My Sunday Feeling

I am taking a break from my, well, break from blogging just long enough to put up this wonderful piece from today's New York Times about Indiana-born poet Norbert Krapf and his love of the Indianapolis Colts. It is also a reverie about the old Chicago Bears who used to hold their training camp at St. Joseph's College in upstate Indiana where Krapf played football as an undergraduate in the early sixties.

I was born in Indiana although much of my knowledge about the place comes from my father. The Indiana of Buck Bowen and Norbert Krapf was all about high school basketball, Notre Dame and Chicago Bear football and the Cubs. My father and a buddy used to hop trains in Valporaiso-where I was born-and ride to South Bend to see Notre Dame. Sometimes they would head West into Chicago to watch the Cubs or the Blackhawks depending on the season. He never mentioned that he ever went to Soldier Field. Presumably, a Bears ticket was just as hard to get back then as it is now. Since my Dad was one of those people that told everything he knew I can only assume he never saw the Bears in person.

True Story: My father had this buddy named Gene Sanders. Dad said that Gene went out on a blind date once with the sister of the late Abe Gibron who played on the line for and later coached the Chicago Bears. Gene said she looked just like her brother-he was not being kind-and that she drank him under the table.

I had not remembered that story until I read George Vecsey's essay in today's NYT.

I am making progress with my other projects and will be back on-the-air on a regular basis soon. See you soon!

Hit the link:
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/sports/football/28vecsey.html