Dallas, TX
Slain Dallas Police Officer remembered for servant's heart at Friday night vigil
In an Oak Cliff parking lot turned memorial, two families united to honor Darron Burks, a man who left an indelible mark in both the fraternity brotherhood and the world of law enforcement.
“This crowd speaks highly of him and everyone knows what Brother Burks stood for. He was a pure guy. He was very pure,” said Kenneth McCloud.
Dozens gathered in the For Oak Cliff parking lot on Friday for a candlelight vigil to remember Burks, who was gunned down just feet from where he was standing just a few nights earlier.
“It hurts. I think I’m cried out today,” said Fredrick Bishop.
Bishop first met Burks through the brotherhood of Omega Psi Phi.
Although they never crossed paths at Paul Quinn College, as alumni, they both shared a commitment to their fraternity’s mission of service.
At a homecoming a couple of years ago, Bishop said that shared passion for helping others further bonded the friends when Burks sought Bishop’s help joining the Dallas Police Department.
After more than 20 years, Bishop is honorably retired from the force.
“He got to the point where he said let me see where I can do more and he wanted to serve more,” he said.
At Friday’s vigil, the men and women of Burks’s police academy class stood shoulder to shoulder with his fraternity brothers and those who knew him from his nearly two decades-long career as an educator and coach.
As they lit candles and shared stories and prayers, loved ones encouraged each other to focus on memories of good times rather than dwelling in sadness.
It’s just one of the ways they said their friend and brother would want to be remembered.
“Work to continue his vision. His vision of service to young people. His service to making a mark here in this city,” said Dallas City Council member Carolyn King Arnold.
A confrontation between Egypt’s coaching staff and a Dallas police officer at the team’s hotel sparked a viral video ahead of a World Cup match.
Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said he considered the matter resolved after he and team director Ibrahim Hassan had a physical confrontation with a police officer at the team’s hotel in Dallas.
Video began circulating Thursday, a day before Egypt beat Australia in the round of the 32 at the World Cup, showing both men arguing with a Dallas police officer, apparently over a player preparing to take a picture with a young fan in the hotel lobby.
The officer approaches Hossam Hassan first, but his interaction with Ibrahim Hassan becomes a shoving match. Ibrahim Hassan appeared to be upset at the officer intervening.
Dallas police issued a statement saying that just before midnight, officers were responding to a request from hotel security about an individual without event credentials attempting to gain access.
“It was later learned that the individuals weren’t displaying credentials properly, which is a requirement,” Dallas police said in a statement.
The statement said the issue was resolved at the scene, and that police met with Egyptian representatives to address their concerns.
Hossam Hassan said through a translator that the team had accepted an apology from the police.
“We are really happy to be here at this tournament and we are satisfied with the security personnel that are accompanying us,” Hossam Hassan said. “I would like to point to the high-level organization we have with us and the level of security we have with us.”
Hassan is the first person to play and coach for Egypt at the World Cup. The victory over Australia came in Egypt’s debut in the knockout round of the tournament.
The match ball from Argentina’s 1986 World Cup quarterfinal against England – better known as the ‘Hand of God’ ball, thanks to Diego Maradona’s famous goal – is set to go up for auction. It has been auctioned before, previously for $2.4m.
Maradona’s shirt from that match sold for about $9 million back in 2022. Maradona and Argentina would return to the Estadio Azteca to win the tournament soon after, their second World Cup title. England has not played there since.
AP Photo/Michael Lipchitz, File AP Photo/Michael Lipchitz, File Argentina’s soccer star Diego Maradona and West German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher holding their World Cup Soccer Ball awards while posing with two young soccer players during the Soccer Golden Shoe Award ceremony held in Paris, France, on Nov. 13, 1986.
The ‘Hand of God’ is famous because Maradona punched the ball in using his left hand over the English goalkeeper, making the score 1-0.Four minutes later, Maradona struck again. The Argentinian took 11 seconds and 11 touches to pass six English defenders and score what was later voted the “Goal of the Century.” The game ended 2-1.
