I-75 ADVENTURE

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
DETROIT-As I drove to Ford Field for the Motor City Bowl on Friday, December 26 2008, I experienced the strangest feeling.
This was the first time I’ve ever attended a Detroit sporting event as a member of the visiting media.
Leading up to the game, Owls QB Rusty Smith and many of his teammates never saw snow. They’ve never gone sledding, had a snow ball fight or built a snowman.
Four and a half hours before kickoff, I went to Clover Hill Park Cemetery in Royal Oak, MI., to visit my great grandparents, both sets of grandparents along with my close cousin Terry Kroll who died at the age of 32.
Terry’s grave along with my mother’s parents had snow up to my knees. I found myself digging to find their foot stones and got snow inside my shoes, on my socks and pants.
I told all seven people that the Motor City Bowl would be like no other event that I’ve ever covered in 29 years in the media. Ironically, on December 26, 1982, my Great Grandfather Morris Kroll (88) died and this was his 26th anniversary.
In the pre-game press conferences leading up to the game, Smith was elated to spend a White Christmas in Detroit because he had never seen snow. On this day, I could have used Smith to help me find the foot stones. Instead of throwing snowballs, Smith threw for 307 yards including two-second half touchdowns to lead the Owls to a 24-21 win over Central Michigan University (CMU) in front of 41,399 fans, a huge home field advantage for the Chippewas. Smith went on to win the Motor City Bowl MVP Award and enabled his Coach Howard Schnellenberger improve to 6-0 in Bowl Games.
FAU finished the season 7-6 and 2-0 when I wear my Orange long sleeve polo shirt, Green jeans and Beige shoes. This was the same outfit that I wore when the Owls defeated FIU 57-50 at Dolphin Stadium in November which made them bowl eligible.
At the post-game press conference, my Detroit colleague George Eichorn had a chance to meet Schnellenberger, Smith, Frantz Joseph, who was named the games most valuable lineman and running back Charles Pierre. Pierre became the first Owl to eclipse the 1,000 yard rushing mark.
Eichorn saw four players who should play in the NFL someday and could help the host Detroit Lions, who made league history with their imperfect 0-16 season. The last game the Lions won was a game I covered on Dec 23, 2007, when they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 25-20.
But my FAU two sports in two night adventure was just beginning as the basketball team was set to play the Kentucky Wildcats 5:46 hours & 349.07 miles away in Lexington at Rupp Arena at 3 PM Saturday on Dec 27th. I was hoping for a split and that became a reality.
The football team had to wait a day later to leave Detroit because of intense fog at Metro Airport. The extra night cost the Owls $18,000 but their win over CMU was priceless exposure.
As for myself, I had tremendous challenges on I-75 because of the fog. It was so bad that I was forced to stop at a Monroe, MI rest area for a couple hours. The fog was so bad that I found myself going five miles per-hour in the fast lane and had to crawl three lanes over then finally finding the rest area exit hoping that I wouldn’t get into a rear-end collision. I stopped at 2:30 am and returned to the road at 4:30 am.
This was the last thing that I needed 48 hours before my 46th birthday on December 29, realizing I wanted to see my Baseball Hall of Fame friend Ernie Harwell.
Rupp Arena was everything I was hoping it would be. FAU was playing the all-time winningest basketball program and is the Mt Everest of college basketball. Seven national championships and an abundance names hanging from the rafters.
A loud and passionate crowd of 24,018 watched the Wildcats defeat FAU 76-69. Even though the UCLA Bruins may have more championships than U-K, have legendary Coach John Wooden, the Wildcats atmosphere still surpasses Pauley Pavilion (12,829).
But the weekend was truly unforgettable!
Scott Morganroth can be reached at Scottsports33@aol.com

Picture, Picture and Picture

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
If there was ever a time to have picture, picture and picture on my television it was Tuesday, March 17, 2009.
Versus had a great NHL match-up featuring the Detroit Red Wings & Philadelphia Flyers. The Red Wings won this game 3-2.
The obvious intrigue here was Philadelphia hasn't won at the Joe Louis Arena since 1988, spanning 18 games with the Flyers 0-16-2. Included in the streak were two Red Wings wins in the 1997 Finals which enabled Detroit to snap a long Stanley Cup Championship drought. The Red Wings clinched the title by winning Game 4 in Motown.
Even when the Flyers were winning Stanley Cups as the Broadstreet Bullies in the mid 1970s and leading the league in penalty minutes, the Red Wings were second in trips to the Sin Bin with Bryan “Bugsy” Watson camping out there in Historic Olympia Stadium.
The second half of the picture equation was watching ESPN & ABC Play By Play Announcer Brent Musberger coming full circle by calling an intriguing NCAA Basketball Tournament Game.
This time Musberger was at the microphone in Dayton, Ohio., for an NCAA Tournament "Play In" contest featuring The Morehead State, KY., Eagles versus the Alabama State University Hornets. We're not talking about the Alabama Crimson Tide located in Tuscaloosa or the Auburn Tigers. We're talking about Alabama State which is located where the Detroit Tigers once had a AA minor league team in Montgomery, Alabama. The Hornets have more than 5,000 students from 42 states and seven countries and a third of the enrollment are non Alabama residents.
Morehead State (20-15) defeated Alabama State (22-10) 58-43 and now have the thankless task of facing the top team in the NCAA Tournament, the Louisville Cardinals (28-5), a team which is projected by many to reach the Finals in Detroit on Monday April 6th.
Prior to March 17th, I had never heard of Alabama State. The only thing that I knew about Morehead State was the university produced New York Giants legendary QB Phil Simms.
Finally, the patriotic side of me was monitoring the rematch of Puerto Rico versus the USA in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in Miami, Florida.
After an embarrassing 11-1 mercy rule loss on Saturday, the USA scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to advance to the WBC semifinals in Los Angeles with a 6-5 win.
Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson was inserted as a pinch runner in the only move USA Manager Davey Johnson could make with an injury depleted roster. The heroics of New York Mets third baseman David Wright's game winning hit will now give Johnson a few more days to replace the injured players with healthy ones in the USA's quest for a WBC Championship.
In 1984, I had the pleasure of seeing an Olympic Baseball Game at Dodger Stadium featuring the Korean National team in Los Angeles.
What a night of sports viewing as the remote received a workout harder than a person would get at a fitness facility.
Furthermore, Versus did a nice job watching New Jersey Devils future Hall of Fame Goaltender Martin Brodeur's final moments in eclipsing Patrick Roy's victory mark with 552.
Brodeur's accomplishment could be compared to those of Brett Favre's 169 wins as a starting QB, Richard Petty's 200 checkered flags in NASCAR or Warren Spahn's 363 triumph's in baseball's live ball era.
The only thing we don't know about Brodeur is where his victory total will end.
I've always seen nets get cut down in basketball but not in hockey. This could be the start of a new tradition for a team's trophy case just like kissing the bricks has become a tradition at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.
Since he defended both nets, Brodeur should have cut both.
But all in all, it was a great night to watch three different sports that had unique story lines.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at Scottsports33@aol.com.