• Ivan Hoyt, 6-0, 188, WR, Cornerstone/Boerne, Texas
(DJ) Mangas, 32, has prior experience running his own offense. He worked at William & Mary from 2014-18 -- crossing paths with Brady for one season, when Brady coached the Tribe's linebackers -- and worked his way to offensive coordinator in those final two seasons. William & Mary ranked 104th in total offense and 112th in scoring in 2017, and 122nd in total offense and 121st in scoring in '18.
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Speaking of relatives . . . a Cincinnati business site has a Q&A with Elizabeth Blackburn '15 under the subhed, As the Bengals gear up for their next season, the fourth generation of franchise leadership is poised to take a bigger role. (LINK)
Blackburn is the daughter of former Dartmouth hockey player Katie (Brown) Blackburn '86. Katie's father is former Dartmouth quarterback Mike Brown '57, who runs the Cincinnati Bengals, the team founded by his father, the legendary Paul Brown. Elizabeth Blackburn told the the site:
Dartmouth was critical because it was the first time I was not in Cincinnati where people knew my family and knew my name before they got to know me personally. My freshman year, I didn’t tell anybody. I graduated with best friends who still had no idea I had any ties to the Bengals. They just thought I was this superfan. I wanted to keep it to myself so people would judge me on my actions and not on my name or reputation.
And this . . .
My junior year, I was finishing my economics major and had two major projects. I chose to write my capstone paper on secondary market ticket pricing and the effect of the blackout rule. I naturally found myself wanting to spend time on football-related projects. My senior year, while finishing my engineering major, I built an app that educated women and international fans in a second-screen experience on the game of football. Those two projects were obvious indicators that, yes, I want to go back to Cincinnati and work for the team.
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From an Oregon Live story (LINK):
Spectators ages 5 and up attending Oregon State football events at Reser Stadium will be required to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status, through at least the end of September.
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EXTRA POINT
One year when I was still at the newspaper I did a telephone interview with tennis great Billie Jean King for a story to be published prior to her being honored at Dartmouth. I thought about that during my hike early this morning as I was listening to an interview with King on a recent Fresh Air podcast.
King told interviewer Dave Davies she enjoys asking questions of people who interview her and sure enough, when we spoke she did exactly that with me, asking about my family. She was particularly interested in my daughter, a budding athlete at the time who I told her played baseball, not softball, just as King had as a young girl.
King told me she'd like to say hello in person and to bring my daughter along. As you might expect, when we met up outside the Hanover Inn she was surrounded by mucky mucks charged with making sure she made it to this or that appointment on time. But when she spotted my daughter it was like there was no one else on the sidewalk. Every bit of her attention was on the little girl in front of her and all the adults could wait. I can't help but smile at the memory of Billie Jean King encouraging my daughter to work hard studying science in school. (That Certain Dartmouth '14 would go on to major in earth science.)
I've interviewed a lot of famous athletes over the years and made it a practice not to ask for autographs or take pictures with them. I can think of only two autographs I ever got. One was from Richard Petty, who absolutely refused to take no for an answer when he asked if I'd like an autograph. The other was from Billie Jean King, who used a black Sharpie to sign an old wooden tennis racquet I'd brought along that actually had her picture embossed on it.
The autograph wasn't for me. It was for that little girl who, despite what I told her about the woman she was going to meet, could not have possibly understood at the time the groundbreaking role Billie Jean King played in the history of women's sports.
