This obit of the legendary Maryland basketball coach reminded me of a discussion we had a few years ago. It started with a remark in a published article by political scientist Diana Mutz identifying herself as “a Hoosier by birth and upbringing, the daughter of a former Republican officeholder, and someone who still owns a home in Mike Pence’s hometown.”
That’s interesting: I don’t know so many children of political officeholders! Actually, I can’t think of anyone I know, other than Mutz, who is a child of a political officeholder, but perhaps there are some such people in my social network. I don’t know the occupations of most of my friends’ parents.
Anyway, following up on that bit from Mutz, sociologist Steve Morgan added some background of his own:
I was also born in Indiana, and in fact my best friend in the 1st grade, before I left the state, was Pat Knight. To me, his father, Bobby Knight was a pleasant and generally kind man (who used to give us candy bars, etc.). He turned out to be a Trump supporter, and probably his son too. So, in addition to not appreciating his full basketball personality when I was 6 years old, I also did not see his potential to find a demagogue inspiring. We moved to Ohio, where I received a lot of education in swing-state politics and Midwestern resentment of coastal elites.
And then I threw in my two cents:
I was not born in Indiana, but I grew up in suburban Maryland (about 10 miles from Brett Kavanaugh, but I went to a public school in a different part of the county and so had zero social overlap with his group). One of the kids in my school was Chuck Driesell, son of Lefty Driesell, former basketball coach at the University of Maryland. Lefty is unfortunately now most famous for his association with Len Bias, but Chuck and I were in high school before that all happened, when Lefty was famous for being a good coach who couldn’t ever quite beat North Carolina. Once I remember the Terps decided to beat Dean Smith at his own game by doing the four corners offense themselves. But it didn’t work; I think Maryland ended up losing 21-18 or some other ping-pong-like score. Chuck was in my economics class. I have no idea if he’s now a Trump supporter. I guess it’s possible. One of the other kids in that econ class was an outspoken conservative, one of the few Reagan supporters of our group of friends back in 1980. Chuck grew up and became a basketball coach; the other kid grew up and became an economist.
I never went to a Maryland basketball game all the time I lived there, even when I was a student at the university. I wish I’d gone; I bet it would’ve been a lot of fun. My friends and I played some pickup soccer and basketball, and I watched lots of sports on TV, but for whatever reason we never even considered the idea of going to a game. We didn’t attend any of high school football games either, even though our school’s team was the state champions. This was not out of any matter of principle; we just never thought of going. Our loss.
Using Andrew’s outline (more-or-less). I guess it’s childhood reminiscence day on the blog ;)
I grew up in Ann Arbor, MI and went to a public school. One of the kids in my school was Jim Harbaugh, son of Jack Harbaugh, former football coach at several universities. Jim became famous for cheating his way to a national football championship at the University of Michigan – then jumping ship before the NCAA could bring the hammer down on his alma mater. Jim’s cheating goes way back – he used to copy my algebra homework almost every day in Mrs. Goodman’s 8th Grade algebra class at Tappan Jr. High School. But it didn’t work very well since I was a C student. I am pretty certain Jim is now a Trump supporter – he’s an outspoken Christian and anti-abortion advocate. I guess the signs may have been there early on, but despite my fairly strong political interest/involvement at the time … it didn’t occur to me when we were friends (’78 – ’81). Several kids in my friend group were outspoken conservatives, but, like much of Ann Arbor, most were pretty liberal. Lots of them grew up to be economists, professors, lawyers, and the like. Me too.
Anon:
If you go to the Federal Elections Commission webpage, you can search their individual campaign contributions. Amazingly enough, there is a James Harbaugh in Ann Arbor Michigan who’s there in the database, and he’s made many donations to Democrats—but it’s a different James Harbaugh!
A quick google search turned up this pile of partial information.
In 1970, pre-Lefty, the Maryland basketball team beat a nationally ranked (17th is my recollection) South Carolina team using the four corner offense. Final score was 21 to 20. The game was as boring as the depiction of soccer on The Simpsons. Games like that were the reason the shot clock was implemented. But we were ecstatic.
Hey, Andrew, I went to a high school football game! Just one as far as I remember. I must have gone with some other friends but I can’t remember who; I would have guessed it was you but evidently not. Maybe Harvey.
I’ve gone to a smattering of college and pro sporting events over the years, probably averaging 0.6 per year or something. They’re fine but I’d almost always rather play something myself than watch other people play it.
Phil:
I agree in general that it’s more fun to play basketball than watch basketball. As a kid, I did go with my dad to an Orioles game once a year. It’s funny in retrospect that we never even considered to a Maryland basketball game, not even to discuss the possibility and decide not to. The games were close by and they got a lot of publicity in the newspaper.
I’m not sure other Springbrook High School kids went to University of Maryland games either, I think even the ones who were into sports were into high school sports. Springbrook was a powerhouse!
Even at the University of Kentucky, I only ever went to two basketball games, only one of which was in the 1991-1992 season that ended with ‘The Shot’ in a Duke-Kentucky game…hmm, Wikipedia says “It is ranked number one on the list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time compiled by USA Today in 2002.” I wouldn’t know, I only turned it on to catch the last ten minutes.
I’m just not a spectator sports guy…or at least, I wasn’t. In the past dozen years I’ve gotten used to watching the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, and sometimes the Vuelta a Espana too.
Anyway it’s a pity if you feel like you missed out by not going to any University of Maryland basketball games. Me, I have a few regrets in life, some of which revolve around experiences I missed, but that isn’t one of them.
Every once in awhile we go to a Columbia basketball game—they’re right around the corner—and that makes me really wish that I’d gone to a Maryland game.
I was a grad student at Indiana at the time Bob Knight was hired and regularly attended games. In those days he never displayed the temper and authoritarian tendancies that marred the later years of his career. There were a number of us who spent our undergrad years in California playing volleyball, both beach and indoor. We formed a club team and played in regional tournaments. IU had a men’s undergrad team and I regularly played with Tim Bowen, son of Governor Otis Bowen who later was Reagan’s Secretary of HHS. Governor Bowen was a medical doctor an (in)famously known for letting his terminally ill wife be treated with Laetrile.