Bill Chaves Pod_EP 161

This week, Bill and Alex are joined by UND Assistant AD Alec Stocker Johnson to talk about the enhancements coming to FightingHawks.com and the process and thought behind updating the website (2:03). The guys then discuss Bill’s previous life in the sports information world before looking ahead to another full weekend around UND Athletics (32:54). On the B-Side (49:04), there’s another international break to suffer through – or just ignore? – and a tribute to departed Red Sox legend Luis Tiant.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Bill Shafes Podcast, presented by Mid
Coast Sports. If you love college hockey, college football, college soccer,
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Plus it's the place to watch Fighting Hawks football, other

(00:21):
Missouri Valley Football Conference games, and much more. Subscribe today
at Midcastsports plus dot com. This is how we do sports,
and this is the Bill Shaves Podcast. Welcome to another
edition of the Bill Shafs Podcast. We're taping this checks
calendar on a Wednesday afternoon, the sixteenth of October. Alex Heiner,

(00:43):
Bill Shaves, special guest. We're gonna introduce it in a moment.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Bill.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Now, we're things Wednesday today. Look at us mixing it up.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know what's good about this? Well, hello, Alex, you
know what I would say though the guest we have,
I know we'll get it up in going because I
know we're on a we're on a different day. We
usually like Tuesdays at ten o'clock. That's usually our go
to but every once in a while we've got to
kind of figure it out. So here we are.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
You got to pivot a little bit, so to peek
behind the curtain. I've been helping out at my kindergartener's
lunch room, and normally that's a Monday chore to help
with ketchup and ranch dressing and things like that and
make sure kids, you know, behave themselves. They're five years old,
they need a little extra help during the lustroom. But
I've been moved to Tuesday. There was a grandmother that
wanted Mondays, so I said, I can do. I can

(01:32):
do Tuesdays. I'm making them move. And now we're kind
of in this mold of like, well maybe ten o'clock,
maybe ten o'clock Tuesday should still work most weeks. We
might do some changing up. We'll see. It's about the kids, Bill,
It's all about the kids.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
The pod can adjust.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
So we were gonna do a Wednesday morning, but our
guest is a busy guy and has press conferences to
run and lots of other stuff going on, so we've
shifted to a little later in the afternoon. But again,
still a lot of great stuff coming your way. Today.
We're talking all things fall sports, start of hockey, lots
of other great stuff, but first, our special guest today
has been a part of und Athletics since birth in

(02:07):
some way, shape or form. He's currently the Assistant Athletics
Director for Communications and Content. He's held that role for
the last couple of years, but he's been with the
athletic department since twenty eighteen. He literally posts this podcast
every time it comes out and does a ton of
great stuff for you and the athletics. He's Alex Stocker Johnson,
longtime listener, a contributor, but first time podcast Welcome Malec,

(02:28):
thanks for being up for this today.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be on this
side of the this side of the world. Like you said,
longtime listener, first time calling.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I know we brought you in front of the camera
right well, like you've been, you've been behind the curtain
and here you are. Oh, I just on here.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
My job, My job is to live behind the camera.
So this is you know, this is uh, this is
a little outside.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
For me, but she'll be great with no concerns. Thank you,
very very polished. Despite the fact that this is a
pod debut for Alex, so as you mentioneding and Alex
wears a lot of hats, with the University of North
Dakota one of them. Other than you know, being the
go to for you and d men's hockey, for tennis
and for golf as well, and then also overseeing that

(03:10):
communications department, you also play a big role in the
website and that's kind of one of the exciting things
that's going on right now. Fighting Hawks dot Com is
undergoing a bit of a facelift and between now and
Thanksgiving you'll be rolling out essentially a new website more
or less. What has that process been like, Alex, because
you've may help make those decisions to say, yep, now's
the time to kind of take another step forward with

(03:31):
our website.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
I've learned that if you are in website design and
that as your full time job, I now have a
new patience and sympathy for your job because it is
there is a lot that goes into making you know
people that every day. I think our world is full
of websites and different ones, and ours hopefully is one
of your frequent stops. But the process has been quite

(03:56):
interesting and reward It'll be rewarding at the end and
to be able to get it up. But you know,
we've had this same fighting Ox dot com look since
when I started in twenty eighteen. We actually just had
switched to this look, so you know, we've gotten pretty
comfortable with it. But as times evolved and changes happen,
and technology has evolved, it's allowed us for an opportunity

(04:18):
to kind of reevaluate how things are consumed and how
things are consumed on our site.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
And that allowed for this kind of change to happen.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
So so silly question, Alec, and maybe not silly. So
I still think websites are an anchor. I think they
still exist. I think people do go to them. And
so what was in your head? Because I know I've
gotten some sneak peek, but you guys have really thought
through some things. And some of it has to do

(04:48):
with the analytics in some way, shape or form.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, kind of One of the great things that are
you know, our website parent company side Arm does for
us is they provide you know, they oversee I probably
almost one hundred percent of college athletics websites, and they're
so good at providing analytics of not only how many
people go to your site, but what do they click on.
How long are they on each page?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
I mean we you know, we get as someone who's
a and Bill can attest this as a former s
Idea himself, as someone who's in the athletic communications. We
like data, we like we like to know, we like
the facts. So you know, that was huge for us.
We were able to really comb through and see kind
of what people want in our website, which really boiled
down to I think one word would be information.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
I think, you know, I.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Think people people like you said they use as an anchor.
We kind of say, you know, they use our website
as a hub. You know, they probably start at our
site and they might end up somewhere else, whether hopefully
it's our social media is, whether it's our YouTube page,
whether it's another team site. You know, I think they
always start at us, which is the hub. And so
we wanted to make that hub as kind of easy

(05:58):
to access and get you all that in informations easily
and quickly and kind of esthetically pleasing to as possible.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
So in terms of redesign, when you're going in and
you're having these conversations with side arm, how much input
to you and your staff have with them, is it
mostly them maybe showing you different options? What does that give?

Speaker 4 (06:18):
And sake like it's it's actually we're very involved.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, we're given you know, we're allowed to kind
of fill out a form that kind of answers those questions, Hey, like,
what do you want your website to be?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
What? What is it?

