Sam Perkins, Sidney Moncrief, and the Final Four

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/03/06/sports-rush-sam-perkins-and-a-final-four-function/

 

March Madness has gotten underway because, well, it’s March, duh. The conference tournaments have already started to get us revved up for a month of buzzer beaters and bracket busters culminating in Final Fours as the month concludes. A couple of North Texas residents contributed to legendary runs to the national semi-finals, and later this month, I’ll be interviewing them about the experience at a special event at Campisi’s Restaurant on Mockingbird in Dallas. Sidney Moncrief and Sam Perkins will take the stage to discuss what it felt like as their Arkansas and North Carolina teams made their respective runs, as well as broader topics germane to college basketball and the tournament landscape.

The event, entitled “Sidney, Sam & The Final Four,” benefits the charity programs of the National Basketball Retired Players Association’s local chapter. Besides Perkins and Moncrief, a number of other former NBA, ABA, WNBA, and other players will be on hand to mingle and swap stories. In the video interview with Perkins that is the centerpiece of this post, you’ll find out more about what they do and about why the Final Four still resonates with the former NBA standout.

Tables are still for sale, with details available at the NBRPA’s local Facebook page.

Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.


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Interview with Gold Medalist Ben Maher

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/03/01/sports-rush-an-olympian-changes-horses/

Polo spent five Olympiads as an official sport, but it hasn’t participated since before World War II. Equestrian competitors in general, however, have vied for medals in every Summer Olympics since 1912.

Ben Maher has competed in show jumping in the last three Summer Games, and owns a gold medal for his part in winning the team jumping event for Great Britain in 2012 in London.

Friday, I watched him ride in a polo match. The setting was a great deal less competitive than his normal sporting pursuits: a charity contest in Wellington, Florida. Maher participated in the final chukker (equivalent to a period or quarter in polo parlance), as both sides added a guest teammate for the final period. The Olympian found himself at the event in part because he’s affiliated himself with one of polo’s most prominent families.

 The jumper’s girlfriend is Sophie Gracida (who played against her beau in that final chukker). Her cousins, professional polo players Carlos, Jr. and Mariano, spearheaded the event to honor the legacy of Carlos, Sr.

 

The young men’s father was once perhaps the world’s best player, and the whole family is filled with accomplished riders and polo players. Though Carlos, Sr. died after an in-game accident in 2014, the Gracida name still foments warm feelings within the polo community. The brothers leveraged the goodwill their father generated, along with their own friendly and unpretentious demeanors, to create Friday’s Equine Salute Invitational. They designed the event to benefit the Gracida Legacy Foundation, a charity they’ve started with the aim of helping underserved kids realize the benefits of horsemanship, and generate interest in their Gracida Wine brand, which was available at the match and subsequent tent party.

Maher and many others contributed his time to making the day a success. In the video interview that accompanies this post, he tells us what it was like playing a sport that is not his main one and how he feels watching an Olympics in which he didn’t participate, in this case the 2018 Winter Games, which were in their closing stages as he played in the polo match.

Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.


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Crystallizing the Cause

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/02/22/sports-rush-a-crystal-clear-cause/https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/02/22/sports-rush-a-crystal-clear-cause/

Great performers can steal the show without even trying. Billy Crystal did it Monday night.
His opportunity came at the Nancy Lieberman Charities Dream Ball. The event teemed with celebrities from the worlds of sport and entertainment. Hall of Famers like Deion Sanders and Ralph Sampson came. Local media did interviews on the red carpet. ESPN’s Jay Harris hosted.
The show wasn’t about Billy Crystal per se. And the renowned entertainer didn’t make it about him. He made the night in a different way. It wasn’t because of the way he showed his talent. It was because of how he showed his perspective.

We interviewed him before the event began. When I asked him why it was meaningful for him to be there that night, he didn’t talk about being recognized for the work he’s done (Crystal received the Lifetime Achievement Award). He talked about the cause and about how Nancy Lieberman Charities had helped him rebuild a small part of the area where he grew up.

“When I was in a situation where my hometown had been wiped out by Hurricane Sandy, a little town on Long Island called Long Beach, I was looking for a way to raise money” Crystal said. “In a place that had been ripped apart by seawater, they built these two magnificent basketball courts. “
Crystal did another thing that showed his perspective. He fell. This wasn’t a comedy pratfall. He actually tumbled from his chair as he sat at his table. I don’t think he was injured, but nobody would have blamed him if he had left the venue after that. He didn’t. He stayed until the end of the show and entertained the crowd, in part with a running series of jokes about his mishap. A bruised tailbone didn’t result in a bruised ego. He was going to stay and help the nonprofit show the guests an enjoyable evening.

Crystal took photos of the crowd from the stage. He told Jay Harris fantastic stories of his one-man show and his (and Nancy Lieberman’s) friend Muhammad Ali. And he did receive his award from Bo Derek. Though he had the audience riveted, we probably can’t say he stole the show on the stage. That’s because Trailblazer Award winner Sam Moore (a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer from his work with Sam and Dave) gave a superb musical performance and after Bebe Winans introduced Jan Miller for the Inspirational Award, the noted literary agent gave a stirring speech.

