Charlie R. Strong (born August 2, 1960) is an American college football coach and former player. Strong is a native of Arkansas and graduated from the University of Central Arkansas, where he played college football. He currently serves as the head coach for the University of Louisville Cardinals football team, and has previously held assistant coach and defensive coordinator positions with six different college football teams, most notably the University of Florida Gators football team.

Coaching career[link]

Charlie Strong was born in Batesville, Arkansas. After lettering for four years (1980–1983) at the University of Central Arkansas, Strong joined the Gators coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 1984. He later served as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 1985. His first full-time coaching job was at Southern Illinois in 1986, where he coached wide receivers. He later assumed defensive coaching duties at Florida, Ole Miss, and Notre Dame. He also received a master's degree and education specialist degree from the University of Florida. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

In 1999, Strong joined the South Carolina Gamecocks as defensive coordinator, becoming the first African American coordinator in Southeastern Conference (SEC) history. His stifling defenses and charismatic personality created buzz that he would be possibly the first black head coach in the SEC, but job offers were slim. Sylvester Croom eventually broke the color barrier in the SEC coaching ranks.

Strong was hired as defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators before the 2003 season. Florida head coach Ron Zook was fired midway through the Gators' 2004 season, but continued to coach until the bowl game; Strong served as interim coach of the Gators for one game, the December 2004 Peach Bowl. Florida lost the game, 27–10, to the Miami Hurricanes. Florida credits the regular season to Zook and the Peach Bowl to Strong. When Urban Meyer was hired as Florida's head coach, Strong was the only assistant coach retained from Zook's staff.

In a January 2009 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Strong expressed his belief that race played a large part in the reason that he hadn't been offered a head coaching job at that point. Strong, whose wife is white, especially cited prospective employers' discomfort with his interracial relationship.^[1]

He became the 21st head football coach at the University of Louisville on December 9, 2009. In a telephone interview that day with ESPN.com columnist Pat Forde, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy, himself African American, said of Strong, "When they see what he can do, you're probably going to have a lot of people disappointed they didn't hire him sooner."

Personal life[link]

Strong was born August 2, 1960 in Batesville, Arkansas. He and his wife, Victoria, have two daughters, Hailee and Hope; he has a son from a previous relationship, Tory.

Head coaching record[link]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	College football portal

• Florida Gators
• List of Florida Gators head football coaches
• List of University of Florida alumni
• Louisville Cardinals

References[link]

External links[link]

• Charlie Strong at the College Football Data Warehouse
• Official profile on UF sports website
• Courier Journal article on Strong

James Phillip Rome (born on October 14, 1964), known as Jim Rome, is an American sports radio talk show host syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.

Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts The Jim Rome Show on radio. For a number of years Rome hosted a television show Jim Rome Is Burning (formerly Rome Is Burning), which aired on ESPN in the United States and TSN2 in Canada. In 2011, Rome ended his relationship with ESPN to join the CBS network where it is reported he will host his own show, as well as an interview-format show on the Showtime channel.^[1] His past hosting jobs included sports discussion television shows Talk2 (ESPN2), The FX Sports Show (FX), and The Last Word (Fox Sports Net). The Jim Rome Show is tied for the #21 most listened to talk radio show in the United States ^[2] and Rome is the #29 most influential talk radio personality^[3] according to Talkers Magazine.

Born in Tarzana, California, Rome graduated from Calabasas High School in 1982^[4] and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) with a degree in Communications in 1987.^[5][6] He lives in Irvine, California with his wife Janet and their two children.^[5]

Early broadcasting start[link]

Rome started his radio career at college radio station KCSB-FM while at UCSB, where he was Sports Director for one quarter, and at news station KTMS, also located in Santa Barbara. He eventually moved to XTRA Sports 690 in San Diego, where he started what is now known as The Jim Rome Show, or "The Jungle," with a loop of the instrumental intro of Iggy Pop's song "Lust for Life" and the instrumental intro of Guns N' Roses' song "Welcome to the Jungle" as the show's signature music. The show became syndicated in 1996. It can now be heard on over 200 radio stations across the United States and Canada. In 1998, Rome released an album entitled Welcome to the Jungle, which featured memorable sound bites and music from the show.

In early 2003, Rome was interviewing friend Mark Shapiro, executive producer of programming and production at ESPN, on his radio program. Unexpectedly, the two began to discuss a possible return of Rome to ESPN, and within a few months, Rome was officially rehired to host Rome Is Burning. Rome openly attributes that interview as the impetus to his return to television.

In July 2006, Rome announced that his nationally syndicated radio show would remain on terrestrial radio instead of going to satellite radio. The radio show is heard on more than 200 stations across the United States and Canada and has an audience of approximately 2.5 million.^[6]

Controversy and incidents[link]

Rome gained notoriety for an incident in his ESPN2 show Talk2 in 1994 when his guest was NFL quarterback Jim Everett. Rome had previously referred to Everett as "Chris" (after Chris Evert, the female tennis player), suggesting that Everett shied away from getting hit. Appearing as a guest on the show, Everett warned Rome about repeating the insult. Rome continued his taunt, causing Everett to overturn the table between them and shove Rome to the floor while still on the air. This situation never resulted in a lawsuit for either party. Rome considers this event one of his early career mistakes.

