Plati-'tudes
June 19, 2001
A bi-weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 17th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.
A short P-Toods, as the football media guide is in crunch time phase (preseason games affect a lot of us!)... This is to serve notice that I will never let Hollywood do to a Plati-'Tudes column what it did to the movie Pearl Harbor... did these jokers do anything more than just skim the history books?
TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU -- Born out of some research for this year's media guide: Colorado has played 674 of its 1,023 in school history within the state's borders. What state has CU played its second most games? Buff Trivia II -- Name the only three golfers who have played in 27 or more U.S. Opens. Godfather -- From P-Tudes fan Patrick Feldman: where and what was the name of the restaurant that Michael gunned down Sollozo and Captain McCluskey?
STILL A DRAW... I have to tell you, it feels good coming off a 3-8 season in football and still having three of the first four games selected for television (including two national games). Television the rest of the way will be determined 12 days ahead of the game date, but the CU-Kansas tilt on Sept. 22 is in the running for a few reasons: several schools are off that day, there's really only two other attractive games that day as of now (Oklahoma State at Texas A&M, Texas at Houston), and we moved the game from Sept. 29 to Sept. 22 for TV consideration in the first place. So if KU gets selected, that'd make four of the first five on the boob tube.
WELCOME BACK, JAY... Former CU All-American center Jay Leeuwenburg has signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos, but there's a little more to it than that. I spoke with Jay last month, and he wants to retire to Colorado, at the time, he was pretty sure he was going to hang it up, but now it's the best of both worlds for him. Jay also wants to get involved in the sports media, he had his own talk shows in both Indianapolis and Washington, and is interested in doing the same here, either while playing or after he retires. He's also known a little bit on the national scene -- remember he was a spokesman at one time for 1-800-COLLECT.
RYAN DEPARTS... Jim Ryan, the former Denver Bronco linebacker who served as color analyst on CU's football and basketball broadcasts for the past six years, has decided not to return for a seventh season. Until last month, Ryan was a fixture on "Hard Core Sports," the 2-6 p.m. talk show slot on KTLK in Denver. He wasn't retained after some recent format changes that the station has made, and with his children participating more in weekend sports activities themselves, he decided to more or less retire. Jim is a class guy and was great to work with, we'll miss him. As to who will fill those shoes, Larry Zimmer, now sports director emeritus at KOA, along with program director Don Martin, have a few options. They range from celebrities and weekly auditions like the Broncos utilized back in '97 when looking for a new analyst (that's when Dave Logan replaced Zimmer on play-by-play) to naming a full-time replacement in the coming weeks. We've been consulted and have brought up names of several former Buffaloes to be considered, including Mr. Leeuwenburg if he doesn't stick with the Broncos.
CONGRATS TO THE DOLEZAR's... Remember Jon Dolezar, a former scribe at the Colorado Daily? He now works for CNN-SI in Atlanta, and he and wife Inga welcomed son Tristan Aylward into the world on Friday, June 1, 2001 at 1:21 p.m. Congratulations!
SEARS CUP... Colorado finished 27th in the 2000-01 Sears Cup Standings, again claimed by Stanford with 1,349.5 points, which outdistanced Pac-10 counterpart UCLA by some 211.5 points to win for what must be the 350th year in a row. Georgia was a distant third, with Michigan and Arizona rounding out the top five. The Buffs scored 499 points, bolstered by their first-ever national championship in women's cross country, along with a second place finish in the men's meet and a third place showing in the NCAA ski championship. CU was fifth among Big 12 Conference schools, as Nebraska was 13th (753 points), Oklahoma 18th (698.5), Texas 20th (671) and Texas A&M 26th (516). CU picked up spring points in men's outdoor track (58) and men's golf (33). Now you can look at finishing No. 27 two ways: first, it's nothing to really brag about. And second: or is it? There are 114 Division I-A schools in football and over 300 in basketball, so 27th sounds better already though we're on record for stating we want to win the thing as part of our Athletics 2010 vision. But CU's off year of no bowl game in football and no post-season appearance in men's basketball hurt CU's point total, in fact, CU was the highest ranked school not scoring points in either of those categories as all 26 above the Buffs in the Cup standings either went to a bowl game or played in the men's hoops bracket (or both). Women's basketball is back on the map at CU after a very brief hiatus, and the bulk of the non-revenue sports are nationally competitive with most making NCAA championship appearances over the last three years. The Buffs were the regional champions so-to-speak in the standings, as CU topped Colorado State (48th, 373.5 points), New Mexico (102, 159), Air Force (106th, 151.5), Wyoming (121st, 122.5). Only BYU, 17th with 707, scored more points than CU out of all the schools in the Mountain Time zone.
