July 29, 2009
All-Time Hoya Week
Last week was a banner week for me. The headliner was the taping of the latest installment of the ESPN television series, Homecoming. The show featured Alonzo Mourning '92, one the greatest athletes in the long intercollegiate history of Georgetown University, in the sports version of the old TV show, This is Your Life. ESPN will air the one-hour show on Thursday, August 6 at 7 p.m. EDT and again at 11 p.m. on ESPN2.
All-time great Patrick Ewing with future star Trey MourningNow, I tend to refrain from rating the all-time greatest athlete on the Hilltop. I won't start now. Nevertheless, would Alonzo be one of the top contenders? Absolutely. The greatest ever? Won't go there. Not with all-time superstar Patrick Ewing sitting in the auditorium for the Homecoming show. And not with the two other visitors I entertained on campus the previous and following day.
LeGendre granddaughter Martha Tucker and cousin Jane MuszynskiAs the TV trucks were crowding Healy Circle last Wednesday in preparation for Thursday's taping of Homecoming, I hosted another homecoming in the Library archives with local resident Martha Payne Tucker and her Maine-reared cousin Jane LeGendre Muszynski. Martha is the daughter of the late Jean LeGendre Payne. That makes Martha the granddaughter of all-time Hoya great Bob LeGendre '22. I had just blogged about her grandfather several days earlier (link here). Bob was the dominant Hoya superstar of his era. Together, we poured through the old yearbooks and early editions of The Hoya for most of the day, discovering new tidbits about Georgetown's legendary pentathlete and one-time world-record holder.
Michael and Nicholas Libretto learn about their famous forebear
from their grandmother Barbara
After the last of the ESPN trucks had departed, I was paid a visit on Friday by New Yorker Barbara Blozis Libretto, her husband Mike, and her two grandsons. With her instantly recognizable maiden name, Barbara is the daughter of the late Joseph Blozis, which makes her the second cousin of all-time Hoya great Al Blozis '42. I blogged and wrote about her world-reknown relative several years ago (link here). Al was the dominant Hoya superstar of his era as well. We spent half a day in McDonough and in the archives looking at Blozis memorabilia, from his WWII purple heart, to his football Hall of Fame plaque, to his written correspondence with the Jesuits, to the special edition comic book created in his honor, to the 16 lb. ball of iron, the shot put with which he set one record after another.
What a week for the stars of yesteryear! I could feel the spirit of the Blue and Gray pulsing with the physical and ethereal presence on campus of four of Georgetown's finest: Bob, Al, Patrick and Alonzo. The confluence of these four names in the same week not only made me proud to be a Hoya, but reminded me of Georgetown's tradition of athletic excellence through the generations. The best of the best? Take your pick.
As we say on the Hilltop, "Utraque Unam." Have it both ways.
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July 13, 2009
A Time to Remember
The first Golden Age of Sport in America occurred during the 1920’s when larger than life figures captivated the nation’s attention with exploits in their respective sporting venues: Babe Ruth (baseball), Jack Dempsey (boxing), Red Grange, (football) Bobby Jones (golf), Suzanne Lenglen (tennis), Jack Kelly (rowing), Bill Tilden (tennis), and Man o’ War (horse racing). Public interest was similarly focused upon the finest athletes participating in the sporting events once commonly referred to as “Athletics,” and today better known as Track and Field.
The opening ceremony of the 1924 games and track and field events took place
in the Olympic Stadium of Colombes (capacity of 45,000)
85 years ago today -- July 13, 1924 -- the track and field competition at the 8th Olympiad in Paris, France concluded. These were the first Games to feature an Olympic Village and the last one organized under the presidency of modern Olympics founder, Pierre de Coubertin. These games also saw the introduction of the Olympic motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Faster, Higher, Stronger). With the number of participating nations growing from 29 in the 1920 Antwerp games to 44 in Paris (along with the presence of 1,000 journalists), the Olympics had finally begun to gain widespread acceptance as a major athletic spectacle.
Well beyond the recall memory of most persons alive today, the 1924 Olympics surely carry some of the most interesting story lines of any Olympic games:
• USA trackman William DeHart Hubbard became the first black athlete ever to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics; he triumphed in the long jump (then known as the running broad jump).
• The saga of British gold medalists Harold Abrahams in the 100 meters and Eric Liddell in the 400 were chronicled in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. Liddell, a devout Christian, opted out of his best event as well as two relays because the preliminaries were held on a Sunday. Nevertheless, he got his gold and a bronze in other events.
• USA swimmer Johnny Weissmuller burst on the scene, winning two individual gold medals and a single team relay gold. He added a bronze as a member of the water polo team. He would later become even better known for his prolific role in Hollywood as Tarzan.
