Plati-'tudes
October 31, 2000
A bi-weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 17th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.
Ah, Halloween. It came early for Mets fans (you just know I had top rub that in a bit). And even some of us most devout Yankee fans can't stand John Sterling's ending game call (Thhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeee Yankees win! Bring back Rizzuto, Messer and White!)...
TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU -- Who was the last player to throw and catch a touchdown pass in the same game prior to Craig Ochs doing it in CU's 37-21 win over Oklahoma State last Saturday (Hint: it's a trick question). Godfather -- What was the name of the ship that young Vito Corleone traveled to America on in Godfather Part II, and where is the name of the ship common today?
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER, PART I... 77. That's how old Fred "The Count" Casotti will be this Friday (November 3), as it certainly looks like he's going to make it. But there was real concern just a week ago that we might never see Fred roaming around CU Athletics, as he was listed in critical condition after suffering a second stroke-like seizure the morning of October 14. He missed the Texas game that day, ending a streak of 268 consecutive home games he had worked and/or witnessed in person. But Fred's a fighter, and has rallied to the point where he told me over the phone just this afternoon, " Plato... I'm back from the other side." He was in a coma for a short period of time, but is now recalling most everything and is walking around a bit; he'll be transferred from Boulder Community Hospital to the Mapleton Rehabilitation Center later in the week. Fred, now CU's official Historian, served as sports information director from 1952-68 and as associate AD between 1968 and when he retired in 1987, though he's stayed active in the department, working on special projects and with the Alumni C Club in addition to his historian duties. He was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame (College Sport Information Directors) in 1996 and is truly one of the legends of the business, best known for his use of limericks and poems to spruce up weekly news releases back in the 1950s. Coach Gary Barnett presented last Saturday's game ball to Fred's family following the win, and they promptly delivered it to the hospital.
REBUFFAL AVOIDED... Thanks to Neill Woelk's (of the Boulder Camera) apology on Saturday, there's little need to hammer my good friend "Nelk" on what he wrote last Friday. But one point that hasn't been publicly noted has been about watering the grass, what little there is, at our cross country course (Buffalo Ranch) on the CU South Campus. The University is very limited as to what it can and can't do out on the open space. There are a lot of hoops to go through, and installing a permanent watering system out there, with a lot of native grasses and protected land was denied. Even transporting water to the site on large water trucks was turned down because of the damage it can do. The cross country programs here get plenty of support, which Mark Wetmore would have reiterated had he been contacted for the story. People in academics, equipment, student services, sports medicine, financial aid, our office (media relations-and we do a lot more than just print a program, which was an absurdity on the Internet saying that's all we did) care deeply about all our programs, not just the ones that dominate the headlines. Most if not all of the student-athletes will tell anyone that. Oh, and to the person who sent a nasty E-mail Tuesday evening about us not having the sense to honor the champion cross country teams at halftime of the CU-OSU football game: the TEAMS declined an invitation to do just that because they had a lot of family in town and most didn't even want to go to the game. To inquire and check out why would be one thing, and is welcomed, but to send in a nasty, anonymous E-mail is quite another. Of course, your E-mail may be anonymous, but "ve have vays of finding out who you are."
VALKYRIES CONNECTIONS... Those of you who scoured the sports sections last week may have noticed Dani King scoring three touchdowns in the Colorado Valkyries home opening 58-0 win over Oklahoma. (The Valkyries are Colorado's entry in the Women's Professional Football League.) Dani is the younger sister of Sherrice King, a four-year letterwinner in women's basketball at Colorado who is currently an academic coordinator in the athletic department. And the head coach, Don Cavarra, is the father of former golfer Nicole Cavarra, who graduated last spring with one of the top grade point averages in school history, earning a host of academic accomplishments in her college career.
BUFFALO HUG PILLOWS A HIT... CU's assistant AD for community relations, Jeannie Dixon, along with UCB's Office of Community Affairs, are coordinating a great program to help bring smiles to area children who have been hospitalized. The "Buffalo Hug" pillows are hand delivered to pediatric wards and emergency rooms in the metro area by current CU athletes, who also sign autographs and converse with the kids. The fleece pillows are black and gold and have an embroidered CU buffalo logo and have been donated by CU Athletics to comfort young patients in the hospital because, as Wynn Martens of OCA says, "Every kid needs a hug." For more information on the program, contact Jeannie at 303/492-6773.
