Hearne: Dobler Dogg Checks Out

Conrad Dobler

There are movie villains, and there are real life ones…

By the NFL’s measure former KCMO 810 AM sports talker Conrad Dobler was one of the best… as in, worst.

That’s because his football career was peppered with things like kicking Rams star Merlin Olsen in the head while he was down and spitting on Eagles linebacker Bill Bergey after he’d been injured.

Dobler was infamously known as one of, if not the dirtiest player in the NFL. He once told Sports Illustrated he’d “do anything I can get away with to protect my quarterback” including “holding, eye gouging, face-mask twisting, leg whipping, tripping, even biting.”

In other words, Dobler preferred physical attacks to verbal ones.

“Verbal abuse could take all day,” he said in 1977. “A faster and more efficient way to aggravate and intimidate people is to knock the stuffing out of them.”

“Dobler was one tough son-of-a-bitch and never took any shit from anyone,” says Kevin Kietzman. “He was tough on radio, too.”

In a world where nice guys finish last, Dobler was far from last.

Yet as far as Kansas City listeners go, he was “kinder and gentler.”

“He was nothing like that to me, he was very nice,” says Todd Leabo, director of sports operations at WHB radio. “I did the show with him when I was an intern at KCMO in 1990 while I was in college. Mike Murphy and Marshall Saber were still working there. I was 20 years old and wrote letters to all the local stations, and when I went in to KCMO I met Conrad.”

How mellow was he?

“I remember him f-bombing some things, and then he looked at me and said, “I’m sorry. Are you a religious man?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ And from there on out it was, ‘Eff this’ and ‘Eff that.’ ”

“I remember him more for what people said about him,” says former Entercom head Bob Zuroweste. “He was very outspoken, very controversial, but what I liked about him was – unless you were a sports nut, which I’m not – you could still listen to him because he was entertaining.”

“We took the Chiefs away from KCMO in 1989 and they called us, the hippie radio station that was going to ruin the Chiefs,” says former KCFX FM honcho Bill Newman.  “Clearly he was a dirt bag, but I presented no threat to him.”

Somewhat oddly, there’s scant to no mention of Dobler’s time here.

Zuroweste’s take on who was KC’s top sports yakker of all time?

“Well, I had Soren Petro, Tim Grunhard, Bill Maas and Don Fortune,” he muses. “But I think Bill Grigsby was the best. And Kevin Kietzman was really good, but his downfall was he got so arrogant that he thought he could attack (Chiefs coach) Andy Reid. And that’s like going to church and attacking Jesus.”

Speaking of which, Newman hired two of KC most famous Chiefs play callers: a young KU intern named Kevin Harlan; plus his “biggest hiring mistake,” Mitch Holthus, who still serves as the team’s longest (and most boring) play-by-play caller.

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 5 Comments

Hearne: Death of a Movie Mogul + King Carl Update

Exhausted movie meister or villain?

According to longtime movie critic Jack Poessiger, prominent, old-timey movie collector Wade Williams passed away and was cremated last month.

“There was never an obituary or notice in the Star,” Poessiger says. “Nothing was said or done; he just quietly went away.”

Well, not quite…

“Film collector, rights hoarder, and guy that liked to put his name on everything, Wade Williams has died,” reads one of several online, uh, tributes. “He was 80…He also notoriously collected film negatives of 50s science fiction movies, most notably the works of Ed Wood, and then tried to claim ownership of the films via phony copyrights, and took people to court to try and assert those claims…Film preservationists and general fans of genre movies of that era generally did not like the man for his hoarding.”

Nor did some of his former neighbors near his gigundo mansion at the southeast corner Ward Parkway and 55th Street.

Unfortunately, few who remain at the Star seem to ever heard of Williams.

Where is he now:

Anybody out there remember” King Carl Peterson,” the former KC Chiefs main man?

Turns out, he’s alive and well and holed up in the upscale suburban development of Loch Lloyd. 

That is, unless he and his wife, a former trainer / architect are out on “a ship that sails the world that’s owned by like 75 people,” says a source. “He’s got a condo on it and spends upwards of three months a year cruising from hither to yon ( and possibly advising the Chiefs – as if they need him now.)

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Hearne: Woke Police Attack Chiefs – OP Injun Dude Fights Back

Remember the Good Ol Daze?

More than 20 years ago – long before the dawning of today’s woke culture – writers at the Kansas City Star decided to take on Marty Schottenheimer‘s Chiefs. for their Indian themes. That was back when neanderthal newsies like Art Brisbane roamed the land, driving gigundo Ford sedans down a street that used to called Grand Avenue.