• USA swimmer Gertrude Ederle earned a relay gold and two individual bronze medals. Two years later, she caused a sensation by becoming the first woman to swim across the English Channel -- and in a time almost two hours faster than any man had ever achieved.
• USA gold medal winning crew was comprised of the entire Yale rowing squad, led by captain Stillman Rockefeller, who would go on to head The First National City Bank of New York (later CitiBank) for 17 years. In the boat with him was Benjamin Spock, who would later become a well-known expert on child-care).
• In gymnastics, 24 men scored a perfect 10. Twenty-three of them scored it in the now discontinued event of rope climbing.
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Georgetown played a large role in these games, sending five Hoyas to compete in Paris, its most ever at one Olympics in the sport of track & field. The Hoya contingent that year : Emerson Norton (decathlon), Jimmy Connolly (3,000m team race), James Burgess (4x400m relay), William Dowding (long jump), and Bob LeGendre '22 (pentathlon). While Norton captured a silver medal, it is the story of Bob LeGendre that merits reciting here.
Robert Lucien LeGendre arrived on the Hilltop from Lewiston, Maine in the fall of 1918. The youngest of 13 children, he was an athletic prodigy, playing scholastic football, basketball and baseball. His blazing speed and size on the gridiron soon caught the eye of GU coach John O’Reilly, who quickly put him on the track team. With his natural athleticism, Bob began to compete in the pentathlon, a multi-event contest that included the long jump, javelin, 200 meter run, discus, and the 1500 meter run. 
Following his freshman year, Bob earned a spot on the U.S. team competing at the Inter-Allied Games in Paris, where he captured the gold medal in the pentathlon. One year later, he tied for third place in the pentathlon at the Olympic Games in Antwerp. He lost the tie-breaker for the bronze through a secondary point scoring system.By the time he graduated from Georgetown, Bob was crowned national pentathlon champion three times and widely acknowledged to be the most outstanding athlete ever to wear the blue and gray. He was not finished with world-class competition though.
In the 1924 Olympics, Bob shattered the world record in the long jump (25’ 5.5”). However, since the jump was part of the pentathlon competition, his effort contributed to winning a bronze medal in the pentathlon and did not earn him the gold. Because he had not competed in the long jump at the U.S. trials, Bob was not eligible to jump in that individual event. As it turned out, his world record jump ended up exceeding DeHart Hubbard’s gold medal-winning mark in the individual long jump event by more than one foot. Blessed with movie star good looks and a magnificent physique, Bob actually signed a Hollywood contract, but never pursued an acting career. Instead, he earned a second degree from Georgetown in dentistry and served as an officer in the dental corps of the U.S. Navy. Sadly, Bob succumbed to bronchial pneumonia in 1931 at age 34.
We are left to wonder forever, "What if?" Still, what he achieved during his brief life brought great honor and glory to his family, his Alma Mater and his country.
Hoya, Hoya Saxa!Hoya, Hoya Georgetown!
Hoya LeGendre! LeGendre! LeGendre!
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June 21, 2009
A Memorial Day Tribute
Last month, I planned to post a Memorial Day entry on this blog noting the historical presence of the Georgetown ROTC unit on campus and the parallels to athletics in the development of society leaders. Then my computer crashed again and the following story overwhelmed -- putting my posting on hold -- until now.
Back in the days when the Reverend Brian McGrath, SJ served the University from 1950 to 1970 as College Dean, Academic Vice President, and Administrative Vice President, he was justifiably proud of the ROTC unit on campus which was affiliated with the 352 Civil Affairs Command of the U.S. Army Reserves. The mission of civil affair commands is to help military commanders by working with civil authorities and civilian populations in the commander’s area of operations to lessen the impact of military operations on them during peace, contingency operations and declared war. The affiliation (but not the ROTC unit) was lost in the student unrest of the late Vietnam era. Still it was such a natural fit for a university like Georgetown to be linked with functions that include complex reconstruction efforts such as the military now faces in Iraq today.
In the fall of 1971, a wide-eyed freshman from Chicago arrived on the Georgetown campus. With aspirations to play football on the Hilltop, he reported one week early to participate in the team's preseason practice. His name was Terry Barnich. Our paths crossed right away. I was a senior and one of his resident assistants that year on 4th Healy (then a first-year dormitory floor).
From the get-go, Terry was eager to soak up whatever he could experience at Georgetown. He was a talented athlete, a bright learner, and a Charlton Heston look-a-like. His interests ranged from politics to coeds to all things Chicago and extended to any new adventure. He especially enjoyed meeting people and was ever curious about what they thought and why.
