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Thursday, July 13, 2017.
Yesterday was Kellen Moore’s 28th birthday. So how is it that he still looks 12? Moore is simply the guy who has captured the Fountain of Youth. It’s been 10 years now since he walked onto the Boise State campus as a peach-fuzzed 18-year-old from Prosser, WA. We knew about his record-breaking high school career, but how would that translate at a program that had just won its first Fiesta Bowl?
All Kellen did, of course, was become the winningest quarterback in college football history (50-3) and throw for the second-most touchdowns in the history of the sport (142). There’ll never be another one like him. Now here’s something you’d be hard-pressed to get anywhere else. Kellen Moore’s career numbers for life—Prosser High, Boise State and the Dallas Cowboys. Here goes: 2,957 attempts, 2,005 completions, a pass percentage of 67.8, 26,813 yards, 68 interceptions, and 319 touchdowns.
If it seems like just another internal Boise State athletic department memo, well, it’s not. The promotion of Brad Larrondo to Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs is an important one. Larrondo, one of the Broncos’ key behind-the-scenes people of the new century, will “provide oversight” to marketing and promotions, the Bronco Athletic Association, the athletic ticket office and Bronco Sports Properties. That quite a laundry list. On top of all that, he’ll maintain his role as Bryan Harsin’s chief administrator for football.
Larrondo has always had an instinct for what pushes buttons in the community. The season-in-review highlight videos that have been keepsakes since 1999? Larrondo. The relationships with recruits and their families, starting with the Boise State football camps? Larrondo. Unique community outreach programs? Larrondo. Now he can set the bar high for the entire department.
The NCAA’s three-week summer evaluation period is here for college basketball, meaning the window is open for coaches to watch potential recruits in AAU tournaments all over the country (the most prominent place for Boise State is Las Vegas). These prospects are primarily hopefuls for the 2018-19 recruiting class, which for the Broncos already includes forward Jackson Bereal and guard Trey’von Hopkins. Meanwhile, coach Leon Rice still has one scholarship available for next season’s team. And it still could be used. Transfers can happen at any time, and Rice probably doesn’t mind having one scholly in his pocket.
Troy Merritt is busier than he’s even been on the PGA Tour, trying to cobble together enough good performances to retain his full-privilege PGA Tour card for the 2017-18 season. The past three weeks it’s been one major step forward (a tie for eighth at the Travelers Championship) and two steps back (a blow-up round in each of the last two events). Merritt tees off today in the John Deere Classic in Hampton Township, IL, as does Nampa’s Tyler Aldridge, who has missed three PGA Tour cuts the past two months.
Could the Boise Hawks possibly take their own version of the Home Run Derby on the road? The answer is yes. For the second game in a row, the Hawks crushed four homers as they opened a three-game series at Salem-Keizer with a wild 10-9 victory last night. Record-keeping for a stat like that is hard to come by, but I’m 99 percent sure the Hawks have never hit four out of the park in back-to-back games in their 30-year history. If you take Boise’s parent club into consideration, maybe this all makes sense. The ball travels far in the mile-high air at Coors Field in Denver, and Colorado Rockies scouts have apparently loaded up on home run hitters. Shouldn’t that always be the Rockies’ goal?
All will be new when the 31st Twilight Criterium takes over Downtown Boise Saturday night, at least in terms of competition. There are no returning champions in the iconic cycling race, so there’ll be new winners on both the men’s and women’s sides for the first time since the event’s debut in 1987. “The race should be a classic, though, with the three biggest and strongest teams in the country in town,” said race director Mike Cooley. That trio includes United Healthcare, Rally and Cylance.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by BBSI…your business owner advocate.
July 13, 2010: New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, one of the more polarizing figures in sports history, passes away at the age of 80. Steinbrenner bought a struggling Yankees franchise in 1973 and resurrected it. Under his reign, the team won 11 American League pennants and seven World Series championships. The sometimes tyrannical Steinbrenner was known for firings and hirings and more firings—and for the trouble he had with various baseball commissioners. But he was also known as a philanthropist and evolved into a revered figure in New York. Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees for less than $9 million and built them into an empire worth over $1.5 billion.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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