Upwards of 2,000 staffers scattered around the metroplex, worked for a newspaper that now employs as few as 10 or many as 450 (depending on who you ask.) My guess is they’d be lucky to have 100 still, but probably fewer.

And every now and then today, the Star still scolds KC’s vaunted Chiefs for using American Indian imagery.

Yet for all the Star’s devotion to righting historical (and hysterical) wrongs – like blackballing “racists” like its founder William Rockhill Nelson and Country Club Plaza godfather, J.C. Nichols – it seems to be taking a temporary pass on critiquing the Chiefs current day misappropriation of Native American symbols.

That’s far from the case here in the desert where the Super Bowl is about to be played.

Case in point, the Arizona Republic‘s front page headline, “Chiefs urged to retire name; Activists say moniker offends Native peoples.”

“When the Kansas City Chiefs take the field against the Philadelphia Eagles on Super Bowl Sunday, they will sport white uniforms with a distinctive logo: an arrowhead with the initials KC emblazoned on the surface,” it reads.

“And greeting them among thousands of football fans: native activists who have been urging the team to retire the name ‘Chiefs,’ the arrowhead and the rest of the accumulated 60-plus years of cultural appropriation and stereotyping.”

 Nice one, huh?

No surprise, the story sits next to another example of wokeness via the headline, “Lawmakers advance bill to restrict drag shows; Violaters in Arizona could face felony under Republican proposal.”

For years – and not that long ago – I championed local drag shows and performers like a dude named John Koop, who performed as the “drag queen” Flo.

I even went to drag shows with my twin girls mother.

But back then, nobody wanted to do them in children’s school libraries

I digress; back to the politically insensitive Chiefs…

If nothing else, the Republic’s story is an amazingly well researched written history of the team, its name and other aspects of its use of Indian imagery.

Just one problem… Continue reading

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Hearne: KC Homecoming, Tourism Scrum

Guess who’s coming to dinner,  for the first time in two years?

You got it…moi!

I’ll be driving my tricked-out 2020 Honda Civic Si there in a couple days. So save a little snow and ice for me, will ya?

As I plot my return  – and contemplate partying with Ivan Foley of the Platte County Landmark – I’ve decided to take a more formal approach to my pretend vacation. As in, what folks are supposed to do in order to have an excellent time in the Cowtown.

Besides the perfunctory barbecue visits, hanging with twin daughters Liza and Savannah Christopher, and seeing what’s left of losers like Larry Sells of the Uptown and Angry Westport wild man Bill Nigro, what’s left?

Well, I won’t be able to check in with Mike Fannin and few others that still matter remain at the KC Star. Plus, I’m half afraid to look in on my buddy,  Pitch Editor Brock Wilbur…but I’ll try.

However, being a student-of-life, I found Getaway’s Top Things to Do In Kansas City.

Check it out…

Numero Uno: Swope Park

Yeah, like that’s going to happen. No way I’m going there in search of a good time.

No. 2: Power & Light District

This halfway makes sense, so maybe I’ll do drinks after work, but a tourism destination…really?

No.3 The River Market

Excuse me while I fight off a yawn, but is the Steamboat Arabia still there? It is, but don’t expect to see me down there.

No. 4 American Royal Livestock & Horse Show

I outgrew this event longer ago than I care to remember. Last time I actually went was to interview Queer Eye’s Carson Kressley and later, Ike Turner with Tina’s replacement. Neither entailed horses or livestock.

No. 5 Kansas Speedway

Is it just me, or are you guys starting to wonder what Kansas City actually has worth checking out…on a vacation? Cuz right now, I’m batting .000

No. 6 Barbecue

Finally, something halfway real. I’m no food tourist, but at least this doesn’t totally suck.

No. 7 Breweries & Beer Bars

Of course, hip beer bars beat small town mainstays like Applebees, but I’m coming to KC for what again?

No. 8 Toys & Nostalgic Treasures

I’m not a collector, but at least this sounds kinda interesting. Kansas City’s National Museum of Toys and Miniatures is reportedly huge, so if I stumble onto it, I may look in.

No. 9 Liberty Memorial & World War I Museum

Finally, something I’ve been wanting to do forever. Count me in.

No. 10  Kansas City Jazz

Talk about no brainers… I wonder who is running Jardine’s these days. Or better yet,  The Phoenix, the downtown jazz club with a super small stage musicians hate.

