Category archive for ‘Sports & Leisure’ 
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Major League Life
In Major League Baseball lore, legendary slugger Ted Williams was famous for not giving visitors to the Boston Red Sox clubhouse the time of day, even after he retired as a player. He rarely had much patience with autograph seekers, reporters, and photographers. Bob Campbell found a way, however, to surmount the superstar’s private wall. And he has a photo or two to prove it.
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Making a racket
Spring is slowly but surely making its way back into our lives. With spring comes the lobs, serves, and volleys of tennis, and no one anticipates tennis season like the Tall Oaks Tennis Club.
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Live from Ft. Myers, FL, it’s baseball season!
It’s late February in Ft. Myers, and I’m at JetBlue Park for the first game of Spring Training between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays. For true baseball fans, this is the “hope springs eternal” day, as fans come from as far away as Canada to watch grown men play a boy’s game, one that doesn’t even count in the standings.
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HHS girls’ basketball team makes school history
Huntley may be the only town in Illinois where a 55-plus active adult community and a large high school are very close next-door neighbors. Dozens of homes in the Del Webb community back up to the school’s sports complex or massive parking lots.
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Snow and low temps can’t stop Cyclepaths
Bob Hinkle really, seriously likes to ride a bike. How seriously, you ask?
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Ron Tenggren, the man whom pins fear
It’s bowling night. It’s your favorite sport…join your best friends for friendly competition, relax and enjoy life for a few hours. You’re good enough at it so you can enjoy the competition and the camaraderie. If you have a good game or two and your team wins, it’s a bonus.
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In Euchre, socialization is part of any good hand
Euchre players really know how to party. When they pay their $5 annual dues, they are promised a regular weekly schedule of opportunities to play their favorite card game. They also are informed that every four to six weeks, they will have a party featuring an impressive array of food and beverage options.
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Bags club lands new home outside of Sun City
The bags charter club has found a new place to play, but it isn’t in Sun City.
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The incredible influence of football
Maybe you hate football, maybe you are addicted to it, or maybe you don’t even care about it one way or another. The fact is, all sports played and watched in our country have an enormous impact on our economy and our lives, but none more than football.
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At Sun City, pool takes a softer touch
Mention pool to most folks today, and they probably think of rough, tough, beer-drinking men in smoke-filled bars playing games of 8- or 9-ball and betting money on every game, or sometimes on every shot. In a previous generation or two, the town’s “pool hall” was not always considered a fit place for decent folks.
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An inside look into the game of cribbage
When a journalist covers a game, he usually observes the action, takes notes, interviews participants, and writes a story about who won and how. Last week at the Sun City Cribbage Charter Club, I took a different approach: I played the game while at the same time gathering information about it and the players.
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Phil Knight – an important figure in sports history
I’d like to take a break from Sun City sports and recreational activities this week to ask our readers a question: Who is Phil Knight? And Bill Bowerman? Carolyn Davidson? Jeff Johnson?
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Many from outside Sun City play on Whisper Creek’s greens
Most Sun Citians probably perceive Whisper Creek Golf Course as a Sun City facility, used mostly by Sun City residents and the community’s golf club, with a few opportunities for the general public available for extra income.
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A way with words
Did you know that “xi” is a word? So is feh. And jeu, xyst, and zyme, and ut, re, hm, even ye.
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Sun City Golfers honored with variety of awards, prizes
At the Sun City Golf Club’s championship tournament and dinner dance last week, most folks came away with some sort of prize.
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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a senior skydiver!
Jan Jeffe said skydiving gave her one of the biggest thrills of her life. Dave Cook says it gave him an “absolutely awesome” view of the earth. Kay Winkelhake is an experienced athlete and coach and says skydiving fits into her lifestyle perfectly.
