There are lots of little steps along the way to feeling old.

As a sports fan, some of those realizations began to come when the college basketball and football players who had always seemed so old to me were suddenly younger than I was. Then they started having birthdays in years I remembered.

The next step was when many pro athletes were suddenly younger than me. I remember once having the realization that I had surpassed the age by which Jim Brown had completed his entire Hall of Fame pro football career. Cal Ripken (who always seemed really old to me, probably because of that gray, thinning hair) had already broken Lou Gehrig's iron-man consecutive games streak by the time he was my age.

The step beyond that occurred yesterday when a kid who was in music class with me at Butler University in the '80's coached his basketball team (Xavier) to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament.

I suppose I can take comfort in the fact that: A). I'm glad for him, and B). he's at least considered by the media to be a relatively young coach.