OK, enough… Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 16 Comments

Hearne: Iconic Child Star, KC Refugee Parties On

Most wannabes are more than happy to get their 15 minutes of fame….

In the case of former Overland Parker Karolyn Grimes she doesn’t need to settle. The child actress many know as ZuZu Bailey – from her role as Jimmy Stewart‘s cute-as-a-button daughter in the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – is beyond celebrity.

She followed that role as David Niven and Loretta Young‘s very young daughter in another holiday classic, “The Bishop’s Wife.”

However, the Hollywood born, child star’s promising movie career was cut short by the death of her mother, and a year later her father via a car accident. All of which resulted in her being farmed out to a troubled uncle and his wife in Osceola, Missouri. After which followed a career as a medical technologist courtesy of the University of Central Missouri and her eventual migration to Kansas City.

While some knew of Grimes tres glam holiday past, it wasn’t until 1993, after her second husband’s death, that she began to realize her ties to those films could translate into a lucrative, post Hollywood life.

Target decided to reunite the Bailey kids in their stores,” Grimes says. “They sent us all around the country. That’s when I realized all those people standing in line to get our autographs really loved that movie and it had an importance in their lives.”

Overnight the 50-ish Grimes career as a classic movie, child star was born.

Having worked with Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant, “I didn’t really meet any of them,” Grimes says. “But Loretta Young contacted me. She used to send me Catholic prayers.”

These days – at the ripe young age of 82 – Grimes spends her holidays (and year round) making appearances, celebrating her role as Zuzu and “It’s A Wonderful Life” at events and festivals world wide.

It’s the perfect storm of celebrity.

“I have the best of both worlds,” she says. “Because people don’t recognize me from the movie, but when I tell them their faces light up. It’s really a lovely opportunity for me to meet new people and see how happy it makes them. Mostly it’s in the fall and winter, but I do autograph shows like the Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri.”

Meanwhile, back-at-the-ranch, Grimes has a daughter in KC and friends she likes to visit.

That said, to this day, she’s yet to throw the switch on KC’s infamous Plaza Lighting.

“I was supposed to do it one year, but then they gave it to someone who won some Ryan Seacrest reality show. I just think it’s so funny because whoever heard of him today, but I’m still going.”

Grimes wildest Zuzu story?

“Oh wow, nobody’s has ever asked me that,” she says. “I know I have some good ones, but let’s see.”

How about any Zuzu groupie action? Continue reading

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Hearne: In Search of the Lost News Chord

 

 

 

Think Tale of Two Cities plus…

Being holed up here in Tucson for two years, I’ve made some observations on how local journalism is evolving. While folks in Kansas City are still mostly trapped with the few survivors of the Kansas City Star, I’ve been similarly trapped with an even weaker Arizona Daily Star.

Hard to imagine, I know, even though here they still choke out a Saturday newspaper. 

But trust me though, the reporting here makes Tony’s Kansas City seem solid.

For starters, the “metro population” of Tucson is just over half of KC…meaning in theory there’s a lot less news to cover. Tucson also skews older and more liberal. Unfortunately both towns have fewer, less experienced poorly writers who are far more left leaning.

Lucky us!

I cut the cord recently on Tucson’s Daily Star and went with the Arizona Republic in nearby Phoenix. Which is like 100 miles away, way less than St. Louis. Besides, who in their right mind would consider taking St. Louis Post Dispatch?

And even in the post-boozy Mike Fannin world, KC’s reporting remains riddled with left leaning slants and ad nauseam racism. While Tucson’s Star seems to be hanging by a thread financially.

Hence my move to the Arizona Republic…

For comparison sake, I continued to get the print edition. I rolled the dice and phoned in a subscription to the Dominican Republic where they were happy to take my credit card and promised a paper the next day.

Well, it was no surprise that there I had no driveway action the next day.

Since though, my Republics have been flooding my mailbox – holidays and Sundays aside – often on the day it comes out.

Before you write me off, I get my main news and sports online and via what some call “cable news.”  Oh, and on YouTube, so I’m not quite an information dinosaur…yet

And while a number of you check out bloggers who labor for free (and it shows), at this point, I’ve yet to find a true substitute for the news Fannin, Art Brisbane and Joe McGuff  used to choke out.

Until now.

As many of you know, Arizona is a cutting edge “Swing State.” And while there’s no getting away from the annoying woke-ness of today’s main stream news, the Arizona Republic does a decent job of providing halfway balanced reporting.

Far better than Kansas City and Tucson., Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 3 Comments

Hearne: Out With The Old, In With The Woke

Getting actual news out in a timely manner hasn’t been of much importance of late…

Not at the Kansas City Star anyway.

