Sig Rogich pulling for another Icelandic freezeout
When the tiny soccer-playing nation of Iceland beat the ginormous soccer-playing nation of England in the European championships, I thought it literally would be cool to chat with somebody from Iceland about this monumental occurrence.
I didn’t know how to reach Haffi Hardarson.
Hardarson is a professional bowler from Iceland whom I met at South Point a couple of years ago. He said he learned to bowl on three lanes under a swimming pool in a place called Akranes. So it can be assumed that bowling in Iceland isn’t as big as, say, harpooning a whale.
But Sig Rogich was kind enough to return an email message seeking input.
The local businessman and political kingmaker — and recent inductee into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame — was born in Vestmannaeyjar, a town and archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland commonly referred to as Westman Islands, for obvious reasons.
Rogich lived in Iceland when was a young boy, before his family settled in Henderson. He would serve as U.S. ambassador to Iceland under President George H.W. Bush, before the first President Bush sent for him to help out with his re-election effort.
So there is no bigger local authority on Iceland — and now Icelandic soccer — than Sig Rogich.
“Oh, yes, I’ve been following like crazy,” he said of the upstarts from the tundra, who will meet host France in the final quarterfinal Sunday. “This is a little country of not even 300,000 (citizens).”
Iceland is the most sparsely populated of the European nations. It is mostly known for chess (Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky), summit meetings (Ronald Reagan vs. Mikhail Gorbachev), geothermal pools and a vibrant indie music scene. It was not known for soccer, until now.
“They don’t have the big superstars like Argentina or even the USA,” Rogich said, adding that the saga of this Icelandic soccer side has become more prodigious than a Viking sailing ship, or at least one of those horns out of which one can quaff ale.
Since Iceland has become a sovereign nation, it had never qualified for a major soccer competition featuring a cup, until these European championships. Its chief rival in soccer is the Faroe Islands, if that tells you anything.
Iceland in June was named the world’s most peaceful country for the 10th consecutive year, so it also has that going for it. I’m told the waterfalls there are spectacular. And now it has a soccer team that is making all kinds of noise in one of the world’s major championships.
“It has been so exciting — the whole world is pulling for Iceland,” said Sig Rogich, one of its proud and native sons.
BRYANT INDUCES TEARS
Chicago Cubs slugger Kris Bryant retweeted a video on his Twitter account that showed a youngster’s emotional reaction upon receiving Bryant’s baseball sticker, which I believe are sort of like baseball cards. You can see it on Bryant’s Twitter page: @KrisBryant_23.
It shows a little boy named Eli first getting Robinson Cano before receiving a Kris Bryant sticker.
“This is the best one … Kris Bryant! I knew I was going to get him …”
The little boy then breaks into tears. This is pretty much how the Cincinnati pitching staff reacted Monday when Bryant, the former Bonanza High star, hit three homers and two doubles against the Reds.
The video of the young Kris Bryant fan was shown during Thursday night’s Cubs-Mets game. Cubs broadcaster Jim Deshaies said that was pretty much the same way he felt when he got Mike Lum’s baseball card when he was the little boy’s age.
Eli opens @toppscards stickers & gets his fav player @KrisBryant_23 @Cubs he is overcome with emotion pic.twitter.com/2Zfo3RBIWN
— Louie Hillenmeyer (@LHillenmeyer) June 29, 2016
SCHMIDT HAPPENS IN TIMES SQUARE
A video board image of Henderson resident, IndyCar team owner and quadriplegic Sam Schmidt driving in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb on June 26 made it all the way to Times Square.
A photo was posted on the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Twitter account (@SPMIndyCar). It shows Schmidt speeding up the mountain in a specially prepared Corvette with American and Arrow Electronics (his sponsor) flags flapping in the Colorado breeze.
There do not appear to be a lot of New Yorkers fixated on the screen in Times Square, as they were when Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. But as the Twitter post stated, it still was pretty cool.
SO COOL! The news about Sam Schmidt driving #PikesPeak made it all the way to #TimesSquare!#SAMcar #ArrowDriven pic.twitter.com/6kuQdFSNxa
— SPM (@SPMIndyCar) July 1, 2016
ANOTHER SUMMITT MEETING
A column on a chance meeting I had with Pat Summitt, the Tennessee women’s basketball coaching legend who died of Alzheimer’s disease at age 64 on Tuesday, solicited an email response from R-J reader Dean “Dino” Oakie, who said he had a similar brush with greatness.
Oakie said he was working at a car dealership in Sevierville, Tennessee, in 2002 when he was asked to drive a GMC Denali to the Sevier County Bank to show it to R.B. Summitt — the bank’s owner and the coach’s husband at the time.
“He didn’t buy that one, but he did buy another one,” Dino wrote.
It seems there was a minor traffic mishap when the two were driving back to the dealership to sign the papers.
When Oakie delivered another Denali to the Summitt home, the coach greeted him “in full makeup and a pink bathrobe.” They had coffee, and two weeks later, Dino received two floor tickets for the the NCAA Tournament, courtesy of R.B. Summitt — with, no doubt, an assist from Pat.
CWS: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOOD
During the just concluded College World Series, I received a stream of updates from Omaha, Nebraska, courtesy of Jim LaRocca, longtime member of the 335 Club — UNLV’s unofficial baseball booster club that can be seen hanging out in a smoky grill-induced haze from its perch just above the right-field wall at Rebels games.
Almost all of the updates were about the food in the tailgate areas.
The Rock said he met Mickey and Roger — “the Cajun Yankees as I like to call them” — who are Louisiana State fans and drove all the way from “Weezy Anna” to Omaha with 250 pounds of crawfish and 200 pounds of jumbo shrimp “in a truck equipped with pots, burners, tables and many ice chests filled with Bayou delights” despite the fact LSU did not qualify for the CWS.
LaRocca said he also dined with Mississippi State fans (the Bulldogs did not qualify, either) who cooked barbecue pig wings and duck poppers.
The Rock said he had a great time at the CWS and that he did not get indigestion, and that he may go back next year to learn what a Chanticleer is.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski
