As an avid sports fan, I’ve made pilgrimages to hallowed ground like St. Andrews, Scotland to play golf and Oahu’s North Shore in Hawaii to surf.

And my sports bucket list still needs ticking off for cycling up France’s Alpe d’Huez and running in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the starting place for the Boston Marathon.

But Canadian super fans and filmmakers Ethan Cole and Laurence Payne have gone one further with The Project on Score Media.

The duo have shot four short films that recently aired on the Canadian specialty channel, and online, as a branded series where they track down lost sporting legends so they can relive legendary sporting moments.

The Project includes shorts where Payne and Cole attempt to get archrivals Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis to reenact their 100 meter dash at the 1988 Summer Olympics, or getting Otis Nixon to recreate the bunt that ended the 1992 World Series.

“These are all of the things you would do if you [got to] to meet your sporting heroes. And Score Media came on board to air the episodes,” Payne tells Playback Daily.

The idea of the bucket list stems from Rob Reiner’s 2007 dramedy The Bucket List, about two terminally ill men, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, who escape their hospital beds with a wish list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.”

The bucket list that inspired The Project got started when Cole and Payne were making a documentary about Buster Douglas, who scored one of boxing’s biggest upsets when he knocked out Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990.

As it happened, the 22-minute road-trip film soon took a comedic twist when Payne arranged for Douglas to box Cole in Columbus, Ohio.

Cole eventually spars with the bruiser wearing a bizarre rubber suit for protection.

A second film for Score Media has Cole in a black SUV vehicle, with Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson in the passenger seat, as they stalk Carl Lewis in Malton, New Jersey.

Johnson won a 100 meter final showdown with Carl Lewis at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, only to fail a drug test, be stripped of his gold medal and be sent home in disgrace.

“Ben Johnson (at the 1988 Olympics) was a big scandal and sportscasters handle that by sitting down and doing 20/20 interviews,” Payne explained.

Not Payne and Cole.

Their gold medal moment comes as they treat the 1988 Olympic showdown from the perspective of sporting fanatics aiming at comedy, rather than seasoned sport journalists doing serious reportage.

“We interviewed him [Johnson] as he waited for his rival to show up at a 7-Eleven,” Payne recalls, adding prior research told them Lewis came to the convenience store most mornings for a cup of coffee.

The duo have done four 22-minute films for Score Media, and more are on the way.

“The ball is rolling on some of these. Now that we have a little bit of time, we’re going to do some thinking and research some ideas,” Payne says, looking forward to crossing off more legendary sporting events on their bucket list.
Read more: http://playbackonline.ca/2011/11/28/how-two-superfans-got-score-media-to-fund-their-bucket-list/#ixzz1fCW0Cvqy

The Project is a brilliant, uh, project from Circle Productions’ Laurence Payne and DDB’s Ethan Cole. Basically, they’ve created a sports bucket list and they’re crossing off their insane ideas one by one. Watch the trailer and let your mind be blown.

This week’s Frandoms are by Adam Bailey from DDB Canada.

If you own a BlackBerry 7 device and are an avid sports lover then no doubt you’ve been waiting for ScoreMobile to release a compatible update. The wait is finally over. This new version brings OS 7 compatibility and two new interesting features. First, the one I’m sure everyone will enjoy, is being able to integrate their favorite teams’ schedule with their BlackBerry calendar. Second, is the introduction of a new “My Score” feature whilch allows users to follow their favorite teams and track games from different leagues all on a single page. Now that we’re in the middle of hockey and football season it’s definitely time to grab this update. You can pick up ScoreMobile for BlackBerry for free from BlackBerry App World.

By Gary Ng

One of my favourite apps, ScoreMobile (launched in 2008) has been updated for the iPhone. The latest 3.0 update was part of a complete redesign that includes support for iOS 5, alongside a new gesture-based interface. These guys made an already awesome app even better. Here’s what’s new:

What’s New In Version 3.0
* Completely re-designed gesture-based interface
* Player card profiles (Player photo, Recent performances, Season stats, Bio etc.)
* “My Score” area to customize the app to your needs. Follow any team, or player throughout the season to view their performances* Player grouping ability to follow all of your fantasy teams in one app; live up to the minute
* Team view to browse news, rankings, recent performances, season schedules, rosters and injuries
* Social sharing ability: share any blog post or news article via Twitter, Facebook, SMS or email
* iOS5 Support

Upon launching the app there’s a simple and smart tutorial that explains how to use the new app. You can follow individual players and add them to groups plus set custom alerts. The drop down bar lets you access any sports category easily, and you can quickly drag to rearrange the order. There is also access to all The Score blogs too.

This is a fantastic update to one of the most popular sports apps out there.

I used to feel for DeMar DeRozan, a thin-blooded Los Angeles guy freezing up in Toronto playing some good ball. A guy who should have lasted longer in the Dunk Contest. And this The Basketball Jones interview starts off gaining points as he gives a shout out to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.

