Last week, during the AHSAA’s sixth-annual Sportsmanship Banquet, Hillcrest was among a select number of high schools from across the state to be recognized for having drawn no fines or ejections in any athletic contest for the past two years. This is remarkable when you take into account the number of sports played at Hillcrest and the number of athletic events they compete in during a year’s time.
Hats off this week to the school’s athletics director, Larry Boykin, the county’s coaches and the athletes at the school. If you see any of these people out on the street this week, give them a pat on the back for a job well done.
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Those of you in the reading audience who enjoy a good, sports-related book will be interested to hear that the finalists for this year’s PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing were announced recently. This award is given each year to the best nonfiction book on the subject of sports published during the previous calendar year. The winner receives $5,000.
This year’s slate of finalists included “Over Time” by Frank Deford, “Road to Valor” by Aili and Andres McConnon, “Like Any Normal Day” by Mark Kram Jr. and “Floyd Patterson” by W.K. Stratton. This year’s winner and the runner-up will be named later this summer.
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Hardcore football fans in the reading audience will know that today (Thursday) is Walter Payton’s birthday. Payton, who was arguably one of the greatest football players of all time, was born on this day in 1954 in Columbia, Miss. Payton attended John J. Jefferson High School in Columbia, but didn’t play football until his junior year. Prior to that, he’d played drums in the marching band.
Payton, a running back, was named an all-state player his senior year, leading Jefferson to an 8-2 record. Payton went on to play college ball at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., where he rushed for 65 touchdowns in his career, setting a NCAA record. It was also during that time that he picked up his famous nickname, “Sweetness.”
The Chicago Bears made Payton the fourth overall pick in the 1975 NFL Draft, and the rest, as they say, is history. In his 13 seasons with the Bears, he set and broke a number of records, including most career rushing yards and touchdowns. He also helped lead the Bears to a Super Bowl win in 1985.
Jackson retired after the 1987 season, and he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1993. Payton’s life was tragically cut short in 1999 when he died at the age of 45 from cancer.
Like a lot of people, I can remember watching Payton play during his professional heyday, and he was one of the greatest players I’ve ever watched. I’d put him in the same category with Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith, and would go so far as to say that I don’t think that there’s a running back as good as Payton playing in the NFL today.
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