Bill Benner

-Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi” I’m dumbstruck by what I’m hearing and reading. (Probably more dumb than struck, you’re thinking.) Still, I have to ask: When did the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy become such a mediocre coach? When did he become a coach that, as some are expressing to owner Jim Irsay, is not worth fighting for, or at least making accommodations to retain? When did he become such a poor leader of a team that we should accept his…

In the aftermath of the Bowl Championship Series’ “championship” game, University of Georgia President Michael Adams didn’t just lob a grenade. He dropped a bombshell. Like many of his presidential colleagues, Adams has long been an opponent of the continued calls for major college football to go to some kind of national championship playoff. But on Jan. 8, just hours after two-loss LSU claimed the title with a one-sided victory over Ohio State, Adams unveiled a plan calling for an…

The spirit of the dearly departed Terry Hoeppner, if not his presence, was palpable during the New Year’s Eve Insight Bowl at Tempe, Ariz. Those footballshaped “Hep” buttons were ubiquitous. The phrases “Play 13” and “Don’t Quit” could be heard repeatedly. At a pre-game pep rally in a Tempe park, thousands of IU faithful gathered so the Indiana football team could honor Hep’s tradition of The Walk. IU’s new president, Michael McRobbie, led the players and coaches through the back-slapping,…

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth … if, perhaps, I were a member of the Indiana Ice. Who are playing pretty well, by the way. But there are other things in the realm of sports I would include on my list. All I want for Christmas is for those cheatin’ dog New England Patriots to have their comeuppance. Preferably from the Indianapolis Colts. In Gillette Stadium. In a driving snowstorm. In the AFC Championship. All I…

And so it has come to this, the college football season that will give us the “accidental” champion. The nation’s pundits, purporting to represent the nation’s public, are apoplectic over the prospect. Imagine, The Ohio State University, the allegedly inferior winner of a purportedly inferior league-a year removed from being exposed and embarrassed by the University of Florida in the national championship game-walking off the Superdome carpet with the trophy in hand on the evening of Jan. 7. Or imagine…

Of this, that and the other: A fond childhood memory is of summertime evenings spent with my father on the screened-in back porch of our farmhouse. While my dad enjoyed a cigar and a frosty libation after a hard day’s work, we would dial in either a Cincinnati Redlegs or Chicago White Sox game on the radio. There, as the sun went down and the flickering dance of the lightning bugs became visible, we’d follow through the static the exploits…

An article in the current Slam magazine caught my eye. Written by Brett Ballantini, it was headlined, “The Hall of Shame.” The hall it was referring to was the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The gist was that its secretive selection process is preventing eminently worthy candidates from consideration for and ultimately election to the hall. It cites a “secret cabal of 24 unknown voters” for dereliction of duty, with particular concern for the class of 2007,…

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning made news recently when Business Week ranked him 13th among the 100 most-powerful people in sports. Not to be outdone, or to let a good idea go unstolen, here’s my list of the 25 most- influential people in Indianapolis sports. Criteria: my opinion. No. 1: Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George. With three races (including next September’s Moto GP motorcycle debut) bringing in more than $700 million annually, IMS is the elephant in the room that…