Magazine Profiles Former Defensive Back

Former Dartmouth defensive back/lacrosse player turned actor Brian White '95 is profiled in this magazine story headlined, Master of Trades. It's a measure of how far he's come that White (a first-team, All-Ivy DB in 1994) is described as an actor, producer and philanthropist in the story without a single mention of the fact that his father is former Boston Celtics great Jo Jo White. Brian's website can be found here.

The Daily Princetonian has a story about new Tiger offensive coordinator James Perry, who began is coaching career working with quarterbacks and wide receivers at Dartmouth in 2001.

Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor, a former corner back who did not play football this fall, is a senior captain of the Big Green track team which will compete this weekend in the annual Dartmouth Relays. The Daily Dartmouth mentions Abdul-Shakoor in its meet preview. Speaking of track, this YouTube video is a track recruiting tool, but with scenes of Memorial Field, campus and downtown Hanover, it's worth a glimpse by anyone who misses Dartmouth or would like to get a feel for the school and its location.

Incoming quarterback Cole Marcoux has been getting a ton of ink (and bytes) in anticipation of his appearance in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio. You can catch the game on NBC tomorrow at 1 p.m. If you missed yesterday's link to his local newspaper's writeup, click here. Marcoux's Rivals.com page now lists him as committed to Dartmouth.

Meant to toss up another link to go with yesterday's note on the merit aid issue at Cornell. For an imaginary and revealing discussion between Cornell and Harvard regarding financial aid issues, check out this MetaEzra piece.

As long as we're on the subject of financial aid, Dartmouth announced yesterday that it ...

... has completed a seven-year, $1.3 billion fundraising campaign that has enhanced its place as a leader in American higher education. A total of 65,174 alumni, parents, friends, faculty, students, staff, and organizations participated in the campaign, including 70 percent of alumni.

At first blush it seemed strange to be trumpeting the success of the campaign, given the economic climate around the college and the expectation that a good number of college employees will soon be losing their jobs. To his credit, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim was up front about that issue in a story that appeared in the Daily Dartmouth:

Kim emphasized that while the campaign was very successful, its proceeds will not contribute to — and therefore must not distract from — the goal of reducing the College’s spending by as much as $100 million over two years.

“The notion that we’d be at $1.3 billion was already calculated into our financial projections,” Kim said. “We had over $1.2 billion when I took over in July. This is not new money that came in to fix the deficit.”

Back to football ... If former Dartmouth assistant Joe Moglia is going to land that Division I head coaching job he has publicly coveted, his options are narrowing. The Sports Network listing shows 32 positions filled (counting two interims) and just five jobs open: Cornell, Bucknell, Mississippi Valley State, Same Houston and Valparaiso.

Former Columbia coach Jim Garrett played a role in the amazing story of Dallas Cowboys receiver Miles Austin, now a valuable asset to his son Jason, the 'Pokes offensive coordinator (and former Princeton quarterback). For an interesting look at how Austin went from would-be Olympian to NFL standout, check out this Philadelphia Inquirer story.

Speaking of FCS receivers and the NFL, check out this NFL Draft Blitz Q&A with Colgate senior Pat Simonds. The Raider receiver who is close to 6-foot-6, has been clocked at a surprisingly quick 4.57 in the 40.

It's not football but it's Ivy League and it's interesting: The New York Times has a story about Princeton basketball teammates (and good friends) Niveen Rasheed, a Palestinian-American, and Lauren Polansky, who is Jewish. The two have helped the Tigers get off to the best start in school history according to the story.