Okay, I think this is a pretty good honoree for homecoming. John Woodruff who won the 800 meter in the 1936 Berlin Olympics is coming.

Woodruff will travel from Fountain Hills, Ariz., with his wife, Rose, to attend the event as well as other homecoming festivities, including the Oct. 21 Pitt-Rutgers football game. (During the game, Pitt will recognize Woodruff’s presence and the 70th anniversary of his Olympic victory.) The world premiere of the short film Footsteps of a Giant: The John Woodruff Story (Sugar Camp Productions) will take place during the AAAC reception.

A 1935 graduate of Connellsville Area Senior High School in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Woodruff earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1939 at Pitt and went on to receive a master’s degree in sociology from New York University.

Back in August, Woodruff wasn’t expected to be able to make the trip because of his health and age. This is great to read.

As for the game itself. Both Pitt and Rutgers have their game notes (PDF).

Former Pitt CB Josh Lay worked out for the Steelers yesterday. The Steelers are undermanned at the CB position with only 1 CB on the practice squad and carrying only 4 the active roster. Backup Ricardo Colclough is questionable at best to play this weekend.
Lay was a 6th round pick of the New Orleans Saints but was cut in the beginning of September. He worked out later in the month with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but didn’t get signed.

The new Pitt CBA team drafted its players.

The second-year Xplosion, a member of the American Basketball Association last year, will compete in the CBA in 2006-07. The CBA is returning to Pittsburgh for the first time since 1994-95, when the Piranhas won the Eastern Division and lost to Yakima, Wash., in the final in their only season.

The Piranhas played their home games at Palumbo Center and averaged about 2,500 fans per game.

The Xplosion, which played in front of crowds between 750 and 1,000, plans to continue playing most of their home games at Mellon Arena and a few at Petersen Center. The CBA’s 48-game schedule begins in early December and runs through the end of March.

…

The Xplosion has a new owner, Trinity Sports and Entertainment Group, a Florida corporation formed earlier this year by former NFL quarterback Jay Fiedler, five-time NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway and businessman Demetrius Ford. TSEG also owns several other CBA franchises.

…

The Xplosion selected six players in the CBA draft conducted Tuesday — 6-foot-11 Kevin Pittsnogle (West Virginia University), 6-8 Kelly Whitney (Seton Hall), 6-10 Tedric Hill (Gulf Coast CC), 6-4 Hassan Adams (Arizona), 6-7 Jai Lewis (George Mason) and 6-2 Carl Krauser (Pitt).

Naturally, you can expect many of these players to jump at the opportunity.

Pittsnogle recently signed a two-year contract with the NBA Boston Celtics for $1.1 million if he fulfills both years, and Krauser has signed to play professionally this season in Germany for the EWE Baskets Oldenburg, a First Division I team. The Xplosion has the rights to their draft choices for two years.

Uh, huh.

Man I hate it when the Graduation Success Rates come out. It’s such stale data.

The NCAA released graduation rates for Division I athletes yesterday, and Pitt’s rates improved, which continues a trend that began last year.

The report released yesterday is different from the federal graduation rate, called the Academic Progress Rate. The NCAA releases the graduation success rate or GSR, which, unlike the federal graduation rate, does not penalize schools for players who transfer from an institution in good academic standing.

The report does not reflect the current progress of student-athletes at the institutions. The report released yesterday instead reflects rates from 1996-99.

Pitt’s GSR for all sports is 77 percent, up from 74 percent a year ago. The football and basketball team improved greatly from the rates of a year ago. The football team increased from 48 percent to 54 percent, and the basketball team jumped from 29 percent to 57 percent.

…

To put the report into perspective, roughly half the Pitt football players represented in the report were recruited by Johnny Majors. The others were recruited by Walt Harris. For basketball, more than three quarters of the players were recruited by Ralph Willard, the rest by Ben Howland.

Long pointed out that the one-year graduation rate for the 1999 basketball class is 100 percent. The one-year rate for the football team is 67 percent.

Two head coaches later in football and basketball and we are still dealing with that dreadful period of Pitt athletics.

Antonio Bryant has been a bit demonstrative at points in this still young NFL season. Looking for teammates — especially QBs — who hate him, though, has proven difficult.

You call David Priestly, a quarterback at the University of Pittsburgh in 1999-2001. He recalls that Bryant would frequently come back to the huddle complaining that he was open. Other receivers did that, too, but there was a difference with Bryant.

“He was almost always right,” Priestly said. “I played with some pretty good Division I receivers and Antonio was by far the smartest. He watched a ton of tape, he prepared hard — and he expected a lot of you.”

There were some plays when Priestly thought Bryant was wrong. The quarterback would read the cues, react to the coverage properly and throw to the opposite side of Bryant.

But later, in the film room, Priestly would see what Bryant had seen: a fallen defender, a broken coverage or some other quirk that allowed the receiver to slip free.

“Did I get mad at times? Sure I did,” Priestly said of those heat-of-the-huddle moments. “I think any time you play with guys who are intense, that’s going to happen. But it’s up to the quarterback to keep a level head in those situations. What the job comes down to is getting the ball into the hands of the playmaker.

“And if we were winning, Antonio wouldn’t say a word even if he wasn’t getting the ball. He was incredibly smart, a rare breed.”

Stanford HC Walt Harris also has good things to say about Bryant. It seems that there is some quality in Bryant, that T.O. lacks (along with not attempting suicide???) that at least keeps his relationship with teammates and QBs in better shape. Even when he seems to be showing them up. Maybe it’s simply talking directly with the QB after calming down. Not the media. Something Owens has never comprehended.

The kicking situation for Virginia, like Pitt, has yet to be resolved.

The kicking positions “are right up on the same bar of importance with the other positions,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “The one guy I might want back more than anyone else is Connor Hughes.”

Hughes set a new standard for dependability at the placekicking position throughout his four years at Virginia. He made 83.5 percent of his career field goal attempts and set school records in points (332), field goals made (66) and extra points made (134). Of the 12 field goals of 50 yards or longer in Virginia history, Hughes kicked five of them. He was signed by the New Orleans Saints this summer but was released last week and is currently looking to catch on with another NFL squad.

Smith may have received less attention than Hughes but was equal in importance. Of his 66 kickoffs in 2005, 38 resulted in touchbacks and the average starting position for Virginia’s opponents was the 21-yard line, tied for the best mark in the ACC. He was picked in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers.

The Cavaliers will look to junior Chris “Beep” Gould and senior Noah Greenbaum to handle the kicking duties. Gould carried out the punting duties for Virginia the past two seasons, a role that may be filled by junior Ryan Weigand this year, depending on how the competition shakes out.

Gould was a reliable punter averaging 40 yds/punt. That they would move him to kicking duties and go with a guy who did no punting for them last year suggests they don’t have much else they can rely upon.

A junior receiver expected to be on the 2-deep for the Cavs left the school for personal reasons. This in addition to the loss of star WR Deyon Williams with a foot injury. Add in a new starting QB and RB, and a bunch of new personnel on the O-line and the Cavs could be as offensively questionable as Pitt.
Groh expects Pitt to be fired up with the honoring of the 1976 National Championship team.

Wannstedt said he’ll probably ask some of the Pitt legends to address the current team this weekend.

“It’s going to be great to have them in,” said Wannstedt, who has two degrees from Pitt and was a graduate assistant on the’76 team. “The timing is perfect, so it’ll be a good night.”

…

Saturday night’s game marks the start of Al Groh’s sixth season as coach at U.Va., where his record is 37-26. Groh expects a “a little more juice in the atmosphere” than usual at Heinz Field, where Pitt went 5-1 last season.

“It’s going to be center stage in Pittsburgh, a big dog-and-pony show,” Groh said. “All of that is going to make it very challenging for this team.”

And of course there is the coaching controversy of Al Groh hiring/promoting his son Mike to Offensive Coordinator. I don’t see why. Just think of the successful father-son HC-OC deals like Joe and Jay Paterno, Bobby and Jeff Bowden, Lou and Skip Holtz. Why would there be questions?

The 30th anniversery of Pitt’s ’76 national championship is this year, and the team will be honored at the season opener this Saturday. The Trib. goes full-feature in looking back at the team. They start with how new Head Coach Johnny Majors recruited the class of ’73.

Pitt’s once-proud program had sunk to unfathomable depths. It hadn’t produced a winning record in a decade, hadn’t beaten Penn State since 1965 and was coming off a 1-10 season in which it was outscored 350-193.

