Jim O'Donnell: Nothing but first class for Gale Sayers
THE PASSING OF GALE SAYERS recalled a long ago summer Sunday morning at O'Hare.
The teenaged United Airlines seasonal hireling - later appropriately deemed "The worst gate agent in the history of O'Hare Airport" - was completing check-in on a 9:30 flight to Omaha at Gate F-9.
The passenger manifest was light. The waiting room was empty. About 10 minutes remained until the jetway was to be pulled.
The Bears were breaking training camp and media speculation on the future of Sayers was rife.
His knees were beyond bad and Abe Gibron's inaugural edition seemed destined for nowhere.
Still, some thought Sayers could somehow contribute to that 1972 season.
The agent was rifling through pulled tickets and trying to keep green-felt ink off his UAL tie.
Suddenly he noted a young man with the halting gait of an old man approaching the gate desk.
It was Sayers.
He had on a perfectly coordinated brown sweater vest, tan slacks, ebony boots, yellow shirt and copper-tinged sunglasses.
He presented his ticket. It was for coach and had been purchased minutes before.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Sayers, good morning," the young goof said.
"Good morning," No. 40 replied, not really looking up.
The agent had enough cognitive power at his command to quickly adduce - living legend, going home, no coach for this man.
"Yes, Mr. Sayers, I've got you up front. It's '4-D,' a window, OK?"
Sayers nodded, then nodded a second time in appreciation and moved toward the jetway entrance.
One day later, the Bears officially announced his retirement at age 29.
At least that morning, "The Kansas Comet" flew home first class.
THIS TIME, "The Curse of the Breakup" didn't wait.
Arturas Karnisovas - the Bulls rookie chief of basketball operations - reached into the NBA's fresh cutout bin and pulled the file of Billy Donovan off the top.
The organization's hiring of Donovan as its new head coach immediately underscored two things:
• The me-first Donovan knew he had no shot of getting the New Orleans job and the chance to coach Zion Williamson; and,
• Karnisovas presumptively did due diligence and discovered that Wes Unseld Jr. had been
properly warned off the haunted basketball halls of West Madison Street.
If this were 2006 and the Bulls were shooting for an NCAA championship by whatever means necessary, Donovan would be 'da man.
Instead, it's 2020 and a team that hasn't seen daylight since Twitter was clever is back on a marginally elevated horizontal hold.
Donovan is trying to sell the notion that his departure from Oklahoma City was because he didn't want to be part of a rebuild.
So what's he doing in Chicago - studying seating charts from last year's championship celebration in Grant Park?
A few guarantees:
Donovan will charm lap dog media. He will go deeper bank with Jerry Reinsdorf-authorized money. He will win more basketball games than Jim Boylen.
But he will never win an NBA championship as head coach of the Bulls.
And all of this "big splash" nonsense will end tangled up in goo.
NBCSCH WILL AIR the pilot of Tim Morris's "Member Champions Cup" - taped at River Forest Country Club in Elmhurst - Saturday at 9:30 p.m.
The show is the brainchild of Morris - the son of Johnny and Jeannie Morris - and partner Dan Lafferty via their GO TV Entertainment (gotventertainment.com).
"It's the first in a series featuring eight of the top country clubs in the Chicago area," said Morris, himself once a star football player at Fremd High School in Palatine (Class of '81).
"It's a "Big Break" style golf skills challenge, ultimately determining a Chicago area champion. But not all are necessarily great players. The entertainment is primarily driven by showcasing personalities and the stress and pressure of watching them test themselves in the spotlight of TV cameras."
The full run of the program is targeted for next year.
And, if it's any kind of good luck charm, the forever-young Johnny Morris celebrates his 85th birthday Saturday.
STREET-BEATIN': Brian Kelly and Notre Dame got the first hint it wasn't going to be their week when ND's 52-0 mismatch over South Flordia drew less than 1 million viewers on The USA Network. (Navy-Tulane did better on ABC.) ...
Bears perfectionists insisting Mitch Trubisky needs to throw a complete game miss the obvious: He has - the final two quarters at Detroit and the opening two vs. the Giants. (NYG sophomore Daniel Jones was a far more poised QB last Sunday.) ...
David Kaplan of ESPN AM (1000) will shepherd a 29-mile walk Tuesday to benefit Bernie's Book Bank in North suburban Lake Bluff (berniesbookbank.org). ...
And Terry Francona's absence from the dugout must have also diminished much of the imagination around the playoff-bound Indians. The team's official October T-shirt is "Respect Cleveland." ("Go Berea!" must have been taken.)
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.