Farewell to a huge sports fan

Fr. Jack even brought a bat autographed by "Stan The Man" to mass one time — an act that quickly grabbed the attention of my two oldest sons. Apparently, they’d never seen a priest swinging lumber at the front of a church before. Neither had I.

After getting to know Fr. Jack better over the years, our Sunday-morning exchanges frequently centered on our analysis of the most recent Nebraska football game or how our NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket was fairing. Sometimes, we exchanged predictions on what we thought would happen with the big game ahead.

When it comes to sports, Fr. Jack is the ultimate multi-tasker. Visitors to Fr. Jack’s home would sometimes find him with multiple TVs arranged in his living room in order to view several different games simultaneously. If it was a particularly busy sports day, he might even be listening to the radio, too.

A month ago after I was sentenced to a doctor-ordered two-week stay at home on my couch, Fr. Jack visited and discovered that I didn’t have the Extra Innings programming package for my satellite system, which would allow me to watch nearly every major league baseball game on TV. He quickly pulled the strings to rectify the situation and offered sage advice on how I could most efficiently take in a dozen games at once.

Whether he realized it or not, sharing his love of sports was just one of the many ways that Fr. Jack made himself more relatable to many of his parishioners. Instead of giving off the aura of being an unapproachable religious figure, Fr. Jack’s obvious love of sports made him seem more like a "regular guy" and broke down a lot of walls.

It’s going to be a bittersweet day for all of us at St. Leo’s on Sunday as we bid Fr. Jack a fond farewell into retirement. Like many others, I know I’ll miss his spirit, his wisdom and perhaps most of all, the friendship of Grand Island’s biggest sports fan.

Insane ’Canes?

National recruiting Web sites didn’t exactly get a huge endorsement last week as Miami (Fla.) recruiting coordinator Clint Hurtt admitted that the Hurricanes’ coaching staff had based much of its player evaluation for recruiting upon Internet data and highlight films.

That formula hasn’t exactly worked out for Miami as it is 19-19 over the past three seasons. Just one Hurricane player was selected in last April’s NFL Draft for the first time since 1994 with none going in the first round.

"I used to go in the coaches’ offices and sometimes they would literally have Rivals.com up on their screen," CaneSport.com reporter Matt Shodell told the Florida Sun-Sentinel. "I won’t name the coaches, but they would be writing names down on a piece of paper."

Oh, deer

Here’s a new one: Former Nebraska place-kicker Josh Brown said last week that his free agency decision to kick for the St. Louis Rams came down to deer hunting availability.

"I never got a chance to get involved in deer hunting when I was playing in Seattle," Brown told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I was busy and the good deer hunting (areas were located at least) two or two and a half hours away from the city.

"(In St. Louis), I can be deer hunting after a drive of just one or one-and-a-half hours. That’s great."

Parting shots

& Sure it’s early, but one 2010 NFL Draft projection by The Sporting News has Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh being selected as the overall No. 1 choice by the Detroit Lions. If that turns out to be an accurate prediction, Suh’s decision to stay for his senior season with the Cornhuskers certainly would pay off.

& I have little doubt that the College World Series will continue to be a great event for Omaha, but here’s guessing that leaving Rosenblatt Stadium in 2011 will take some folks a bit of getting used to. Will the atmosphere ever be quite the same downtown?

& Itching to get the college football season started? It’s not actual football, but the Big 12 Conference’s annual preseason football media days are now just a month away. This year’s event is July 27-29 in Dallas.

 

Terry Douglass is sports editor for The Independent.