For 25 consecutive years Greg Gumbel was a part of college basketball fans’ annual march to madness.
As CBS Sports’ studio host of the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament each spring, I dare say he was as much a part of the action as the players and coaches themselves. His cool and steady hand navigating the studio team and – during his early years – handling the cutaway coverage of fantastic finishes that inevitably popped up.
Broadcaster Greg Gumbel was as much a part of the CBS coverage of the Men’s NCAA Tournament as the madness itself. He died in December 2024. (Photo by Kyle Terada/Imagn Images)
Gumbel missed the 2024 Tournament when he was away for what was described as “family health issues.”
He died on December 27, 2024 at 78-years-old from pancreatic cancer.
The past two NCAA Tournaments were the first he was not a part of since taking the reins of the studio in 1998, a remarkable 25-year stretch.
In later years, CBS and Turner Sports have teamed to televise the tournament and Ernie Johnson (a cancer survivor himself), Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, and Kenny Smith paid tribute to Gumbel at the beginning of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
The field of 68 will be revealed later today and, no doubt, some teams will be missing.
There will be something else missing as well:-(
Ernie Johnson and company kick off this year's NCAA Tournament with a moving tribute to longtime host Greg Gumbel. pic.twitter.com/ktizs9RDST
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
Yes, came his answer as a proud Hope alum. He then began to regale me with data about how competitive the rivalry is (Hope currently leads the all-time series 111-105), how the New York Times featured the game over a decade ago while the New York Knicks were struggling, mightily. ESPN’s given it some publicity (see this 2007 story) and even ranked it as the fourth best college basketball rivalry in the country behind only Duke-North Carolina, UConn-Tennessee women, and Kentucky-Louisville.
Known simply as The Rivalry, the game’s been played since the 1920-21 season and, entering the first meeting this season, the teams are separated by one point all time. Yes, just one point separates the cumulative scoring for the two schools through 216 all-time games (Calvin leads it 14,637 to 14,636).
Later tonight I’ll be in the stands at Hope’s DeVos Fieldhouse thanks to a ticket Todd helped secure.
But before attending the game, I decided it’d be a good idea to learn a bit more about The Rivalry. The two schools’ athletic directors – Dr. Jim Timmer Jr. from Calvin and Tim Schoonveld from Hope – were kind enough to join me on this special bonus episode of Conversations with Sports Fans to discuss the schools, their history, and, of course, The Rivalry.
Dr. Jim Timmer Jr. and Tim Schoonveld discuss the Calvin-Hope rivalry.
Combined, the two players in this photo from their college days have played 33 NBA seasons, scored over 34,000 points, and won five NBA Championships. Who are they?
There’s a lot of basketball skill in this week’s #FanTeaser.
Patty Mills, then of Saint Mary’s (CA), and Stephen Curry, then of Davidson, met just once during their college days. It was during the second round of the 2009 NIT on the campus of Saint Mary’s in Moraga, CA. (Photographer Unknown)
Mills, a native of Canberra, Australia, was a standout lead guard for the Gaels in what was his second and final season on the Moraga, CA, campus. He averaged 18.4 points and 3.7 assists per game for Saint Mary’s, which burst out to an 18-1 record and a national ranking of No. 22, before the Aussie broke his shooting hand and missed a half-dozen games.
Curry, who finished that season as the nation’s leading scorer (28.6 points per game), had burst on the scene a year earlier when he led the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite 8, beating seventh-seeded Gonzaga (92-76), second-seeded Georgetown (74-70), and third-seeded Wisconsin (73-56), before falling to top-seeded and eventual NCAA Champion, Kansas (59-57).
The matchup in Moraga was a pre-cursor to 16 years worth of NBA battles between the two. Curry’s been a Golden State Warrior all 17 seasons while Mills spent all but three of his 16 NBA seasons in the Western Conference.
It was such a huge game that special t-shirts were produced to commemorate the event, which sold out in under 30 minutes. Saint Mary’s wound up winning the game, 80-68, with Mills leading the way. He scored 23 points and handed out 10 assists. Curry, meanwhile, was held to 26 points, nine rebounds, and five assists.
How big was the Mills-Curry Matchup in Moraga back in 2009? T-shirts were produced for the game. (Photo by Karl Mondon/San Jose Mercury News)
The two went on to more acclaim as NBA players.
