This year marks SPORTS ’N SPOKES’ (S’NS’) 50th anniversary, and as part of the yearlong celebration of this major milestone, this special department is dedicated to some of the best columns from founder Cliff Crase. This month’s Classic Cliff is from the June 1999 issue of S’NS.
Wow!! It’s been quite a trip. Like most any bright idea that app-ears to be a formidable challenge, if you knew what was ahead you’d probably forget about it and move on. But as the saying goes, sometimes ignorance is bliss.
In 1973, when we started researching the concept of a wheelchair sports magazine, there was no lack of support and encouragement from founders, organizers, athletes, coaches and active recreators. However, potential revenue sources (advertisers and subscribers) had concerns. Reality was that before committing dollars, advertisers wanted a substantial circulation base and subscribers wanted significant editorial copy and product lines worthy of their hard-earned dollars. Who could blame them? Simply put, I’m glad Nancy [his wife] and I kept our day jobs during those formative years.
Well, as they say, the rest is history. S’NS survived and succeeded, with readers in more than 50 countries.
Covering the Action
Through the years, one of my more memorable editorial assignments was deciding who or what was going to be on each issue’s cover. Sometimes it was fun, while other times it was agonizing. In the beginning, it was quite simple because there wasn’t a large selection of cover material from which to choose. We didn’t have the in-house design capability or the resources to commission an illustrator. But the selections became very difficult when new events came on the scene and with the use of color.
Sometimes it seemed everyone who submitted an article wanted the cover. Showing up on S’NS’ cover got to be quite competitive in itself. Once in awhile, I was even blamed for showing favoritism because of whose mug showed up.
More than 100 people have graced S’NS covers over the past 25 years — some more than once, and it certainly wasn’t because they were good lookin’ or slipped me a sawbuck or two. No, they did it the old fashioned way: They earned it as outstanding participants — that and, of course, because they were in the right place at the right time.
Athletes appearing on more than one cover were all well-known, top-of-the-line competitors, and some are still in the game. A couple of great ones from the roundball court, Curtis Bell and Dave Kiley, appeared four times, mostly in group action. Jean Driscoll, of marathon fame (especially Boston), and Dale Wiley, field-event champ and sports promoter, were on three covers each. Those featured twice include long, tall Willie Buchanan, slick Denver Branum, big ol’ James Coughlin, and Tim Kazee (basketball); Susan Hagel, ski-dooing in the snowy woods; Sharon Rahn Hedrick (racing); Jim Martinson (track); Jim Stuewe (track and basketball); and Randy Snow (tennis).
Singin’ the Blues
In 1977, when S’NS was still in its infancy, the Gizz Kids, as they were called back then, composed a song on the University of Illinois’ (U of I’s) campus about getting on S’NS’ cover. The lyrics, sung to the tune of a song about getting your picture on the cover of Rolling Stone, were first heard at the 1977 U of I Disabled Student Organization (DSO) banquet. We published the words in the January/February 1978 S’NS, and they were never heard or seen again.
The culprits, or performers, included therapeutic rec PhD candidates Bob Syzman (on banjo) and Brad Hedrick (with mic) and (on keyboards) Susan Hagel, therapeutic rec grad student. Despite their appearances way back then, they are all highly successful in their respective fields — which you can bet is not in the music industry.
Here’s the first verse and chorus. There are two more verses, but we think you’ll get the gist of this relic ditty:
Well we’re big jock pushers,
we’ve got golden blisters
And we’re loved everywhere we go. We preach about sports and
we preach about ramps
At several hundred dollars a show. We take all kinds of spills to give us all kinds of thrills,
But the thrills that ain’t no hoax
Is the thrill that’ll gitcha, when you git your pitcha
On the cover of the SPORTS ‘N SPOKES.
(Chorus)
SPORTS ‘N SPOKES—gonna see my
picture on the cover
Spokes—gonna buy five copies for my mother
Spokes—gonna see my smiling face On the cover of the SPORTS ‘N SPOKES.
On that note, my brief trip down memory lane comes to an end. Now, sit back and enjoy reading the historical perspective of S’NS on the following pages.
We dedicate this 25th anniversary commemorative issue to the athletes and wheelchair sports supporters who, through the years, made it all possible.