"This is LNN"
When you’re a big-time, world-renowned blogger like myself, you get sports news releases in your e-mail in-box, along with the usual pro bono notifications that a bank in Nigeria needs your help in disbursing large amounts of money (easiest 2 million bucks I ever made!). Anyway, one of those releases included a veritable bonanza of information about the sports programs at Lindenwood University. Since at first glance it seemed like enough material to launch a sports network about the Lions I used that as my lame premise for this post.
*ITEM: LION-HEARTED BILL BRITTON: HERO AT LARGE – July 26th – Bill Britton, an incoming football player for the Lions, along with his cousin Jeff, came across an overturned vehicle on Highway 100 in Missouri. Not only did they call 911 but when the vehicle burst into flames Britton, Jeff and 2 other people dragged the driver out of the vehicle to safety. “I still do not know what to think about it,” said Britton, “…The flames were five foot high and you could hear the tires popping. It is cool though that we were in the right place to be able to help somebody out.” In the tradition of Buford Pusser and Serpico some enterprising producer needs to turn this into a television series. Jeff would have his own spin-off series, so the show about Bill would have TV Guide entries like this: “Bill’s attempt to finish his term paper is interrupted when he is called upon to save the elderly patients at the nearby hospital from a dangerous gas leak.” or maybe “On his way to practice Bill becomes caught up in a Tri-State search for a missing toddler.” For the big season-ending clifff-hanger it could read “Bill’s budding romance with an exchange student involves him in a desperate attempt to save the staff at the International Space Station from certain doom.” I think we’ve got another Frank Merriwell on our hands here!
*ITEM: LINDENWOOD ATHLETICS TO BEGIN 2010-2011 SEASON – Following a hotly-contested vote the students and administration of Lindenwood University moved that it was, indeed, the 2010-2011 sports season.
*ITEM: MORE THAN 10 LIONS INDICTED – July 30th – Okay, that was just my teaser headline to get attention. In reality this story is about former Lindenwood Lions individuals and teams being inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame. (Who doesn’t love play-on-word headlines? Well, besides the people who overreacted when I ran the headline “4 Dead In Local Pre-School” instead of “4 Deer In Local Preschool”. Some people just can’t take a joke!) Inductees will be: student athletes Dawn Cameron “Swayze”, softball; Jenifer “Leave off the second N for ‘Nice'” Dykes, women’s soccer; Matt “Johns” Hopkins, men’s golf; Debbie Johnson “Is Right!”, women’s soccer; Jason “Your-cek” Micek, men’s golf; “Dangerous” Daniel Odom, men’s basketball; “Mighty”, Michelle Patrico, softball; and Katie “Killer K.P.” Pizzardi, women’s basketball. Also being inducted are Fern Bittner, former Director of Horsemanship; Dr Harlen C Hunter, Meritorious Service; the 1977-78 Men’s Basketball Team; the 1999-2000 women’s basketball team; the 2004 men’s soccer team and oddly enough the 1988 Notre Dame football team. Weird. The 2010 Induction Ceremony will take place Homecoming Weekend Oct 15th-16th.
* ITEM: THURSDAY NIGHT MILESTONE – The first ever Thursday night game in Lindenwood Lions football history will take place September 2nd as the Lions welcome the Evangel University Crusaders.
*ITEM: BEDTIME FOR ZOMBO – July 14th -Former NHL Player Rick Zombo has taken over as Head Coach for the Lindenwood men’s ice hockey team. For the past 2 years Zombo has been the team’s Top Assistant Coach and helped the Lions capture 2 straight National Championships for ice hockey. “With the increase in responsibility as head coach,” Zombo observed, ” my ambition is to make the program even stronger. We have a tremendous core of returning players that understand the difficulty of winning a title, but will cherish the process of continued success.”
To read the coach’s annoyed reply when I asked if he was related to the Zombo character that Louis Nye portrayed on an old episode of The Munsters click here: http://www.lindenwoodlions.com/
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The NAIA’s Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference at last finalized their new conference name and logo. The KIAC has long included colleges and universities from Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as Kentucky, so in a way this move was long overdue. However, it is a nice way of celebrating the league’s 100th anniversary this year.
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