Gryphons mourn Dudley Whitley

There is sad news today in the Gryphon Nation of the passing of Dudley Whitley.

The former Blackbird won a baseball scholarship to N.C. State where he was All-ACC his final two years. After finishing his professional baseball career, Whitley returned to Rocky Mount High where he served in just about every capacity possible within the then Rocky Mount City School System from baseball coach to eventually becoming superintendent.

A memorial service will be held at 4 pm. Monday at the First Presbyterian Church of Rocky Mount.

There are those in life that leave an impression on our lives long after they have served their time and Dudley Whitley is one of those.

There is more sad news to pass along today, but this is on a personal note. I told you yesterday that we went to the beach Friday afternoon on a spur of the moment deal. We went out to eat in Nags Head and the Norfolk TV station was on a screen where I could see the news and I could only see the screen not hear it.

There was a headline where a woman was crushed by a falling tree. Come to find out that a Gates County High School coach's wife was killed when their family was returning from a holiday visit with family in Maryland.

The day was so windy that a hugh branch from an overhanging pine tree broke loose and fell as their car passed it along the highway.

Linda Edwards was killed while her husband Dave only receive cuts from the branches.

Dave was the longtime JV coach at Hertford County under both Daryl Allen and the late Carl Brock.

While we lived in Ahoskie, Daryl Allen invited his coaches and anyone who worked to help with the football program to his home after home games to watch the high school scores. It expanded where Pat and I took our turn being a host once a year.

Dave and Linda had visited our home many times as well as his.

The NFL playoffs for next week are set.

Saturday's 4.30 p.m. game will feature the Ravens at Tennessee. Then, the Saturday night headliner will have the Carolina Panthers hosting the Arizona Cardinals.

Sunday's games start at 1 p.m. with the New York Giants hosting the Philadelphia Eagles.

The 4:30 game next Sunday will be the Chargers at Pittsburgh in a rematch of an 11-10 Pittsburgh victory six weeks ago when Pittsburgh did not score a touchdown.

The BCS Bowls crank up again tomorrow night with the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State faces Texas.

You know so far this has been a rather dull bowl year.

I can't believe what I just saw, but Carolina goes down in basketball at home to Boston College.

More on this tomorrow.

A Point Guard Away

North Carolina State is a point guard away from having a really good team. Today, traveling to Florida, the Wolfpack had every chance in the world to win except late in the game there was no one to get the ball to the people who need it to score.

State will be lucky to win six conference games with the point guard play they are getting and will get during the rest of the season. They will get blown out a couple of times, but I think for the most part they will be in every game to the end.

Hey Carolina fans, you had better pay attention to the Demon Deacs of Wake Forest. Tonight they won at BYU who had a 53-game home winning streak going which was the longest in the nation. Wake wins at Provo.

The spiral continues for the Rocky Mount Gryphons as they are scalped at Kinston Saturday night to drop to 6-5. The Gryphons have lost five of six.

Saturday, in the NFL playoffs, the home teams won both games.

Arizona won its first playoff game ever, but the Cardinals franchise, it was the first win in 61 years.

Saturday night you saw why the Colts-Chargers were the prime time game as the Charger win in overtime .

The two best players on the field for the Chargers were the two smallest in the game. Darren Sproles, who have the third most total yards in a playoff game in history 322 and two touchdowns.

The other best player was Mike Scifres, the Charger punter who had a 65-yard punt which was the longest punt in the playoffs in 35 years. Four times on his punts Peyton Manning and the Colts started inside their own 10-yard line because of Scifres including his last one with less than three minutes to play that roll out of bounds at the one.

The three Pro Bowl quarterbacks for the AFC have all been eliminated from the playoffs after Manning lost Saturday night. Farve and Cutler failed to make the playoffs and the one quarterback who didn't Phillip Rivers plays on.

San Diego becomes the first NFL team which did not have a winning record to win a playoff game.

As of right now, I am 15-16 in my bowl picks and in the fantasy bowl league I am in the upper 25 percent which tells me nobody has done that well picking the bowl games.

Boy did the Pirates lose a heartbreaker or what.

My wife Pat decides at 11 a.m. Friday that we needed to go to Nags Head Friday night. I saw the ECU Pirates were ahead 16-3 at the half and the next time I cut the tube on they had lost.

Carolina, State, and ECU lose their bowl games with only Wake Forest winning.