Seventyeightcount

Nine Days to Go

2008-10-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

We are nine days away from convening for the Reunion next Friday morning. So far, 140 classmates have signed up, and let's try to get closer to our goal of 200 through pre-registration. With gas prices plummeting, no one within 250 miles has any excuse for not making the drive down to Nashville in pleasant autumn weather.

Let's have a big shoutout for new Chancellor Zeppos, who was able to convince the Board of Trust to spend $15 million annually to eliminate loan debt for all undergraduates. The financial burdens which going to private school create for many people have forced many students into difficult situations for the past two plus decades, and undoubtedly, many good students who wanted to go to Vanderbilt during that era and were admitted, did not go because of the cost.

Last March, while attending the Dores' NCAA hoops game against Siena in Tampa, I met the brother of a recent graduate who grew up in Westport, CT. His brother graduated from VU in 2004, and owed $100K, and went to work in finance in NYC to pay off the debt. I am not sure that attending the University of Paris in the 13th century, which had what many scholars consider the most accomplished faculty in human history, would be worth going into a $100k hole.

Well, we regret to report that the Dores finally lost a football game in 2008, to a Mississippi State team desperate for a victory, which stymied Vanderbilt with a new defensive approach, and won 17-14 at Starkville. Vanderbilt hurt themselves by committing ten penalties, and only gained 110 yards of offense, but were still in the game due to good special teams play and a solid defensive effort.

This weekend, Vanderbilt travels to Athens, Georgia, to play the Georgia Bulldogs "between the hedges", where Chris Perry and I were privileged to travel 34 years ago, where the Dores lost a heartbreaker 38-31, as Matt Robinson drove Georgia the length of the field with time running out. Vanderbilt fell behind 31-14 in that one, and a former Bulldog player in his 40s with a butch cut and a harsh manner made patronizing remarks as the Dawgs went in front.

When Vanderbilt tied the game at 31 with two minutes left, we summoned full teenage vocal power and shouted into the guy's ears, and he turned as scarlet as a Georgia home jersey, angry over his Dawgs letting Vanderbilt back into the game. After Georgia won, he complimented us on Vanderbilt effort.

You can watch the Georgia game this Saturday 12:30 PM Eastern online with "yahoo.com" (click on college sports broadcasts), or if your broadband provider is in contract with ESPN, you can see it on a bigger online screen on ESPN 360.com.

Tickets are still available through the Reunion website for the Duke game on Saturday of Reunion weekend, although the Reunion bloc tickets are sold out. I will get more details on that subject and blog later this week.

Beat Auburn!!!

2008-09-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Although we all learned junior and senior year that following Vanderbilt football builds our character by forcing us to endure constant disappointment ("http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=63097"), it's nice for a change of pace. The win against Ole Miss puts Vanderbilt at 4-0, and 2-0 in the SEC, and Ole Miss's upset of number 4 Florida at Gainesville Saturday shows Vanderbilt beat a talented Reb squad on their home field in Oxford.

This weekend, the Dores will entertain the Auburn Tigers, with both teams ranked in the Top 20. Vanderbilt has not beaten Auburn since before most of us were born, on New Year's Eve 1955 in Jacksonville, at the Gator Bowl.

The ESPN cable network finds the game so important, they are dispatching their ESPN Game Day crew to Nashville, to host the game starting at 9 AM Saturday morning on their network. In the background of the studio set on campus that morning, we can expect long suffering VU fans to appear to explain that this is the year Vanderbilt has their first winning season since 1982, after seven times coming within one win of a break even or winning season in recent years.

Although ESPN is sending Brent Musburger and the Gameday crew of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard, they are disappointing us by not sending Erin Andrews, the glamorous six feet tall sideline reporter, whom my sources say "looks even better in person than on the tube".

That notable Florida alumna, who was on campus three weeks ago for the South Carolina game, will be dispatched somewhere else, to the disappointment of the guys. Last year, I saw some Little League World Series players interviewed by her, and the way they spoke to "Ms. Andrews" with awe in their eyes, convinced viewers the 12 and 13 year olds practice and effort were worth just getting a chance to chat with her.

