Tim McManus wasn't just the most valuable players for the Big Green last year, he was one of the most valuable players in the whole league.Quick, what is the Dartmouth record for most Ivy League championships in one year? And what school holds the record for Ivy titles in one year? Courtesy of the always entertaining TigerBlog, here's a list of the Ivy schools and their record for most Ivy crowns in one school year:
Dartmouth - 5 (five times, last 1992-93)
Columbia - 5 (2006-07)
Brown - 7 (1999-2000)
Yale - 7 (two times, last 1989-90)
Penn - 8 (1983-84)
Cornell - 9 (2005-06)
Harvard - 14 (2004-05)
Princeton - 14 (two times)
TigerBlog writes that only Harvard and Princeton ever won double-digit titles in one year with the Crimson doing it three times. Princeton has turned the trick 17 times including this year, when it won 11.
Dartmouth won Ivy championships this year in men's soccer, women's basketball and baseball.
The New Hampshire Football Report has a bylined story about the Blue-White scrimmage last weekend that includes a scary thought from junior running back Sean Jellison:
"We're going to look to pick up the pace and even play a little faster this year. We're a high-powered offense and we thrive on playing fast and wearing down the defense."And finally, I was reading a blog written by an old friend from my newspaper days in Pennsylvania and she wrote about a friend who, "did one of those Pick-Your-Five things on Facebook: Five Famous People You've Met."
That got me thinking on my drive up the mountain.
I don't do Facebook but thought I'd have some fun here and recall a few interesting (in my opinion, at least) tidbits from some of the people I've had a chance to meet as a writer.
Being a New Hampshire newspaper, every four years we'd always have politicians coming through the newsroom shaking hands. I distinctly remember Teddy Kennedy and Alexander Haig stopping by the sports desk to say hi. Lots and lots of others came though, so many, in fact, that they've blended together.
Over the years I've interviewed Hale Irwin, Dwight Stones, Mosi Tatupu, Jim Thorpe Jr., Marvin Miller, Vin Baker and on and on, but I don't have stories about them.
I do have stories about a few others that I'll bore you with. ...
In an interview on the day he was to sing locally with his musical group, The Knockouts, I asked heavyweight champion Joe Frazier if he would consider Muhammed Ali a friend. I already knew the answer but was curious how Smokin' Joe would respond. His answer sticks with me to this day: "He's a friend, but he's not the kind of friend you eat with and sleep with. He's the kind of friend you have to watch." Well, OK.
(Frazier's representative, by the way, showed up at the newspaper office the next day to see if he could get a copy of the photo that appeared in the paper. Apparently Joe liked it. We gave it to him.)
I interviewed former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton for a story about his efforts along with a Dartmouth alum to bring a minor league team to Waconah Park in Pittsfield, Mass. One day not long after we were sitting at the dinner table and the phone rang. We usually don't answer it if we are eating, but this time one of the kids did. "It's someone named Jim Burton," whispered whichever kid had answered the phone. I guessed correctly who it was and took the call. I ended up with a cold dinner but two young Yankee fans had a good story to tell at school the next day.
U.S. Olympic coach Herb Brooks was at Thompson Arena scouting a Dartmouth-Sweden exhibition in anticipation of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. I was in my first year at the newspaper and had been sent over to interview Brooks. He was standing behind the railing at the top of the stands near the press box and willing to talk. During our conversation he several times put his hands on my shoulders and gently shifted my position. He said he didn't want the Swedes to know he was there and was using me to screen himself from the Swedish bench. Tongue in cheek I've told people ever since that I did my part to help the U.S. Miracle On Ice team win the gold.
I was in Florida with the Dartmouth men's basketball team one winter and Pete Maravich was the color commentator for the TV broadcast. I was asked to bring him up to speed on the Dartmouth team and had a chance to spend a good 15-20 minutes with him. I came away impressed by The Pistol, but didn't tell him that when I was a kid and he and Calvin Murphy were the two college hotshots, it was Murphy I favored.
I did a long phone interview with Billy Jean King when she was coming to Dartmouth for graduation a few years back. As some of the more prominent athletes do, she asked a little about me and my family as the conversation wound down. When she learned about a certain daughter being a good athlete, she suggested bringing her by the Hanover Inn to say hi when she arrived in town. We ended up meeting her outside the Inn where Billy Jean held up well-wishers and her hosts for a good five minutes to spend time with Kelly. She asked if she liked science and math, gave us a website for girls who do, and signed an old wooden Billy Jean King tennis racket for Kelly. That's one of only two autographs I ever got from people I've interviewed.
The other autograph was from Richard Petty. He was in Barre, Vt., during his farewell tour and I'd been sent up to do a story. Petty is rightly famous for signing autographs for everyone in sight. And as I found out, that means everyone. I spent a little time asking The King questions, after which he signed a photograph that they were giving away at the track and handed it to me unsolicited. I hadn't asked for it any more than I had asked for him to infect me with is unique pronunciation of the word "car." For a good week to 10 days afterward, I annoyed the heck out of my family by referring to any vehicle as a "coar." It just sounded so dang cool the way The King said it.
It is safe to say former North Carolina coach Dean Smith and I are not on each other's Christmas card lists. I've been in interview rooms with everyone from Tiger Woods to Karl Malone to Joe Paterno, but those aren't the kind of "meetings" I'm talking about. While my interaction with Dean Smith was in one of those mass interviews, it was a little different because he spent time addressing me personally. Loudly, aggressively and unhappily. Turns out he was very, very angry at something I wrote, and in a building named after him was completely at home letting me have it. Long story that I'll tell you sometime.
I didn't get a chance to meet Bob Cousy, but a did a pretty good phone interview with him one time. What was neat about that one is it's pretty unusual when you are doing a "phoner" with someone famous to be given their home number. Gotta admit it was pretty cool to dial him up and have him answer the phone. I've still got that number around somewhere and no, you can't have it.
There's always the chance of making a complete fool of yourself when you interview someone famous but that wasn't the case when I met future president George Herbert Walker Bush. Nope, I didn't make a fool of myself interviewing him for one simple reason: I wasn't interviewing him. I made a fool of myself just bumping into him. Bush was running on the Reagan ticket at the time. Or maybe it was during his '80 presidential campaign. I can't remember which. This was back when Dartmouth used to play basketball at Thompson Arena and for some reason, Bush was in the building. There was going to be a reception at Smoyer Lounge after the game and, typical of a young, single, hungry sportswriter, I made a beeline for the Lounge and the food right after the final horn sounded. Being down on the floor I was the first one into Smoyer. Better make that the second. As I walked up to a table to grab some chips or something, a man turned to me, stuck out his hand and introduced himself. "I'm George Bush." My answer (and I honestly can't remember if I was trying to be funny or was just dumbstruck): "I thought you looked familiar."
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