Plati-'tudes
February 11, 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.
For those who were waiting and wondering if anything worse than the Osmond family reunion would be out there to listen to, NBC has brought us XFL announcers... Okay, I actually own "Down By The Lazy River," the groups' "hit" 1972 single...
TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU -- The Colorado men's basketball team is 2-4 at home but 3-2 on the road; how many times has CU won more or as many road games as home games in conference play since joining the Big Seven in 1948?: A-0; B-1; C-3; D-6. Godfather -- Why wasn't Rocco, one of Michael's two right hand men (with Al) in Godfather III?
THREE STRAIGHT ON THE ROAD... The men's basketball team continued its recent trend of following a home loss with a road win by defeating Kansas State, 70-63, on Feb. 10 and has accomplished a few things not done in a long, long time. It was the sixth road win in school history, tied for the second most ever and last accomplished in 1996-97; the record is nine in the 1941-42 season. The Buffs are now 3-2 on the road in Big 12 play, its most league wins on the road since going 4-4, also in '96-97. Colorado plays at Missouri this Wednesday, and with a win, would match its longest conference road game-winning streak of four, done in those first four road games back in '97. This is only the eighth time since the Buffs joined the Big 7 Conference all the way back in 1947-48 that Colorado has won as many as three straight road games in league play; the record is five during the '61-62 campaign, and the only other instance of four aside from five years ago came during the '63-64 season.
In addition, the K-State win was No. 998 in the program's history; if the Buffs can steal a win at Missouri, Colorado would be in position to get win 1,000 at home on Feb. 17... against Nebraska.
VALENTINE'S DAY WITH THE BUFFS... The women's basketball team, now ranked No. 19 in the nation, has a huge date this Wednesday when it hosts No. 5 Iowa State (20-2 overall, 10-1 Big 12) in a 7:00 p.m. Valentine's Day start. Wouldn't it be great to see a capacity or near capacity gathering to help CU beat the Cyclones, as Ceal Barry's Buffaloes will be looking for a bit of revenge after last month's 95-61 loss in Ames.
RECRUITING CLASS NOTES... Here are some quick tidbits about the 17 members of this year's recruiting class. Colorado fared well within the state's borders, as the Buffs corralled four of the 10 players listed on the state blue chip list by the Rocky Mountain News, and snared five of the 14 on a similar list by the Denver Post.
WR Jeremy Bloom is likely the only recruit (or at the very least, one of a just a handful) that is also competing for a spot on the United States Olympic Team; he's a world class freestyle skier who won the bronze medal at the 2000 World Championships in Italy... Some have called RB Brandon Caesar the best running back to ever come out of Canada; except, even he couldn't get out of Canada this week. The big snowstorm in the northeast kept him in Montreal a couple of days longer than expected and he couldn't return to prep school in Connecticut... DL Mark Fenton once had three quarterback sacks in the same quarter, as helped Westchester wreak havoc in the offensive backfield for Palisades in their '99 encounter... DT DeAndre Fluellen is one-up on another recruiting class member, as he played a role in limiting RB Chris Brown to just nine yards on eight tries in a 33-18 NE Oklahoma A&M win over Fort Scott on Sept. 16 in Miami, Okla.; Brown rallied the following week against Independence, gaining 199 yards and two touchdowns on just 12 attempts in a 43-6 Fort Scott win... Two members of this class were born overseas: LB Lee Foliaki was born on the Island of Tonga (about 300 miles east of Fiji, where the movie Cast Away was recently filmed), and DL Jahi Green was born on a U.S. military base in Rheindland-Psalz, Germany (his mother was in the military)... Green, incidentally, knows what kind of damage CU sophomore-to-be quarterback Craig Ochs can cause: Ochs directed a game winning touchdown drive that enabled Fairview to beat Green's Overland squad in the final minute in 1999... DL James Garee might be one of the tallest sprinters in Colorado prep history: just a hair over 6-foot-5, he was a member of Colorado Springs Mitchell's 4x200 relay team last spring... QB Robert Hodge blossomed in junior college to the point where his coach, John Featherstone, called him the, "Junior college equivalent of Michael Vick."... QB/ATH Russell Lovett has had the same pregame meal for quite some time: a Subway barbecue beef and bacon sandwich; college athletes aren't eligible to be spokespeople otherwise Subway might be calling... DL Vaka Manupuna will become the latest of a long line of Buffaloes from the 50th state, as the Hawaii St. Louis star was recruited by Brian Cabral, an alum of Hawaii's powerhouse school himself... Pavarotti might have nothing on OL Gary Moore, at least in size: Moore enjoys a wide range of music, particularly gospel and rhythm and blues and sings in his church choir. He's easy to spot in the back row at 6-7, 350... OL Clint O'Neal might be as well rounded as they come: he owns a 3.0+ grade point, is a member of the Future Farmers Association, enjoys hunting and fishing, and devotes a lot of what's left of his personal time to working with Special Olympics... OL Drew Shader earned six varsity letters in high school; common, sure-except all six came in the same sport. He lettered in varsity football starting in 7th grade and earned a letter every year thereafter (in short, he earned his first letter the same year as "The Catch")... CB Omar Stewart knows a little bit of CU football history; he would like to wear No. 10, because the last Stewart on the roster, Kordell, wore that number from 1991-94; he is so fired up to attend CU that he is attending both day and night classes to earn the final 16 credit hours he needs; he earned about that many over Christmas break instead of taking time off... DL McKenzie Tilmon, who once had seven tackles for loss in the same game, is an accomplished drag car racer and collects Deion Sanders memorabilia; he met him as a present on his 16th birthday... WR Daric Wilhite is both devoted: he makes it a point to catch 100 balls every day to stay sharp, and superstitious: he won't change the socks he wears until his team suffers a loss.