Still, the Dores have a chance to make our Reunion weekend that much more entertaining, because a win against either Auburn or Miss. State or Georgia on the next three weekends means Vandy could become bowl-eligible by beating the much improved Duke team with us in attendance. If the football Dores win even more than one of those games, I hesitate to think what kind of an atmosphere will occur on Sat. Oct. 25 for our game day. I don't even want to go into uncharted territory; might be too much to handle.

We are now less than one month to the Reunion, and let's start making plans to return to Nashville to see each other on campus once again.

Football update

2008-09-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

Please excuse your blogger's recent vacation from what the New York Times' financial columnist Floyd Norris refers to as "Bailout Nation". Some work duties, traveling to Ohio and NYC, and just plain old general lassitude prevented recent blog efforts. Chris Perry and Tony Almeida have reason to fire me, but should they think about such action, I will hide behind federal regulators, as AIG and Bear Stearns have done.

I did see the Commodores beat Miami of Ohio 34-13 at the home team's beautiful campus in Oxford, OH last month. The overall speed of the Commodores, and their quality execution on both sides of the ball, makes this the best looking Vanderbilt football team in 25 years.

Cornerback D.J. Moore of Spartanburg, S.C. (whose overcoming of his parents' problems has been the subject of many regional profiles) is such an electrifying player (as ballhawking cornerback, breakaway punt and kickoff returner, and occasional wide receiver running patterns and reverses), that it's worth coming to the Reunion to see someone who makes the crowd gasp two to three times a game. Keep your eye on number 17 throughout this fall. Last year Moore became All-SEC; this season he is moving into the All World category.

Against Miami in just the first quarter, Moore intercepted a screen pass which the Miami receiver had juggled momentarily, and began running for the goal line 25 yards away, and only the falling receiver tripping him prevented a TD. A few minutes later, Moore fielded a punt inside the Vandy 10, dodged a tackler or two, accelerated to the far sideline and ran the punt back 91 yards to the Miami one, getting tripped from behind only when slowing down to allow his cornerback partner Myron Lewis to block the one Miami defender blocking his path to the end zone. Then Moore completed the first quarter by sacking the Miami quarterback on a corner blitz, forcing a fumble.

Against South Carolina, Moore deflected a pass which All America candidate strong safety Reshard Langford intercepted and returned deep into Gamecock territory, but South Carolina avoided Moore as much as possible by throwing and kicking away from him. As you may have noticed, Vanderbilt has a superb defensive secondary, joined by free safety Ryan Hamilton, who in honor of Joe Aneskeivich, joins center Brad Vierling in giving Vanderbilt a Philadelphia football presence.

Against Rice, Moore ran an interception 71 yards down to the Owl one yard line (many think he reached the ball into the end zone before falling out of bounds), and ran another interception back 31 yards to seal the victory. Moore has also run well on flanker reverses and is bound to make some big catches when he plays more on offense. Nashville favorite (both on and off the field due this special character) Jamie Graham, a basketball walk-on we saw help the hoop Dores last season, is playing wide receiver on offense and is showing his speed, elusiveness and enthusiasm wearing number 25.

The Commodores have sustained injuries to starters such as wide receiver George Smith, linebacker Brandon Bryant, nickel back Darlron Spead, tailback Jeff Jennnings and wideout/punt returner Alex Washington, yet have won all three games heading into Ole Miss this weekend, because Coach Bobby Johnson and his staff have built depth through painstaking effort during the past seven seasons.

Despite recruiting players under the radar, the Dores have talent at various positions never seen before. To increase team speed, the coaches have converted safeties to linebackers, tight ends into defensive linemen, and in the case of junior Thomas Welch, have turned a h.s. quarterback into a first rate offensive tackle. The team has more players on the honor roll than ever before along with the talent upgrade, and deserves our support at road and home venues. Wideout Sean Walker, who is the team's major deep threat, led the fans in cheering the team at the Miami game, and number 7 is logging his share of touchdowns on passes and reverses.

Your correspondent is thinking seriously about road trips to Starkville on October 11, and Athens on October 18 (to memorialize a trip I took with Chris Perry many moons ago). When the Dores take on Wake Forest in late November, expect residents of the Carolinas such as Almeida, Aneskievich, Perry to be out in force. Chris, I promise to find that steakhouse in time for the game this time, after blowing it for the Wake hoops game in the rain two years ago.

