Don't like mystery caches? Still want to explore the beautiful park that is known as the Stuart Sports Complex?
Well, here's your chance to venture deep into Badlands territory and have a look at this wonderful complex. You will need to pick up some simple field information at each cache's posted coordinates, and then you will need to venture OUT of Badlands territory (average distance of about a mile) to find the actual cache. Using a bicycle, you can complete all eight caches in around two hours. Of course, you can use your car also, but until vehicles are allowed in the complex again, you will have to park at the nearby police station and venture out on foot. All caches in this series are either a small vial (provided to me by Badlands himself), or a small breath mints tin (fresh breath is a priority in my life).
Enjoy the beauty of Badlands territory!
This cache honors a famous Howard from ages ago, Howard Cosell. He was one of the original members of the broadcast booth of Monday Night Football in 1970.
Perhaps his most famous call took place in the fight between Joe Frazier and George Foreman for the World Heavyweight Championship in Kingston, Jamaica in 1973. When Foreman knocked Frazier to the mat the first of six times, roughly two minutes into the first round, Cosell yelled out:
Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!
His call of Frazier's first trip to the mat became one of the most quoted phrases in American sports broadcasting history. Foreman beat Frazier by a TKO in the second round to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
On the night of December 8, 1980, during a Monday Night Football game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, Cosell shocked the television audience by interrupting his regular commentary duties to deliver a news bulletin on the murder of John Lennon in the midst of a live broadcast. Word had been passed to Cosell and Frank Gifford by Roone Arledge, who was president of ABC's news and sports divisions at the time, near the end of the game.
Cosell was initially apprehensive about announcing Lennon's death. Off the air, Cosell conferred with Gifford and others saying "Fellas, I just don't know, I'd like your opinion. I can't see this game situation allowing for that news flash, can you?" Gifford replied, "Absolutely. I can see it." Gifford later told Cosell, "Don't hang on it. It's a tragic moment and this is going to shake up the whole world."
On air, Gifford prefaced the announcement saying, "And I don't care what's on the line, Howard, you have got to say what we know in the booth." Cosell then replied:
Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City—the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles—shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which, in duty bound, we have to take.
THE CACHE IS, OF COURSE, NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES. YOU ARE DEEP IN BADLANDS TERRITORY.
Within a 50 foot radius of the posted coordinates, look for a big green box. Get the city and phone number (GHI) JKL-MNOP from the manufacturer. The coordinates needed to find this cache are N41 45.ABC, W088 23.DEF.
Determine ABC as follows, using the city:
Albany, New York (Use 243)
East Saint Louis, Illinois (Use 354)
Romeoville, Illinois (Use 037)
***
Determine DEF using the phone number as follows:
D = I
E = H
F = N