INTERESTING CHOICE... This fall, Colorado and Kansas moved its date from Sept. 29 to Sept. 22 to put a conference game on the latter date for television purposes. Word out of Fort Collins is that ABC, which does a handful of Mountain West games a year, is interested in the San Diego State at Colorado State game, set for Sept. 22. ABC could easily televise both; they're different packages. But if the games start at the regular ABC slot, 1:30 p.m. mountain time, what game would the Denver area get? Hard to imagine ABC televising a CU game and it won't be on in Denver, but if the above scenario actually plays out, obviously fans of either CU or CSU won't be too happy. My personal take on if it happens? ABC slots CU for Denver-San Diego State gets them part of the Southern California market, plus the Big 12 is a regular television partner whereas the Mountain West, though aligned with ESPN, owned by Disney along with ABC, is not.
OSU TRAGEDY... It was the one thing we all dread in this business; something no one really ever talks about but is probably thought of several times by most of us when we're either in flight or waiting on the ground for our respective team charter to land. The January 27 plane crash that claimed 10 lives of those associated with the Oklahoma State men's basketball team obviously sent shivers through us all. Finding out early in the evening that a plane had gone down east of Denver and the that it may involve OSU was downright chilling; the Associated Press called our office at about 7:15 hearing what the reporter called a "cryptic rumor." Ten minutes later, two TV stations called hearing the same thing, and a little bit of panic set in. A half-hour later, I heard from the local NTSB official, and a half-hour after that, confirmation and the preliminary passenger list: one of the three planes OSU chartered that had left for Stillwater following its game in Boulder that afternoon had crashed in a field some 25 miles east of Denver.
Though most names were kind of familiar to me, two most definitely stood out: Will Hancock, Oklahoma State's fine basketball SID who works under one of the best in Steve Buzzard, and Bill Teegins, simply an enjoyable member of the media we all work with day-in and day-out in the Big 12 Conference. At that point, John Meadows and Colleen Reilly Krueger had joined me in the office, and the evening started to take on a surreal feel. How could this be happening? Was one of our peers really no longer with us? Football or basketball team planes just don't go down; it had been 24 years since the last one (Evansville in 1977). It had to be a mistake.
All kinds of things flash through your mind... the first for me was the image of Will's father, Bill Hancock, easily one of the most respected people to ever work in intercollegiate athletics (at the Big Eight office and now with the NCAA as the director of the men's basketball championship). Bill was so kind to me when I was a student slug in this business back in the late 1970s.
John, Colleen and I answered phone calls from all kinds of media, and helped inform people here at CU associated with athletics, particularly men's basketball, so they wouldn't have to hear it on the news. The contact at the NTSB warned me about a side of the television media I probably had never seen, and he was right; to some (not all by any means), it was all about entertainment and being first. Some reporter even asked me if I could confirm that the five starters were on the plane that had went down; what I said to him and what I wanted to say were two different things. But what the hell difference would that make? Nothing, other than some idiot thinking any five of the traveling party were more important than any other five.
Buzz called early the next morning; Bill was in his office and put him on with me. "This is ol' Eagle Eye," he said, citing a nickname that I had given him around 1980 for a reason that now escaped me. We talked briefly; I could tell it was a father looking for any kind of information, reasons or answers. He asked if I had seen Will the day before, but working the ski meet, I never did get over to the basketball game that afternoon. I told him I hadn't seen him since we played golf and he was in the foursome ahead of me at last May's Big 12 SID meetings, basically a collection of flaks all trying to break 100 to not embarrass ourselves but obviously seeing more of the course than anyone really wanted to. And Will didn't make the trip to Boulder last October when the football Cowboys were in town.
