I always wondered, what is a "Hoosier"?

I grew up and still live in Minn-e-snow-ta. All I knew about Hoosiers were Bob Knight's boys sure cleaned up with our Golden Gophers each winter on the hardwood. I have to admit, I did love those dark red uniforms the Hoosiers wore. Still do.

Today I got to thinking about Hoosiers when an e-mail from a southwest Indiana auctioneer friend, John Wells of Wells Auction Company (www.wellsauctioncompany.com), arrived in my inbox. John passed along a sale bill for a nice farm auction they have coming up on December 8, 2007.

Here are a few of the items that will be up for sale at this auction.

1992 JD 4760 tractor with 2,160 hours.

1978 JD 4640 tractor, overhauled at 4,700 hours.

1977 JD 4430 tractor, 7,200 hours, one owner.

JD 148 loader.

1975 Ford F600 grain truck, 14' steel bed, 72K miles.

Kilbros 300 gravity wagon.

JD 7200 planter, 12-row.

CaseIH 5400 drill, 15'.

JD 230 disk, 25'.

Speed King 58'x8'' auger.

1,000 gallon tank.

Lincoln AC 225 welder.

Now, if you were going to attend and bid on anything at this, or any other auction, I would strongly suggest you follow the sage advice of one of the most famous Hoosiers of them all, John Wooden, the former UCLA basketball coach. Long before Wooden was leading his Bruins to numerous NCAA titles, he was a young sharp shooting hoop star in his home state of Indiana.

Wooden is also an accomplished author. My favorite is his classic "Pyramid of Success". My dad gave me the book for Christmas way back when I was in high school. One of Wooden's lines from the book has stuck with me all these years.

"If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail."