Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Heartbreaking

Unspeakably sad news out of Deland, Fla., where a sophomore football player at Stetson University, Dartmouth's Week One opponent, has died. From a story in the Orlando Sentinel:
(Nick) Blakely, an accounting major from Lawrenceville, Ga., said he felt light-headed during a workout Monday afternoon. Team trainers pulled him from the drills and watched the linebacker for 30 to 40 minutes when he started to show signs of recovery. Then, Blakely suddenly passed out.
Trainers started CPR and used an automated defibrillator before an ambulance arrived six minutes later, the school said. Blakely was then taken to Florida Hospital DeLand, where he died.
His cause of death is not yet known.


That Certain Nittany Lion '16 is desperately trying to score a couple of tickets to the Penn State-Pitt game on Sept. 9 and he's been visiting online ticket resellers trying to find a reasonable price. That can be a dubious proposition, as the graphic above illustrates.

It's hard to read but the graphic shows StubHub advertising tickets for the Oct. 7 Dartmouth game against Yale on Memorial Field. The posting says it has "9 tickets left" and they are "from $75."

That may well be, but if you visit the Dartmouth ticket office web page and drill down you'll see the graphic below with prices that kinda, sorta beat "from $75."


In case you are interested, the best That Certain Nittany Lions '16 has been able to find online for the Penn State-Pitt game is $160 apiece. Yikes.

As an aside, the last time Penn State and Pitt played in Happy Valley I was in the Beaver Stadium press box. I had flown to Philly to write a story about Dartmouth linebacker Zack Walz '98 playing for the Arizona Cardinals against the Philadelphia Eagles the next day, and took the opportunity to rent a car and drive out to State College on Saturday. No. 2 Penn State beat Pitt that day, 20-17. Pretty good timing ;-)
Speaking of football in Pennsylvania, if you are planning to take in the Big Green's Ivy League opener at Penn you won't want to miss the Dartmouth pregame festivities, "with legendary tailgate caterer Johnny Rodio grilling up great food, and DJ Ralph DAmelio bringing the "happy!" Check out the time, place, cost and other details HERE.
Back on the subject of Dartmouth and the NFL, Flo Orimolade '17 gets a mention in a Yahoo sports preview of the Los Angeles Rams-Green Bay Packers preseason game. From the story:
With the roster cutdowns looming on September 2nd, the Rams defense offers multiple opportunities for the linebacker positions. Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips’ base 3-4 defense will create spots for around 10 linebackers, so Thursday night will see the best efforts of depth players like former Packer Andy Mulumba, Davis Tull, Willie Mays III, and Folarin Orimolade.