Beware the Ides of March Madness.
Ole' Bill Shakespeare must have been referring to Jerel McNeal's thumb.
Now that the most wonderful time of the year is upon us, I will break the madness that has cracked the sidewalks of the glorious Marquette basketball program.
How you ask?
By honoring one of the pioneers of the game, a man almost as legendary as Al McGuire himself.
For the March Icon, I've dug deep. Presenting the Chuck Taylor All Star (in a shade of MU gold no doubt.)
Enjoy the next month of hoops hysteria, but remember, nobody cares about your brackets.
Go Marquette.
Birthdate: The Chuck Taylor All Star was the original basketball sneaker, a minimalist masterpiece that adorned the feet of the short-shorts-sporting, set-shot-shooting, pumpkin-through-the-peach-basket-scoring ballers who spread Dr. Naismith’s creation across the land. Since Converse introduced the sneaks in 1917, more than a billion feet have been bound by the canvas walls and cushioned by the springy chunks of vulcanized rubber.
Design: Chuck Taylor, a semi-pro-hoopster for the Akron Firestones, joined the Converse sales force in 1921 and spent the next few years promoting the All Star. In 1923, the Chuck Taylor patch was added to the shoes in his honor. Long before MJ peddled the air, Taylor hawked the ground, barnstorming basketball from town to town, conducting clinics, and selling his namesake footwear (AKA Chucks, Felony Flyers, Skippies, Old Schools). By the 1970s, the shoes had become so popular throughout the fledgling NBA that the “limousines for the feet” were worn by more than 80% of the league. Basic colors were added in 1966, and by a now a Crayola-64 rainbow has been unfurled, as well as editions in camouflage, flame, plaid, leopard and tie-dye.
Price: Basic Chucks are still a bargain at around $35, although a pair in leather, flannel or tweed will run you $125—probably more than it cost to outfit the entire Bill Russell Celtics dynasty.
Defining moments: The All Star is a statement – a nostalgic, anti-establishment slice of American footwear. The Jets and Sharks rumbled in ‘em; Joey Ramone yearned for sedation in ‘em; Hunnicut thumbed his scalpel at Army protocol in ‘em; Springsteen made his guitar talk in ‘em; Marty McFly righted the space-time continuum in ‘em; Bluto went through life fat, drunk and stupid in ‘em; the Italian Stallion scaled the Art Museum in ‘em; Danny wooed Sandy in ‘em; Kurt wanted to be entertained…oh well, whatever, nevermind in ‘em; Marion Motley carried the Browns to the NFL summit in ‘em; Blossom became a woman in ‘em and the rest of us regular folk keep our feet on the ground in ’em.
(Illustration by Julia Rothman.)
(City, 2004)
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