Remembering the 1991 Professional Soccer Championship in Albany

One of the players on the Skidmarks, a trivia team I play against at Elbo Room, is a huge soccer fan.  He loves the English squad Arsenal, and he is hoping that when Thierry Henry plays for the New York Red Bulls, he can be in the stadium cheering it on. He also has been…

Read More

A Memorial Day Blog Post: Victory Music

NOTE: I wrote the following article, which was originally published in Goldmine magazine in February, 1999.  I wrote this piece after interview several members of the original V-Disc project, a program designed to bring music to World War II soldiers and sailors throughout the theater of battle.  It is being reprinted here as part of…

Read More

The Way of the Intercepting Fist

About ten years ago, I was freelancing for a Capital District monthly sports newspaper called CD Sports.  It was an okay publication, they were one of the free newspapers that populated the region, along with Metroland and the Source. At the time, I had received word that a martial arts team from Albany had won…

Read More

Ah, the Days of Capital Cablevision

I think it was 1975, I’m not sure of the exact year or date.  At the time, I was living with my parents in Colonie, in one of those mobile home trailer parks that still dot Central  Avenue today.  I came home from school, expecting to watch whatever was on one of the four television…

Read More

Why Keveny Academy alumni are not thrilled with Street Academy

This is a post from my old blogspot.com weblog, but I thought it would be nice to share it with a larger Times Union.com readership. One of my greatest high school achievements (hell, one of the greatest achievements I’ve ever pulled off) was when my high school, Street Academy, defeated three consecutive schools on WRGB’s…

Read More

Siena’s First National Basketball Championship

You know, it’s great to see the Capital Region represented each year in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  It’s great to see the Siena Saints (and, on occasion, the UAlbany Great Danes) participate in postseason action.  It’s produced so many memories for college hoops fans – the year Siena shocked the world and upset Stanford;…

Read More

Remembering wrestling announcer Joe McHugh

Ah, weekend professional wrestling.  Fun stuff.  When I was growing up, it aired at 11:00 a.m. or 12 noon on WRGB, most often on Saturday or Sunday.   I started watching pro wrestling in the early 1970’s, when the brand of wrestling provided in upstate New York was the World Wide Wrestling Federation (what we know…

Read More

The Tragedy of February 20, 1970

There are five children in this photograph, a still gleaned from a 1969 8mm home movie.  I am the tallest, and am standing on the far left.  My brother John Kennedy Miller, known at that time as “Jay,” stands next to me.  My younger brother Allen Michael Miller is in the middle, and my sister…

Read More