The first key to the renovation project was a change in the school’s scholarship policy. Previously, Pitt had been locked into the so-called “Big Four Agreement” with West Virginia, Penn State and Syracuse. It was designed to regulate the schools’ football programs and limited each to just 25 scholarships per year.

Then-Pitt chancellor Wesley Posvar and athletic director Cas Myslinski sparked the program’s revival by removing the self-imposed scholarship cap and by hiring the charismatic, 38-year-old Majors after the 1972 season.

In part because Pitt gave out such a slew of scholarships — anywhere from 65 to 100 — the NCAA set caps on scholarships per year after 1973. The numbers are a little unclear, in part, because Pitt washed out a bunch of kids in training camp. There’s a great little note about what helped Pitt be able to get Tony Dorsett to stay local and come to Pitt.

Sherrill was the lead recruiter on Dorsett, and he quickly discovered that Dorsett’s closest friend and Hopewell teammate, Ed Wilamowski, was critical to the chase. He was a pretty good player, too.

“Ed was white and Tony was black, and at every school they visited, they were separated (in the college dorms),” Sherrill recalled. “I don’t know if I was smarter than the others, but I didn’t separate them. I knew Tony was very, very close to Ed. We kept them together.”

Dorsett remembers.

“There’s a whole lot of validity to that,” he said in a recent phone interview.

The end of the article features capsule reviews of every game from the ’76 season.

There’s also a “where are they now?” piece covering 11 members of the team. Plus a full feature on another member, Jim Corbett, who at age 51 is now doing relief mission work to Nigeria. He will be at the game on Saturday then leave for another trip in less than a week.

Since Chas is still in Pittsburgh — he was at yesterday’s Fan Fest — I am jumping back in the Pitt (Blather) for a bit.

Our fearless leader may be back to offer his hung-over analysis of the event by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Back in the day I attended Fan Fest three times. After the first, it wasn’t by choice. It’s a good event for kids but for alumni and students it’s rather anticlimactic; that is to say – boring. Perhaps Chas will have a different opinion for us – stay tuned.

There was one newsworthy piece of information that came out of Heinz Field yesterday.

Wannstedt said junior-college transfer Jeff Otah had won the starting left offensive tackle job and sophomore John Bachman would back up both tackles.

“He’s obviously got a ways to go,” Wannstedt said of the 6-foot-7, 340-pound Otah. “But he’s had a good camp, and he deserves it.”

I was surprised by how long the position battle lasted. I like the move to start Otah and it will be nice to have a veteran like Bachman backing him up.

In the same story was this note about the kicking game.

Pitt redshirt sophomore Conor Lee went 2 for 4, and freshman Dan Hutchins went 1 for 2 kicking field goals under the lights at FanFest on Thursday night at Heinz Field. Lee converted a 25- and 27-yarder, but he missed a 27-yarder and had a 37-yard attempt blocked by cornerback Darrelle Revis, which was returned for a touchdown by safety Sam Bryant. Hutchins missed a 32-yarder wide left, then made a 28-yarder.

“We’ve been somewhat inconsistent with both guys,” Coach Dave Wannstedt said. “They both can do it, and they both will do it. It was great to try to put them under a little pressure.”

Nebraska game anyone? Position battle aside, I think the kicking game is the most underrated question marks entering the season. Pitt felt its importance last season — it was really the only difference between winning and losing in more than one game — and that was with an experienced kicker.

Former Pitt lineman Penny Semaia gets a puff piece (yes, I know it’s Chas’ term) on his new job with the athletic department. I’m a big fan of the recent move to keep former players involved with the programs (a la Charles Small and Brandin Knight).

Pitt Athletic Department is moving ahead to another part of the fundraising for the “Quest for Excellence.” This part is for self-sufficiency of football scholarships by creating the Pitt Football Endowed Position and Scholarship Program.

The initiative’s goal is to endow the athletic scholarship budget for the Pitt football team. Contributors will have the unique opportunity to attach their name to one of 24 starting positions on the Panthers’ team (11 offense, 11 defense and two specialists).

“To fund the 85 football scholarships permitted by NCAA rules it will cost $2.1 million annually,” Long said. “While that may seem like an ambitious goal, the time to secure the promise of a bright future for our football program is now by focusing on building the Pitt football endowment.”

