Sports

A Panther Pride sign cheers Washington High School's undefeated football team amid debris from last week's tornado.

Rivals Help Level Playing Field For Tornado-Shattered Team

5:24pm December 16, 2013

by Amanda Vinicky

Competition and compassion meet on the field in Springfield, Ill., Saturday, when two central Illinois high school football teams face off for a spot in the state championship. One team is a perennial powerhouse, but the other is from a town that was all but destroyed by a tornado one week ago.

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Sports

Trail Blazers Stretch Winning Streak To Nine

5:24pm December 16, 2013

Portland's NBA team is riding a hot streak. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Tom Goldman about the Trail Blazers, a new champion in chess, and how John F. Kennedy's assassination set a precedent for how sports commissioners handle cancelling games after tragedies.

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Blasting through powder on wooden, horsehide-bottomed skis, with a single pole for balance, an Altai skier shows off the skills and equipment his distant ancestors perfected.

Deep In China, 'Cowboys' Have Skied For Thousands Of Years

10:21am December 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

On wooden skis, the Tuvan people of Central Asia have been traversing the snow for at least 4,000 years. Travel writer Mark Jenkins went to the region for National Geographic, where he joined a group of lasso-wielding men on skis tracking elk.

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Science Becomes 'Sexy' With Fast Cars And Gangsta Physics

6:19pm December 14, 2013

Can science be cool? This week, Ozy co-founder Carlos Watson tells NPR about a gangster-turned-astrophysicist and a race car driver working to making science "sexy" again. Plus, a look at the changing landscape of African art — no tribal masks allowed.

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Sports

Citing Concussion Concerns, Pro Baseball To Ban Home Plate Collisions

6:44pm December 12, 2013

Major League Baseball plans to eliminate home plate collisions, among other rules changes. For more on what the changes will mean for the game, Melissa Block speaks with Mike Piazza, a former MLB catcher with several professional teams and author of Long Shot, an autobiography.

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Sports

Alabama's Kicker Gets Condolences From 'Another 43'

11:02am December 12, 2013

No. 43 Cade Foster missed two kicks and had a third blocked in a game against rival Auburn. But Foster got a note from someone who can relate: George W. Bush, the 43rd president. "Life has its setbacks. I know!" he wrote.

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Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston reacts during the ACC Championship game on Saturday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.

Sports

Should Character Count In Sports Awards?

10:10am December 11, 2013

by Frank Deford

When it comes to awards in theater or television or dance or literature, Frank Deford observes, candidates don't worry about losing out because of a personal flaw. Only sports applies that off-the-field standard.

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Sports

Broncos' Prater Kicks Record 64-Yard Field Goal

8:18am December 09, 2013

In 1970, the Saints' Tom Dempsey — who was born with no toes on his right foot — hit a 63-yard field goal to win the game, and it stood as the record for decades. Until Sunday's kick by Denver's Matt Prater.

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An 'Accidental Activist,' And England's World Cup Hope

3:47pm December 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Ozy co-founder Carlos Watson talks about a rising star in soccer who could turn things around for England in the 2014 World Cup, and a Bahraini woman who calls herself an "accidental activist."

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Bickering In Bangladesh; Curling; Glow-In-The-Dark Tattoos

3:31pm December 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Ozy editor Eugene Robinson tells NPR's Arun Rath about two dueling divas in Bangladeshi politics, the rising popularity of an obscure winter sport, and tattoos that you can wear to work.

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