Here are some of my favorite images, humor and motivation from this past week, ending May 5, 2019

• BBYO Dinner—It was so nice to see both kids enjoy themselves at the year-end BBYO dinner.  The energy in the room was tremendous and seeing the leadership from these high school kids was impressive.  They put together so many speeches and presentations and really learned a lot about themselves, their leadership abilities and their passions.  For those that were leaving the board it was an emotional moment.  For those that are coming on to the Regional Board for the first time, it was a tremendously proud moment, one which will lead to a lot of work, responsibility and excitement over the next year.

• Joliet Slammers—It struck me somewhat incongruous to see a minor league baseball team naming itself after a prison.  Well, not exactly.  But the mascot J.L. Bird is pronounced as “Jailbird” and is depicted wearing prison stripes in the logo and images.  But the image itself notwithstanding, the Joliet Slammers are doing some terrific work in the community, engaging kids in schools and bringing other organizations out to the park to raise money.   You can listen to the podcast that we recorded with Lauren Rhodes and all of the details that she shared. Unfortunately, the weather was horrendous so we couldn’t get any great shots of the stadium, but we still found some interesting places.

• Dare2Tri—I had the opportunity to sit down with Michelle Stroud, the Director of Development for Dare2Tri.  Fantastic to hear about the work that they do helping physically disabled athletes (many of them war veterans), learn to compete in a triathlon.  What struck me a lot from the conversations with Michelle was how many people they help and that the importance of selecting the triathlon model was to give each of these athletes the ability to exercise alongside their family members and friends.  This is a huge benefit to these athletes and their families.  Look for our upcoming feature on www.SportsPhlanthropyNetwork/blog.

• Northwestern development.  Sitting down with Collin Sexton was an interesting experience.  As we discussed the progression of the Northwestern Athletic Department, it was apparent that Jim Phillips’ leadership as Athletic Director has been an enormous benefit for the whole university.  It will be interesting to follow whether Jim gets serious consideration for replacing Jim Delaney as the Big Ten Commissioner.  Jim Phillips has everything you could want in that role: class, vision, energy, passion and foresight.  The main question will be whether his lack of experience negotiating broadcast rights agreements will be a hindrance to his candidacy.

• University of Wisconsin School of Business School—A foggy evening in the Sears Tower couldn’t stop the crowd of alums from the UW Business School from gathering to hear terrific speakers.   It is always interesting to see what direction people take after they complete their degrees and the breadth of the business school really gives people a lot of opportunity.

• Sports Philanthropy World Congress—The excitement for the Sports Philanthropy World Congress on August 9, 2019 continues to build.  Each week we confirm more speakers and we are now about 60% complete with our speaker lineup.  We will continue to keep you updated as we finalize the speaker list and get more sponsors on-board with our vision and educational mission.

• Podcast recordings—One of the things that I love working with the Sports Philanthropy Network is the ability to have in-depth conversations with people that are doing so much good in the world through non-profits, most of them sports related.  This week I had the opportunity to record podcasts with Amy Schiffman, Co-founder and Principal of Giving Tree Associates and Deon Thomas, Community Relations Coordinator for the University of Illinois System.  Amy shared so much insight into setting up and running a non-profit organization that I cannot wait for you to hear her podcast when it drops on May 15, 2019.  Deon provided tremendous insight into the work that he does as well as sharing with the audience the progress of his career from highly rated recruit, to all-time leading scorer for the University of Illinois to two European Championships with Maccabi Tel Aviv.  His podcast drops on May 8, 2019.  I think you will really enjoy both of them.

• Calabash Gifts website—We are proud to finally announce the launch of the Calabash Gifts website at www.CalabashGiftsMadison.com.   It was too long in the making but will now be able to let people outside of Madison see the beautiful array of items that are displayed in the store.  You can also follow our social media accounts at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

• Dream On—Seeing a former student succeed is always terrific.  Seeing one like Kelli Haywood create a meaningful and impactful education focused non-profit from scratch is awe inducing.  Her energy is phenomenal and what she has been able to accomplish over her first five years has been remarkable.  It was an exciting week for Kelli as she celebrated her birthday, received a big award for her Foundation and hosted her Dream On Soiree which was a fantastic event.  You can see the full write up on the event here.

• Soloff Tribute—Rabbi David Soloff was the leader of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin for  many years. He probably doesn’t want us to count how many!! . His energy and passion for the Ramah movement were unparalleled.  So it was fitting to see over 500 people show up to pay tribute  to him at a special event on May 5, 2019 at Beth El in Highland Park. The speeches were absolutely amazing and the energy and tributes to him illustrated the enormous impact he made on generations of young Jews around the country.

• Kentucky Derby—There was lots of screaming and crying over the decision to disqualify Maximum Impact after he had won the Kentucky Derby.  What impressed me the most about the commentary and the reaction was that it was VERY different from what you see in the five major U.S. team sports.  Virtually everyone interviewed agreed that it was a foul and that in any other race, the horse would have been disqualified.  The only question was whether the stewards would have the guts to disqualify the winner.   For purposes of horse racing’s integrity, it is good that they did.  I have never understood or subscribed to the belief that the rules should be applied differently in the last few minutes or a competition, in overtime or in big games.  It is worse for every sport if the officials refused to make the calls that need to be made because then they are truly “deciding” the game. 

