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Texas, Oklahoma talk to SEC about joining leagueRalph D. Russo | Associated Presson July 22, 2021 at 3:30 pm

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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Texas, Oklahoma talk to SEC about joining leagueRalph D. Russo | Associated Presson July 22, 2021 at 3:30 pm Read More »

This week in history: Neil Armstrong steps on the moonAlison Martinon July 22, 2021 at 3:30 pm

As reported in the Chicago Daily News, sister publication of the Chicago Sun-Times:

On the morning of Sunday, July 20, 1969, Chicagoans kept one eye on the sky and the other on their daily paper. Since Wednesday, all news centered on the three-astronaut crew of Apollo 11, which was scheduled to land on the moon that day. If everything went well, man would walk on the moon.

In Houston, Sun-Times correspondent William Hines covered the expected — though nevertheless extremely suspenseful — 34 minutes in which Apollo 11 floated behind the moon, coasted towards the surface and lost contact with mission control.

To successfully maneuver into lunar orbit, the ship’s engine needed to gulp “12 tons of fuel in six minutes of operation, reducing Apollo’s weight from 48 tons to 36 between 12:22 p.m. and 12:28 p.m.,” Hines wrote.

For 10 minutes after that, “it was the case here at mission control of no news being good news. Each passing second after 12:37 p.m. added to the likelihood that a crucial lunar orbit insertion maneuver had been carried out successfully on schedule,” Hines reported.

Had the ship resumed communications at 12:37 p.m., the reporter noted that it would have spelled disaster for the mission and ended the chance to make history.

As the astronauts got their first close-up glimpse of the moon’s surface, commander Neil Armstrong told mission control that no training, simulations or rehearsals could have prepared him for what he was seeing, Hines said.

“The pictures and maps brought back by Apollos 8 and 9 have given us a very good preview of what to look at here,” Armstrong said. “It looks very much like the pictures; but like the difference between watching a real football game and one on TV, there’s no substitution for actually being here.”

Gazing out at the moon’s surface, Armstrong later quipped, “The view is worth the price of the trip.” Hines said experts estimated the trip to the moon cost $3.5 million, but others put that price tag closer to the $1 billion mark. (From 1960 through 1973, the Apollo program spent more than $25 billion developing the rockets and other equipment for those missions.)

That night, a Sun-Times photographer headed to State and Madison downtown to capture Chicagoans who watched the moon landing from their homes and storefront windows. Outside a Walgreens, residents stood reading the electronic news ticker near State and Madison.

People stand outside a Walgreens to read the electronic news ticker announcing the moon landing on July 20, 1969.
Chicagoans gather outside a Walgreens to read the electronic news ticker announcing the moon landing on July 20, 1969.
From the Sun-Times archive.

The moon landing happened on a Sunday long after the papers had finished publishing for the day. The Chicago Daily News picked up the story the next day with a full-page photo of the astronauts unveiling the American flag on the moon and an accompanying story.

“Neil Armstrong, commander of lunar landing craft Eagle, set first foot on the powdery surface at 9:56 p.m. (Chicago time) with these words: ‘One small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind.’ Twenty minutes later he was joined by Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. The two U.S. astronauts explored the moon surface for 2 hours and 11 minutes before returning to the Eagle,” the paper reported.

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This week in history: Neil Armstrong steps on the moonAlison Martinon July 22, 2021 at 3:30 pm Read More »

Man charged with West Englewood shooting that killed one, wounded anotherMohammad Samraon July 22, 2021 at 2:41 pm

A man has been charged with murdering a man and wounding another in April in West Englewood on the South Side.

Jamelle Carraway, 22, was identified by police as a participant in a shooting that killed 20-year-old Vonshea Norman in the 6100 block of South Marshfield, Chicago police said.

Norman and another man were standing there around 6 p.m. April 5 when Carraway and others walked up and opened fire, police said.

Norman was shot several times while the second man, also 20, was grazed in the chest, police said. Norman was pronounced dead at a hospital three hours later.

Carraway was arrested Wednesday morning and charged in the murder, police said.

He was expected to appear in court later Thursday.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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Man charged with West Englewood shooting that killed one, wounded anotherMohammad Samraon July 22, 2021 at 2:41 pm Read More »

Five Big, Spectacular Homes in the Chicago SuburbsWhet Moseron July 22, 2021 at 2:00 pm

While working on last week’s roundup of North Shore homes, I had the idea that I’d do one of McMansion-era, McMansion-price homes. Not pure McMansions—a turkey shoot alone seemed like a grim ordeal, and if you want a turkey shoot from which you can actually learn something about architecture and design, well, McMansion Hell is better at it than anything I can give you.

