Raise your hand if you remember the Olympics Triplecast from the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona.

Keep your hand raised if you paid the $125 it cost to receive 15 days of 24-hour coverage on three channels – aptly named Red, White and Blue – through your cable provider.

I’m sure lots of hands went down.

The Triplecast, a partnership between NBC and Cablevision, was a colossal failure. Americans didn’t see a need to pay for coverage beyond what they could watch on NBC for free. NBC and Cablevision hoped for 2 million subscribers and ended up with 200,000.

But as you can see by how much Olympics coverage has grown, they were on to something.

As the Summer Games in Tokyo officially begin Friday with the opening ceremony, merely a slice of the 7,000 hours of coverage NBC will provide, I think of how prescient the Triplecast was. The only thing wrong with it was the price.

NBC’s coverage of these Games will span six channels (NBC, USA, CNBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel, Golf Channel) and Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. It also can be found at NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.

While it won’t be hard for people to find the Olympics, it might be hard for some to watch. Popular opinion says the Games shouldn’t go on. Japan declared a state of emergency because of a surge in COVID-19 cases, with a majority of citizens still unvaccinated.

Competitions will take place without fans, making for the type of broadcast many sports viewers grew to detest last year. Plus, competitors already have been ruled out of the Games after testing positive for the coronavirus, and there’s a fear more will follow.

Like most big sporting events in the last year, viewership figures to be down, and not just for those reasons. Viewing habits are fractionalized, the 14-hour time difference won’t work with some viewers’ schedules and there has been almost zero buzz in advance of the Games.

It’s an ominous backdrop, but NBC is undaunted.

“As a broadcaster of the Games, if there’s going to be an Olympic Games, we’ll be here to chronicle it,” NBC Olympics executive producer Molly Solomon told reporters. “We also are following the strict and rigorous pandemic protocols that the IOC and the Japanese government have put in place. So we’re fully confident that we can responsibly produce these Games.”

Solomon believes people are craving a shared experience that the Olympics can deliver. They also can fill a void in the sports calendar, coming right after the NBA Finals, during MLB’s dog days of August and right before the NFL preseason is in full swing.

NBC will go to great lengths to make up for athletes not having moral support on site. The network’s “Friends and Family” innovation will integrate watch parties from the U.S. into the broadcast. Their biggest endeavor will come from Universal Resorts in Orlando, Florida.

“We, alongside the [United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee], are putting together a two-week-long watch party in primetime where family members of Team USA will attend and be able to watch coverage and cheer for their loved ones together,” Solomon said. “We’re going to have a reporter there and the ability to connect relatives with athletes.”

Despite a potential drop in viewership, the Olympics figure to be the most watched programming on TV, particularly in prime time. During the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, NBC averaged 27 million viewers in prime time (including digital), according to Sports Media Watch.

NBC won’t ignore the COVID crisis in Japan. Solomon said that will be evident from the network’s first prime-time broadcast at the opening ceremony. Lester Holt, formerly of CBS 2 Chicago, will set the scene and explain how the Olympics are operating within the state of emergency.

“Our policy and our coverage of news has always been, how does that impact the athletes, how does it impact the Games, how does it touch the Games going forward,” Solomon said. “So as news around any of these issues comes up, of course, we will cover it.”

There will be plenty more to cover. Gymnast Simone Biles might be the American face of the Games. The U.S. basketball teams are always appointment viewing. The women’s soccer team is trying to become the first to win a World Cup and Olympic gold in succession. And baseball and softball are back.

There’s no doubt NBC hopes to chronicle competitions more than COVID.

Remote patrol

• The White Sox return to ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” this weekend against the onetime archrival Brewers in Milwaukee. Eduardo Perez will fill in for Alex Rodriguez, who’s taking a prescheduled week off. (Talk about good timing.) Maybe ESPN can dig up video of former managers Terry Bevington and Phil Garner going at it in 1995.
• ESPN2 will air the first round of the NHL Draft at 7 p.m. Friday from NHL Network studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. John Buccigross will host alongside Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet analysts Elliotte Friedman and Sam Cosentino. NHL Network will air Rounds 2-7 beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday.
• Pat Hughes will fill in for Jon “Boog” Sciambi for the Diamondbacks-Cubs game Sunday on Marquee Sports Network. Sciambi will call the Sox-Brewers game that night nationally for ESPN Radio.

