Awards Season

The 2016 SPEEDY AWARDS

 

          It is time for the 2016 SPEEDY Awards. Awards season is always a fun time if you (A) are given an award or (B) have nothing else worthwhile to watch on television.

          A quick note: Awards are given with a subjective flair and an eye toward objectivity. Read this again a few times and you’ll figure it out.

 

SPORTS DIVISION

 

It’s About Time Award: To the Cleveland Browns for ridding themselves of the Johnny Manziel headache.

 

The Huh? Award: To the Cleveland Browns for signing QB Robert Griffin III. Runner-up: The San Francisco 49ers for hiring Chip Kelly to be their head coach.

 

Team of the Year for 2015: The Alabama Crimson Tide’s national championship football team.

 

Owner of the Year: Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers. He did something nice for a kid, which is fairly common. I wrote an email to the team to compliment the organization, got a reply and then got another reply from Richardson. You have to like that.

 

Move of the Year: The Rams for returning to Los Angeles, their second home.

 

Play-By-Play Announcer of the Year: Verne Lundquist, CBS Television. Tremendous announcer and as great as his career has been, it seemed like his 2015 college football season was his best ever. A classy guy. Never met him but if you have a chance to see him interact with people, then you know why he is popular here.

Live Streaming Division: Mickey Dale, Imperial High School football, Imperial, California (KROP Radio). Challenged by occasional technical complications, the Mickster overcame everything with a terrific words-eye view of the 2015 Tigers campaign. Like Lundquist, a veteran who had his best year.

 

Politics

 

Quip of the Year: To President Barack Obama for telling the Alabama Crimson Tide team they could call him “O’Bama.” Great line.

 

General

 

Spouse of the Year: Mine, Mrs. Leeway, for making recovery from a serious back issue possible and for doing it with a smile.

 

Conventionaide Award: To the Republican Party National Convention for scheduling the 2016 RNC in Cleveland. Thanks to the convention, many of Cleveland’s massive potholes will be eliminated in advance of the event. Normally, a trip to Cleveland means a follow-up trip to the nearest Goodyear store for a wheel alignment.

 

Human Machine Award: To old pal Greg Bert for keeping himself in tremendous physical condition and for tirelessly pushing his students to do the same for themselves. His use of social media shows his willingness to keep the message fresh and moving forward. Bert has previously earned state and regional Physical Education Teacher of the Year awards. Now he has a Speedy, the capstone of his career.

 

Public Employee of the Year: The public, non-charter school classroom teacher.

 

Thanks for reading.

Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College

          If you enjoy history, particularly United States military history, there is still time to register for the 2016 Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. The annual CWI is a five-day seminar about the war from various approaches with presentations by the top authorities in the field.

          Each year the CWI includes battlefield tours. This year all tours are at Gettysburg.

          Attendees learn every year what the latest scholarship is on virtually every Civil War-related topic. This year much of the attention will be devoted to the Reconstruction years from the viewpoint of both returning soldiers and the civilian population.

          Don’t make a decision about the CWI based upon what you read here. Go to www.Gettysburg.edu/cwi/ for more information about the schedule, how to register, who the speakers will be and how to contact the CWI.

          The first time Your Loyal Blogger attended the CWI, it was with the solemn promise not to speak or raise a question during the entire length of the stay. Better to be thought a fool, the thinking went, than to remove any doubt.

          The first speaker that year was Dr. Peter Carmichael, the guy who runs the CWI. And there, on national television, was YLB standing in front of a microphone and challenging a point made by the distinguished Dr. Carmichael. So much for staying quiet.

          The interaction with the speakers is a highlight for many attendees and it is easy to accomplish.

          Another attraction for this reporter is the availability of Civil War-related books during the conference. Lots of Speedylee dollars get spent on new books each year at the CWI. You can’t find a book store with as many current books on the topic as you’ll find at the back of the CUB during the CWI.

          The worst part of the event comes at the end of the final day when attendees realize they have to wait another 360 days before the next CWI.

          Hope you can make it this year and thanks for reading.

The US Congress and a bloody flag

          Your Loyal Blogger is flummoxed. Stuck. Unable to find a way.

