NOTE: After this holiday weekend I’ll go back to football posts ONLY ONE DAY A WEEK for you readers who aren’t into sports. I’ll relocate WNBA coverage to just one separate weekday as well.
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
DOWN GOES NUMBER TEN – The 19th ranked BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS played the number 10 MORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS in their own house. The 1st Quarter ended with the Ravens up 21-3, and they would need all those points. The Mustangs pulled to within 28-17 at the Half and 35-30 in the 3rd Quarter before Benedictine held on in the 4th to win it 48-45.
CUMBERLAND ON THE ROAD – The CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX traveled to face the MISSOURI BAPTIST UNIVERSITY SPARTANS. The opening Half of this game was deceptive as the Phoenix led by a score of 28-3 by the midpoint. After the break, the Spartans made it a whole different game, pulling to within 28-25 to end the 3rd Quarter, but Cumberland U. held on in the 4th for a 35-28 win.
UNDER THE RADAR THRILLER – This game pitted the AVILA UNIVERSITY AVALANCHE (now the Eagles) against the visiting BETHANY COLLEGE SWEDES. The Avalanche seized a quick 7-0 1st Quarter lead, following which neither team scored again until after the break. The Swedes tied things up at 7-7 in the 3rd Quarter, and an action-packed 4th saw Avila triumph 24-21. Continue reading
Superheroes have been huge in pop culture in recent decades. Will Eisner’s iconic superhero the Spirit – who debuted in June of 1940 – rose from the grave of his secret identity, Private Investigator Denny Colt, after his apparent death when he got saturated in some chemicals of the supervillain Doctor Cobra. 
GREATER THAN HUMAN STRENGTH – Taking this hero’s origin story at face value with no ret-conning necessary, when Denny Colt came to in his coffin he dug his way to the surface. It would require much more than the strength of a normal human to burst through the coffin lid AND force his way upward through six feet of soil. For all I know The Big Bang Theory guys may have once done a calculation on how much actual strength it would take to accomplish this feat. 
KISS THEIR BUTTE! – Out in Butte, MT the 21st ranked MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS welcomed the number 3 team in the nation – the GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS. A 7-7 1st Quarter tie became a 14-7 Orediggers lead by Halftime. The 3rd Quarter ended with Montana Tech up 21-14 and the 4th in a 29-22 Orediggers triumph! 
HISTORY WAS MADE – The WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY STATESMEN played host to the latest college playing its FIRST EVER intercollegiate football game – the WILLIAM WOODS UNIVERSITY OWLS. As usual, it wasn’t the kind of history that the newbies would have liked, as the Statesmen led 38-0 at the Half before winning the game 59-0. 
CITIZEN SOLDIER (1956-1957) – Also known as The Big Attack, this half-hour series depicted dramatic reenactments of real wartime incidents from World War Two, STARRING THE ACTUAL SERVICEMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THEM! 
Charles Marquis Warren directed and Ron W. Alcorn produced this syndicated program that lasted for one season of 39 episodes. 
IN THE DEEP OF TIME (1897) – This story was written by George Parsons Lathrop, who also wrote the libretto for Walter Damrosch’s opera version of The Scarlet Letter. Though Lathrop credited an interview with Thomas Edison for the scientific concepts in this tale, it is NOT an Edisonade. In the Deep of Time is instead one of the many 19th Century stories about “present day” characters waking up in the far future. 
The multi-step procedure begins with Gerald being administered a drug that prepares his body for suspended animation, followed by another drug (mortimicrobium) that renders his body germ-free at all levels. Next, Bemis is placed in a glass cylinder at body temperature to “sleep” away the centuries. 
SAMSON AND DELILAH (1902) – This 6-minute short was directed by Ferdinand Zecca, Walter Pathe’s right-hand man. This film has survived and is an interesting historical piece. It’s the earliest surviving silent movie about Samson, the iconic Zecca’s first Samson film, plus Samson and Delilah is one of the silent era shorts that were tinted by hand – frame by frame. 
This 1902 effort opens with Samson’s “labor” of tearing off the gate of Gaza, then just dumping it rather than carrying it away. We get other standard bits from the tale of this Biblical Judge including, of course, the seductive Philistine woman Delilah learning that the secret of Samson’s strength lies in his uncut hair. 
FOURTH QUARTER FURY – The DALLAS WINGS (7-22) welcomed the LOS ANGELES SPARKS (6-24). 
INSTANT CLASSIC – The LAS VEGAS ACES (18-11) took it on the road against the CHICAGO SKY (11-18) in this game.
SUNSHINE STATE SHUTOUT – The WEBBER INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY WARRIORS hosted the UNIVERSITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE EAGLES (should be Flamingos). The Warriors achieved defensive perfection against UFL while leading them 7-0, 21-0 and 37-0 in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarters respectively. The 4th ended in a 40-0 shutout victory for Webber International University. 
CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #28 (April 20th, 1977) 
A very eccentric old professor, Robert Willard Scott, has retired from the university and lives alone with his hawks. When those birds die, Brian Braddock uses his scientific genius to construct a large hawk-shaped remote-controlled android to keep Professor Scott company. 
THE COLLEGE OF DUPAGE CHAPARRALS VS THE ELLSWORTH COLLEGE PANTHERS – This NJCAA matchup last night kicked off the 2024 college football season in the divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog. On Saturday the NAIA joins the action as additional NJCAA games also kick off. 
Balladeer's Blog 