Instead, I wanted something about the size, price, age, and even the aesthetic of a McMansion but that was actually money well spent. I found five post-1980 homes over a million dollars, in the suburbs you’d expect to find them, that are just pretty cool: unique, expensive, big, but also tasteful. Excess, but not wretched excess. One is a cheat—just shy of ten million is a mansion, I reckon—but it’s an especially good example of dialing that balance in.

This is pretty clearly the work of a capital-A architect—in this case, a later work by the late Roy Binkley, who designed midcentury modern homes around Chicago, who was clearly able to adapt to the 1980s. The triangular entryway continues all the way to the rear, through a spectacular postmodern main room that combines a dining room and parlor. For a cozier place to eat or talk, there’s a warm eat-in kitchen and a den off the patio with a corner fireplace. Around back, there’s a homey greenhouse/outdoor room and a pool, and lots and lots of green—appropriate for a home adjacent to Ragdale, Howard Van Doren Shaw’s old getaway.

This is kind of my dream home: a little bit midcentury ranch, a little bit A-frame, a little bit 1980s Michael Mann movie set. Open the front door and there’s immediately a lake view, since almost every room in this house has a lake view. That also includes the indoor pool, which looks down not just at the lake, but the outdoor pool, which looks down the bluff to the boathouse, which is on the lake, and which houses not just boats but two fireplaces, a kitchen, and a bar. And despite all this… it’s pretty tasteful. The main house lets the lake do almost all the work, especially in the home office, with its sweeping view of Lake Michigan.

Entertain your many guests in the finest Y2K style with this house, built in 1999 at the very tail end of the century, and postmodernism. Or, another way of stating its age: there’s a wall-mounted landline phone on the mustard-painted wall next to the black-marble bath. There are a lot of mustard walls in this house. There’s also plenty of glass: a giant arc of glass blocks, mirrored by a two-story bay-window stack that envelops the sunken living room, which gets light from third-story windows that overlook the lofted second-floor hallway. Yes, of course there’s a sauna.

Everyone loves A-frames: they’re striking, affordable, let in tons of light, and are usually associated with getaways to the lakes or mountains. The downside? Since they’re usually affordable getaway spots, they’re usually just the frame, without much space or luxury. But what if I told you you could get an A-frame surrounded by a big ranch, that drops down to a pool, that sits above a private lake? The A-frame sets up a big main room, with huge river-stone pillars framing a stout fireplace, surrounded by lofted hallways that give it a cabin feel. In the rear, the frame tails out into a rounded living room with a wood-paneled ceiling off a huge porch. There are great lines and angles throughout, down to the complex geometric tile in the master bath, which features two massive skylights angling down over the bathtub.

Aah, that’s the good stuff: a midcentury silhouette opening up to whitewashed stone, a trapezoidal atrium and lots and lots of mirrors. White marble, white Barcelona chairs, white walls, a mirrored fireplace, and so many mirrors in the bathroom it practically turns into an infinity room. Above the bathtub: angled greenhouse windows. And downstairs: a sunken… bar? Built in 1985, this is what the future was supposed to look like. We can still get there, but until then, this has been perfectly preserved.

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Five Big, Spectacular Homes in the Chicago SuburbsWhet Moseron July 22, 2021 at 2:00 pm Read More »

A self diagnostic: Are you one of the Stupid People?on July 22, 2021 at 2:20 pm

The Chicago Board of Tirade

A self diagnostic: Are you one of the Stupid People?

©2021 CTMG – A Chicago Tribune website –
Crafted by the News Apps team

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A self diagnostic: Are you one of the Stupid People?on July 22, 2021 at 2:20 pm Read More »

Daily Cubs Minors Recap: Davis and Morel each blast 2 home runs; Roberts maintains scoreless streak; Carraway punches out 5 of 6 batterson July 22, 2021 at 1:57 pm

Cubs Den

Daily Cubs Minors Recap: Davis and Morel each blast 2 home runs; Roberts maintains scoreless streak; Carraway punches out 5 of 6 batters

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Daily Cubs Minors Recap: Davis and Morel each blast 2 home runs; Roberts maintains scoreless streak; Carraway punches out 5 of 6 batterson July 22, 2021 at 1:57 pm Read More »

Humidity, dew points, fires and rainon July 22, 2021 at 2:35 pm

Chicago Weather Watch

Humidity, dew points, fires and rain

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Humidity, dew points, fires and rainon July 22, 2021 at 2:35 pm Read More »

14-year-old boy killed and nine other people wounded in two shootings blocks and minutes apart on West Side. ‘Heartbreaking and shocking.’Cindy Hernandezon July 22, 2021 at 1:29 pm

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 14-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.

Police tape blocks off a section of the crime scene in front of Theodore Herzl School at the corner of W Douglas Blvd and S Ridgeway Ave in Lawndale, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Police tape blocks off a section of the crime scene in front of Theodore Herzl School at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Ridgeway Avenue in North Lawndale on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
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.