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Reshorna Fitzpatrick stood with four other pastors as police placed white markers near shell casings strewn on the street and sidewalk near Theodore Herzl Elementary School in North Lawndale.

Five people — three of them teens — had been shot there, minutes after five other people had been shot just blocks away. A 15-year-old boy died in that shooting.

“I’m heartbroken,” said Fitzpatrick, pastor of the Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church down the street. “It’s heartbreaking and shocking because we had gotten to a place where we were really experiencing some peace.”

The two shootings Wednesday evening were among three mass attacks in Chicago in a single day. The other occurred close to midnight in Lincoln Park when someone in a passing car shot eight people who had been riding in a party bus.

At least 34 other shootings this year have wounded four or more people, according to a Sun-Times analysis of city data. Over the last five years, Chicago has recorded the most mass shootings in the nation by far, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Three of the victims from the attacks were 15 and younger, continuing a trend of rising violence against children this year.

The neighborhood where they were shot, North Lawndale, has been more deadly this year than this time last year, from 21 homicides to 30.

“I really wish that the community would come together and operate from a place of peace,” Fitzpatrick said. “That they would establish some type of faith, some type of order in the homes with their family members and have conversations, particularly around peace, and also around just being community — to just come in and be one.”

The first attack happened around 6 p.m. when a gunman or gunmen opened fire at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Christiana Avenue, according to Chicago Police Deputy Chief Ernest Cato.

Damarion L. Benson, 15, was shot in the head and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Police earlier gave his age as 14. He lived about 2 ¹/₂ miles away on the Near West Side.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Another boy, 16, was also struck in the head and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in “grave” condition, police said.

Three men were also taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where they were stabilized, police said. A 22-year-old was shot in the foot and another, 24, was struck in the leg. A third man, also 24, was shot in the hip.

Minutes later, three teenagers and two men were shot outside Herzl Elementary near Douglas Boulevard and Ridgeway Avenue, police said. They included a 14-year-old boy who was getting into a car with his dad. The four other victims were 15, 17, 19 and 22.

Police described it as “extremely chaotic” scene with “multiple shooters.” A car had flipped on its side, apparently the result of someone making a turn at a high rate of speed, police said.

The 19-year-old was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, the 17-year-old was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the back, the 14-year-old was shot in the arm and was in good condition, the 15-year-old was shot in the leg and was in good condition and the 22-year-old was struck in the thigh and also was in good condition.

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Homicides in Chicago — A list of every victim: Our comprehensive database tracks every homicide in the city with information about victims, locations and more.

Though only three blocks apart, the two shootings didn’t appear to be related, Cato said. He pleaded with community members to come forward with information.

“We’re going to need an all-hands-on-deck approach, and that approach is going to involve … our community getting involved and saying what’s going on,” he said. “Our community who has cellphone pictures, who has Facebook information. We’re going to need your help.”

On the two mass shootings occurring so close to one another, Cato said, “Unfortunately, we’re seeing this not only in our city. We’re seeing this in our country, mass shootings. If you’re asking for my feelings, I’m not happy about it at all. I think all of us should be sad about what’s going on in our country and in our city.”

Police Supt. David Brown complained Thursday morning that many of the victims were not cooperating with investigators.

“That signals to us that, ‘We want revenge. We don’t want police solving this case,'” he told reporters at a news conference. “It’s not an exaggeration to say we are in a battle for the heart and soul of some of these communities as it relates to violence.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Fitzpatrick, the executive pastor of Stone Temple, said she was working in a nearby community peace garden when she heard gunshots. Then she saw people running and shooting each other.

“It kind of reminded me of some of the westerns that my dad [watched],” said Fitzpatrick, who said there was rapid shooting for 30 to 60 seconds.

Fitzpatrick said her church hosts “Wellness Sundays” on the boulevard and invites community members to socialize and participate in activities like face painting and tight-rope walking on the grassy median.

“It’s really been working,” she said. “That’s why this is really shocking to me.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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Eight people traveling on a party bus were wounded in a drive-by shooting Wednesday night after it stopped for a break at a gas station in Lincoln Park.

It was the third mass shooting of the day and occurred just hours after two attacks on the West Side wounded a total of 10 people, including a 14-year-old boy who died.

In the latest attack, two Jeep Grand Cherokees and another car pulled up in the 1600 block of North LaSalle Drive shortly before midnight and gunmen began firing at the group, Chicago police said.

