I Told You To Remember Beano Cook

I am very sorry to tell you that Beano Cook died in his sleep. He was 81. If you love college football, you will miss him.
— Ivan Maisel (@Ivan_Maisel) October 11, 2012

I mentioned the other day that I thought Beano Cook was gravely ill and, unfortunately, I was not wrong.

For a guy I've never met, his passing is significant to me.  You see, it was probably fifteen years ago when a group of guys I was part of met for a fantasy football draft at Cowboys Country Club in Grapevine. Afterwards, we were in the dining area with ESPN on the TV when Beano's face popped up for some pre-TCU game commentary. The guys exploded with laughter because, on that day, Beano Cook truly had a face for radio only.  His cheeks were sagging and he looked like an old bulldog. I laughed along with them.  It wasn't long after that when you would never see him on television again.  He was relegated to radio and then retirement.

Then about five years ago I started listening to a college football podcast from ESPN where Beano would join Ivan Maisel on Wednesdays for about thirty to forty-five minutes.  Unlike the guy on the TV from years before, Beano was now like a grandfather who would relate stories about Notre Dame in the 1950s or old great Army or Navy teams.  He was a college football historian, and I began to care about the stories he would tell. I can't tell you the number of times I heard his voice coming from my iPod on my weekly jogs -- and he always called into Ivan from his home in Pittsburgh. He never traveled.

But over the last couple of years, his mind would wander somewhat on the podcast, and I would also hear an occasional grown or cough coming from his end of the line. Ivan would sometimes have a hard time even getting a word in as Beano would go on long dissertations about one subject or another. Simply put, you could tell he was fading.

Then he disappeared from the podcast completely about five weeks ago. It was the first time I can recall that he missed a show. Ivan would only say that "Beano is not feeling well, and can't be with us. We hope he'll be back next week."  You knew something was wrong.

He died last night, and I can't tell you how badly I feel about taking part in a little laughing and mocking session many years ago. As I got to know him on my jogs, I learned he didn't deserve it. And it's a lesson that I should not have needed to learn.

Edit: On a lighter note, Beano despised baseball. I read today that while he was at CBS in 1981, he learned that baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn had just given the newly released Iranian hostages lifetime passes to MLB games. Beano's response: 'Haven't they suffered enough?'"  A man after my own heart.

Edit: Ivan's thoughts.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• It's kind of weird that Pilot Point has "Bonnie and Clyde Days". I think Bud Kennedy went after the event a couple of years ago, but it's back. 
• A Wise County jury convicted the guy of Attempted Capital Murder late last night but found him not guilty of Aggravated Assault against the landowner. It sounds like some people were expecting the verdict to be exactly the opposite.
• Another date rape at SMU. What's going on there?
• I wonder why sports radio shows think interview segments are interesting. It's a huge punch out for me whenever the "Jason Witten Show", "Elvis Andrus Show", or "Troy Aikman Show" comes on. You never learn a thing. 
• "Fort Worth woman accused of bashing boyfriend with crystal ball." I wonder if he saw that in his future?
• I saw a shampoo bottle in the house with "mane" and "tail" in the name of it. Huh?
• I watched 9.79* - the documentary about the doping scandal of Ben Johnson. Verdict: Really, really good. But is sounds like everyone in the business knew he was doping.
• And Carl Lewis made a fortune in track and field? Funny line from his trainer/agent. "I never answer a question about how much Carl made from a single a meet. But throw out a number and I'll tell you yes or no." Off camera voice: "A half million?"  Response: "Not even close."  
• The 17 year old missing Ennis girl I mentioned yesterday was found when she, uh, showed up for school. I've got a self-proclaimed "junior Liberally Lean reporter" on the case. 
• I'm a little skeptical of those Wendy Davis ads where she boasts of going to community college and then with the "help" of some scholarships, she went on to TCU and Harvard Law School.  
• I had a dream last night I lost my iPhone but was tracking with the "Find My iPhone" app (like a GPS map in a car) from a different device.  I could see it as a dot  going down various roads. Then I'd wake up, go back to sleep, and see that dot moving on a map again. It seemed to go on forever.
• The suspected shooter in the North Richland Hills Chinese restaurant murder is named  Shee Wong. Really. 
• I actually turned on the TV as I laid down last night and caught the bottom of the 12th of the Yankees game. One swing.

That Ride Looks Unstable

(See implosion of Six Flags ride here.)

Edit: Another one . . .

The Fog In Dallas This Morning

Cool.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• A seventeen year old girl from Ennis can go missing and you never hear about it (but for stumbling on this picture and tweet about her this morning.) Kind of makes you understand how all those "Missing" posters in the lobby of Walmart exist. 
• It'll be interesting to see if a conviction for attempted capital murder (of a peace officer) can be obtained for the trial that has started in Wise County. A tractor as the attempted murder weapon is a little unique. (Original story here.)
• It's kind of odd that the defendant in that case, Timothy Herring,  has the same name and is the approximate age of a guy charged with killing a police officer in Chicago. 
• Trevor Hartfield, the kid from Alvord that fell out of the pickup a couple of weeks ago, will be released from the hospital tomorrow. 
• TCU announced its quarterback will leave school to enter rehab after his DWI arrest, and Coach Gary Patterson announced he will donate $100,000 to to help raise the profile of the "TCU Recovery Support Group."
• From a Sports Illustrated cover story on Patterson last year: "[Patterson] picks me up in his silver GMC Yukon, the stereo set to Sirius's '70s on 7. We hit three bars, a beer in each: Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse . . .  then Grace . . . then Michael's, empty at midnight, where we sit a few minutes before he gets restless and decides to show me his new house."
• Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson and others from Fox do the Gangnam style dance. Shut down the Internet, we're done here. 
• Here's a better video of Mr. Punk hitting the fan. (I mentioned it yesterday and didn't get one comment about the comedic genius of calling him "Mr. Punk.")
• Something that jumped out at me in the Update's reporting of that crazy wreck at Panda Express yesterday: Harris Hospital in Fort Worth is now known as "Texas Health Fort Worth Hospital." That changed slipped past me. 
• Nothing powers me down more than the release of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog and it's silly and over the top gift. (This year, a jet pack.) 
• Those who dog the Rangers seem to have complete amnesia that they lost Colby Lewis and  Neftali Feliz for the year. That was a huge hit in the middle of the summer. 
• Mexican authorities claim they had killed the head of the Zetas drug cartel but then turn around and announce his body was stolen by masked gunman from a funeral home? Something seems fishy.
• Local coach Pete Hart hit a cow this morning. He's OK. Cow is OK. His vehicle might need a little work, however.
• Competing Pennsylvania headlines on the Sandusky sentencing:

Messenger Above The Fold

Crazy accident

I'm out of pocket, but the Messenger is reporting that a 18 wheeler left 287 and ended up in the Panda Express parking lot. How'd that happen?

Edit: This was the second story on Fox 4 tonight.  Crazy scene. A "local teacher" was injured?

Edit:

Might Want To Avoid 820 and Rufe Snow If In Fort Worth

Two people have been shot, one fatally, at a fast food restaurant.

Mugshot Of The Day

Story.

Christina and Hillary Afternoon Pick Me Up

Cockroach Man

If you haven't heard the story, here it is.  And it's an age old story at that. Man sees giant python. Man falls in love with giant python. Man enters a cockroach eating contest to win giant python.

It ended like a Greek tragedy.

Crazy Skydiver Live Broadcast

But it's on hold at the time of this posting. Link.

Great Moments In Television Fainting

This one was posted a couple of days ago. I wonder if she lived?




But nothing beats this old classic clip from the old Glenn Beck show.  That guy warns Beck a couple of times that he is going to faint and then finishes it off with a "Gone" (at the :23 second mark) before he hits the deck.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• Polls indicated yesterday that the presidential race was tightening up and all the Right Wingers who last week were saying the polls were wrong suddenly were embracing them.
• The former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader, who comes in second place behind Debra Lafave as the greatest "And Another", pled guilty yesterday but will avoid prison.
• A skydiver is attempting to break the sound barrier this morning. I fear for his life.
• Gruesome: The aftermath of a car wreck in Dallas, which included flames, was caught on tape. The video was played on Fox 4 last night with the story being the slow response time of the fire department (9 minutes.) First, nine minutes seems pretty quick. Secondly, they were given the wrong address.
• How in the world did Texas Tech start out as only a four point underdog to West Virginia?
• If you turned on sports radio yesterday, it was all Josh Hamilton talk all the time.
• Mrs. LL recorded Access Hollywood yesterday because Courtney Stodden was on it promoting something called Couples Therapy. But I haven't watched it yet. 
• I don't know who CM Punk is and I couldn't find RAW on my television if I had to, but Mr. Punk slugged a fan on that show right now. 
• Now there's a pet turtle in the house.  
• The killer of that Arlington pastor sounds like one bad, bad guy. (And I realized yesterday he was part of a sad Dallas Observer cover story about another man who died in the Tarrant County Jail.)

I Had Never Heard Of This

Story from Star-Telegram.

I'm Posting This Before I Watch It

Because everyone tells me it's great. We'll see.

Look What They Did In Romney, Texas

In case you were curious where Romney is on a map:

Love This Picture