C-Note

As a young man growing up, Bowl season was always special, especially on New Years Day when I watched the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl both on NBC. Then later NBC added the Fiesta Bowl to the mix, so my TV was locked on channel 20 throughout the day. There were only a handful of non New Years Day bowl games such as the Gator Bowl and the Liberty Bowl. We also knew what network was carrying what game. NBC once had a New Years Day tripleheader of the Fiesta, Rose and Orange bowls, CBS and ABC had only one bowl game between them in the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. In recent years, the number of bowl games has mushroomed by leaps and bounds which makes December as the bowl month instead of a bowl day. Who can watch all those games? The matchups for the most part are mediocre at best and are games some would not watch in the regular season. Bowls once rewarded the best teams from the regular season but now we reward fourth-place teams and lower into bowl games and some of them with subpar regular-season records. Case-in-point, the matchup in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl between Illinois and UCLA. Both teams had subpar regular-season records and both came into the game with interim coaches. This is why some called it the " Interim Bowl". UCLA made it by losing in the PAC 12 title game to Oregon. UCLA was in the title game due to USC being on NCAA probation. Illinois lost its last six games and still backed into a bowl bid. Both schools fired their coaches before the game in Rick Neuheisel and Ron Zook for UCLA and Illinois respectively. The game was coached by interim coaches Mike Johnson for UCLA and Vic Koennig for Illinois. Koennig turned down an offer from new Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas to be a part of new coach Tim Beckman's staff but he turned it down but accepted an offer from the incoming coach at North Carolina. The Illini could have promoted in-house in hiring either Koennig or Offensive Coordinator Paul Petrino but Petrino left Illinois after the season. Thomas instead hired Tim Beckman from Toledo and we wish the best for Coach Beckman. UCLA meanwhile hired former NFL coach Jim Mora'jr as its head coach. Johnson stays on as an assistant to Mora. This shows that the NCAA needs to step in and cut some of the bowl games we don't really need and make bowl season special again.

When we think about things that are important in life, we tend to think about our homes, cars, clothes, money and the life. Now things things are important but the most important things in life are Family, Friends and Faith. No matter how hard we work to buy the latest clothes, cars and gadgets, the things most of us care about are our Family, Friends and our Faith. We look forward to getting off work to be with our family and friends because these are the people that know us best and they have our backs in times of trouble. Then there's the matter of faith. Some only attend services at Christmas and Easter but chruch attendance should be every Sunday because our family and friends are all there in worship. Make sure that holiday season and all year long what the most important things are, Family, Friends and Faith.

For the last 36 years, Springfield was on the national sports landscape, at least once a year with the LPGA State Farm Classic. The tournament was born in 1976 and became the Rail Charity Golf Classic in its second year of existence in 1977. For years, the tournament was played on Labor Day weekend. In the early years, there was no TV coverage but it was great to have the premiere Lady golfers right here in the Capital City. The tournament made Labor Day weekend special, the end of summer and the beginning of fall. As a youngster, I can remember enjoy our annual family barbeque featuring mom's Potato Salad and of course, the ribs. After we all had eaten I went over to the stereo in the living room to listen to the last moments of the tournament on 1240 WTAX with Coley Cowan and Tim Schweitzer. Some of those were sudden death playoffs which made the Rail Classic exciting. In 2005, the tournament moved to Panther Creek Country Club and the tournament never missed a beat. The tournament finally gained a title sponsor in State Farm. The tournament became the State Farm Rail Classic and later the State Farm Classic. In the last few years, the classic moved away from its traditional Labor Day weekend slot to more in the summer to attract more of the top money winners on tour. Labor Day weekend hasn't been the same since because the holiday weekend loses that special feel. We learned last week that we are going to lose the tournament altogether because of a lack of a corporate sponsor since State Farm pulled out. State Farm isn't the only company to cut back sports sponsorships which is a economic sign of the times. Executive Director Kate Peters tried super hard to secure a new title sponsor but since one could not be found the board decided to dissolve the tournament which is one of the oldest non-major tournaments on the LPGA tour. Next year will seem empty with the LPGA coming to Springfield but someday I would love to see the LPGA make a return to Springfield. We no longer have the tournament but we'll always have the memories.

When it comes to the holiday season, we think about getting presents for family and friends plus we plot strategy for Black Friday to be first in the store to get all the goodies and sometimes act like crazed dogs when going after purchases. We would never act this way any other time of year but those who are less fortunate cannot afford to do Black Friday or Cyber Monday or even shop for that matter. Those less fortunate cannot afford to buy the mega-big screen TV's, computers or any of the things we take for granted purchasing. Its not just the homeless that need help but its ordinary working families that are trying despartely to make ends meet. These folks are not only trying to provide their families a good christmas but struggle each day to provide food for their families. Food pantries are now stretched to the limit with the demand for food increasing each and every year. More donations are needed to meet this demand but there are way we can help: First, drop some change in the Salvation Army kettels. You don't need a lot of money to drop in, just a little goes a long way. Second, donate old clothing, shoes, coats, etc to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. You can do this at their locations or for Goodwill, they have a new donation center on Toronto Road where you can donate items. On Christmas Day, after we do all that shopping, unwrap presents and have dinner, there is still another way to help the less fortunate; heading to places like the St. John's Breadline to serve hot meals for those folks that can't otherwise have that Christmas meal. We don't think of our lives as being paradise but Phil Collins in a song described our typical lives as " Another Day in Paradise". We may complain and moan about our lives but we don't really know how good we have it until you don't have it anymore. We all are a job or two away from being either being unemployed or homeless or both. We cannot say it won't happen to me because the very time one says that... it can. Next time you see a Salvation Army kettel make sure you put in a donation every time you see it because the very person that may have to use those resources is you.

