You probably know that there is a really, really big football game coming up on Sunday. You might even be able to identify the teams playing, the starting quarterbacks, or the head coaches. If you’re really into it, you’ll know which team’s defense is better statistically, the top rusher on either team, or why one team’s punter had to buy an extra ticket. Of course, you won’t care about much of this if you don’t follow professional football or if you live in a town that just lost its NFL franchise. But for the vast majority of people who have Read More

Avid sports fans know late December through early January as “the most wonderful time of the year” and not just because of the Christmas holiday. Between mid-December and January 11 more than three dozen nationally-televised college football bowl games are played (including two today which will decide the participants in the National Championship game and no less than five bowl games tomorrow), while in the NBA a slate of high-profile games take place in prime-time on Christmas day and by the time the New Year begins the season will be about one-third complete. College basketball competition gets tougher as Read More

By Buzz Swanston | Assistant Sports Director, CYC This Saturday evening the Musial Awards will be presented at the Peabody Opera House.  Named after our beloved Cardinal #6, Stan the Man, these awards recognize outstanding sportsmanship at a national level in 2015.  Players, coaches, officials, and teams at all levels of sports will be honored by the St. Louis Sports Commission.  Arnold Palmer and Mike Matheny will speak and make presentations that night.  It is wonderful that the national spotlight will be on St. Louis, focused on Sportsmanship. // It seems an appropriate time to refocus the emphasis on sportsmanship Read More

The lexicon of sports is replete with references to war. "Hero," "battle," "trenches," "General," "warrior," and others have all found their way into the vocabulary of players, coaches, broadcasters and reporters, and fans to describe some aspect of sports. There may be good reason for this, as there are parallels between sports and war, not the least of which is the prevalence of military veterans on the field, especially 40, 50, and 60 years ago. Some well-known military veterans include Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Joe Louis, Roger Staubach, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, David Robinson, and Pat Tillman just to Read More

The Cardinals lost. And it hurts. What you are about to read may hurt even more. You have to hand it to the Cubs. They showed they were the better team in the series. Their pitching was better and their hitting literally pounded the Cardinals into defeat via the homerun ball. The friendly confines of Wrigley Field finally hosted a playoff series victory (the first in franchise history) and the amazing prediction from “Back to the Future” is one step closer to reality. In the first-ever playoff series between the two clubs, the “loveable losers” are now winners – at Read More

School is in session. The days are shorter. The faint, first chills of autumn can be felt in the evening air under Friday night lights. Football season is upon us. Just like other sports, there is no shortage of religious allegory in football. But few sports, if any, boast such a strong Catholic connection as does football with the ubiquitous term "Hail Mary." In the very first weekend of the 2015 college football season, we've already seen a remarkable, successful, and some might say "miraculous" execution of the "Hail Mary pass" in the final play of the BYU vs. Nebraska game. Read More