The goal should not have stood, but no VAR meant no replay to overturn the call.
The game referee kept the ball in Tunisia for more than three decades.
This comes ahead of England’s return to the Azteca for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Round of 16 against Mexico Sunday at 7 p.m. North Texas will likely be rocking from Sunday night right into the US Men’s National Team game against Belgium on Monday at 7 p.m. The winners of those games are headed to this year’s quarterfinals.
Mexico has never lost a World Cup game at the Azteca (7-3-0) and has only lost twice there in its history (70-17-2). England is 2-0 against Mexico in World Cup games, including on the way to their only World Cup title. That game was in England.
Maradona died at the age of 60 in November of 2020.
Argentinian soccer great Diego Maradona has died after undergoing surgery for a subdural hematoma earlier this month. He was 60 years old.
Paige Bueckers on the Wings season
WNBA star Paige Bueckers joins Sports Seriously to talk about the how her Dallas Wings are performing this season, as well as her partnership with Verizon.
Sports Seriously
HARTFORD, CT — UConn women’s basketball legends Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd returned to the state that made them champions.
Then the pair experienced something they were used to at PeoplesBank Arena — winning — but it took a comeback of epic proportions.
Bueckers and Fudd helped the Dallas Wings defeat the Connecticut Sun, 86-83, on Thursday, July 2, before a near sellout crowd of 14,579. The Wings rallied from a 24-point deficit to stop the Sun’s two-game win streak.
“It was (a) great crowd, it was a great environment,” Bueckers said of the fans, who cheered loudly as the Wings made their comeback. “It felt like a home game in a sense.
“It’s great to play back here in Connecticut. I love it here.”
UConn played half of its home games at the Hartford arena. Bueckers lost just one game and Fudd two over their careers here. They both wore UConn gear for their pregame tunnel fits.
The Wings outscored the Sun 51-40 in the second half. Bueckers had 11 of her team-high 25 points in the fourth quarter. She added seven rebounds and seven assists. Fudd had both her baskets in the frame and finished with four points, four rebounds and five assists.
Bueckers said the adjustments at halftime were pretty simple.
“Making shots, sometimes it’s as simple as that,” Bueckers said. “We were shooting just about 30% at the half and we felt very confident in the shots that we were getting. … Just sticking with what works.
“We got a lot of people step up, take open shots, be aggressive and get to the free-throw line more in the second half.”
Bueckers had two and-ones down the stretch that fueled the comeback.
“The first one … (Leila) Lacan jumped a pass on the inbound, so I was just trying to create something. … I just felt contact and kind of threw it up,” Bueckers said “The second one, my teammates just did a really good job of spacing the floor and just me just trying to be aggressive, hunt for a shot.”
Fittingly, Bueckers scored her first 3-pointer of the game off an assist from Fudd. Several former UConn teammates showed up to cheer on their friends. Fudd shared before the game that Jana El Alfy braided her hair before the game. Allie Ziebell, Ashlynn Shade and Gandy Malou-Mamel were also in the crowd.
“The five years we both had (at UConn), they showed up every single night,” Fudd said of the fans, including her former teammates. “It just was such an incredible experience … they’re part of the reason that it’s the basketball capital of the world.”
The basketball capital has produced many of the best players in the W. Bueckers’ popularity has continued to skyrocket since her time at UConn. In her second season in the WNBA, she was voted an All-Star starter on Thursday. Bueckers was the leader in fan balloting with 1,045,051 votes. Former Huskies Breanna Stewart and Gabby Williams were also voted starters for the All-Star Game, which will take place in Chicago on July 25.
This could be the final game for Bueckers and Fudd in Connecticut. The Sun will be relocated to Houston next season. Bueckers suggested the Wings play an exhibition game at Gampel Pavilion, in Storrs, Connecticut, in the future.
“It’s just like a family, this whole entire state supporting us … loving women’s basketball, loving everything about it,” Bueckers said. “We feel the support across the world, too.
“This will always be a second home.”
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