Month: December 2020

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Sports Tiger Blue

Tulsa 56, Tigers 49

CREDIT: Memphis Athletics/Joe Murphy

Count Tulsa among the programs Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers are chasing.

In a game only an empty FedExForum could love, the Tigers made more turnovers (20) than field goals (17) and coughed up a late lead in falling to the Golden Hurricane 11 months after a 40-point embarrassment in Oklahoma. Landers Nolley gave the Tigers a 44-38 lead with a three-pointer with 4:30 left in the contest, but following a technical foul against Nolley, Tulsa scored 14 of the game’s next 15 points to secure its first win in American Athletic Conference play. (Nolley apparently said the wrong thing to the Tulsa bench after his trey.) Tulsa is now 3-3 on the season (1-1 in the AAC), while Memphis falls to 5-4 (1-1).

Memphis Athletics/Joe Murphy

DeAndre Williams

The Tigers took the lead early in the game on a dynamic dunk by Jayden Hardaway, son of a coach who earlier in the day signed a five-year extension to lead the Memphis program through the 2025-26 season. The Tiger lead extended to eight points (27-19) at halftime, though neither team showed any offensive fluidity.

A Darien Jackson field goal gave Tulsa a 45-44 lead, the midway point of that late 14-1 run that decided the game for the defending AAC champions. (Tulsa shared the 2019-20 regular season title with Cincinnati and Houston.) Jackson added two more layups in the final minute and finished with nine points off the Hurricane bench. Austin Richie led the visitors with 14 points.

Junior transfer DeAndre Williams made his first start as a Tiger and led Memphis with 13 points. No teammate scored as many as 10. Williams also pulled down nine rebounds. The Tigers made only 17 of 53 field-goal attempts.

The Tigers return to FedExForum for their next game on December 29th when USF comes to town. No tickets will be sold for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus restrictions.

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News News Blog

New Stay-At-Home Order Lasts a Month After Christmas, Restricts Retail, Restaurants, Gyms

CREDIT: City of Memphis/Facebook

City of Memphis/Facebook

Shelby County Health Department director Dr. Alisa Haushalter at COVID-19 Task Force briefing.

Shelby Countians are asked to stay at home for four weeks after Christmas and businesses will be restricted in a new lockdown order issued Monday afternoon from the Shelby County Health Department.

The new order, Health Directive 16, is a Safer At Home order to be in place between Saturday, December 26th, and Friday, January 22nd. In it, all ”social activities related to entertainment and recreation should be curtailed.” These include “indoor receptions, parties, or events that are not related to places of worship, weddings, and funerals.”

Also, the new directive limits retail capacity to 50 percent. Indoor dining capacity is decreased to 25 percent. Capacity at gyms and fitness facilities are decreased to 50 percent, including staff.

The health department also issued a new face mask directive that clarifies that masks must be worn in gyms unless a customer has a medical condition. It also clarifies that masks must be worn in restaurants unless a customer is seated and “dining (eating/drinking).”

Here are comments from local leaders on why the new directive was set in place:

Alisa Haushalter
Director, Shelby County Health Department

“Health Directive No. 16 is necessary because in recent weeks, transmission of the virus has accelerated at an alarming pace. Over the past seven days, Shelby County has averaged more than 670 new cases per day and more than six deaths per day.

“Hospital ICU utilization in our region has exceeded 90 percent every day since December 7th. The influx of COVID-positive patients increasingly strains our healthcare systems. The Tennessee Department of Health reports that COVID-19 patients account for an average of 25 percent of all inpatient hospital beds and an average of 40 percent of all intensive care unit beds statewide.

“The influx of COVID-19 patients is putting a severe strain on our region’s healthcare systems. Continued spread of the virus threatens to overwhelm the healthcare providers we all depend on to provide needed care.

“The virus has the potential to spread exponentially across our state. Without the necessary statewide interventions, we have to turn to the tools we have at the local level. Unless we take reasonable action to reduce social gathering, we expect that January could have the highest numbers since the beginning of the pandemic.”