The former grande dame of local news and information has long since been turned into a loosely written amalgam of left-leaning slants, run by underpaid wannabe journalists.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m sure they’re all nice and well-intentioned. That said, we live in a news world populated by writers who believe their opinions far outweigh the more even handed kind of reporting of the Art Brisbane and before era.

Not long ago one of the highest distinctions a Star staffer could achieve was the so-called William Rockhill Nelson “Full Nelson” award. Employee’s names were inscribed on plaques hanging in the Nelson Room outside the old cafeteria at the Star building at 18th and Grand. It was more an employee award than anything related to journalism.

Ah, but now everything Rockhill Nelson-related has been scrubbed from the newspaper’s history. Kinda like schools with the names of folks like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have been rubbed out of their existences.

Hey, it’s the way of the Brave New World…like it or lump it.

And now – at long last – the Star has blown editor Mike Fannin a farewell kiss.

Seriously, how many DUIs, assault convictions and other low brow activities does it take?

Former Star publisher Mark Zieman handed Fannin his crown – despite that he’d just garnered a DUI and suffered through an affair with a married subordinate and gosh knows what else.

Clearly, the days of the Star appointing high brow individuals to top positions are long gone. Although, I suspect with handing what’s left of the keys to the kingdom to Greg Farmer is another step in that direction.

 The $64 million question: Does it really matter any more? Continue reading

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Dwight: The Strange Death of Liberal America

Sam Brownback

The title of this post is a take-off on a book that was published in 1935 by George Dangerfield, “The Strange Death of Liberal England: 1910-1914.”

A classic of political history, it describes how the Liberal Party in Great Britain self-destructed over the four critical issues of that era; Irish Home Rule, women’s suffrage, reform of the House of Lords, and the rise of trade unionism.

It’s a book which Tom Frank (author of, ‘What’s The Matter with Kansas?”) and I both really enjoyed.

By the same token, we feel that traditional American Liberalism (or neo-liberalism as ‘progressives,’ i.e. radicals, call it) has exhausted itself and may well have run its course as a dynamic, substantive movement.

Just look at the political situation we find ourselves in here locally. Kansas governor Laura Kelly is running against the GOP candidate Derek Schmidt as the attorney general who worked with Sam (Beelzebub, Lucifer, Mephistopheles) Brownback when the latter was governor. I fully expect to see a 666 placed on Brownback’s forehead by computer graphics in Kelly’s media spots.

Those who are past readers of my blogs know that I’m no fan of Sam B. Nonetheless, Kelly’s ads are masterpieces in mendacity. She rails against Brownback for cutting school funding, but the actual record is very different.

The 2008 financial meltdown began in earnest on September 15th of that year when Lehman Brothers failed. By early 2009, the national economy was in a free fall and with it state tax collections. Governor Kathleen Sebelius had no choice but to cut educational spending by almost 20 percent across the board. Moreover, these were real cuts, not just a lower increase of spending than Democrats would like, which is the usual definition of  “cuts.”

I doubt any governor would have done anything different. The problem with Kelly’s ads is that Brownback did not become governor until January 2011, two full years after the spending cuts occurred.

Upon becoming governor, Brownback picked up where Sebelius and her successor, Mark Parkinson, left off; working to restore educational spending. One can argue that he made his job difficult by his tax  cuts. Fair enough, but you also have to concede that there was a collapse in oil and gas prices, the loss of 50,000 aviation manufacturing jobs in Wichita and a slump in beef and crop prices, all of which hit Kansas very hard but none of which had anything to do with Brownback and his actions as governor.

The irony is that state tax revenues have rebounded nicely after the pandemic, so apparently Sam the Sham did not permanently destroy Kansas finances, as his critics insisted at the time.

Kelly is also flailing on her handling of the pandemic itself.

She broke with the Biden administration on the mask mandate for that most noble of principles, self-preservation. However she also gave in to the KNEA, the most powerful force in the Democratic party. The school shutdowns backed by Kelly had little to do with protecting children and a lot to do with the teacher’s union wanting its members to get paid without having to go to work.

Now we know the true cost of the school closures, test scores plummeting at every level and 20 years of educational progress wiped out. Kelly recently reaffirmed her decision to keep schools closed as long as possible and was awarded  with renewed access to the KNEA’s political war chest. A real profile in courage!

Sharice Davids is also invoking Sam Brownback as the arch fiend, also based on his supposed cuts in school spending, which (again) occurred two years before he took office.

