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Commentary: Do we need a disaster to wake us up?

About 20,000 historic properties were damaged in the storm, and Gay, executive director of Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, has led the charge to save them. “We never felt like throwing up our hands,” Gay said. “We don’t do that.” The Preservation Resource Center contacted owners of the nearly 4,000 historic properties that were condemned after the hurricane. About 600 of them have been spared to date. The PRC also has been helping review the planned demolition of buildings…

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Irsay sees Polian son as heir apparent; other teams come calling

Beyond his last name, little is known here about Indianapolis Colts Vice President of Football Operations Chris Polian–even
though it’s likely he represents the future of the franchise. In National Football League circles, Polian’s stock has skyrocketed
as league owners have realized there’s more to the 36-year-old than his famous last name.

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Patrick victory scores for series, sponsors: Historic triumph earns more attention than unification

Almost everyone involved with the Indy Racing League expected a firestorm of publicity after Danica Patrick won her first open-wheel race. But few predicted just how hot a commodity the 26-year-old driving diva would become following her April 19 win in Japan. “It’s not like we got caught unprepared. We had a plan in place for over a year,” said Terry Angstadt, president of IRL’s commercial division. The victory blueprint included a list of contacts to be made, interviews to…

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SPORTS: How big was Patrick’s win? Let the debate begin

Like most of the rest of the sporting world and to some extent beyond, I had awakened on that Sunday morning to the delightful news that, overnight in faraway Japan, Patrick had broken through to secure her first Indy Racing League victory in 50 tries. She now is something more than a pretty face and, to some, a sexual object who also just happened to drive race cars. She is a champion. Now this isn’t, as one gearhead suggested, along…

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Kansas IRL race near sellout

The effect of Danica Patrick’s victory is being felt from Japan to Kansas.

A measurable surge in ticket demand for today’s Indy Racing League’s race near Kansas City, Kansas pushed the event near its…

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Bucks set to hire Sampson?

Scott Skiles is apparently a big fan of Indiana University’s former basketball coach Kelvin Sampson.

Sources close to both said Skiles, who has a house in Bloomington where Sampson used to work, is urging the…

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Star’s Montieth ‘hit dead end’

Indianapolis Star sports reporter Mark Montieth has covered his last Indiana Pacers game for the paper he dreamed about working for since he was a young child.

Effective at the end of today, Montieth,…

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Mayweather to green flag Indy 500

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., the WBC welterweight world champion, will drop the green flag on this year’s Indianapolis 500.

Mayweather competed on ABC’s hit “Dancing with the Stars” last fall along with two-time Indianapolis…

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Character key for Colts draftees

The Indianapolis Colts are fine tuning their strategy for this year’s National Football League draft, which is held in New York April 26 and 27.

While there is much speculation about which players the…

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MainGate signs deal with Rams

Indianapolis-based MainGate Inc. today announced it has signed an exclusive three-year deal to be the on-line merchandiser for the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams. Though terms of the deal were not disclosed,…

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Marketers teach biz of school sports

The looming property tax crisis has Indiana high schools fearful that athletic department budgets could be the focus of future fiscal cuts.

Ray Compton, one central Indiana’s most successful—and unconventional—sports marketers has a plan…

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Crean touts new IU facilities

New Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean is convinced athletic facility improvements under way on the Bloomington campus will help the Hoosiers return to dominance.

Crean told a group of mayors from southern Indiana…

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Pathfinder banquet features Kellog

Clark Kellogg will serve as the master of ceremonies for the 2008 Pathfinder Awards Banquet June 29 at Conseco Fieldhouse. The Pathfinder Awards are presented annually to individuals for their contributions and dedication…

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Sponsors pump up Danica-mania

Sponsors of Danica Patrick, who became the first woman to win a major open-wheel race with her Indy Racing League victory in Japan Saturday, have been quick to capitalize on the exposure.

AirTran Airlines quickly put huge photos of Patrick on…

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Danica victory puts IRL in high gear

Danica Patrick’s life is getting faster by the second. She’s not the only one moving at warp speed, as merchandisers and Indy Racing League officials hustle to capitalize on her historic victory Saturday…

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SPORTS: Indiana’s ‘Mount Rushmore’ will try to fix Pacers

The first time Herb Simon ever met Jim Morris, it was to ask him for money. Fifty grand. To be fair, it wasn’t Morris’ money. It belonged to Lilly Endowment Inc. Simon was at the endowment, which Morris directed at the time, to ask for a grant to support the Jewish Community Center. He got the money. This past week, Simon had another request of Morris … to replace Donnie Walsh as president of Pacers Sports & Entertainment. Again, Morris…

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VIEWPOINT: Lest we forget, ‘solid and stable’ is good

“I moved to Indiana on purpose,” I’ve been telling people since the move from Florida last August. The Indianapolis area attracted me and my business for a number of reasons-reasons which, I’m more convinced each day, Hoosiers take for granted. Someone might want to consider the good that’s right in front of our collective noses: Unlike Florida, whence I emigrated, people here know who can get things done, where businesses are, and whose reputation is good. A state full of…

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Making Hoosiers more educated is a tricky task ECONOMIC ANALYSIS:

One thing that virtually every bit of serious research on education has revealed is that parents play the biggest role in educational outcomes. My own work in this area found that more than 90 percent of the differences in regional educational attainment can be attributed solely to the educational history of parents. Families play a far bigger role in educational success than any differences that occur across schools. So, what then does this mean for public policy? In my last…

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Long Beach is key IRL market

Despite the upheaval surrounding the 2008 Long Beach Grand Prix, it is still quite a draw in this normally quite California town. That’s good news for Indy Racing League officials, who have their eyes on this historically strong open-wheel racing…

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Crean makes controversial hire

Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean today hired an assistant with deep ties to former coach Kelvin Sampson. Over the next week, you can bet the school’s trustees along with Crean and IU President Michael McRobbie will be asked about…

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