Thanks to the team at 1280 for letting Debbie come on the “Jake and Jim Show” to talk about Bikes for Kids Utah and what a difference a brand new bike can make in the life of any kid.

We at SOAR Communications are proud to support such a fantastic non-profit, a 501(c)3 status corporation. In case you didn’t know, Bikes for Kids Utah has donated 1,000 brand new bikes each year (since 2006) to underprivileged children in Utah, along with helmets, bike locks and assorted other items.

After holding the bike giveaways in September in 2006 and 2007, this year’s giveaway will be held this Saturday morning (5-31-08) at Intermountain Healthcare’s fantastic new Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. And once again, yours truly — Poppa P — got snagged to do the emcee duties.

Anyway . . . here are a couple of the photos from Debbie’s interview on 1280 the Zone on Thursday.

= = = = = = = = = =

Debbie Reid, founder and executive director of Bikes for Kids Utah, being interviewed Thursday, 5-29-08, on 1280 the Zone (Utah’s No. 1 sports talk radio station in Utah).

Jim Fuchuck, one of the hosts of the “Jake and Jim Show” on 1280 the Zone (the best sports talk radio station in Utah), interviews Debbie Reid, executive director of Bikes for Kids Utah on Thurs., 5-29-08.

Over time this column was published by three papers — the Deseret News (now the Deseret Morning News), The Daily Herald (in Provo, Utah) and The Enterprise (Utah’s weekly business paper) — as well as being distributed for free via email to several thousand subscribers.

Each year, one of my most fun and yet difficult self-directed assignments was to identify the top 10 stories of the year.

I plan to resurrect “Utah Tech Watch” as an online media property in 2008, and when I do, I’ll also resurrect its annual Top 10 stories piece. But for now, let me transpose this idea to this SOAR Communications blog with what I propose are the Top 10 Global SOAR Stories of 2007.

Here then, in reverse order, are my picks for the top stories on the planet for 2008 from the worlds of Sports, Outdoors, Athletics and Recreation.

= = = = = = = = = =

10. BCS-Busting Boise State’s Trick Plays Stun Oklahoma in the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

Seen by many long-time Oklahoma and Division-I fans as a lucky interloper to the prom that is known as the Bowl Championship Series, Boise State University was supposedly just lucky to “be there” at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 2007.

These same fans were oblivious to the fact that the Broncos had strung together a 42-5 record during the past four seasons, including a 12-0 campaign in 2006. But the Orange and Smurf Blue fans from Boise knew otherwise, and they descended on Glendale, Arizona en mass.

And it was these BSU fans who were rewarded at the end of an exciting and hard-fought overtime battle with a halfback option pass and a Statue of Liberty play sealing the deal for the Boise State University Broncos 43-42.

9. Don Imus gets booted for on-air racist comments

Can you say “Nappy-headed ho’s?” Apparently Don Imus can, as shown on this YouTube video clip.

What’s amazing to me is not that Imus (one of the most popular radio talk show hosts) got fired by CBS for making racist comments about the University of Rutgers girls basketball team; it’s that he got re-hired so quickly. In this case by Citadel Broadcasting and WABC-AM. Wow!

8. Dropping dollar brings world travelers to U.S. on bargain-hunting excursions

Think the value of the dollar doesn’t have an impact on the world economy. Think again, as bargain hunters from England, Europe, Asia and beyond descended upon both coasts this Christmas season to snap up pricey products at savings of up to 40 percent (just through currency exchange rate arbitrage).

And that was before soft early Holiday Season retailer results lead to widespread sales and discounting before December 25th.

7. Madison Square Garden and New York Knicks Coach Isiah Thomas settle sexual harassment charges for $11.5 million

Controversy continues to swarm around Isiah Thomas, coach and president of basketball operations for the New York Knicks, as Thomas and Madison Square Garden agreed in December to settle a sexual harassment suit for $11.5 million, including $4 million in legal fees.

Brought by former Knicks executive Anucha Browne-Sanders, the lawsuit alleged that Thomas had sexually harassed Browne-Sanders and made demeaning statements toward her.

[NOTE: At the risk of minimizing the seriousness of sexual harassment as a crime, this entry is included here more as a statement against the rising tide of criminal and inappropriate activity within professional sports. (See items No. 2 and No. 1 below.)

Notwithstanding Charles Barkley's claims that he "is not a role model," the truth is that as human beings we look-up to athletes at all levels, but particularly so at the professional level. I swear it's twisted into our DNA, as it happens in every economic strata, within every culture and at almost every age group -- but even more so among younger people.]

6. Fantasy Fishing ups the ante

If you thought fantasy football and baseball were huge, well think again, as you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Fishing is arguably the largest participatory outdoor activity in the U.S., with upwards of 40 million anglers out there. And FLW Outdoors plans to get even more people hooked on fishing as it launched a new fantasy fishing competition in December with a top prize of $1 million and potential bonus of $5 million. (You read right — five freakin’ million dollars!)

For more details, visit FLW Outdoors’ FantasyFishing.com.

5. UFC marches on toward world domination

If you think boxing is the ultimate mano a mano sport, you obviously haven’t watched an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout.

Thanks to mixed martial arts visionary and UFC President, Dana White, ultimate fighting is becoming a mainstay among sports aficionados, particularly among the highly coveted 18- to 34-year-old male demographic. (Dana White photo found at http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=2160.)

In fact, according to a recent UFC/Spike TV news release, live UFC contests averaged more young men viewers on cable per event in 2007 (869,000) “than the more established ‘major’ American sports of basketball, baseball, football, hockey, and NASCAR, including:

• 62% more than the NLCS on TBS,
• 143% more than the NBA playoffs on ESPN,
• 24% more than the NBA playoffs on TNT,
• 123% more than MLB Sunday Night baseball on ESPN,
• 48% more than NASCAR on TNT,
• 31% more than NASCAR on ESPN,
• 81% more than the NFL on NFL Network, and
• 595 % more than the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on Versus.” (Italics and punctuation added.)

If you haven’t watched a UFC match, I invite you to do so. Here’s the link to UFC’s schedule of upcoming contests.

4. Topsy turvy 2007 Div-I football season

If you follow college football at all you already know this story.

Four top-ranked Division-I squads lost during the season — the University of Southern California (USC), Louisiana State University (LSU), Ohio State University and the University of Missouri. And that’s on top of six No. 2 teams losing during the season as well.

What a great year in college football!

Now if 2008 and 2009 can be just as wild and wacky, maybe (just maybe) we’ll actually get a shot at a playoff system for the Division-I teams.

3. New England Patriots go 16-0

What can I say?!?!?!

Already deemed one of the greatest professional football squads of all time, the New England Patriots have now run through the 2007 regular season with a record of 16-0.

Obviously, landing wide receiver Randy Moss was a key component in this year’s elevation of the Patriots’ offensive attack. Credit quarterback Tom Brady and Coach Bill Belichick with communicating the benefits to Moss of becoming a team player. Credit also goes to Moss for being a stand-up guy as well. (Moss photo found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Moss.)

Will the Pats be able to roll through the playoffs with three more victories and a win in Super Bowl 42 on February 3 and a 19-0 record-setting season?

Guess we’ll have to tune in to find out.

2. Michael Vick, Michael Vick, Michael Vick

Nineteen-seventies pop singer Jim Croce probably said it best:

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind;

You don’t tug the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Jim.

In the case of Michael Vick, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and former darling of the South, you don’t mess around with federal investigators, prosecutors, judges or the dog-loving public either.

After Vick was indicted on dog-fighting charges this summer, I wrote that I expected he would cop a deal with prosecutors. Upon tearing up its endorsement deal with Vick, sports shoe and apparel giant Nike called his actions “inhumane, abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Unfortunately, Vick is just another example of a professional sports figure who has fallen from grace, a victim of his own feelings of self-entitlement, one who felt he was above the rest of us and was unable to even fathom the idea that torturing animals was wrong, let alone a federal crime. Shocking, absolutely shocking.

Vick is now serving out the 23-month sentence imposed on him by the federal court and is likely to lose virtually all of the paydays that awaited him as an NFL quarterback.

1. Doping scandals strike at professional sports

The immoral, unethical and now generally illegal use of steroids and other forms of performance-enhancing drugs among all athletes, but particularly professional athletes, was the world’s top story of 2007 in the Sports, Outdoors, Athletics and Recreation industries.

The year of doping got its start in late January when the San Francisco Giants announced it had signed a one-year, $15.8 million contract with home run slugger Barry Bonds. Then holder of the record for the most home runs hit by an active major leaguer (beginning the season with 734 dingers), Bonds’ return to the Giants ensured that

A) he would continue to pursue the all-time home run record in a Giants uniform, and

B) that the allegations about Bonds’ possible use of steroids would not die down during 2007.

Sometime during the weekend of June 22, professional wrestler, Chris Benoit, strangled his wife with a cord, choked his seven-year-old son to death, placed Bibles near their bodies and then hung himself from exercise equipment in his Fayetteville, Georgia home.

An autopsy found that Benoit had roughly 10 times the normal levels of testosterone in his body, while police discovered anabolic steroids in the Benoit home. Additionally, authorities have alleged that Dr. Phil Astin, Benoit’s physician, “prescribed a 10-month supply of anabolic steroids to Benoit every three to four weeks for a year leading up to the killings.”

July 2007brought the world the disastrous, doping-tainted riding of the Tour de France, the world’s premier cycling race. Two leaders of the ‘07 Tour

• Alexander Vinokourov (positive testing for blood doping), and
• Michael Rassmussen (missing random drug screenings and lying)

were booted from the race,

• along with rider Cristian Moreni (who tested positive for elevated testosterone levels).

August 7 saw Bonds break the career home run record for Major League Baseball as he hit homer #756 against the Washington Nationals, keeping the rumors alive of his possible steroids use.

On September 20, Floyd Landis, winner of the 2006 Tour de France, was found guilty of doping by an international arbitration panel, stripped of his ‘06 victory and banned from professional racing for two years. Landis continues to deny any wrongdoing.

Bonds was indicted on November 15, 2007 on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice on charges of lying under oath to a federal grand jury that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs. According to ESPN, the indictments capped a four-year investigation; if Bonds is found guilty of all charges, he faces a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison. (Original photo found at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com.)

Finally, on December 13, 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, closed a 20-month private investigation by publishing his findings on steroid use and the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball. (See http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/071213_Mitchell_report.pdf for a complete copy of the report, courtesy of MSNBC.)

In his 409-page report, Mitchell named more than 80 players, including seven former Most Valuable Player honorees and 31 All-Stars.

Among the most notable among current players identified in Mitchell’s report (in first name alphabetical order) were Andy Pettitte, Bonds, Eric Gagne, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Rick Ankiel and Roger Clemens.

Former big name players identified in the report included Rafael Palmiero (understandably, since he’d already tested positive for steroid use) and (alphabetically by first name) Benito Santiago, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Lenny Dykstra and Mo Vaughn, among others.

Obviously, a very sad day for baseball.

And unfortunately, a very sad year for professional sports as a whole. That’s why I selected Doping Scandals as the top global SOAR story for 2007 in the Sports, Outdoor, Athletics and Recreation industries.