Schools & Sports

At the very beginning of 2021, I heard that Paul Westphal had died at the age of 70, and I don’t especially like to dwell upon my own mortality, despite the fact that my buddy, Lawrence, seems to not want me to forget that I am “70.”

One of my favorite quotes about Terry Gambill came when he was the freshman basketball coach at Forney at the end of the 1990s and someone after a game was criticizing him for yelling too loudly and too much at the boys on the team (who, by the way, were winning all their games). My son, Waylon, who was one of the players, heard and replied to no one in particular but to all who could hear.

APRIL 5 at 3:05 p. m.— 1st time that “real live” fans were permitted to be in the stands at Globe Life Field. All of the Rangers 2020 “home” games were played in front of “cardboard fans” due to the COVID Pandemic. For the first time there was very much in evidence the major thing that was so missing from baseball— THE FANS, and all the big and little things they bring to make the atmosphere right!

After sweeping through the first four weeks of the District 13-5A season, the North Forney Falcons suffered their first loss two weeks ago. Although the 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Highland Park Scots left both teams with matching 8-1 records, based on head-to-head record, the loss dropped the Falcons into second place, just behind HP. North Forney would stay there exactly six days as the Falcons came back to beat HP 5-2 in the return game and leapfrog back into first place with just four games left in the district season.

The Trinity Valley Cardinal cheerleaders are champions after winning the national title today in Daytona Beach, Florida.

I am not the smartest or the most intelligent person, but I do consider myself an above average “noticer.” Shakespeare would have termed the skill as being “observant.”

Yes, those of you who really know me know that “DR. J.” is my all-time favorite professional basketball player and that Brad Davis is second on my list—for differing reasons! And though Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were each “something else,” in their own ways, they were not my favorites; Wilt Chamberlain was my “number three.”

By Don Themer Staff Writer

Anglers added two more Legacy Lunkers to the 2021 Toyota ShareLunker season totals over the weekend. The run at O.H. Ivie powered on, reaching double digits with 10 Legacy Lunkers this year courtesy of ShareLunker 603 Friday. On Saturday, Lake Tyler made a huge splash with Share-Lunker 604, recording the first ever entry for the lake in the ShareLunker program.

As guide Chris Moody eased the throttle back on his big guide boat last week, I could make out the mouth of a wide feeder creek entering Richland Chambers Reservoir. Once inside the creek, we were in a totally different world; a world I expect few people experience. No other fishermen had ventured into the remote area. The shorelines were lined with giant trees and plants of all sorts in bloom. The spring woods were just coming to life with pale green colors, the morning air was crisp and fresh; it was a great morning to be alive and Chris and our friend Larry Weishuhn and I were absorbing every minute detail of our adventure. Chris shut the big engine off, using the trolling motor to ease us along from one brushy area to the next, the only sounds were an occasional wood duck or heron taking wing or the chatter of a squirrel, spooked by our intrusion into their tranquil world. We were here to catch spawning crappie that had chased huge schools of shad into the slowly moving current.

When I was growing up, “boxing” was in the news quite often, with news of World, National, State, and Local bouts being considered important. I watched the matches with Dad as a little boy and kept up later with television, radio, and newspaper reports. I knew “a little” a Golden Gloves boxer, who lived at Buckner Orphans Home (as folks called it then), and a few years later, I listened to one of our area Lutheran Church members give talks to youth groups—Champion Curtis Cokes.

There was no doubt which was the better team in last week’s series between crosstown rivals as North Forney took control in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Forney Jackrabbits and never let up. When the dust cleared, the Falcons had earned their first ever season sweep of the Jackrabbits. These were only the Falcons’ fourth and fifth wins all time against perennial baseball power Forney.

By Tim Danziger Photos Courtesy of Jim Klenke