Running on Empty: The Brickyard 400's Problems
“They may have a good race over there,” says Lucas Oil Raceway GM Wes Collier. “But I guarantee it won’t be better than it would have been at our racetrack.”
If ever there were a time to be strong, Jim Peal is facing it. On Jan. 29, the Butler strength coach announced that he has colon cancer, and the groundswell of online support was almost immediate. In addition to expressing encouragement on Twitter, people have been posting on the Facebook page “I Have Coach Peal’s Back,” which already has more than 800 likes. The creators of the page will compile the messages into a booklet to give to Peal, and they’re considering “PealStrong” wristbands and T-shirts.
Though he has been whispering it to confidants for decades, the news emerged in mass media just today: The artist formerly known as Gomer Pyle is gay. A stalwart of Indianapolis 500 festivities, Jim Nabors has sung “Back Home Again in Indiana” 33 times at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” since 1972. In 2012, the Andy Griffith Show alum was unable to attend the Indy 500 race due to heart-valve replacement surgery in Hawaii, where he resides. It turns out that Hawaii is also where he met his longtime partner Stan Cadwallader. The two men met in 1975; Cadwallader was a Honolulu firefighter, and they took up immediately, but just recently wed in Washington state on Jan. 15. (Same-sex marriage became legal there in December 2012.)
Joani Crean has a pretty stressful week ahead with high-pressure IU games against Purdue and Michigan before the family leaves for New Orleans. Forget scanning the Assembly Hall crowd for Meg Ryan; we’ll be looking for the feisty Mrs. Crean and Crimson in the stands now—and in the Superdome this Sunday.
On the night of Jan. 16, racing legend Parnelli Jones joined a new era of racing history. While attending the Automotive News World Congress Dinner to present Dario Franchitti with his “Baby Borg” replica of the Borg-Warner Trophy that drivers have received since 1988, Jones was honored with his very own “Baby Borg.”
The former is the actress perhaps best known for playing “Sally” to Billy Crystal’s “Harry,” and the latter is some local corn-fed guy who was born in a small town once upon a time and went on to warble about pink houses and two creatures named Jack and Diane.
Coming into this season, it seemed the most likely NBA draft prospects among the current Hoosier lineup were Cody Zeller (duh!) and Kentucky-killer Christian Watford. But two games into IU’s Big Ten campaign, with today’s tough matchup against eighth-ranked Minnesota looming (noon, Big Ten Network), another player is getting all the buzz: Victor Oladipo.
Butler University’s men’s basketball team has permeated NCAA hoops news this season already, with splashy victories over then-No. 9 North Carolina and then-No. 1 Indiana. While the success of Brad Stevens & Co. is grand recently, the same can be said of a certain four-legged aspect of the squad.