A 14-year-old boy was shot in the head and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. His name has not been released.

A car on its side at a crime scene at the corner of W Douglas Blvd and S Ridgeway Ave in Lawndale, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
A car sits on its side at a crime scene at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Ridgeway Avenue in North Lawndale on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
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.

Police tape blocks off a section of the crime scene in front of Theodore Herzl School at the corner of W Douglas Blvd and S Ridgeway Ave in Lawndale, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Police tape blocks off a section of the crime scene in front of Theodore Herzl School at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Ridgeway Avenue in North Lawndale on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
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.”

A car on its side at a crime scene at the corner of W Douglas Blvd and S Ridgeway Ave in Lawndale, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
A car sits on its side at a crime scene at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Ridgeway Avenue in North Lawndale on Wednesday, July 21, 2021.
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.”

Deputy Chief Ernest Cato addresses the media regarding the recent shooting that happened minutes from each other at the corner of W Douglas Blvd and S Ridgeway Ave in Lawndale, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Deputy Chief Ernest Cato discusses two mass shootings that happened minutes apart Wednesday evening in North Lawndale.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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14-year-old boy killed and nine other people wounded in two shootings blocks and minutes apart on West Side. ‘Heartbreaking and shocking.’Cindy Hernandezon July 22, 2021 at 1:29 pm Read More »

Young teen killed, 28 people wounded by gunfire in Chicago Wednesday as city sees three mass shootings in a single daySun-Times Wireon July 22, 2021 at 12:59 pm

Filed under:

Two of the mass attacks occurred within minutes of each other on the West Side, the other near a party bus in Lincoln Park.

By

Sun-Times Wire

Updated

Jul 22, 2021, 7:59am CDT

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Young teen killed, 28 people wounded by gunfire in Chicago Wednesday as city sees three mass shootings in a single daySun-Times Wireon July 22, 2021 at 12:59 pm Read More »

The Wildest Hot Dogs in TownLynette Smithon July 22, 2021 at 1:45 pm

Last summer, three weeks before Bobby Morelli was supposed to open an ice cream and cookie spot, his business partner bailed. Before that, the pandemic forced his web design clients to scale back and put his fledgling R&B career on hold due to canceled tour dates. So Morelli, an avid home cook, brainstormed concepts for a restaurant to fit the times, one that made sense for takeout, worked year-round, and could be pulled off without professional culinary experience. His answer: hot dogs.

Morelli opened the Hot Dog Box last August inside a 400-square-foot cherry-red steel shipping container at Boxville, a marketplace across from the 51st Street CTA station. There, he and his 9-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, serve what they call “gourmet glizzies,” a.k.a. hot dogs loaded with wild toppings. Now that it’s their first full summer in business, diners have been lining up for the creative dogs, which are helping fill the void that Hot Doug’s left when it closed in 2014. Morelli is offering attention getters like the Bronzeville Bourbon Steak Dog ($12.75), which packs on bacon, carrot-cabbage slaw, sport peppers, and bourbon barbecue sauce, and the salty-sweet Pickle and Peanut Butter Mignon Steak Dog ($12.75), topped with the improbable combo of sweet pickles, a spicy truffle and peanut butter sauce, and crispy onions seasoned with garlic and pepper. Besides his steak dogs — natural-casing franks actually made with filet mignon — Morelli has turkey, chicken, and vegan wieners, and for purists, there’s always a Chicago-style dog ($5.75).

Prairie Blues, Bronzeville Bourbon Steak Dog, and Pickle and Peanut Butter Mignon Steak Dog
On the menu at Hot Dog Box (from left): Prairie Blues, Bronzeville Bourbon Steak Dog, and Pickle and Peanut Butter Mignon Steak Dog

Morelli dreams up limited-run offerings like the Compass, a steak dog with shrimp, arugula, and creamy chipotle sauce, and the Smoked Teriyaki, a wild Alaskan salmon dog with spinach, green onions, teriyaki sauce, and toasted sesame seeds. “The grocery store is now my favorite place to be,” he says, describing how he roams the aisles to find ideas for new menu items.

When school and homework are finished, Brooklyn heads over to the shop, where she takes orders, washes dishes, and restocks ingredients. “I’m proud to share this journey with her,” Morelli says. “I didn’t have my father growing up, and I often longed for one to help show me the ropes.”

Sales have been strong enough that Morelli is ready to expand beyond the shipping container. A round of crowdfunding helped him raise enough to convert a former Portage Park bridal shop into a restaurant (4020 N. Milwaukee Ave.) he hopes to open August 1, in time to celebrate the Hot Dog Box’s first anniversary. “I always knew I would be a man of success,” says Morelli. “I just didn’t know that hot dogs would get me there.” 330 E. 51st St., Bronzeville

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The Wildest Hot Dogs in TownLynette Smithon July 22, 2021 at 1:45 pm Read More »