Dallas Cowboys show emotion

It was a must game for the Dallas Cowboys if they want to be in the playoffs this season. And fate threw them a curve just before this important game with the Cincinnati Bengals. Saturday just prior to the departure of the flight to Ohio, Dallas Head Coach Jason Garrett had to tell his players that one of their teammates was dead and another in jail on charges of intoxication homicide. In the wee hours of Saturday morning after a night of drinking and partying, nose tackle Josh Brent lost control of his car and it flipped over and crashed. Longtime friend Jerry Brown, a linebacker for the Cowboys, died in the crash and his body was pulled from the burning vehicle by Brent. The two had been teammates and roommates at the University of Illinois and Brent was instrumental in getting Dallas to sign Brown when he was released by the Indianapolis Colts in August of this year. All of this was on the minds of the Cowboys as they now had to return to business and face the vastly improved Bengals on Sunday. Cincinnati played the better game, but missed out on opportunities to put the Cowboys away. Dropped passes by the Bengals and busted plays allowed Dallas to hang around as they entered the fourth quarter of the contest. Leading 19 to 17, Cincinnati had to watch as Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo led his team down the field toward the inevitable end. With four seconds remaining in the contest Dallas called upon field goal kicker Dan Bailey to connect with a forty-yard effort and the ball sailed through the uprights as time expired. Dallas 20, Cincinnati 19. Now with the game behind them, the emotions started to flow. Players and coaches let down their 'tough guy' images and cried like babies. In the locker room Garrett even took a phone call from Jerry Brown's mother as she expressed her appreciation to the team for remembering her son. It was a deeply stirring moment for the Cowboys at a time when they desperately needed the win to stay in contention in the NFC Eastern Division...and it may be the moment they finally came together as a team in 2012.

SMU Wins Again...

    The SMU Mustangs defeated Southern Mississippi University 34-6 on Saturday. The win moves SMU to an even record of 5 wins and 5 losses overall, but they are 4-2 in Conference USA. Mustang quarterback Garrett Gilbert ran for two touchdowns and threw a nine-yard pass to Darius Johnson for another score. Fullback Zach Line ran for 94 yards and a touchdown, moving into second place on the all-time SMU rushing list, behind only Eric Dickerson. The loss was the tenth of the season for the Golden Eagles.

Darrell K. Royal died today

    It is not often an SMU man has anything good to say about the University of Texas, but today one of the great ones died after a long bout with Alzheimer's disease. Darrell Royal was one of us when you were born and raised in the Lone Star State...but even
that is not totally correct.
   Royal was born in Hollis, Oklahoma and was a standout high school player. Famed coach Bud Wilkinson of the University of Oklahoma came courting the Royal family and young Darrell was the one player he wanted that year. Royal played quarterback and defensive back for the Sooners and his 18 career interceptions for Oklahoma still stands as a school record. Football was everything
for Royal and after a couple of stints as an assistant coach he got his first Head Coaching position at Mississippi State and then the University of Washington. At the ripe old age of 32 he took over the Head Coaching job of the Texas Longhorns, who were coming off three consecutive losing seasons. Royal would put the Steers on a winning track for the next twenty years, winning 167 games, losing 47, and tying 5. Texas also picked up three National Championship trophies in that time, becoming top dog in 1963, 1969, and 1970.
   In the early sixties Royal and one of his assistant coaches, Emory Ballard, would devise the Wishbone Offense and the Longhorns
became almost unbeatable. The triple-option offense gave Texas rushing yardage in the 300-400 yards per game category and wide receivers became almost just another blocker. Royal heaped the praise on Ballard for the Wishbone and he became Head Coach at Texas A&M, but they remained best friends over the years.
   While most of the country drooled over Bo Schembeckler at Michigan, Woody Hayes at Ohio State, or Bear Bryant at Alabama, we Texans had DKR and his Longhorns to bring home the bacon.
In 1969 #1 Texas played #2 Arkansas in Fayetteville for all the marbles. In the last minute of the game the Hogs led the Horns and had Texas stopped at the Arkansas 46 yard line. Going for it on 4th down, quarterback James Street threw a 43 yard pass to tight end Randy Peschel, who was bumped out at the three yard line. Two plays later  Jim Bertelson bulled his way into the end zone for a 15-14 win for Texas. I wasn't there but I saw it all on the radio as Kerns Tipps called the game on the old Humble Network of the Southwest Conference.
   Royal may be the only person named to the Sports Hall of Fame in Oklahoma and Texas. Born in the dust bowl of Oklahoma in 1924, Royal never changed his personality. If he told you something, you could take it to the bank as gospel. Never favoring the passing game, where 'three things can happen and two of them are bad', Royal's teams rarely threw the ball. The coach was also

a family man, not only to his but to his players, who he kept in touch with over the years. A football coach to the end, but so much more..
Footnote: Last Saturday against Iowa State, the Longhorns first play against Iowa State saw them come out in the Wishbone formation as a tribute to former Coach Royal.