MORE ART FOR YOU ART LOVERS... If anyone is looking for a poster of two moose kissing, I happen to know where you can get one. Kelly Coursey-Gray, one of our occasional photographers (the wildlife pics in the media guides) and a close personal friend of moi, captured two moose smooching on a photo venture up in Yellowstone. It's a fairly cool poster for you nature lovers; for more information, E-mail Kelly at grayzones@hotmail.com.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?... Received an E-mail recently from Scott Wilke, who lettered four times in basketball (center) for coaches Tom Apke and Tom Miller back in the mid 1980s. Scott recently (in September) accepted a coaching and teaching position at Central High School in Omaha. He and his family had been living in England for the past four years, where he was playing professionally until his retirement this summer. He was an all-star in three countries: England, Luxembourg and Japan, and last year, he served as head coach for Sunderland University, but was allowed to play as well since he was a postgraduate student. He had a coaching flair, as his team made it to the semifinals of the British University Sports Association, while his English select team easily won the British University Games. His wife, Sue, a native of England, is due wither their second child in December, as their son, Alex, is in second grade and Scott boasts, "Is already big for his age." Perhaps another CU center down the line... Scott does claim that he's only living in Nebraska temporarily (which is close to his hometown of Panama, Iowa), as he plans to start looking for a coaching and teaching job in Colorado after the holidays and wants to move the family this way in 2001 (so if anyone knows of anything, let him know through me). Scott is still the seventh all-time leading scorer in Colorado history, with 1,366 points (he was fourth at the end of his career in '87-88, but has since been passed by Donnie Boyce, Shaun Vandiver and Stevie Wise). He averaged 21.5 points per game as a senior, scoring 601 points that year, the sixth most ever for a single year at Colorado. He tried out with the L.A. Clippers back in 1988, but was released the following month, so he moved to Australia and played there for the spring of '89. Then he started his foreign travels, playing in England, Japan and Finland before returning to the U.S., where he played 40 games with Omaha of the CBA. He then played in Luxembourg for three seasons (1993-95), playing one season with former CU teammate Torin Williams (who is now a policeman in Phoenix). In 1995, he signed with an Austrian team, but they had a "financial meltdown" and he returned to America where he wound up working with a Coors distributor (much to the delight of John Meadows). He returned to England in 1996, where he remained until moving back to Omaha this summer. Any former friends or teammates can contact Scott at wilkes@ops.org.
DID YA EVER NOTICE... Insider Info: Have you ever wondered why some NFL owners seem to always get on TV during their team's games, and others seldom appear? That's because some of these owners specifically have their PR guys start hounding the TV people as early as the Tuesday before the game to get 3-4 shots of them during the game. You seldom see some owners (for example, Denver's Pat Bowlen isn't on much, unless he's on the sidelines late in a game), but you're always seeing some of the other guys. Compare how much Bowlen, a very popular owner by the way with the players and staff, is on, as compared to his counterparts at Washington, Philadelphia, Oakland, and, of course, Dallas (not that those owners are not popular, but they score a lot more TV times than others).
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER, PART II... 200. That's the consecutive number of Colorado football games that I have worked. So since numbers that end in "00" always mean commemorations, here's my top 10 all-time favorite CU athletic moments witnessed in person:
1. 1991 Orange Bowl. Think back to how you felt when Deon Figures intercepted Rick Mirer's pass with 13 seconds to go and it was all but done: Colorado's first national championship in football. Remember that feeling of total euphoria?! That feeling summed up why you were in the business.
2. December 10, 1994. Downtown Athletic Club, New York City. Rashaan Salaam wins the Heisman, and I remember leaping out of my seat and getting a bear hug from the late Ben Gregory, seated to my right. And coming on the heels of seeing Chris Hudson win the Thorpe Award two days earlier in Orlando, and much like when Matt Russell got his name called in '96 for the Butkus Award were really exciting moments.
3. October 25, 1986. Colorado 20, Nebraska 10. Need I say more?
4. Sept. 30, 1989. Colorado 45, Washington 28. The week after Sal (Aunese) passed away. You couldn't describe the feelings running through you if you were closely associated with the team. It felt like someone was watching over us.
5. Sept. 2, 1995. Colorado 43, Wisconsin 7 in Madison. Rick Neuheisel's first game as head coach. The first CU game after my mother passed away on June 29; she used to call and leave me a message after every CU game, win or lose. We win, so after the game, who is the first person Rick called, 15 minutes after the game, before he spoke at length with his own family? My father, that's who. A lot of people out there don't think highly of Rick, but you're feeding off of what some columnists and talk shows set the table (and he's the first to admit he didn't do everything right here).
6. Feb. 21, 1979. My first road trip with a CU sports team: men's hoops lost 55-53 at Oklahoma State, but I distinctively remember the entertainer in the Holiday Inn hotel bar was a country western singing, piano-playing "Dot Brewer."
7. 1990 Orange Bowl (Notre Dame 21, Colorado 6). We didn't win, but the experience was once-in-a-lifetime.
8. Nov. 3, 1990. Eric Bieniemy's four fourth-quarter touchdowns rally CU to a 27-12 win at Nebraska. The sight of all those red clad fans leaving with three minutes still to play is vivid (well, A., it was freezing cold with light rain; and B., Nebraska was not going to pass us silly and rally in 180 seconds).
9. Feb. 29, 1984. Colorado 89, Kansas 85 in men's hoops. Apke's Buffs best Larry Brown's Jayhawks in a thriller in Boulder-and CU's leading scorer that night? None other than "Opie." Mike Reid scored a career-high 25 out of nowhere, with Jay Humphries feeding him pass after pass.
10. 1991 NCAA Ski Championship (Park City, Utah). Flew out the morning of the final races, and it was fun to watch Richard Rokos' skiers win the first of his four national titles to date (and in his first season as head coach). That was special because we lost Laura Sharpe Flood the previous April (died in a training accident), and she was in all our thoughts, and it was a double-double with CU claiming the football title as well.
10 (tie). Jan. 3, 1989. Ceal Barry's then "Lady Buffs" get on the national map for certain with a 61-60 home win over Louisiana Tech. I remember it as being really, really cool, and Bridget Turner crying afterwards.
TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU -- Javon Green, some 23 minutes earlier in the same game. The irony is that no player had ever done it at CU until last Saturday, and two players wound up doing it in the same game (at least since 1946, when records are available, but since TD passes were scarce back then, two in a game was an oddity, much less the same player throwing and catching one). Godfather -- The Moshulu. There is a parkway, a short one, in the Bronx that connects the Saw Mill River/Hendrick Hudson Parkway with the Major Deegan.
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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.