Joshua Cooley, Author at Sports Spectrum

Closeup — Lee Young-Pyo

When it was all over—the Fred Astaire footwork, the subtle wizardry, the impressive globetrotting—there was...

Alfred Morris - Humble Beyond Belief

Ever since Henry Ford’s first Model T hit the streets in 1908, automobiles have fascinated the American public. We’ve been transfixed by Beetles, GTOs, Corvettes, Ferraris and Hummers. We still talk about the cars (sometimes more than the actors) from our favorite movies and TV shows: Marty McFly’s DeLorean, Bo and Luke Duke’s “General Lee” (a Dodge Charger) and Steve McQueen’s 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback from Bullitt, to name a few. Time to add a silver 1991 Mazda 626 to the list...

Crushing It

It sounds preposterous now—kind of like an era when carbs weren’t counted, phones weren’t smart and people didn’t tweet—but there was a time when Chris Davis considered quitting baseball. Davis, the Baltimore Orioles’ newly minted superstar, was fed up with the game by 2011. His promising major league debut with the Texas Rangers three years earlier at age 22 was a distant memory. A logjam of talent within the organization and his own inconsistencies at the plate...

NBA Closeup -- Kyle Korver

The filth and stench of the city was overwhelming. Little boys ran naked through the alleys. A slum-dwelling mother bathed her child under a small, open-air faucet. A grown man stooped over to brush his teeth with his finger, sand and street water. These were just a few of the shocking images NBA star Kyle Korver witnessed during a trip to Calcutta, India in July 2008. Korver’s visit was a personally financed stopover that preceded his arrival in New Delhi with the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program...

Along for the Ride

The “Hello Kitty” poster was the first clue: Something was amiss. This couldn’t actually be...

God-sized Dreams

John Harbaugh and his Baltimore Ravens will take on the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The Ravens finished 12-4 in the regular season and 8-0 at home to win the AFC North. Harbaugh was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Sports Spectrum. The “Hello Kitty” poster was the first clue: Something was amiss. This couldn’t actually be the office of an NFL head coach, could it? Where were the pithy motivational placards about success, endurance and teamwork? Where were the ostentatious odes to football or the coach’s own achievements? And how did this girly paraphernalia make it past security? This is, after all, the NFL, which has annals filled with stories of blustering men who rule football fiefdoms like medieval lords and treat their serfs accordingly...

In the News: Jason Campbell

Oakland Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell led his team to a 23-20 victory on Monday night against the Denver Broncos. Larry Campbell sighs wistfully and daydreams for a moment. His son, Jason Campbell, has been a star quarterback for much of his life. He took his high school team to the state semifinals and produced a 13-0 season at Auburn in 2004 when he was the SEC Player of the Year and MVP in the SEC title game. He is now a multimillionaire in the NFL. Yet Larry still wonders...

Bradford, McCoy and Tebow: Heis-men

This is the first of what we hope to make a part of the regular rotation here on SportsSpectrum.com. Every Thursday we are going to dig through the Sports Spectrum archives to find one of our great features from yesteryear. We're calling it "Throwback Thursdays." Enjoy. Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford are – gulp – good friends. Wait! Take a deep breath. Don’t do anything rash. This might help ease the pain a bit: Both quarterbacks are also friendly with fellow signal-caller Tim Tebow, whose Florida Gators chomped the Sooners in last season’s Bowl Championship Series title game. “Sam, Tim and I have a lot in common,” McCoy says. “It was fun getting to know those guys at all of the award events last year, and we’ve stayed in touch. I don’t know if our fans would like it, but Sam and I have gotten really close. We talk pretty regularly.” A Longhorn (McCoy) befriending a Sooner (Bradford)? Will wonders never cease?...