          Really sort of irritated about it, too.

          You can fight City Hall, if you understand how and if your cause is an accurate one. You can fight public perception if you understand how (you don’t have to be right to do this, just need to know how). You can even fight against the constant and metronomic march of Time if your ego demands that you do so.

          But fight to get the attention of the Congress of the United States? Hah! Can’t be done without a checkbook big enough to fund a super PAC.

          The issue is this:

          George W. Thomkins was a corporal in the 124^th New York Infantry on March 25, 1865 when the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia mounted a last-gasp attack at the Union Army of the Potomac near Petersburg, Virginia. The Confederates, under the command of Robert E. Lee, were trying to break away from the grasp of the Union army, led by U.S. Grant.

Fort Stedman today.

          The attack showed some initial promise but the Confeds were eventually overwhelmed and pushed back. In the heat of the action, near a location within the Union lines known as Fort Stedman, Thomkins and a few others came upon a Confederate officer who was carrying a regimental flag and attempting to rally his troops.

Battle flag of the 59th Alabama

          Thomkins shot the enemy officer and severely wounded him. Thomkins captured the flag of the enemy regiment and, eventually, was awarded with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

          There is no dispute about the afore-mentioned action. The Confederates attacked, Thomkins and his comrades in the 124^th New York were part of the Union defense and Thomkins captured the flag. Period.

          The screw up came sometime later, no way to know exactly when. But sometime after Thomkins shot the Confederate officer and grabbed his flag, Thomkins’ actions were summed up by someone and that someone got it wrong. Bad keystroke by a US Army typist, maybe? Slip of the tongue by someone during the run-up to the decision to bestow the Medal of Honor on Thomkins? Could be.

          The problem is that Thomkins is credited with capturing the regimental flag of the 49^th Alabama while he actually captured the flag of the 59^th Alabama.

         

Daniel Shipman Troy

The Confederate officer Thomkins wounded was Daniel Shipman Troy of the 60^th Alabama, who was given the assignment of leading the 59^th Alabama in the attack on Fort Stedman. The two regiments had spent the war fighting side-by-side as both were originally part of Hilliard’s Legion, an outfit that was hammered to bits during the iron hail of the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. Troy was known to the men of the 59^th.

          The 49^th Alabama Infantry Regiment was not in Virginia on March 25, 1865. The 49^th was in North Carolina. The 49^th was not involved in the attack on Fort Stedman. The 49^th was not part of the Army of Northern Virginia. In fact, the 49^th was surrendered at Smithfield, North Carolina on April 9.

          The 59^th and 60^th were part of the attack against Fort Stedman. Both regiments were in the trenches in front of Petersburg, Virginia on March 25, 1865 and all three were part of the Army of Northern Virginia. They were under the command of Brigadier General Archibald Gracie until Gracie was killed in the trenches on December 2, 1864. The group continued to be known as Gracie’s Brigade through the end of the war.

          The flag Thomkins captured did come from an Alabama outfit, but not from the 49^th. It was the 59^th.

          Troy recovered from his wounds and was most grateful for his care. He changed faiths to honor the nurses who saw to his care and he lived until 1895. Troy never met Thomkins, but was put in contact with a Thomkins relative late in life and that relative reportedly told Troy that Thomkins would have been pleased to learn that Troy had survived his wounds.

          Your Loyal Blogger has seen the flag Thomkins captured. It rests in the archives of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, having been returned to the state by the federal government of the United States. Troy’s blood stains the flag to this day.

Could be Fort Stedman, not sure. It IS a federal position
at Petersburg in March of 1865, certainly depicts the
situation accurately.

        

  Several experts contacted on this matter agree that the 49^th Alabama was not in Virginia on March 25, 1865. The 59^th was there and attacked from a location known as Gracie’s Salient. All are in agreement that, given all the facts, Thomkins shot Troy and seized Troy’s regimental flag.

          Now then, how do you go about correcting the record?

          The offices of members of Congress in Alabama, New York and California do not return phone calls. The Library of Congress returns phone calls but can do nothing about 150-year old typos.

As for the military, well, those folks have enough troubles right now and that call has not been made. Probably wouldn’t get a return call and, anyway, it’s a Congressional issue.

