Instead of another photo...a State News Athletics Memory (126 Days til)

Howdy, it's ol' Hud. And because these photos are packing massive traffic through this site these days, I'm going to list a nice little memory here to help start a new feature on Cookie Day.

One day, Pat Muir was playing touch football with the State News in Fall 1998. I think he was still an intern, but was already a star in the wake of his famous "I made a poop somewhere in the newsroom" listserv strike against Art Alcid.

So we're playing this game -- a practice mind you -- and for some reason it comes up that only a few of us actually played high school football. (Which Pat proved one day with his Matt Puir photo button. This button still exists.)

Pat hears that I played football. And starts showing off his defensive lineman techniques when lined up against me. A grab and shuck here, a spin there. I do my part by trying to combat them with simple offensive line techniques.

Not to be outdone, Pat steps it up, sensing my lack of line experience. He looks me dead square in the eye, winks and proceeds to execute a perfect "swim" maneuver. Perfect except that instead of ripping past my block, he just punched me full flush in the face, breaking my super cool prescription Ray Bans which were the most valuable item in my possession at the time, car included.

And yes, we lost to the Michigan Daily that year, as we did every year.