Courtesy: CUBuffs.com

Welcome to a notes and comment column, now in its ninth year, penned by CU Associate Athletic Director David Plati, who is wrapping up his 25th year as the Buffaloes director of sports information:

 

Plati-‘Tudes No. 82 ... The most famous Buff to wear 82? Likely All-American end Jerry Hillebrand (class of ’61) ... Big congrats to Larry Zimmer; the below Q&A with him should bring back a flood of memories for many ... The athletic season is near complete, a couple of Jenny Barringer races to go as she completes her CU career in track; fortunately for us, she has one more cross country season left ... 2008-09 had its share of memorable moments, but me thinks 2009-10 we’ll be back on the map, making some noise in several sports.

David Plati

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trivia Questions

The opening four mind teasers:

CU—This year’s Colorado State football game will be the second known one in CU history played at Folsom Field on a Sunday.  Which was the first?

Who Am I?— I lettered in basketball and was a two-time captain.  I was the lone junior on my team which meant I was also the lone senior.  I moved to Kearney, Neb., after graduation to pursue a career in my major.   I had two other stops before returning “home” to Colorado last December, where you can see me on the “boob tube” at least twice a week.  Who am I?

Music—David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derick Smalls formed the backbone of this band, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  Name the group.

Name That Tune—What song is this lyric passage from: “You’re the light in my deepest darkest hour ... You’re my savior when I fall.”(From Last Time—One of the questions involved I Write The Songs by the Barry Manilow, a song he didn’t actually write; mentioned that David Cassidy recorded it before Manilow, but The Captain and Tenille did it before Cassidy!).

 

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 Quick Hits

Jimmie Heuga

Former CU skier Jimmie Heuga, who most know was stricken with MS in the early 1970s, continues his remarkable accomplishment of getting stronger and faster in recent years; he recently did a personal best of 20 laps by himself in his wheelchair at Potts Field! He has defied those who have told him that in his stage of the illness that he could not demonstrate any physical progress; CU ski coach Richard Rokos “coaches” Jimmie up ...  Alumni Brain Trust: Did  you know the head track coach at UNLV is Yvonne Scott and her assistant is Tamara Ards, both of whom are CU alums? ...  Former CU SID staffer Patrick Gleason has become quite the columnist; he pens some good stuff every so often in his gig as assistant PR man for the Baltimore Ravens; check out the team’s site some time ... The state of Colorado is up July 2 on ESPN's 50 state tour of college football ... MLB Network: this network rocks!  They had the replay of game 6 of the ’77 World Series, when Reggie hit three home runs and my dad somehow came up with four tickets to take myself, my brother and one of my best friends to the game.  Keith Jackson was in the booth with Tom Seaver and Howard Cosell calling the game for ABC, that is, when Howard would let the other two talk ... and speaking of my dad, Dominick, there’s good news to pass along: he’s beaten back Stage 3 Hodgkin’s Nodular Sclerosis; the swollen lymph nodes have all disappeared and there’s no sign of it progressing anywhere else.  Thanks to all that gave their well-wishes and prayers!

 

 

 Buffalo Bill Retiring From C-Club Post  

Bill Harris

Assistant athletic director Bill Harris, who has been the director of the Alumni C-Club for the last nine years, recently announced his retirement, effective this June 30.  “Buffalo Bill” as he was known in his playing days for the Buffs (1961-63), just turned 67 this past May and said “it’s the right time” about his impending retirement.  He has held the C-Club position since May 2001, just seven months after he started working for the CU Alumni Association after relocating back to Colorado from Paramus, N.J., where he had resided since 1974.

 

Bill led the team in rushing as a junior with 582 yards in 1962 and is one of 48 players in school history to have rushed for over 1,000 yards in a CU career, as he is 27th on the all-time list with 1,486.  He also still stands 27th all-time in all-purpose yards, amassing 2,411 via rushing, receiving and returns, one of 41 players to attain 2,000 yards or higher.  Following his playing days at CU, he was drafted by the NFL’s New York Giants.  He went on to play three years in the Canadian Football League, for Ottawa in 1964 and then Calgary in 1965-66.

 

Bill’s been a true Buff through the years and he’ll be missed around these parts.