Could not find an image of Thomkins. This is his
grave stone. Note the spelling of the name.

          It is frustrating to stand on history’s sideline, see a tape-delayed replay of the event and then be unable to signal the referees to fix the scoreboard. You can throw a red flag until you are blue on the face, but nobody is interested.

          This blogger hopes a reader will have an idea that might help get the process started to change the citation for Thomkins’ Medal of Honor. If so, please leave a note. History would be pleased and neither soldier would suffer.

          Oh, one other thing. Every piece of reference material this blogger has seen spells Thomkins as it is spelled here. His grave marker spells it differently. We'll fight one battle at a time.

          Thanks for reading.

Kolb's Gems: Success after the Civil War

Reuben F. Kolb was a successful Alabama farmer when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (class of 1859), Kolb married the former Callie Cargile in 1860 and the union eventually produced three children.

          The coming of the war interrupted all Kolb’s farming. He served in Company B of the 1^st Alabama Regiment immediately after the war commenced and then joined the Barbour Light Artillery in 1862. The Barbour bunch became part of Hilliard’s Legion later in 1862, joining the Fourth Battalion. The Fourth Battalion was supposed to be the artillery arm of the Legion, but Kolb’s men were split away from the Legion and put into another command.

          Kolb’s Battery served the Confederate Army until it surrendered at Augusta, Georgia in April of 1865. According to one website, Kolb’s Battery lost about 45 men to disease and about 70 more were killed or wounded in action.

          Kolb’s military career is just the tease to an interesting career in both agriculture and politics.

          Returning to his farm and family, Kolb started cultivating watermelons using the modern science of the time. His melons were so successful they were named Kolb’s Gems. The new strain of the fruit was hardier than the average melon. Kolb also experimented with peaches and pears.

          Eventually, Kolb played a leading role in the formation of Alabama’s state department of agriculture and industry. He was named a Trustee of what is now Auburn University. Kolb was elected President of the National Farmer’s Congress in 1887 and again in 1889.

          A populist, Kolb ran unsuccessfully for governor of Alabama three times. Failing to get the Democratic nomination one year, he mounted a third-party challenge and lost anyway. His gubernatorial campaigns were aimed at (and had the support of) Alabama’s poor workers and farmers. According to the Encyclopedia Alabama website, Kolb’s platform supported and was supported by African American farmers in Alabama.

          In 1911, Kolb was appointed the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and he held that job until 1915.

Kolb died in 1918, having devoted his post-war career to educating fellow farmers on the most modern techniques and pushing the state away from its dependence on cotton. He gave the Alabama’s growers a louder voice at the state level and, as President of the National Farmers Congress, gave Alabama’s farmers a higher profile nationally.

Kolb’s story is not often told but he was an important man in his time and state. The bruising nature of post-war politics in the south denied him a serious chance at Alabama’s highest office, but his impact on the agriculture industry is undeniable. By pushing the scientific approach to farming, he made his mark.

And that’s important.

Thanks for reading.

International Women's Day, an appreciation

In honor of International Women’s Day, a few thoughts.

          Your Loyal Blogger has spent his life surrounded by amazing women. My mother, wife, sister and daughter are strong, intelligent and gifted people. It is an honor to know and love them all.

          That background developed the wisdom to understand a few things at an early age. To wit: Women are as strong as men but in different ways. Women are every bit as courageous as men. Women can be tough as nails.

          It says here that International Women’s Day should be a celebration of the pioneers of the cause of equality of the genders.

          This blogger’s favorite historic figure is Amelia Earhart, the famous pilot. The mystery surrounding her disappearance is fascinating but the story of her life is a study in tenacity. She broke barriers, set records and flew a lot of planes. She was the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger, the first woman to solo the Atlantic and the first PILOT to solo from Hawaii to California.

          Without Earhart, we don’t have Sally Ride.

          And then there is drag racing champion Shirley Muldowney. Read this carefully: You have never (and you will never) met a more competitive human than Shirley Muldowney. She’s a three-time world champion. She came back from a catastrophic injury suffered in a racing accident and kept winning. Determined? Oh baby. Look at all the women racing and winning professionally in the National Hot Rod Association today and figure out for yourself where we might be without Muldowney.

