Good morning!
After UMass lost to Army 63-7 last week and fell to 1-9 this season, the stink reached Boston from across the Hudson. UMass president Marty Meehan watched the 63-7 debacle from down on the sideline, and Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy called him for comment.
A former member of the U.S. House, Meehan was promoted to be the state’s top administrator after he built UMass-Lowell into a civic, academic and athletic success. Now he’s responsible for cleaning up the mess inside the UMass football office — and he wants no part of it.
“These decisions are made on the campus,” he told the Globe’s chief critic-in-residence.
Translation: Don’t blame me.
Meehan called Ryan Bamford a “very good athletic director” and added, “I think he does a good job” but never mentioned Bamford by name.
Shaughnessy also gave Bamford short shrift after the fourth-year AD used tired cliches about “taking a step back in order to take a step forward.”
In 2012, the football program “upgraded” into the FBS under AD John McCutcheon, who left three years later to take the same job at cushy Cal-Santa Barbara. Insiders say chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy is distancing himself from the football implosion, leaving Bamford to defend the indefensible.
Bamford’s contract expires in less than three years. Shortly after he was named the AD in 2015, his wife Erica was named the Yale University women’s lacrosse coach. They bought a home on Rocky Hill Road in Hadley but sold two years later and moved to Longmeadow. According businesswest.com’s real estate transactions, the house cost $785,000.
Maybe she needs to be closer to New Haven or he needs an escape hatch if things go south in Amherst, but whatever the reason it wasn’t a good look for an up-and-comer whom the chancellor said had been hired for his “intimate knowledge of FBS football.”
A week from tomorrow is the 54th anniversary of the fire, the day that Deerfield and Mount Hermon battled on the gridiron while the science building burned behind them.
Initially, Big Green coach Jim Smith had no idea the building was engulfed. When the referee came over, he looked at him and barked, “Now what?”
“My dad turned around and saw a security guard with a garden hose trying to put out an inferno,” remembered his son Patrick.
The game continued and Deerfield won, 20-14.
This season, Deerfield has won six straight games since it lost to Hotchkiss in overtime. Hotchkiss is coached by Patrick Smith’s older brother Danny, and today another generation of the Smith clan gets a crack at Deerfield when undefeated Milton Academy hosts the Big Green in the Bill Glennon Bowl at 1 p.m.
“My son Jack is a sophomore starting linebacker for Milton,” said Smith, referring to one of Jim and Carole’s 18 grandchildren.
Deerfield has its hands full. Milton’s roster includes running back Kalel Mullings and 6-foot-6, 265-pound offensive lineman Zack Vaughn, who’ve committed to Michigan and Wake Forest, respectively.
“Jack’s recovering from a tweaked hamstring and missed the last two games, but he’s chomping at the bit to get back for Saturday’s game,” said Pat, who played at DA and Holy Cross. “The Smiths bleed green, but on Saturday we’ll all be pulling for the orange and blue.”
Greenfield’s Glenn Brown received a new kidney this week. The 60-year-old postal worker and ardent Mets fan was diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney disease three years ago.
“Stage 5 is the end of the road,” he said at the time. “My kidneys are functioning at 10 percent. My dream, what I pray for, is to get back to normal.”
On Wednesday at Hartford Hospital, Brown received his new kidney after a five-and-a-half hour operation, and the dream is starting to become a reality.
When Don Cherry was having a bad day, he’d get out the tape and watch Bruins enforcer Stan Jonathan clobber Montreal’s Pierre Bouchard in the ’77 playoffs.
The 85-year-old Cherry, who played two years for Eddie Shore’s Springfield Indians, got canned from his job this week. Cherry co-hosted Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night in Canada with Ron MacLean — the Ron and Don show they called it — and made his living being a contrarian.
He condoned hockey fights, condemned global warming, and abhorred Alex Ovechkin’s theatrics: “Is this how we want hockey players to act? Who does this remind you of, does he not remind you of a soccer player?”
Cherry couldn’t survive the double-barreled guns of political correctness. After his comment on Saturday’s show, the lords of political correctness labeled him divisive, racist and xenophobic (a dislike for people from other countries, I looked it up).
Here’s the sentence that got him fired: “You people… you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that.”
He was referring to buying a poppy flower on Remembrance Day. On air blunders by sports icons have ruined their careers — Jimmy the Greek and Buzzie Bavasi come to mind — but this? Cherry’s better off staying home and watching another Stan Jonathan hockey fight.
Between games last week at East Longmeadow High School, longtime football referee Joe Lavoie said the sport is losing officials because of time and expense. “We pay out of pocket to be re-certified, we get $91 for a high school varsity game and we aren’t compensated for gas mileage and travel time. It’s a labor of love.”
And labors of love don’t pay the bills.
SQUIBBERS: Jack Arena’s Amherst College hockey team opens the season tonight versus Hamilton College at Orr Rink at 7:30 p.m. Now in his 37th season, Arena is inching toward 500 career wins (478-346-74). Admission and parking are free and the hockey is clean, crisp and fast. Next Friday and Saturday, Amherst will host Trinity (7 p.m.) and Wesleyan (3 p.m.). … UMass hoops coach Matt McCall has hit the trifecta. On Tuesday at the Mullins Center, freshmen Tre Mitchell, Sean East and T.J. Weeks combined for 49 points in their 80-71 win against Northeastern. The Minutemen play No. 9 Virginia at noon next Saturday at Mohegan Sun, and tickets are selling for as low as $14 on StubHub. … Last Sunday on Grant Paulsen’s “Minors and Majors,” the Sirius-XM host asked Baseball America writer Kyle Glaser who might win the 2020 AL Rookie of the Year. Glaser mentioned Red Sox slugger Bobby Dalbec, who’s hit in 383 minor league games. “There is massive power and the guy is a great defender at both third and first base,” said Glaser. … Baylor football color analyst Robert Smith called the Bears’ overtime thriller against TCU the start of a “a revivalry.” I like it, but please stop calling open field tackling the art of “tackling in open space.” … Kudos to the Frontier youth teams that won last Saturday’s Suburban League Super Bowls. Huge wins, yes, but still no call from the White House. … Following in the footsteps of Bobby Carpenter and Ryan Harper, Emoni Bates of Ypsilanti is SI’s latest can’t-miss kid. According to 247sports, Bates will likely play college ball close to home at either Michigan or Michigan State. … The Jets’ seven-point win against the Giants is reminiscent of quarterback Geno Smith’s comment after they finished 4-12 in 2014: “It’s almost exciting to think about all the room for improvement we have.”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley.