Bears maul Hawkeyes — Ms. Mary’s team wins and sends my far-sighted Hawks flying home for spring. The Baylor Bears of Waco, Texas prevailed Thursday night over the Ioway Hawkeyes of Iowa City, Iowa in the final of the NIT tourney in New York City. Growling and clawing, swiping and batting, those Bears blocked the shots of my normally accurate frontiersmen from Iowa, controlling the field of play. Another day will dawn, another court will beckon, but for now my hat is off to the Bears of Baylor. Sic ‘Em Bears!!!

Here come the Louisville Cardinals.

This afternoon at 5:07 PM CST US, the red-bird Cardinal men of Louisville fly and swoop, swish and zoom to shock and topple the Shockers of Wichita State University. Afterward, at 7:47 PM, the snarling and tenacious Michigan Wolverines pull and shake to topple the Orangemen of Syracuse who will be stepping and shaking to loosen those pesky wolverines and jump free to victory. Both games are too close to call, so run to your sets to watch and cheer. I will say that I saw a cardinal on the snow some seconds ago, and it is still cold in the north country of the Great Lakes. Do these sightings and feelings presage the outcomes for the Final Four? Only time will tell, as it does so well. Tomorrow the Championship Game contenders will be known.

For the women, the NCAA Tournament Final Four are: Louisville versus California on Sunday at 5:30 PM CST US, and Connecticut versus Notre Dame at 8:30 PM. For the Lady Cardinals of Lousiville, Kentucky against the Lady Golden Bears of Berkely, California, my observation is that yesterday the guest signing before us was from Lousiville. For the Lady Huskies of the University of Connecticut in their challenge to the Fighting Irish colleens of Nortre Dame and their pet leprechaun, all I can say is that in the Alaskan Iditarod Huskie Dog Sled Race, Aliy Zirkle came in second, just missing the chance to be the first woman to win the 1,000 mile race across the snow from Anchorage to Nome.  As I am quick to say, these are not prognostications but observations, not predictions but reflections. The real test is that of the participants, and the laurel is theirs to lift. Good luck to all, and to all a good game.

Whatever the outcomes, the fun is for the fans and the applause is for the players.

Keep waiting, watching, and wishing,

Grandpa Jim

In James Fenimore Cooper’s historical novel “The Last of the Mohicans,” Hawkeye is the American frontiersman and hero who, with his sidekicks — the last of the Mohican Indians, rescues the Munro sisters — the dark-haired and serious Cora and the blond and playful Alice, from the villainous Magua and the Huron Indians Magua has duped. In the book, Hawkeye’s real name is Natty Bumppo. Natty’s claim to fame is his accuracy with the long rifle, which earns him the honorific La longue carabine with the French and their Indian allies and the more straight-forward nickname “Hawkeye” because of the deadly accuracy of his well-placed shots. La longue carabine is a true hero, and a hero needs a better name than “Bumppo.” So Natty becomes “Hawkeye,” a more suited appellation for a champion of literature with a sharp eye and an uncanny accuracy with a shot.

Years later, the term “Hawkeye” was used to describe the frontiersman farmers settling in the state of Iowa. The Ioway Indians were there when the first rugged farmers with their long rifles arrived, and my story is that the Ioway Indians observed how accurate the settlers were with their shots. Well, those Ioway Indians sat around their campfire near the Iowa River and talked about the new arrivals and what good shots the newcomers were. One Indian, whose was a reader – even then Iowans were known for their literary focus — remembered James Fenimore’s book and said “Hawkeye.” That was enough. All the Indians nodded in agreement and the new name stuck. Iowans have been Hawkeyes ever since.

I was born in Iowa City, Iowa on the Iowa River while my Dad was studying for his engineering degree at the University of Iowa. My Dad had been born on the old farm next to the Iowa River years before, and my son would be born near the Iowa River in Iowa, City, Iowa, years later while I was studying for my degrees at the University of Iowa.

The emblem of the University of Iowa is a sharp-beaked, big-eyed, yellow profile of a hawk’s head on a black background. It is the Hawkeye. The athletic teams of the University of Iowa are known as the Hawkeyes. Our mascot is Herky the Hawk, and our nickname is the Hawks. Ours is a proud tradition of academics and athletics that dates back to the days of the frontier and those first sharp-eyed farmers who settled the Iowa River valley and were spotted by those well-read Ioway Indians. Many things have changed, but the Hawkeyes have not, nor has their sharp-shooting.

Last night in New York City, the Iowa Hawkeye Men’s Basketball Team shot their way to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship game against the Baylor Bears from Waco, Texas. The Hawkeye team got off to a slow start this year, but have re-found their aim and have been hitting the target ever since — winning 11 of their last 14 games. Go, Hawkeyes!

My wife’s Texas relatives are farmers who live near the Brazos River which flows beside Baylor University, where years ago the Waco Indians encamped. My story is that those Native Americans were there as silent shadows slipping between the trees as they observed the hard-working and industrious farmers clearing the land, wrestling with boulders and pulling stumps. Later at night around their campfire near the Brazos River, the Indians talked about the new arrivals and how strong and determined they were, standing so straight and tall. One Indian said “Bears.” The others nodded, and the name stuck. When Baylor was founded, the determined and tall Baylor Bears soon followed to lead their teams to victory.

For generations now, children of my wife’s Texas family have attended Baylor University. They can attest to the quality of the school and its academic and athletic programs, and many can growl and claw like bears when their team is in the midst of a fight.

Who will prevail in the NIT Championship Game? Will it be the sharp-eyed, sharp-shooting Hawkeyes? Could it be those strongly determined and standing-tall Bears?

Whatever happens, it will be in the family.

In a way, I can’t wait.

Can you?

Grandpa Jim

What is a prism and where do those colors come from?

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article reads as follows: “In optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light.”

Which means: A prism is a chunk of glass that forms a rainbow of colors when light shines through it.

That’s better.

But why does it do that?

Let us return to Isaac Newton, the man with the apple who discovered gravity.

Before Newton, folks thought that light itself was colorless, and the glass composing the prism was responsible for the colors in the exiting rays. Not so, the young Newton surmised. He devised an experiment. Newton passed red colored light from one prism through a second prism and found the light was still red. From this, he theorized the color must be present in the light itself and not created by the prism.

To prove that the color was in the light and not the glass, our budding professor devised another experiment.

The thoughtful Newton took two prisms. He passed white light through the first and got the pretty red, yellow, green, cyan, blue and magenta rainbow we all enjoy seeing on the kitchen table from the crystal in the china cabinet or on the living room walls from that very nice diamond wedding ring. Well, our smart I.N. caught that little rainbow in a lens and bent it back at the second prism. Into the prism those pretty colors went and out they came all white! What? No colors whatsoever. Newton has recomposed the light back to its original white color.

The prism does not create the colors. The prism separates the colors that are already there. Light with all its colors looks white to us. But when white light moves through a glass prism, the internal crystalline structure of the glass or diamond slows down some colors more than other. (Think of runners jumping over hurdles – one runner is shorter and gets slowed down by the hurdles more than a tall runner who reaches the finish line first, even though both runners are as fast on a straight track.) On the other side of the prism, we see the taller colors first, followed by the shorter ones. That’s the rainbow we see – the order of the colors at the finish line depending on how the hurdles in the prism slowed down and separated the runners.

Different colors are impeded more or less as they traverse a prism and appear on the other side in the order of a rainbow.

Isaac was a smartie. He figured in his head that if he focused all those rainbow colors back on another prism, he bet the shorter ones would get through the prism at the same time as the taller colors. And he was right! The short guys and tall guys all finished together in a blur of white. Hurray!! Cool race. Do it again. That was neat.

And it was, because light is composed of different colors – some shorter and some taller. When they move through a glass prism, some are slowed more than others, and the light on the other side is a rainbow of spread-out finishers – who eventually all catch up with each other, and there’s that white light again. But that rainbow sure was fun.