Lee Harris
Shelby County Mayor

”Although Shelby County has been one of the best at responding to COVID-19 in our state, Tennessee is on fire. If the state does not act with an effort to combat the current surge, we will have to do something at the local level. If we do not, the numbers we have seen recently foreshadow a very difficult January. The numbers we have seen recently mean lives could be at stake. We can summon the capacity to dig a little deeper and continue the course.”

Dr. Manoj Jain
infectious disease advisor to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland

“This virus is spreading at an exponential rate, and many of the infected patients that contract COVID-19 are requiring admission to our hospitals. Our systems are already under tremendous strain. We do not want to get to a point where we have no hospital beds available. Such a situation would affect all of us because anyone of us can have an emergency which may requires hospital care. Furthermore, our analysis shows that if no action is taken, then the number of daily deaths over the next several months will increase significantly.”

Dr. Jeff Warren
Memphis City Council member

“Our hospital capacity is under severe strain. We should do everything we can right now. These are tough decisions. I get that. However, people could die. We will get through this, but we are asking everyone to please practice the social distancing, wear a mask, and try to avoid social gathering for the next four weeks.”

Dr. Jon McCullers
Senior Executive Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs, University of Tennessee Health Science Center

“Although no one wants additional restrictions, we believe that at this point we have to do everything we can to remind the public of the importance of reducing social gatherings. That is our tool for slowing the spread. These additional restrictions show to me a very concerted effort to understand what is happening in our community right now and, with the limited tools available, what we might do to bring down the transmission rate.”

Michael Ugwueke
President & Chief Executive Officer
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare

“Since the start of this pandemic, protecting the health and safety of our community has been our top priority. With the surge we have experienced over the past two weeks, I believe a return to Phase One is the best tool we have to protect the health and safety of those we serve. I support this as a necessary step based on COVID trends in our area. By working together and following proven infection prevention best practices, we can once again reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in our community, and hopefully we can spend time with our loved ones in the New Year.”

Sally Deitch
Chief Executive Officer
St. Francis Healthcare

“Though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present unique challenges for everyone, it is important to us that you know we have the processes and protective supplies in place to provide care safely. The most effective safety measures we can take against COVID-19 continue to be wearing a mask, washing our hands, and maintaining social distance. These measures are important during the holidays as we continue to see a surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations. The Shelby County Health Department’s health directive will further encourage us all to do our part in reducing the spread of COVID-19 in our community.”

Dr. Reginald Coopwood
President and CEO
Regional One Health

“With coronavirus surging at a record pace in this community, Regional One Health joins with the other hospital systems who care for the individuals affected by this pervasive and ongoing pandemic. From our staff, nurses, and doctors, everyone is doing their part to continue to provide high quality care to our patients.

“High transmission of COVID-19 in the community has created the most challenging conditions we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic. As the Shelby County Health Department makes determinations to reduce the risks of COVID-19, our community must make a conscious and collective effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. I urge everyone to practice social distancing, wear your masks appropriately, and do not gather in crowds or with people outside your household. All must do their part to flatten the curve so that we can continue to provide the care our community needs.”

Here are some further details from the new health directive:

• Health Directive No. 16 strongly encourages employers to allow non-essential employees to work remotely (where feasible).

• All previously approved events that were to occur during the effective dates of this “Safer at Home” should reschedule their event or contact the Health Department to determine whether their event may still proceed.

• Businesses that provide goods or services exclusively through curbside service and pickup, drive-thru, shipment, delivery, or virtually may continue.

• Certain listed businesses, including some that provide services to customers on-site, may continue to operate (see number 9 beginning on page 4).

• Due to the risk of viral transmission, Health Directive No. 16 strongly discourages any on-site dining.

• All safety measures for individuals, services, and businesses that were in the previous Health Directive No. 15 will continue under the new Health Directive No. 16.

Categories
News News Blog

Lawmakers Urge Lee for Mask Mandate

Tennessee General Assembly

Clockwise from top left Rep. London Lamar, Rep. Vincent Dixie, Senator Brenda Gilmore, and Rep. Yusuf Hakeem.

Governor Bill Lee

A group of Democratic Tennessee lawmakers urged Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to issue a mask mandate immediately.

Lee announced Sunday that new social gathering restrictions would be put in place for the state of Tennessee. He signed an executive order limiting public gatherings to 10 people. However, places of worship, weddings, some sporting events, and funerals are exempt from the order.

Lee has still not implemented a mask mandate despite pleas from healthcare workers and local lawmakers. Though Tennessee is a hotspot for virus growth, Lee has refused to order a mask mandate and refused again on Sunday, calling such mandates a “heavily politicized issue.”


In a virtual news conference Monday, Tennessee state Senator Brenda Gilmore (D-Nashville) spoke about how COVID-19 has hit Black and brown communities hardest. 

Gilmore

“COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate but institutionalized bias toward Black and brown people is causing a high rate for African Americans and Latinos, not only in Tennessee but across this country,” she said. “It’s ravaging people of color. Approximately 60 percent of the people who have died are African Americans and Latinas. It doesn’t mean that we’re more susceptible to get this virus. It just means that when we’re infected, we are most likely to die from it.”

State Rep. London Lamar (D- Memphis) said, ”[Lee] made this a political issue when he decided not to implement a mask mandate and further our ability to kill more Tennesseans by not putting in his mandate and forcing us to protect one another. 

Lamar

On the executive order, Lamar stated, “that’s not enough, we wouldn’t have to do that if we would have implemented a mass mandate, a long time ago,” she went on to say that she is tired of going to funerals during the holidays.

“I’ve never been in the shoes of our governor, Governor Lee,” said State Rep. Yussuf Hakim (D-Chattanooga), “but I believe it’s been laid out clearly that there’s great harm being done to the average citizen in the state of Tennessee. When you talk about us being the worst in the world, that means to me that you have to take exceptional actions to mitigate such circumstances.”

Hakim

Legislators on the call said that the Tennessee economy would not have been threatened if Lee had acted sooner.

”It is our fault that the Tennessee economy is suffering?” Lamar said. “Because businesses wouldn’t have to limit operations businesses and could still be functioning the way they’re functioning in other states if we implement simple tactics like mask mandates,” said Lamar. “We are killing our own economy, because we are not acting with leadership and courage and responsibility. We have over $1 billion in a fund that would be could be used to help families during this difficult time.”

They cited several republican politicians who also supported stronger measures to protect Tennesseans, like Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, and former U.S. Senator Bill Frist.

Dixie

“Let’s take the power; let’s lead by example,” said state Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville). “I would like for us to increase testing even though we have a vaccine. I think the approach that Governor Lee seems to be taking is the survival of the fittest.”

Categories
News News Blog

Environmental Groups Oppose Pipeline Project

CREDIT: Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

Corey Owens/Greater Memphis Chamber

A diagram shows the layer of aquifers underneath Memphis.

Environmental advocates urged against a crude oil pipeline that they say will cut through several Black neighborhoods and could endanger drinking water.

Two companies began surveying here last year for a project to build a 49-mile pipeline from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi to connect to other crude-oil pipelines in the area. Plains All American Pipeline and Valero hope to begin work next year on the new Byhalia Connection Pipeline to bring more crude oil through Memphis to other places in the U.S.

A website for the project said the Byhalia Connection project is in the “pre-construction and easement acquisition phase of the project. We’re targeting to start construction in 2021 and be in service approximately nine months later.”

The plan was been questioned by Shelby County Schools (SCS), property owners along the proposed route, and by protestors last week.

On Friday, four local environmental groups asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the federal permit for the pipeline. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), Protect Our Aquifer, Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) argued the “pipeline that would cut through several Black communities and the municipal wellfield that provides their drinking water, which is drawn from the Memphis Sand Aquifer.”
byhaliaconnection.com

The proposed Byhalia Connection would run through Black communities and across drinking water intake wells.

”We’re alarmed that — so far — no local, state, or federal agency is looking out for the groundwater that serves as Memphis’s drinking water,” said George Nolan, SELC senior attorney. “The nationwide permit the companies have applied for under the Clean Water Act states in very plain language that this type of permit does not allow for the construction of pipelines near drinking-water intakes, like the municipal well field it will run through.
[pullquote-1-center] ”If this oil pipeline leaks or spills, as many have done before, it could have devastating effects on the residents that live in southwest Memphis and their drinking water source.”

