Plati-'tudes
April 4, 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.
Back from Turlock, Calif., and my annual trek with the men's golf team... You haven't seen all of California until you have had a cold one at the Hilmar Saloon.
TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU -- As the women's tennis team re-enters the national rankings (at No. 58) for the first time in two seasons, arguably the two best players in Buffalo history shared the same first name. Who are they? Godfather -- Who originally was cast to play Michael Corleone in the original Godfather?
SPEAKING OF TRIVIA... It's the coaches versus the players Thursday (April 5) at 5:00 in a celebrity trivia bowl battle of wits in the Glenn Miller Ballroom on the CU-Boulder campus. The Trivia Bowl is back after a seven year hiatus; the coaches will be led by Steve Marshall, Jon Embree and Vince Okruch (with one TBA), while the players' lineup will feature Cedric Cormier, Robbie Robinson, Andy Peeke, Michael Lewis and Karl Allis. Admission is free so stop on by.
SPRING FOOTBALL GAME DAY... Kickoff for the annual spring football game on April 14 is set for 1 p.m., the highlight of the day's activities. The gates will open at 10:30 a.m., with the GBSF hosting a pregame open house between 11 a.m. and kickoff, when staffers will also have information and visual displays on the suites and club seating that will be added to Folsom Field (starting in 2002 if everything comes together as planned). The alumni flag football games will be from 11 a.m. until Noon, Ralphie will be on display from Noon on, and there will be an autograph session with the coaches and players postgame.
DIARY OF A COLLEGE GOLFER... Think going to college on a golf scholarship is all roses? One should witness first-hand how the non-revenue sport athletes experience life on the road. While the big programs charter direct into or close to a city, non-revenue sport coaches fly into the airport with the cheapest fare and drive the rest of the way. Most of the 14 teams participating in last week's CU-Stevinson Ranch Invitational flew into either Oakland or Fresno and drove the two or two-and-a-half hours by van to Stevinson, located between Modesto and Merced, like those are two easy places to access. The bulk of the meals are those associated with the tournament: a breakfast buffet, sack lunches, a lasagna dinner and a burger/dog barbecue as the teams finish competition. Breakfast in the coaches' room is usually a once-a-trip occurrence, meaning cereal, oatmeal and fruit, and they'll eat out a couple of times. There's a practice round, with some playing in a College-Am with three or four sponsors of the tournament, then 36 holes straight through the first day, with the only cart ride a jaunt from the 9th to 10th holes to help speed up the meet a few minutes. In other words, about 10 miles of walking, often in adverse weather conditions; we had two days of 15-to-25 mile an hour winds. And don't forget countless time at the range or on the putting green. They're up by 6 a.m. both days of competition, and on trips other than spring break, study at night before turning in. But you know what? The kids don't complain much if at all; they appreciate the opportunity they're getting.
CU'S WAHL ONE OF SEVENTEEN FINALISTS... CU senior Portia Wahl is one of 17 finalists for one of four NACDA Sears Cup Postgraduate Scholarship Awards. Wahl, who works in the academic support unit in the athletic department, boasts a 3.62 grade point average in English. She is up for one of the $5,000 grants that will be awarded at NACDA's convention in Salt Lake City in June.
