Sean DeFrank
Associate Editor
Contact: 868-4553 • Email
A Southern Nevada resident since 1974, DeFrank worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal for more than 13 years, primarily as a sports copy editor but also covering the city of Henderson in the late ‘90s, before coming to Vegas Seven just in time for its launch. The UNLV graduate is also a U.S. Army infantry veteran, and was recalled to active duty in 1991 as part of Operation Desert Storm. He lives in Henderson with his wife, enjoys traveling and going to concerts, and loves his UNLV Rebels.
Recent Articles
Forgotten Legend
January 17th, 2013
Earl Evans isn’t among the most celebrated UNLV basketball players of all time, but he was one of the most gifted. Unfortunately, his achievements never came close to matching his potential as injuries derailed his professional career. His life ended too soon as well, as Evans died Christmas Eve in Edmond, Okla., at the age of 57.
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Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan, Dec. 31
January 10th, 2013
If you’re going to see a band play on New Year’s Eve, especially at $150 a ticket, you should expect a little more than the norm. But for the most part, the Red Hot Chili Peppers treated their show as if it were just another stop on their I’m With You tour.
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Ghosts of the Boulevard
December 13th, 2012
One recent midweek afternoon I got the crazy idea to visit a place I once loved: the Boulevard Mall. It had easily been a decade since I’d last walked down those polished gray lanes, so redolent with childhood memories of family shopping trips. I remember drifting down the decorated holiday walkway, the joyful bustle of people carrying bags bearing presents, exhausted husbands resting on benches and puffing on cigarettes, as I searched for the perfect gifts for my family—with perhaps enough cash left over to buy myself some candy.
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Cabbie Crackdown
December 12th, 2012
Valley taxi companies took an estimated 27 million trips last year, and Taxicab Authority administrator Charles Harvey realizes that he can’t eliminate long hauling. But he is using a variety of more aggressive methods to fight it, including posing as a passenger himself as part of undercover operations and recently implementing a bike patrol so investigators can monitor areas they couldn’t previously.
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Kunzer-Murphy: New Stadium Bowl's Biggest Need
The Maaco Bowl Las Vegas’ former director on resigning her post, the downside of a college football playoff system and the challenges of working in a man’s world
December 6th, 2012
Few people have experienced the breadth of college athletics like Tina Kunzer-Murphy. The Las Vegas native and Valley High School alum played tennis and volleyball at UNLV, coached the university’s women’s tennis team, directed its cheerleading program and worked in administrative capacities within the athletic program, including the Rebel Football Foundation and the Women’s Sports Foundation. In 1999, she was hired to run ESPN’s regional office at UNLV, and the following year was named executive director of the Las Vegas Bowl, only the second woman in the nation to fill such a post.
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Alice Cooper
The Pearl, Nov. 30
December 6th, 2012
Even the architect of shock rock himself could sustain a career for only so long if it were based solely on outrageous stage theatrics and gimmickry. Ultimately, it’s a catalog containing some of the greatest teenage anthems of all time that has kept Cooper entertaining audiences for more than 40 years.
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Rush
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Nov. 23
November 29th, 2012
At a time when it’s in vogue for veteran rockers to revisit past glories and play their most popular albums in their entirety, Rush continues to cut against the grain.
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These kids can play
November 22nd, 2012
Boulder City High School student Avalon Frantz was recently named one of 12 national finalists for the 2012 Wendy’s High School Heisman Award, which honors students who excel in academics, athletics and community service. The senior, who competes in volleyball and track for the Eagles, could become the second straight Southern Nevadan to win the award, following The Meadows’ Garrett Gosse, who is a freshman quarterback at Princeton after winning the male honor last year.
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Sports
3 Questions This Week
November 22nd, 2012
They started appearing in the stands at UNLV basketball games last season: Wayne Newton, Holly Madison, Jimmy Kimmel, Elvis Presley. These larger-than-life cutouts of Las Vegas icons are the work of the Rebellion, which has brought spirited coordination to the UNLV student section at the Thomas & Mack Center since forming last season. At the Rebels’ season opener Nov. 12, the Rebellion debuted cutouts of Prince Harry, Celine Dion and Bryce Harper, along with its own theme song. We spoke with UNLV student Ben Leavitt, one of the group’s founders, about its plans for this season.
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A Rebel Remembered
November 15th, 2012
The scene at the Thomas & Mack Center for the UNLV basketball team’s season opener Nov. 12 seemed a flashback from 20 years ago: carloads of Rebel supporters navigating the parking lot in search of a vacant space, fans outside the arena trying desperately to find a ticket to the nearly sold-out game, the stands packed with red-clad zealots cheering for their nationally ranked team. And Bob Blum would have loved every bit of it. Blum was the godfather of Nevada broadcasters, calling more than 3,500 sporting events in a 70-year career that ended in July when he died at the age of 91.
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