Speaker 4 (06:31):
You know, what is it that people use it for?
What are you what are your intentions with it?

Speaker 3 (06:36):
And then you kind of provide some examples of whether
it be the whole website, look certain features, things like
that that you find on other sites.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
So we that was a lot of my people always
ask what do we do in the summer.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
That was a lot of my summer was we you know,
you're digging through all the different teams in our leagues,
outside of our leagues, you know, those power for schools
that go okay, like hey, what do what?

Speaker 4 (06:56):
What do they do?

Speaker 3 (06:57):
And then we're able to kind of submit all of
that and Sidearm is kind of gets on. There's a
committee of us that NEETs and they kind of show
us different options and features and we kind of say, yes,
we like the direction, No we don't like the direction.
Let's marry the two somehow like I think right now
we're on probably ineration number four or five of different

(07:18):
kind of pieces that they've taken from different ones that
we've put together, and then that kind of all comes
together and then we're at the stage right now which
is kind of almost to the end.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
We're nearing the goal line.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
So I'll say this, Alex. And so I got a
sneak peek maybe about a month ago, somewhere in that range,
and you know, we're trying to figure out like how
do people consume our website and then does it auto
populate on certain other areas of our website? And so

(07:50):
I know we'll probably we're getting into the weeds to
some degree. But at the end of the day when
people come, are we able to show are we able
to get have the right words like the word calendar?
Do people know what calendar means? We had a what
alec maybe a thirty minute conversation on the word calendar,

(08:11):
and I think we came to grips that I think
people understand what calendar is. But what's important about it
is there's links there, and the links are how do
you get the game per se, how do you buy tickets,
live stats, live audio, live video. Those are things that

(08:32):
we have to be really thoughtful of because we've got
probably five generations coming to a website and it's all
different for people. So I would say those are some
of the detailed conversations we're having, and I guess we
also want to be like really thoughtful about can we
pivot off of something if it's maybe not working as well?

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, I think that's a that's a great point. I
think we we kind of too. Like in the athletic communication,
we're like office. We talk a lot about what kind
of questions do we get, whether it's on social media
from people or just like when we're walking around and
it's how do I watch the game?

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Or what?

Speaker 4 (09:09):
You know are they seeing?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, you're walking through the grocery store, you're walking through
Hugos and you get the.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Oh football is playing this weekend?

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Right?

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Yep, they're at home? Oh if okay, so what time
or who do they play? Or how can I Is
it on TV? Is it on the radio?

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (09:22):
You know those kind of questions.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
It's like, hey, if I can just say go to
Fighting Hawks dot com and you know, like we talked
about the calendar, like that's a perfect thing, like we
we made that a point with side arms to say,
like we want that very visible, so that whether it's
that week of you and the athletics or whatever's going on, you.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Know it's right at the top. It's gonna be right
at the top of our page.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
It's static, so no matter how far you scroll down,
it's stuck up there at the top, it's anchored right
at the top to say, okay, yep, you and the
football is playing more than iwa this weekend. Here's how
you can watch it. Here's how you can listen to it.
Here's how you can if you want to follow.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
The live stats.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Here's how you can buy tickets, all those things, like
we said like that, so we can have a much
easier and sort of that question of how do I
find out information about the tennis team?

Speaker 4 (10:05):
How do I find out information about our our football program?
Like that's that's the way.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
Then we can say, hey, Fighting Hawks dot Com, it's
all right then free.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
So the calendar edition feels like one one pretty big
change that you said was very important to you. Are
there any other things, Alex that that you're that you're
excited about that's going to be new?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, I think I think really just the modernization of it.
I really think like we're kind of bringing it into
the twenty twenties there to say of just some things
that are allowed allow us to really tell our story
through different mediums, uh and in a good way. You
know we have obviously you're one of them, Alex.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
We have.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
We have great media partners that do a fantastic job
telling our student athlete story stories and our coaches stories.
But I think we we do that as well. We
do it in a great partnership way, and and just
another way to make those accessible to people so so easily,
whether it's through written you know, whether it's through video,
whether it's through audio like things like this, like a
podcast or a Hawk Talk friends you know, with what

(11:03):
Paul Rauston is doing, and all those different things, making
them so easy to find and consumable for people. So
that way, if they want to fill their day with
you and the athletics all day, all the time, we
can make that happen for them and make it in
a very easy way to do it. I think that's
super fun because now I think you go, You're going
to be able to go to our site and it's
going to be just a fun way to consume you

(11:25):
and the athletics.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
I think in a full way.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Can I ask Alex a question? I have to be careful.
I have to go to make sure my X is
good because if I say anything else, it'll be the
other one. But but Alex, what do you think of websites?
And do they still have a place in our world
to some degree? I mean, I know my opinion on it,
but what's your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I love that question, By the way, what do you
what do you think of websites? I feel like that's
a very like nineteen ninety four question. But no, I
think I think they're still very very important. Yes, I
think I spent I spend a lot of time browsing
different now again, for my job, it is a lot
of looking at these different athletics websites from different universities
where you are digging in and seeing what do you

(12:11):
get from Northern Iowa's website where you're trying to find
information about their football team? What do you get from
Providence's website when you're trying to learn about their hockey team.
I spend a lot of time sifting through different websites
and summer are good and easy to navigate, others less so,
And a lot of that comes down For me. It
usually comes down to is the content good and is

(12:33):
it in a way that I can find it really?
And some departments are great at that and others you
can sell for whatever reason, are lacking in those areas.
And I think, to be honest, I think that un
D's website has been great. I think it's very easy
to navigate, and I think part of it is because
I'm familiar with it, because I've spent so much time
in it. And that's why there's a part of me

(12:54):
who's like, oh my gosh, a new website. I'm scared
about what that's going to mean. But I get the
sense that it will not be this seismic shift from
what we've seen now to this whole new look and
feel and it's going to be hard to find stuff.
I get the sense this will just be, as you said,
a modernization, and then some features that maybe didn't exist
before will now just be easier to use moving forward.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
So alec what we're again, uh so mention what are
some of the top things that people are searching for?
Like what what have we learned through the search data.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
I think the most important thing we get is to schedules.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
People want to know I mean, people want to be
in tune with who are like, that's that same question who, when,
where and how? And I think that's that was a
big thing that we got with analytics. Other way, you know,
people want to watch our stuff too, and we were
we were very fortunate we have a very great content
team with you in the Insider as well as we

(13:52):
mentioned with our partners with that with Mikko, that helped
us put out great shows each week, and and people
want to watch that stuff, so.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
It's how do I How I watch that?