Police did not say if the victims were on or off the bus and released no other details of the shooting. No one was in custody and police released no description of the attackers.

A 24-year-old man was shot in the arm and a 26-year-old woman was shot in the leg, police said. They were both taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where the man was in fair condition and the woman was in serious condition.

A 23-year-old man was struck in the groin and was also taken to Northwestern in serious condition, police said. Two men, 42 and 52, were struck in the leg and taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, where they were in fair condition.

A 27-year-old man was struck in the chest and later dropped off at Northwestern in critical condition, police said. A 29-year-old man was struck in the arm and went to Rush University Medical Center, then transferred to Stroger Hospital in fair condition.

A 26-year-old woman was shot in the hand and drove to Jackson Park Hospital where she was in good condition, police said.

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A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a veteran Chicago police officer to 15 months in prison for his role in a large-scale, international gambling ring.

Nicholas Stella, 43, is the third person to be sentenced for his role in the gambling ring once run by Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall last year gave three months of home detention to DelGiudice’s father, Eugene “Geno” DelGiudice. And last month, she gave six months of community confinement to Todd Blanken.

But she also ordered Stella into Chicago’s federal lockup six months ago, after prosecutors said Stella “violently assaulted his girlfriend” last January at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rosemont.

Kendall cited that incident when she handed down Stella’s sentence Thursday, telling him “there can be no tolerance for that in our society.”

The judge also said Stella’s status as a police officer is “so troubling.” Seeing an officer act as though he is above the law brings suspicion to “all of the really good officers out there who are trying to do their jobs — and they are trying so hard, with integrity and good character,” Kendall said.

Before Kendall sentenced him, Stella acknowledged he was “100% guilty” and said he’d “never, or would ever, use my police powers or resources to aid in any crime, let alone gambling.”

Prosecutors have described the operation led by Vincent DelGiuduice from 2016 until 2019 as “an absolutely massive, long-term, very profitable” international Chicago-based gambling ring, and the judge has said the “absolute breadth of this case was remarkable.”

Also charged as part of the February 2020 indictment was Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher, brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher. Donald Trump pardoned Casey Urlacher during the final hours of his presidency in January.

The feds have tied the DelGiudice gambling ring to the mob-connected gambling ring once run by bookie Gregory Paloian of Elmwood Park.

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Stella to between a year and 18 months in prison, accusing Stella of betraying his oath as a Chicago police officer “by playing an integral role in a multimillion-dollar illegal gambling operation.” They said it employed “overseas co-conspirators, encrypted communications tools, and engaged in significant money laundering” in an effort to avoid detection.

They said Stella worked as a bookie, and they said his gamblers generated more than $450,000 in profits in 2018. The feds also estimated that Stella likely oversaw bettors who wagered tens of millions of dollars.

They have said Stella destroyed his phone when investigators sought to search it but have not said how. Stella’s defense attorney Michael Clancy told the judge Thursday that Stella threw the phone away but “actually went back to the Dumpster and tried to find the phone” before speaking to the feds and admitting his role in the gambling ring.

Clancy also insisted in a court memo that Stella and those connected to him accounted for only up to 3% of the gambling operation’s business. He said Stella spent 20 years as a Chicago police officer, receiving two department commendations and 40 honorable mentions. Clancy said Stella has not carried a weapon since 2011 because of an injury.

A CPD spokesperson said his status with the department is inactive.

“[Stella] was a gambling junkie who started working for Vincent [DelGiudice] to support his gambling addiction,” Clancy wrote. “Stella gambled away all of the money he made as a bookie. … Stella lost on video gaming and sports gambling. Stella did not own a house, drive an expensive car, or live lavishly. Rather, he put every cent he made from booking (and then some) right back into the coffers of the operation.”

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PEORIA — Former Bradley athletic director and Thornridge basketball coach Ron Ferguson died July 8 at a Peoria senior care facility at age 89.

Ferguson had suffered from dementia the last few years. But he built an indelible legacy at Bradley and through a lifetime in sports.

There will be a celebration of life for Ferguson from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, July 22 at Bradley’s Hayden-Clark Alumni Center, located at 816 N. Tobias Lane in Peoria.

The longtime coach and administrator took over as BU athletic director from Chuck Orsborn in 1978 and re-made the Braves athletic department through his reign, which ended in 1996.

One of the last things Ferguson did was hire Jim DeRose to coach a Bradley soccer program for which Ferguson envisioned big things.