Each week I take a quick look at some of the stories and news that I found most interesting.  This space will include some sports, but not all of the sports stories that I normally follow in the areas of sports philanthropy, sports law, sports business, Jewish sports, concussions and otherwise.  If you want to see more of what I am following in those areas, let me know and I can point you to the best spots on my blogs and websites.  You will see that I love to find some of life’s little absurdities and point those out as well as other interesting stories that I follow.

GRAPHICS OF THE WEEK

WEEK ENDING APRIL 14, 2019

• Tiger’s win at Augusta. Obviously one of the biggest stories this weekend. An impressive feat. I have never been a Tiger fan, but it was an incredible win and a comeback for the ages. Despite my feelings about Tiger, you can read here about how I do give him credit for two very impressive accomplishments. My other question about Tiger, or more his audience, is whether they would give others the same second chances Tiger has received. I routinely see sports related people fired, shunned and shamed for far less than cheating with 100+ women. Seeing all of the joy and redemption stories made me wonder about this double standard. It was fun to see a strong leaderboard the last couple days.

• Concussion research advance.   One big story this week was the study released by Boston University which seems to bring us closer to being able to diagnose CTE in living people. While the diagnosis alone will not get us where we need to be, it will allow a much more rapid progression in the identification of the disease and give us some ability to work on treatments.

• Daylight Time vs. Standard Time.             So if you are in Chicago, in April, does an invitation for 7 p.m. CST mean 7 p.m. CDT? Or is the person sending a stealth invitation for 7 p.m. MDT?  I am not sure why this concept is so difficult.  But there are a large number of people (and media) that incorrectly publish times for an event in Standard Time when we are in Daylight Time.  Part of me always wants to email back to them to ask whether 7 p.m. CST really meant that, or whether they meant 7 p.m. Central Daylight Time.  I am sure they are only confused because we spend many more months on Daylight Time than we do on Standard Time

• Night for Victory.                             The Northwestern Gridiron Network held a beautiful event at the Godfrey Hotel on Saturday night.  Fantastic venue on the rooftop lounge.  Impressive turnout to raise money that they were targeting for customized helmets, allegedly to reduce concussions.  While better equipment can help, I am always wary of players feeling unduly” safe in particular equipment.  The rooftop setting itself was beautiful and the Purple Arch Venture hosts did an impressive job with the decorations.  Take a look at these photos.

• Alley-Oop to Alliyah. My friend David Goldstein from Toronto was in Chicago for a couple of Lunch and Learns” where he spoke about his book Alley-Oop to Alliyah. It is an impressive piece of work about the trail of African-American basketball players that have moved on to play professional basketball in Israel, and how their presence in Israel has made an impact on their lives as well as on the lives of the Israeli’s around them. Many of them have chosen to remain in Israel after their playing careers because they felt that they were treated better in Israel than in most other places that they have lived. If you would like to have David visit your community, let me know and I can put you in contact with him. I think you will enjoy the presentation and I know that I am looking forward to reading the book.

• Diverticulitis.    Typically spending a whole day in the urgent care clinic and the ER are not fun.  And this past Tuesday was spent in that fashion.  But instead of being aggravated with the slow” service, I was thankful for how quickly things were handled, how fortunate I was to be able to receive that type of medical care and how ultimately they only found something that was a short term issue.   Diverticulitis is much better than a burst appendix or dozens of other options that it could have been.  The biggest problem was not the pain, but the effect of two heavy anti-biotics that knocked me out for much of the week.  I rarely take any type of meds for pain so I was surprised to feel so sluggish and lethargic.  I dragged myself out to a few meetings, but really didn’t start feeling better until Sunday.

• NCAA Men’s Championship Game.         I was happy to see Virginia win the National Championship because I am a fan of Tony Bennett.  A tremendous turnaround from last season when Virginia became the first #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed.   I like Bennett’s leadership style and have followed him since his playing days at UWGB.  Virginia had two of the most improbable wins that I have ever seen in their Elite 8 win against Purdue and semifinal win against Auburn.   When Purdue poked that ball into the backcourt and less than 5 seconds remained, the odds of Virginia pulling that out had to be under 5%.  With 10 seconds left in the Auburn game, the odds might have been even lower.

• Illinois Boxing Hall of Fame.       I have never been to this dinner event before, but with my friend Al Bernstein being inducted, it was fantastic to see over 600 people in the crowd to honor him.   The energy in the room was impressive and this was one of the best limos that I have ever seen.

• JNF Lawyers Breakfast. Held the day after the Israeli election, this breakfast took a bit of a detour to examine the results of the election and challenges that will be faced in putting together a new government.  Israel always has political challenges but this particular election may hold the fate of some of the biggest decision’s in the country’s history.

• Traction.              I was invited to an interesting lunch presentation by a company called Insperity.  The presentation focused on a book called Traction and the system for helping a business analyze how to prepare themselves for growth.   The presentation took us through a process called EOS (Entrepreneur Operating System) but the presentation itself was probably better suited to a small group for a working session than for a lunch presentation.  But the substance of the presentation had some terrific content and if you are interested in hearing more about it I can connect you to my host.