We offered Bill anything and everything CU could do for him, but the only thing he could really want is the one thing we weren't capable of, and that was to bring his son back. I've never felt more helpless, even after offering him anything and everything I could think of.
Colleen and Tim Simmons, our former SID who knows Bill well, went to Will's funeral (Monday, Feb. 5), two of about 1,000 attendees. What an awesome show of support of someone who was rapidly becoming, if not already, one of the best in the business.
"I had him for 31 years," Bill Hancock said of his son as he eulogized him at the service. "He was... such... a gift to me."
Bill, he was a gift to all of us, and our profession will sorely miss him. We need more Will Hancocks.
(Anyone interested in helping out the Hancock's have been encouraged by CoSIDA to send $10 or more to Karen Hancock, c/o Oklahoma State Women's Soccer, 424 Squires Street, Stillwater, OK 74078-5070.)
COMEBACK?... Say what you what about the XFL, but CU's Heisman Trophy winner, Rashaan Salaam is trying to make a comeback in the sport and he's off to a good start. A member of the Memphis Maniax, Salaam rushed for 156 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries, the second most rushing yards gained during the fledgling league's opening weekend Feb. 3-4 (one-time Denver Bronco John Avery gained 157 on 25 tries for Chicago). Rashaan has overcome a lot of adversity, and many of us in Boulder are pulling for him.
PASSED ON... Some sad news to report: Don Piper, a football letterman in the 1950's, passed away at his home in Basalt, Colo., on Jan. 23. Piper, who came to CU from Manzanola, Colo., was a quarterback who lettered for the 1953 season. He was second on the team in pass receptions with six that year (for 65 yards), rushed for 13 yards on six carries, completed his only pass, and made good on 9-of-10 extra point kicks. He was 66.
TALK SHOWS... I must admit I don't listen all that much, usually just while driving or when I know we have a coach or athlete on, but I received quite a few E-mails regarding Mike & Sandy's show on KKFN when they apparently went off on the Buffaloes a week or so ago. Something about CU being ranked only three times ever in the final Top 5 (it's actually five times) compared to Florida State. Sure, bi-partisan fans will be upset with sports talk shows, but you have to take them with a grain of salt. It's the "schtick" of some to be that way-all you have to do is listen to what they talk about when it comes to everybody. While Mike and Sandy (who's been a good friend of mine for a long time) may come across sometimes that they are anti-CU, I know for fact that they're not. Sandy's been kind to us when we've had better on-field or on-court performances. And if you truly listen to Sandy, it doesn't take long to figure out that he quite knowledgeable in his chosen field of talking sports.
Most people don't know that most of these sports talk hosts seldom get out and mingle with the people they are talking about, either in person or on the telephone. Larry Zimmer, Jim Ryan, Bob Davidson have been around the program the most and really, really know the people they talk about. The "War Room" duo of Wade Wimmer and Matt Schick are next, almost as familiar with knowing our people personally as the aforementioned three. The next wave includes Joe Williams, Irv Brown, Thierry Smith and Scott Hastings; Dave Logan gets a large dose of yours truly several times of year and we always talk CU, plus he now is the emcee of our football recruiting luncheon, and Charles Johnson of course bleeds black and gold. Otherwise, we seldom see or even hear from any of the other people doing sports talk in this town, but they're certainly not required to establish contact with us to do what they do; some choose to, some do not. We do and always welcome contact with them, and many times it's when we're in the pressroom or boxes at Rockies, Broncos, Nuggets or Avalanche games. The bottom line is that it's purely a form of entertainment, not to mention free speech. If they're blatantly wrong, we correct them and they're all good in this town about getting those out over the air.
But as far as being truly informed on CU athletics and the entire pictures, straight from all the key players, Zimmer (who doesn't do sports talk anymore) and Ryan have the most knowledge, and obviously having the inside track of being our play-by-play announcers helps.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER ... 10. Rest in peace, you will all be remembered.
TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU -- The answer is C, three. The Buffs have won more road than home games only once in Big 7/8 and 12 play, that in 1953 (two road, one home). They had the same number of road wins and home wins in both 1951 (1 & 1) and 1986 (0 & 0). Godfather -- Rocco was shot after he shot Hyman Roth at the Miami airport at the end of Godfather II; no reference was ever made to it again, so he either died or was locked up.
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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.