Plati-'Tudes
April 11, 2000
A weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 16th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.
Spring football is winding down, as is the balloting for the all-decade football team for the 1990s. Again, thanks to the dozens of you who E-mail weekly with comments, questions and ideas for some of the notes below.
ALL-DECADE VOTING... The voting will end Thursday at Noon, one day earlier than advertised, because we need a little lead time to put a package together for BuffVision when we announce the team at halftime on Saturday. Well over 3,000 fans have voted to date, making this a very successful venture.
Now that does not include several voters, who at the urging of the Seattle Times came on-line and voted solely for Rick Neuheisel as all-decade coach. While we are not censoring ballots, we are kicking those out that are not complete; the Times mention of this last week drove over 1,000 people to the site, most of who simply cast a ballot for all-decade coach and then left the site. Those won't count.
The irony of it all is that while we are announcing first and second teams, and possibly an honorable mention, the intent was to name just a coach for the first team. With only three people up for one spot, it doesn't make sense to rank 'em 1-2-3. Bill McCartney teams were 47-10-4 in the 1990s and ranked every single week of his coaching tenure, while Neuheisel's four posted a 33-14 combined mark, with 23 of the 47 games against ranked opponents. The Buffs were 7-5 in Gary Barnett's lone season as head coach (1999), but closed as well as any CU team in the '90s and posted the school's sixth consecutive bowl win with the 62-28 thrashing of Boston College.
Most other schools (probably 100 out of the other 113 Division I-A football playing schools) should be so lucky.
SINGLE-GAME FOOTBALL PRICES SET... Ticket prices for individual games for the 2000 football season have been set. The season ticket cost of $195 breaks down into five home games: Washington ($40), Kansas State ($40), Texas ($40), Oklahoma State ($37.50) and Iowa State ($37.50). The road games shakeout as follows: Southern Cal ($37), Texas A & M ($35), Kansas ($28), Missouri ($32) and Nebraska ($40). The Colorado State game at Mile High Stadium is a $38 ticket. Single game tickets for those contests not sold out through season tickets or donor packages will go on sale at the CU ticket office on Monday, July 17.
RALPHIE-MARS UPDATE... We're still researching the history of the Ralphie decal on the bulkhead of the ship in the movie, Mission to Mars. So far, all we've been able to find out, thanks to Keri Christiansen (Kim's sister, both CU alums, by the way), is that there is an apparent link to the fact that CU has had so many astronauts (17 at last count). Keri works with a local talent agency and has several Hollywood contacts. If we can a more definitive answer, I'll post an update.
WE DON'T LIE... It was brought to my attention that my office (athletic media relations) specifically was accused of lying regarding Koy Detmer's second, albeit minor, knee surgery back in June 1996. The TRUTH is that Coach Rick Neuheisel and trainer Dave Burton did not discuss or reveal the second surgery at the PLAYER'S request. It was minor in nature and Koy didn't want the attention. That was not the first time, nor will it be the last time, a minor procedure was/will not be publicized if it occurs in the offseason. It became a big deal because it was the starting quarterback, but Koy's season obviously wasn't affected in any way as he went on to have a great year. As for our office having to "admit to major deliberate lies," that statement in itself is a total falsehood. We did not admit to lying, because we did not. And there's no proof of it, either: absolutely none.
To quote B.G. Brooks when reminded of this last Thursday, "No one in your office ever lied. Koy told me at first that it was tendonitis. He was leery about it getting out, for whatever personal reasons. I happened to see him on crutches (at least a week after the surgery), and then talked to Dave Burton about it. Dave said that 'This one's out of our hands because he (Koy) doesn't want it out.' Eventually Rick told us what had happened and recanted the original version." That's B.G. Brooks talking, one of the most respected reporters in the business. Neill Woelk at the Boulder Camera will tell you the same thing. The truth is, very few others outside of the medical people even knew about it at the time. And in my 16 years here, this is one a just a handful (I'd say less than four) of instances where a player did not want something along these lines publicized.