Then he admits he likes Justin Bieber.

He says some other stuff after that. I am too stunned to remember. Bieber. DeRozan can come over to my house and talk with my 7-year-old daughter about him, they’d have him in common.

TBJ Tour Video: DeMar DeRozan likes his pre-game Bieber from The Basketball Jones on Vimeo.

ScoreMobile for BlackBerry smartphones got an awesome update last night to version 1.8.5.  The coolest feature is the My Score page which allows you to gather up all your favorite teams and tracked games so you can view them all from one single screen instead of going all over the place.  Here’s the full change log:

• My Score feature: follow your favorite teams and tracked games from different leagues all on a single page
• Ability to add entire team seasons to your calendar
• OS7 optimizations
• Minor bug fixes and performance enhancements

Native calendar support is awesome too.  It’s all about applications that sync well with native BlackBerry apps.  ScoreMobile connects to BBM, and now your native calendar! Click the link below to download the update free from BlackBerry App World.

Download ScoreMobile >>

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - On today’s APP-tastic and outta SITE – ScoreMobile.

Sports fans, rejoice. This app lets you keep track of scores for almost every sport – football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer just to name a few. Now you can stay up to date on team and player statistics for your favorite sport from anywhere.

Check out the ScoreMobile app.

Our friends at The Basketball Jones have figured out what to do during the NBA lockout. Instead of waiting patiently at home, monitoring their twitter streams in hopes good news will come along, they hit the road. The TBJ guys somehow convinced their bosses at The Score that they should go on a podcast tour to ten different NBA cities this month (actually, Skeets told me that it wasn’t that hard a job getting the tour approved). On Sunday, the Basketball Jones: No Season Required tour hit San Antonio.

Graydon and I, along with good friend Rob Mahoney, made the short trip down to San Antonio from Austin to sit in on the live podcast and a grab post-show drink. At each of these live shows, TBJ lined up a good guests to talk ball and anything else with. In San Antonio, there was a surprise guest scheduled to appear, who even the TBJ guys weren’t aware of. Turns out, Brent Barry showed up to join them.

As someone who listened to all of the previous No Season Required podcasts, I feel qualified to announce that Brent Barry was the best guest so far of the tour. And that’s saying something when they’ve had guys like Dorell Wright and Bill Wennington appear. Not only was Barry his funny and playful self, he was also brutally honest and genuine. There were no canned answers from him.

The Spurs media relations folks were also kind enough to give the Jones guys a tour of the practice facility and allowed them to shoot some videos there, which should be posted soon. We’ll be sure to have them here when they’re up. For now, though, take some time and enjoy the No Season Required show in San Antonio.



The 2011-2012 NHL season got off to a brisk beginning this month. The race for the Stanley Cup delivers fast-paced action, exhilarating goals and the usual amount of turbulence on the ice. These highly rated apps provide everything from scores, stats and video highlights, to game-time sound effects and hockey fighting games.

CB C Hockey (Free) — Hockey nirvana from Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s Hockey Night in Canada, which gives all NHL up-to-the-minute scores, stats, standings and live video. (Mobilewalla Score: 86/100)

The Hockey News (Free) — Offers everything hockey fans need to stay up to date on their favorite team. Customizable alerts for scores, stats, injuries and trades ensure that you will never miss any action. (Score: 84/100)

NHL Gamecenter 2011-2012 ($19.99) — Admittedly a pricey app, but well worth it for hockey buffs, who can now watch any NHL highlight and buy tickets as well. It has up-to-the-minute scores, standings, schedules, stats and breaking news. (Score: 80/100)

Goal Horns ($0.99) — Pick your favorite team’s goal horn, play horns and organ songs from around the league, or turn it into your ringtone. (Score: 84/100)

Glow Hockey (Free) — This space-age spin on air hockey pits you against other online opponents. (Score: 94/100)

Android

Hockey Fight Lite (Free) — Fight like a real hockey player with this 3-D hockey fighting game. (Score: 85/100)

One Timer (Free) — Test your slap-shot skills against other community members. Speed and power move you up the rankings. (Score: 81/100)

Yahoo Fantasy Hockey (Free) — Manage your fantasy hockey team like a professional with Yahoo’s fantasy platform. Real-time scores, stats and injury reports. (Score: 84/100)

Hockey Nations ($4.99) — Play 6-on-6 hockey in this 3-D arcade-style game against teams from around the world. (Score: 87/100)

ScoreMobile for Android (Free) — For the sports fan who wants live stats on the NHL and every other major sport, this app is a favorite. Sign up for push notifications, too. (Score: 96/100)

Mobilewalla is a search and discovery engine using breakthrough technology to score every app to help consumers navigate the mobile application marketplace.