But it was off the stage that Crystal’s work stood out the most. When Derek spoke before presenting him his award, she told of a program he sponsored that brings together Israeli and Palestinian actors and directors to peacefully co-produce creative works. It showed the perspective he has on the world – one that he contributed to an event that grossed $1.2 million for charity. For a man who has hosted award programs and walked away from them with hardware, it showed why he was truly a worthy recipient.

Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.


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Pudge in Puerto Rico

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/02/15/sports-rush-pudge-cleans-up-at-home/

  
 Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez has seen firsthand the devastation visited on his homeland. In this video interview, the Puerto Rican (and Texas Rangers) icon explains about his island’s needs and details an effort he and one of the companies he represents made to help an orphanage there.

In September, Hurricane Maria’s 150+ mph winds and Biblical quantities of rainwater inflicted massive amounts of damage on Puerto Rico. Driving around its capital, San Juan, one still spots uprooted trees, dismantled roofs, and other reminders of the devastation that will require years, and perhaps decades, of refurbishment.

Even at Estadio Hiram Bithorn, the national baseball stadium in San Juan, loss of power forced the local Winter League teams to play day games, and even now many of its large signage frames remain without the content blown away by the storm.
Chili-Cook_Rectangle6

The island loves baseball, and many of the sport’s current and former Puerto Rican stars rallied to support their home territory. Rodríguez worked in the hurricane’s aftermath to help get supplies to the island, and has returned multiple times since. On a previous trip, he visited the Hogar Forjadores de Esperanza home for boys, a cause long supported by his endorsee, Sun West Mortgage Company, and brought donated bicycles to its occupants. On this trip they made an even more meaningful donation, and in the video, you’ll see why the facility needed it.


 
Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.
 
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Watered-Down Super Bowl Spots

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/02/06/sports-rush-the-social-responsibility-bowl/

We’ll remember Sunday’s Super Bowl for a great game wherein a contentious, championship-starved city saw its boys defeat a near-dynasty in a close and fascinating game. It offered a memorable and intricate halftime show.

We might not remember it as one of the great Super Bowl commercial showcases.
In fairness, it’s not really equitable to judge Super Bowl commercials by the standards of the past. The memories we retain of Michael Jordan and Larry Bird competing for a Big Mac and Monster.com‘s middle-management aspirants probably obscure those years’ uninspired tax preparer submissions or dull dotcom spots. Were the Starr Packers better than the Favre Packers? Were the Bud Bowl beer bottles better than the Coke bottle that quenched Mean Joe Greene’s thirst? Hard to say.

My personal favorite spot this year came from M&Ms and starred Danny DeVito. The Tide ones making light of the entire Super Bowl spot phenomenon probably struck a few chords. And the intertwined celebrity-driven raps from corporate siblings Doritos and Mountain Dew tweaked the marketing geek in me.

2018 will likely be known in Super Bowl commercial lore, however, as the year of corporate social responsibility. An outsized number of advertisers based their offerings around recounting good things they do in the community or other messages indicating they care about more than the bottom line. I counted at least eight (more if you include stuff like Toyota’s Team USA support ads and Coke’s message of inclusion) who took that tack. Some mostly celebrated their own roles in the community endeavor, while others offered a way to help a related cause via online donations.

When I’ve worn my marketing hat, I’ve always felt companies walked a fine line when attempting to communicate about their social responsibility initiatives. People don’t generally like braggarts, and an acquaintance who informs us about how unselfish he or she is makes us suspicious of his or her true motives. That doesn’t mean companies can’t or shouldn’t use community initiatives for marketing purposes, only that one has exercise care not to invite skepticism about one’s intentions. That’s especially true in the area of advertising, where the audience expects to see messages extolling a company’s virtues. If you appear to be saying, “We’re not interested in marketing ourselves, we’re just interested in this worthy cause,” but then are perceived as actually delivering a marketing message because you overpraise your own contributions, you’ve got a chance to turn people off instead of improving your brand image.

The adage “show me, don’t tell me” comes to mind here. Be bold in the doing, subtle in the recounting. In a lot of ways, I think social media works far better for showing off community work than traditional advertising. Playing the long game, where you consistently focus on promoting the cause itself, while including your own involvement in increments only large enough to establish your bona fides, feels imminently more authentic then loudly (and expensively) proclaiming how much you care.

Sunday, Budweiser showed off a beautiful spot chronicling how one of their breweries can switch from canning beer to packaging water directed to disaster victims. One of the nice stories it told was of the devotion of its employees, and praising good works done by one’s staff can be an authentic-feeling technique. If I’d made “Stand By You,” though, I might have considered losing the staged opening shots with the brewery manager and the end slate telling us they’ll stand by us. Perhaps it would have enhanced the authenticity to just show us real footage of the canning machine conversion and the water being delivered, followed by information about how people could contribute to disaster relief or seek assistance if they lacked necessities. The company had some of that messaging available online, but it didn’t make it into what they showed in the Big Game.