The groups argue that the pipeline would cut through many Black communities in southwest Memphis, including the Boxtown neighborhood. They claim that neighborhood is already “burdened” by dozens of industrial facilities. The area is home to the Valero oil refinery, Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) shuttered, coal-burning Allen Fossil Plant, TVA’s gas-powered plant, and more.

“This resilient community, where many of our loved ones live and our ancestor’s bones rest, is being treated this way because of economic racism and environmental racism,” said Justin J. Pearson, a lead organizer of Memphis Community Against the Pipeline. “We care about the water that we drink, the land we live on, and the air we breathe, but too often our lives are deemed expendable by our own elected officials and company’s insatiable quest to profit off our very lives.”
[pullquote-2-center]
Southern Environmental Law Center

This image shows how the pipeline would cut through a drinking-water well field in southwest Memphis.

The groups say that because the pipeline would cross wetlands and streams, it would have to get a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Clean Water Act. While the companies are trying to get a permit, they’re asking for the wrong one, according to the groups, because of the pipeline’s proximity to a drinking water intake source.

The pipeline would cut through a drinking-water well field in southwest Memphis, operated by Memphis Light, Gas & Water. The wells there draw water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the famously clean source of the city’s drinking water. The wells in southwest Memphis supply drinking water to the primarily Black communities there.

“We think the Corps should consider the risks to our drinking water plus the environmental injustices this pipeline poses to residents,” said Jim Kovarik, Executive Director of Protect Our Aquifer. “This area of the Memphis Sand Aquifer is known to be vulnerable to contamination due to holes in its protective clay layer. In fact, there is a known breach in the Davis Well Field, near the pumping station. On top of that, the route is also near an earthquake fault line known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone. This is the wrong place for a pipeline.”

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We Recommend We Saw You

Barbara Santi: Touched by Angels

CREDIT: Clement Santi

Clement Santi

Barbara Santi and some of the angels from her collection.



Sometimes it takes just one angel.

Barbara Santi saw a little angel statue in a mail-order catalog about 20 years ago. “She was kneeling with her hands folded,” said Santi, 81. “And I thought I wanted that. So, I ordered it. Twelve dollars and 95 cents.”

That was her first angel. Friends, relatives, and people she’s babysat for began giving her more angels. By her estimate, Santi now has some 9,000 angels in her collection.

“One day, I was just really going to be a smarty, you know. I said, ‘Today, I’m going to get some sticky notes and start counting my angels.’ I started counting those angels and I got to 1,000 before I got around the corner. Then I thought, ‘You know, I’ve got more to do with my time than count those angels.’ So, I quit.”

Santi’s angels are in the den, living room, and kitchen at her Collierville home. “I’ll start on this shelf. They’re sitting there holding their hand out like they’re blowing you a kiss. Two shelves of those. This other shelf is all animals. You know, there are angel animals.  Let’s see, I’ve got dogs and cats. I have some of them pretending to pour tea. I do enjoy stopping sometimes and just look.”

Her first angel holds a place of honor. “I’ve got her sitting on a little pedestal next to my bookcase. That’s where she stays all the time.”

Except for a large concrete statue outside, the largest angel in her collection stands 23 inches tall and is her “prized possession,” Santi says. It was given to her by her aunt, who also was her godmother, “She made it out of plaster of Paris. She made that for me for Christmas and gave it to me. And she died in January.”

Santi, who is a Catholic, didn’t know much about angels growing up. “I knew I had an angel, but it was never referred to.”

She learned more about them after she got a catechism in religion class when she transferred from Whitehaven to St. Paul’s in the sixth grade.

Santi met her husband at Whitehaven grade school. “He lived on a farm that adjoined ours in Whitehaven.”

She knew she was going to Whitehaven High School after she graduated, but his parents wanted Robert, who was two years ahead of her, to go to Christian Brothers High School. Santi says he told his parents he wasn’t going to go to CBHS: “He said, ‘I’m going to Whitehaven, back with Barbara.’”

“When it came time for him to go, she (his mother) got him in that car and took him to Christian Brothers High School. He beat her home. I don’t think his family was too happy with him. He hitchhiked. He came on to Whitehaven.”

She and Robert were best friends in high school, she says. “We never did actually date in high school. But we were together all the time.”

