A salute to John Madden

John Madden announced today that he’s retiring from the broadcast booth, and that was major news. Madden is one of the greatest football broadcasters of all time, and I’d rank him among the greatest sports broadcasters overall. His energy, enthusiasm and wit pair wonderfully with his knowledge of football and life at large. He announced […]

NCAA Selection Sunday: A curmudgeonly take on “The Dance”

The annual “Selection Sunday” ritual of choosing teams for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is this weekend, and I am officially going on record to say I loathe describing the tournament as the “the dance” or “the big dance.” What a lame cliche. Let’s put a cap on it, so to speak. That objection aside, […]

Presidents and baseball caps, 18th Century division

This isn’t, technically speaking, a cap in my collection. But it’s too cool not to count. My mother-in-law and I have traded gag gifts at Christmas over the years, and yesterday I received a University of Virginia T-shirt with the crossed-saber logo on the front. But the back is what really matters. It depicts our […]

Marquette basketball: Hardwood warriors

On a Friday afternoon 30 years ago this past spring, I officially accepted a fellowship to enroll as a graduate student at the Marquette University College of Journalism. The next day, the Marquette basketball team, the defending NCAA champions, were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Miami of Ohio. In a way, […]

My goofy Holy Cross College cap

One of the oddest caps in my collection isn’t a baseball cap but this circular, beanie-like cap. I bought it at the Holy Cross College bookstore while I was in school there in the mid 1970s. I rarely wore the thing, which my friends routinely referred to as my “douche cap.” I once asked why. […]

Wisconsin Badgers throwback cap

College football season kicks off Saturday, and to celebrate the annual rites of fall I present this late 1970s banded mesh-back cap. In the late 70s and early 1980s, this was the predominant college cap style. In fact, I’m hard pressed to remember any college caps from that era that didn’t look like this one. […]

Loose on the Palouse with a WSU ball cap

As my wife heads to Portland, Ore., my thoughts turn to: What am I going to eat for the next five days? Hey, I bought a ballcap near Portland a couple of years ago! Not just any ballcap. This was a genuine Washington State Cougars cap, an early 21st Century Nike model with stretch-to-fit elastic […]

Ivy League tigers

While I’ve concentrated on baseball caps to date, it’s time to switch things up a bit and venture into other types of caps. At left is a Princeton University cap I was given earlier this year by a friend who joined the university staff. A little bit of New Jersey, the cap has quickly become […]