More Goff

A story from the Wisconsin State Journal's blog details linebacker Bennett Goff's commitment to Dartmouth. The story notes that he made his verbal commitment at the end of January but only locked it in this week after getting his financial aid read. From the story:

“I wanted to go somewhere I could possibly play right away,” said Goff, who has maintained a cumulative 3.86 grade-point-average while competing in three sports for the Cardinals. “But I also want to go to medical school so my education is very important to me, too.”

Goff noted correctly that he didn't "sign" with Dartmouth so much as he publicly confirmed his choice:

“I didn't have to sign a National Letter of Intent since they don't offer scholarships. But I wanted everyone to know Dartmouth is the best fit for me.”

Also from the story:

That feeling was confirmed when Goff received a phone call from Casey Cramer, a 2000 Middleton and 2004 Dartmouth graduate.

Middleton coach Tim Simon said he asked Cramer, who earned All-American honors and played in the NFL for five seasons, to call Goff while he was pondering his decision.

“I had never met him before but Casey called me from St. Louis and we talked for about 35 minutes,” Goff said. “I didn’t decide to go to Dartmouth because of him. But after we talked I was convinced it was where I belonged.”

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The game story from basketball's Senior Day at Mary Institute Country Day in St. Louis begins this way:

Thomas Militello of MICDS has a flair for the dramatic. The two-sport, Dartmouth bound quarterback bombed in a 25 foot three-pointer with 0:00 left on the first half clock, giving the Rams a narrow 29-19 lead.

Green Alert Take: You can learn a lot watching a kid on the basketball court. I remember reading that Joe Paterno never saw tailback Curt Warner play football at his West Virginia high school, but knew immediately when he attended one of Warner's high school basketball games that the Nittany Lions had found a gem. Warner went on to become a College Football Hall of Famer.

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And finally, late yesterday afternoon Mrs. BGA and I attended a talk at Dartmouth entitled, “Are the Great Books the Moral Heart of Liberal Education?” To be completely honest, that's probably not the subject matter that would have drawn us to campus except for the fact that the speaker, Harvard professor Louis Menand (the winner of the 2002 Pulitzer prize in History for his book, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America) is someone we know a bit. Menand grew up spending his summers in the red late 1700's farmhouse across the road from us and his family still owns the property whose wonderful views I've appropriated for pictures on this blog many times. (They bought the place when Menand's father, Louis, taught at Dartmouth, and the family spends part of the summer there.)

The reason I mention this? Sharing our row at the talk – which was at times compelling and if I'm going to be completely honest at times soared a little over my decidedly non-Ivy League head ;-) – was one Eugene Francis Teevens III.

Now I ask you, how may college football coaches in the land would take time out of their day to attend a lecture like that?

By the way, a Google search of Louis Menand turned up a piece he wrote for The New Yorker headlined, Cat People; What Dr. Seuss really taught us. And yes, Dartmouth is mentioned in the column.