Plati-'Tudes - University of Colorado Athletics

May 9, 2000

A weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 16th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.

Back from the Big 12 Sports Information Director Meetings, where I finished in the middle of the pack in our SID golf tournament, but led the field in highways hit with two...

TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU-People are familiar with the Chris Fowlers, Jim Grays, Tom Brookshiers, etc., who attended CU and went on to make their name on national television. But there was a football player from the 1960s who was on for years hawking one particular product. Name the player and the product. Godfather-What famous scene from the original Godfather was replicated in Godfather, Part III, but not in Part II? (Want one you can answer for sure? What was the name of the first business Vito Corleone set up in Little Italy in New York City?)

Q & A WITH A BUFF... Yes, the new Plati-'Tudes feature I've been promoting for two weeks. This won't happen every column, but I'll do an occasional Q & A with someone connected with the University of Colorado. The first one, at the request of Buff fan Reese Spears, is with ESPN's Chris Fowler. A little background on Chris: many know he is a 1985 graduate of CU, majoring in journalism. He worked three years as a student assistant in the athletic media relations office, two years under then-SID John Clagett and his senior year for me (though I was here as assistant director his first two years). He moved on to intern and then work at KCNC-TV in Denver before going to ESPN as the host of "Scholastic Sports America" in 1986. Two years later, he became a college football reporter, working sidelines and then in the studio for college basketball, and then became the host of College Football GameDay in 1990. He attended high school in Colorado Springs (Palmer), owns season tickets to both the Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Rockies, and is an annual contributor to CU's School of Journalism (he can't donate to athletics because he must remain impartial in his position). He will marry Jennifer Dempster (no relation to Ryan of the Florida Marlins) this coming June.

Q: What's your history before coming to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado?
FOWLER: "I was born in the back of Greyhound Bus on Highway 44, and my family traveled around wherever there was fresh fruit to be picked. Seriously, I grew up in the Chicago area and moved to Colorado Springs right before high school. In the middle of all that, we lived three years in State College, Pa., and in those days, as a faculty kid, you could get a ticket for $1 to a Penn State game. My father directed Penn State's theatre program. That's where I caught the college football bug."

Q: Granted, you were a student at CU during some lean athletic years. What football and basketball games are most memorable?
FOWLER: "There were very few positive memories when I was a student. The strongest memory I have is sitting in the sports information office late Saturday nights in the pre-computer era, adding up the huge numbers in the opponent categories and the small numbers in the CU categories. I do regret that as a student, I never watched a game in the stands, because win or lose, they looked like they were always having fun. I was in the stands for the 82-42 loss to Oklahoma, but I wasn't a student at CU yet. I remember Boomer Sooner and the CU fight songs playing non-stop because the scoring was so furious. But the most memorable sporting event was the double overtime loss to Oklahoma my junior year, where Billy Tubbs called a timeout with something like nine seconds left to set up a dunk and hit 100 points. Then he did some other notorious things." What a memory-OU called the timeout with nine seconds left in double OT, Calvin Pierce dunked it and Oklahoma won, 100-89.

Q: What is your overall fondest memory of CU?
FOWLER: "I don't know if I could pick one moment. I was just really proud to be a student there. Both my parents had gone to CU as had a lot of other family members, uncles, cousins. There was a lot of family history at the place, it was a neat place, and I always felt really connected and really at home when I was at school there. It definitely was a highlight to be involved in the journalism school. I worked at KAIR (then the campus radio station), the Campus Press, and was one of the first on-air hosts when they started up their student television production. Those brought the greatest pleasures."

Q: What do you enjoy most about your job at ESPN?
FOWLER: "Being on college campuses on Saturday morning at the sites of the biggest games. I wouldn't trade that assignment for any assignment in television. It's my favorite sport, I get to savor what makes the game special there in person, and I work with two guys I have tremendous affection for. It always stays fresh because we're traveling around to new places all the time. Nobody gets into this business to read scores in the studio, so traveling around is really the straw that stirs the drink for me in my job. I love the variety of it, working the basketball selection show with the Vitales' and the Phelps', the X-Games and the Kentucky Derby. But college football is why I'm really content there."

Q: What is the most memorable game you've covered in person?
FOWLER: "That's a hard one. Having a chance to cover CU's national championship win over Notre Dame because there was no way I could avoid being a fan. To cover a program that just five or six years earlier was in the doldrums and rose from the ashes, so to speak. And to have, I think, the first interview with Bill McCartney as he was going off the field was special. He sees me out of the corner of his eye, comes over, and we didn't have any kind of wireless mike. I was connected to the camera with a long cable, and a huge crowd was building around Mac. I look down, and I'm standing there with microphone cable wrapped around my legs three times. I had to spin around three times, what's that, 1,080 degrees, to get unwound. It must have looked hysterical, but at the time I wasn't laughing. I didn't do an effective job of staying the calm reporter, but it's a memorable interview. The most memorable things I've seen I don't think I've covered. There's something about things you experience as fan. I've been fortunate enough to see Mark McGwire's 69th and 70th home runs in person, along with the Super Bowl where (John) Elway went out, Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France and Michael Johnson shattering the 200-meter record in Atlanta. Those were special and even patriotic things. Most college football games I've seen are more like business. You're wrapped up in covering it, analyzing it."