In a time when big corporations have come under criticism, some deserved and some less so, the spot did remind us how the resources of big companies can add value to our lives in times of crisis. In terms of how such notions specifically applied to Budweiser, more “show” and less “tell,” especially with legitimately authentic social media support, might have enhanced the eight figures the brewer likely spent on the effort. At press time, comments on the spot on the company’s social media were mixed. Some praised Anheuser-Busch for its water donations and others wrote: “Yeah brag about your tax write-off” or “The truly great companies that donate product, money or time are the ones that are humble and do not use a disaster or people in need as an opportunity to promote themselves through commercials or videos patting themselves on the back to get attention and recognition for helping. Typical corporate behavior where putting the focus on the company overshadows the actual cause.”

A lot of companies spent millions on advertising Sunday. Some chose to deliver messages about how their companies embrace certain forms of altruism. Others chose to use a riled-up Martha Stewart to sell a new line of sandwiches, and perhaps they will put some of those proceeds into charity initiatives. How well those strategies work for them depends on how well they do at show and tell.


Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.



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Beef Meets Baseball

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/01/31/sports-rush-from-ballpark-to-table/

As Globe Life Park in Arlington’s executive chef, Cris Vazquez supervises preparation of the food you eat when you go to a Rangers game. He must have culinary mastery of everything from dollar hot dogs to suite-level fine dining. With baseball in its offseason, he spent the past two Saturdays in Fort Worth at the Stock Show. In the Coors Light Roadhouse, he demonstrated cooking techniques for preparing products bearing the name of a former Rangers team president (and pitcher): Nolan Ryan Beef.

In this video interview, we find out what he was preparing and how, and discover a delicious-sounding mix of ingredients. You can watch the demonstration the interview references on the Nolan Ryan Beef Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NolanRyanBeef/videos/1193849494085258/. That page also contains videos of the three other demos he did at the Roadhouse. We find out about how to prepare beefy dinner entrees and he also dishes on Mr. Ryan – turns out he likes to eat beef. And also potatoes.

Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.

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Hockey's New Home in Hockeytown

This post originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To consume it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2018/01/25/sports-rush-jewel-of-hockeytown/

Last week the Dallas Stars made their first visit to Detroit’s new hockey facility, Little Caesars Arena. I went on the trip and you’re probably wondering, “What did you see? And did you freeze your gungagalunga off?” Here are some observations, and my gungagalunga is fine, thank you very much.

When they spend millions on a new hockey stadium in a place that styles itself “Hockeytown,” you can bet it’ll be pretty full-throttle, and the place has a lot of features and a lot of style. Besides a superb sound system and wide concourses, it features top-level “gondola” seating that provides a look from right over the ice, albeit from a mountainous elevation (it still works).

Inside, banners commemorating the Original Six franchise’s retired numbers and Stanley Cup wins hang from the ceiling girders. They created these banners specially for the new space, with the ones that hung in the team’s previous home, Joe Louis Arena, now adorning the team’s downstairs practice rink.

The facility also serves as home to various youth hockey programs, with youngsters traipsing through the downstairs hallways even on game day. Those teams have long been sponsored by the arena’s namesake pizza company, founded by the late Red Wings and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch and his wife, Marian. They don’t skimp on their naming rights sponsor’s branding in the place, either, and, yes, you can get a hot-and-ready pie in various locations.

There’s also a Kid Rock-themed restaurant. Huge images and statuary of Wings legends like Gordie Howe decorate the concourses.

Two things we didn’t see as much of: octopi and the Pistons.
Wings fans have long prided themselves on sneaking in mollusks to fling onto the ice during the playoffs. While it’s a storied hockey tradition, my guess is the team doesn’t want to do anything encourage it. They do, however, have a few kids octopus items in the gift shop.

The Pistons announced their move to the new arena well after the hockey team had spearheaded its development. While it was admittedly a Wings game night, the deficit in permanent branding between the basketball and ice hockey sides of the equation was noticeable.
The Wings announced attendance at 19,515, a sellout, but pockets of empty seats dotted the arena. Playing a Tuesday in frigid weather can’t have helped fill seats. I wondered if when the Texas Rangers can add air conditioning in their new ballpark, the hot trip from the parking lot might still depress attendance. My guess is people would favor a 100-degree drive and walk over the same ordeal in freezing cold precipitation, but we won’t know for sure until the 2020s.

It will also take a while to know how the development schemes around the stadia in Arlington and the Motor City will work out. In year one, there wasn’t much around the arena. Perhaps that will change if the city of Detroit recovers from its recent financial turmoil.

Bottom line is that if you’re a hockey fan, an ornate arena operated by an Original Six team is well worth visiting. And if you’re a Stars fan, you’ll hope to do it on a night like last Tuesday: Dallas overcame an early deficit to earn a 4-2 road win.


Rush Olson has spent more than two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports, Mint Farm Films, and FourNine Productions.

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