Coach Wannstedt and his wife are getting out in front on this by donating $250,000 to endow the left offensive tackle spot — his position when he played.

I’m sure plenty of schools do this. It makes sense considering the volume of scholarships the football team swallows every year. It will be interesting to see if some of Pitt’s other high profile football alum step up with their own contributions.

Today it is likely to be determined who will be the the starting left tackle. Jeff Otah was widely expected to take the job — coming in as a JUCO — and while he has not disappointed, John Bachman has shown a lot of growth from last year and fought very hard to keep the gig. Still, it is expected to go to Otah.

A brief preview of Pitt projects 6 or 7 wins.

Pittsburgh opens with Virginia and takes on Michigan State two weeks later. The squad later closes out its regular season with back-to-back games against Big East powers Louisville and West Virginia. Winning any of those games will be tough, although the Panthers figure to be competitive. Palko will put up numbers, but fans of the program are unlikely to see any more than six or seven wins in 2006.

Now here’s another classic PA college football rivalry that will capture the imagination.

Pennsylvania football fans don’t have the enjoyment of watching the Penn State-Pitt rivalry anymore.

But soon we will have Villanova vs. Temple.

Division I-A Temple and Division I-AA Villanova will meet in a four-game series starting in 2009. Temple will be the host for all four games at Lincoln Financial Field.

Villanova leads the all-time series, 15-12-2. The last game was in 2003, when Villanova won 23-20 in double overtime.

Is there any team against whom Temple can claim a winning record?

Former Pitt head coach Jackie Sherrill is in town for the football alumni weekend (complete with a golf outing at the Montour Country Club) and paid a visit to practice yesterday.

The Panthers watched the telecast of the 1982 Sugar Bowl, when Dan Marino threw a scoring pass to John Brown in the final seconds of the 24-20 victory over Georgia.

“It was pretty amazing,” Sherrill said. “I never watched the game on TV. They had us written off because they were scrawling all the credits and saying how good Georgia was. All of a sudden, they had to change the story real quick.”

Back when ESPN Classic actually showed classic games in full, this game often was shown. Not as often as the BC-Miami Flutie hail mary game, but good frequency.

Freshman Aaron Smith’s separated shoulder does require surgery. He’s likely headed for a redshirt. Back-up QB Bill Stull had the pins removed from his finger a couple days early and was actually able to take some snaps under center. Darrelle Revis’ hamstring kept him out of practice for a second straight day. Hopefully it is just the team being extra cautious with the All-American CB.

Words you don’t like to see in the same sentence: Safety Mike Phillips, ankle, hurt. Phillips turned his left ankle during practice and was held out for the rest of the session.

More than a couple hits in practice sent helmets flying, literally.

Freshman defensive tackle John Malecki knocked the helmet off sophomore guard Dom Williams on a Shane Murray interception return. On the next play, redshirt freshman John Brown replaced Williams and knocked the helmet off freshman corner Jovani Chappel.

I hate reading that sort of thing. The risk of concussion is scary.

I really don’t want to bother writing much about Joe Pa, and Penn St., but what the hell. I can’t let this Joe Paterno press conference quote from today go past without preserving it from disappearing down a memory hole.

…Akron is awfully clever. The guy who is the head coach at Akron was on Pitt’s staff when they embarrassed us out there. It wasn’t even close. As I said, the quarterback is awfully good. There are a lot of quarterbacks around the country and I think we are playing against all of the good ones.

And yet, he would rather keep the embarrassment from the last game then renew the series.

Shocking.

With 4 Pitt players on the SF 49ers roster, and all starters to boot, they do get something of a rooting interest from me.

Right now there’s a lot of attention on Antonio Bryant, who despite not actually causing any problems in Cleveland for 2 years, is still considered something of a junior T.O. because of the jersey toss incident in the face of Bill Parcells. That seems to be the theme in discussing him.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Antonio Bryant and head coach Mike Nolan approach their relationship with honesty. Both recognize that Bryant’s intensity is likely to be displayed in unprofessional ways and disrupt team chemistry.

“It’s not an easy thing for us or for him,” Nolan said of Bryant’s competitiveness. “But it’s a good thing.”

Bryant once fired a sweaty jersey into the disapproving mug of Cowboys coach Bill Parcells. Bryant was traded to the Browns soon after that. After a year-and-a-half in Cleveland, the Browns had little interested in re-signing him, despite Bryant’s 1,009 yards receiving season last season.