Q: What is the funniest thing that's ever happened to you when you've been out on a remote?
FOWLER: "We had one show that was a halftime of the Independence Bowl. It was in Tempe, on New Year's Eve 1998, I believe. Lee Corso wanted to talk about the Peach Bowl, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A. He had some personal ties to them, so he wanted a chicken sandwich brought to him as a prop for our halftime show. As he's chewing on the sandwich on the air, lettuce is flying out of his mouth, it's dropping all over the desk. Only later did I find out that the production assistant delivering the sandwich to Lee had dropped it while riding in a golf cart. It hit the pavement, bounced and came apart. They wiped it off, put it back together again and gave it to him. He still may not know. The entire halftime show we were so tired and punchy, we could not stop laughing. That's one for the time capsule. I mean, the vision of these guys flying around in a golf cart trying to find him a chicken sandwich in the parking lot at the Fiesta Bowl and then picking up a sandwich that had skidded across the pavement was completely out of hand."

Q: Do you have groupies?
FOWLER: "Not as many as Kirk (Herbstreit). The show actually has groupies. It always amazes me that the kids sleep out to get spots near the barriers, but we're grateful that they do. They come early with signs and paint their faces to watch the back of three goofball's heads from 50 yards away to watch the show. But it makes the program and we're glad they show up."

Q: What do you like most about college football? What do you like least? Any rule change you would like to see?
FOWLER: "I like the moments just before kickoff of a really monstrous game. When the teams are running out, the passion I feel is unmatched in any other sport. For me, there's no substitute for that. I dislike the fact that many of the sports' hotbeds are accessible by small commuter flights and the towns that don't have good hotels. As far as rule changes, I only get to change one? I think the game itself is pretty good as it is. But I've always been in favor of a playoff, so I'd change the system by which the champ is crowned."

Q: What sports do you or did you excel at?
FOWLER: "Hmmm, my definition of excel, right? Better than average in basketball and tennis, below average in golf and skiing. But my passion is mountaineering, outdoor sports. Hiking and mountain climbing in particular."

Q: So how many of Colorado's "14-ers" have you hiked?
FOWLER: "I'm up to 30 of 54. I climbed a lot in my earlier years, but I'm only averaging two a year now though. So it looks like I'll be 50 when I do them all. That's my goal."

Q: So, what do we need to do to get "Chip" on one of the SportsCenter promos with other costumed mascots?
FOWLER: "We want Ralphie. We only want the real thing, because Ralphie is so recognizable and unique. So if she's available and has her Screen Actors Guild card, we'll take her."

Q: Any chance that ESPN Game Day will visit Boulder in 2000?
FOWLER: "The thing that hurts Game Day is that Nebraska-Colorado is now on a Friday. It's a very attractive game for us, but we don't go to sites where there are Friday games. But the best chance for us to visit is probably the Texas game. All you have to do is beat CSU, USC, Washington, Kansas State and Texas A &M and we're there! Actually, it's very simple, the most important game is where we consider going. All ties go to games that are on ESPN or ABC. But we do go out for 10 or 11 of the 15 shows."

Q: Are you currently holding your dream job, or what can we look for from Chris Fowler in the future?
FOWLER: "I don't use terms like dream job or dream girl (saying the latter while looking at his fianc?e), but most of the time it feels like that. I really wouldn't trade jobs in sports TV with anybody. There are a few nights in February when I'm sitting in the basketball studio in the wee hours when it doesn't seem like a dream job, but I should be punched in the face if I ever whine about anything."

Q: What should I get you and Jennifer for the wedding?
FOWLER: "Got any pictures of me hunkered over a typewriter updating Lee Rouson's rushing statistics?"

THE ONLY WAY TO CELEBRATE... Last week, we named our 1999-2000 Athletes-of-the-Year as well as our Career Athletic Achievement Award winners. Three of the five recipients were able to attend the luncheon to pick up their honors, but two others could not because they were in Palo Alto, Calif., competing in the Stanford Cardinal Invitational. Kara Wheeler, CU's Female Athlete-of-the-Year, ran the fastest time in the 3,000-meter run in the world (yes, on Planet Earth) this year with an 8:54.82 time. That was 12 seconds faster than the established CU record and qualified her for the Olympic Trials and the NCAA Championships. Not to be outdone, Ron Roybal, the Male Career Athletic Achievement Award winner, ran a 13:42.09 time in the 5,000-meter run, a clocking that also qualified him for the NCAA's and is one of the 15 fastest times in college this spring.

