Congratulations to Missouri’s Jeremy Maclin, who officially made his intentions of making his name available for the National Football League Draft after two extraordinary years of football at Mizzou. The multi-talented former Kirkwood High star will now join the pay-for-play ranks as a probable first-round draft choice.
For my money, Jeremy Maclin was the most exciting player that I’ve ever witnessed in a Missouri uniform. He’s a young man who had me on the edge of my seat every time he got his hands on the football.
Maclin finished his two-year Mizzou career as a two-time All-American and one of the top all-purpose performers in NCAA football history. In two seasons, Maclin amassed an incredible total of 5,609 all-purpose yards, which included 182 receptions for 2,315 yards as a receiver.
All one has to do is to look at the bookend performances of Maclin’s career to see the enormous impact he had made on the Mizzou program. In his very first game against Illinois last season, Maclin scored on a 25-yard touchdown reception and an electrifying 66-yard punt return. In his last game in a Mizzou uniform against Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl, Maclin scored on a scintillating 75-yard punt return at the end of the first half that virtually saved the game for Mizzou after a dreadful offensive performance in the first half. His last act as a Tiger was catching the game-winnning touchdown pass in overtime.
In between, there were many moments of just sheer football bliss, compliments of the Kirkwood Kid.
Dignified Dungy
Just wanted to add my two cents worth on the recent retirement of the great Tony Dungy from the coaching ranks this week. Dungy was one of the best in his profession during his time in Tampa Bay and Indianapolis. It seemed only fitting that he would become the first African-American coach to lead his team the Super Bowl championship. Like our first African-American president, Dungy achieved great success in a classy, dignified manner and with a quiet confidence that inspired everyone around him to be the best that they could be. His faith and inner strength have enabled him to get through the best and worst of times during his career. Tony Dungy proved that you can be a winner in sports and still be a likeable, caring human being as opposed to being an abrasive jerk who justifies asinine behavior with a won-loss record. Unfortunately, many of Dungy’s contemporaries are complete whack-jobs who hide behind their winning records. Not Tony Dungy. Whether it was after winnng the Super Bowl or losing a hotly-contested playoff game to a heated rival, Dungy always handled himself with the utmost grace and dignity. That is a lesson we can all learn from him, whether we are involved in sports or not.
A special tip of the cap to Tony Dungy, a true Hall of Famer in my book.
Overtime x 5
It was an old school Public High League basketball at its best last Friday night as Miller Career Academy outlasted Gateway Tech 115-111 in a game that needed five overtimes before the final outcome was decided.
The people in attendance on this night were treated to what the Public High League used to be like when high-scoring games and top scoring performances were the order of the day.
The individual star on this night was Career Academy’s 6’5” senior forward Jerome Jones, who scored a “can you believe what he just did” 65 points to lead the Phoenix to its exciting victory. That’s right, the young man scored 65 points. That’s an excellent performance by a single team, but more than extraordinary for a single person in a single game.
According to local basketball historian Jim Healey’s book on this history of St. Louis basketball, Jones’ performance ranked third in the history of prep basketball in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The top performance was 75 points by Glenn Graff of Dupo (Ill.) in 1956.
Jones has also put himself in some excellent Public High League company with his scoring binge. His 65-point outburst was the second-highest individual single-game scoring performance in Public High League history. The top performance on record was a 66-point night enjoyed by former Central star Percy Wells on January 20, 1971 in the third-place game of the Sumner Tournament.
Jones’ performance also brought back some memories of other great scoring nights in PHL history. Central’s Todd Coffman scored 63 points against Central Visual & Performing Arts during the 1984 season.
During my first year of covering high school sports with the Suburban Journals, I witnessed Beaumont’s Craig Upchurch score 59 points in a 114-110 victory over Sumner in a real shootout. In that same game, Sumner’s Albert Thomas scored 45 points. At the beginning of Thomas’ senior year, he scored 55 points against Beaumont in the first game of the University City Tournament. That performance came just three days after Thomas had played quarterback for Sumner’s football team in the 1987 Show-Me Bowl, so he was coming into basketball season with no practice time and he dropped 55 on the Bluejackets.
The talents of the 6’5” Jones will be on display once again next Monday night in the third game of the Dr. Martin Luther King Basketball Shootout at Normandy High. Jones will lead Career Academy into the 4:30 p.m. contest against undefeated McCluer North. After scoring 34 points in a victory over top-ranked small school St. Francis Borgia next week, Jones will looking to take down another giant next week in the Stars.
MLK Shootout tix
Do not forget to get your tickets to the 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Basketball Shootout, which will be held next Monday at Normandy High. The event is presented by the St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation. The four games are: McCluer South-Berkeley vs. Metro (girls) at 1:30 p.m.; Riverview Gardens vs. Lutheran North at 3 p.m.; McCluer North vs. Miller Career Academy at 4:30 p.m. and Cardinal Ritter vs. Normandy at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale for $10 at all of the participating schools. They will be $12 at the door.
Green Bay playmaker
Former Cardinal Ritter College Prep basketball standout Terry Evans has enjoyed a tremendous career at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The 6’5” Evans is already the school’s career leader in steals and blocked shots. He is a three-time All-Horizon League Defensive Team performer and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2008. He also moved into the school’s top 10 career list in rebounding and is just 40 points shy of joining the 1,000-point club. Evans was also involved in ESPN Sportscenter’s No. 1 Play of the Day with his behind-the-back pass led to a dunk by teammate Ryan Tillema. Yes, Terry is doing it all in Green Bay.