HOUSTON FULL GO... On the most recent football team injury report compiled by trainer Steve Willard, freshman (again) tailback Marcus Houston had two words by his name: no restrictions. That's good news for the Denver native, who became the first player in CU history to rush for 100 yards in his first two games in a CU uniform. He was likely on his way to a third when he left the Washington game early with an injury, which turned out to be a torn hip flexor. Because he was injured in the third game, he was able to get a medical redshirt and thus regain the year of eligibility. Thus, he is a freshman again. Most of the players that sat out spring are at or near 100 percent, with the only restrictions being certain conditioning drills they must avoid for the time being.
MEDFORD MOORER SR. ... As many of you know, the father of sophomore free safety Medford Moorer, Medford Moorer, Sr., was shot to death last week in Los Angeles. Coach Gary Barnett, position coach Tom McMahon, wide receiver coach Jon Embree, trainer Steve Willard and academic counselor Melissa Uchitelle-Rogers attended the funeral this past Monday, made easier through a donor's company's jet. The elder Moorer was a joy to be around, always smiling and conversing, and was most proud of his son. He was one of the parents you knew you'd always remember through the years, I called him with two follow-up questions when we were writing Medford's media info, and we had to have a 40-minute conversation ranging from the Thorpe Award to why I wasn't married (he asked if I had children because if I did, I could relate to how proud he was of Medford). It's been a tough year for the junior Medford, as he was just coming into his own as a redshirt frosh last fall when he went down with a torn ACL in mid-season. Those who wish to send cards to Medford can do so care of the football office, University of Colorado, 368 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0368.
FATHER'S DAY... Well, not really, but it seemed that way to me personally at Game 7 of the Avalanche-New Jersey Stanley Cup Final. That's because no less than six former CU sports information student assistants were working the game in some capacity: Sean Kelly, Denver Post reporter Ollie Kirkpatrick, NHL-Radio Brendan McNicholas, Avalanche PR Intern (and current CU assistant SID) Mike Schanno, Manager of Broadcast Services (Kronke Sports) Robbie Winston, Director of Ticket Operations (Kronke Sports) Damen Zier, Avalanche Assistant PR Director
And this list doesn't include Doug Strauss, a former student as well as full-time assistant, who worked the first three games in Denver. In fact, had he not had business out-of-town, yours truly wouldn't have been in the building because I essentially replaced him being a gopher-type slug for NHL Radio (a great group of people, I'd like to mention). Also in the building, but as a fan (he has season tickets) was Chris Fowler, now of ESPN Fame, but another former student from here in SID land. I am proud so many former Buffaloes were able to witness and share the joy of a Game 7 victory.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 3 in the 70s. That's the number of punts that the late Zack Jordan had of 70 yards or more in ONE game back in 1952. How big were those? The game was a 21-21 draw with Oklahoma, the Sooners' only blemish in 48 Big Seven conference games. We unearthed it in research for this year's football guide, which will now exceed 400 pages, an order form for the 2001 guide can be found through a link on the front page of our website. Note that we didn't raise prices.
TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU -- After Colorado, the Buffaloes have played the most games in Kansas (60), followed by Oklahoma (47), Utah (44) and Missouri (33). CU II -- Jack Nicklaus 35, CU's Hale Irwin 27, Sam Snead 27. Godfather -- Louie's Restaurant in the Bronx (Abe Vigoda as Tessio-"It's perfect for us. Good food, everybody minds his own business.")
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"Plati-'Tudes" features notes and stories that may not get much play from the mainstream media, offers CU's take on issues raised by those who have an interest in the program, answers questions and concerns, and provides CU's point of view if we should disagree with what may have been written or broadcast. Have a question or want to know CU's take on something? E-mail Dave at david.plati@colorado.edu, and the subject may appear in the next Plati-'Tudes.