Leading off today: In the immortal words of broadcasting legend Paul Harvey, now you know the rest of the story.
Let me explain:
Back in the days when the content of the high school football forum on Syracuse.com consisted only of 40 percent Aquinas-related material rather than the current 112 percent, there were some epic verbal brawls between commentators "RJE" and "VIchiefs." Most of it was debate over Section 5 vs. Section 6 and a lot of it was Aquinas-related.
Reading it was admittedly a bit of a guilty pleasure -- carefully measured insults, dubious "facts" presented by both sides, detailed fact-checking disputing those "facts," provocative opinions and fierce loyalty toward their favorite teams.
The two men eventually met up at a football game and subsequently dialed back the outlandishness online. I've known RJE for close to three decades but I never met VIchiefs. As it turns out, I wrongly assumed his name was Milt Latimer and that he was related to the Milt Latimer, a member of the Section 5 football hall of fame and an important figure in the history of Iroquois athletics who had died in 1966.
It turns out his name was Daryle Gustavel, a fact I learned this week in a remembrance by Keith McShea of The Buffalo News. Gustavel died Dec. 10 at the age of 47, possibly from a heart attack.
Gustavel, a rabid Iroquois fan, had adopted the handle "Milt Latimer" for posting comments at The Buffalo News' Prep Talk blog (the source of my misunderstanding about his real identity), where he was both prolific and knowledgeable. He was also an immense help to McShea in his days as the paper's high school sports reporter and active in Section 6 activities as well.
Every section of the state has several dozen Milt Latimer/Daryle Gustavel characters, and they make high school sports a bit more fun and interesting than they already were.
Rest in peace, Milt/Daryle.
'sno joke: Now The Daily Gazette has gone and done it. With virtually the entire state enjoying almost unprecedented mild December weather, the Schenectady paper has written about the effect the lack of snow is having on the alpine ski season.
And that, of course, guarantees several blizzards in rapid succession. In fact, the snow is supposed to start Friday in Western New York.
As the story notes, nordic skiers can still get in quality cardio work on the track and throw on roller skis to work on technique but there is little that alpine skiers are able to do until they can actually get on the mountain and negotiate the course a few times.