“Ron just loved Bradley, loved Peoria,” DeRose said. “In the years after he left, he’d always reach out and ask if there was anything he could do to help me, anything we needed. What a great man to have in BU athletics.

“I wouldn’t be here celebrating 25 years if not for Ron Ferguson taking that chance.”

Ferguson — head coach of the iconic Dolton Thornridge boys basketball teams of the early 1970s — was a charter member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and also a member of the Bradley Athletic Hall of Fame and the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame.

Ferguson set a high bar for athletic directors to follow after him at Bradley. And he did all he could to help them succeed.

“I will always be appreciative of the warm welcome Ron gave to me when I arrived at Bradley six years ago,” Bradley vice president of intercollegiate athletics Dr. Chris Reynolds said. “During a lunch, his love of Bradley University and Bradley Athletics was abundantly clear as he recounted fond memories he experienced with our Braves sport programs.

“Ron is an icon throughout our community, the state of Illinois and the Missouri Valley Conference and his passion for Bradley Athletics serves as an inspiration to me and many others.”

Ferguson was a standout three-sport athlete at Harvey Thornton High School, helping the basketball team reach the Sweet 16 at Huff Gym in Champaign as a junior in 1948.

He studied physical education at Illinois with hopes of becoming a coach. After graduation and a stint in the army, he became an assistant coach in three sports at Thornton Junior College (now South Suburban College).

Ferguson was renowned as the coach of the Thornridge boys basketball team, which won back-to-back state titles in 1971 and 1972 and is regarded as the best team in state history. That team included Quinn Buckner, who went on to Olympic and NBA fame.

Ferguson went on from Thornridge to serve as assistant coach and assistant athletics director at Illinois State for three years, then moved to BU’s athletic helm.

“I was blessed to inherit a great situation from Ron,” said former BU athletic director Ken Kavanagh, who took over after Ferguson left in 1996 and now is in his 12th year as AD at Florida Gulf Coast. “Both Ozzie (Orsborn) and Fergie lived in Naples when I came down here, and I got to visit with them a lot, was blessed to have their friendship for such a long time.

“We had Peoria Day down here, because there were a lot of people from central Illinois in this area and they’d get together. Ron got talked into going to one, and at the end of the first banquet he attended, they announced he and his wife, Linda, were the new co-chairmen of the group. That’s just how he was, you could always count on him to be involved.”

Ferguson led Bradley’s basketball exit from Robertson Field House for the brand new and much larger Carver Arena.

On his watch, Bradley basketball returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 25 years. He also spearheaded Bradley athletics into a new fundraising era and enhanced or built facilities for softball and soccer.

The soccer program and women’s sports were launched. He developed what is now the Braves Club and took athletic fundraising to new levels at the university.

Ferguson also pushed for Illinois State to join the Missouri Valley Conference, seeing an opportunity to save travel expenses and create a rivalry.

A heavyweight statewide, he helped bring the state high school all-star basketball games to Peoria, and later, his expertise was invaluable in assisting the city land the Class A and Class AA state high school basketball tournaments for Carver Arena.

Ferguson moved from the athletic director’s chair in 1996 to assistant to the president, where he remained for three years before retiring.

“When I was AD, I wasn’t a desk guy sitting there going over the budget every five minutes,” he said in a 2013 Journal Star story. “I got out in the community. That’s what I was hired to do was be the front guy for the athletic department.

“I was very happy at Bradley and love Peoria. I was happy at Illinois State, too. I never had a job in my life where I was unhappy or got fired. I enjoyed every place I’ve been.”

In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the “Ron Ferguson Scholarship” at Bradley.

Read more at usatoday.com

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I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes

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Tedeschi-Trucks Band is the perfect band to revisit Layla and all the other assorted love songs

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By Howard Moore,
today at 11:40 am

What’ll you do when you get lonely
And nobody’s waiting by your side?
You’ve been running and hiding much too long
You know it’s just your foolish pride

We all know the story. Beatles legend George Harrison is married to model Pattie Boyd. It’s not working out. Harrison’s friend, guitar hero Eric Clapton is smitten with Ms. Boyd. Although she’s not happy with George, she’s not ready to leave him and certainly not for one of his best friends. People tend to do strange things when they’re in love, especially if it’s not returned. Eric Clapton wrote “Layla”, a song about unrequited love that turned into one of classic rock’s greatest anthems.