Folks, you can trust this web-site (and this column) for 100 percent legitimate news regarding CU athletics, none of which is posted anonymously or semi-anonymously by those not really in any kind of position to know all, if any, of the facts.
WHERE THEY ARE NOW... Former linebacker Paul Rose (1987-90) resides in Highlands Ranch and is in medical sales, specifically replacement joints (knee, joint, etc.). A '91 graduate with a degree in sociology, he previously was in national recruiting for a large roofing company. Rose should be a household name to those aficionados who have studied CU's 1990 national championship. The backup to Kanavis McGhee all year, he filled in for an injured McGhee in the second half of the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame. All Rose did was to record two huge tackles near the goal line, recover a fumble that led to CU's only touchdown and a made a big quarterback sack that snuffed a Notre Dame drive in the fourth quarter in Colorado's 10-9 win. He is married (Kelly, a former CU cheerleader), and is the father of three: 3-year old Kylie, and twin boys' Preston and Peyton, who are nine months old. Paul says they are Buff linebackers-to-be.
APRIL? NO CU ON TV?... That's not the case. The CU track team will receive some tube time this Sunday, April 16, between 2-4 on FOX Sports Rocky Mountain. The 10 athletes who competed at the Hayward Relays on April 8 will be featured, most notably CU's victorious women's distance medley relay team.
CONGRATS... Congratulations are in order for Kelly Ruof, a senior student employee in the athletic academic support office. She was recently named one of 15 finalists for the Sears Directors' Cup Postgraduate Scholarship Award, as she has a 3.82 grade point average in international affairs. Four winners will be named in May, and each will receive a $5,000 award towards graduate school.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... While Colorado's women's basketball team had its struggles and finished with an unaccustomed 10-19 record, looking "inside-the-numbers" bodes well for Ceal Barry's Buffaloes. CU wound up playing the nation's 23rd toughest schedule (out of 315 schools), one that was the top 10 for most of the season up until the Big 12 tournament. The Buffs were also the nation's youngest team as well as having the fourth smallest active roster (eight players). With two freshmen and five sophomores, seven of CU's eight players were underclassmen, or 87.5 percent. North Carolina State was a distant second, with 11 of 14 (78.6), with Centenary third (7 of 9, 77.8) and Indiana fourth (6 of 8, 75.0).
G*O*O*D*B*Y*E... Few people knew this, but Larry Linville, an accomplished stage actor who is best known for playing the role of Frank Burns on M*A*S*H, attended the University of Colorado in the early 1960s. Linville passed away on April 10 from complications due to lung cancer at the age of 60. He was a regular cast member in the first five years of the hit CBS show between 1972 and 1976.
RETIRING... Another prominent national figure who was also a Buffalo, John "Jack" French, recently retired from his long-time position as chief executive officer of the Rose Bowl. Jack, 62, was with the Rose Bowl for 19 years, as he was appointed executive director in 1981 and held that position until being promoted to CEO in 1996. A native of southern California, he graduated from CU in 1960 and was a quarterback on the '56 freshman team, the same year the varsity played in and won the Orange Bowl. He's remained a huge CU fan through the years, and last visited Boulder in 1984 when UCLA was in town. He plans on attending CU-USC this fall and wants to make it back to Boulder for the 2002 rematch with USC or the 2003 tilt against UCLA. Enjoy your retirement, Jack!
LEAVING... Neal Scarbrough, another CU graduate ('84), recently accepted a position with ESPN Magazine as one of the publications lead pro football writers. Neal has been the executive sports editor at The Denver Post for the past five years, and will be sorely missed. He advanced coverage of women's sports, especially college, in the Denver newspaper world, improved college coverage overall and eliminated "Pike's Peak," that anonymous column (there were four regular contributors in actuality) that took shots at people in the local sports world.
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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.