Eastern Illinois head coach Adam Cushing talks time and again about turning negatives into positives and adversity into opportunity. With an empty campus and spring practice wiped out by the shelter in place order as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second-year Panther leader has found a way to practice what he preaches.

“As I evaluated the offseason from a year ago, our first year, one of our absolute strengths as a football program is all these giants that we walk in every day and see hanging from O’Brien [Field]. We see the names in the lobby,” Cushing said. “Our No. 1 goal this offseason has been to create connections.

“Obviously it starts within the football program, player to player, player to coach, support staff, etc. But talking with Adam Gristick, our linebackers coach who played here, we got to a point in time where we were ready to take the next step.”

That next step for the staff  is to share the benefits of Panther past with the team. Using modern-day technology such as Zoom, EIU’s football program has experienced video conferences with a virtual who’s who of not only Panther pride, but of names that resonate outside of Charleston.

One day it was former Panther quarterback/current New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton. Another day it was Mike Shanahan, who turned his collegiate career derailed by a life-threatening injury into three Super Bowl rings (two as a head coach and another as a offensive coordinator).

There was John Jurkovic, former two-time conference defensive player of the year who spent nearly a decade in the NFL and now can be heard daily on Chicago sports radio.

Before leading Naperville’s North Central College to the Division III national championship this past season, head coach Jeff Thorne was a four-year starting quarterback at Eastern. Greg McMahon, a member of EIU’s 1978 Division II national championship team, won a Super Bowl ring as a Payton assistant. This past fall he was the special teams coach for LSU’s national champions.

“That’s two national champions from EIU in 2019,” Cushing noted, “that’s really something special.”

Jimmy Garoppolo

Last Tuesday, it was Jimmy Garoppolo, the highest NFL draft pick in school history who quarterbacked the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers to February’s Super Bowl.

And so the list goes on with other guests the likes of former defensive backs Ray McElroy and Pete Houlihan to all-time leading tackler Tim Carver to FCS single-season receiving record holder Erik Lora to longtime EIU sports information director Dave Kidwell.

Like McMahon, there have been other members of the ’78 championship team such as Randy Melvin, the Aurora native who has coached in the NCAA, NFL and CFL, or Scott McGhee, who now makes his living managing artists in the Nashville music scene.

There was Tim Kelly, a former Panther defensive tackle who is now the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans. Brian Callahan played in the offensive line at EIU and began his collegiate coaching career there as a restricted earnings coach in 1993 under Bob Spoo. Today, Callahan is an assistant coach for P.J. Fleck’s University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

And Roy Wittke, the man who convinced Spoo to offer Romo a scholarship. Wittke did two coaching stints at Eastern and is widely heralded for his work developing Romo and Garoppolo as quarterbacks. Today, he is the director of player development at Syracuse.

“It’s really cool to see so many have so much pride in EIU,” said Gristick, a Pennsylvania native who played for the Panthers from 2010 to 2014. Gristick knows success as a player; he played a key role in back-to-back conference champions and on the 2013 team that reached the FCS quarterfinals.

And the list just keeps going.

“We’re adding video conferences nearly every day,” said Cushing. “It’s something we talked about doing for a long time, but given the circumstances we’re in [with no spring practice and players not on campus], we’re able to do a lot more. The guys don’t have the same levels of structure. They still work, they just don’t have the classtime like before.”

But, enough of the past. What have the current players gotten out of it? Prairie State Pigskin asked a few players recently:

Anthony Manaves, redshirt freshman tight end, Chicago St. Patrick High School

“Learning about the past at Eastern. how much these guys did . . . what it means to us in the future. We’re learning so much and I feel like it’s building our connection as a team. We don’t want to let people down . . . we’re gaining more pride and knowledge in our school.”

Aaron Woods, redshirt junior defensive lineman, Hinsdale South High School

“For me, it’s a culture thing. We walk in that building every day and before this we thought Pat O’Brien was still alive [he died in 1990]. We’re learning small things so that we can make big changes in the program. We’re learning about our history and can connect more. Learning about the name of the guy who is associated with the building we walk into every day is a pretty significant thing. It’s an honor to learn about that.”

Trevon Brown, redshirt freshman wide receiver, Oak Park-River Forest High School

“It’s an honor to be associated with the Eastern Illinois Panthers. Being a part of the culture that Sean Payton was a part of, Tony Romo was a part of, Jimmy Garoppolo. Having them speak to us is really getting our culture together. It’s a pretty impactful moment in life right now. Like Jimmy Garoppolo said to us, not many people have the opportunity to be associated with an organization like this. It’s pretty humbling and [we should] honor it.”

Cameron Leach, sophomore defensive lineman, Nazareth Academy

“For me, knowing that we have basically the best history in all of FCS, so with that I think it’s important that we get all the information we can. You’ve got to know where you came from to know what your limit is and what you can do in the future. That helps all of our players a lot to build on that and to build a better program than when we came in.”

Nikola Wadsworth, redshirt senior linebacker, Oswego East High School

“A lot of the guys already covered it, but what I’m getting out of it is learning the history of the school, Eastern Illinois, itself. It’s very humbling to know that the people walked down the same hallways and campus as us. We have pride walking down those halls and down the block to go to class. Instead of just going through the motions it gives us pride. I’m a transfer [from Idaho State], so the more I learn, the more I have for this school. That’s what I’m getting out of it.”

