Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Has Creighton ever made the cover of Sports Illustrated? Now there's a question I never would have thought of back in October.
Things change, don't they? Doug McDermott — you may have heard of him — is getting a national interview request every week. Last weekend, Sports Illustrated's Kelli Anderson was in Omaha to do a story on Dougie Fresh.
I asked Rob Anderson, CU's all-knowing sports information guru, if the Jays had ever made the cover. Anderson couldn't think of one. Now, he hasn't been here since the days of Red McManus. But, if Creighton had ever graced an SI cover, you'd think it would be on a wall or a mural or in a trophy case on the premises.
Anderson suggested Bob Gibson, but while he was wearing St. Louis Redbird red, not Bluejay blue. SI has also used a photo of every team that made an NCAA tournament in a given year for a collage cover. But CU by its lonesome? Apparently not yet.
And apparently not this week. SI's Anderson sent CU's Anderson a text on Monday saying the story was being held out this week. Reportedly, there's a football game this week in Indianapolis of some note.
The McDermott piece could run next week, but you have to think he'd get elbowed off the cover by Eli Manning or Tom Brady or whoever hoists the Lombardi Trophy.
In two weeks? There's something called the Swimsuit Issue.
If Dougie makes that cover, this story is bigger than any of us imagined.
• UNO goalie Ryan Massa, who suffered a concussion two weeks ago against Minnesota Duluth, was cleared to practice on Monday, said UNO Sports Information Director Dave Ahlers. There was no decision yet on Massa's availability to play this weekend against Bemidji State.
Whoever lines up between the pipes, this series is as big as it gets for the Mavs. It's easy to get up for Minnesota and Denver. UNO is 6-6-2 all-time against Bemidji, including 5-4-1 at home. The last two home series won't mean as much if the Mavs don't solve the Bemidji puzzle.
• Let's play two. Or, let's practice two. Nebraska first-year baseball coach Darin Erstad promptly canceled Monday's day off and had the Huskers on Hawks Field for a four-hour workout. Sure, Erstad is all business. But when it's nearly 70 degrees on Jan. 30, there are no days off. You have to take advantage of the time outside, especially when the tundra is thawed.
• A big thanks to Scott Micheels, Capt. U.S. Navy (retired), who sent in a story about attending the 1972 fight between Ron Stander and Joe Frazier at the Civic Auditorium. For Sunday's Civic Auditorium column, the bout had plenty of mention from readers but no specific stories or scene-setting.
Micheels, who was given tickets to the fight as a high school graduation present, wrote, "The night of the fight, people were showing up like it was Madison Square Garden. Everyone around me was about 30 to 50 years old and dressed in suits, long leather jackets and so on. The women were dressed in big diamonds, big hair, high heels and so on. And here I was, 17 years old and dressed in blue jeans and probably a T-shirt or flannel shirt.
"The fight did not last long. But Ron Stander caught Joe and Joe fell back a little. Joe said later he kind of tripped. Who knows? But the crowd erupted with a deafening roar. I still remember hoping that Ron would go after him when Joe fell back. But the fight did not last much longer."
• You know all about Danny Woodhead and Prince Amukamara. But there's another Nebraska connection to keep an eye on during Super Bowl XLVI: Dave Tollefson.
No. 71 for the New York Giants will be hard to miss. Tollefson is part of the Jints' celebrated defensive line that will be chasing around Tom Brady, just as they harassed him four years ago in an improbable Super Bowl win in Phoenix.
I met Tollefson in a loud, crazy Giants locker room after that game. The California kid played at Northwest Missouri State, where he met his wife, Megan, a softball player from Burke High School. They settled in Omaha. Four years ago, they were living around the 108th and Maple area. When I last saw Tollefson, he said they were building in Elkhorn. They now have two children.
Tollefson was on the bubble with the Giants last summer but signed a one-year contract. Giants fans love the blue-collar Tollefson and hope that he's back.
Whatever happens, he'll be back in Omaha. Who knows? A week from now, we have may have a two-time Super Bowl winner in our midst.
• Fist Bump: Brandon Richardson, named Big Ten co-player of the week and NU's first conference player of the week since Aleks Maric in 2008. Doc Sadler says he has to beg Richardson, who made six 3-pointers at Iowa, to shoot more. Doc can't be too proud to beg. And Richardson can't be too proud to jack it up. There's more winnable games ahead.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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