of your body.  In that case, Simone is lucky to have landed safely at all. To recognize that danger and not push herself to compete further only proves that she is the GOAT.  Greatness is something to strive for, but not sacrifice yourself for. If you're not 100% physically and mentally well, gymnastics is an especially risky sport to engage in...

  Angola Belgium Cameroon El Salvador Greece Kenya Latvia Netherlands Uganda United States Misia performed the Japanese National Anthem.