Homecoming and historical Cape connections

Mr. Timmons - Caesar Rodney quarterback Julius Timmons battled a swarming and pressing Cape defense at Legends Stadium on a Homecoming Friday night. The game was midway through the second quarter when I said to myself, “Wait a minute, coach Fred. You coached and are friends with his grandfather going back to old-school Lewes with Jay Maull, Bruce Barrett, Charlie Ball and Carlton Allen.” I messaged JT’s mom, Tasha, formerly Natasha Jones, married to Julius Timmons. Tasha teaches math at David E. Robinson Elementary School: “Is Timmy Timmons JT’s grandfather?” She answered, “Yes, Mr. Timmons is his grandfather.” Her answer  reminded me of the iconic line delivered by Sidney Poitier playing Virgil Tibbs in the movie "In the Heat of the Night” (1967). “Do your friends in Philadelphia call you Virgil?” “They call me Mr. Tibbs.” I’m looking forward to seeing Mr. Timmons at a game somewhere down the line. 

Big white dude - I saw some guy along the halftime fence Friday night, and if he was a bouncer outside a club, I wouldn’t even go in and run the risk of getting trucked and chucked back out sideways through a narrow door. I asked, “Are you a member of the tribe?” He answered, “What tribe?” I said, “Linemen for Life.” He said, “I played line, semi-pro in North Carolina.” I asked, "What is your playing weight?” “I’m 6-5, 365 pounds,” he said. It was at that point I was starting to doubt the veracity of his story, especially the 6-5 part, but there was a story there somewhere.  

Slow and sluggish - I call Mike Wardian the congenial crazy guy. Mike, 49, is a nationally known ultra distance runner. On a drizzly Saturday morning Oct. 21, he won the Hopkins Moo Cow 5K, besting a field of just 29 runners in 17:40. Most of the cows have mooed away, and the race is now called the Lace Up For Ag Literacy 5K. “We are going to be a destination for agritourism,” said Amy Hopkins. “It’s going to be a great hands-on experience for families.” Next up for Mike Wardian is the Marine Corps 50K Sunday, Oct. 29, in Washington, D.C., billed as the largest ultramarathon in the country and the only one held entirely in an urban setting. Running is in conjunction with the Marine Corps Marathon – 30,000 runners from 50 states and 50 countries are expected. “I ran the moo cow race as a tuneup to boost my confidence level, but instead I felt slow and sluggish,” Wardian said. Don Zalenski, 77, of Magnolia won the 5K walk in 39:18. Magic Jack Noel ran the race on his 85th birthday in 1:01, saying “Is it still Saturday?” Jack and Joel are identical twins. “When we were little, I chose magic and my brother chose medicine,” Jack said. “He’s a retired physician. We still look the same except he weighs 100 more pounds than me,” he added, eating his Hopkins ice cream.      

Snippets - The Alvernia University Golden Wolves football team, a Division III program out of Reading Pa., coached by Steve Azzanesi, is currently 0-7 on the season with MAC games remaining against Lebanon Valley, Albright and King’s College (Pa.). Steve is a super coach as proven at Wesley and Delaware State, a high-energy, motivated person, but, man, you have to be of concrete character and tougher than rebar to endure coaching a winless football team. I’ve seen the Cape football program just eat good coaches alive. I had a conversation with Bill Coillick before Friday night’s Homecoming game. Bill coached at Delaware State, Sussex Tech and Cape, and he just kept saying, “Our profession is tough. It really is.” Which is why I take photos and write stories. I'm just not as tough as I used to be. I know people with Phillies playoff tickets, but scalpers have all gone online. The term is industrialized ticket sales. Scalpers have disappeared like illegal soft pretzel vendors. I once saw a vamoosing vendor pushing a cart of pretzels run down by big blue with wide belts and put in the back of a paddy wagon, pretzels and all. The NFL power ranking after Week 8 (profootballnetwork.com) has the Eagles at No. 3 behind Kansas City and San Francisco while the Ravens and Cowboys are No. 5 and 6, respectively. Dallas is at Philly Sunday Nov. 5. Zack Simpler was inside the Vikings mascot suit Friday night at Homecoming, reprising the role he performed four years earlier before heading off to the University of Delaware. That is just cool insider information. Bobby McVey was on the 1979 Cape state championship football team and was also a part-time Vikings mascot. How do moths find mascot outfits? It’s not like they have a light inside the head. Go on now, git!