HANSEN UPDATE... Speaking of where they are now, Rhodes Scholar and former all-Big Eight offensive lineman Jim Hansen ('93) recently landed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (yes, M.I.T). He earned his Ph.D. from Oxford and is now working in M.I.T.'s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

CU-USC TO GET BIG-TIME NATIONAL EXPOSURE... As already reported on our front page, the CU-Southern Cal football game on Sept. 9 will be televised on a split-national basis by ABC. This is obviously a coup for recruiting, as even though we'll only hit about half the nation, it'll wind up being the entire western half (the other game is Florida State at Georgia Tech). We first got wind of this at our bowl game last December, where after talking to some of producer types with ESPN, they indicated that they thought the folks at its sister network (ABC) were going to snap that game up. ABC will be showing a tripleheader that day, as it is one of those rare exceptional days anymore which feature several quality intersectional match-ups. ABC owns the rights to Oregon at Wisconsin, Miami-Fla. at Washington and Ohio State at Arizona in addition to CU-USC and Florida State-Georgia Tech. NBC will be televising Nebraska at Notre Dame, while other matches made in TV heaven that day include Auburn at Mississippi (Tommy Tuberville's return), North Carolina State at Indiana, Missouri at Clemson, Georgia at South Carolina, Army at Boston College, Rice at Michigan (read: Houston-Detroit markets), Brigham Young at Air Force and Illinois at San Diego State.

Financially, it also means some quality revenue is headed our way. In the Big 12's television contract for the upcoming year, a national or regional televised non-conference game nets a school "two bites of the apple" or two shares (a share in this regard will be worth in the neighborhood of $190,000 on ABC and $150,000 on FOX). All 12 schools receive a base share from the conference (a number in the $1.0-1.2 million range) plus fees for each appearance. This rewards schools like Colorado that schedule quality non-conference games, which this year, should earn CU around $1 million. This doesn't include conference games, where each school gets one share of the values listed above. If the Buffs wind up on ABC three times and FOX twice in conference play, that's an additional $870,000. So it's easy to see the importance of television to our athletic budget; the above represents as much as 12 percent of our anticipated revenue for 2000-01.

SEASON TICKET RENEWAL RATE... CU's assistant athletic director for ticketing, Ed Gow, reports that the season ticket renewal rate for football has reached 97 percent, the highest since the 1994 season. The return rate has been consistently in the mid-90s for the last decade, and was 96 percent in 1999. There were 27,529 season ticket holders last fall, along with 10,114 student season ticket holders. That's one of the higher numbers in the nation for the students and believed to be the most in the Big 12 Conference, despite the fact that Folsom Field's capacity (51,655) ranks sixth in the league.

INSIDER STUFF... Okay, okay, as challenged, I am writing the following sentence: "BFrique is my writing idol." Yes, B-F, I read your column, but if you challenge me on humor, watch out (my love life, for the most part, could have provided material for two more years of Seinfeld)! Besides, if you really want my full respect, you need to do some Godfather Trivia. As for a lifetime seat on the 50, I personally believe that's overrated; the 25-35 is better in my estimation. How much of the game is played at the 50? For those of you who have no clue as to what I'm talking about here, check out the Colorado Daily every Monday for "All Buffs All the Time," that is penned by a lad named "BFrique."

THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 14. That's the number of CU student-athletes who posted perfect 4.000 grade point averages in the 1999 calendar year. All were honored last Friday at our annual Academic Recognition Awards luncheon. And unlike some other Big 12 schools, our athletes do not receive credit for participating in their sport or lifting weights (but that's why CU is unquestionably the standout academic institution in the Big 12). Leading the way was senior golfer Nicole Cavarra, who has had five consecutive semesters of flawless performance; her grade point average of 3.982 in business is comprised of all A's and two A-minuses, and she's been named the outstanding graduate in the College of Business for 2000. Congrats to all of these hard working student-athletes!

TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU-Football letterman Jeff Raymond starred in several St. Pauli Beer commercials in the 1970s and 1980s. Raymond lettered at CU in 1967 and 1968, and returned an interception for a touchdown in CU's 21-16 win at Nebraska in 1967. Godfather-In The Godfather, Michael Corleone was picked up in front of Jack Dempsey's Restaurant for his meeting with Virgil "The Knife" Sollozzo and the police captain McCloskey; about a third of the way through Godfather Part III, Michael meets Don Altobello for the traditional meeting in the car in front of the China Bowl Restaurant. The two scenes are practically carbon copies. The easy one? Genco, Olive Oil Importers.

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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.