In 1997, hockey legend Gordie Howe announced an attempt to play a shift with the International Hockey League's Detroit Vipers, which would allow Howe to claim having played professional hockey in six decades. Rome challenged the 69-year-old ex-hockey star, offering a bounty of $3,000 to any player on the team playing against the Vipers to take Howe out of the game permanently by saying, "Putting this old fool back to reality." Howe and his wife threatened Rome with a lawsuit, and the bounty went away.

Celebrity appearances[link]

Rome made cameo appearances in the movies Space Jam, Two for the Money, and the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard. He appeared in Blink-182's music video "What's My Age Again?" and appeared on the HBO sitcom Arliss.

On May 3, 2004, Rome hosted the memorial service for Pat Tillman.^[7] On January 28, 2006, Rome was elected to the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.^[8]

The Oliver Stone film Any Given Sunday features John C. McGinley playing the brash sportscaster "Jack Rose," a character based on Jim Rome.^[9]

Horse racing[link]

After poking fun at horse racing for some years, saying "it's not a sport, it's a bet," Rome seemed to take more interest in horse racing after interviewing great jockey Kent Desormeaux many times on his radio talk show. Rome has recently taken up a stronger interest in buying thoroughbreds. He was a part owner in Wing Forward, who, in his North American debut, made a dramatic last-to-first comeback to win the race. Rome mentioned it as "one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had."

In 2008, Jim and his wife Janet purchased a stake in a two-year-old colt, giving them a potential shot at the Triple Crown stakes races in 2009. Listeners have suggested names for the horse. The colt was eventually named Gallatin's Run.^[10]

Jim now owns part or all of seven horses in connection with Little Redfeather Racing and Billy Koch, including:

• El Manuel
• Hot n' Dusty
• Gallatin's Run
• Surfer Girl (owns outright)

Tour Stops[link]

Jim Rome's Tour Stops (also referred to as The Jim Rome World Tour) was a series of limited access live shows, often held in arenas, or other outdoor venues, which features sports-related guests and activities. The tour originated from The Jim Rome Show radio program, which is featured on over 200 affiliate radio stations in the United States and Canada. Generally, Rome would hold a few Tour Stops each year, with a very irregular schedule. They were quietly and informally discontinued after the Tour Stop at Cleveland in 2004. Rome has cited a more demanding television and radio schedule for the discontinuation of tour stops, most notably because of the inception of Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN. Show listeners, referred to as the "Clones," considered the Tour Stops a way of celebrating the popularity of the show, and a means of meeting other fans of the program. Since 2000 Rome promised to hold a Tour Stop in the city whose NFL team finished the season 0-16, his so called "dream season." The Detroit Lions finally accomplished the feat in 2008, but no Tour Stop has been held thereafter in Detroit.

Tickets to a Tour Stop were normally free, but needed to be acquired from the local affiliate. Some Tour Stops have reportedly had over 10,000 in attendance. One of the Tour Stops' main attractions was the appearance of sports figures from local teams. Tour Stops were not broadcast on the radio, but Rome typically played clips from the activities and guests on the next regular program.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jim Rome Rome's official website
• Jim Rome Is Burning Video on ESPN Video Archive
• Jim Rome's Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Page

Michael Dyer (born October 13, 1990) is an American football running back for Arkansas State University. He was considered one of the best running backs in his class at Auburn along with fellow running back Onterio McCalebb.^[1]

College career[link]

As a true freshman in 2010 Dyer rushed for 1,093 yards on 182 carries and five touchdowns, breaking the Auburn record for most rushing yards by a freshman, previously held by Bo Jackson.^[2] During the 2011 BCS National Championship Game against the Oregon Ducks he rushed for 143 yards on 22 carries and was named the Offensive Player of the Game.^[3]

Dyer finished the 2011 regular season, his sophomore year, with 1,242 yards rushing on 242 attempts, an average of 5.1 yards-per-carry. He rushed for 10 touchdowns and averaged 103.5 yards-per-game. He was named to the Associated Press' All-SEC first team and the Coaches' All-SEC first team.^[4][5] He now ranks 10th on Auburn's all-time rushing list with 2,335 yards.^[6]

Prior to Auburn's appearance in the 2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl, Dyer was suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team rules.^[7] On January 6, 2012, Auburn released Dyer from his football scholarship.^[8]

Dyer has transferred to and is currently practicing with Arkansas State where Gus Malzahn was recently hired as the head coach, and will have to sit out next season due to NCAA transfer rules unless granted a waiver at some point during the 2012 summer.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Auburn Tigers bio