Quarterback Chris Nickson, valedictorian of Pike County High School in the wiregrass region of southeast Alabama, is healthy again, and is making plenty of key plays with his head, arm and feet, and the newly revamped offensive and defensive lines are executing well heading into the brutal mainstream SEC schedule. "Ole Ball Coach" Steve Spurrier said after the Carolina game two weeks ago, that "Vanderbilt just plain beat us"; this was the same guy who as Washington Redskins coach complained, "there aren't any Vanderbilts in the NFL".

Kicker Bryant Hahnfeldt, who struggled after recovering from a knee injury he suffered preventing a TD in the 2005 Tennessee game, is kicking as well as he did in freshman season. Optimism abounds, but, we know the Dores are playing literal and figurative pros in the SEC during upcoming weeks, so let's get back to Reunion and see these guys play a much improved Duke team for Homecoming.

Check with the alumni office about road tickets to games at Miss. State, Georgia, and Kentucky, as well as Wake. If you can still make it to Oxford, MS for Ole Miss this weekend, I understand that you can buy face value tickets if you head to the fabled "Grove" area before the game. The SEC home games are all sold out, but you can try "Stub/hub.com", and check with the Vandymaia.com website for season ticket holders who have extra tickets for SEC home games.

For Internet listening of Dore football games, you can listen online to 990 AM in Memphis, and also the only AM station in Ashland City, Tennessee (think it's 790 AM), or Internet access at "VU Commodores.com". Sometimes you can get the games online on Nashville's 104.5, "The Zone", but sometimes they block out Internet listeners. Word is that the Auburn game may be on CBS w/ Verne Lundquist and Todd Blackledge, and ESPN will probably pick up a game or two down the road.

History of Motown Class

2008-08-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

On Friday of our Reunion, Vanderbilt Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary David Williams will abandon his legal and athletic duties to teach a seminar on the History of Motown Records, which flourished in his hometown of Detroit, with their studios (a.k.a. "Hitsville") located on Woodward Avenue. The class will begin at 3 PM and conclude at 4:30.

I am hoping for breakdowns on the personnel of the superb Motown "garage" band, and wondering why Marvin Gaye had to break away to form Tamla Records, prior to issuing "What's Goin' On".

Berry Gordy, Motown's dictator, was known to not treat his talented employees too fairly, and perhaps we can learn about the songwriting talents of Nicholas Ashford, Valerie Simpson, Syreeta Wright, and the man Bob Dylan called "the greatest living poet", Bill "Smokey" Robinson.

Let's also hope Mr. Williams can compare Stax Records of Memphis (Isaac Hayes, RIP this week), with the Motown homeboys of Deeee-troit City (as James Brown termed the Motor City).

Prior to David Williams's lecture, Men's Basketball Coach Kevin Stallings, whom Williams backed with great confidence at a rough time early in the 2006-07 season, will lecture at 2 PM about the unique challenges of coaching student-athletes at Vanderbilt. Let's hope Coach Stallings can explain about how real student/athletes can compete against the literal and figurative SEC professionals.

Condolences to Gordon Gee

2008-08-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Our Class of '78 sends its special condolences to former Chancellor Gee, whose physician daughter Rebekah and son-in-law Dr. Allan Moore were seriously injured on July 12 while riding a Vespa which collided with an SUV in Lower Merion Township in suburban Philadelphia one month ago.

Moore, a graduate of U. Va. and Vanderbilt Medical School, whom Gee called the "son he never had", eventually died of his injuries on July 24 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Allan Moore and Rebakah Gee, an obstetrician, met while residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and married in 2006. Rebekah Gee now faces several months of rehabilitation at Ohio State University Hospital. As you all may remember, Chancellor Gee returned to Ohio State as President one year ago.

2008 Olympics/Less than Three Months

2008-08-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

While the PRC was trying to prevent rain falling upon the Opening Ceremonies using their usual coercive approach, firing silver iodide crystals into all clouds 50 kilometers upwind from Beijing, the U.S. team's Lopez Lomong, a former Sudanese refugee kidnapping victim, was literally carrying the flag for freedom "http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/columns/story?id=3468567".

After reading this moving article, I will pay close attention to the 1500 meter heats.

I can still remember seeing the '68 Mexico City Olympics every day after school, and learned about "impartial" Eastern bloc boxing and diving judges, Kenyan distance runners, Dick Fosbury's "Flop" high-jumping technique, and the almost total dominance of American swimmers.

