Monday, March 12, 2012

Living in the Past







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Who Would You Use?

My report Friday about the new look offense the Lions are trying to feature for next season kind of went over like a lead zeppelin.

Perhaps that's because we still don't know who will be featured in the two tight end, motion H-back set.

Of course, rising junior Hamilton Garner will be in that mix as one of the tight ends, but the competition for the other key spots cold be intense.

Spring break ends a week from today and spring practice starts promptly after that. Check the Columbia roster and tell me who you would plug in at the key positions!





Thanks for the Memories

Many of us received the following email this weekend:


Dear Friend of Columbia Athletics:

We are excited to let you know that we have already begun preparations for what promises to be a fantastic Homecoming Weekend, Thursday-Saturday, October 18-20, 2012. Save the date!
                                                           
In addition to our traditional festivities, this year’s Homecoming celebrations will feature two landmark events for Columbia Athletics. First, on Thursday, October 18, 2012, we will induct the fourth class of The Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame at a gala black-tie dinner in Low Memorial Library. Once again, we will honor the best of the best in Columbia’s athletics heritage. The first three Athletics Hall of Fame events were fabulous sold-out events – and we are sure that this year’s ceremony will be just as spectacular.

Then, on Saturday, October 20, 2012 we will officially dedicate The Campbell Sports Center at the Baker Athletics Complex prior to our Homecoming football game against Dartmouth College. The dedication of The Campbell Sports Center is the incredible culmination of our successful efforts to modernize and improve our athletics facilities, especially at the Baker Athletics Complex. This transformational building will provide our athletics program with the space and resources necessary to build and sustain winning teams.
Columbia Athletics needs your help to make these two special events a true celebration of our athletics heritage. As part of these celebrations, we are assembling a collection of Columbia Athletics memorabilia over the years to illustrate our proud history.

We are asking our friends, fans, alumni, parents and others to help us create a special exhibition by lending us Columbia Athletics artifacts for this special initiative. Athletics memorabilia may include a variety of historical objects – including, but not limited to: trophies, medals and/or awards, uniforms, apparel and/or equipment (e.g. football and baseball helmets, baseballs, footballs, volleyballs, basketballs, batons, racquets, sticks, oars, etc.), photographs, printed materials (contest programs, media guides, newspaper clippings), souvenirs (pennants, ticket stubs, buttons, autographs, trading cards etc.) and/or recorded materials (videotape, game film, radio broadcasts, etc.).

Our goal is to create a first-rate exhibition to be displayed during Homecoming Weekend. All loaned artifacts will be returned to their rightful owners after the conclusion of our celebration.

For more information about this special project, please contact Alex Oberweger, Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications, by email to ajo13@columbia.edu or by phone at (212) 854-2605.  We will collect items for this project from April 2 through May 2.      

We are so excited for Homecoming 2012!  With your help – it will be another majestic celebration of Columbia Athletics.

Thanks so much, and Roar, Lion, Roar!

My longtime readers know that I am a huge Columbia history buff and I really love writing about the good and not-so-good memories of Lion football.

And I hope this project really succeeds with a lot of alumni participation.

In particular, I'd really like to see more pictures of the old Baker Field because images of the old stadium and the surround grounds really are rare.

But at some point, I'd like to see an even greater effort to make NEW memories of championship teams and Homecoming victories, (we haven't won on Homecoming since 2000). It's been more than 50 years now since our last Ivy football title.

And I'm sick of living in the past.

Harvard basketball just ended a 60+ year streak with no Ivy title. They did it by doing some things that angered their fellow Ivy teams, but so be it.

Until Columbia makes some bold moves like that, until we stop worrying what other schools who hate us anyway will say, we'll be spending more time looking back than forward.

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