Over The Pylon

Happy 56th, Hitman

I am not ashamed to admit that I was a wrestling fan back in my heyday of high school and college (and of course younger). At the time, it was quite common to find a group of us enjoying some hoppy goodness and a slice or two of pizza while watching Monday Night Raw or Monday Nitro. The boon of wrestling that was the WWF-WCW power struggle was epically awesome and frankly some must watch television. Growing up though, there was one particular wrestler who embodied the cool factor to the infinite power… Bret “The Hitman” Hart. I can’t think of one person who didn’t envy the little kid who Bret gave his wrap-around shades to at ringside and even his nickname (The Excellence of Execution) made it clear to those unfamiliar that they were about to watch wrestling royalty. Hart’s story is a fascinating one, as wrestling was truly in his DNA. If you’re unfamiliar with it, Wikipedia him and be impressed. He was way more than pink, black, and flowing locks in the squared circle. The Hitman turns 56 today and I won’t lie, that’s a little depressing. Anytime sports (or sports entertainment) icons start the backslide of life, it’s a bummer. Happy birthday, Hitman. On to the news and notes…

Phil Steele released his bowl projections for 2013 on Monday and not surprisingly for Steele (but surprising for BSU fans) the Cardinals were nowhere to be found. Steele did slate NIU, BG and Ohio as bowl participants, but two darkhouse MAC contenders in the Cards and Toledo were not on the list. Steele was high on the Cards after the ’08 run and was significantly overvaluing the potential for success in 09. Bitter, maybe?

It’s been a challenging week for BSU athletics as two coaches have gone on to greener different pastures. First it was rumored that softball’s head coach Craig Nicholson had been named head coach at Arizona State (and BSU confirmed on Sunday) then the internets got aflutter with Nadalie Walsh being named the head gymnastics coach at Utah State. Both coaches were successful in Muncie as Walsh had numerous gymnasts make individual appearances in the NCAA regionals, and Walsh led the Cards to four of the last five regular season MAC crowns. Nicholson has been at BSU for seven seasons and was hired by Tom Collins, who *drumroll* now works at Arizona State. Networking for the win, I guess.

Interesting article for the basketball Cardinals as Justin Kenny of the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel chats with new head coach James Whitford about mining the Ft. Wayne area for talent. It’s not a secret that we’re big fans of the NS coverage of the football Cards with Tom Davis. If they get an equal presence in BSU basketball, they become the GO TO mainstream site for coverage. Which is the starting point of a much larger conversation about local Muncie coverage that we may get into at some point.

Vandy has removed four players from the roster amid an alleged sex crime investigation. I’m not saying I buy into it, but in case you wanted to make the “When you start winning consistently on a national basis the behavior problems skyrocket” argument, this would be a good little place to start. Stories like this make me even more thankful that the program at BSU appears to be winning the right way with the right people.

Dexter, universally everyone’s favorite serial killer, came back Sunday night. No real substantive link, just figured you should know that.

Can you really blame UConn for not knowing who is in their conference? I’m not sure I could rattle off all the members of the American Conference as of this moment since it seemingly changes day to day and being a blogger means you’re supposed to know that kind of thing. I know two incontrovertible truths… 1) There is in fact an American Conference. 2) Ball State is not in fact in said American Conference. That’s it. That’s all I know.

MUNCIE NEWS OF THE DAY: A hearing was stopped for a child abuse trial when apparently there was a point of contention on whether it was honey mustard or spicy mustard applied as a “home remedy” to stop the pain. That. Happened.

Your Ball State Tweet of the (yester)Day comes to us via @kirstenaciouss
I can’t remember the last time I was even on campus to eat at AJ, but being able to grab ChickFilA breakfast if I ever am makes my heart leap. BSU students have no idea how good they have it.

Finally, bask in the awesomeness that is Bret “The Birthday Boy” Hart:

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