 

 Sweet Praise  

In case you missed this in a story by Mike Klis in the Denver Post, Bronco tight end (and Boise State alum) Jeb Putzier had this to say about his former college coach, Dan Hawkins when asked about how he is faring at CU and the return to glory taking perhaps longer than many thought:

 

“I’ll put it to you this way: I had four head coaches in Division I sports. And not every coach is in the sports business for the same reason. Unfortunately, everyone is just judged on wins and losses.  To me I see it differently because of the different coaches I had. They weren’t always good, or did the right things.  But the type of people he’s producing, to me that’s more winning than say, NFL players. And I understand he’s getting paid a lot of money, it’s a big school, they expect to win. But to me I see a different aspect. And personally I think he’s doing a great job. Hopefully, those type of guys he’s bringing in are going to transcend from doing things right off the field to doing it right on the field.”

 

 Q & A With A Buff

Larry Zimmer

This week, Larry Zimmer was named the 15th recipient of the Chris Schenkel Award, recognizing his longtime service to the school as both play-by-play and color analysts on football and basketball broadcasts beginning in 1971; he’s still can be heard today some 38 years later.  Thus, the timing was perfect to grab Larry and throw some questions his way about the four decades he’s spent behind the microphone for the Buffaloes.

 

Q: When you accepted a job in 1971 at KOA, did you envision then you would be spending the rest of your life in Colorado?

A: “Probably not.  I don’t think you ever think you’re ever going to be somewhere for 40 years.  It was another step in a direction I wanted to go, and that was to be in sports.  I guess in the back of my mind, there was the idea to go to the network level.  I had a couple of opportunities to do that over the years, but when those came around I was so entrenched in Colorado that I didn’t want to leave.  Plus Brigitte (his wife) had a really good job as the export manager at John Manville Corporation, so we would have had to take that into consideration as well.  But we loved Colorado, both of us were skiers, and skiing was an important part of our life.  We really enjoyed the Colorado lifestyle.  And I loved my job; overall through the years, KOA was a great place to work.”

 

Q:  Who did you replace?  Was there pressure?  Did you feel accepted by the Buff faithful right away?

A: “I replaced Dick Carlson, and I didn’t feel any pressure whatsoever.  Dick had taken the play-by-play job with the Kansas City Chiefs, so that’s how a position at KOA opened up.  There was no problem with CU, I had seen Eddie (Crowder, Athletic Director) play at Oklahoma, and we talked often about Bud Wilkinson, his college coach.  Having grown up with the Big Eight being at Missouri, I knew the territory and the history of the conference fairly well.  And when you have an SID like Mike Moran, who immediately engaged me, and Fred Casotti, whom I knew and was a good friend of my mentor at Missouri, Mahlon Aldridge, there was a comfort zone.  I felt like they accepted me right way and I fit right in.”

 

Q:  Who is Mahlon Aldridge?

A: “Mahlon was the play-by-play man on the Missouri Sports Network and was the owner and general manager of KFRU, the radio station I worked for before and after my military commitment.  He was the one who gave me my first opportunity to do play-by-play.  We had two high schools in Columbia at the time, Hickman and Douglass, which was all-black.  They were integrating the next year, so Douglass was being closed.  Their final game was against St. Louis University High, a powerhouse which was unbeaten.  It was a historically significant game, and Mahlon decided he wanted ot broadcast it because of its importance.  St. Louis won the game, and years later, I found out that Ben Vanek (his longtime Bronco and CU home game statistician) played on that St. Louis team.  The next year, I took over Hickman High school play-by-play.”

 

Q: Could you imagine a better first season than how CU’s unfolded in 1971? 

A: “For me, no, and for two reasons.  The first game was at LSU, and I grew up in Baton Rouge and was and still am a big Tigers fan.  When I was a kid, I had tickets to all the games and often went by myself, and I used to look up at the press box and dream about being up there one day.  I really wanted to be working a game from there either as a sportscaster or even a sportswriter.  So to go there and actually do a game in that press box was a real big deal for me, especially since it was my first time back at LSU in quite a while.  It was important for CU to win that game, LSU was ranked number nine in the country and Colorado just dominated them.  People knew I was an LSU fan and asked me if I had any problem with CU winning the game, and I said absolutely not.  I’m a CU guy now. 