Speaker 3 (14:00):
So kind of another fun feature we've rolled out is
we've kind of re vamped our video player on our site.
It'll be on the front page of our site. It'll
also be on every team's page as well. That will
kind of be sports specific, but you know, with that,
you'll be able to kind of sort right then and
there what you want to see. So you'll have the
opportunity to click the latest videos that we've posted. If

(14:21):
you just want to watch all things highlights, there's a
tab to sort by highlights, and then if you want
to watch the through these doors and day by day
you can sort by those tabs too, so it'll kind
of give you that option of, you know, if you
want to again stay on the site and just I
want to watch highlights from this last weekend or hopefully
we get a lot of wins, and I can just
consume highlights all the time and be happy about how

(14:43):
we how we're playing. I can do that if I
want to watch you know, Bubba Schweigert's postgame thoughts, if
I don't watch Brad Berry's postgame thoughts, or you know,
Chris Logan's postgame thoughts after soccer tomorrow again, those will
all be right there under the latest tap. So I
think the kind of that again, that monitor keeping it simple,
but also that modernization of being able just to do
something simple as sort, I think is something that we

(15:06):
were looking at other schools and going man like that,
like we can do that, Like we haven't changed that
since twenty eighteen, like we should. We should be able
to make that happen. Some more people watch more stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
So last thing for me, give me the timeframe again
when you think this thing might roll out, And we've
been pretty thoughtful about there's no real time that we
have to do this per se. We roll it out
when it's it's ready, if you will. But when do
you think that's going to happen.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, we're hoping. We're hoping in the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
We just entered kind of the last phase of really
the as Bill likes to use the phrase inside baseball
of it, where we're really like in the weeds of
the website, you know, making sure all the buttons work
and you know, things are looking correctly, whether that's with
our you know, license and branding coordinator Ali Revere making
sure the logos match and the colors match and it

(15:59):
visually looks act on down all the way to the
coding and all that fun stuff.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
So we're hoping, we're hoping by Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
It the latest that time when you know, hopefully the
FCS playoffs are getting rolling and kind of basketballs are
in full swing and and and you know, volleyball postseason
is at is at its head.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
He's getting you know, and getting into the middle of
their year.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Like that'll be I think a fun and good time
for us to be able to hopefully have a nice
watch and reveal for people.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
That will be exciting, all right, last last thing for
me then I'm done. Is I think that's a nineteen
ninety four turn I do inside baseball? Do you think
Alex Alex with the nex.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
That sounds about right. I would say that was probably right, Okata.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, listen, listen and I were married in ninety four,
so there's that too.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Okay, I was not I was not alive and nights
than be four, so that's right.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, just celebrated thirty, So there's that. There you go.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Well.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Congrats built on the wedding anniversary, Alex. Congrats on being
younger than Bill's wedding anniversary. It's a good thing too.
I do want to ask last thing for me, Alec,
and then we'll let you get out of here. One
of Alex's big jobs, of course, is to help be
the communication guy and the main hub for all things
you and the hockey. The team got off to a
pretty good start this last week at the win over Providence.

(17:13):
What as you most excited about the team this year?
I'd be remiss to not ask you one hockey question
now that we've got you here in the pod, I.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Would say the depth. I mean, you just look, I
think last weekend was a perfect example of that. All
four lines got a point. You had multiple defenseman get points.
I mean, I think it's just their ability to I
really think beat you in any way possible. I think
right now as me excited, I mean they you know
a lot of people, that was the question, how do

(17:40):
you replace you know, Rees Gaber, how do you replace
Jackson Blake, who, by the way, sports versus hf OL
last night, which pretty cool, pretty exciting opportunity.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
But I really think it's that.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
I mean, it's that you've got you've got lines, four
lines of forwards.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
That really five lines of four is if you.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Want to go all the way out of guys that
can that can play and play really well and know
their role, I think, and then you've got four pairs
of d that can can do that. And then the
net you've got two really good guys at three if
you even you know Caleb Caleb's are great, is great too,
And and you've got all I mean, you've got twenty six.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Guys on that roster. I think that can that can
impact the game.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
And I don't think there's a lot of teams in
the country that can line up you know, fat that
deep and I think that was our full display on
Saturday against Providence of you know, as the game got going,
that second period got going, got a little later in
the game, it felt like those you know, those bottom
lines started to take over and you saw the mismatches
happen and and all of a sudden you blink and
it's four to one, and uh, and then they closed

(18:42):
out as they as they've done so well in the
last many years of closing games out when they're up
by when they're up going into the third.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
So to me, that's exciting. I'm excited to see him
going on the road this weekend.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
It's always a fun uh, you know, going back to
an old w c H a rival and kind of
kind of drum up the old memories of going to Mankato,
and it'll be a one weekend.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, Minnesota State again one of
many ranked teams the North Dakota will play here in
the first two months of the season, so we're excited
to see how that shakes out. So Aleck, hey, we
appreciate the time, buddy, as always, best of luck as
you kind of wrap up the final stages, we'll look
forward to see what the new Fighting Hawks dot Com
looks like, hopefully between now and the middle of November.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Perfect. Thanks guys for having me appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Thanks Alec.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Great stuff from debutants Alex Stocker Johnson jumping in. It's
just good to hear, like his perspective on why you'd
make changes to the website. What are some of the
new features to look forward to. It's going to make
again getting all all your Fighting Hawks content just a
little bit easier, and that's the goal right from your chair,
just to make it simpler and easier.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, I think you know the reason why I wanted
to ask you the question, because you're an end user,
and so you know at some point you're going to
wonder why did we do that, and because there's probably
you had some comfort with what's happening right now, but
there's evolution and especially with video content, that we had
to be really thoughtful about what's going on. And I