Nolan has issued proclamations about accountability and zero tolerance for dissension, but he signed the admitted malcontent anyway. Bryant has a four-year, $15 million deal with $6 million in guaranteed money.

Bryant showed up at 49ers camp in Santa Clara wearing No. 81, the same jersey that once belonged to the crown prince of sporting infamy, Terrell Owens.

Of course by the end of the column it’s noted that Trent Dilfer of the “flawless reputation” completely encouraged the ‘Niners to sign him.

The reality of the situation is that the 49ers needed Bryant. They had no other receivers who can be a game breaker for their 2005 1st round QB, Alex Smith. So far things look very good between the two.
Then there is Kevan Barlow, going into a big year as far as expectations and whether he will be with the team next year.

“You’re in the ‘Burgh?'” Barlow asked via cell phone during my recent tour of Pittsburgh’s Garfield district. “Oh man, you’ve got to go up the hill now and see the real bad stuff. Turn right on Atlantic and go a block to where the projects are. Then go over to Fort Pitt Park and see where my uncle was shot and killed.

“I’ll call you back in an hour to make sure you made it out of there safe.”

Yes, he called back. He did so in between practices at 49ers training camp, checking not only if I survived, but if a new appreciation was born for his rags-to-riches story.

“Growing up in that environment, it was a tough neighborhood. A lot of guys in the NFL go through the same stuff,” Barlow said last week during a sit-down interview outside the 49ers locker room. “In my neighborhood we had Bloods and Crips. I’ve seen some of my best friends murdered.”

There was Darrell, shot dead in a confrontation with police. And Dorion, his best friend on the Peabody High School football team who fell victim to a drive-by shooting just for wearing a red polo shirt to Wendy’s. Worst of all was uncle Sidney, just 35 when, Barlow says, “a dude on dope” shot him to death at a 1999 Thanksgiving Day football game at Fort Pitt Field.

Barlow, like many athletes, has overcome challenges, that’s for sure. Can he do it yet again? Not the rough childhood part, but the beating-the-odds part. Can he stiff-arm his doubters, stay in the starting lineup and produce the truly big season that’s escaped him to this point?

He swears he still has the drive to succeed, that the 49ers’ recent failures haven’t dragged him into an abyss of despair.

That had better be the case, for this is probably his make-or-break year, to prove he’s a starting-caliber running back worthy of the five-year, $20 million contract that has three pricey seasons remaining on it.

“Every year I come back motivated and I’m still optimistic, still hungry, still wanting to be successful. That’s something God gives you,” Barlow, 27, said. “I still feel I can be the best at what I do. When I lose that, then you’ve got something to worry about.

“But I still feel I can go out there and be one of the best backs in the league. Guys like Larry Johnson and Clinton Portis, I feel I can do everything they do. I just haven’t been in the position or had the opportunity to be successful like them.”

Barlow is being pushed by Frank Gore, drafted out of Miami in 2005.

Still waiting for profiles on Punter Andy Lee and Cornerback Shawntae Spencer.

Once again, a big thanks to Keith for keeping the posts going while I was in rehab away. I’m still trying to get back up to speed and read everything I missed. To try to add some thoughts and more info on the Curtis Martin post. There were a bunch of Curtis Martin stories back in January 2005 when the Steelers and Jets were meeting in the playoffs. He was very honest in the interview talking about his whole attitude about football and playing when it came to college. It was a way out.

“My mom didn’t want me out on the streets,” Martin recalled. “Too many of us were getting killed. I feel like I could have been dead so many times. I feel so blessed and grateful that [bad] things never panned out for me.”

Hackett and assistant Sal Sunseri wooed Martin, sold his mother on a Pitt education, landed the prize recruit. “I listened to them and the whole time I’m thinking in my mind, ‘They don’t know, I don’t even care.’ I was horrible in college. I didn’t want to play. I just didn’t want to look stupid [frittering away] the scholarship.”

Reading between the lines, I think it also lends a little insight into why he was so loyal to Parcells, why he followed him from the Patriots to the Jets. Parcells was a coach that reached Martin and made him realize so much more of his potential. Not to mention made him that much more aware of how his football career could give him the chance to pursue his other interests as well.
The points made in the comments about Majors helping his career are also accurate. That 251 yards he rushed against versus Texas in ’94 is 8th all-time for Pitt rushers in a game.