 

“Then two weeks later, we went into Columbus and beat Ohio State, and they were ranked sixth.  Having broadcast Michigan games for five years, the Ohio State game was a big one so it was nice to go in there and beat them.  To start off with two out of the first three games like that, the whole season was special.  They were an exciting team.  Eddie Crowder had the triple option offense really clicking with guys like Ken Johnson, Charlie Davis and Cliff Branch.  It was pretty neat to come in there in my first year and to feel that you were going to be a part of something special.”

 

Q: What special memories do you have from that first year?

A: “I remember it being the right move, to come to Colorado.  One of the highlights was when Charlie Davis had that huge game against Oklahoma State (34 carries, 342 yards rushing).  That was unbelievable; he literally gained 10 or more yards almost every single time.  And frankly, the Bluebonnet Bowl was a great game.  Playing Houston in Houston, and they had Riley Odoms and Robert Newhouse, and that was the game Bad Dude (John Stearns) took off with the fake punt deep in CU territory for a first down that the coaches had no idea he was going to do.  There were some characters on that team and he was one of them.  It was a great year to start.  It was just too bad they lost to Nebraska and Oklahoma, but in the end they were the only two teams ranked ahead of CU in the final poll.

 

“As exciting as the first year was, the second year was as disappointing.  They entered the season ranked in the top two, but the only big game they won was against Oklahoma.  Things just didn’t go the way they had the year before.” 

 

Q: Radio is a business, and from 1982 through 1984, CU and KOA parted ways for the only three years since the two first paired up in 1940.  How hard was that?

A: “It was pretty difficult, though I knew it was sort of coming.  Fred Casotti (associate AD) kept warning me that Eddie was working on a deal with a new sports network, and KOA might be out of it.  ‘You’d better get your people to up the ante,’ Fred advised, and KOA did everything they could, but Eddie had it is mind to try the new deal and get the most he could get for it.  It was tough for me, and after having done the games for 11 years, I was really a Buff.  We had a management meeting about it, and we wanted to have college football on Saturday afternoons.  Colorado State had a football network, but they gave us the rights to do games on KOA only but without a regional network.  So we signed a three-year deal with them with an eye on trying to get CU back when its contract was back up for bid.”

 

Q: You spent those three years doing Colorado State games, all with Jon Keyworth as your color man.  Despite being away from CU, you have to have some good memories from those days as well.

A: “It was fun, Leon Fuller was head coach, and CSU had a good group of coaches and Sonny Lubick was on that staff.  (Athletic director) Fum McGraw was great to be around, and Gary (Ozzello, SID) was great to work with.  I made a lot of friends up there.  I liked doing those games, and they had some really good players like Keli McGregor, a helluva tight end, and Kelly Stouffer, a pretty good quarterback.  It was different than being at Folsom, but I enjoyed those years and the people.  And I was still announcing my first love, college football.

 

“Jon and I had some fun times together.  He had joined me the previous year on CU broadcasts and transitioned to CSU with me.  And there were some crazy stories.  We actually had a local engineer we had hired for a game at Hawaii do lines of cocaine during the game.  That’s the only time anything remotely close to that ever happened.  We weren’t sure what to do.”

 

Q: You’ve had several color analysts through the years.  Let’s remind everyone who they were and talk about your memories or experiences with each.

A: “The first back in the 70s’ was Bob Rubin, and he was on the sports staff at KOA.  We had a three-man staff, Bob Martin, Bob Rubin and then I joined them.  Bob was a solid sportscaster, he had been around Denver for a long time, loved CU, and loved doing it.  After that game in ’71 in Baton Rouge, we had to catch a midnight flight out of New Orleans to Chicago to do the Bronco preseason game the next day.  Bob Martin would do the first half on radio, then I’d do the first half on television, then we’d switch, with Bob Rubin doing color on television the whole game.  George Ratterman did the color on radio; he was a former Notre Dame quarterback who did AFL games on NBC.  He lived in Denver and knew Bob Martin, so that’s how all that was divided up that first year.

