By Eric Crawford, WDRB This column originally appeared at WDRB.com after Louisville’s 2013 NCAA Championship, as part of Eric Crawford’s e-book commemorating the title, “The Run.” It was an easy moment to miss, but in some ways, it was a defining Russ Smith moment. With two seconds left in the NCAA championship game, the University…
Category: Best of
Jody Demling’s harrowing COVID-19 journey finding an inspiring end
Jody Demling knows he is lucky to be here. Lucky to be doing interviews (even if it is strange being the one answering questions, not asking them). Lucky to be able to talk for a half-hour without getting winded, though a home health nurse stands nearby just in case. After Demling recovered from a harrowing…
Memorial Day: An unexpected search
LOUISVILLE, Ky. Random story. Memorial Day. Guy decides to pull off the expressway, just one of those existential tugs. Right turn into Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. American flags everywhere. People scattered across the white marble landscape, visiting the graves of family members, friends, heroes. He pulls out a camera, snaps a few frames. He kneels…
An ALS love story: One family’s courage, and the light it shares
I held onto this story until Valentine’s Day, because I don’t think I know of a better love story to share. It’s not a Hollywood kind of story. It’s less romance than reality. But love is weaved through every line — love of life, love of family and friends, love of a husband and wife. The story…
Remember, Louisville: We’ll not see another day like Ali’s funeral
Louisville, that’s never going to happen again. Not what I saw on the streets of my hometown Friday. Not the people lining them for 20 miles. Not children running alongside a hearse, throwing jabs into the air. Not grown men trotting to kiss the roof. Not flowers covering the windshield. Not chants ringing out in…
Postgame crowd speaks to Schimmels’ legacy — local, national and Native American
LOUISVILLE, Ky. The game was over, the press conferences complete. The lights on the scoreboard, showing the №3-ranked University of Louisville’s 68–48 loss to №1-ranked and unbeaten Connecticut, had been shut down in the KFC Yum! Center. But the story was only beginning. Ride up the elevator, to the main concourse. Walk around to the…
A Letter to Lincoln
Note: This column originally ran in a personal blog, then on the Op-Ed Page of The Courier-Journal on Feb. 12, 2009. Dear Mr. Lincoln, Everybody here in Kentucky is gearing up for the bicentennial of your birth so I thought at least one of us ought to write to you. I bet you’re getting a…