I’m sick and tired of reading about scholarship football and basketball players getting arrested and charged with drug violations. In fact, I think it’s time the Kentucky State Police – or the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation in the state Attorney General’s office – launched an investigation of drug usage in all our state’s athletics programs.
I […]

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As master of ceremonies of the annual Governor’s Cup cocktail party and press conference, which I consider a privilege and honor, I got to introduce Kentucky coach Rich Brooks and Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe on Thursday at the University Club outside Lexington.
I didn’t pay as much attention to what they said as how they looked. […]

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I was absolutely giddy when I saw the headline in our local Gannett Profit Center, also known as The Courier-Journal:
“Churchill Downs Inc. to eliminate jobs.”
I thought, “Hot dog!” Or, more to the point, “Hot sausage!” I was certain the story would tell me the track’s board of directors had finally put Bob Evans through the […]

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In a stunningly short period, we have lost Edgar Allen, Elmer “Tiger” Hall, Luke Kruytbosch, Tony Snow, and Lee Wagner. All were friends except Snow, whom I had come to admire for his work – first on the Fox News Channel, then as President George Bush’s press secretary.
They were kindred spirits in that they were […]

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On the day CBS announced that Billy Packer’s 34-year run as lead network analyst at the NCAA Final Four was over, Packer appeared on his son Mark’s syndicated radio talk show. He seemed upbeat. He said it was a mutual agreement that had been worked out well before the 2008 Final Four in San Antonio. […]

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The one team that has done more than any other to promote basketball internationally has never been invited to compete for a spot in the Olympic Games. That should be corrected. Can somebody out there give me a good reason why the Harlem Globetrotters shouldn’t be invited to try out for the 2012 Games as […]

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I’ve hit on a brilliant idea to combine my love of politics and thoroughbred racing. I want to be Ron Geary’s campaign manager. Oh, I know that right now he’s interested only in making a go of it at Ellis Park. But he has demonstrated such leadership since buying the little track in Henderson, Ky., […]

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My favorite memory of the Rev. Louis Coleman was sitting with him at the funeral of Pee Wee Reese, the Kentuckian who was captain and shortstop of the immortal Brooklyn Dodgers “Boys of Summer” teams from the late 1940s and early ‘50s.
To his eternal credit, Reese befriended Jackie Robinson when Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier […]

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