(20:05):
don't know what the right timing is to update your website,
but it feels like every five years makes some sense,
and we're kind of in that six year mode, and
so it made sense for us to do this.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
The Summing League just updated their look and made some
changes and again same thing, like it took a little
bit to sort of figure out how did where was
this now? Or where did this go? Like you But
again it's just those simple things of where do your
eyes go on the web page, you know, and usually
it's either to like the top ribbon or the bar
or whatever. And now for the some of league, it's
just kind of over on the side and there's more

(20:39):
of like a click and drop down and it's it
takes like two visits and you sort of have it
figured out. So again it'll be the same thing with
fighting hacks dot com. It's so funny that I don't
know for people in my shoes that use these things
a lot, there always is like that slight bit of
concern is too strong of a word. But you know,
you get, like you said, you get so comfortable with
one form, and as always, people don't love change. Change

(21:02):
is hard sometimes. But people, I think, when you when
you dig in and you see and within a couple
of times, oh this is yeah, this is way better.
This is a much better format than we used to have.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, And you know, and folks might be saying, boy,
you spend a lot of time on the website Well,
here's what I would say is I still think it's
an anchor and a hub for information, and what's most
important is the data is accurate, it's updated, it's trusted,
because I still think that's where folks go initially if

(21:31):
they if something is occurring. Now look at if you
want to get updates from a different perspective that's not ours,
you're gonna go to one of our media partners and
they're gonna you're gonna have that piece of the puzzle.
But for us, we need accurate, factual information that's kind

(21:51):
of easy to navigate, and if you're not updating it,
it kind of feels like you might be following about
behind to some degree. But if we do it right
and maybe we might get something wrong, hey give us
the information and maybe we can kind of figure it
out once it gets rolled out.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
I think that's well said, because that is the thing.
You trust the information on that site to be correct,
and you trust it to be update and updated, updated exactly.
And that's that's a huge credit by the way, to
people like Alec and Tyler Wells and Anna Watson who
you just brought on, and Jacob Pumphrey like those guys
in that sports information room who are updating stats and
records and things like that very quickly after games are over.

(22:30):
Like that's like after a hockey game. You know, I'll
go so just this now we're really getting inside baseball.
But I'll go the game ends, you know, I'll go
down to the postgame press conference room. Alec is there
with Brad Barry and usually a player or two or three.
We'll go through that process. You know, I'll go back
to our mid Coast sports office and then we'll kind
of debrief and upload footage and things like that. And

(22:52):
then most of the time, if it's a Friday night,
I'm already preparing for Saturday, and part of that is
then updating my stats on my call sheet. And this
will be maybe two hours after the game is over,
and I'll go to our website and the stats are
updated like almost always on Fighting Hawks dot Com. Everything
is already good, even though the game just ended ninety

(23:13):
minutes previous. And again that's a testament to our team
that people like in those shoes are good at their
job and they're putting the work in after the final
horn sounds to make sure that it's as smooth for
us as possible, and I can't say enough again our
thanks to that, to that team for doing so.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Even the world of athletic communications, and of course that's
where you know alec is and he oversees it. You know,
that's evolved over time. It used to be kind of
the written word and there used to be some other things.
Now you're actually like the statistics are are done electronically
in a sense, right, So you just you've got to

(23:48):
make sure the upload happens quickly because folks that are
covering our team need to see that. And I think
we have. So we've now prioritized that over say maybe
the written word in some ways because a lot of
people are seeing it, right, I mean they're getting they're
getting the game either from a streaming standpoint or you know,

(24:09):
from a television standpoint, a linear standpoint. So so we
just had to keep evolving.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
So in your day when you were the side at
various plays, well give us give us, by the way,
your sid history, Yeah, it was it.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Was at Corannipiac I first started. I was I was
a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State in the world of
media relations. The year after Barry Sanders won the Heisman
and Mike Gundy was the quarterback. Hartley Dikes was the
wide receiver.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
That's the truth, all correct time. Yep, what a.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Time, yep, what a time to be alive. Yep. So
I knew the man that was forty before he was
very forty. And so that's the truth. And so then
I became the actual media relations director at cortitpiac which
was a Division two school, and I don't know, I'd
have to think about it, like we might have had

(25:00):
eighteen sports and one full time person. And it was
not the technology age. So I can remember. I think
I was at Florida Institute of Technology and down there
with basketball and there was no one. There was a

(25:20):
tournament and no one was doing stats, and so I
sat in the corner of the gym and I did
stats by hand for both teams to create a box score.
That actually happened.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So now now in those days when you would do that,
because I'm just curious, you do all those things by hands,
and then how does that get recorded?

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Then?

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Like do you then facts manuel type? You fax that
backup to Hamden. Facts was huge, Yeah, and that would
go to the newspapers.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, yeah, you know that was you know, in ironically
as we saw signing day, you know, the facts machine
has always been this thing because that was like revolutionary
at that point in time. Oh my god, like you
can send this thing and like that's it, like you
got it. I mean, it was fascinating. So here we are. Yeah,

(26:16):
I mean that that was the truth. I mean And
so yeah, I sat there and managed and dealt with
whatever eighteen sports, a lot of plates spinning in the
air and figuring all of that out.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
So then last question on this, so you you do this,
you're doing the stats by hands, you're faxing things back.
Are you then also writing up a recap of what happens?