As noted previously, Curry’s spent all 17 of his NBA seasons in, ironically enough, the Bay Area playing for Golden State, where he’s won four NBA titles, a pair of league MVP awards, and has stretched the limits of what’s considered an “in range shot” for most.
For his part, Mills won a NBA title during the 2013-14 season for the San Antonio Spurs, where he was an extension of Coach Gregg Popovich off the bench as starting point guard Tony Parker‘s primary backup.
For more reading on the Curry-Mills matchup from 2009, check out this San Jose Mercury News article at this link.
Stephen Curry’s highlight reel from the 2008 NCAA Tournament is, simply, awesome!
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
This was my first full year on the road in pursuit of my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events goal of reaching 80 iconic venues and/or events by the time my biological clock hits 60 in June 2027.
As such, I saw a lot in 2025.
In total, I traveled 53,982 miles, set foot on two new continents (Asia and South America), witnessed 26 events, and spent many nights not in my own bed.
Here are my highlights from the year that’s about to have been.
Number 5 – A December Sunday at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field
Packers’ fans celebrate a score during their 28-21 victory over the rival Chicago Bears.
My final event of 2025 was just about everything I could have hoped for.
The visiting Chicago Bears and host Green Bay Packers were playing for the NFC Central Division lead, both had winning percentages of over .700 this late in the season (the first time that’s happened since December 11, 1932), the skies were clear, and the temperatures felt like single-digits by the time the late afternoon game concluded.
The fact that the game came down to the penultimate play, a Caleb Williams pass to the end zone was intercepte by Keisean Nixon sealed the Packers’ 28-21 victory.
The only things that would have made this a game 10-out-of-10 would have been that final Bears’ drive heading into the endzone we were seated in and an occasional snowflake falling to create a total commemorative snow globe moment.
All the Content from Event No. 34 Still Needs to be Created. Stay Tuned:-)
Number 4 – Lionel Messi’s (Likely) Final Competitive Home Match for Team Argentina
This sums up, perfectly, the adoration the Argentine fans have for Lionel Messi.
It’s widely assumed that the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the final international go-round for Argentine soccer legend, Lionel Messi.
If this in fact remains true, then I’m able to say I was among the 77,000 spectators in Buenos Aires’ Estadio Mas Monumental for one of the game’s greatest of all-time’s final competitive home match when Argentina defeated Venezuela, 3-0, in CONMEBOL’s Matchday 17.
I understood next-to-nothing the public address speaker said throughout, but what I did understand the unmitigated affection that crowd had for Messi. From the standing ovation he received as he stepped off the bus in the loading dock, to his first appearance on the pitch, to the two goals he scored (and even the one that was disallowed by an offsides call), to his exit from the pitch following post-match media.
That no one in the stadium considered leaving until he was off the field is a visual I’m unsure can ever be erased from my mind.
Check Out All the Content from Event No. 24 at this link.
Number 3 – Arkansas Pitcher Gage Wood No-Hits the Murray State Racers in the MCWS
Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood celebrates a big out during his 19 strikeout no-hitter of Murray State during the Men’s College World Series in Omaha.
Like so many, I walked into Omaha’s Charles Schwab Stadium that steamy June 16 afternoon pulling hard for the Cinderella team of the Men’s College World Series, the Murray State Racers.
By the fifth inning, however, allegiances were subtly shifting.
Arkansas Razorback starting pitcher Gage Wood was DEALING! It looked like the Racers’ batters were swinging wet lasagna noodles against Wood as the strikeouts mounted.
By the seventh inning, I’m fairly certain everyone in the park knew what was happening.
That it happened was too cool for school.
Wood threw the first no-hitter in MCWS play in 65 years. His 19 strikeouts were the most in a 9-inning MCWS game … ever.
That I was there and, through the generosity of a stranger, had seats behind homeplate, is truly remarkable.
Check Out All the Content from Event No. 19 at this link.
Number 2 – Indiana Class 4A High School Sectional Final in Historic Muncie Fieldhouse
The opening tip between Greenfield-Central (white uniforms) and Mt. Vernon in the Indiana Class 4A High School Sectional Championship at Muncie Fieldhouse.
I was born and raised in Indiana and, as such, have a special fondness in my heart for high school basketball.
It was a fairly regular part of my weekly life as a youngster before my family moved to Michigan before sixth grade.
So, of the many events I planned to witness in 2025, I eagerly anticipated taking in some Indiana high school tournament basketball action. The first round is known as Sectionals in the Hoosier state and I was underwhelmed by the competitiveness I saw at the first two sites visited.
