His first business venture was a magazine called Student at the age of 16.[3] In 1970, he set up an audio-record mail-order business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson’s Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label.
“The IU culture actually started to change back in the spring of 2011. The players we had started to mature. Work ethics that had been substandard got a lot better. I think what they started to absorb was that there was going to be real competition for playing time. It’s been fun to watch.”
Wry, folksy, animated, and, of course, salty, Bob Knight had the crowd snorting and guffawing at the Gathering Place in Greenwood last night, for A Knight to Remember, a fundraiser benefitting the Greenwood Public Library. Here, a few of the highlights.
All right, Indiana fans—let’s be realistic about things here. Before you anoint this year’s team as National Champions in the preseason, you should come to the realization that it’s just not going to happen. Sure, there will be plenty of wins and a high tournament seed, but that’s about the extent of it.
The Sporting News ranks his Indiana Hoosiers the No. 1 team in the nation, as does the first USA Today/ESPN poll of this college basketball season, just released on Oct. 17. In the 2011-12 campaign, Zeller was the co-Big Ten freshman of the year, helping IU to a Sweet Sixteen showing in the NCAA tournament. Here, our November 2011 prelude to his success.
Put on your best NFL jersey and fire up the confetti machines! Super Bowl XLVI was named Event of the Year. The award was presented at the SportsTravel Awards luncheon, held on Oct. 4 in Detroit. Given out by SportsTravel magazine in the Best Professional Single-Sport Event category, the award celebrates excellence in the field and in sports-event management and production each year. Super Bowl XLVI joins last year’s winner in the same category—the Indy 500.
IndyCar star and Bachelorette heartthrob Arie Luyendyk, Jr. was in town recently for a celebrity cook-off benefiting the Children’s Bureau. He stopped by Indianapolis Monthly beforehand to reveal some his favorite local date spots for our Best Of Indy issue, coming up in December. You’ll have to pick up the magazine to find out what they are—but we got him to stick around long enough to offer a few other nuggets.
The downtown canal was supposed to be used for transportation, but the city ran out of money in the 19th century before fully realizing the vision. Nevertheless, 21st century Naptowners have found ways to use the water, and the IUPUI Regatta is our favorite. Tomorrow’s canoe-race festival gives us a reason to lounge on the north basin’s large terrace steps, which we usually jog or bike past, thinking, One of these days, we’re going to hang out on the steps and watch the world go by. The regatta—one of downtown’s best free festivals all year—is the perfect time to make good on that promise. The event has gotten so big after just four years, it attracts 112 teams, thousands of spectators, and live bands, and it even has its own app. It also answers that burning question: Would you contract a skin disease by falling into the canal? The verdict appears to be no—members of the IUPUI swim team actually stand chest-deep in the cold water to position the boats, and so far, none of them have gotten E. coli. “It may seem gross because there are a lot of different things floating around in the canal, like leaves and bugs and other squishy things, but it is such a help to those who plan the regatta that it is definitely worth it,” says Elizabeth Bourgeois, a swimmer taking her fourth plunge in the canal tomorrow.
Publicly dedicated in August 2008, Lucas Oil Stadium has stood 49 months strong (“ColtsStrong” to some) for quite some time, really, and yet I just made my virgin voyage to an Indianapolis Colts game this past Sunday. I know, how shabby of me. But in all fairness, tickets had come my way a few times, though I was unable ultimately to use them, to attend, for one reason or another. And I did take in the Evansville F. J. Reitz versus Indianapolis Cathedral high school 5A football final there in 2009, a raucous game between southern Indiana and local Catholic pigskin powerhouses. That was a great time.
The Forrest Lucas mansion provided a crisp, perfect evening backdrop for the BMW Pro-Am selection party on Tuesday in Carmel. The dapper crowd of more than 300 golfers was treated to great food and drinks prior to the fast-paced selection countdown. PGA pro Rory McIlroy, a native of Northern Ireland who clinched the Deutsche Bank Championship in Massachusetts this past weekend, was in attendance at the soiree, notably without his usual arm candy, Danish tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki. (McIlroy warded off another star player in this BMW Championship in that Deutsch Bank final round: one Tiger Woods, conspicuously absent on this night.)
