Hyping minor achievements

GREENSBORO, NC -- When did we start pretending that minor achievements deserve the same recognition as major accomplishments? Two examples from this past few days: The area's fifth grade "graduations," and the Greensboro Grasshoppers "winning" the "first half" pennant.

Graduation is for granting a diploma or degree and a baseball pennant is for the winner of a league's season. What's next? Kindergarten graduation and a fifth inning pennant?

Wyndham Championship's 75th year; what a crock

GREENSBORO, NC -- Imagine a wealthy man marries a divorced woman. Her first marriage lasted for 67 years. She and the wealthy man have been married for 7.

Now imagine that the man announces to the world that, on their 8th anniversary, he and his wife will be celebrating 75 years of marriage.

That's just the kind of crock the Wyndham golf tournament is trying to dish up. Coming up on their eighth year of sponsorship of the Wyndham Championship, Wyndham apparently thinks they have purchased the history of what was, for 67 years, Greensboro's golf tournament: originally the Greater Greensboro Open, then the K-mart Greater Greensboro Open, then the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. Greensboro was the rightful and common thread uniting the tournament's storied history. Wyndham deserves no more credit for it than a second husband gets for his wife's first marriage.

Sam Snead did not earn a record setting 8 wins at the Wyndham Championship nor did he become the oldest golfer to win on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham Championship.

Wahoo McDaniel, Evel Knievel,
Bob Bruggers & Lee Travino.

Evel Knievel and Wahoo McDaniel did not play in the ProAm at the  Wyndham Championship.

Fuzzy Zeller did not withdraw from the Wyndham Championship after 21 straight appearances because of controversy over remarks made about newcomer Tiger Woods.

The Greensboro Jaycees did not, for decades, put on the largest Jaycee civic project in the nation at the Wyndham Championship.

No. All of those things happened at the Greensboro Open in one or another of its variational-named iterations. Unlike Wyndham, previous sponsors kept Greensboro in the tournament name. They earned the right to carry the torch of the tournament's history.

The Wyndham Tournament is coming up on its eighth year. Eight. Wyndham began its golf presence here by erasing Greensboro from the name of an historic golf tournament and now they want to pretend they are entitled to retroactively claim its history? To supplant what they've erased with what they seem to think they've purchased? To brand the achievements of others as just another property fully bought and paid for even though they had nothing to do with 67 of its years?

What a crock.


(Hat tip: Knievle, McDaniel ProAm appearance recalled by Ben Holder.)

Saving the ACC Hall of Champions

Don Moore of Greensboro Sports writes about the ACC Hall of Fame underporfming expectations. I'm not sure I agree with him about museums becoming a thing of the past with so much online—encyclopedias, yes (update: right on cue)—but great museums will always fascinate. Whether the ACCHOC can cut it in the real world, I don't know, but one thing I notice they lack that successful modern museums have is an online shop.

I know an online store is not the purpose of the ACCHOC and I know that with athletic leagues there are licensing hurdles, but surely the one and only official ACCHOC should be able to procure the rights to sell licensed souvenirs and memorabilia online. Heck, take it a step further and become the E-bay of ACC collectibles buying and selling for fans. The money will be rolling in.

I imagine the sale of Carolina #23 jerseys alone could erase the entire coliseum operating deficit.


Drop me a line, Matt.