A friend tells me he still considers Lee Evans' 43.9 second 400 meter win the best feat in track history, even greater than Bob Beamon's stunning 29 feet, two and one half inch long jump the same week. San Jose State's Evans was pushed nonstop during his metric quarter mile by Villanova's Larry James, and third place U.S. finisher Ron Freeman also broke the WR that day.

Every time I see George Foreman on another gas grill commercial, I think about him winning the '68 Olympic heavyweight title with the "music" of Howard Cosell's nasal voice playing in the background, and becoming the first great Baby Boomer middle-aged hero decades later, after Cosell further memorialized George in 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica with "and down goes (Joe) Frazier!!!"

Now, Dara Torres seeks to become the ultimate middle aged heroine as she contends for the 50 meter swimming sprint at age 41, while her two year old daugther Tessa cheers her mother from their South Florida home.

Even though Dara is not a Boomer, but an early Gen Xer, she has plenty of forty and fifty something fans who are ready to purchase products she hawks if she can become the oldest swimming gold medalist ever. The FDA will be kept busy chasing her marketing agents for at least a decade, as they push this supplement, and that energy drink. Many skeptics continue to insinuate her effort, but she is being tested constantly, and the fact is, the woman is just an aquatic marvel.

My 82 year old father in Delray Beach has been fascinated by Dara's training regimen as reported by the local press, and the Florida Panthers (local NHL hockey team) fitness expert has been raving about Dara's total dedication. She maintains fantastic nutritional discipline, lifts weights religiously, and sleeps nine hours per night, in an effort to shock the world with a Gold Medal almost two thirds of the way to age 65. I guess Dara's next feat will be to jump in the ring with George Foreman, to test nutritional regimens in a three round exhibition.

As the 30 year reunion schedule notes, we rendezvous on Friday morning October 24th, can attend educational events, then meet for the Class Party Friday evening. On Saturday, the football Dores take on Duke.

For you Duke haters out there (and Lord knows there are no shortage of us, especially their hoops team; when the Washington Nats had college night three years ago, the P.A. announcer read the names of more than 100 participating colleges, and the only two booed, and loudly, were Duke and U. Va.), check out the U. of Maryland alumni "TruthaboutDuke" website, which records every Duke malfeasance imaginable.

I suppose many of the Duke haters are even secretly pulling for Coach K to lose Olympic Gold with the U.S. men's team, so they can use that failure against him in their arsenal.

Enjoy August, and we will be back in touch.

Alumni NCAA tickets

2008-03-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

Now that the NCAA has announced the Men's hoops team will play in the Tampa Bay area on Good Friday, alumni may be interested to know that the University will make available limited tickets at a discount rate, reputedly at $66, one third the price of $198 (six games are in the package, and regularly priced tickets are available through "stpetetimesforum.com"). Good to hear the powers that be want some leather lungs down in St. Pete.

Please E-mail Sarah Creekmore at "sarah.creekmore@vanderbilt.edu" or call (615) 322-2799. Dores will play the Siena Saints of the Metro Athletic Confererence on Friday, and are in the same pod w/ Clemson, Villanova and other solid teams.

The women's hoops team, also ranked all season, will find out their pairing on Monday night.

Kissam4

2008-03-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.musiccitybloggers.com/2008/03/06/comeback-shan-foster-grants-vandy-fans-a-miracle/

Here is a nice blog from a guy who saw Shan Foster score the 42 last night.

Kissam4

2008-03-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our thirtieth Reunion blog, titled Seventyeightcount, based on inducing our class to get more people to return to campus in October for the reunion events. I prefer to remain anonymous at this point, other than to note my freshman year floor.

With this name I feel compelled to honor both my dorm and the Kissam Quadrangle, scheduled to be demolished soon with the creation of the Freshman Commons on the old Peabody campus.

The name "Kissam" has been part of the Vandy campus for more than a century, but may be gone for a while with the quad's demolition. Old Kissam Hall, the huge dorm built in 1901 and demolished in 1958, had been located where Towers I and II and McGill Hall are now located. The Quad was named after the family of William Vanderbilt's mother, Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt.

Former Chancellor Gordon Gee wanted to create a freshman residence hall community similar to some of the Ivy League campuses, so the old system of throwing us all together in dorms regardless of academic interest has been replaced, with this concluding school year the last of the old regime.

