Some worry about the state of college sports

Bill Slade of Cheshire emailed: “Just wondering what your take is on what is happening with men’s college basketball and football??”

Friend Slade, who was born and brought up in Torrington (THS Class of ’52), then gave his own take on that subject. His views parallel mine and those of any clear-thinking sports fan. A few lift-outs: “Coaches getting paid millions,” he wrote. “I thought college was for education . . . how many players get washed out after playing days are over? Some schools are just training grounds for the pros. Time for change . . . maybe start minor leagues for them and pay them a salary. Hardship? Go to the minors.”

Slade advocates a return to the time when players, entering college, weren’t allowed to leave school and go pro until their classes graduate. “No more one and done.” That would be ideal, of course, but the courts have declared that such a rule would be unconstitutional.

Slade concluded, “What’s coming out now in basketball is just the tip. Wait ’til they get digging into football.”

Slade is recovering at home from surgery and coming along nicely. He concluded his email with a sharp turn away from the unsavory mess that is bigtime college sports with this blue sky observation:

“Wasn’t the Olympics just great!! Nice to see so many countries compete this way instead of confrontation. A real victory for humanity.”

Thanks Bill. Good double message. And here’s a thought I’ve harbored dreamily for years. It’s only a daydream, but wouldn’t it be a hoot if all athletic scholarships were declared null and void and all colleges and universities simply put posters or notes on campus bulletin boards announcing, “Football Tryouts Today.” Every player would then be a walk-on.

Of course the very thought of such a thing is nonsense and the fact is, things have never been that way, right from the time the major sports were invented. ⏩⏩⏩

The Olympics, as Slade said, were indeed great. Certainly, the sport of U. S. curling never had a better or more entertaining moment. It is not a sport to make young boys abandon dreams of baseball glory, but it may spark the construction of new curling rinks around the country like the one in Norfolk. That club is a relatively old one, but the building which houses its rink and clubhouse is quite new. The first headquarters was burned to the ground by arsonists in 2011. Those responsible were caught, convicted and jailed. Reopening in 2013, the club continues to flourish because of a committed membership.

The Norfolk Club promotes the sport and tries to plant seeds of interest among area youth.

Curling has always seemed a strictly social activity to me — not an uncommon perception among the uninitiated, but the American Olympians punched a big hole in that line of thinking.

As the world knows, the U.S. women’s hockey team also did its part to make The Games what Bill Slade called “a victory for humanity.” ⏩⏩⏩

I was saddened to learn of the recent death of a good old friend, Jim Bransfield of Middletown. Jim was Mr. Middletown sports, a columnist for the Middletown Press and P.A. announcer and official scorer for numerous Middletown High School, American Legion and other sports events. I never knew a more dedicated guy or a man I liked better.

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I learned of Jim’s death last Sunday from an item in Chip Malafronte’s “Sunday Gravy” column. The “Gravy” feature appears every Sunday in this newspaper. Malafronte and recent sign-up, prize-winning sports columnist Jeff Jacobs, give the Register Citizen and all the Hearst Connecticut newspapers a terrific One-Two Sunday Punch.