On November 9, 1970, Clapton and some of his favorite musicians at that time released the double album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” under the pseudonym of Derek and the Dominos. One of those musicians was guitarist Duane Allman from The Allman Brothers Band. For seventy-five minutes the two guitarists traded licks. The guitars were searing and soaring. It’s one of the greatest guitar-centric albums ever. Fifty-one years later, those guitars still holds up.

If it was only the guitars that would be enough, but the album was much more than that. The songs that Clapton either wrote or covered showed how much in love he was with Boyd. You could feel the pain and angst in his vocals. When you combine those vocals with outstanding music, it makes for a special album. “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” is certainly that and more.

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down
Like a fool, I fell in love with you
You turned my whole world upside down

Derek Trucks was born in 1979; nine years after the release of “Layla.” He said as he grew up his father helped him get to sleep by playing “Layla” and also the music of The Allman Brothers Band. The latter certainly made sense as his uncle Butch Trucks was a founding member and drummer for the band. By the time he was ten years old, Trucks was becoming a child prodigy on the guitar and he was obsessed with the slide guitar playing of Duane Allman. By the time he was twenty, he formally joined the Allman Brothers Band after several years of performing with them as a guest artist.

Susan Tedeschi was born on November 9, 1970. Coincidentally, that was the same day as the release of “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.” Her bluesy voice has been compared to many great artists from the past. She formed her own band in 1993. She married Derek Trucks in 1991. Both maintained their own bands before deciding to somewhat meld them together to form the Tedeschi-Trucks Band.

It’s easy to classify Tedeschi-Trucks as a jam band. They’re known for their live performances in which many of the songs are stretched out with solos from Trucks on his slide guitar. While they perform their own original material, they also do plenty of covers of popular songs from the classic rock era. Some of those have come from the “Layla” album. It wasn’t a huge reach to go from three or four tunes to performing the entire album in one set.

Make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane
Please don’t say we’ll never find a way
And tell me all my love’s in vain

In 2019, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band was performing at the LOCKN’ Festival. The fans attending the concert had no idea what they were about to hear. This wasn’t unusual because the Tedeschi-Trucks setlist is constantly changing, even from one night to the next. The crowd settled in to hear the performance of “Layla Revisited”. The album was performed in its entirety from start to finish.

To pull this off, the band needed more guitars for a more powerful sound. Joining them that night was Trey Anastasio, from the band Phish, and Doyle Bramhill, who has played and toured with Eric Clapton, as has Derek Trucks, for many years. To say it worked is an understatement. What the fans heard and also shows up on the record is more than ninety minutes of rocking guitars….both solos and dueling licks.

While Anastacio and Bramhill more than hold their own and provide some tasty solos, the highlights from this set are provided by Derek Trucks and his now-legendary slide guitar. Each time he stretches out a lengthy solo, it can’t help but remind you of Duane Allman and his legendary slide play on the original Layla album. This is nothing new. Trucks has been doing this and giving all of us those same feelings for a couple of decades. However, on this album, he’s reaching a new high. This is one of his best performances yet.

The only downside for me on this album was I needed more Susan Tedeschi, especially in a lead singing role. Yeah, the vocals by Anastacio and Tedeschi-Trucks member Mike Mitchell are fine, but fans of the band come to hear the great voice of Tedeschi. Next time, more Susan…a lot more of her, please. But that’s just a minor complaint, especially when you get more than an hour of guitar greatness.

They are very few bands around today that can do justice in re-doing “Layla and Other Assorted Lovesongs.” Tedeschi-Trucks Band, because of their history with the music and their skilled musicianship made Derek and his Dominos proud.

Layla, you’ve got me on my knees
Layla, I’m begging, darling, please
Layla, darling won’t you ease my worried mind

Related Post: The Allman Brothers Band finale

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A new day will soon dawn at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

The Tony Award-winning Chicago company on Thursday announced the appointment of co-artistic directors — Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis — marking the first time in Steppenwolf’s history that the job will be shared by two individuals, and the first time that a person of color will helm the troupe.

Davis and Francis, both ensemble members in the company, will assume their leadership roles in late August, following the departure of artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, who announced in May that she was stepping down from the post she’d held since 2015.

“We knew that Anna was most likely not going to renew her contract, so the ensemble had already been in discussion [since last fall] about the succession plan. And through all of those discussions, two beautiful things were born: one, deciding to adopt a co-artistic director model, which to us is basically ensemble leadership. And the second was it was the first democratic process that the ensemble had in electing the two next artistic directors,” Francis said during a recent joint interview with Davis.