Kansas school funding is not a federal issue, so I’m not sure what it has to do with a race in the US House of Representatives. I realized, however, that this was keeping with liberals love of personalized politics. Your opponent is not just wrong or misguided but, to use a favorite trope of the Trump era, “is literally Hitler.”

First it was Phill Kline, Kansas state rep and attorney general, then it was the Koch Brothers. Then it was Vince Snowbarger, Third District Congressman. Then it was Kris Kobach, former secretary of state, gubernatorial candidate, and now running for Kansas attorney general.

Even poor Bob Dole was a hate figure to local liberals! Continue reading

Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr. | 31 Comments

Hearne: Johnny Dare Co Host Murphy Wells Bares All

Once upon a time, the Johnny Dare / Murphy Wells radio show was born…

Hard to imagine, but 22 years ago Kansas City’s preeminent, high profile dirt ball – for all practical purposes – was essentially created.

The year was 1994, and with four years of on-air experience under her belt, the 35 year-old Wells became the fledgling show’s equally paid co-star, alongside an unknown local drop out, the then 24 year-old Dare.

Dare had been kicked out of high school for riding his moped naked through the school cafeteria where he was clotheslined by a high school coach.

Needless to say, you had to be there, right?

For Wells – a Chanute, Kansas native – it was a homecoming of sorts, moving back from Washington, DC, and for the next decade she and Johnny carved out incredibly high radio ratings and successes.

Just one problem…

Instead of working in tandem to climb the ladder together, Wells was relegated by Dare to being a bit player in the show’s success.

‘I intimidated the (heck) out of him,” she recalls. “So he put his thumb on me because he was afraid I would be the star, not him.”

No such luck, but was Dare at least nice about it at first?

“Oh yeah, we got along great for sure,” Wells says sarcastically. “But it depended on what mood he was in. Most of the time he was very condescending and dismissive of me…You couldn’t tell on the air how badly he treated me, because I was always very professional. But he tried everything he could to make me look bad…It was a really weird thing. It would be really interesting to ask him how he feels now – as a 54 year-old man – about hurting all the people he did. He put me down and would call me names off the air. Like he called my mom a whore on the air one time. And not just me – he did it to everybody – and none of us could do anything about it when he pulled that shit.”

The ratings were too high, the money too great.

Wells left the show voluntarily in 2004, landed a short radio gig in Colorado before returning to another KC station, before a seven year stint in Denver radio, followed later by opening a boutique paint shop that she closed during pandemic in 2020, before moving back to a small town in Kansas last year.

Whew…

“I really, really, really love it there,” she says of her 6,000 population small town. “To me this is just paradise. It’s very nostalgic and the people are normal, down to earth. And the stress level is like zero. It’s fabulous.”

For the most part, Wells has had zero contact with Dare since they parted. One of his producers did call her several years back after I did an update on her – presumably, she thinks – to try to get her address to mail a “cease and desist” letter to her.

“Nope, nuthin’, don’t even think about him,” she says. “Why the (efff) would I? I really don’t care; he hurt me so much. But kudos to him; he’s made a great career out of his smart aleckness and nastiness.”

All of that said… Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher | 17 Comments

Hearne: Cartoons, Puzzles & TV Grids…Oh My!

Everyone has their Achilles heel…

Even if you never heard of George Orwell or his novel, 1984, like my suburban neighbors. That said, the definition is, “a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to a downfall.”

These days Achilles heels are everywhere, even at daily newspapers like the Kansas City Star and Arizona Daily Star. In KC, it was always a given that the comics, puzzles, horoscopes and the microscopically small daily TV listings were of vital importance.

Not to me, except maybe as a child or young adult. I’ll admit to pouring over the Sunday comics and weekly TV grids in search of an odd old movie. It was tedious and time consuming, but hey, that of course was before Al Gore invented the Internet.

I found cartoons like Peanuts, Blondie even Brenda Starr (remember that one?)  somewhat tolerable, but never really sank my teeth into crossword puzzles and other games, though I know others did.

As I grew up, I found other distractions far more important. Things like pro wrestling, backgammon and dating, to name three.

That the Star placed such – to me, inexplicable – importance on comics and the like was baffling, but I figured in time, the rest of you would outgrow them as well.

Was I ever wrong.

Fast forward to the present where any number of other distractions take up countless hours of my life. Who has time tiny for black-and-white comic strips anyway?

I’ll tell you who, newspaper readers…and in droves.

Which may explain why many oldsters still venture into their driveways to get what passes for daily news.

