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Wednesday

Auburn / football / memories / Wednesday — Comments Off
1
Aug 12

Carl Stephen, famed announcer of Jordan-Hare Stadium, dies at 77

When I was in undergrad at Auburn, the Tigers clinched the 1997 SEC West division championship in the last home game of the season. For many, many years they’ve been very strict about people running onto that gorgeous green grass, the fans stayed in place, but things got away from “stadium officials” that night. A goalpost was torn down by the players and went into the student body.

No one had left the student section that night. Our revelry was in the stands, and with the players who climbed up on the low wall. That goalpost got into the crush of students. People in the end zone seats were passing it, overhead, to the people behind them. The goalpost made it all the way up to the lip of the stadium. It was going over.

And this voice, this beautiful basso profondo voice reproduced only in heaven and Jordan-Hare Stadium, instructed the students to put the goalpost down. Do not throw it over the side of the stadium.

That authoritative voice cut through the delirium and that goalpost worked its way back down through the students and to the field again.

That was the commanding presence of Carl Stephens. Whether everyone there knew him — many did — or whether they just respected the voice of Jordan-Hare Stadium and Auburn football, they knew of him.

He sounded like this.

That was his last home opener, in 2005, against Georgia Tech. He retired the following spring. I had the great pleasure of interviewing him on his long career as a broadcaster in Montgomery — where he was a familiar face for a third of the state, working almost his entire career at WSFA-TV — and a legend in the loveliest village. These audio clips are from that interview at al.com.

Carl Stephens on how is long career with Auburn began.

Carl Stephens on how they produced the football highlight show.

Carl Stephens on calling a game as a public address announcer.

Carl Stephens on exciting moments.

Carl Stephens’ memorable highlights, referencing the 1996 LSU at Auburn game.

Carl Stephens on games that fans talk to him about, including the 1983 Iron Bowl at Legion Field.

Carl Stephens on his favorite parts of game day.

Carl Stephens on his favorite memories.

In addition to his work at WSFA, the old highlight show in the 60s and 70s with Ralph “Shug” Jordan, and his time calling regular season sports at Auburn, he called 15 SEC football championship games, 14 SEC basketball tournaments, six SEC baseball tournaments and numbers NCAA basketball tournament games.

He was a very kind man, giving of his time, friendly to all and humble almost beyond comparison. When I called him upon his retirement he couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to interview him. It sincerely took him back. He’d been an icon for more than four decades by then.

I couldn’t wait to talk shop with him. I was fortunate enough to call games for two years at UAB at the turn of the century. When I interviewed Stephens in 2005 I asked him how much of a game he remembered when he left the stadium. It was gratifying to know he often couldn’t recall the flow because he was so absorbed in doing his job. I’d felt that way, but now the consummate professional was telling me it happened to him, too. Most telling, considering all he’d seen, he maintained his favorite part of working those games was meeting so many people.

Carl Stephens was a gentleman at every turn. He was one of the last few bridges to a golden era at Auburn. He went home this evening at the age of 77, survived by his beautiful wife Mary, children Richard and Sandra, several grandchildren and thousands of fans, friends and Auburn family. For many of them, his voice was football.

Richard told me tonight that his father “truly, truly was” that kind and humble man the rest of us thought we knew. That’s a son’s pride and sorrow. That and the many eulogies shared about him now tell the story: we’ve lost another great Auburn man.

Drive home safely, and War Eagle.

collarbone / cycling / photo / Tumblr / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off
25
Jul 12

Stitch free

Visited the orthopedic surgeon again for another checkup today. He moved my arm once, glanced at his handiwork, answered three questions, asked two and referenced something we said conversationally when we met two weeks ago.

One of his assistants removed my two cosmetic stitches. They look like fishing line. Removing them was like pulling out one hair by its super-long root. The Yankee pronounced the incision “not as bad as I thought” saying later “it looks like a bad scratch.” And so it does.

Therapy starts in two weeks. I’ll be on my bike on the indoor trainer by then.

I finally got around to taking a few more pictures of my now destroyed bike helmet. The original picture was taken on my wife’s iPhone, side-lit by my friend’s iPhone, when we were all calmly waiting for someone in the emergency room to call my name. Now that I have two hands again, for the most part, I decided to use my real camera for more detail.

[If this is all new to you, here’s the accident, the hospital and the surgery.]

This is the back of the helmet, as seen from above. So you’d be wearing this and facing the top of the frame. The thin plastic aesthetic cover popped right off when I hit the ground. (I brought it home for posterity, but it didn’t suffer any serious damage like you’ll see here.) Note the chunk that the road just sheared off. Part of that is resting beside the helmet:

Again the back, this time from straight on. See how the upper left and center of the back was ground away? Note the small cracking at the base of the helmet’s back as well. See that crack on the left side? We’ll get to that next:

Here’s that left-side damage. Hardly a hairline crack:

This is a little farther up the side, but still on the left. As you’re wearing the helmet this crack would be directly over the left ear. The fracturing only stops at the air vent. Who knows how far it could have gone beyond that in a solid form, like a skull. From these pictures we can surmise that, without the helmet, the crown of my head over to my ear would have been heavily damaged:

Finally, looking up into the helmet. That’s one-piece, molded crash foam. Look how much it separated:

Tomorrow I’m going to write about something else, promise. Pictures of other things on Tumblr. Lots more on Twitter.

collarbone / cycling / friends / iPhone / photo / Wednesday — 1 Comment
18
Jul 12

Taking it easy

Those are my orders. Saw the orthopedist today, who told me to my incision looks good. We saw that for the first time today, it is much larger than we’d anticipated.

