Good morning!
Anyone who knew Jock Burns was saddened to learn of his passing in Maine at age 77. Born and raised in South Deerfield, Burns grew into the sort of All-American boy that Deerfield Academy Headmaster Frank Boyden made sure was on the front row of the team photos.
A tough and rugged offensive lineman for coach Jim Smith, Burns was on the gridiron the day arch rivals Deerfield and Mount Hermon kept playing while Mount Hermon’s science building burned behind the visiting team’s bleachers 61 years ago this Friday.
Three years ago, Burns was inducted into the Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame for piloting the football and lacrosse teams: “A pillar along the offensive line in his three years at left guard, his leadership helped carry the 1969 team to an undefeated 8-0 season.”
It was a volatile time. The Vietnam War was raging and student protests disrupted campus life. Only 18 students turned out for freshman football in 1968, but Burns recruited several friends, which laid the groundwork for back-to-back Little Three titles in 1968 and ’69.
Burns stayed for a year after he graduated to be the offensive line coach, long enough to mentor a young lineman named Bill Belichick who, as reader Doug Stotz points out, would give Burns a shout-out in his book The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.
Friendly and quiet, he showed his lighter side one night when we bumped into each other at Quicksilver in Amherst. Quicksilver was a hippie bar, and Jock was wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt. He was a good guy and “a fine example of good sportsmanship” as his obituary said. Condolences to the family for losing a stalwart.
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Last summer, Jake Hillman won back-to-back Northeastern New York Summer Golf Tournaments at the Van Patten and Colonie golf clubs. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because his father Josh grew up in Greenfield, graduated from GHS and was a standout golfer.
The genesis for his success on the links was the day he asked his mother Sandy, “Where does dad go every Saturday?”
Jim, the dad, was golfing at the Country Club of Greenfield, and Josh began tagging along. It wasn’t long before he saw his son’s talent. Mentored by GHS golf coach Doug Gaudet and CC of G’s Bucky O’Brien and Kevin Piecuch, Josh was recruited by URI and helped the Rams win the 2000 New England Collegiate Championship by 43 strokes.
A few years later, father and son were at Augusta watching a Masters practice round. After Gary Player chipped onto the green, Hillman remarked, “That’s not how I would’ve done it.”
Player overheard him and handed him his club. “How would you do it?” he asked. Hillman took the club, chipped the ball onto the green and pinned it.
Hillman’s made a good living from golf. He’s won 11 PGA Sectionals, coaches the Williams College men’s team and twice been named NESCAC Coach of the Year, and is the club pro at Taconic Golf Course in Williamstown.
His son Jake is a junior at Mt. Greylock in Williamstown and is a cog on the golf team, which was 16-0 in the Berkshire County League. Father and son have begun visiting colleges, including Providence College and Emory University in Atlanta. Where it goes from there nobody knows, but Jake’s got a good chance to follow his father’s path down the fairway.
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The Save College Sports Act which passed the Senate in September but still needs to be passed by the House appears to be doomed. “The new Congress is not going to do it,” said PFL’s Mike Florio. “Predominantly Democrat, they’re not going to do a favor for the college sports fat cats that are looking for an antitrust exemption. There are provisions designed to limit the pay that the players can make and it defies the basic principles of capitalism.”
Elizabeth Warren thinks college athletes should be able to play for as long as they want for however much money they can get.
For the moment anyway, intercollegiate sports at its purest remains in Division III. “I took my grandsons to the Amherst-Trinity game,” said reader Jim Bates. “The boys had a blast. No admission charge, parking’s free, and afterward they let us throw the ball around on the field.”
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The UMass basketball team dropped to No. 169 in the Basketball Power Index after last week’s 71-55 loss to BC at TD Garden. Early in the second half, UMass coach Frank Martin called a timeout, quickly followed by another timeout. BC had snapped a 37-37 tie and had pulled ahead by eight points. “When the other team’s making a run, you need an easy basket to stop the bleeding,” said BC color analyst Steve Zack. “They had (Junjie) Wong sealed perfectly inside the paint, the guards just didn’t make the pass and you saw Frank Martin go crazy there. There’s nothing more frustrating than when you tell your players to do something and ten seconds later they don’t do it.”
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After Wednesday’s 24-0 loss at Toledo, UMass will need to beat both Akron and Bowling Green to go bowling. The Minutemen can count just one win against an FCS team toward the six wins required for bowl eligibility.
UMass is 1-5 since it beat the likes of Stonehill and Sacred Heart and oh yes, Rutgers, which is 2-7. It needs more depth and roster building if it’s going to play for the MAC championship by 2029 as promised by UMass AD Ryan Bamford.
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The best parts of ESPN’s “Saban” are the coach’s anecdotes. In 2007, after Alabama lost the season finale to Auburn 17-10, “I get in my car, I gotta drive home and I don’t have any gas. I stop at the service station to fill up. I used to wear my LSU national championship ring and I go in to pay the guy and he says, Hey what’s that? ‘It’s a national championship ring, we’re gonna do the same thing here at Alabama.’ The guy looks at me and says, ‘Not as long as Nick Saban’s the coach.’”
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SQUIBBERS: The Boston Globe reported this week that “some” of the eight MIAA Super Bowls will be played at BC’s Alumni Stadium, and that UMass is in the hunt to have a game or two at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. … A “premium” seat to watch UMass hockey host BC last night cost $45. The only thing that made it a premium seat was the $45 price tag. … Bill Murray was at last Friday’s UMass-BC hoops game. Murray’s son Luke is BC’s first-year coach after five seasons of being Dan Hurley’s assistant coach at UConn. … The N.J. Devils were ridiculed for saying they wouldn’t start Connor Hellebucyk between the pipes against his former team Winnipeg on Tuesday because it would cause “a reduction in our probable win expectancy.” The NY Post’s Bridget Reilly quoted a fan on X who thought the post was a parody. Another called it “one of the most unbelievable statements issued by a team in sports history.” The Jets won, 4-2. … Despite a payroll north of $50 million, Lane Kiffin’s 6-3 LSU Tigers have only a 70 percent chance of making the playoffs if they run the table. The Tigers host Texas tonight as 3-1/2-point favorites. … Former UMass running back Greg Desrosiers Jr. got his first NFL rushing yards on Sunday, carrying three times for 20 yards in the Giants’ win against the Eagles. Desrosiers scored eight touchdowns in two years at UMass. … Over 40,000 fans are expected at Yankee Stadium this afternoon for the 67th annual Cortaca Jug rivalry between Ithaca and SUNY Cortland, and thousands more are expected to watch the 140th meeting between Williams and Amherst in Billsville. Williams leads the series 76-58-5. … Winless in their first five games, Sacramento State has thumped Kent State, 31-10, and nearly upset Toledo, 20-17. “The biggest difference has been turnovers,” emailed Hornets’ SID Brian Berger. “We were minus 9 in the first five games and have been plus 4 in the last five.” … Leave it to UMass to strike a deal with Under Armour in the same quarter the company’s revenue dropped 7 percent.