This Day in Sports

For the next thirty years of my life I will never ever forget the day of March 4th. This day marks the day that the great Brett Favre after 17 years will be retiring from the game of football after one of the greatest seasons of his career. All season Favre reminded us of how special he truly was in his younger years and made us all believers again of his talents. My brother Billy, who is a Green Bay Packers fan, but a Brett Favre fan first will sorely miss the future Hall of Famer and I really don't know how he can cope with continuing to be a Packers fan. Favre was always a true American hero in the eyes of many. He was always looked as a hard working blue-collar guy with faults like the rest of us and over coming those negatives. I really had no thought that he would retire after this season, but that is Favre. He left on his terms when people thought that he was done he proved us wrong by coming back and when we thought that he had a couple more seasons left in him he packs it in. Now I believe that the Green Bay Packers have a long road ahead of them, it's never the next guy or the second guy that comes in to replace a legend that works, it's usually like the third. Aaron Rodgers is certainly not the guy in my eyes but he showed some signs last year when he came in for Favre in the Dallas Cowboys game. Favre you were one in a million and certainly will be missed on the field.

Another reason to remember this today is that this is the day 18 years ago when the late great Hank Gathers, of Loyola Marymount University, died on the basketball court verses the University of Portland in the West Coast Conference Tournament semi-finals. Subsequently, the remainder of the tournament was canceled and the NCAA rewarded Loyola Marymount with a tournament birth for winning the regular season conference title, they ended up being an 11th seed. On a positive note for that season for the Lions the rest of that season, the team came together with Bo Kimble and made a run to the Elite Eight and lost to the eventual national champ in UNLV. Kimble, a close friend of Gathers, tributed to him during the tournament by shooting his first foul shot in each game left handed. Gathers who was a right handed shooter, could not make his foul shots righty so he started to try doing it lefty and was more successful at it so he stuck to it. Kimble, also a righty, made all his left handed free throws that he shot in the tourney. Even at the age of 12 at the time of his death, I still remember watching the game on television when he collapsed, watching LMU's magically ride to the Elite Eight, and I still get goose bumps to this day when I see clips of Kimble shooting lefty in the NCAAs. Dying at the young age of 23, Gathers was considered at the time as one of the more dominating players in college basketball during his tenure.