July 11, 2004

Secrets of Where Are They Now : Sports Illustrated tells the stories behind some of their Where Are They Now stories. This year's issue (login required) catches up with Hoop Dreams' Arthur Agee & William Gates, Dick Butkus, Steve Cauthen, Lenny Dykstra, Marvin Hagler, Tony Mandarich, Scott Norwood, Robert Parish, and Carl Yastrzemski.

read story | posted by kirkaracha to Culture at 2:09 PM CDT (10 comments total)

That's a good link, kirkaracha. I've read this year's issue already, cover to cover, and my favorite one is the Hoop Dreams guys. They've turned out to be about what I might have guessed. William Gates saw he wasn't making the pros, but got a college degree out of it, and has a career in the ministry. Arthur Agee is still ballin', sort of, in exhibitions and 'Slam Ball,' which is dunking off trampolines. Each has four kids, but William is married to the mother of his children. Arthur fathered his out of wedlock.

posted by msacheson at 12:42 AM CDT on July 12

Thanks for the precis on the Hoop Dream kids msacheson, I am sure it is a good link, but man, I ain't parting with money to read it.
I can't believe Hoop Dreams is 10 years old.

posted by Fat Buddha at 3:48 AM CDT on July 12

Tony Mandarich. Heh. I remember when he was the Next Big Thing in Green Bay.

posted by rocketman at 7:49 AM CDT on July 12

I bought this issue saturday. Great stuff, especially the yaz and scott norwood articles. Cover ain't bad neither.

posted by justgary at 1:21 PM CDT on July 12

Hoop Dreams - 10 years later. Probably the same spiel as what is in the premium content SI link (same topic at least) but it is Washington Post so only a free registration is required (or bugmenot if the free reg is not your bag).

posted by gspm at 5:01 PM CDT on July 12

That Washington Post article is quality but... google's cache has the SI article for ya, Fat Buddha.

And heck, if SI is gonna leave the content open to the googlebot then here's your Dick Butkus (football), Steve Cauthen (horse Racing), Lenny Dykstra (baseball), Marvin Hagler (boxing), Tony Mandarich (football), Scott Norwood (football), Robert Parish (basketball), Carl Yazstremski (baseball)

I claim this thread in the name of gspm!

posted by gspm at 5:22 PM CDT on July 12

I just chanced across the cache looking for more on Agee + slamball. 'cause I like slamball. and I don't like admitting that.

posted by gspm at 5:24 PM CDT on July 12

When he returned to Buffalo after the game and appeared at a post-Super Bowl rally, 25,000 fans showed up and cheered for Norwood almost as loudly as they did for Levy and Kelly, chanting, "We love Scott!"

I remember seeing the highlights of that on TV, and that's the closest I've come to crying about a football game. As a Bills fan, I remember hating Norwood for about 10 seconds. And then I pittied him for 10 years. I'm glad that he's doing well and didn't pull a Donnie Moore.

posted by grum@work at 7:23 PM CDT on July 12

I read the Scott Norwood story gspm linked (thanks!), but I don't know why the author feels the need to inject nauseating soft-focus psychological studies into a story that doesn't need embellishing. For example...

It took years for Scott Norwood to get here. To walk down this sidewalk and point to this house and say that it will go in the mid-4s. To raise his three children who have his blue eyes and his beautiful wife's blonde locks and to take up his position as man of the house. This man, in his journey, has transformed himself from taciturn failure to stolid hero. It is a small sort of heroism, quotidian, really...

*BARFS*

posted by dusted at 6:00 PM CDT on July 13

*BARFS*

* cleans up the puddle outside Norwood's house, since it isn't Scott's treacly writing that got dusted so put off *

posted by billsaysthis at 8:25 PM CDT on July 13

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