Finally, Martin seemed to be just part of a string of injury-crossed rushers for Pitt. Adam “Sky” Walker, Curvin “Swervin'” Richards, Martin and Billy West all had what looked to be great potential careers derailed by injuries. In fact, Martin’s injury in 1994 was what paved the way for West that season (1358 yards). Richards bolted early for the draft after some minor injuries and some family issues needing the money.

I married into a family of late sleepers. I am the only adult awake in a house with 4 kids (3 under the age of 5) running wild. Send help.

Mark May is in South Bend for the College Football Hall of Fame ceremony and golf tournament. Today he gets inducted.

All but one day at Pitt was spent on the offensive line.

“When (head coach) Jackie Sherrill recruited me, he promised me I could play defense,” May said. “My first day as a freshman, I was on defense. One day. The next day, they switched me to the offensive line. At least he lived up to his promise.”

He talked a little about how and when he got his start in TV.

“My college years were so great because of the opportunities to bond with my teammates,” May said. “Pittsburgh was a special (school) in a special city. The people there cared about you. I was able to learn so much from the alums.”

It was also the place where he got his start in television. He got to know a sports director at the ABC affiliate. He convinced May to get involved in television before he graduated. When May was chosen by the Redskins, that sports director convinced the head of sports at the ABC station in Washington to hire May.

That training was followed by post-football jobs with TNT and CBS before finally landing at ESPN about five years ago.

Pitt fans would appear to be the exception among college football blogdom (writers and readers) in liking May on ESPN’s College Football studio show. Much the way ND partisans are the exception towards seeing Lou Holtz there.

The Arizona Cardinals, technically one of the oldest NFL franchises, have decided they need their own “Ring of Honor.” During today’s exhibition game against the Steelers, the late, great Marshall Goldberg will be one seven players and Bidwell, Sr. placed in the ring during halftime (PDF).

All fans in attendance will receive a commemorative Cardinals Stadium lanyard/ticketholder.

Ooooh. Well, there are the cheerleaders at least.

Note: If you have yet to hear, I am Keith and am filling in for Chas today. He’ll be back tomorrow.

My memories of former Pitt running back Curtis Martin began before I knew I’d be attending Pitt. Being from Maine I cheered for the Patriots – who drafted Martin in the third round and stupidly let him walk after three years – growing up.

I would suggest passing on Martin — the NFL’s No. 4 career rusher — in your upcoming fantasy draft (along with every other Jets player). If Martin’s career isn’t over, by all accounts it’s pretty close.

Two sources close to Curtis Martin told the New York Daily News that the running back talked about retirement before deciding to give it a go for another season, and one of the sources told the newspaper “I’d be really shocked if he came back.”

Those in Jets camp know little of Martin’s status.

“Curtis? I haven’t really talked to him,” said fellow running back Derrick Blaylock. “I really don’t know how he’s feeling right now.”

Curious, considering coach Eric Mangini said that Martin has attended all position and team meetings.

Then there is Chad Pennington, who said, “I haven’t seen Curtis that much. I’ve been going from meetings to eating back to meetings to rehab. My schedule’s been so full, I haven’t gotten a chance to sit down and talk to him.”

While his teammates know little, the media caught up with Martin recently.

“I’m working out as hard as I can,” said Martin, resolute as always. “I’m here every single day and probably up here longer than most of the other players because I’m doing extra work. … I don’t know how long it will take me. All I can do is keep working the way I’m doing.”

Martin comes off as being a class act. He’s one spot ahead of Jerome Betttis on the career rushing list, and until recently had as many Super Bowl rings as The Bus. However, his superstar status has never reached Jerome-like proportions. He plays for a big-market team, but he’s just not a media mooch charismatic guy like Bettis.

I find it interesting that Pitt/Pittsburgh doesn’t have much of an attachment to Martin. He went to Allderdice High School and didn’t seem to burn any bridges at Pitt, yet you never hear too much about him. I can’t even find his Pitt stats anywhere (can anyone help me with this?)

Here’s my dilemma: Who does/should get in the Hall of Fame? Martin? Bettis? Both?

Also, share some Martin-Pitt memories if you have them.