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Well yeah, so like that was the one situation that
was atypical. But when we were at a game and
the table picture, the basketball table, we would have I'd
have students that would be able to do the shot chart,
the assist, turnover, steels, blocks, and then ultimately, you know,

(27:04):
the actual field goals in whatever three points. And I'll
tell you what when I was at I learned at
Oklahoma State Steve Buzzard, Mike Strauss shout out, they were awesome.
And I was on the other side doing the actual stats.
But then when I got to Cornipia, I'm just telling you,
I could rip that sucker off in eleven minutes. I'll

(27:26):
tell you what. Oh yeah, oh yeah, no, not right,
the actual stats, the box, the box and because teams
had to get on the road, I mean they were
they had to get on the road and go and
I'll tell you what. That box and I got to
the copier. It was done, man, I'm just telling you.
And it balanced out. I mean like it was like

(27:47):
doing long form math. It's like it's done for you now,
but you actually had to actually know how to actually
do the box score. Not that that matters in life
because it's done for you automatically.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
But it's did. Then you couldn't just spunge this into
a spreadsheet and there was already a formula that you
had previously typed up to say oh X plus B and.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Oh yeah, oh no no. I had people on their toes. Man,
it was time to go, like, are you kidding me,
let's go give me the numbers, let's go.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, man, built saves side extraordinaire.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Well it was fun.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
It's fun fun, I'm sure so.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
But but but but I learned over the course of time.
Facts make a difference when we got to websites, and
I'll tell you what, I would rather have something not
on the website than not be updated. And I you know,
and that to me is more important because it's all
about trust. You got to be able to go there

(28:43):
and it's updated and and Alec and the crew do
a great job with that. But but that's the truth
because that's probably the first stop for our fan base
or whomever is covering us.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I would agree with that, And there is point
there are a few things more not frustrating or annoying,
but like that make you kind of go eh when
you go and you click on a school's website and
they've got maybe it's as media guide or it says
you know, quick facts or season profile and you click
on it and it's from like three seasons ago, and

(29:18):
there is in the back of your mind then like, well,
how much can I trust this? Like, clearly they haven't
taken the time to update these links or go through
an update this particular section that at one point was updated.
What else am I going to find that's not going
to be up to the minute. And I think that's
that's where, like you said, having something that is constantly

(29:39):
being watched, constantly being updated, that is accurate and trustworthy
is huge.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Here and again I will say this, and I think
the pod sometimes takes a different turn, and I'm totally
cool with this. Is you can go to our website
and find out what's happened with our teams. Right now,
I'm not sure we need to go too deep into
that piece of the puzzle, but you know, as printing
has become reduced and digital footprint has increased, it's incredibly important.

(30:09):
If our fans are at the game, they have to
trust that what is what they have in their phones
or what have you, is updated and you know, what
they have the latest, greatest. And if we're not printing
per se, but we're not also updating, that's an O
for too. We need to make sure that we do
a really good job, you know, to make sure our

(30:32):
fans are always updated.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Because that ties into this then from Fightinghocs dot Com.
So much of that is on the app as well,
the Fighting Docs one hundred percent app.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
We have the same conversations there that if something is
not automatically updated, then it better be updated there as well.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
There's just so many different things you have to be
aware of now in your chair and within this group
to sort of know all right, because people, like you said,
people are going to the website, but are they going
to it on a web browser? Are they going to
it on an app? Are they going to it on
their phone? And making sure there's compatibility there? Just a
lot of things. And you can tell why it would
take so many iterations of a website before you get

(31:08):
to the one that's going to work for all different parties.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, I mean, I give them credit, Like both Alec
and Nicole Latowsky have been at the forefront of this
and you know, they they came in and you know,
and again here I go like like here I get
to see it, and then I get to ask questions
and they're like, oh my god, how long are we
going to be here today? And it's like, but I'm
thinking about it as the end user. I'm thinking about it.

(31:33):
How how are are in any time in life? And
I don't know what is the fair number, but let's
just say it's five generations, maybe six are actually in
life at one time. You know what. We have to
meet people where they are and we have to try
to be consistent we're not going to meet everybody as

(31:53):
to where they want us to be. We're just not.
But we have to be really thoughtful about how we
do this.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Well, that was a great conversation about a website that's
going to be refreshed here in the next couple of weeks.
So over the next yeah, between now and roughly Thanksgiving ish,
you'll have a chance to see what Fighting Hawks dot
Com looks like. As Bill said, send in feedback if
you like it, or if you've got some questions or
things you'd like to see fixed. Apparently this is a
good time to get in on the ground floor and
they make those changes. But we're excited to see some

(32:21):
of those new features to be added to make it
easier to be a Fighting Hawks.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Fan, no doubt. And you know, if there's something that
is confusing, I know, Alex is always open to you know,
you know, answering the question. And then you know what,
sometimes some people see it and we just even think
of it, whatever it might be, So just you know,
slide it to us. If it's something that we can
alter or change or think about, you know, we certainly

(32:47):
will consider that.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Well, speaking of Fighting Hawks dot Com, as always that's
the place to go for schedules and foreign new information
and results in press conference clippings, et cetera. We'll do
just a very quick run around the Meulberry Bush more
to look ahead, and we mentioned hockey briefly. Big road
series coming up in Minnesota State this coming weekend, the
Mavericks two and two. They're a good program, one of
the best in the CCHA. You and these back home

(33:09):
the following week to take on number three Boston University,
then out east to take on number eight Cornell. Just
a gauntlet for this team after beating number thirteen Providence
five to two to open the season.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
How great a schedule is it? I mean really, like,
like you know, I would say, yeah, today it seems
like a gauntlet. We won't know until March whether it
really was a gauntlet, but you know, I would say,
as most are dealing with right now, it's about our team.
It's about our team getting better, and it's about our

(33:40):
team figuring out roles. And I think Alex right like
we're kind of in role mode and that's kind of cool.
I mean, I you know, I when you have you
know a couple of guys wearing letters supposedly on the
line sheets on the fourth line, you know. Interesting, But
my guess is they started the game though, too, So

(34:03):
what did we do invert the lines? You know what
I mean? So to me, it just shows that there's
a mix and match that we can do based on,
you know, who we're playing. Well.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
The great thing is about those guys you mentioned Louis
Jamernick the fifth and Jake Schmaltz, who were on that
fourth line along with Cody Kroll. Analytically, Brad Slawson had
had the breakdone of it in the paper this last week.
Those guys graded out as high as it gets, just
about as fourth line because they were winning their battles.
They were doing all the things you were supposed to
do in those positions. And that's again one of the
small reasons why you and these going to be a

(34:36):
really successful team this year. They have guys who because
you could have Jammernick or Schmaltz anywhere on your lineup
really and Krol maybe eventually when he's a little bit
of an upperclassman. But the fact that they're able to
play these these sort of shut down line type roles
while being able to contribute offense like that's that's pretty good.
If that's your fourth line, a pretty good fourth line

