The Penalty Box: Breaking Records Revives Our Past
February 1, 2023 at 2:46 a.m.
The Penalty Box: Breaking Records Revives Our Past
By Roger Grossman-
One of those things is that records are being challenged and broken. And even if no records are broken, the chances are good that the teams as-a-whole and the individuals that make them up will accomplish things that at least will allow people like me to refer to the current records or the people on the list of the “most” somethings or the “longest” somethings or the “least” somethings in school history.
When I arrived in Warsaw in 1991 and was immediately assigned to the Warsaw football and girls basketball broadcasts, I was given a copy of the binders that housed those teams’ history books.
With that, Brad Ellis said to me, “The Lady Tiger Basketball History Book is yours to keep now. I’ll help you when you need it, but as Voice of the Lady Tigers, this is part of your responsibility.”
I hear those words like he spoke them to me yesterday, and I have done my best to make those books as comprehensive as possible.
You can see why I appreciate players and teams as they approach putting their names in those record books. I’m like a museum curator when someone offers them a new piece to display, or a librarian when a member of the community brings in a rare book to add to the library’s collection.
There is an obvious attraction to “the chase”, right? Can the team set the record for most wins? Can the player set the record for most points in a game, or a season, or a career?
It becomes like a countdown: eight points from a thousand, four 3-point baskets from the school record, two wins from the longest wins streak ever.
It’s a real-life reality show, and everyone falls in love with those things. That’s easy.
Beyond that, for me, it gives us record-keeper-types an opportunity to pry open the record books and share their contents. When record-setting performances become part of the story line for a team, program and franchise, it allows us to bring back names from the past and tell the stories of those players and the teams they played on.
For example, Jaxson Gould is marching up the all-time Warsaw scoring list. If you only know how many points he has and where he ranks, you are missing half the story. His move up the chart has allowed me to tell our listeners about all of the guys he’s passed, like Jason McKenzie who hit the shot at the buzzer against Kokomo to win the semi-state 30 years ago just to mention one.
Freshman Brooke Zartman’s quest to make more 3-point baskets than any Lady Tiger ever had this season has let me talk about kids (who aren’t kids anymore) like Kelsey Freds and Lindsay Baker and the girls they played with.
Players, teams and moments in time like that were meant to last, even if their records don’t stay records forever.
One of the things I wanted to make sure I did during my time as the caretaker of the Tiger record books is to build depth into it. To not just tell you who has the most points in a game, but who has the top-10 scoring games, or yards rushing in a game, or tackles, or…you get the point.
That’s important to do, because to not do it would be like a painter sketching out the basic outline of what he’s going to paint, painting one color on the canvas and then stopping. Everyone who comes to see the painting won’t understand what they are missing.
I believe that, in so many areas of life, history is important. Some people say that you want to put your past behind you and move on.
I believe the opposite. I say that you cannot know where you are heading and how far you’ve come unless you know where you have been. To not know is to live completely in the “now”, and that leaves you without perspective.
No perspective, no understanding.
No understand, no direction.
No direction, no vision.
Joe Luce at Tippecanoe Valley understands the history of the legacy of the Patrick family there, as one example.
One of my greatest fears for our young people is that they don’t know and decreasingly care about those who came before them. I hope we don’t lose the memories, the accomplishments and the people who have shaped us—again, not just in sports but in every way imaginable.
The new Mayor of Warsaw will need it. The pastor at a church will need it. A new teacher at a school needs it.
I know a lot of people who read this are older. While there is a responsibility to younger folks to seek us out (I say “us” because I am now 55 years old, and since I now get senior discounts, I now feel like I am one of you), it’s also on us to share with them everything we remember about the big moments in our lives and the people we shared those moments with.
If we don’t, those people, their accomplishments and their contributions slowly fade away…and we all lose.
One of those things is that records are being challenged and broken. And even if no records are broken, the chances are good that the teams as-a-whole and the individuals that make them up will accomplish things that at least will allow people like me to refer to the current records or the people on the list of the “most” somethings or the “longest” somethings or the “least” somethings in school history.
When I arrived in Warsaw in 1991 and was immediately assigned to the Warsaw football and girls basketball broadcasts, I was given a copy of the binders that housed those teams’ history books.
With that, Brad Ellis said to me, “The Lady Tiger Basketball History Book is yours to keep now. I’ll help you when you need it, but as Voice of the Lady Tigers, this is part of your responsibility.”
I hear those words like he spoke them to me yesterday, and I have done my best to make those books as comprehensive as possible.
You can see why I appreciate players and teams as they approach putting their names in those record books. I’m like a museum curator when someone offers them a new piece to display, or a librarian when a member of the community brings in a rare book to add to the library’s collection.
There is an obvious attraction to “the chase”, right? Can the team set the record for most wins? Can the player set the record for most points in a game, or a season, or a career?
It becomes like a countdown: eight points from a thousand, four 3-point baskets from the school record, two wins from the longest wins streak ever.
It’s a real-life reality show, and everyone falls in love with those things. That’s easy.
Beyond that, for me, it gives us record-keeper-types an opportunity to pry open the record books and share their contents. When record-setting performances become part of the story line for a team, program and franchise, it allows us to bring back names from the past and tell the stories of those players and the teams they played on.
For example, Jaxson Gould is marching up the all-time Warsaw scoring list. If you only know how many points he has and where he ranks, you are missing half the story. His move up the chart has allowed me to tell our listeners about all of the guys he’s passed, like Jason McKenzie who hit the shot at the buzzer against Kokomo to win the semi-state 30 years ago just to mention one.
Freshman Brooke Zartman’s quest to make more 3-point baskets than any Lady Tiger ever had this season has let me talk about kids (who aren’t kids anymore) like Kelsey Freds and Lindsay Baker and the girls they played with.
Players, teams and moments in time like that were meant to last, even if their records don’t stay records forever.
One of the things I wanted to make sure I did during my time as the caretaker of the Tiger record books is to build depth into it. To not just tell you who has the most points in a game, but who has the top-10 scoring games, or yards rushing in a game, or tackles, or…you get the point.
That’s important to do, because to not do it would be like a painter sketching out the basic outline of what he’s going to paint, painting one color on the canvas and then stopping. Everyone who comes to see the painting won’t understand what they are missing.
I believe that, in so many areas of life, history is important. Some people say that you want to put your past behind you and move on.
I believe the opposite. I say that you cannot know where you are heading and how far you’ve come unless you know where you have been. To not know is to live completely in the “now”, and that leaves you without perspective.
No perspective, no understanding.
No understand, no direction.
No direction, no vision.
Joe Luce at Tippecanoe Valley understands the history of the legacy of the Patrick family there, as one example.
One of my greatest fears for our young people is that they don’t know and decreasingly care about those who came before them. I hope we don’t lose the memories, the accomplishments and the people who have shaped us—again, not just in sports but in every way imaginable.
The new Mayor of Warsaw will need it. The pastor at a church will need it. A new teacher at a school needs it.
I know a lot of people who read this are older. While there is a responsibility to younger folks to seek us out (I say “us” because I am now 55 years old, and since I now get senior discounts, I now feel like I am one of you), it’s also on us to share with them everything we remember about the big moments in our lives and the people we shared those moments with.
If we don’t, those people, their accomplishments and their contributions slowly fade away…and we all lose.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092