          Janet Guthrie and Lyn St. James are best known for their careers in Indy car racing, but that’s the short story. Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and she raced at the highest levels of NASCAR as well. She was a successful sports car racer before that. St. James was the second woman to race at Indy and she is a 12-Hours of Sebring winner. St. James has continued to give back to the sport with her foundation. Without Guthrie and St. James, we don’t have Danica Patrick.

Heck, without Guthrie and St. James, we might not have Sarah Fisher. Fisher raced at Indy and now she’s a team owner in that form of racing.

A woman might well become our next President of the United States. Yours truly will not vote for her, our politics differ tremendously. In the post-election Hillarity, reporters will write millions of words about America’s first female President but the real political trailblazer will have been Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who became the first woman to be elected to Congress back in 1916. Interestingly, Rankin voted against the United States’ entry into the First World War and was the only member to vote against declaring War against Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Since we’re talking politics, Nellie Tayloe Ross (spelling is correct) became the first woman to be elected governor of a state when she was elected Governor of Wyoming in 1924.

Unlike a current presidential candidate, Condoleezza Rice was a successful Secretary of State and would have had this blogger’s vote had she run for President this time around.

You want a champion of a cause? How about Rosa Parks. Enough said.

Admittedly, society still has some distance to cover in the drive for gender equality. But we needed pioneering women to get us as far as we have come and it is the pioneers that we should remember today.


Thanks for reading.

Meeting the Pro Football Researchers Association

 

          Six years ago, Your Loyal Blogger phoned home from a meeting of the Professional Football Researchers Association and said, “I have big news. It turns out I’m ignorant.”

          Mrs. Leeway said, “Sure, but what’s the big news?”

          As long as the family can remember, yours truly has made a study of the history of the professional game. I love it all and had a very balanced plan: The off-season was time for the study of the history of the game, the season was the time for watching the games. It made sense to me.

          But when my first PFRA meeting opened in 2010 and everyone introduced themselves, I discovered that I was in a room full of people who knew more about the history of pro football than I did. It was the first time since I was a small boy that this happened. I tried to rectify that situation by looking for people on the street who knew less about the game than me and suggesting that they join the PFRA immediately but, alas, that ploy failed. After all, we were in Canton, Ohio, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Well, it’s time to learn again. The Professional Football Researchers Association holds a general meeting every other year and the 2016 meeting is at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisc. The meeting is scheduled for July 8-10.

          The venue offers PFRA members and other attendees the opportunity to find out what the PFRA is all about and tour what is probably the most storied NFL stadium still standing.

          You gotta love the list of speakers scheduled for us at Lambeau: The headliners are Zeke Bratkowski, the former Rams quarterback who backed up Bart Starr so well with the Packers during the glory years of Vince Lombardi’s reign, and Bob Long, a wide receiver during that same era.

          Since we’ll be in Green Bay and it will be near the start of the 50^th anniversary of the 1966 Packers championship season, we’ll also hear from Packers historian Cliff Christl, Chuck Lane, the Packers PR man in 1966 and Bud Lea, a newspaperman who covered the team from 1954 through 1995.

          Several PFRA members will make presentations as well. Matt Foss will talk about the photography of former Packers photog Vernon Biever and John Maxymuk will discuss the building of the 1966 title team. I am especially interested to hear Rick Schabowski talk about the Milwaukee Badgers and other Wisconsin teams in the early years of the NFL.

          Massimo Foglio will talk about his recently-published book, Touchdown Europe.

          For Your Loyal Blogger, the best part of the meetings is spending time with so many like-minded fans of football history, real experts.

          The 2016 meeting costs $50 for members to attend and $100 for non-members (sneaky hint: Join for $35 and pay the $50, saving $15). There is a hotel in Green Bay that is offering a special rate for PFRA attendees and there is a shuttle each day from the hotel to the stadium.

          The PFRA is publishing a book this year about the 1966 Packers team that won the first Super Bowl. The book will be available for purchase at the meeting.

          You can read more about the PFRA at www.profootballresearchers.com. Hope to see you in Green Bay.

          Thanks for reading.