“Glenn and I raised our hands as a team and the ensemble voted. And because of the amazing work [that late artistic director] Martha [Lavey] and Anna had done before us, this felt like a natural evolution for the company. Because we already operate as an ensemble company, this idea of ensemble leadership … is such a great exploration for us because Glenn and I have two very different world views and life experiences. It can only benefit the company and the city.”

Davis and Francis have extensive experience locally and across the globe in the theater world, on stage, behind the scenes and in educational settings.

Francis boasts a resume as actor, director, teaching artist and educator, having co-founded Black Box Acting in 2009, serving more than 1,000 Chicago-area theater students and artists. A transplanted Coloradan, she’s a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf and familiar to theatergoers for her roles in “The Doppelganger (an international farce),” “Between Riverside and Crazy” and “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.”

Davis, a native of Chicago’s South Side, is a graduate of the Theatre School at DePaul University and the first African American to graduate from the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. His work at Steppenwolf includes “Downstate” and “The Brother/Sister Plays.” He’s a partner at the Cast Iron Entertainment collective along with Sterling K. Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Michael Hill, Andre Holland, and Tarell Alvin McCraney.

“I wouldn’t say doors were closed to me as an artist of color, but when you’re a Black artist, the doors are limited in number,” Davis said. “So we formed this production company and we started to build projects in film, TV and theater. … If the world is not going to put us in this, we are going to put us in this.”

The duo already has a sense of how to divvy up the job.

“Glenn is definitely going to be the point person on programming and institutional advancement,” Francis said, “and I’ll be the point person on things like education and artistic and organizational leadership. But not one decision will be made without us being in conversation with each other.”

Central to their plans will be Steppenwolf’s new 50,000-square-foot Arts & Education Center, scheduled to open this fall.

“We have a beautiful new building that will be an entry point to reach out to communities in Chicago that don’t normally get to come to places like Steppenwolf … communities that have been historically marginalized, to be honest, that don’t get the chance to come to Lincoln Park and experience cultural entities like Steppenwolf,” Davis said. “So we think of that building as a love letter to the city. The arts and education building will be pivotal in terms of all the things we will do going forward. There’s a big audience we want to cultivate of the next five, 10, 15 years, and that will be their entry point. But also we want to continue to center the ensemble, that everything continues to emanate from the artists who built the company years ago and who are the main ingredient.”

Contributing: Darel Jevens

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Reshorna Fitzpatrick stood with four other pastors as police placed white markers near shell casings strewn on the street and sidewalk near Theodore Herzl Elementary School in North Lawndale.

Five people — three of them teens — had been shot there, minutes after five other people had been shot just blocks away. A 15-year-old boy died in that shooting.

“I’m heartbroken,” said Fitzpatrick, pastor of the Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church down the street. “It’s heartbreaking and shocking because we had gotten to a place where we were really experiencing some peace.”

The two shootings Wednesday evening were among three mass attacks in Chicago in a single day. The other occurred close to midnight in Lincoln Park when someone in a passing car shot eight people who had been riding in a party bus.

At least 34 other shootings this year have wounded four or more people, according to a Sun-Times analysis of city data. Over the last five years, Chicago has recorded the most mass shootings in the nation by far, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Three of the victims from the attacks were 15 and younger, continuing a trend of rising violence against children this year.

The neighborhood where they were shot, North Lawndale, has been more deadly this year than this time last year, from 21 homicides to 30.

“I really wish that the community would come together and operate from a place of peace,” Fitzpatrick said. “That they would establish some type of faith, some type of order in the homes with their family members and have conversations, particularly around peace, and also around just being community — to just come in and be one.”

The first attack happened around 6 p.m. when a gunman or gunmen opened fire at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Christiana Avenue, according to Chicago Police Deputy Chief Ernest Cato.

Damarion L. Benson, 15, was shot in the head and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Police earlier gave his age as 14. He lived about 2 ¹/₂ miles away on the Near West Side.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Another boy, 16, was also struck in the head and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in “grave” condition, police said.

Three men were also taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where they were stabilized, police said. A 22-year-old was shot in the foot and another, 24, was struck in the leg. A third man, also 24, was shot in the hip.

Minutes later, three teenagers and two men were shot outside Herzl Elementary near Douglas Boulevard and Ridgeway Avenue, Cato said.