And like Art Brisbane and his forebears knew, take them away at your peril. Continue reading

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Hearne: Whatever Happened to Jackson Mahomes?

Talk about where’s Waldo…

As popular as Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes is – the loss to Indy aside – his insanely tall and clearly insane – little brother Jackson Mahomes is the opposite, as in unpopular.

For the past two years locals have groaned and endured the goofy-beyond-belief Jackson’s over-the-top antics, as he romped around KC, shadowing the Chiefs and leading Patrick’s wife Brittany astray in embarrassing ways.

Given how conservative Patrick and National Football League are – Hunter Biden aside – it never really quite made sense.  I mean, it’s a “free country” and anybody can dance embarrassingly on TikTok and swear up and down they’re not gay – but who needs that kind of action?

Likely not the Chiefs.

And yet, three weeks into this season Jackson has been totally missing in action.

Sop what gives?

Well, for starters he quietly announced he was leaving KC earlier this year.

“I’m moving to LA,” Jackson wrote March 1st.

That after stating publicly that the media was “destroying” his life. Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Hearne: Time For Folks to Woke Up?

It’s a brave new world out there, not to mention a woke one…

That said,  you may want to pinch yourself – before reading an Associated Press story that ran in both the Kansas City Star and Arizona Daily Star over the weekend.

Including “gotcha” headlines on both newspaper’s front pages in a poorly reported yarn about Donald Trump “openly” embracing “QAon conspiracy theories.”

“On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words, ‘the storm is coming.’ In QAnon lore, ‘the storm’ refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television.”

Hold it right there…

A front page story by actual repeaters alleging that because Trump appeared in a photo wearing a tiny “Q” pin alongside the standard American flag pin, he wants to win reelection so he can execute them on live TV?

And this is what passes for the journalism today?

I was catching up this last week with Theater League founder Mark Edelman and I mentioned that my wife and I had gotten COVID in December of 2020 – months before vaccines were available – and we now had “natural immunity.”

“What, you’ve not been vaccinated?” Edelman gasped. “You’re not a Trumper are you?”

I’m not anything, I replied.

I thought having had COVID was the best defense against getting it again?

Apparently not… Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher, Uncategorized | 27 Comments

Hearne: Big 12 Renaissance Vs Big 10/SEC Reality

Not only is the Big 12 back, it’s super bad and soon to get badder…

The mini glut of perennial College Football Playoff teams aside – Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Clemson – the vaunted Big 10 and SEC  conferences are mostly cash cows with overall mediocre on-the-field performances.

Starting with the once respectable Mizzou Tigers – reduced to being humiliated by Kansas State last weekend and taking it up the shorts in basketball, not just against KU, but even lowly UMKCAMC Theatres founder  Stan Durwood‘s alma mater.

Ah, but take heart fellow Missourians, MU is far from alone among teams that have paid the price after bailing on the Big 12 over the past decade.

“Look at everybody that’s left the Big 12 or whatever,” says longtime area concert and festival promoter Brett Mosiman. “Like Nebraska, they lost their recruiting bases, they lost their historic rivalries and they’re absolutely disappointing. The only team that hasn’t been a 100 percent disappointment is Texas A&M and they lost to Appalachian State Saturday. They just haven’t been as embarrassing as the rest of the teams that left the Big 12.

“And look at Southern Cal and UCLA going to the Big 10. Does that make any sense on a Green New Deal basis? Those teams just took their travel schedules from from ghastly to horrible. Their travel schedules are awful now.”

Spoiler alert: May I suggest Mizzou fans close their eyes while Mosiman does a verbal touchdown dance on behalf of KU football’s rise from their decades-long grave.

“I think new Kansas football coach Lance Leipold is the real deal,” Mosiman says. “And I think this is his forever job. He’s getting support from the franchise, from the fans and from his recruiting – he’s going to be our Bill Snyder.”

Back to those Big 12 past and future refugees… Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Hearne: ‘All That Glitters’ & Len Dawson

Mr Cool takes a drag during half time at 1st Super Bowl

Everybody loves a local sports heroe…

And deceased Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson is no exception. That said, most of that so-called “love” is based upon our reverence for athletes – as some call it “jock sniffing” – dating back to the grade school bullies of our lost youth.

Any of that sound controversial?

I grew up watching Dawson kick butt in the old Municipal Stadium from my dad’s 50 yard line seats at games punctuated by politically incorrect cartoon Indian program covers. Like the August 9, 1963 Buffalo Bills game, featuring a goofy-looking Native American dude wielding a knife and fork while riding a buffalo with a sign that read, “Historic Indian Meat.”

