Iowa State Billboards Dig at Iowa and UNI

The Iowa State University Athletics Department announced today that it is bringing back one of the department's most popular prior marketing initiatives by unveiling a new billboard campaign throughout the month of August. The Cyclones are installing billboards in Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines welcoming home new Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. 

A native of Waterloo, Iowa, Bowlsby was recently hired as the new Big 12 leader.  Bowlsby served as the director of athletics at UNI and Iowa before his stint as the director of athletics at Stanford.

The campaign is part of a continuation of Iowa State's "It's a Cyclone State" billboards that were placed in Iowa in the mid-2000s and became instant lightning rods among sports fans across the state.

Will Probably Be My Picture of the Year

Not even a neck brace and a Sugar Bowl hat could save Petrino.

Kindle Free Pick of the Week: Game Plan for Life

Three-time Super Bowl and NASCAR champion Joe Gibbs’s Game Plan for Life.

Topics such as: finances, relationships, living a life of purpose, finding the right vocation, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Edited by Jerry Jenkins, and featuring contributions from Randy Alcorn, Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox, Tony Evans, Chuck Colson, Josh McDowell, Don Meredith, Walt Larimore, Ron Blue, Ken Boa, and Os Guinness, Game Plan for Life shows readers how to live a balanced, God-centered, purpose-filled life, using examples of Coach Gibbs’s own storied championship careers as a backdrop. A perfect blend of sports and basic theology.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

And Go Packers!  Make it 11-0!

Georgia Tech Football Coach in Hot Water Over Comments

He's not known for his magnetic personality, but Georgia Tech Football Coach may have some additional explaining to do following a set of comments he made during his weekly call-in show.

At the end of his show, a caller got through and said, "Hello? Hello?" and then began barking before either hanging up or being quickly cut off. Johnson responded, "Hello? Hello? He just got off from Walmart."  People offended here: Walmart employees.

He then added, "Anybody who calls into a radio show and barks is either retarded or doesn’t have a life."  People offended here: Handicapped and mentally challenged individuals.

A makeshift apology has already been made by Johnson.  In recent years, the word "retarded" has been regarded as a slur.

We'll see what developes on this story in the next day or so.