An 18-year-old man was shot in the upper body and was taken in critical condition to Mouint Sinai Hospital, police said.

Two boys, 15 and 17, were taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said. The 15-year-old was shot in the leg and the 17-year-old suffered a graze wound to the back.

A third boy, 14, was shot in the arm and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition, police said. A 22-year-old man was struck in the thigh and taken to the hospital in good condition.

At the scene, a car was flipped on its side, apparently the result of someone making a turn at a high rate of speed, according to Cato.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Though only three blocks apart, the two shootings didn’t appear to be related, Cato said. He pleaded with community members to come forward with information.

“We’re going to need an all-hands-on-deck approach, and that approach is going to involve … our community getting involved and saying what’s going on,” he said. “Our community who has cellphone pictures, who has Facebook information. We’re going to need your help.”

On the two mass shootings occurring so close to one another, Cato said, “Unfortunately, we’re seeing this not only in our city. We’re seeing this in our country, mass shootings. If you’re asking for my feelings, I’m not happy about it at all. I think all of us should be sad about what’s going on in our country and in our city.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Fitzpatrick, the executive pastor of Stone Temple, said she was working in a nearby community peace garden when she heard gunshots. Then she saw people running and shooting each other.

“It kind of reminded me of some of the westerns that my dad [watched],” said Fitzpatrick, who said there was rapid shooting for 30 to 60 seconds.

Fitzpatrick said her church hosts “Wellness Sundays” on the boulevard and invites community members to socialize and participate in activities like face painting and tight-rope walking on the grassy median.

“It’s really been working,” she said. “That’s why this is really shocking to me.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998.

Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said a day ahead of the opening ceremony that director Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed. He was accused of using a joke about the Holocaust in his comedy act, including the phrase “Let’s play Holocaust.”

“We found out that Mr. Kobayashi, in his own performance, has used a phrase ridiculing a historical tragedy,” Hashimoto said. “We deeply apologize for causing such a development the day before the opening ceremony and for causing troubles and concerns to many involved parties as well as the people in Tokyo and the rest of the country.”

Tokyo has been plagued with scandals since being awarded the Games in 2013. French investigators are looking into alleged bribes paid to International Olympic Committee members to influence the vote for Tokyo. The fallout forced the resignation two years ago of Tsunekazu Takeda, who headed the Japanese Olympic Committee and was an IOC member.

The opening ceremony of the pandemic-delayed Games is scheduled for Friday. The ceremony will be held without spectators as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections, although some officials, guests and media will attend.

“We are going to have the opening ceremony tomorrow and, yes, I am sure there are a lot of people who are not feeling easy about the opening of the Games,” Hashimoto said. “But we are going to open the Games tomorrow under this difficult situation.”

Earlier this week, composer Keigo Oyamada, whose music was to be used at the ceremony, was forced to resign because of past bullying of his classmates, which he boasted about in magazine interviews. The segment of his music will not be used.

Soon after a video clip and script of Kobayashi’s performance were revealed, criticism flooded social media.

“Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based human rights group.

He also noted that the Nazis gassed Germans with disabilities.

“Any association of this person to the Tokyo Olympics would insult the memory of 6 million Jews and make a cruel mockery of the Paralympics,” he said.

Kobayashi is a former member of a popular comedy duo Rahmens and known overseas for comedy series including “The Japanese Tradition.”

Japan is pushing ahead with the Olympics against the advice of most of its medical experts. This is partially due to pressure from the IOC, which is estimated to face losses of $3 billion to $4 billion in television rights income if the Games were not held.

The official cost of the Olympics is $15.4 billion, but government audits suggest it’s much more. All but $6.7 billion is public money.

“We have been preparing for the last year to send a positive message,” Hashimoto said. “Toward the very end now there are so many incidents that give a negative image toward Tokyo 2020.”

Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee, also acknowledged the reputational damage.

“Maybe these negative incidents will impact the positive message we wanted to deliver to the world,” he said.

The last-minute scandals come as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government faces criticism for prioritizing the Olympics despite public health concerns amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections.

Koichi Nakano, who teach politics at Sophia University, wrote on Twitter that the opening ceremony chaos underscores a lack of awareness in Japan about diversity.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she learned of Koyayashi’s comments from Hashimoto.

“I was astonished,” she said.