 

“Rubin eventually became program director and his schedule grew too big, so he couldn’t keep doing it.  He decided to step back a bit, and Ron Zappolo who we hired for the TV side then did color for the 1979 and 1980 seasons.  That second year we opened at UCLA and trailed 56-0 at halftime.  We had Larry Brown on at halftime, and he was coaching out there by then and he said, ‘I hope I can have 56 points by halftime.’  Later that year was the 82-42 loss to Oklahoma, and we strung the scoring plays together and that took eight full minutes to get through them all.  I remember Ron saying on the air during that one, ‘I am so tired of seeing people run up and down the field.  This isn’t a football game, this is a track meet.’  Ron and I had a good time.

 

“After Ron, there was Jon Keyworth, one year at CU and the three at CSU.  Then we came back to CU and Kent Groshong was doing the color.  He had been doing CU games for KBOL in Boulder and we had hired him at KOA.  It was great to have such a professional broadcaster by my side.  Kent was unique.  He had a great sense of humor and brought a lot of humor to the broadcast in addition to knowing the game very well.  He also had a great rapport with the players.

 

“CU would always take precedence if I had a conflict with the Broncos, but in 1990, once I was on play-by-play for the Broncos, the opposite would occur.  So it was great to have Kent right there, because he could do play by play as well.

 

 “Jim Ryan followed Kent, and he was good color man.  Probably in a lot of ways, the best I’ve worked with doing CU; the best I’ve ever worked with was Dave Logan (on Bronco games).  We had a long run, and the weekly coach’s shows with Rick were something when he and Jim would be flat-out entertaining.  Jim eventually wanted out to do other things, specifically coaching, so he moved on after the 2000 season.  Jim Conrad came along next and he worked one year, but it was fun season, the 2001 Big 12 championship year.  Jim’s a real pro and the nicest guy, then my last two years, Jay Leeuwenburg handled the job and I thought he was excellent.  He’d probably still be doing color if I had remained on play-by-play.

 

 “One of the funnier memories was when Alfred Williams filled in for Jim when he missed a game, and CU recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown.  Alfred forgot where he was and leaned out the window and just yelled, ‘Go! Go! Go!’  I just quit talking; when the player crossed the goal line, he screamed, “All right!”  He then turned around and looked at me and had an expression of, ‘Oh God, what did I just do?’ on his face.  But that was Alfred.

 

“And you can’t forget the sidelines.  Bobby Anderson was absolutely incredible.  I’ve always said he was the greatest sideline reporter in college football, because he could get in places that nobody else could.  ESPN used to get mad that he was in the CU bench area and threatened to turn him into the NCAA.  He also filled in doing color on games I couldn’t do.  And now, CJ (Charles Johnson) has the same kind of access that Bobby had and is pretty good, too.”

 

Q: In 2004, you switched from doing play-by-play to color.  How hard was that and how long did it take to embrace the new role?

A: “It didn’t take long, maybe one quarter.  I had 19 years of doing it with the Broncos, so I knew how it should be done and what should be done.  Mark (Johnson) and I had spent some time together, and he’s a real pro who really prepares.  It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I can actually watch more of the game.  I can look down the field and pick up a lot of things the play-by-play man can’t because his number one rule is to stay with the ball.  So being a play-by-play man helped in the transition, which I think went well and was overall pretty smooth.”

 

Q: What are some of your most memorable moments broadcasting CU games?  Can you narrow to a top five?

A: “Five might be hard, let’s try for around 10.  The top game is really a toss-up between winning the national championship and the Miracle in Michigan, but I guess to an extent it’s the Michigan game because it was a one-play event.  It was a near-hopeless situation, and the audacity of what happened on just one play, how the game turned with 100,000 people in the stadium and beating the Michigan Wolverines, I guess that would have to top it.   Plus many say it was the play of the century.  Then it would be the ’91 Orange Bowl, the national championship game.  Not the punt return that was called back, I saw both flags thrown and I knew it was going to come back so I had no cause for concern.  When (Deon) Figures made the interception and ran out the clock, that’s when I got excited.

 

“Three would have to be LSU game my first season, followed closely by the 20-10 win over Nebraska (1986) and 62-36 over Nebraska (2001).  Another one would when Eric Bieniemy scored those four touchdowns in the come-from-behind win in Lincoln (1990), and the ’89 NU game, with all the hype around it, with it being No. 2 versus No. 3.  The Washington game in ’89, the first game after Sal Aunese died, when the team knelt and pointed to the sky, the only time I ever lost it on the air.  I started crying.  It was a natural thing and I wasn’t embarrassed by it at all.  It just happened.

