The final moments of the men’s final at the All England Club last Sunday were simply spellbinding. Every time Andy Murray made one incredible shot, each time he made the impossible look possible, cheers exploded from Wimbledon to Dunblane, Scotland, Murray’s home town. Murray took three straight sets from Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 player in a Grand Slam...

Did you hear about Tiger’s predicament at this year’s Masters? After physical and marital troubles the past few years, Tiger Woods has not only reclaimed the number one spot in golf, but appeared on his way to win his 6th Masters earlier this month until… uh-oh… “Woods awoke Saturday having to defend himself against a rules violation he committed in...

Last week taught us a lot. We learned that in spite of increased security measures since 9/11, we are still vulnerable to attacks from individuals bent on changing our way of life. We learned that intelligent, seemingly normal teens growing up in a country that advocates freedom and liberty for all can still be susceptible to radicalization by others. We...

I wasn’t born when Jackie Robinson first stepped onto a major league baseball field on this day sixty-six years ago, breaking the color barrier. Growing up, for the most part, in Southern California, I was already accustomed to integration. It was a given. From the first moment I saw Chavez Ravine in 1962, I discovered a world where sunshine and...

Tracee Hamilton gets it. The Washington Post columnist jumped ahead of me when she heard about the absurdly ethical lapses in actions and reasoning behind two recent college basketball stories. It was only eleven days ago when I wrote, “college and university presidents need to take a hard look in the mirror and consider just what’s important: winning-at-any-cost, or role-modeling a...

Who is Bobby Knight? He’s a legendary coach who ranks third in all-time wins for NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Take the word “wins” out of that description and what you really have is a world-class bully who has used his position as a college coach to badger, bully and demean his student players into winning. For Bobby Knight, winning...

“Because of the principle that a calm sea and a prosperous voyage do not make news but a shipwreck does, most circulated news is bad news.” This piece of observational wisdom comes from writer, producer, director Norman Corwin in a story he shared in my book, What Do You Stand For? Owing to that insight, I found this story buried in...

Well… that was quick. No sooner had I written about the importance of giving college linebacker Manti Te’o a break regarding what he said or knew about his “Internet girlfriend” hoax, then boom, in less than a week, the Notre Dame star admits to lying to talk show host Katie Couric. I had already received several e-mails from John, good friend...

The intersection of two stories this week caused me to examine the media’s appetite to pander under the guise of “coming clean.” After weeks of rumor and speculation, former seven-time Tour de France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to achieve his victories. In listening to Armstrong’s confessional, I wasn’t so much interested in...

This story’s been on my desk since last month (Washington Post, Oct. 26). My attention comes, not so much from Armstrong’s clear violation of U.S. doping rules regarding competitive cycling, but from an astonishingly implausible defense of Armstrong’s actions by author Brad Allenby. Allenby, a Lincoln professor of ethics (remember this part) and engineering at Arizona State University, writes, “Whether...