When Kissam Quad was built in 1957, the housing was supposed to be temporary, but that collection of single rooms, scalding showers, and terrazzo floors has inspired more than fifty freshman classes.

You could not knock the single rooms with strong AC, telephones, and good visual access to the exterior, but living next to a stairwell was a real pain, because those doors slamming could wake up the dead. The only carpeting was in the hallway, but that just encouraged us to start up bull sessions at night, where we could all lounge on the floor in comfort.

Think about how many people from across the country met each other in those dorms the first few days of orientation, where one learned that Huntsville, Alabama was a cosmopolitan NASA city, while Huntsville, Texas was the site of the main Texas Penitentiary and death house.

A New Jersey native on our floor convinced a Cuban guy who had grown up in Orlando that grits grew on trees, and an Arkansan surprised the guys from Wisconsin, Jersey, and Pennsylvania with his ability to absorb marijuana into his system at all hours. You could not go to the water fountain next to his room without breathing the hemp of Asia Minor. This guy had a boisterous three word greeting for everyone which I can't repeat here, but he added flavor to us.

On our floor as on all floors, many people encountered religious, national, social and racial integration either for the first time or at a different level than before. Even though we had our spats about politics, religiion, and who found who difficult, most of us got along well enough to still want to see each other every five years, and let's hope we can get as many of us back as possible, from Kissam Quad, Branscomb Quad, and the Nashvillians in town.

Think how many volumes of Faulkner novels, poetry anthologies, calculus textbooks, and modern languages have been consumed by the quad's 30,000 residents over the past five decades.

Think how many R.A.'s were driven to the edge of sanity by their charges, such as the first year law student who had us in '74-'75.

Think how many Kissam Quad guys realized their freshman year why Southern women were never conquered the way their men were during 1865.

Consider the collective gastronomic catastrophes incurred by the Quad's students, who had the "opportunity" to intake Taco Tico, Tex Ritters's Crawlin' Critters, Bojangles, I-Hop, Pizza Inn, Ciraco's, Ireland's, Pizza Hut, Wendy's and heaven knows what else from the Sputnik Launch in October 1957 through the present.

Of course, the Quad's location made for quick visits to the Bluegrass Inn, Station Inn, Friday's, Wind and the Willows, and the above establishments which served alcholic beverages, enabling many a student to arrive D.O.A. ("drunk on arrival") with minimial interference from distance, expense (nickel Beer Night at Speakeasy Arcade meant a guy could sail to the wind effectively for fifty cents or less), but with the echo of quality bluegrass and country music ringing in his ears.

Because the Tennessee Historical Commission has placed signs along West End Avenue near the quad honoring former Governor Austin Peay's residence near the Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel, and Commodore Vanderbilt's founding of the University across the way, we hereby request our classmates to suggest other historical signs which can be placed around Kissam Quad, once the old homestead is demolished. These signs can honor individuals, events or places of great interest.

Rumor has it that a statue of Joe Aneskievich A&S '78 will be sculpted where Mims lounge was located, because Joe seemed to be a permanent occupant of that area where women first resided in that long ago school year of 1974-75. Someone will have to memorialize the rivalry which characterized the men who lived in Reinke and Currey Halls.

No doubt, the person who picked Mims to be the spot for gender integration had a sense of humor, because Professor Edwin Mims was a New South business establishment type who was jealous of the Fugitives and Agrarians and their intellectual distinction, and he would have seen a women's dorm on the men's freshman Quad as a catastrophe.

The blog welcomes all comments, criticisms, and perhaps even a few libels from the Class of '78. Feel free to sign on, comment, complain and wax poetical.

Speaking of the latter, someone has got to submit verse for the game Vandy's swingman (and probable SEC Player of the Year) Shan Foster had against Mississippi State last night. He hit nine straight three pointers in the second half, most with his team down a few points, and won the game with a three pointer with 2.7 seconds left in overtime and the Dores down two points to a team capable of making the Final Four.

Of course, I learned all this through online radio, because no one bothered to televise the classic game, the last of the season at storied Memorial Gym. On to Atlanta for the SEC tourney for the 25-5 Dores, after a visit to Tuscaloosa, and your blogger is planning to be there, perhaps cribbing someone's laptop for dispatches, but mainly to beat the northern cold. Take care.