And, she says, “When I’d go on a date or something, he’d always bring me back.”

They kept in contact after he joined the service. “While he was in the Marines, he was writing me the whole time. One day, out of the clear blue sky, he said, ‘Marry me. Go talk to Daddy. Marry me.’ I said, ‘Hmmm.’ So, I went to see Mr. Santi. I said, ‘Mr. Santi, your son has come up with a brainy idea. He wants to marry me.’ And he said, ‘Forget that idea.’”

Robert sent her back again to ask him and his father gave her the same answer. When she told Robert, he said, “You will either marry me or else. ‘Cause I love you.’”

“And I said, ‘Okay.’ So, we got married.” 

As for her father-in-law, Santi says, “He was elated that I was  his daughter-in-law. And I did a lot for him and he knew it. He was very appreciative.”

Robert worked as a fireman for the railroad until they did away with firemen on trains, Santi says. “He drove a truck for the rest of his life.”

She and Robert were married for 44 years. They have three sons —  Clement, Bobby, and Johnny.

Robert died in 2003. Santi says, “He thought I had too many angels. But he loved to show them to people.”

About four weeks ago, Santi was diagnosed positive with COVID on December 4th. Her symptoms included sore throat, cough, fever, and loss of sense of smell and taste. She stayed at home. “You don’t get scared when you’ve got something,” she says, “It just happens and you got to accept it. I got the virus. That’s a big mystery. I’ll never know how I got it. But I got pretty sick.”

Then, she got well. “I was taking all this stuff. I got over it. And, you know what? I knew when I got over it, too. I just knew it. I felt it. And I didn’t say a word until I (knew) it for one day. And then I told the doctor, ‘You don’t have to worry about me anymore.’”

She took another test on December 15th and it came back negative the following day.

Her son Clement brought her the good news in the medical certificate. “He said, ‘Here you go, Mama.’ And I said, ‘What you got for me?’ And he says, ‘You ain’t got it no more.’”

Santi believes her guardian angel had something to do with her getting well. “Because you have feelings. When you can’t eat anything and you’re just there and when you get that feeling you got to have something to eat, you know where it’s coming from. From the angels. You have to really realize that there are angels. People don’t believe and I don’t try to make them believe. I believe everybody’s got an angel. You need to listen to them. A lot of people these days don’t listen to them.

“We didn’t have a Christmas tree this year. In life, you don’t get everything you want.”

But it doesn’t hurt to get a little help sometimes. Sometimes it takes just one angel.

Clement Santi

Barbara Santi

Clement Santi

Barbara Santi

Categories
News News Blog

COVID-19 Deaths Rise By 35 Over the Weekend

COVID-19 Memphis
Infogram

COVID-19 Deaths Rise By 35 Over the Weekend

New virus case numbers rose by 778 over the last 24 hours. The new total puts the total of all positive cases in Shelby County since March at 61,429.

Total current active cases of the virus — the number of people known to have COVID-19 in the county — rose to a record 6,432. The figure had been as low as 1,299 in September and rose above 2,000 only in October. The new active case count represents 10.5 percent of all cases of the virus reported here since March.

The Shelby County Health Department reported 19,099 tests have been given here since Friday morning. Total tests given here since March now total 780,968  This figure includes multiple tests given to some people.

Area hospitals continued to strain with high patient numbers. As of Sunday, there were 2,113 patients in acute-care beds here, putting occupancy rates at 92 percent, according to the latest data from the health department. Of those patients, 381 were COVID-positive. Only 193 acute-care beds were available Sunday morning. Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds were 93 percent full with only 33 beds available. Of the 410 patients in ICU beds now, 167 were COVID-positive.

The latest weekly positivity rate rose slightly. The average positive of test results for the week of December 6th was 12.4 percent, down from the 12.1 percent rate recorded for the week of November 29th.

Thirty-five new deaths were recorded since Friday morning and the number now stands at 818. The average age of those who have died in Shelby County is 74, according to the health department. The age of the youngest COVID-19 death was 13. The oldest person to die from the virus was 101.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: The Sheiks

Music Video Monday wishes you happy freakin’ holidays!

