Super Bowl Stories

Every year at this time when I was at the newspaper we'd try to dig up a Super Bowl story with a local angle. Most years we found something, although sometimes the "local" part of it was a bit of a stretch.

I remember writing about a young man from the area who was a diehard Emmitt Smith fan and, in the process of trying to buy some memorabilia, somehow ended up having a lengthy conversation on the phone with the record-setting tailback's mother. The details have been lost in the haze of writing 200 or more stories a year for more years than I care to recall, but you get the idea.

One year Jay Fiedler was nice enough to return a call (after taking the Fins into the playoffs) and I got his take on who would win in the big game between two teams Miami had played. (Again the details are hazy.)

When the New York Giants went to the Super Bowl and former Dartmouth tight end Adam Young was on Big Blue's practice squad he buzzed me back and we laughed about how fans often confused him with Kerry Collins.

Figures. Now that I'm no longer at the paper the stories with local angles seem to be falling in our laps. Former safety Lloyd Lee is a coach with the Bears (although tracking him down would be a trick this week). Yesterday Green Alert reported on an incoming track recruit whose father was a starting middle linebacker for Da Bears.

And yesterday afternoon I stumbled across an even better one. While talking with former Dartmouth coach Joe Yukica, who now works locally in real estate, he let it slip that when he was head coach of the East team in the East-West Shrine Game in 1976 his MVP quarterback was ... Tony Dungy. Yukica, a Pennsylvania native, recalls taking a special interest in the Western PA product. He had fond memories of his week coaching current the Indianapolis Colts coach and later dug out an autographed game program and other souvenirs from that game that brought back even more memories.

Yukica, who was head coach at Boston College prior to choosing to come back to Dartmouth (where he'd previously been an assistant) was an assistant coach in the Shrine game a couple of years before. You might have heard of one of his running backs that year. Fellow by the name of Walter Payton.

By the way, Yukica has generously volunteered his time for several years helping to coach youth football in the area. A certain Hanover 7th grader who learned some of the finer points about playing fullback and defensive back from the former coach was "ga-ga" last evening when his dad gave him a preview of that part of today's blog.

The saga of ballyhooed Maine high school running back Jared Turcotte has wrapped up with his decision to stay at home and play for the Black Bears. Turcotte, you'll recall, had expressed great interest in Dartmouth early on in the recruiting process. Sports Illustrated's preseason player of the year lived up to the billing with 1,813 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns (17 rushing) on 229 carries this fall. The 6-1, 220 honor student ran for more than 4,000 yards in his career. A couple of his quotes from the story suggest the "big" back will be getting even bigger:

"I want to gain 15 to 20 pounds before I get to campus. I am at 220, and I want to be 235 or 240."

and ...

"They said I have the size to be a smaller tight end, and the speed to be a tailback."

There's another story on Turcotte's decision here.

Among those slated to play in St. Louis Ram (and former Harvard) linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski's June 20 charity golf tournament at En-Joie Golf Club in New York, according to this story, is "Tampa Bay quarterback" Jay Fielder. Do they know something we don't know? The Ivy League web site has a piece about Kacyvenski here.

I always found it kind of humorous when I'd hear that a kid was struggling to choose between Dartmouth and Columbia. Although they are both wonderful schools they are certainly polar opposites as far as lifestyle is concerned. That thought occurred to me today when I read a quote in today's Spectator that must have Columbia recruiters grinding their teeth:

"There is a rat problem on campus and I'm not talking about the graduate students," (Columbia College Student Council President Seth Flaxman) wrote. "Students are telling me there are more rats on campus at night than any of us have ever seen before ... I don't know what's causing this ratification, but I'm hoping you can talk to Facilities and lead us in our fight against the rat invaders."

Rats aren't much of a problem around here, but everyone has their own battles to fight. Dartmouth coaches probably hope a prized recruit from Florida's Internet connection goes down before he reads the weather forecast for Sunday morning in the Upper Valley: 10 below zero. There is some good news on that front, however. The forecast has been upgraded. A couple of days ago they were calling for it to be 15 below ;-)

***

It's state championship day in New Hampshire Class I-M-S track and a certain Hanover High School freshman will be running the 3000 and (probably) the 1500 this evening at Leverone Field House. She's nervous and excited, with a chance at placing in the former race. Don't tell her, but dad is a little nervous also.