PORT ARTHUR — Lamar president Dr. Jimmy Simmons’ announcement last week that he would be
retiring effective Jan. 31, 2013, did not come as a surprise, but I have to
think it was greeted with a certain amount of trepidation across the board by
folks in the athletics program. In addition to being sports friendly, Simmons
is also sports shrewd. Not only has he made great decisions for the university
as a whole since becoming president in 1999, he’s done a terrific job where
athletics is concerned. Getting football restarted, of course, was his finest
moment, but it was far from the only touchdown he scored. Enticing Billy Tubbs
to come back as Lamar’s AD was another noteworthy move and early on it
appears that playing a major role in bringing Pat Knight to Beaumont could
have salvaged a sinking basketball program. Simmons’ successor is going to
have some seriously big shoes to fill . . . Southeast Texans who follow the
Astros and Rockets on Fox Sports Houston will be watching those teams on a new
channel in the near future. Comcast SportsNet Houston, a regional network
covering five states, launches on Oct. 1 from a $16 million downtown studio.
Partly owned by the Astros (46.3 percent) and the Rockets (30.2 percent), it
will feature those teams, Conference USA and high school football, with plans
to expand regional and local programing. Beaumonter Jim Barton, mentioned in
this space last week for his work with Fox Sports Southwest, is in on the
ground floor with Comcast as producer of a Thursday night high school football
package. Comcast Houston should be available in the Golden Triangle over
Time-Warner, DirecTV and Dish.
Kudos to Rick Gosselin, the Dallas Morning News’ lead NFL writer, for
becoming the first scribe in the Metroplex that I’m aware of to acknowledge
Wade Phillips wasn’t the problem when was he was head coach of the Cowboys.
Here’s how Gosselin began a recent column: “Pardon the pun, but Wade
Phillips got a bum rap here in Dallas.” Gosselin backed it up with several
irrefutable facts about Wade’s record, both in Dallas and other places, 
pointed out his 13-3 team in 2007 was the only Cowboys team since 1996 to land
a No. 1 seed in the NFC and also pointed out he’s the only Dallas coach to
have produced a playoff win in 15 years. One other pertinent point he made was
that Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson won with Hall of Fame quarterbacks and
running backs, and that Wade had the benefit of neither. Gosselin won’t
change any closed minds, but I respect him for making points too many of his
colleagues choose to ignore . . . Elsewhere on the Phillips front, there was a
Bum sighting at Texans training camp on Wednesday. According to my spy on the
scene, the 88-year-old former coach showed up with an entourage the size of
which would normally be associated with a rock star. Included in that group
were former Oiler tight end Mike Barber, who is involved in a prison ministry,
and former New Orleans Saints owner John Mecom Jr. Mecom, of course, gave Bum
a soft landing spot in 1981, after Oilers owner Bud Adams fired him on New
Year’s Eve. All Bum had done the previous three years was take the Oilers to
back-to-back AFC championship games against eventual Super Bowl champion
Pittsburgh, then lose to eventual Super Bowl champ Oakland in the AFC
playoffs. Only Jerry Jones rivals Adams for the possibility of a more idiotic
firing by dumping Jimmy Johnson after back-to-back Super Bowl championships.
Bum, by the way, is due in Beaumont on Aug. 26 to speak at Lamar’s kickoff
banquet. 
As you would suspect, nobody was as thrilled over Lew Ford’s return to the
major leagues as his dad, Dr. Jon Buck Ford. Now the superintendent of schools
at AA Blanco, Buck was driving home after spending the day with Lew’s kids
in Dallas when he got a text from his son saying he was headed to Baltimore.
“It was unbelievable to see that text,” said Buck, whose father, Lewis
Ford, coached PN-G to a football state championship in 1955. “The best story
out of this is we talked later on the phone and Lew said over and over that he
couldn’t wait for somebody to try to run on his arm. He even told his son,
Jake, to be watching ESPN’s web gems, that he’d get one.” Sure enough,
in the second inning of his first game, Ford made an amazing throw to gun down
an Oakland runner trying to stretch a single into a double. The play was shown
over and over on the MLB network’s highlights show. Buck has Aug. 20-22
circled on his calendar. He hopes to be sitting in the stands at the Ballpark
in Arlington, as Lew and the Orioles play the Rangers . . . Former UT and
Houston Oiler great Earl Campbell, the subject of a recent Sports Illustrated
cover story about his long and tough road back from addiction, and a 44-day
stay in a rehab program, will get feature treatment in a 90-minute documentary
on the NBC Sports Network. Former HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg,
prompted by conversations with Bum and Wade Phillips and Houston sports talk
show host, Barry Warner, a long-time Campbell confidant, is overseeing the
project. No air date has yet been set, although the target is late 2012.
Has any manager ever stepped into a more hopeless situation, and been more of
a dead-man walking, than the Astros Brad Mills? Mills, winding down his third
season, never had a chance to be successful from day one for a franchise
unloading its best players, about to be sold and now headed to the American
League. With Houston on track to break last season’s all-time record of 106
losses, Mills is almost certainly going to be the scapegoat. With a fresh
start in the American League, new uniforms and other feel-good changes
upcoming, it would be an absolute breach of Marketing 101 to bring back the
manager. Too bad. I really like the guy. Under other circumstances, I think
he’d win . . . How long before some NFL general manager — I’m
specifically talking about you, Jethro — decides to take a flyer on signing
Usain Bolt and training him to be a wide receiver. At 6-5, the world’s
fastest man certainly has to be tempting, and nobody loves climbing out on
limbs more than the Cowboys owner. Jones could even claim that he was just
trying to repeat Dallas history with Bob Hayes . . . Put me on board with
those who say the United States needs to quit using NBA players in the
Olympics. What’s the point on blowout after blowout? Surely, we’re not
that desperate to win gold medals. Nobody questions what nation is head and
shoulders the best in basketball. Turn it back over to the college kids. It
would be a lot tougher to win, but it would certainly be more meaningful.
Among other things, NBA owners have every right to be strongly against risking
their high-dollar stars to injury.
It may not be a trend, but the death of sons of NFL coaches has to be
troubling. When Andy Reid’s 29-year-old son Garrett was found dead of
unknown causes last week, it marked the third death of a coach’s son since
2005 and the second this year. When Tony Dungy was head coach of the
Indianapolis Colts, his 18-year-old son committed suicide. This past January,
the 21-year-old son of newly hired Miami head coach Joe Philbin got separated
from friends and drowned. Now Garrett Reid, who had spent much of his adult
life battling drug demons . . . Apparently Americans are not the only ones
into over-the-top price gouging. The posh Chinawhte nightclub in London has
gotten into the Olympic spirit by asking, and getting, $3,013.31 for what it
calls the “Golden cocktail.” The drink consists of Hennessy Paradis
imperial cognac, Luxor 24-carat gold leaf champagne and a set of handmade
18-carat gold rings. Including the rings, it’s served in a champagne class.
There is one exception on the cost. Any athlete producing an Olympic gold
medal gets his golden cocktail free. Wonder if Michael Phelps has been by ? ?
? Apparently nothing is sacred where computer hackers are concerned. The New
York Yankees were not amused last week when they saw what an anonymous poster
did with their Facebook page. In reference to future Hall of Famer Derek
Jeter, the hacker posted, “We regret to inform our fans that Derek Jeter
will miss the rest of the season with sexual reassignment surgery. He promises
to come back stronger than ever in 2013 as Minnie Mantlez.” 
Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net