Keep thinking. Isaac did. He figured it out.

And so can you.

I bet,

Grandpa Jim

In 1888, Ernest Thayer wrote perhaps the most famous poem in the history of baseball: “Casey at the Bat.”

The sport today for which we raise our sighs in sad lament is the Big Dance to which the coeds of American college are fighting to its finish. The ball in this court is not the baseball of the Casey poem, but rather the basketball whose game would not be birthed until 1891, three years after Thayer penned his famous piece. The ending though is as poignant and as sad as the verses relate. The mighty lady bears of Waco, Texas are no longer clawing the air under the basket in hopes of the victor’s banner, but are boarding the bus for home.

I’m sure those green-suited lady players are longing for a different day than that the final stanza of Ernest Thayer’s poem echoes:

“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;

“The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,

“And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;

“But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.”

Somewhere, but not for the Bears and their leading player, Brittney Griner.

Brittney is thought by many to be the best female player in college basketball. This was not thought to be her last game. #1 Baylor was playing #5 Louisville. The Louisville Cardinals had a plan in their wings. Three of their birds perched as close as they could and waved their arms around Brittney every time she received the ball. Flustered by the attention, the tactic worked and Ms. Griner did not score a basket until almost 25 minutes had slipped away. Fighting free of the covey of covering Cardinals, Brittney and the Bears fought back, slapping at those bee-like opponents buzzing around her, and finally taking the lead with only 9.2 seconds left. But fate was with the birds and bees of Louisville who silenced the growling bears, dragging the lumbering Wacoites to the floor and defeat by the final score of 82-81.

There is no joy in Wacoville – mighty Brittney has been left out.

But the Tournament goes on and the Big Dance continues for the women and the men; hope springs eternal and lights even the most down-turned face with the sun of the new game on the ‘morrow.

On the men’s side, we have a most interesting development. Into the Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament fly the Male Cardinals, with their quick bird’s eyes on the Lady Cardinals who soar to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament after souring the hopes of the Waco Bears. What amazing results for the school in Louisville.

The University of Louisville, located in Louisville, Kentucky, was founded in 1798 as the first city-owned public university in the United States. Go City of Louisville! Today, over 22,000 cheering Cardinals attend the university, which offers bachelor’s degrees in 70 fields, masters’ degrees in 78 fields and doctorate degrees in 22 fields of study. The University of Louisville is one of the top public research universities in the US. In 1999, the world’s first successful heart transplant was performed at the university medical facilities, and in 2001 the first artificial heart transplant was accomplished there. Louisville is a leader in the ranks of academia and research, and a school worthy of much acclaim.

Now both Cardinal flocks advance bringing further acclamation to their city of home roost.

I am reminded of another famous Louisville resident, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. Cassius, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942. Ali is the first and only three-times-in-a-row World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Clay had a unique style with a special shuffle dance and a rope-a-dope-watch-out-here-it-comes way of waving his hands in front of you so you didn’t know what was happening until you hit the floor. I remember the phrase the young fast-talking Clay used to describe his approach: “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

After watching the Lady Cardinals waving and jumping in front of Brittney Griner the other night, I think they were watching some old Cassius Clay films. Those lady birds were floating like butterflies and stinging like bees in their relentless pursuit of the golden ring on the merry-go-round of the NCAA tournament.

Anything can happen and often does in the tournaments. It is good, exciting and something-to-look-forward-to as the red-bird ladies and men advance in their tournaments. With my teams defeated (and I do miss the Bears and wish Ms. Brittney all the best), I will stay on and clap on for those who play on. It is the Big Dance, and those who view its steps and follow its moves revere the sport and applaud those who move to advance and play again. We will be there to watch and encourage the game.

Go Cardinals, in separate flocks of red, fly and float, buzz and sting, reach and sink that basket with a loop-the-loop and rope-a-dope, and when the dust settles, perhaps it will be men and women too, one and both, that to the proud City of Louisville return champions, twinned and two.

Who knows, and there we find the dare?

March Madness is still in the air.

Play on,

Grandpa Jim