Rick Bender, Dartmouth's sports information director since 2008, was inducted over the weekend into the Davidson College Hall of Fame. From his induction bio:
Three times a first-team all-conference shortstop, Rick Bender graduated as the program's all-time leader in hits, doubles, extra-base hits, total bases, at-bats and games played. He still ranks among the all-time leaders in those categories, including second with 90 extra-base hits, second with 401 total bases, third with 176 runs scored and fourth with 198 games played. He still owns the single-season assists record with 192 in 1991. Bender later worked as a Davidson assistant coach, spent eight years as the sports information director and served on the Athletics Hall of Fame Committee for two-plus decades.
Find Rick Bender's Dartmouth bio HERE.
Green Alert Take: Although Rick is as professional, conscientious and thorough an SID as I've ever known – and I've known a lot of them – he's in his final week at Dartmouth, and not of his own choice. If in 20 years a former Dartmouth athlete is running for the U.S. Senate or winning an Oscar, there will be a complete history of his or her athletic career thanks to Rick. I can't make any promises about that in the future as the "information" aspect of what is now called "athletic communications" is de-emphasized and the ephemeral social media side takes over.
Green Alert Take II: There's another Hall of Fame caliber staff member wrapping up a long run in Dartmouth athletics this week. Cindi Mansell, senior varsity athletics communications assistant who was hired by the late SID Kathy Slattery in 1987, is moving on, also not of her own choice. I've been to literally thousands of Dartmouth athletic events and Cindi has been at most of them diligently churning out mounds of statistics. It is impossible for me to thank her properly for everything she has done for me. I cannot imagine Big Green athletics without her or Rick.
#
The Associated Press has a women's basketball story headlined, Princeton back in Top 25 after tough non-conference schedule prepared Tigers for Ivy play. Here's a quote in the story from Tigers' coach Carla Berube about scheduling opponents like UCLA, Indiana and Oklahoma (LINK):
“We got to challenge ourselves early on and see who we are and where we need to get better."
Editor's Note: Mrs. BGA pointed out that "We got to" is actually correct if the intent is to say, "We had the chance to." That said, there are still times when reporters make that mistake.
Green Alert Take: Why a note about that here? This is one of my pet peeves. Did she really say "We got," rather than "We've got?" I'm not the grammar police, but I'd be very, very annoyed if someone quoted me as saying, "We got," or "I got to," because I wouldn't say that no matter what the writer thinks they heard.
#
EXTRA POINT
You know how when you exercise muscles that you don't usually use they are sore the next day? I'm reminded of that a bit this morning.
If you are a regular visitor to this electronic precinct, you know that I hike our nearby mountain most days. Given that, I wouldn't expect to feel yesterday's extended hike in my calves, but within an hour or so of getting back late in the afternoon I was definitely feeling it.
Why? Because when I got on the back side of the mountain where no snowshoers or hikers had been since the last snowfall, I could walk only a few steps on the frozen crust atop the snow before crashing through a foot or more. Then it would be five or six steps with my feet crashing through the crust until, thankfully, the surface would support me for a few steps. Then I'd crash through again. On and on it went.
It wasn't fun. Apparently the motion involved in pulling my feet out of the snow and back up through the remaining crust was different from the motion of my regular hike. That's why my legs were a little sore.
I'll be back on the trail today but you can rest assured I won't be going through the back loop unless I'm wearing my snowshoes or someone else has come through with them and knocked the trail down. As I said, it wasn't much fun and it was a l-o-t of work.
