With 2024 marking my 30-year anniversary of covering sports in Portage County, I figured I’d take a walk down memory lane and look back at the years I spent covering high school track and field (and cross country, too, since it’s pretty much the same coaches and athletes). The stories are endless, but I thought I’d cull a few of my favorites for Round Two.
Sifting through the rubble of the Houston Texans’ 45-14 demolition of your Cleveland Browns last Saturday in the AFC Wild Card Playoffs …
I’m writing this on the 43-year anniversary of one of the NFL’s most famous playoff games — and maybe the most infamous game in the long and often painful history of the Cleveland Browns.
I was all set to write about how things are different for the Cleveland Browns this season.
The Kent State men’s basketball team has officially dipped a toe into the wild, uncharted Name, Image, Likeness fundraising waters.
Rob Senderoff is 247-147 in 12 seasons as the men’s basketball head coach at Kent State University, making him the winningest and longest-tenured coach in program history. His Golden Flashes won Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament championships in 2017 and 2023, automatically qualifying for the NCAA Tournament both years. Last season’s squad went 28-7, the best record of Senderoff’s career and the best by the Flashes since the 2007-08 campaign. And he earned MAC Coach of the Year honors in 2022.
So, how about those Buckeyes! They looked great in that 41-7 win at Purdue last Saturday, didn’t they?
There are some things I miss about working in the sports department of a daily newspaper: Friendships. Camaraderie. And stopping everything we were doing — no matter how swamped we were or how close to deadline — to watch the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky “Messin’ with Sasquatch” commercials on the office television.
I hadn’t planned on writing Artificial Turf Part Two this week – until I saw this comment by The Portager reader Matt S.:
“It seems like artificial turf also causes cancer.”
Real grass, or artificial turf?
The pros and cons have been weighed between the two since the fake stuff, known then as AstroTurf, first made its appearance on the floor of the Houston Astrodome in the mid-1960s. The argument has raged since.