 

“When Rashaan Salaam went over 2,000 yards, that was a big one and a fun call to make, and Mac’s last game when we killed Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.  And the “asterisk” game, when John Hessler beat Oklahoma.  That’s probably more than 10 (it’s 11), and if we don’t stop, the list will grow beyond 25.”

 

Q: What do you feel was your greatest play call?

A: “I would say when Rashaan Salaam went over 2,000 yards (1994).  Nobody wanted that to happen on a 2-yard gain up the middle.  You couldn’t have scripted that one any better, to go around the right end and race down the CU sidelines.  Players and coaches were racing with him in step to the end zone.  And also Barry Remington’s interception very late in that 20-10 win over Nebraska in 1986.  Up until that time, I wouldn’t believe that CU was going to win.

 

“As far as the Miracle In Michigan, the only problem with the play call was that I didn’t know who caught it.  Keith (Jackson) soothed my feelings a bit the next week in Texas when he told me he thought it was one of the greatest calls he’d ever heard.  But I told him that I didn’t know who caught the ball.  He said, ‘Well, I didn’t know either.  But we have 12 cameras out there, and the cameramen always yell out the number of who caught it to the director, he relays it to my spotter and he points on the chart to me.’  It was hard to tell who caught it, especially from our vantage point on the far end of the other side of the field.  There were some who I felt unjustly criticized it, I obviously would have loved to have known.  There were a lot of people in that end zone and you could barely differentiate.  But Keith knew how hard that was.”

 

Q: What would be one or two special memories that are non-game related?

A: “Working with Coach Mac, the fact that we go back so far.  When I came out of the Army and was working in Missouri, he was playing.  He’s also a fraternity brother.  So later in life, to come back and have the chance to work with him as coach was very special to me.  And I think working with Rick (Neuheisel).  I was old enough to be his father, and he took me into his confidence and asked me questions about if he was doing the right thing here or the wrong thing there; to know that a coach had that kind of confidence in me was also special.  And doing the coaches show with him was unbelievable; Sports Illustrated selected it as the best coaches’ show in the country one year.”

 

Q: What are some of your other memorable broadcasting experiences outside of college football?

A: “The other miracle game, on ice, USA 4, USSR 3 in the ’80 Olympics at Lake Placid.  The game was not on live television, it was set for tape delay.  ABC couldn’t get the IOC to switch the game times around, so it was only going to be on in prime time on tape delay.  I was doing reports on telephone back to KOA, thinking how slick we were being for upstaging television.  We get into the third period, and it appears the U.S. has a chance to win.  We get a call from New York, and CBS Radio wanted to do the game live with their people, so they took my phone.  I went just across the alley to the press headquarters where there were more phones and did play-by-play back to Denver off the TV set for the last couple of minutes.  The great thing about it was that I opened the window and the people exiting the game were chanting, ‘USA! USA!’  So KOA’s live coverage of it was about as complete as anybody’s.

 

“Another highlight was the 1964 World Series, the final game where Whitey Ford pitched against Bob Gibson, and I did interviews from the clubhouse.  And there was the 1957 All-Star game at Busch Stadium where I did a 10-minute interview with Casey Stengel and all I asked was two questions.  He granted me an interview as long as I didn’t mind that he was getting ready to take a shower.

 

 “Outside of sports, my biggest interviews were with Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt.  And getting into your area of music, in one week, I interviewed the original Kingston Trio, Count Basie, the Brothers Four and Peter Nero.”

 

Q: How much longer do you see yourself doing CU broadcasts?

A: “I still enjoy it.  I’m still excited when I walk into the stadium.  As long as my health is good and people want me to do it, I don’t have any end date in mind.”

 

To see the release on Larry’s being named the Schenkel Award winner and to listen to some of his classic calls, please click here: http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=3745939.

 

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 The P-‘Tudes Mailbag

The usual grab-bag of questions fired my way by P-‘Tudes readers and others that I thought others would be interested in:

 

Q: Why is Chauncey Billups announced at home games from being from Park Hill instead of CU, when all the other players who attended college have their schools named?