After going 0-6 for the second half of the season, Ron Zook was fired as head football coach at Illinois. Its hard to understand that in a state that has vast resources of football talent why the Illini aren't a traditional football power like Michigan or Ohio State. The division 1 football talent is mostly in the Chicago area and the U of I are being outrecruited by the likes of Michigan, Iowa and Notre Dame. The Illini recruit well in Chicagoland as far as basketball is concerned. When we think of the nations' top football talent we think of places like Texas, Florida and California. Illinois coaches, past and present tend to look to these places for talent rather than in our own backyard where its plentiful. Its kinda like going out getting ice cream when there's plenty in the fridge. To prove this point, lets go back to the early 80's when Mike White was Illini coach. I liked White because he wanted a winner and wanted to win now but his approach did not sit well with Illini fans. Its one thing to go after junior-college players but White bypassed the state entirely for the most part and conducted his recruiting mostly in his native California. Illinois had so many players from the Golden State that some called the U of I " Cal-Champaign". In 1983, White's efforts paid out quickly with a Big 10 title, the Illini's first at that time since 1963. Illinois faced UCLA in the 1984 Rose Bowl, the first time the two met in Pasadena since 1947 when Illinois won the first Big 10, Pac 10 only Rose Bowl. The whole " Cal-Champaign thing blew up in White's face with a 45-9 pounding by the UCLA Bruins. That game was painful to look at and the Illini were favored to win. That game in many respects was the beginning of the end of the Mike White era in Champaign. This proves that after all these years, the U of I hasn't learned its lesson. The University of Illinois is the states' flagship university which represents the entire state of Illinois not just Downstate. New Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas promises a larger U of I presence in the Chicagoland area. Future Illinois coaches need to start checking out top talent from legendary high school football powers such as Joliet Catholic and Lombard Montini among others. Downstate also has Division 1 talent that can play in the Big 10... schools like SHG and Glenwood need to be examined more closely and check out Rochester, the two-time Class 4 A champs. Now if Oklahoma State can swoop in and pluck a QB out of Rochester, I know the U of I can do the same. Illinois football can still recruit in Florida and Texas but make our backyard the top priority.

There are just certain things that take you by surprise... the Challenger explosion in 1986 or the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Both hit all of us like a " ton of bricks". The passing of longtime Channel 20 Anchor Don Hickman was one of those things Central Illinoisians just did not expect to happen this weekend. I was at home talking about the old days with my wife and sis-in-law and how I watched Don on the 20 News. Then I received a text saying that Don Hickman has died... when I saw the text at first glance, I could not believe what I was looking at. I was hoping I was dreaming all of this but it was all real. Around 1995 or thereabouts, Hickman had open-heart surgery and was off the air for a time. We in the viewing audience were getting concerned on why Don wasn't on the air. I had a dream during this time that Hickman had died then. I woke up from this dream that seemed so real to me at the time but once I came to my senses, I knew it was only a dream and thankfully so. In 2001, after being in the Channel 20 anchor chair since 1972, Hickman retired as anchor, that was a sad day too... a day we all knew would come but not prepared for.

In 2003, Hickman decided to run for Mayor and that's how I got to know Don when I was News Director at Student and Community station WQNA 88.3 FM. I interviewed Hickman and the other mayoral candidates from that campaign on my old Springfield Live midday show where I asked not just your usual campaign questions but I asked about the early years and how he came to Springfield in 1972, and as they say the rest is history. I enjoyed that conversation so much that after the election, which was won by Tim Davlin, that I asked Don about appearing on my evening show, WQNA Springfield Tonight at least twice a year to do a segment called " The Hickman Factor" where I asked his opinions on various local, state, national and sometimes international issues. I told my listeners to " Gather 'round your radios" as I interduced the Hickman Factor to listeners. Don always got a chuckle out of that one. I always enjoyed our conversations and wished I had more time on-air to discuss things. As I watched him on television, that inspired me to go into broadcasting and my dream of being a newsman. For five years, I lived that dream of being a newsman on WQNA and having Hickman on my show from time to time was some of the greatest moments of my 15-year broadcasting career.

We will all miss him here in Springfield and Central Illinois for all the contributions he made, not just as a newsman but as a leader in the community. Springfield & Central Illinois is a better place because of Don Hickman. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hickman family. He will be missed by all in Central Illinois.

A good friend of mine, Angela Anderson brought to my attention about teachers in the classroom and one teacher in particular. Her name is Janis Cloney Bredehoft, a teacher at Buffalo Tri-City grade school. Bredehoft is in the running to win a $5K classroom library makeover for the first graders at Tri-City. She's up against a ton of competition for this makeover. We wanna have a winner from out local area. Its one vote per valid e-mail. Lets' keep the winner local.