In front of the 5,721 fans in attendance,  Len Dawson won his first home game in KC, alongside 8 AFL all-stars, which did not include Dawson.

Lenny the Cool trivia ranges from him being the 9th of 11 children and the 8th oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl. When the Chiefs signed an even more famous No. 16  in 1993 – Joe Montana – Dawson worked quietly behind the scenes to prevent Montana from taking his retired No. 16 jersey, which many Chiefs fans at the time wanted Joe to have.

And while wife Linda Dawson has been front and center in Len’s post death news coverage, missing-in-action mostly has been like his 62 year-old namesake son, Len Dawson, Jr. and his sister. Continue reading

Posted in Hearne_Christopher, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Hearne: ‘Black Lives Matter’ Goes To The Movies

Who can forget the wild and crazy Summer of Love 2020?

Not Hollywood.

While I never stopped going to movies during the COVID hoopla – long as theaters were open – my wife, daughters and I were pretty lonely in the nearly empty auditoriums.

That was then…

Finally, with the  Tom Cruise sequel to his dated, boring, original Top Gun, people started coming back to theaters. Not like pre pandemic days, but, hey, the longest journey begins with the first step.

Out here in the desert, I typically see two or three movies a month, which includes a tons of previews or trailers. The latest crop stands out because it includes three movies depicting African Americans in old timey jungle flicks.

Reminds me of those politically correct, “We believe” yard signs.

You know, the ones with slogans like “Black Lives Matter,” “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights,” “No Human Is Illegal” and “Climate Change Is Real.”

‘Member them?

Well, for around $30, you can still buy those signs online or better yet, revisit that bygone epoch by watching movies like Black Panther Wakanda Forever, The Woman King and The Beast.

Take your pick, but prepare for a helping of revisionist history. Continue reading

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Guy Who Says: Mizzou Fan Defends SEC Failures

How long before the SEC & Big 10 stop paying big bucks to lesser teams like Mizzou, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, I wondered?

“To answer your last question: Never,” fired back the Guy Who Days What Others Think. “It’s a dumb idea only put forth by those who are still red-assed about the changing landscape of college sports. Oh and Missouri will never leave the SEC for the B1g 12. That ship has sailed.

“What’s truly hilarious is watching the same batch of morons at KU who bad mouthed Missouri for leaving, in full panic mode trying to find a new conference to land in. Missouri made the right move in 2011/12, and it’s still the right move. The Big 12 was a dead man walking from the day it was formed in complete and total dysfunction.

“The Texas & OU programs that MU, aTm, NU, and CU left behind have been humbled over the last decade. Gone are the days where they dictate what goes on in a conference. They will sit down, shut up, and row in the same direction as all the other teams in the SEC. Texas A&M threw a hissy fit when UT/OU applied for membership, but when it came to nut cutting time, they were told to sit down, shut up, and vote yes. And that’s EXACTLY what they did.

“And trust me, I’d rather travel to Nashville, Athens, Oxford, Knoxville, etc. than Ames, Lawrence, Omaha, Mancrappin’ KS, Lubbock, or Waco. It’s not even a contest.”

Hold it right there, dude…

Most football fans never travel to away games, with rare excecption. And driving for a couple hours, rather than days is far preferable to me. If I’m looking for vacation options, it rarely involves a sporting event, although I have gone to a few Orange Bowls while visiting my parents in Florida.

Back to the dude… Continue reading

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Hearne: Big 12 Revival Update

A year ago it looked like the Big 12 might be toast…

A handful of schools that made up the college sports conference many Kansas Citian’s grew up with had bailed 10 years earlier to escape bullying by Texas and Oklahoma.  They included, Missouri and Texas A&M to the SECNebraska to the Big 10; and Colorado to the Pac 12.

Then last summer, Texas and OU said they too were going to the SEC for bigger bucks. Which left Kansas, K-State and the remaining Big 12 schools in the lurch. With just eight left, starting in 2025 many thought the Big 12 could be kaput.

Ah, but not so fast…

The Big 12 went out and signed significant schools Brigham Young, Houston, Cincinnati and the University of Central Florida in Orlando – all of which begin conference play next year.

Bullet dodged.

And just as something approaching a calm was starting to set in, all heck broke loose again a couple weeks back, when Southern Cal and UCLA announced they were quitting the Pac 12 to join the Big 10.

Which calls into question now if the Pac 12 can survive.

The $64 billion question: Which Pac 12 schools can the Big 12 lure.