A: I checked with the Nuggets, and that wasn’t Chauncey’s doing.  The public address guy did that on his own I was told; but for game six against the Lakers, he came back and announced Chauncey being from “Park Hill and the University of Colorado.”   Thanks to Nuggets long-time PR man Eric Sebastian for passing along my desire to have CU mentioned in some way, after all, CB is proud of his time at CU. 

 

 

Q: I saw the Big 12 Conference had a record year for income.  How is CU’s share determined and how come we’re not higher on the list considering how much we’re on television in football?

A: Good questions.  Yes, the Big 12 did have a record year, raking in just over $130 million (note: all these numbers are estimates, but likely won’t stray much if at all when final).  The bulk of the revenue is from two sports: football and men’s basketball.  In football, all 12 schools receive the same amount from the Big 12 Championship game (approximately $1.11 million), the national championship game ($1.26 million), and the conference bowl partners ($400,000).  The other football piece is football television revenue, which CU earned $4.77 million for 2008, behind only Oklahoma and Texas, both of whom earned $5.38 million.  In men’s basketball, there’s revenue from the conference tournament ($473,732, the same for all), and for television and the NCAA tournament, the latter two based upon appearances.  An estimated $164,500 was pulled in from other sources; when all was said and done for 2008-09, CU’s cut was about $9.5 million, which ranked seventh in the league.  Oklahoma ($11.9 million), Texas ($11.5) and Kansas ($11.2) were the top three, all schools who have had deep runs in the NCAA basketball tournament over the last five years, the period of which in tournament income is collected and distributed.  So as you can see, CU’s share is very fair and also why we, and several other schools, are against equal revenue sharing for television appearances.   There’s a reward for scheduling tougher and getting those games on television.

 

Q: I see CU and CSU are talking about a 10-year extension in football.   Is that true and does that eliminate the games in Hawaii? (This one was morphed from two questions).

A: The two schools are talking, and we’ll release all the details and particulars hopefully by this year’s game (Sept. 6).  The games in Hawaii in 2011 and 2015 will not be affected; those are on the opening weekend, and with the hope that perhaps they will be televised and maybe moved to Thursday or Friday to account for the long travel over and back and keep the team on a balanced schedule.  One thing fans should be prepared for if the CU-CSU game is bound for Denver, our home schedule will change somewhat.  If it’s 10 years which has been bandied about, over that decade period we need to schedule 30 other non-conference games; to keep our preference of six in Boulder, 20 of those 30 have to be at Folsom Field.  Thus, we need to find schools willing to do 2-for-1’s (two in Boulder, one at their place, as is the case with Fresno State from 2011-2013), or schools willing to visit CU without a return game.  And that will likely mean the addition of a few I-AA teams here and there, something we really didn’t want to do.  That’s why, and for no other reason despite goofy rumors that pop up about it, we needed CSU to occasionally visit Folsom as the sixth home opponent to add to the value of our home schedule.

 

Q: You have to have plenty of funny stories.  Any in particular stand out?

A: You are correct, too many to count, or come close to remembering.   But one that almost always pops up first is actually from my freshman year (1978-79).  We’re playing Missouri in Balch Fieldhouse, and Norm Stewart is the Tigers’ head coach.  I was one of the members of the stat crew, so I was sitting courtside on the scorer’s table (press row was located on the overhang on the east side in those days).  Play was stopped, but the clock kept running, so the refs had to call time to reset the clock.  About two minutes later, the same thing happened.  Norm walks over, asks if he can take my coke (I say yes, having no idea why), takes the peanuts from the guy next to me, walks over to the timer and says, “Here ...  since you’re not watching the game, why don’t you enjoy a nice snack.”  Thirty years later, that still cracks me up!

 

 

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 Things That Make You Go Hmmm...  

Maybe this one is more and “ooh and ah” thing.   I stayed in the Bay Area after the golf team finished playing in the NCAA West Regional (okay, Jimmy Buffett was playing in Concord three days later, so I took some vacation on the back end).  Took the tour of Alcatraz Island, and I must say, it was one of the coolest and most enjoyable touristy things I have ever done.  The old prison is still pretty chilling, and it makes watching classics like Escape From Alcatraz and The Rock much more enjoyable (well, maybe The Rock isn’t a classic, but you can relate to it a lot better).  It was my 30th Buffett concert by the way; he hasn’t been to Colorado since 2005, so it was time to get my fix on the road.  Slight chance he’ll return to Denver in the future, my insider says.

