Football is not the first sport that comes to mind when one thinks of Memphis.
The National Football League wrote off the city for a franchise after it reacted coolly when the Houston Oilers rested a spell en route to Nashville after the 1995 season. Then co-worker Jeff Halpern, a big Washington fan, traveled to the Bluff City one Sunday when the Redskins played the Oilers. That game elicited a Hot Springs visit by native son and Redskins executive Bobby Mitchell, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Owner Bud Adams' Oilers became the Texans and, coached by Jeff Fisher, came up one yard short of a Super Bowl title in early 2000 (1999 season) against Kurt Warner and the St. Louis Rams, another franchise on the move (Cleveland to Los Angeles to St. Louis and back to Los Angeles, where they are NFL champions for the third time in a third city.
Life went on in Memphis -- nothing gained, nothing lost, seemed the prevailing attitude. Though it spawned teams in other football leagues, Memphis did little in its moment on the NFL stage to justify further exposure in the kingdom once ruled by Pete Rozelle.
Memphis pulsates to a basketball beat, even if the present-day Grizzlies formerly played in Vancouver. College basketball is the city's first love, and if you don't believe Memphis turns out the best high-school talent in the country, ask someone who lives there. Coach John Calipari ticked off Arkansas when he dropped the Memphis Tigers from the schedule, preferring one more "national" in scope.
The Tigers are 0-for-2 in NCAA championship games, torched for 44 points by Bill Walton (on 21-of-22 shooting) and UCLA in 1973 and losing in overtime to Kansas in 2008 (remember the "Mario Miracle?"). Gene Bartow, in time headed to UCLA as the second replacement for John Wooden, coached the '73 Tigers, who pulled out a close one against Lanny Van Eman-coached Arkansas at old Barton Coliseum in December 1972.
Had his team shot free throws better against Kansas, Calipari might have won his first NCAA title four years before the actual event at Kentucky. No matter the local delusions otherwise, Kentucky is a better basketball job than Memphis. Besides, Calipari was under the crosshairs of the NCAA since his time at Massachusetts.
Penny Hardaway, product of Memphis high schools and the UM program, coaches the Tigers these days. Despite making only one 3-point basket, they came up 91-88 short of then-No. 4 Alabama the other night in Birmingham. Penny is a civic treasure and may be the one to coach a national-championship team in the city; the wish here is that officials on both sides would curtail the Arkansas-Memphis basketball hiatus. And if it means skimping on future games in North Little Rock, where Saturday's Arkansas-Bradley game went untelevised on a big day for college hoops, all the better.
Memphis people are proud and if you want to start something, drop a hint that Nashville is Tennessee's state capital, if not its most thriving city. Elvis Presley is a cottage industry in his adopted Memphis more than four decades after he "left the building," for good. Sun Records is where American music (if not Western civilization) changed one night when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins stopped by to record at Sam Phillips' music shop on Union Avenue.
Kansas City might argue it has better barbecue, but Memphis people will argue the point endlessly. Tom Cruise toured Mud Island and spent a night in the Peabody Hotel while filming "The Firm (1993)," based on a John Grisham novel. (Here, let me say that Robert Altman's "Nashville," from 1975, is one of the great American movies with a fadeout scene for the ages set at the Parthenon in the Athens of the South.)
Arkansas people get a chance to sample Beale Street and the city's attendant nightlife during the build-up for the Liberty Bowl Dec. 28. For anyone who has not seen them, the Peabody Ducks are a treat for all ages. Elvis' beloved Graceland beckons along with the Memphis Zoo, Stax Records and the last few days of greyhound racing at Southland in West Memphis.
The city is the birthplace of my beloved Sue, you might know, who was more familiar with Memphis than Little Rock and save for a harrowing incident with luggage at the airport likely preferred it. The late Al Dunning's deft touch is missing from the hometown newspaper, the Commercial Appeal, while some remember the old Press-Scimitar and listening to such as Jack Eaton ("Great Caesar's ghost!" he might say during a UM basketball game), George Lapides and, a personal favorite, Jeff Weinberger.
Former Tiger basketball coach Dana Kirk (1985 NCAA Final Four) once had a morning talk show on WHBQ (560-AM) after his coaching career crashed. That followed a four-month stretch in a federal minimum-security prison in Montgomery, Alabama, on counts ranging from tax evasion to ticket scalping. I caught a Kirk show once driving to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby; Marconi no doubt had loftier pursuits when he pioneered radio, partly realized by disc jockey Rick Dees, who topped the Billboard charts with "Disco Duck" in 1976. Fired by WMPS (680-AM) for mentioning the record's chart ascent, he was signed by WHBQ after a 45-day non-compete clause in his contract was satisfied.
This column is for anyone wondering what to do in Memphis besides watch two 6-6 football teams under the lights three days after Christmas. If nothing else, check out Burke's Book Store in the Cooper-Young district of Memphis, next door to Soul Fish Cafe, places I hang out.