The operative word is “freak” with The Sheiks. The boffo Bluff City combo usually plays a “Christmas in Space” show about this time every year, but with the damn pandemic messing up the program, they’ve opted for a video greeting card to the rock-deprived masses. It’s called “Everybody’s Merry,” and it goes places you might not have wanted to go — namely, into the void with spaceboy (and director) Jesse James Davis. Hop on Astro-Santa’s lap for the most deranged three and a half minutes of the holiday season—and in 2020, that’s really saying something.

Music Video Monday: The Sheiks

If you’d like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. Happy holidays, and stay safe everyone! 

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News News Blog

Organizations Brace for New Stay-At-Home Order

CREDIT: Kevin Barre Photography

Kevin Barre Photography

Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park

Organizations in Memphis are already bracing for another stay-at-home lockdown after a new health directive was leaked late last week.

Over the weekend, leaders of the Brooks Museum of Art and the Metal Museum announced both would close until next year. Also, a protest against shutting down restaurants was announced for Monday at 1 p.m. 

“Please note that in anticipation of another Safer at Home directive from the Shelby County Health Department, the museum has also elected to close its doors to the public from December 20th through January 7th, and will reopen on Friday, January 8th,” reads a Saturday email from the Metal Museum.

Here’s a Sunday email from the Brooks:

”In anticipation of Shelby County Health Directive 16, we have made the decision to temporarily close the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, effective at 5 p.m. Saturday, December 19th, 2020 until Wednesday, January 6th, 2021 at 10 a.m. unless instructed otherwise by city and county directives,” reads the email. ”This includes all public programming.”

Meanwhile, the Memphis Restaurant Association advised its members to wait and see what may be announced Monday.

“The mayors and lawyers have been discussing our fate all day but we have yet to hear anything definitive,” reads a Sunday email from the group. “Our advice as of now is: plan to operate as we have been until we hear otherwise.”

That email also included contact information for city and county officials to “make your opinion known.”

A protest is set for Monday afternoon against further shutdowns of restaurants. The protest is set for 1 p.m. at the Shelby County government building at Downtown’s Civic Center Plaza. It is organized by Jerred Price, president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association.  Wikipedia

”The Shelby County Health Department Directive [16] is calling to shut down Memphis restaurants once again without any protection for payroll or protection for the businesses,” reads an email announcing the protest. “Restaurants are one of the largest lifelines of our city and so many people’s livelihoods. SCHD’s own data shows that spread of COVID-19 from restaurants is less than 5 percent of all cases.

“Restaurants who are following CDC guidelines set forth by the CDC shouldn’t suffer another closure, and may not make it through to see the new year if this closure is put in place.

“Let’s show up, speak up, and demand competent, thoughtful, and caring action from our leadership. Bring signs to hold up for support. #SaveOurRestaurants. No megaphones permitted.”

A draft of the health department’s new health directive was published by The Daily Memphian Friday. It included, among other things, the closure of restaurants and many other indoor businesses. The health department responded with this statement:

“At the current time, we are facing the fall surge of COVID-19 cases in Shelby County. We anticipate that the cases will continue to grow. Therefore, we are exploring all options to reduce transmission in our community.

“The document that was released to the media was a draft document for discussion amongst public health officials, health care providers and elected officials. While December 21st was identified as the effective date, it was a draft, proposed date and may change.

“Locally, we have continued to work together to explore all options that can reduce transmission while balancing economic impact. As the document is finalized, it will be released to the media via the formal, traditional channels.”

It is not yet known when or if the health department will issue a new health directive that could include the further lockdown measures.

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Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Joe Murphy

• The Memphis Tigers need to win a bowl game, and the Montgomery Bowl will have to do. The Tigers finished 2019 by playing in the 84th Cotton Bowl, one of college football’s prestigious “New Year’s Six” events, an unprecedented stage for the Memphis program (and Ryan Silverfield’s debut as head coach). Almost precisely a year later, they’ll finish 2020 in the very first — and maybe last — Montgomery Bowl, an event replacing something called the Fenway Bowl for reasons to do with the ongoing pandemic. After facing one of the sport’s blue bloods (Penn State) in last year’s Cotton Bowl, Memphis will oppose a team whose initials — FAU — roll off the tongue of only the most devoted college football fans. (Florida Atlantic University finished second in the East Division of Conference USA, the Tigers’ old stomping grounds.)
Joe Murphy

Ryan Silverfield and Brady White embrace on Senior Day.

But the site and opponent really don’t matter. As well as the Tigers have played over the last seven seasons, they are riding a five-game losing streak in bowl games. They’ve come close, losing by a point (to Iowa State) in the 2017 Liberty Bowl and by three points (to Wake Forest) in the 2018 Birmingham Bowl. Two Tigers (Anthony Miller and Darrell Henderson) have reached All-America status without enjoying a bowl-game victory. It would be nice to see record-setting quarterback Brady White throw a 90th career touchdown pass (he needs three) and finish his career with a big, shiny trophy. Even if it’s a trophy no team will ever raise again.


• Over the first century of Memphis Tiger football, exactly one receiver topped 1,000 yards in a season (Isaac Bruce in 1993). A Memphis receiver has now topped 1,000 yards in each of the last five seasons. And junior speed demon Calvin Austin III did so this fall in just 10 games. It’s not such a surprise when you consider the philosophy transformation that arrived with coach Justin Fuente in 2012. Recruit with speed a priority. Create space with beyond-conventional play-calling. Find quarterbacks unafraid of throwing the ball down field. It makes for exciting Saturdays, gets Memphis on national highlight shows, and attracts precisely the kind of players who want to play fast and deep. (They all do.) The Tigers have a program-record seven straight winning seasons. Again, not such a surprise.

• It’s staggering to consider the directions Memphis and Tennessee have taken since the programs last played. Three years after Memphis played on home turf in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the Tennessee Volunteers — owners of a 3-7 record — will appear in the event for the first time since 1986. The Tigers and Vols last met in 2010, a 50-14 victory for UT at the Liberty Bowl. Memphis has still won only one game (out of 23) against the state’s most decorated program. But check out the win totals over the last seven years for Tennessee: 7, 9, 9, 4, 5, 8, 3. And the Memphis win totals over the same period: 10, 9, 8, 10, 8, 12, 7. If football in the state of Tennessee were a see-saw, it has swung left (west) with a thud. And it’s not budging. The Vols are not on a future Memphis schedule, meaning the current drought between meetings — the longest since the programs first met in 1969 — will continue. And this is a shame for football in the Mid-South. That 1996 upset of Peyton Manning and friends lives on in the memory of Tiger fans. It would be nice to see these programs play with Memphis as the favorite.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tennessee announced Monday afternoon that it will not play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl due to Covid-positive tests within the program.

Categories
News News Blog

Beale Street Music Festival Canceled for 2021

CREDIT: MIM/Facebook

MIM/Facebook

Beale Street Music Festival at Tom Lee Park

The 2021 Beale Street Music Festival is canceled “due to the continuing threat of COVID-19.”

Memphis in May (MIM) officials announced the move Friday afternoon. The World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest (WCBCC) will proceed as planned May 12th-15th with strict COVID-19 protocols in place. The Great American River Run is still set for Memorial Day weekend (May 29th), but will also have COVID-19 protocols in place. The Salute to Ghana is up in the air.

Officials said they canceled the music festival “due to the nature of the event, gathering tens of thousands of fans in front of stages and the event falling earlier in the calendar year. Large-scale music festivals and concerts remain deeply affected by the pandemic across the globe, Memphis is no exception, and it may not be safely possible until much later in the year. Ticket holders can defer their tickets to 2022 and lock-in prices from 2020 or request a full refund by visiting” the MIM website.

Barbecue “will be somewhat different and possibly smaller with capacity restrictions that may be in place at that time. Team applications are now open.”

The River Run will include a rolling start to space runners with staggered start times. Runner registration is now open.

A vote on the moves came in a special-called MIM meeting earlier this week.

“We are disappointed with the postponement of the Beale Street Music Festival to 2022, but we feel we cannot safely replicate the experience that our fans know and love with the potential COVID-19 restrictions,” said MIM president and CEO James Holt. “However, because of the nature of our other two Tom Lee Park events, we are confident that we can safely present the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and the Great American River Run with adjustments for COVID.”