Kobayashi’s Holocaust joke and Oyamada’s resignation were the latest to plague the Games. Yoshiro Mori resigned as organizing committee president over sexist remarks. Hiroshi Sasaki also stepped down as creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies after suggesting a Japanese actress should dress as a pig.

Also this week, the chiropractor for the American women’s wrestling team apologized after comparing Olympic COVID-19 protocols to Nazi Germany in a social media post. Rosie Gallegos-Main, the team’s chiropractor since 2009, will be allowed to finish her planned stay at USA Wrestling’s pre-Olympic camp in Nakatsugawa, Japan.

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AP Sports Writer Stephen Wade contributed to this report.

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The last time Texas got a wandering eye for another conference it fueled a series of realignments in college sports that nearly killed the Big 12.

Texas is once again exploring free agency, stealing the headlines at the Southeastern Conference media days and cranking up speculation about another round of conference shuffling. And the Longhorns aren’t alone in looking around.

There have been discussions between Texas and Oklahoma and SEC officials about switching conferences, but no formal invitations have been extended, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday night.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were intended to be confidential, said officials from Texas initiated the discussion. The Houston Chronicle first reported the discussions.

Adding two members would give the powerhouse SEC 16 teams, the most in major college football. Losing two schools would be a devastating blow to the 10-member Big 12.

Questions about the report were greeted by a series of no comments from the primary parties involved, but no denials.

“I’m talking about the 2021 season,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said at SEC football media days.

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork was adamant about not wanting the Longhorns, once the school’s greatest rival, in the SEC.

“We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas,” Bjork told reporters. “There’s a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12, to be standalone, to have our own identity. And that’s our feeling.”

SEC bylaws require at least three-fourths (11) of the members to vote in favor of extending an invitation to join.

“The college athletics landscape is shifting constantly,” Oklahoma said in a statement. “We don’t address every anonymous rumor.”

A Texas statement offered a similar response: “Speculation always swirls around collegiate athletics. We will not address rumors or speculation.”

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby did not return messages from AP seeking comment. Just last week at Big 12 media days in Arlington, Texas, he talked about how conference realignment was no longer a top concern for the Big 12.

“Not to say it couldn’t happen, but it’s not one of the things that keeps me up at night,” he said.

Any move to leave the Big 12 would be complicated by an agreement its schools made after the last round of realignment to hand their media rights over to the league through their current television deals. The grant of rights lines up with the Big 12’s contracts with Fox and ESPN and runs through the 2024-25 school year.

Back in 2010, the then Pac-10 tried to woo Texas and five other Big 12 schools into the West Coast-based conference to form a Pac-16.

Texas stayed put and instead started its own television network. After another flirtation between Texas, Oklahoma and then-Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott, Texas A&M bolted for the SEC in 2012 and Missouri followed.

The Big 12, which had already lost Nebraska to the Big Ten and Colorado to the Pac-12, managed to hang on by inviting TCU and West Virginia.

College sports was turned upside down for about three years as conferences jockeyed to fortify themselves and schools scrambled to not be left out. The Big East was poached right out of the major college football business before finally reconstituting as the American Athletic Conference.

Life without Texas and Oklahoma would be uncertain — at best — for the other schools in the Big 12.

Even an unconfirmed report, prompted an assertive response from Oklahoma State.

“If true, we would be gravely disappointed,” the Cowboys’ statement said. “While we place a premium on history, loyalty and trust, be assured, we will aggressively defend and advance what is best for Oklahoma State and our strong athletic program, which continues to excel in the Big 12 and nationally.”

The mere possibility of adding Texas and Oklahoma to the strongest football conference in the country is certain to draw the attention of the other Power Five conferences. Especially as the leaders of those leagues look to expand the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams.

Oklahoma is the only Big 12 team to make the playoff, doing so four times. The road to the CFP would be tougher through the SEC but a bigger field could provide more paths.

The SEC recently signed a new television deal with ESPN that gives the cable TV sports giant all of its rights. It is unclear if adding Texas and Oklahoma would create an opportunity for the SEC to increase the value of those contracts for all its members and not just provide enough to cover additions at the current rate.

The SEC announced earlier this year it had distributed about $45.5 million each to its members. The Big 12 schools received about $10 million less from its conference.

When Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher was asked about Texas and Oklahoma being interested in the SEC during his session with the media in Hoover, he said: “I bet they would.”

“Listen, we’ve got the greatest league in ball,” Fisher said. “That’s the choices they make or what they do, I don’t know, but I don’t know how I feel about it.”

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