TJ Davis, redshirt freshman defensive back, St. Louis (Mo.) Trinity Catholic

“Learning about the tradition and the culture that was there before us. Knowing that guys like Sean Payton, Tony Romo, Jimmy G walked the same hallways as us, went to the same dining halls. That’s cool.”

Isaiah Hill, redshirt junior wide receiver, Minooka High School

“Out of high school, I had offers from bigger schools. I kind of got stuck on the FCS level [first at South Dakota State before transferring to EIU last summer]. I always felt like I belonged somewhere else, like I’m better than this. When you look at the history here, all the big names like Romo, Garoppolo, people like that, it gives you more hope that no matter what level of football you’re playing or what school you’re going to, you can make it. You can achieve your dreams wherever you’re at. That’s really powerful to me.”

Crowned guinea pigs Momma Rose, a two-year-old female, and her one-year-old daughter Coco are looking for loving guardian together.

These girls get along beautifully and momma Rose is one of the sweetest guinea pigs I’ve ever met. Her daughter Coco has adorable sounds.

These sweet girls are easy to handle and hold.

Guinea pigs eat a diet of unlimited Timothy hay (or Orchard hay if you have allergies), limited pellets, and fresh greens including romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuces, cilantro, etc. And, since guinea pigs like humans can’t manufacture their own vitamin C, so they needs daily red pepper or Vitamin C tablets.

Please read up on guinea pig care and diet before adopting by visiting this excellent web site http://www.guinealynx.info/.

They would love a home with a family who will handle them daily, keep them well fed, and keep their habitat nice and clean.

If you’re interested in meeting and possibly adopting Rose and Coco, please contact [email protected]

They are being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

Their adoption fee of $60 as a pair benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. For an additional $50, we’ll include a starter kit of everything you need to care for them including cage, hay, litter, food, hidey hut and water bottle.

When my book group chose its next novel, someone suggested Albert Camus’s The Plague for its current relevance. The rest of us wanted something less depressing in the present circumstances, so we’re reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

Wanting something less depressing is nothing new for me. Back in the 1990s, I realized that many of the novels I was reading left me deflated. I started to look for more hopeful literature with relatable characters who face challenges and come out better.

A friend suggested that other people might also be looking for such a reading list. And so I put my list online, creating the website Positively Good Reads. The no-frills site has grown to list more than 250 recommended novels, with a brief description of each to help others judge whether they want to read it.

Obviously I couldn’t have anticipated a pandemic, but since Positively Good Reads is intended to counteract dejection, this seems a suitable time to blog about it.

Over the years a few people who found the site emailed to let me know that they too crave what I labeled “feel-good fiction with substance.” From Tracie: “It’s a pet peeve of mine how hard it is to find quality books that don’t make you want to open a vein.” Amanda: “I am glad to have found your reading list! I love to read fiction but find that grim stories depress me sometimes for days after finishing.” Cyndi: “This is exactly what I need. I’ve been having panic attacks . . . I love books but have had a hard time finding one that doesn’t upset me during this difficult time.”

I’ve also been criticized for not accepting the reality that life is a b____. Somehow upbeat fiction became equated with escapist genres. “Literary fiction,” said a website I came across as I was searching for upbeat titles, “rarely has a happy ending.”

“When did this become literary dogma?” I wrote on the home page. Shakespeare could be plenty gloomy. But he also wrote comedies. Great literature and happy endings aren’t incompatible in Jane Austen.

Besides, it wasn’t necessarily a happy ending that I sought. As I explained on the site, I’m not looking for novels without moral dilemmas, loss, struggle, and conflict; I’m looking for novels that leave me feeling that there’s reason to go on living. Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead, the heartfelt reflection a sickly minister writes to his young son, was offered as an example. It’s a book readers might decide to return to as spiritual reading, not just as a novel.

Books with tragedy and death, like Ernest Gaines’s account of an ex-slave’s life, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, made the cut because of an inspiring protagonist. Heroic characters aren’t required, however. Kent Haruf’s Eventide is full of deeply flawed humans, but theirs is a community where people care for one another. A melancholy tone doesn’t disqualify Barbara Pym’s portrait of aging coworkers, Quartet in Autumn, which ends with faith in the possibility of change at any age.

It’s sometimes hard to draw the line between sad-but-ultimately-uplifting and depressing. Each reader has a different threshold of too depressing. There are books in the “recommended” category that some people no doubt would put under “some may not find these upbeat.”

If you look at Positively Good Reads for a book recommendation, please excuse its plain-text appearance. Since it is a site for people who love words, I never got around to adding images.

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NORMALCY OR NORMALITY?

Everyone’s talking about a return to normalcy. Whatever happened to normality?

The website Grammarist says that the two words have the same meaning, although many English authorities consider normality the better usage. Quora, on the other hand, says that there is a slight difference in meaning, with normalcy meaning a usual condition and normality meaning within the range of normal. DailyWriting makes the point that since there is no abnormalcy in standard English, one would need to use normality in a contrast with abnormality.

Although normalcy has been popular for a century — since Warren G. Harding’s presidential campaign slogan of 1920, “Return to Normalcy” — I can’t recall ever using it. And although by Quora’s definition it’s the proper word for what we hope to return to in 2020, it’s not likely to be part of my normal speech.

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ANTI-TRUMP QUOTATIONS: 110TH IN AN ONGOING SERIES

“[T]o encourage people to go protest the plans that you just made recommendations on, it just doesn’t make any sense. We’re sending completely conflicting messages out to the governors and to the people, as if we should ignore federal policy and federal recommendations.”
— Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan