Next<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\nAmid national polls showing our sharp divide over the American and Israeli attack on Iran, not to mention debate over when a military action is considered a war, I was still uplifted by a few positive items in the news. <\/p>\n
Although it has been more than two weeks now, I was particularly inspired by American hockey player Jack Hughes saying he loved America so much after his USA hockey team won the gold medal in the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
He was not referring to politics but simply what was in his heart. And his mother, Ellen Hughes, a former outstanding hockey and soccer player, wanted to point out that she was equally proud of both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams in winning gold medals, both in overtime.<\/p>\n
She, of course, was also the mother of fellow Olympian Quinn Hughes, and had also been a consultant for the women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
She inferred in an interview with the NBC \u201cToday\u201d show hosts that the victory did not really have anything to do with gender and politics but was above that, with both teams simply supporting each team and each other and wanting to bring pride to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey care about humanity. They care about unity and they care about their country,\u201d she said of players from both teams. \u201cI hope everybody understands what we did in the moment to bring the country together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe she needs to be in politics as a sorely needed uniter!<\/p>\n
While many eyes are definitely on politics and the Tuesday elections in Georgia and elsewhere, I also took note of some of the recent visits to Chattanooga by celebrities or noted people. Several times a year I try and cover an event where a celebrity or accomplished person is speaking, and I hope an opportunity exists to interview or meet the person or attend the media availability. <\/p>\n
It started early in my career, when I would occasionally cover speakers at club meetings or events and shyly sit back and listen to them and not try to meet them most of the time. I remember I had loved reading Peter Jenkins books like \u201cA Walk Across America,\u201d but I somehow did not try and meet him when he spoke here one time. That began to bother me, so I have since tried to interview some of these well-known people when possible.<\/p>\n
I have been blessed to get to meet a few celebrities, although probably not as many as a lot of journalists. One that stands out is a visit by singer Perry Como at the Chattanooga airport about 1986 when I was a young reporter and happened to be the only reporter in the newsroom one afternoon when word came that he was arriving for the Pat Boone Bethel Bible Village gala.<\/p>\n
I have not forgotten nervously heading over there but later being overjoyed afterward at getting to meet this singer whose TV specials I had watched regularly.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, I struck out on several opportunities to meet or interview other celebrities recently.<\/p>\n
For example, former Georgia football star and former ESPN commentator David Pollack was the featured speaker at the local Boy Scouts banquet held at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Feb. 24. I had attended the banquet in recent years and enjoyed getting to interview former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann and former Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy, but I unfortunately could not attend this event that day to interview someone from my college alma mater. <\/p>\n
I also might have enjoyed meeting former newspaper publisher and presidential candidate Steve Forbes, who recently gave a business-related lecture at UTC, but did not. I might have even tried to ask him about his more flamboyant father, Malcolm Forbes, who used to be featured regularly on \u201cLifestyles of the Rich and Famous\u201d on TV.<\/p>\n
And I would have loved interviewing Mathew Knowles, the father of megastar singer Beyonce and fellow accomplished singer Solange Knowles but did not get around to trying to cover his visit. A former Moc basketball player, he had also appeared at UTC and attended a basketball game on Feb. 27 and 28.<\/p>\n
Even former UT Vol quarterback Joey Aguillar was spotted by at least one local TV news crew in the stands at the McKenzie Arena on Feb. 21 watching his 6-foot girlfriend, Rylan Moffitt, play for UNC-Greensboro against the UTC women in a two-point Mocs\u2019 win. They had both formerly attended Appalachian State together.<\/p>\n
The one well-known person I did meet briefly recently was Barbara Brown Taylor, a noted Episcopal priest, author and college professor in Northeast Georgia. While her name might not be known to the masses like a Beyonce, she is revered among Episcopalians and other more progressive and contemplative Christians, including women in ministry. My wife, Laura, who is a mostly retired United Methodist minister, has read some of her books.<\/p>\n
She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in a Time magazine survey in 2014.<\/p>\n
So, we both jumped at the chance to go hear her speak at St. Paul\u2019s Episcopal Church in downtown Chattanooga on Feb. 24 as part of the church\u2019s Thorne Sparkman lecture series in connection with Lent. And plenty of other people were aware of her visit as well, as the church was basically full.<\/p>\n
She is a very thoughtful and contemplative speaker, who also knows how to throw in a little humor, so I would have been in trouble if I had actually been writing up her talk for a newspaper story. It reminded me of the talks of former local newspaper editor John Popham, a noted speaker who was known for entertaining local clubs. The story was that someone after hearing him would say, \u201cWasn\u2019t his talk good?\u201d And the other person would ask, \u201cWhat did he say?\u201d The first talker would then reply, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but it sure was good and entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n
But I believe Minister Brown Taylor\u2019s talk dealt with the wilderness in connection with Jesus\u2019 40 days in the wilderness remembered during Lent, and how we can all connect with God and our Father through the beauty of creation and fellow creatures.<\/p>\n
It was good and lasted a full hour, and while many left afterward, I wanted to get in line to purchase a book and possibly meet her. After about 15 minutes of her taking time to meet people and sign their books and say on one occasion that she planned to take a leisurely visit to the Chattanooga National Cemetery the next day, Laura and I got her to sign a couple of purchased books.<\/p>\n
We told her that Laura has been United Methodist minister and that I am a writer\/journalist, and she responded, \u201cSo you all are word people.\u201d<\/p>\n
After she kindly signed the book, I asked if I could take a quick picture. Her response was, \u201cOnly if she (Laura) gets in the picture, too.\u201d So, I snapped a quick picture or two and we were soon on our way home and hopefully did not hold up the line of other well-wishers.<\/p>\n
I was glad we had stayed around to help me greet someone else with a rare talent of accomplishment.<\/p>\n
And I guess I had not made an effort to cover the visit of Beyonce\u2019s father in part because I did not realize until it was too late that he was her actual father with the way his visit had been so casually promoted. I know some famous people have godmothers and close friends like that, so I erroneously assumed he was someone like that.<\/p>\n
But I did look some more information up on his connection to Chattanooga. He had graduated from Gadsden High in Alabama just a little more than an hour down Interstate 59 and came to UTC to play basketball for two years from 1970-72. He later transferred to Fisk University in Nashville. While in Texas working for Xerox, he married Tina Beyonce in 1980. They were divorced in 2011, and he later married Gena Avery.<\/p>\n
He helped manage Beyonce\u2019s career early, including with Destiny\u2019s Child, as well as Solange\u2019s, and has also been involved in gospel music. As a sidenote, I claim the same Sept 4 birthday as Beyonce.<\/p>\n
Mr. Knowles also was treated for male breast cancer in 2019, and attention regarding that was also part of his Chattanooga visit.<\/p>\n
I also looked through some old yearbooks and sports media information online. I did find his name in the 1971-72 yearbook during his sophomore year listed as a member of the historically black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, and a picture of the group with some coeds, although I could not pick him out. <\/p>\n
He apparently wore No. 22 at that time as a player, and I also found a picture of him in the yearbook. UTC was coached at that time under Leon Ford, a former Louisville Cardinal basketball player, who lived until 2022 and age 94. An assistant coach beginning in 1970 was Ron Shumate, who would lead the Mocs to Division II greatness later in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
During the 1970-71 season, I believe freshmen were still ineligible for the varsity nationwide, so he likely played freshmen ball.<\/p>\n
Other teammates of Mr. Knowles during that 20-7 sophomore season of 1971-72, according to the UTC sports media records, were Doug Hale, Walt Homan, Garry Jones, Donnie Kell, Walter \u201cMoose\u201d McGary Pat Ormond, Lynn Phillips, Randy Russell, Ralph Simpson, Mike Snow and Ernest Taylor. I knew both Mr. Hale and Mr. Jones because they both worked at Baylor after college, although Mr. Jones for only a brief time, including as my eighth-grade earth science teacher as a geology student.<\/p>\n
In a school website blog put out by UTC, Mr. Knowles evidently was touched at what was apparently his first visit back to school since he left. \u201cIt\u2019s been a real humbling and motivational experience to see my classmates, my fraternity brothers, the brothers I played basketball with,\u201d he said during a formal program at Roland Hayes Hall at the school. \u201cI told my wife it\u2019s a feeling I haven\u2019t felt. It\u2019s a joy. It\u2019s something I can\u2019t really put just in words just to embrace my brothers and see them again.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time that Mr. Knowles was at UTC, Usher Raymond III, the father of noted singing superstar and Chattanooga native Usher, was a freshman and sophomore at Howard High. He graduated from high school in 1974 as a standout member of the Hustlin\u2019 Tigers basketball team. Who knows if they might have crossed paths?<\/p>\n
And I saw where the talented singer and performer Liza Minnelli is turning 80 this March 12, and her family has a connection to Southeast Tennessee, too. A few decades ago, I wrote a story after talking with University of the South historian Arthur Ben Chitty, who told me that Frank Gumm, the father of Liza Minnelli\u2019s mother, Judy Garland, had attended one of the prep schools in Sewanee as a young boy.<\/p>\n
So, the music history is rich here. And that seems good, because most people would no doubt prefer the sound of ballads over bombs any day.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Jcshearer2@comcast.net<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.chattanoogan.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, left, and Rev. Laura Shearer photo by John Shearer
Usher Raymond III, No. 11, with Howard team in 1974
Mathew Knowles\u2019 name in 1971-72 UTC yearbook
Omega Psi Phi fraternity photograph in 1971-72 yearbook
Mathew Knowles, No. 22 at top right, playing for Mocs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2323220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/John-Shearer-Random-Thoughts-About-Hockey-Mom-And-Recent-Celebrity.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2323221,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323219\/revisions\/2323221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2323220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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