Run Ruled

March 12, 2020 was a catastrophic day for sports in the United States and in the world as fears of what the spread of coronavirus could do caused organizations, leagues, associations and their leaders to either cancel their seasons, their tournaments, their matches or their meets. In one series after another of minute by minute press releases, televised announcements, etc., the nation saw beloved sporting events that fans love to attend canceled for good or postponed. In the case of collegiate men's and women's basketball, many of those fans had already traveled to conference tournaments anticipating that by Saturday night, March 14, their teams would have won their way into the Big Dance as the NCAA Men's Tournament is affectionately called or the Women's Tournament. A game underway in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden was called at halftime. But it wasn't just basketball going by the wayside. All collegiate spring sports under the guidance of the NCAA were canceled. Professional basketball, baseball, golf, tennis and soccer organizations made similar announcements. So did leaders in NASCAR, the NFL, XFL, NHL make similar postings. In one day of sorrow being heaped on lots of teams, their players, coaches and fans, sports disappeared from the American scene at least for a while. The economic impact of those decisions which are yet to be determined would be substantial . More importantly, the impact on the lives of participants in these various sports is going to be substantial. And the overall impact of coronavirus on it all was still sitting out there as the elephant not quite in the room yet, but threatening to charge in there wreaking more damage as it pushed its way in. It's rare that Texas is ever defined as a microcosm of anything, but in writing this book, I am using it as a microcosm of what went on in the United States and in the world on March 12, 2020. Virtually every sport affected by the responses to the emergence of COVID-19 is part of the Texas sporting scene. Virtually every age group from chartered Little League teams to golfers on the senior circuit and all in between have seen their way of doing, of living, of participating ripped asunder by the pronouncements of that day. They have been run over by a freight train, counted out by a TKO or sent home at halftime by the mercy rule of six man football. But in telling the stories of Texas athletes, coaches, fans, administrators, their sports impacted by this, it is easy to state that they have been RUN RULED and SWEPT BY THE CORONAVIRUS!!