Guess Who?

As a journalist I always understood the importance of the "public records request," and chuckled at how Penn State long managed to circumvent it and keep Joe Paterno's salary private.

While JoePa somehow dodged a public records request, a group of other coaches weren't so lucky when the Tampa Tribune went in search of the names of candidates for the University of South Florida coaching job that came open when Jim Leavitt was fired. And guess what?

An Ivy League coach was outed as tossing his name in the ring.

The Tribune writes (emphasis is mine):

... (A)t least nine resumes/applications were e-mailed to USF officials either directly from coaches or their agents. The materials were obtained Tuesday by The Tampa Tribune as part of a public records request.

The list of applicants painted a broad stroke across the coaching landscape: Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster, New York Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, Harvard head coach Tim Murphy, Syracuse special teams coach Tim Casullo, former NFL assistant Jack Burns, former Tennessee State head coach James Webster, Bucs assistant coach Rich Bisaccia and Louisiana Storm (semi-pro) assistant head coach Tyrone Hughes, a former player with the New Orleans Saints, all expressed interest the first afternoon the job opened.

Jim Webster, the former Tennessee State coach mentioned, is a former Dartmouth assistant.

Still on the coaching front, the Daily Item in Pennsylvania had an interesting lede for its story about Bucknell hiring onetime Princeton assistant Joe Susan as head coach this week:

When Joe Susan left Bucknell two decades ago, he wrote a letter to the editor to the school newspaper, thanking the university for his time in Lewisburg.

“Life runs in full circles and I hope to see you all again soon,” the letter concluded.

How true that statement rang Wednesday afternoon when Susan, who spent a decade at Bucknell from 1981-1990, was announced as the 26th head football coach at Bucknell, replacing Tim Landis, who resigned on Christmas Eve.

That's called not burning your bridges, folks.

The football teams from the University of New Hampshire and CAA foe Massachusetts will be playing their annual rivalry game the next two years at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. (link) ...

Dartmouth will be playing at the same venue, but not the Dartmouth football team. Rather it will be the Big Green men's lacrosse team that will face Cornell on April 3 at Gillette Stadium as part of an Ivy League doubleheader. Brown and Princeton will play the second game as part of the 2010 New England Lacrosse Classic. (link)

Speaking of stadiums, if you think the blue turf at Boise State is a little strange, you ain't seen nuthin' yet. From an Eastern Washington University press release:

"Former Eastern Washington University football standout Michael Roos of the Tennessee Titans has pledged $500,000 toward the university's "Red Turf" project at EWU's Woodward Field in Cheney, Wash., Eastern President Rodolfo Arévalo announced today.

The project is slated to take on a very unique twist with the installation of the red synthetic playing surface. The red artificial field will be the first of its kind, not just in NCAA Division I football, but in the entire country." (Photo from Eastern Washington)

As one of several e-mailers who shared this link suggested, Dartmouth beat EWU to the draw, putting in a field that reflects not just its school colors but also its nickname several years ago. ;-)

Vanity Fair has a long and very interesting profile of former Treasure secretary Hank Paulson. The story includes this:

Like the Dartmouth offensive lineman he once was (his nickname had been “The Hammer”), Paulson spent most of his time at Treasury slogging down the field, facing one crisis after another.

Dartmouth defensive back Chad Hollis '12 is taking his turn at the keyboard, writing a profile of basketball player Michelle Meyer for the Daily Dartmouth. He did a nice job with it, too.

How about this week's Sports Illustrated? It features an article on Harvard hoops standout Jeremy Lin (with a picture from Saturday's game at Dartmouth) along with a piece on Princeton grad Ross Ohlendorf, a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates, back-to-back.

Back to football, the AP has a story about concussions that begins this way:

At least a half-dozen states are considering measures that would toughen restrictions on young athletes returning to play after head injuries, inspired by individual cases and the attention the issue has received in the NFL.

Washington state led the way last year, passing what is considered the nation's strongest return-to-play statute. Athletes under 18 who show concussion symptoms can't take the field again without a licensed health care provider's written approval. Several other states, including California and Pennsylvania, have similar bills pending.

And finally, when that certain Hanover High School senior took a tour of Dartmouth last week, the guide whispered to us while we were in Baker Library that reclusive author JD Salinger can occasionally be spotted in the building. As you have no doubt heard by now, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, who lived in Cornish, N.H. – about 25 minutes south of Hanover – has died at age 91.

The local paper has a lengthy story about Salinger that explains how locals help protect their neighbor from unwanted visitors:

It was "one of the most enjoyable municipal conspiracies ever, how to keep everyone guessing where Jerry Salinger lived," said (Cornish resident Peter) Burling, who for 44 years has lived several doors from Salinger's Lang Road home.

And this:

A favorite pastime at Cornish General Store, in Cornish Flat, was sending people searching for Salinger out into the weeds.

“I never told where he lived,” Mike Ackerman, a 42-year-old Cornish native who's run the store for two years, said yesterday. The directions given to Salinger-seekers varied, he said.

“It really depended on the attitude of the person coming in how much fun we would have with that person,” said Ackerman ... .

And finally, work has begun on this year's snow sculpture. The Daily Dartmouth has a story about the centerpiece of this year's Winter Carnival, which has the them, "“I Came, I Saw, I Carnivaled.” The sculpture will be a model of the Roman Colosseum.