The pre-embargo 1961 Ivy League Champion Lions
The embargo against Cuba has been in place since 1961... just as long as Columbia football has had an embargo against winning championships.
Yesterday, President Obama moved to lift that embargo and resume ties to that Caribbean nation.
Today, or at least as early as today, Columbia President Lee Bollinger could make a similar move to lift our winning football embargo.
He could do that by hiring Tim Pernetti as our new Athletic Director, advising him to hire Tom Gilmore or Joe Moglia as our new head football coach, announcing increased and more aggressive financial aid packages for recruits, and issuing a statement of full-throated support for football and explaining why a winning program will benefit the entire university.
Bollinger has the ability to do all of the above and he would reap a net positive amount of moral and financial support for it.
Will he let the naysayers, the athletics-haters, and the defensive failures who dominate our administration dissuade him?
Or will he do the right thing by Columbia athletics... for once?
(To get an idea of just how long ago 1961 was, and how different the game was back then, take a look at this newsreel footage of Columbia's greatest win of that season.)
8 comments:
Baseball team should send a scout to Cuba immediately.
No pregunta que su patria puede hacer para usted, pero pregunta que usted puede hacer para su patria!
Re financial aid, I took to lunch a current CC junior who is the recipient of a family scholarship fund earlier this week. Meh told me that in the last year the financial packages at the College had been vastly improved across the board, with much larger grants in aid and much smaller loan components.
That's great, Old Lion. Now let's not just catch up to HYP, let's outdo them!
This is typical of the Columbia football mess- where was the athletics department the last 10 years fighting for better financial aid? Why were we so far behind. At least Mangurian really helped in this area.
Definitely fertile ground for baseball but every college in the U.S as well as organized league is already on top of that.
Just watched that great footage that Jake provided - Campbell had a few good blocks!
19 seniors on that 1961 team. I'm guessing we haven't had that many in a long while. It takes a lot of commitment to stay all four years through this mess. The players on the team deserve a lot of credit for their perseverance.
Post a Comment