RIVALS... Had an interesting e-mail inquiring about who our first in-state and out-of-state rivals were, on the heels of the Heritage Center getting ready for a new athletic display this summer and had inquired about the same. From talking to the old guard through the years, the first rivalries were with Colorado College, Colorado Mines and the Denver Athletic Club. But probably the first real one was born in February 1893, when CU was challenged by Colorado A&M (now Colorado State) in football. CU won that game, 70-6, in Fort Collins on Feb. 10 after completing a 2-2 season the previous fall. In-state, the premier rivalry evolved for a time into CU and Denver, as the two dueled Thanksgiving Day several times in the 1920s and 1930s. CU and DU retained the rivalry mainly in skiing after the Pioneers dropped football in the early 1960s; DU has 16 national championships and CU 15 in the winter sport. After CU and CSU discontinued meeting in football and men's basketball in 1959, Air Force emerged as the in-state rival in football. The Buffs and Rams reunited in men's basketball in 1979 with football following four years later in '83; Air Force had pulled out of the football series in '74 and men's basketball in '79 and the Rams remain the top in-state rival to this day. As far as out-of-state rivals are concerned, the first consistent one was Utah, as the Utes and Buffs battled for many a league crown in football back in the 20s and 30s (Utah actually provided the only regular season blemish in CU's 9-1 football campaign in 1961). And as with DU, Utah is also a fierce rival in skiing. But here's a little known fact: the first school from outside the state of Colorado's borders that CU played in any sport was Nebraska in an 1898 football game (then known as the "Bugeaters," NU won 23-10 in Boulder). CU played Wyoming for the first time in 1900 (a 10-6 win), then had a four-year series with Nebraska between 1902 and 1905, with CU's 6-0 win in 1904 in Boulder called the biggest in school history at the time. Regional games against Utah, Kansas and New Mexico appeared about the same time, and CU's first real venture out of the area came in a 1904 road game at Stanford.
BANNER UP AT NCAA HALL OF CHAMPIONS... A special banner was produced in honor of the CU women's cross country team winning the 2000 NCAA Championship, and it will be on display for a year at the NCAA's Hall of Champions in Indianapolis. All schools that win championships are represented in such fashion, and the banners are forwarded on to the school when the displays are over.
AND SPEAKING OF RUNNING... CU will have a presence in the Bolder Boulder Lecture Series this spring, as two of the five sessions will feature a CU cross country flavor. Adam Goucher and fiance Kara Grgas-Wheeler will speak on April 9, with head coach Mark Wetmore and Torres twins (Ed and Jorge) on the April 23 docket. They take place at 7 p.m. at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Boulder; for more information, call 303-444-7223.
REVERSAL... Sophomore center Richard Fox will indeed transfer out of the CU basketball program, but give him some credit for stopping by and apologizing for leading us astray three weeks ago when he denied rumors of such. While noting that he needed spring break to come to his final conclusion, he felt bad about being a bit evasive when I asked him to respond to the original rumor that was in the Boulder Camera. He said he wasn't entirely truthful because he just didn't want everyone to be all over him while he made up his mind. He's a fine young man and we wish him well wherever he decides to continue his basketball career.
JEEP SEATTLE BOWL? Yep, it's true. The Jeep Aloha Bowl is on the move and appears headed to the mainland with Seattle's Safeco Field the likely home, and the Oahu Bowl may be headed east as well (to Pac Bell in San Francisco). After watching some of the bowl weather through the years, I'm not so sure Denver or Boulder shouldn't bid to get into the bowl business. Look at all the "fun" Texas A&M and Mississippi State had in the snow in Shreveport last December!
INTERESTING ANGLES... In catching up with the newspapers upon my return from our golf meet, it's a shame that several columnists from both papers felt the need to compare the NCAA Women's Midwest Regional with men's college basketball, and in doing so, leveling some shots at the women. I've witnessed both now for 23 seasons, and you gain an appreciation for the women because they play an entirely different game.
I remember once saying that women's college basketball will truly have arrived when you go to a sports bar and that's all that is on. Well, guess what-when CU played Vanderbilt for a Sweet 16 berth last month, the Lazy Dog in Boulder, which has about 20 sets, had the CU game on the big screen and on the bulk of the smaller sets. The other four were split between the CSU-UConn women's game and an NHL game.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 21. That was Colorado's final ranking in the women's basketball RPI for the 2000-01 season. With all five starters returning and only one senior gone, look for CU to have perhaps its highest rank ever to open a season come this November.
TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU -- Kathleen Cummings and Kathleen Heckman. Godfather -- This was courtesy of the Bravo channel: Robert DeNiro was originally cast, but more or less traded to the cast of The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight for Al Pacino, though Pacino had legal battles over the move for years.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"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.