    

The New Coach Cometh?

    The 2012 edition of the Dallas Cowboys are the epitome of puzzlement. Before the season began there was talk of a possible Super Bowl appearance for this team (not from me).  I figured an 8 win/8 loss season was the best they could ask for in 2012. Now as they pause in mid-season after another loss to run their record to 3 wins and 5 losses, and third place in the NFC Eastern Conference, a new problem arises.
    Head Coach Jason Garrett, a man that can see the positive side of any problem the size of Hurricane Katrina, has another worry at night. No it is not the shenanigans of wide receiver Dez Bryant, nor the injuries to prized running back DeMarco Murray, nor the inability of left tackle Tyrone Smith to keep defenders off of quarterback Tony Romo.
   Sunday the National Football League voided the contract binding Head Coach Sean Payton to the New Orleans Saints.  At the end of the current season he will become a free agent and can sign with any team he wishes. To the uninformed this may look like just a footnote, but in Dallas it has a non-ending echoing effect. Payton was an assistant coach and offensive coordinator for the Cowboys before departing in 2006 to take on the job in the French Quarter.  He did such an outstanding job the Saints won 62 games in six years and hoisted the Super Bowl Championship trophy in 2010. Payton has just recently built a million dollar home in Dallas and has strong ties with the front office in Dallas. It was Payton who tutored rookie quarterback Tony Romo when he first came to Dallas as a free agent, and it was Payton who designed the offensive game plans for Dallas under then Head Coach Bill Parcels.
   Garrett took over as Head Coach of the Cowboys midway through the 2010 season when team owner Jerry Jones dismissed Wade Phillips. Since then Garrett's Cowboys have won 16 games.. and lost 16 games. He insists on calling the plays for the Cowboys and shows no imagination from the sidelines. If Jerry Jones is serious about the 'window of opportunity' closing on the current edition of the Cowboys, maybe it is time for a change in the Head Coaching position. Of course there would be some changes at Valley Ranch. Where Garrett is lax and easy going with the players, Payton would return them to a more disciplined organization (he was an assistant to Bill Parcels, the original task master).

   The Cowboys have eight games remaining this season. Two with the Washington Redskins, two with the Philadelphia Eagles, and one game meetings with Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans. Somehow I don't see my 8-8 prediction coming to fruition.  There is an old rule in the game of tennis. If what you are doing is winning the game, don't change what you are doing,...BUT if what you are doing is losing the game, then CHANGE what you are doing. Are you listening Jerry Jones? 



 

Panzerkampfwagen Mark IV

    The Mark IV was a very important part of the German Army in the late 1930's thru the end of World War II. Originally developed in 1936 the Mark IV superseded the Mark II and III models of German armor. When conceived, the Mark IV was so sound and well thought out it would be a design used by other countries well into the 1950's. The Panzer IV rolled on eight road wheels where the Mark III had only six. It was powered by a V-12 Maybach Mercedes engine developing over 300 horsepower. The first 100 tanks in this model had a five speed transmission, but after that models were upgraded to a six speed gearbox. Those original models also had a 70mm main gun, but the upgraded models came with a 75mm high velocity cannon. The upgrades were just in time to battle the Russian T-34 tanks that were superior to anything Germany had at the time. The Mark IV went through 8 upgrades but was still in production at the end of the war. It had a top speed of 25mph and a range of 125 miles. Three inches of front-mounted armor protected the crew of five. 

   My model is of a Mark IV 'H' model that came off the production line in April of 1943. The factory painted all German tanks any variation of forest green to field gray, but local commanders could change the color to fit the situation and location. Tank #133 has no known record of action but the elephant markings on the front and rear means it was a member of the First Panzer Division, which saw action in Poland, Russia, North Africa, as well as the Normandy campaign. 

Penn State Wrist-Slap

     The NCAA released its penalty report on Penn State
University this morning and while the media extols how
severe it was, I disagree.
     Let me assert right from the start that I am a SMU
alum and might be bias a degree or two in this matter.
    The NCAA placed Penn State on probation for five
years, fined them 60 million dollars, cut ten scholarships
per season for the next four years, forbid them from any
post-season bowl games for four years, deducted all victories
from 1998 to 2011 from the record of the school and coach,
and forced the school to be academically responsible to the
NCAA for five years. Severe, to be sure, but now let's compare.
   In 1986 SMU was dealt the 'death penalty' by the NCAA and
NO FOOTBALL at all was allowed during the 1987 season.
Players with eligibility remaining were allowed to transfer to
another school immediately and they deserted SMU like rats
leaving a sinking ship. With the few players left SMU decided
they could not compete in 1988 and voluntarily forfeited that 
season also. A Hall of Fame coach was brought in to help the
Mustangs return to college football in 1989 without success. It
would be twenty-five years before the Dallas school would have
a season worthy enough to warrant a post-season bowl invitation.
   The death penalty not only killed a proud program at SMU but 
also spelled doom for the historic Southwest Conference. Without
SMU on the schedule, Rice, Houston, Arkansas, Texas, Texas Tech,
Texas A&M, and TCU had to find games elsewhere. The frantic search is still being felt in 2012 as the other schools look for a conference to call home. 
   What did SMU do to warrant the death penalty? They paid a few student athletes to attend SMU over offers from other schools. When the NCAA discovered this violation of rules SMU was cited and put on probation. Some of the players that were not discovered in the first violation wanted to keep getting paid, and SMU wrongly
kept paying them as per their original contract. Bob Hitch, the SMU
athletic director at the time, even sent money to one of the players in a school envelope with his name on the return address. How stupid can a person be? When the NCAA discovered violations still being made at SMU the guillotine dropped on the Mustang program.
What happened at SMU was also happening at other schools in the
conference but they were not as blatant. Who do you think blew the whistle to the NCAA?
    While there was speculation about Penn State receiving the 'death penalty' I knew the NCAA would not duplicate their 1987 decision.
Penn State is the largest school in the state of Pennsylvania, and the NCAA does not want to lose the revenue generated by the big state schools. The University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University have all been found guilty of the same violations as SMU, but were never handed as harsh a penalty. The gutless NCAA needed a small church sponsored school to use as an example for others and they found it when SMU suddenly was able to compete with the big schools of the Southwest Conference in the mid 1980's.
It was those same schools that turned in SMU when they lost out on the recruiting battles. They did do a better job of cheating than SMU, so history continues to point out the Mustangs as the only school ever handed the death penalty.
    What was the most serious offense? One school was guilty of paying players to compete at a Division I school against competition of an equal level. The other school guilty of harboring and providing a pedophile with a supply of young boys. Even the adopted son of assistant coach Jerry Sandusky testified he raped him in the basement of his home. Most of the other boys were molested in the showers of the athletic department of Penn State. There is no comparison of the two violations, but the NCAA made their decision.
    Considering what could have been... Penn State got off lucky!!   

PAK40 German Anti-Tank Gun

   While most of my models have been of tanks or
airplanes, I was given this model of a gun crew of the German Army of World War II. It was a first for me and I admit to some hesitancy in assembling this model.
   The German campaign against France began on May 10th, 1940 and would only last six weeks before the French surrendered. The PAK artillery pieces have been with the German Army as early as the mid 1930's. The original field piece was the PAK37 and shot a 37mm projectile. In 1940 the gun was updated to 
7.5cm (48 caliber) twenty-five pound projectile with a range in excess of one-thousand yards. This is the caliber the field piece saw its most versatile form throughout the end of the war in 1945. There was some developmental models using the 88mm flak gun rounds, but these were never part of the PAK series for the regular army.

   On June 22nd, 1941 the Germans started 'Operation Barbarossa', the invasion of the Soviet Union and the PAK40 was used in abundance to support the leading units of the Wehrmacht. To repel the invaders the Russians sent waves of their new T-34 tanks, and although a superb tank, thousands of the T-34's were destroyed by the PAK40 anti-tank gun. The long 46 inch barrel was a one-piece construction but was designed with a double-action muzzle brake. The recoil mechanism was improved with the addition of hydraulic buffers to keep the gun stabilized after each round was fired. The gun was supported by an eight-man crew and usually transported behind the 3-ton truck, Sdkfz 11.