But on Saturday of Sectional Week … well I saw a gem.
I went with my cousin, Brandon, and his daughter, Calah, to see the Class 4A Sectional Final at historic Muncie Fieldhouse on a warm March evening. That there was a line to get in boded well and that the favored team, Greenfield-Central, was a among the top five teams in the state also provided optimism.
What none of us knew until the game began is who, exactly we were seeing.
Greenfield-Central’s star, Braylon Mullins, would go on to win Indiana’s coveted Mr. Basketball honor a few weeks later. He was a 5-star recruit who was destined for Storrs, CT, and the then 2-time defending NCAA Champion Connecticut Huskies. Mt. Vernon’s standout was a junior who’d already committed to Purdue named Luke Ertel.
The two duked it out all night, Mullins scored 38 and Ertel 36, but the upstarts from Mt. Vernon came away with an 83-76 double-overtime win. A thriller to be sure and a terrific way to cap off my week feasting on basketball in hoop-crazed Indiana.
Check Out All the Content from Event No. 14 at this link.
Number 1 – Witnessing the Setting Sun at the Rose Bowl on January 1
The golden hour at the 2025 Rose Bowl. What a view!
Odd, isn’t it, that I traveled nearly 54,000 miles in 2025 and my most memorable moment came on the very first day?
Never mind the football game (which The Ohio State won in a rout over Oregon), I was there for the environment, the pagentry, and the sunset.
I got it all!
The Tournament of Roses Parade shortly after dawn, the B-2 bomber flyover at the conclusion of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the ceremonial coin flip featuring the Grand Marshal (Billie Jean King), the Goodyear blimp hovering overhead throughout, and, of course, the sunset that was appointment viewing for me during my youth and – who am I kidding?!? – adulthood.
I won’t lie, it was a long day – especially considering I participated in the Run with the Roses 5K at midnight – but it was the best day of the year by a long shot.
Check Out All the Content from Event No. 11 at this link.
It’s nearly unfathomable to think that it’s now going on 40 years since the movie Hoosiers had its theatrical release on November 14, 1986. Not that you asked, but I saw it for the first time less-than-a-week later in Indiana at a Fort Wayne cinema with Chris, my former Editor-in-Chief at The Eastern Echo (Eastern Michigan University’s student newspaper).
Chris was a Detroit kid who knew next-to-nothing about Indiana high school basketball, but even he marveled at a nearly full theater over Thanksgiving Weekend and moviegoers who were alternately applauding, cheering, and, in some cases, wiping away tears during the movie.
With the score tied at 40 in the waning moments of the State Championship Game, the Hickory Huskers spread the floor for Jimmy Chitwood to work his magic. He delivered, draining the jumper as the clock strikes zero to give tiny Hickory High School the Indiana State Championship over mighty South Bend Central. (Photo from Orion Pictures)
Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis) was the the unquestioned best shooter on the team – in fact, we only see him miss three shots the entire movie (one in the school gym early in the film, one outside when Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) is speaking to him, and one early in the 1952 State Championship Game) – that he wasn’t the first choice to take the game-deciding shot against South Bend Central in that Championship Game is utterly ridiculous.
But then, Jimmy delivers one of his only four lines of dialogue all film long: “I’ll make it.”
And he did!
As an Indiana native Hoosiers holds a special place in my heart. That the film’s director, David Anspaugh, was high school buddy’s with my uncle Ken, makes it even more treasured. And, yes, if anyone out there can help get Anspaugh to join me on an episode of Conversations with Sports Fans your reward will be great.
Just like Jimmy nailing that final shot.
One Final Note: As I was doing a bit of research, I ran across this nugget if you’re interested in ringing in the 2026 slightly differently. Start Hoosiers at precisely 10:07.48 p.m. and the the New Year will begin with Jimmy splashing that winning shot.
The closing moment’s of the 1952 Indiana State Championship Game including Jimmy’s game-winning basket.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
Former Eastern Michigan University Coach Ben Braun is photographed with his family, wife Jessica, son Joshua, and daughter Eliza, during the dedication of Ben Braun Court in 2023. (Photo by Jonathan Knight/The Eastern Echo)
Nearly 40 years ago, I was was the beat writer for the ascendant Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball for EMU’s student newspaper, The Eastern Echo. The head coach, his first as without the interim title, was Ben Braun.