(34:56):
that's going to vote pretty well for you as the
course of the season goes on.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, And I would say, you know what's interesting to me,
Alex is sometimes the line charts are odd, like it
just it's this thing that you put numbers or something
around you know what's happening. The reality of it is

(35:21):
it's about you know, playing your role in playing to that,
regardless of whether you're on the first line, second line,
third line, or fourth line. But at the end, that's
it's real. It's real, and we have to be thoughtful
about it. And I would say it was just to
me ironic that, you know, we started the game and

(35:43):
here came our fourth.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Line, emblematic of how deep this team is as the
season begins with with a nice win over our ranked team.
And then we said, coming up this weekend, you can
watch that game, by the way, against Minnesota State, both
games Friday Saturday on Mid Coast Sports Plus. That's the
whole of CCHA TV. Those games are going to be
in a CCHA building. So this will be one of
those that you don't typically everything n CCHD is on

(36:07):
NCC dot Tv if you can't watch it live on
mid co Sports but these games you can stream live
on Mid cost Sports Plus. So if you're looking for
an excuse to get that service, this is a great
weekend to do. So.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
Can I just say that I think Mid Coast Sports
Plus is just excellent. I mean, it's uh if if
someone hasn't you know, gotten into it at some point
in time. I know we're inundated with streaming services in life,
and you and I as the B side, we always
talk about our soccer teams and some of the things

(36:40):
you have to do to watch your soccer team. But
I kudos to to mid COO and the Summit League
for putting together, you know, an awesome and awesome uh
streaming service and just some of the benefits now is
the fact that you get to watch hockey as well
this weekend.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
It's really been a great put from the company to
try and make that better and over the last couple
of years since they rolled it out, it's just gotten
better and better. And they've added obviously a lot of
new leagues and new teams to be a part of that.
The fact that you can go back and watch hold
old games from last season games across conferences, road and home, etc.

(37:19):
That's been a really nice perk. So I know, again,
like I said, not that anybody needs any more streaming services,
but this is a really good one if you're a
U and D fan, and again especially this weekend where
you can get a road hockey series that you can't
get anyplace else. It's a good thing to consider certainly
moving forward. But thank you for that, for the unsolicited boost.
It's a mid Co Sports plus. We appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Well, I'm a customer. I mean I don't get it.
I don't get it for free, and I don't want
it for free. Honestly, I want to be able to
be a customer so that I can be as i'll
call it, I guess analytical of what it could be.
And I have the opportunity in the chair that I
sit to be able to talk to certain folks at

(37:58):
mid Co and I can give feedback as a as
a consumer, and I think that's important for anybody. I
get feedback from our consumers, and I can do the
reverse in some way, shape or form.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Very good one cool thing. As we're on this notice
that everything that's happening in New and the athletics this
coming week is all on Mid Coast Sports Plus. Whether
it's women's soccer, volleyball, football, and now hockey this weekends,
it's a pretty good one stop shop. And obviously the
basketballs will be as well once basketball season begins. If
the basketball game is being played in a summer league venue,
it'll be on the Some League Network, which is a

(38:34):
part of Mid Coast Sports Plus. And that was, by
the way for me really where it kind of came
home last year was being able to watch all these
different basketball games sort of at the same time. Like
it was really fun to be able to bounce from
one to the next depending on time zone. If you
had a game in Grand Forks and then you were
maybe the team that I was going to be announcing
next was playing out at Denver, you could watch both

(38:56):
like you had that opportunity to bounce back and forth,
and then you can have the archive game as well.
It was huge, huge for me in my prep to
get ready for things to be able to watch these games.
And you never could have been able to do that previously.
You would have had to subscribe to all these different
things or track down these games, and that's just not
the case anymore. It's one place for all this action.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
It's great kudos to Commissioner Fenton in his thought process.
I mean he certainly had maybe a prototype with NCCHC TV,
but I think he knew what he was thinking about
when he came into the summer leage because it was hard,
like it was. It was not one stop shop before,
so now it's more one stop shop.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Yeah, we like that. We like those things has to
go to one place, we do. Moving on from hockey
to football again. A home game this weekend against Northern Iowa.
UND comes back home after the bye week, big game
coming up against the Panthers. UND four and two right now,
chounced to bounce back after the NDSU defeat. Good opportunity
here to get back on a role.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, they're all big games, right. I mean, when you
have one once a week, it's crazy to me. It
never ceases to amaze me. It feels like when we
haven't I'll use the Bubba term the open week. If
we have an open week, it feels like we've been
off forever for a long time, doesn't it.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
It's weird, But that's the thing. When you play once
a week and you miss one of those weeks. Fourteen
days between games is a long time. Twenty one days
between home games. That's a really long time, especially after
we got used to seeing that team at home for
the entire month of September. It will be fun to
get them back into the Hilarius and you get some
more action going this week and excited for that one

(40:33):
o'clock against the Panthers coming up.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
So today, today, we still have students that happened to
play athletics and their students first and I used to
say not so much here because our kids are unbelievable
in the classroom. But don't miss a class that meets
once a week. You've missed an entire week. And so

(40:57):
it feels the same way with football. Missed an entire week.
It feels like it feels like you're starting the season
over again, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 (41:05):
In some ways? Yeah, it kind of is. Is this
is the second half.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Of it is for us. It is because it was
exactly halfway right.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Down the middle.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, So it does begin with this home game against
you and I, and then it's back to back road games.
So again, if you're in an area, there are just
three more home games left during the regular season, it's
this one and then South Dakota State and South Dakota
and those games are back to back in November. This
is the only home football game in the month of
October in Grand Forks. We got spoiled a bit the
previous month, so take advantage, that's all I can say.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Talked to the coaches and they were able to use
last week as a really good opportunity to look at
half the year and really self assess and then of
course you're moving forward. Of course they were doing some
things with Northern Iowa on the horizon, but really last
week was about self assessment and then this year, excuse me,
this week was about of course, you know, playing you

(41:55):
and I which obviously we know traditionally they're very, very
very good program and they you know, they took it
to us last year, so so you know, we've got
our hands full on Saturday. We'd love a full Alis
Center because it makes a difference.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Yeah, it does. Yeah, and it has made a difference
over the course of this year. I was looking at
the stats in terms of penalty yards against, which is
like sometimes not a stat that really says much about you,
but more about your opposition. But at home. I think
it does say a lot about the atmosphere. How many
prestat penalties have we seen in those four games? Like
it was that was a thing like that that made

(42:33):
a big difference. Yeah, third and seven is a lot
different than third and two, and that's that atmosphere that
really comes home and pushes that sometimes.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Yeah, behind the sticks, right, especially if it happens on
first or second down. So anyways, all that to be said,
looking forward to this weekend, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Big one for football. Volleyball meanwhile, will be on the
road coming up on the seventeenth, so tomorrow on Thursday.
But then they get three at home in a row
and a chance for this fighting Hocks squad, which has
just lost a lot of close matches lately. A couple
of five setters at home to Denver and South Dakota,
and then they took a set off of unbeaten South
Dakota State. They're the lone unbeaten left in the nation.

