UD Flyers Find A Way

By Hal McCoy Pittsburgh, PA. — There is Johnny-on-the-spot, but for the University of Dayton basketball team it is Javon-on-the-spot. Whenever the Flyers need a lift, they dial ‘0,’ Javon Bennett’s uniform number and he answers on the first ring. And it happens game after game after game. Who ya gonna call? Javon Bennett. It […]

Some Sunday Observations

By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and when it was 78 degrees last week I considered traipsing into the backyard to toss the ol’ horsehide around. Then I remembered I’m 85 and the only thing I’d toss is my cookies. —WHY NOT BOTH?: During a spring training interview with baseball writer Gordon […]

A Gritty Win For UD

By Hal McCoy Richmond, VA. — Once again, Grant took Richmond. This time, though, it wasn’t U.S. Grant and the Union Army, it was coach Anthony Grant and the UD Flyers. For the fifth time during his University of Dayton tenure, Grant took a team into the University of Richmond’s Robins Center and for the […]

UD Survive Rumble In D.C.

By Hal McCoy Washington, D.C. — In the end, it was a street fight, a barroom brawl, a throwback to the Gillette Friday Night Fights. The University of Dayton Flyers finished with a couple of black eyes, but with a will to win they survived with a 68-66 victory over George Washington Friday night in […]

Flyers Reap Revenge on Saint Louis

By Hal McCoy Dayton, OH. — As they say, payback can be hell. Saint Louis University sashayed into UD Arena Tuesday night, scoffing at the idea that the place was the self-proclaimed, “Epicenter of College Basketball.” What it was for Saint Louis was hell on a hard wood floor as the University of Dayton reaped […]

How Baseball Has Run My Life

By Hal McCoy Most of this happened between 65 and 75 years ago, before there was a McDonald’s in every neighborhood, when television screens were black—and-white and the size of the glass door on a dryer. And I rode around in my dad’s Henry J, then his Packard, then his Mercury, then his Edsel — […]

OBSERVATIONS: NIL, Transfer Portal A Mess

By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, the last for 10 days while Nadine and I get pampered on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Well, somebody has to do it. —NIL (NOT IN LINE): While MLB is in dire need of a salary cap, what does college football and basketball need? It […]

Flyers Embarrassed At VCU

By Hal McCoy Richmond, VA. — It was Saint Louis deja vu. . .only worse. After the University of Dayton Flyers lost by 31 points to the Saint Louis Billikens, it was thought it couldn’t get worse. It did. The Flyers were overwhelmed, overmatched and overwrought Friday night by Virginia Commonwealth, 99-73. Dayton donned its […]

McCoy: Where’s Baseball Going?

By Hal McCoy This is the time of year when optimism in Arizona and Florida fills the air like the inside of a hot air balloon. On the first day of spring training during their first meeting with the writers, all 30 major league managers prop their feet on top of their desks and say […]