My second – and final – season on the beat ended in Lincoln, NE, of all places, where the 15th-seeded Hurons met 2nd-seeded and regular-season Big East Champion, Pitt, in the first round of the 1988 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Panthers won that game, 108-90, but I’m not sure I cared too much. I was covering an NCAA Tournament game! And playing that night on the University of Nebraska’s campus was Kansas and a certain star named Danny Manning. The Jayhawks wound up winning it all in 1988.
I saw Coach Braun around in the coming years before I moved to Alaska and he to the University of California Berkeley, but our interactions were limited to, perhaps, a head nod or a hello.
So it was quite a bit of fun to – thanks to social media – reconnect and invite him onto Conversations with Sports Fans for a long overdue catch up. We talk about all things you’d expect a pair of fellas who haven’t spoken in going on 40 years talk about.
Here’s hoping you enjoy the Conversation as much as I did.
As the 2025-26 NBA season begins it’s worth remembering there have been only four recorded quadruple-doubles since blocks and steals became official NBA statistics (1973-74 season). Only one of those occurred on the Opening Night of the NBA season and it’s a great one to highlight because he was the first to do it. Who’s pictured above and, for extra credit, who were the other three? (Hint: Two played for the same franchise.)
He was known during his playing days as “Nate the Great” but for at least the first night of the 1974-75 NBA season, Nate Thurmond was “Nate the Exceptional.”
An off-season acquisition by the Chicago Bulls, Thurmond shined before the raucus Chicago Stadium Opening Night crowd on October 18, 1974, when he recorded the first official quadruple-double in NBA history. Thurmond’s stat line that night included 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, and 12 steals in 45 minutes of action during the Bulls’ 120-115 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
Full Disclosure: Blocks and steals didn’t become official NBA statistics until the 1973-74 season so the chances of either Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell having achieved this rarified air previously were fairly high.
To date, however, it’s only been accomplished three more times in the past 50 seasons and Thurmond’s is still the only one to occur on Opening Night.
Those other three members of this most exclusive of clubs:
Alvin Robertson, San Antonio Spurs, February 18, 1986 – Over 36 minutes, Robertson scored 20 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, made 10 assists, and 10 steals, during the host Spurs’ 120-114 victory over the Phoenix Suns.
David Robinson, San Antonio Spurs, February 17, 1994 – Over 43 minutes, Robinson scored 34 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, made 10 assists, and blocked 10 shots, during the host Spurs’ 115-96 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Rockets, March 29, 1990 – Over 40 minutes, Olajuwon scored 18 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, made 10 assists, and blocked 11 shots during the host Rockets’ 120-94 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. An interesting side note, one of Olajuwon’s Milwaukee opponents that night was none other than Alvin Robertson.
Nate Thurmond, seen here during the 1974-75 season with the Chicago Bulls, recorded the first quadruple-double in NBA history on October 18, 1974, against the Atlanta Hawks. (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE & Getty Images)
Also of note, how in the heck did any opponent get a shot off against the San Francisco Warriors the season and a half Thurmond and Chamberlain were teammates (1963-64 and part of 1964-65)!?!
Finally, we mentioned that Thurmond had been newly acquired by the Bulls prior to the 1974-75 season. He was traded by the Warriors to Chicago for Clifford Ray and a 1975 first-round draft pick that wound up being Joe Bryant, who might be better known as Kobe Bryant‘s father.
Enjoy this two minute retrospective of Thurmond’s career produced by the NBA shortly after his 2016 death.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.
For 21 seasons, Robert Boudwin was Houston Rockets’ mascot Clutch the Bear.
I had the good fortune this week to have Robert Boudwin join me on Conversations.
Perhaps the name’s not recognizable, but I’m willing to bet many sports fans will be familiar with Robert’s work. He was the original YoUDee the Delaware Blue Hen mascot and the original Clutch the Bear from the Houston Rockets.
That’s right, the man created a pair of Mascot Hall of Fame characters in two completely different environments.
He’s also a man of causes and if he gets a bit emotional discussing the importance of organ donation, well so be it. Robert’s father is still living today after receiving a double lung transplant more than a decade ago and Robert’s still as passionate an advocate as ever (check out the video below of him completing the Houston Half-Marathon in full costume to promote organ donation awareness). As he tells me during our Conversation:
Please don’t take your organs to heaven, heaven knows we need them here.