(43:08):
But they just two bucks screws, just come out on
the wrong end of some of those tight ones. They'll
have a chance to get back on the right note
at least coming up with some difficult matches. But at
least three of the next four inside the Betty.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah, I think that's right. Long season in there there.
Obviously you've got the double round robin. You want to
be playing really well at the end, but we got
to make some hay moving forward.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, speaking of again, losing some close ones. Women's soccer,
same thing. They've lost three matches by one goal and
they've all been kind of of the different variety but
all equally like heartbreaking where you feel like against North
Dakota State, it's one to one and the Bison lose
a player, so you're you're up a man, and then
they find a way to get a goal. Omaha was

(43:50):
a one nil and like that's a good Omaha team
and it was just a tight game and they got
the goal and North Dakota didn't. And then Kansas City
they go up two nil at halftime and things are great,
and then that's a Roos team that has a lot
of firepower and they come back and win three two.
It just soccer is one of those sports. It just
when you're on the wrong end or when you just
can't seem to find a way to get across the
finish line, that can kind of roll in itself, and

(44:12):
that's what we've seen the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, that's right. I think that's right. We talk a
lot about soccer on the B side, and you know,
I'm not sure there's a sport you can say hockey
to some degree, but that the differential between a goal
or not is so tremendous. You know, it's maybe baseball
playoff run in the sense. But but but in some ways,

(44:37):
you got to get to the finish line. And unfortunately,
you know, we've had a couple opportunities and we just
haven't gotten to the finish line.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yeah, thankfully, at least North Dakota does finish now with
three home games in a row. So even though they're
still looking for their first summ league when they've got
a couple ties, got a couple of points in the bank,
but you need those three point wins like you need
those to have a chance to make the postseason. They'll
get a chance to do so against good teams. But
they'll host South Dakota, South Dakota State, and Saint Thomas
over the next gosh eight days. If you can believe that.

(45:06):
South Dakota's on Thursday in South Kota State Sunday and
then Saint Thomas next week. So there's still certainly a chance.
If you win two of those three, you're probably going
to be in the postseason. Like as crazy as that sounds,
you'd have eight points and be in good shape. So
still everything to play for for this North Dakota team
with the.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, in the sport of soccer, you've got one one
time around, and the differential between three and one point
is huge. So we've got to find a way to
put a couple wins in the bank.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Yeah, fighting hocks four and one at Bronson this year,
see if they can keep that roll in. Coming up
this week against the Yoats and the Jacks cross country,
not at home, going to Texas this week for their
final tune up before the sum of league championships, which
you're coming up on the first weekend of November again Texas,
A and M good opportunity to go down and run
and see what you can do down south.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
You know what it is? Flat? Probably flat and hot?

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Probably yeah, flat, flat and warm.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
That's That's all I got for you on that one.
That's all I got. How about that?

Speaker 1 (46:10):
How about that? Good luck to Tom Scott and the crew.
As they had down again their final tune up before
the Summit Championships. And then last thing basketball We had
Basketball media day. Can you believe that?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
By the way, Oh yeah, let's go.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
We had the basketball teams in suit falls at the
Denny Sandford Premier Center, the site of course of the
Assemble League Basketball Championships in March. What a great event.
It was awesome to talk to Paul and Mal and
a couple players were down as well for both teams.
That just that event has just become a much bigger
deal in recent years to get people excited about the season,
which does begin on November the fourth. The men picked sixth,

(46:42):
the women seventh, but literally nobody has any idea because
there's so much turnover. I looked at the preseason ballot
on the men's side and was like, well, how what
am I even supposed to do with this? Nobody's the
same really as last year. I think the fact that
North Dakota, obviously Amar Kliovich and Trace niagles staf Or
picked preseason first team All Conference, I mean, that's a

(47:02):
pretty good place to start. Not a lot of other
teams have that many known commodities, but every season is
its own. It's going to be very interesting to see
how both of those teams fare when the ball gets
tipped off here in about you know, three weeks if
you can believe that?

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah, can I just say kudos to Ryan Powell and
his crew at the Summit League. And I think, you know,
give give Mindy K. Larson and Josh Fenton a lot
of a lot of credit. They're trying to just amp up,
you know, some excitement around the sport of basketball, and
I think it makes a whole lot of sense, a
lot of content that can be used that's probably evergreen

(47:37):
content over the course of time. So Yeah, I'm really
excited about what we were able to do there, and
it's really good for our students to go down there
and experience that as well.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yeah, I love the Damar and Trey got a chance
to talk to Jeff Goodman and Rob Dosterer at the
Field of sixty eight. Like the fact that this, you know,
these guys by those two guys have been to a
number of different preseason media days around the country. I
think they had just come from the Atlantic Ten in
DC and they were going to the ACC. But the
fact that they made sure this Summer League was on