 

Another would be the record of the Los Angeles team in Major League Soccer through 11 games: 1-1-9.  Have never seen a record like that!

 

And, in the Have to Laugh Department: Did you see that the New York Times claimed to know about Watergate first but didn’t do anything about it?  Now if they had said they thought about writing something fake about it, that would have been much more believable knowing that paper often subscribes to the theory, All The News That’s Fit To Make Up ...

 

 Golf Tourney Season

An update on upcoming golf tournaments involving Buffs:

 

On Saturday, June 13, the fourth annual Gary Barnett Celebrity Golf Classic will be played at Legacy Ridge in Westminster, with the proceeds going to suicide prevention causes.  Former head coaches Bill McCartney and Barnett along with former players like Jeremy Bloom and Bobby Pesavento will be playing.  There’s also the pre-tournament party the night before to draft teams.  For more information, go to 

Mark Simpson

garybarnettfoundation.org.

 

On June 20, the second annual Mark Simpson Memorial Tournament, benefitting the HealthLinks Foundation, will take place at Coal Creek Golf Course in Louisville.   Simpson was a big supporter of the organization, as it serves people with cancer who cannot afford to pay for treatment.  For more information, e-mail Teddie Dingae at tdingae@aol.com.

 

On Monday, June 29, the fourth annual Buffs4Life Golf Tournament will take place at the Omni Interlocken; the event is preceded by two days of social functions, which previous attendees know are the ultimate fun and a great place to mingle with former Buffs.   This year’s proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society, the family of former Buff Anthony Weatherspoon, and John Hessler. Click here for more information and/or to register or sign up as a sponsor: http://www.buffs4life.golfreg.com.

 

And don’t forget the Buff Club tournaments throughout the state, checkout CUBuffs.com for more on all of those!

 

 

 

 

 

 The Fuss On The Coaches’ Ballots Being Private 

The AFCA recently rescinded the practice over the last three years of publicizing the coach’s final USA Today ballots.  Of course some are in an uproar for potential “hanky panky” as one coach put it, and the media wants them available because there’s always the chance for some juicy stories.  And the negative stories started as soon as they became public.  But perhaps the solution is that the AFCA can make the final ballots available to all 120 head coaches in some manner that still keeps them private among them yet would eliminate coaches taking care of their pals or dogging a school they may not like.  Not sure how you would do that without some ballots or votes leaking out, but there’d have to be a way.  Maybe a Mission Impossible type-way; coaches can access a website only with a one-time password and the page can't be copied or printed.

 

 Line of the Week

Gotta give it to ESPN’s Rick Reilly (’80), for his line about Bernie Bickerstaff in his story, a letter to God, about growing up a Denver pro basketball fan: “You sent us Bernie Bickerstaff, a GM who could find talent the way robins find lobsters.”  That visual is pretty funny.

 

 My NBA Playoff Observations

Ø  I remember when technical fouls were just called for someone yelling from the bench.  Glare at someone now like John Travolta’s stare in Get Shorty now gets one ringed up. 

Ø  While traveling to California, I listened to several NBA games on XM Radio.  I’ll say this about the Lakers’ radio announcing team: Chick Hearn’s legend is in no danger of being supplanted by these guys.  The analyst can’t add, either; 72-62 was an 11-point lead.  He gave up trying to figure out the margin when it was 87-69.

Ø  Doris Burke adds about as much to an NBA telecast as Milli Vanilli would to the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame.  On two occasions I saw people she interviewed roll their eyes as they walked away.  And yes, I’m still bitter over her blatant homerism when our women battled Villanova in the 2003 NCAA tournament, but as someone once said, I’d rather listen to scratchy Captain and Tenille records backwards for three hours than her.  

Ø  Jon Barry apparently can’t get over being cut by the Nuggets.

Ø  Was it me, or when Denver players drove to the hoop, at times it was like a John Woo movie; when the Lakers went inside, it was Heidi (and when it wasn’t, Kobe went to the line).  Who is John Woo some might ask?  The director who oversaw the embarrassing ridiculous fight scenes in Broken Arrow and Mission Impossible II (guess I could have used McG too, for Charlie’s Angels).

Ø  Dan Hawkins went to game four in Denver (Nuggets won, 120-101); he said it was one of the top four or five sports environments he had ever been in, citing the energy, the excitement and all the side stories fans could witness taking place on the court.

Ø  Why did the cameras only search for celebrities in Los Angeles?!  Wasn’t Drew Carey at a Cavs game?  Where’s the love for us big ol’ stocky guys? 

Ø  What did the NBA pay Jeff Van Gundy to praise the officiating?  The league obviously can’t control Charles Barkley who gave a much more objective analysis of the inconsistencies and incompetence.  The league just won’t believe that most of us think it’s fixed, maybe worse than the WWF.

 

Website(s) of the ‘Tude

If you are a baseball junkie and have not stumbled across www.baseballreference.com, once you visit you’ll become a regular.  You can basically call up past boxscores of every World Series game, all-time standings, records, situational stuff, etc.  Take a gander if you’re a seamhead.  There’s also a new college football site out there, www.rivalryfootball.com; it’s nothing special yet but it supposed to add a lot more in the coming months.

 

 Congrats Shouts

Roy Edwards

Ø  To CU golf coach Roy Edwards & wife Shelley, parents for the first time as Ashton Ross Edwards arrived at 4:40 a.m. on June 3; he was not born with a 9-iron in his grasp but did weight 8 lbs., 7 ounces and was 20½ inches long. 

Ø  To Dan & Misti Hawkins, who became grandparents very early on May 12, when daughter Brittany hubby Tim Brady welcomed Jaxson Hugh into the world at 12:49 a.m.  The “little” guy checked in at 7 lbs., 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Ø  To Colorado Mines SID Jeff Duggan who was named the sports information director of the year in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.  These SID offices outside of Division I are usually one full-time person shops (some have two, I’d bet none have three) and guys and gals like Jeff work their butts off.  So congrats on an honor well deserved!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Golfer Updates

Former Buff Jonathan Kaye (’93) has now played in 10 tournaments in his bid to regain full-fledged status on the PGA Tour.  He has made five cuts to date; he needs to win $743,805 in 13 tournaments on his medical waiver to reclaim his Tour card.  We’re charting his progress and keep wishing him luck!

Tournaments Played: 10

Earnings: $ 232,195

To Go:  $511,610

 

CU’s two graduating senior golfers, Patrick Grady and Derek Tolan, have turned professional and are now in the process of lining up sponsors to begin the road to making it on the PGA Tour.  In the case of this pair, I have put my money where my mouth is and have signed on to help both; anyone else interested in doing so, shoot me an e-mail and I can forward you their contact info (there is quite a process to this, and sponsorship is a major deal; they’re not set up to take small donations as that would be too hard to manage); those interested need to approach it as a long-term investment.

 

This Tudes’ Number: 268

Mason Crosby

That’s the number of points that former CU placekicker Mason Crosby has scored in his first two years as a Green Bay Packer — the most in NFL history by any player in their first two seasons.  That is quite the accomplishment, so way to go, Mason! There’s a nice feature on Mason on packers.com this month; check it out at http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2009/05/29/1/.  And while we’re at it, here’s one on former Buff linebacker Jordon Dizon: http://www.detroitlions.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=485028.

 

 

 

 

 

Trivia Answers

CU—CU’s previous and only known Sunday game at Folsom was in 2001, when CU hosted Fresno State in the Jim Thorpe Association Classic.  Fresno State stunned the Buffaloes, 24-22, but CU went on to win 10 of its next  11 on its way to the Big 12 title.

Who Am I?—Kami Carmann.  She lettered four times under Ceal Barry after prepping at Littleton’s Arapahoe High School.  She is now the weekend sports anchor at KMGH-TV (Ch. 7) and is married to CU associate sports info director Curtis Snyder.

Music—Gotcha!  They were the core of Spinal Tap, the fictional band in Rob Reiner’s classic “rockumentary,” This is Spinal Tap.  David St. Hubbins was played by Michael McKean, Nigel Tufnel by Christopher Guest and Derick Smalls by Harry Shearer (who does a lot of voices on The Simpson’s, including Mr. Burns).  And the drummer died like, every year.  A true classic, the all-star cast included Billy Crystal and Dana Carvey playing mimes.

Name That Tune—How Deep Is Your Love, by the Bee Gees.

 

“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.