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Irish golfing, on the left side of the road
Ireland is one of the places where the sport of golf was born, long before it was played in America. The tiny Shamrock isle, no better than 300 miles long and 150 wide, has almost as many golf courses as it has pubs and bed and breakfasts. Two of the best professional players in the world – Graeme McDowell and Rory McElroy – call Ireland home.
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Athletics over electronics a winning formula for Cam Wiehe
Meet Cam Wiehe, an always-moving, very active 7-year-old. He isn’t crusading for anything, but he’s surely carrying a small but loud torch for athletics in a young boy’s life. From baseball to basketball to hockey and maybe (if mom approves) football down the road, he’s a soccer mom’s dream or nightmare, depending on your point of view. It’s a measure of today’s society that his mom, Kristin, says the family, which also includes two daughters, is “old fashioned.”
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Stingrays do it again at second summer swim meet
Five Stingray Swim Club members just can’t get enough of summer senior outdoor pool competitions. On August 21, the Sun City swimmers and their meet coach, Len Lencioni, were off to Lion’s Club Pool, Homewood-Flossmoor area, where for a second time in less than a month, they emerged victorious with a total of 18 medals: 16 gold and two silver.
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The big league
Bowlers, like cars and computers, frequently need tune ups. Sun City bowlers, being seniors, especially need “tune-ups” for their games – to improve their scores, allow them to have more fun on the lanes, and help them deal with age-related injuries, surgeries, and disabilities.
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Bridging the gap between social fun and competitive spirit
The game of bridge is a good example of the difference between popular perception and reality. A good amount of logic and analysis is required to play the game, which means, logically, that virtually anyone can play it with at least some degree of skill. Every human being is equipped with some degree of these two skills.
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American Division outplays National in annual all-star game
Although the opening ceremonies for the Sun City Softball League introduced players from rivaling teams, many fans in attendance stood and cheered for one in particular.
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Sun City Sting Rays are dominant and golden at Senior Olympics
If you swim in the Prairie Lodge indoor pool, you probably have seen members of the Sting Rays Swim Club doing laps or quietly working on their strokes.
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Nick Koplos, late-blooming distance runner
About 18 years ago, after back surgery, Nick Koplos of Sun City was advised to quit running to preserve his body. He took the advice for a while but eventually started distance running again in 2007, when his son started running. Family interaction won out over a doctor’s advice.
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Joan Davis takes “move it” seriously
If you’re sitting down as you read this and haven’t exercised today, Joan Davis has a message for you: “Move it.” She is being friendly but firm when it comes to people’s health, physical and mental.
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Unlikely torchbearer passes on her story
June Ann Cooney shivered in the cold Chicago winter night and pulled her hat down tighter on her head. Facing 20-degree temperatures and a snow-covered landscape in February of 2002, she stood with dozens of other Chicagoans eagerly awaiting their chance to experience Olympic glory.
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Sun City succeeds at Senior Olympics
While Michael Phelps and more than 500 of his fellow American Olympians prepare to “go for the gold” at the 2012 London Olympic Games, Sun City has been busy building success at the Six-County Chicago area Senior Olympics competition.
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Crazy like a CyclePath
Alan Boyle didn’t bike at all until he joined CyclePaths. When he first started, it took a while to pick up on biking. “He was in the back and couldn’t keep up with anybody,” said Bob Kling, current president of CyclePaths. “Now he’s way ahead of everybody.”
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Mah-Jongg mania
Lucy Giallanza has loved mah-jongg since she first picked up one of the colorful, hand-engraved tiles used to play the centuries-old game. “[I learned how to play] when I lived in New York about 20 years ago,” she said. “My Jewish neighbors taught me, and I loved the game at first.”
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Coach’s legacy marked on the gridiron
Grant Blaney was seriously considering a military career when he walked into a U.S. Army office at Ft. Riley, Kansas, in 1957. To his surprise, the first question the officer asked him was, “Do you play baseball?” Turns out the army was looking for a coach for the base sports teams. In a few minutes, Blaney’s career path made a U-turn from artillery observer to athletics.