(48:09):
their list, I think says something about the league. They
didn't go to all these in person, a lot of
these they're doing over zoom, but they made sure they
were in Sioux Falls for the summer league. I thought
that was pretty cool. And yeah, for Omar and Tree
to have a chance to talk to those guys one
on one, that's just great, great experience for them.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Yeah, and I think it's good for you know, Jeff
in his pod. I think the fact that you know,
you just never know who's gonna and i'll call it
blow up during a year, and to be able to
be there and and someone is in our league, it
could be in our team, it could be somewhere else,
but for them to have the connectivity I think makes
a difference.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
Pretty cool. So that was that was exciting, just to
start thinking about basketball. It's just around the corner. Some
really great non conference games, some great non conference games
that are going to be in Grand Forks coming up.
Much more to come on that in the weeks ahead,
but no doubt, best of luck to those teams as
they start practice in full and really get ramping up
for the season. Anything else from a un D, NCAA perspective.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Bill, No, no, not at all. We can flip quick
to the B side and I will just say this.
The only thing I will say is, Alex, there's too
many international breaks.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
No, that was at the top of my rundown on
the B side, international break exclamation point again. And this
is just the second of three. There's one in September,
there's one in October. You got another one coming up
in November. I know we were saying pre pod, this
one feels like even less interesting than usual because again,
the US is already qualified for the World Cup as

(49:41):
co hosts. They haven't started the Nations League quarterfinals won't
begin until November, so they've just been playing friendlies. Even
though they've got a new manager. We brought in Poch, Bill,
your guy, Marichio Pochettino is now head coach of the USMNT.
But it's so hard to draw any conclude usions from
the two matches they had against Panama on Mexico because

(50:03):
they didn't quite have a full squad and they didn't
mean anything.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
That's all you need to say. That's it. We think
we can stop the POD at this point. I mean,
that's it. I mean, I you know what but but
what's not great is the amount. You know. I looked
at one of my guys on Tottenham and I saw
everybody to some degree around the world has something going

(50:28):
on with their country. And I saw Pedro Poro with
Spain and he's in the he's in the lineup now.
He was not on the team that won the Euros
over the over the summer, and it means a lot
to them, of course it does. It's always going to
mean a lot to someone to play for your country.
But boy, that is kind of not great. I mean,

(50:49):
because they're just there's tournament after tournament that I don't
even understand what we're doing. And I'm telling you, to
some level, I I might be the poster person to
be able to understand it, and I don't understand it.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, it is tricky when you do have at any
given time World Cup qualifiers, Nation League games, friendlies all happening,
and it depends on where you are in the world,
over what international break you're competing, and it's hard to
keep track of and it is also hard to understand,
yes what matters, like which of these matches really do matter?

(51:27):
And I know I kind of tuned out, like I
didn't really watch much at all this weekends over the like,
because these breaks are usually like ten days long, and
I did just other than looking at some highlights and
seeing some cool goals, like there just wasn't no I
don't know, because it's like it doesn't mean anything. There's
no stakes, right, Like that's what we like sports, like
when there's real gravity, like, oh, if you lose, this

(51:49):
has some bearing on your ability to go win the
thing that you want to go in, and a lot
of it, Like that's what we love the Premier League,
like every match matters, like you can't really drop points
if you want to win a championship. Very all the
same thing college football. Every one of those games really matters.
There isn't nearly that level during the course of any
random international break. There just isn't. There are too many

(52:10):
ways to same thing with Champions League. Not to go
into that, but there are so many back doors to
kind of continue on, yet so many chances to kind
of screw up and keep moving, you know. That's that's
kind of the world we're in right now. Unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Yep, Well, I'll end I'll end the pod with an
rip to Louis Tian and Louis Tiant was tremendous. I
just watched a documentary that was on PBS about Cuban
players that came over, especially during the revolution after the revolution.
Fascinating and Louis Tiant's dad was a part of that.

(52:45):
And then Louis Tiant himself and so a young Tony
Perez came over at nineteen, you know, had to leave
his family behind a lot of other pieces of that puzzle.
But yeah, rip Louis. He was awesome.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
He was a legends. I think it was Bill Simmons
who I think tweeted out that of all the guys
that he watched pitch, you know, a family. He said,
maybe nobody owns the park like Louis, with the exception
of Pedro. It was Pedro Martinez maybe one D two.
I mean that's and we've had some pretty good pictures
at family over the years.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Yeah, Roger Clement, Rodger.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Clemons was in that, and he didn't know Bill Simmons
h Roger Clemons, but I mean he wasn't in that conversation,
you know. I mean, Louis was a great My favorite
Louisian memory comes from bad news bears in breaking training.
So the second Bad News Bears film where the picture
who they bring in, who's like what Scott Bayo's little
brother or whatever is doing his impressions of the different pictures,

(53:42):
and Louis Tiant is like one of the guys that
he does. So as a kid, we would do that,
Louis Tian and he would little thing. So we would
do that in the front yard when with their baseball bat.
Mit So but yes, again always said when the greats
passed away like that.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
So and you know he spent his entire time in
Boston afterwards, and you know you'd see him, you know,
really an unbelievable ambassador. So there you go. I'm not
trying to be a downer. A life well lived.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
A life well lived, we can celebrate. That's I think
that's the hard thing about this, Like when someone great
like that passes away after a good long life, it's
tough because there's loss, but then it does give you
a chance to go back and relive some of those
memories that you had with this person, or you think
about their greatness. The same thing happened. There was a
Dutch football and great who passed away last week. Yes,
who was on the periphery really of maybe our consciousness,

(54:35):
but was a huge member of some of those total
football teams of the early seventies and was a World
Cup runner up. And it's like, you have a chance
to relive this guy's legacy and bring him back to
the fore and think about what he did to the game.
Like that's that's the one silver lining in all this
when you lose someone great like that. So rip, Rip Louis.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Yes, so the pod goes on One's sixty one in
the books.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
One's sixty one in the books. Yeah, Well, we'll be
back in two weeks to talk more U and the
athletics again. It'll be nearly November by that time. It
was crazy to think about. But enjoy all the great
un the athletic stuff that's coming up this week. A
lot of home events on the way as the incredibly
the fall sports season begins to wind down a little bit. Bill,
enjoy everything coming up this week. Should be a great weekends.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Thanks Alex, We'll see you big.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Thanks to Alex Knocker Johnson who not only was our
guests today, he's going to help publish this podcast here
in a few hours time, which is great. So big
thanks to Alec and Paul Rawlston as well for their
work on the back ends for Bill. I'm Alex Seiner.
Thanks again for listening. Yes, enjoy a great weekend of
you and the athletics on the way and we'll talk
to you soon