A local sports figure from years gone by will be in northwest Ohio this week making people laugh. Brian Regan, who attended Heidelberg College, will present a standup comedy theater show in Toledo Friday night.
Regan was a wide receiver for the Student Princes for three years. However a diving accident in his native Miami the summer before his senior season kept him from playing a fourth.
But, when a door closes, another opens. I was working for WTTF at that time and we needed a good color commentator for our Heidelberg football broadcasts. Heidelberg's Sports Information Director, Jack Delong, suggested Regan and he agreed.
He did a good job as "color man" during one of those long "one win" seasons. As a student and former player, he knew the game and the players well, their strengths and weaknesses.
At the time Regan was a Mass Communications major and his goal was to be a standup comic. I have to admit that, at the time, I didn't think it was likely. During the ten Saturday afternoons we spent together, I never heard him say anything funny.
I was so wrong.
Regan's standup routine can leave you breathless from laughing. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the Late Show with David Letterman, and many other TV gigs.
He won the Funniest Man in New York award in 1988 and had a successful comedy club career. Eventually, clubs were not big enough to hold the fans who came to see him and he embarked on a theater comedy tour.
He is scheduled to appear Friday night at The Stranahan Theater in Toledo.
What may be the most unique thing about Brian Regan's act is that it's clean. He is what they call in that community an "observational comic." That means he takes the everyday events we all encounter and finds the humor in them …s ometimes humor that already is there and sometimes the humor in how the situation could proceed if taken to the extreme.
There are several videos of some of his routines on his website. I wouldn't actually call them family fare, but only because they involve situations that adults, not kids, encounter.
The kids just won't get it.
It's nice to see Brian Regan is achieving his dream. He proved me and some other naysayers wrong.
We wish him continued success.
A lady known as "The first lady of racing" died last weekend. You've probably never heard of Louise Smith. In 1999 she became the first woman inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
We did mention that achievement in this column back then.
She drove in NASCAR from 1945 to 1956 and won 38 modified races. Her husband, Noah, owned a junkyard and reportedly didn't approve of her racing.
According to an Associated Press story on Foxsports.com, her contemporaries included such legends as Curtis Turner, Ralph Earnhardt and Buck Baker.
They used to travel as a group, racing for first prizes totaling $100 to $150 and appearance money, having fun and helping to create an industry.