I am to lift nothing heavier than a glass of water. And I have been given gravity/pendulum therapy.

Bend over at the waist, let your arm dang freely. Move your hand back and forth, left and right, front and back and in circles. Do this daily. That’s my therapy for the first week. He did not tell me how many times a day to do this, or how many reps of each. I’d like a little more precision …

I can ride my bike in five or six weeks he said and a trainer in two. My complete recovery time, he said, was 12 weeks, making this the longest personal recovery of anything I can recall.

Anyway, since I’m sitting comfortably and resting, here is a picture. This is the tangerine bonsai tree that Kelly sent us:

She’s so very wonderfully giving and thoughtful. Kelly says it will eventually yield us dainty fruits to enjoy. Also, I must take care of it daily:

Water daily through hot spells and every other day in the spring and fall. As needed in the winter. A well balanced liquid fertilizer should be used with every 2nd or 3rd watering. Citrus in general are heavy feeders, especially iron, manganese and zinc. The local nursery should have an adequate liquid feed available.

[…]

Prune to shape as you desire, keeping in mind the small- scale size of the plant and its container. Flowers will appear from small shoots that originate where the leaves meet the stem. Flowers sporadically throughout the year, heaviest in the spring. Remove the tree from its pot every 2-3 years and remove about 1/3 of the roots. Re-pot with a blended potting soil. This will encourage new roots and keep it growing happily.

Maybe I can trim a leaf with each week of recovery. Or is that too impatient for bonsai?

collarbone / cycling / Wednesday — 1 Comment
11
Jul 12

The orthopedist says

Saw the local expert. He comes well recommended. We know people that he’s treated.

Everyone in his office was very nice and patient. (The nurse there was impressed by my road rash. I figure if you have to seek out medical help, give them something to admire. He gave me some debridement bandages, which is more attention than they received in the emergency room. He told me to leave them on until Thursday. “You’ll be amazed, bro.”)

The doctor himself did not rush us at all and waited for all of our questions. Told us the options and let us decide everything. He let me ask him the same question different ways, which is my habit when I’m trying to get more information.

The options are basically these: you can let a collar bone grow back together or you can surgically repair it. Letting nature take its course is a slower answer and there are risks of physical deformity and a concern about a loss of functionality. Surgically is faster and you are supposed to bounce back to your normal self.

I’m young, I’m active. I don’t want to be limited. My break, he said, was so far apart that naturally healing was something of a crapshoot. So we’re doing surgery.

This changes a lot of schedules, and will lay me up for a while, but it is better in the long run.

He told me which day his best people are working with him, so we know which day to have the procedure. It takes about 45 minutes, he said.

Until then, ice, rest and keep it still.

Being still isn’t hard. I’ve figured out, for the most part, how to get comfortable so that I can almost forget I’m hurt. Changing shirts is the worst. Getting in and out of bed is slow. Sleeping is a challenge. There are no real big problems, though. I’m just learning to do things slowly, one-handed and kicking myself for getting hurt.

Site note: I will not talk about this for days on end, I promise.

adventures / Auburn / cycling / iPhone / photo / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
4
Jul 12

Independence Day

We let freedom ring on the bikes this morning. Snuck in a quick 30 miles (legs felt great) and made it home precisely at noon, which was conveniently when the sun remembered it was being sponsored by the month of July. Had watermelon for lunch.

We drove to Montgomery for ribs at Dreamland, as is our tradition. Our waiter was an immigrant who talked fast and moved a little slower. We sat outside in the shade, shooed away flies and enjoyed barbecue and banana pudding. We heard country songs next to blues next to Texas blues next to Edgar Winter. I’m no longer sure how to categorize Winter, so let’s make him his own genre. The Founders would have wanted it that way.

We made it back home in time to make it to the high school football stadium for the local fireworks show. Found a spot on the shoulder of the road that fit the car perfectly. We pulled the lawn chairs out of the trunk, where they’ve rested since the fireworks last night and craned our necks into the night, enjoying a peaceful half an hour before the first sparks were flung into the sky.

Here’s tonight’s finale:

The conclusion seemed a bit sudden, in a way, but then a firetruck which had been parked near the launch site suddenly bolted for some emergency somewhere. And it has been very, very dry here, despite a bit of rain yesterday, so we found ourselves hoping there wasn’t a problem with the pyro. I don’t think you could pay enough to cover the antacids for the fireworks engineers. Always a crowd, always in a drought, no thanks.

But the show was great. Kids were playing. Little boys and girls oohed and aahed. The weather was divinely perfect. Everything was.

Hope yours was great as well.

Happy Independence Day!