No Gutter Balls Here!

As you can see the name of this blog is Kent’s Korner. I wasn’t sure if it should be Kent’s Korner or Lowe’s Lounge. Of course, Lowe’s Lounge would feature both sweet and unsweet ice tea.

Someone suggested “The Think Tank” but that requires me to think and I haven’t been accused of that in years.

I was asked by the creators of the Healthy Tiger website to jump on here every once in awhile to give you several things – thoughts on topics, things I see around the department, features on athletes and items you may not know about some of them, and, just some of the funny things that happen around this place. 

There will be some history thrown in along the way because when you have been here since August 1988 like I have (before any of the athletes and some coaches here were born), there’s a chance to tell some stories along the way about former athletes and their steps along the way to build this program that you are a part of today. You are creating your own legacy, but there have been lots of athletes who have created the history of LSU sports that has brought us to this point.

Speaking of that, while bowling isn’t a sport that takes place at LSU, I recently had a chance to sit down and interview one of the great bowlers of my generation, Walter Ray Williams Jr. He has more wins than anybody else in the history of the game and won close to $5 million. He’s 61 now and at the end of his career especially with a senior tour that hasn’t bowled in almost a year because of the pandemic.

He was very reflective of what he has accomplished but somewhat frustrated because as he put it “the young guys are just better and I’m not as good as I used to be.” Williams was in town to conduct a clinic and I wondered when he was working with some high school bowlers how many actually knew how good he was in his prime.

That’s kind of the point when you look back at LSU Athletics. We have lots of those young guys and girls who are very good, but you can’t forget the ones who built the program…they have statues up saluting them and one has a building named after him. 

Hopefully we also can maybe tell the staff and student-athletes from other teams something about others. You may know a name and a face, but maybe they have a hobby or interest that may surprise you. It may even surprise me.

Now let’s throw this out on the table- you may not always agree with any opinions I give you along the way… and that will be okay too.

Seriously, I think we can have a lot of fun with this and maybe all learn something in the process. We are having a basketball shootaround as I type this and I’m looking across at Chris Blair. Did you know the “Voice of the Tigers” was named the Louisiana Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association?

That’s pretty good. He’s also winner of the top college play-by-play broadcast the last two years in the state of Louisiana.

So, there you have it. Fact 1 of column 1. Thanks for coming to visit the Korner. Email me at clowe@lsu.edu with ideas and we’ll see you here down the road.