http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez RSS Feed for DN Col Bernard Fernandez en-us Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:33:23 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120203_Bernard_Fernandez__My_father_and_I_shared_a_bond_with_Dundee.html IT ISN'T OFTEN that, in speaking about a 90-year-old man, you can say he left this world far too soon. But it isn't often that someone like Angelo Dundee comes along. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120127_Bernard_Fernandez__Nike_co-founder_shows_loyalty_to_Paterno.html STATE COLLEGE - One by one, they came to the podium to praise the late Joe Paterno. There was Paterno's son, Jay, and an assortment of former players, one from each decade of JoePa's remarkable 46-year run as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Th http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120126_Bernard_Fernandez__Paterno__Bryant_will_be_linked_forever.html STATE COLLEGE - They were giants of their profession when they were alive and competing against each other. Now that Penn State coaching icon Joe Paterno has joined friend and nemesis Paul "Bear" Bryant on the other side, maybe the two greatest college football coaches ever will be linked even more closely in death than they were in life. That's often http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120126_Bernard_Fernandez_.html SPORTS | REMEMBERING JOE PATERNO http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120125_Bernard_Fernandez__JOEPA_AT_PEACE.html STATE COLLEGE - It's almost as if Joe Paterno were speaking from beyond the grave, even if the 85-year-old former Penn State coaching icon, who died Sunday of complications from lung cancer, has yet to be interred. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120123_Bernard_Fernandez__Paterno__The_last_of_his_kind.html WAS IT A self-fulfilling prophecy? There will, of course, be those who will claim that the passing of legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was not so much from the effects of the lung cancer that weakened his 85-year-old body as from a broken heart. And there probably is some truth to that. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120117_Bernard_Fernandez_.html IT APPARENTLY is easier to defeat Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins in the ring than in a courtroom. Hopkins, the WBC light-heavyweight champion from North Philadelphia who turned 47 on Sunday, ran his record to 4-0 in lawsuits filed against him while represented by attorney Arnold Joseph when a jury ruled in his favor Thursday in a breach-of-contract action brought by the estate of Hopkins' former trainer, Bouie Fisher. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120116_Bernard_Fernandez__JoePa_interview_provokes_sadness.html IT HAS BEEN 2 1/2 months since the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal incited national passions, embroiled Penn State in a controversy that isn't going away any time soon and, oh, yeah, tarred and feathered the previously pristine image of Sandusky's former boss, Joe Paterno, the iconic, octogenarian football coach of the Nittany Lions whom so many were quick to chastise as an enabler to a pedophile and so many others were equally quick to defend as a blameless victim of circumstance. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120110_Bernard_Fernandez__NBC_series_debuts_with_Philly_card.html IMAGINE TRYING to fill in the Grand Canyon with a shovel and a really humongous pile of dirt. That was the kind of daunting challenge that faced the hardy souls who were there when ESPN launched on Sept. 7, 1979. To fill all those hours of programming between the live football and basketball games people were most interested in seeing, the start-u http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/bernard_fernandez/20120109_Bernard_Fernandez_.html What exactly makes a Penn Stater, anyway? Is it a framed diploma from the university? Is it something obvious and visible to all, like a tattoo or some other signal of membership in an exclusive club?