At present, the betting money is on Arizona – my alma mater here in Tucson – and Colorado.

Should those schools or any others leave the Pac 12, the consensus is it would doom the west coast’s premier college sports league.

In recent days there are a number of developments in that regard.

Take a column and radio interview with Denver Post sports writer Sean Keeler, who wrote that Colorado should jump at the chance to rejoin the Big 12.

“I would say the fan base would be 60-40 Big 12 and maybe even higher,” Keeler said in a podcast interview. “They feel burned, they were duped – they feel duped by the Pac 12 – they feel like red-headed mountain step cousins. You know, it’s not been good. The fans don’t like the Pac 12.”

Like Mizzou, Colorado’s gone from Big 12 powerhouse to bottom feeder. Continue reading

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Hearne: About The Local Doc Who Claimed To Be Treating Elvis

Jesse (Elvis?) Circa 2000

Speaking of the hoopla re the new Elvis Presley movie…

What better time to take a trip back in time than now- 21 years after the fact, to be specific – to when area physician Donald Hinton wrote a book claiming Elvis was still alive and he was treating him.

Remember that?

Swell, you won’t find any references to any of that in the new Elvis movie.

But that’s exactly what went down and I covered it extensively at the Kansas City Star at the time. To the extent that Doc Hinton, a woman assistant and an Elvis imitator/cousin named Jerry Presley – came to one of my Super Bowl parties. They shared stories about the King, who allegedly went by Jesse, after his twin brother that died at birth, and is buried in the garden at Graceland in Memphis.

Right next to where Elvis is allegedly buried.

FYI, Elvis head honcho Jack Soden – a friend of mine from Kansas City – said he wasn’t buying the story at the time.

Of course he wasn’t buying it. Even if it were true, why would he?

That said, Hinton’s book and his on-the-record statements claimed it was.

Last time I wrote about it was in 2013, when I spoke with Jerry Presley and he learned that the entire Elvis-is-alive episode had caused any number of problems and difficulties to himself, Hinton and the woman assistant.

“He believed it 100 percent, absolutely,” Presley told me. “There was nothing in Dr. Hinton that was phony or fake. He truly believed he was helping somebody.”

Needless to say, not everybody did. Continue reading

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Hearne: BIG 12 Football Refugee Redux

Seems like only yesterday…

The never-ending, ongoing demise of the Big 12 Conference, that is. The crazy part is – Colorado started it by bailing for the Pac 10 a dozen years ago; followed by Nebraska to the now infamous Big 10 a year later; and Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC in 2012.

The reason they gave: to get away from the financial bullying by Texas.

Funny thing, because looking back, those great escapes resulted in Texas and Oklahoma saying last summer they were bailing for the SEC. Meaning Mizzou and A&M will be reunited with school they fled to escape.

Go figure.

Clearly, the fallout from those moves has not been pretty.

For starters, Kansas gave Mizzou the cold shoulder until recently, ending the so-called “oldest rivalry west the Mississippi.”

Ditto for the Nebraska-Oklahoma fall holiday classics.,

Nobody seemed to care much about Colorado, but Nebraska fell from being a perennial Top 10 in the Big 12, to a Big 10 also ran.

In the meantime, Missouri went from a Big 12 college basketball powerhouse to reegular losses to lowly UMKC – AMC Theatres founder Stan Durwood’s old team. And after playing KU for a No. 1 ranking in 2007, it’s fallen into football mediocrity. Continue reading

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Hearne: Elvis Has Left The Cutting Room Floor

About that new Elvis flick out of Australia…

Star of the show Austin Butler plays a kick ass “young” Elvis – even though he turns 31 in August – nearly 10 years older than the young King he plays in the movie.

My abbreviated take: For anyone younger than 40, this nearly three hour movie can get tedious, so you may want to take on some caffeine before.

And while it starts with a bang – that being Butler’s powerful resurrection of the King –  watching a COVID striken Tom Hanks screw Elvis over in business dealings gets old.

Or as movie dude Jack Poessiger put it, “I didn’t buy Hanks in the role, did you? I had trouble buying him in the role, even though it was Tom Hanks. And Tom Hanks and his wife both got COVID pretty seriously and they had to shut the set down for like six months.”

Speaking of Jack, he’s generally among the first to gripe about movies being excessively long, but he forgot to mention it in this online review.

“Yeah, that was the biggest complaint,” Poessiger says. “That it was a little over the limit, lengthwise. They could have taken 15 minutes out of it.”

Try 39 from the two hour and 39 minute movie, is my suggestion. Continue reading

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