#23 Terry (center standing) in 1972 team photo
So it didn't take long before Terry discerned my own athletic passion for the sport of lacrosse. And it wasn't too hard to convince him that he ought to give it a try. He embraced the challenge as soon as the football season ended. Terry was a quick study, making up for his initial lack of stick skills with his persistent efforts, innate athleticism, and speed. By season's end, though still inexperienced, he was more than capable of getting onto the field.
I missed the next two year's of Terry's lacrosse development, but when I returned to Georgetown for law school following a tour in the U.S. Army, I rejoined the team as a grad assistant. Now in his final season, Terry was captain of the Hoya lax team (no surprise) and so improved that he earned the Corcoran Trophy as the team MVP.
Team captain Terry (seated lower left) in 1975 team photo
I stayed in touch with Terry following his graduation. He would return to DC during summers from Fordham law school and he played with a bunch of fellow lax alums on the Georgetown summer lacrosse team. However, once he returned to Chicago for good, I typically only saw him once a year, when he would randomly show up at a Hoya home lacrosse contest. The last time I saw Terry may have been in 2005. I figured his life had gotten very busy as he continued his career in and out of business and state government.
It did not surprise me when I learned late last month that Terry has been in Iraq for the past two years, first as an adviser to the Ministry of Electricity, and then with the U.S. State Department as deputy director of the Iraq Transition Assistance Office in Baghdad. Still, why would someone put himself in harm's way at this point in his life?
A leader, a man of action, unafraid of the unknown, and eager for challenge, Terry saw an opportunity to serve and he pursued it. Too old to enlist in the military at age 54, he volunteered to work in a civilian capacity, pushing hard to help develop the sine qua non to stability throughout Iraq: electricity.
After extending his tour once, Terry was set to conclude his service in June. Tragically, he did not make it home alive. On Memorial Day, Terry died in Iraq when his convoy was struck by a roadside bomb blast. When his car went over the bomb, he was returning from an inspection of a waste water treatment plant under construction in Falluja.
A principled son of Georgetown, Terry remained true to himself to the end. He saw what was possible and he worked hard to make it happen. To the question "if not you, then who?", he answered the call.
We on the Hilltop will find the right occasion to celebrate Terry's life in the fall. Until then, Fr. McGrath, meet my friend, teammate, and true Hoya, Terry Barnich.
Hoya, Hoya Saxa!
Hoya, Hoya Georgetown!
Hoya Barnich! Barnich! Barnich!
Requiescat in pace.
ONLINE LINKS TO TERRY
A draft lottery story
June 2, 2004
Tour of Duty: NPRG’s Barnich Brings Telecom Expertise to Iraq
xchange
February 20, 2008
Terry Barnich, RIP
ILLINOIS REVIEW
May 26, 2009
Roadside Bomb In Iraq Kills 3 Americans
CBS World
May 26, 2009
Telecom consultant Terry Barnich killed in Iraq
TELEPHONY ONLINE
May 26, 2009
Terry Barnich, RIP. Valiant Defender of Peace
Chicago Daily Observer
May 26, 2009
Memories of Terry Barnich
TELEPHONY ONLINE
May 26, 2009
Godspeed Terry Barnich
Blackfive Media
May 27, 2009
Terry Barnich is Contractor Killed in Iraq
MAGGIE'S NOTEBOOK
Monday, June 8, 2009
Farewell - A Tribute to Terry Barnich
PIPELINE
Vol 6 Issue 1
PRINT MEDIA LINKS
State Dept. worker, long known in Ill. politics, dies in Iraq
USA TODAY
May 26, 2009
Official Is Among 3 Americans Killed By Bomb in Iraq
Washington Post
May 26, 2009
Killed in Iraq, contractor 'leaves a lasting legacy'
The Washington Times
June 7, 2009
April 14, 2009
Shades of Georgetown Rowing
Rowing, they say, is the ultimate team sport. It is easy to understand why. Eight individuals all pulling together in syncopation to make their boat move faster. To the spectators, the rowers are indistinguishable in a well-executed shell. If there is one oarsman in the boat superior to the others, most of us wouldn't know it.
Still, there is an additional person who fills out the traditional collegiate eight: the coxswain. As the only body in the shell who faces forward, the cox plays a special role, a quarterback of sorts, steering the boat, thinking quickly, and calling out the pace. A talented coxswain makes a good boat better and can be the critical margin of success in a tight race. So it is that, following a major victory, the coxswain is tossed in celebration into the drink by his or her enthused rowing teammates.While the solitary role of the cox cannot be shared with boatmates, it is left to coxswains to seek out each other for support and inspiration. And when the rowing community gathered on Good Friday last to dedicate a shell in memory of GU Hall of Fame coach Don Cadle, it refreshed me to witness the meeting of current varsity heavyweight cox, Jack Carlson '09 and his historical counterpart, the legendary Doug "Tiger" Sergeant '65.
Though many years separate their time at Georgetown, Jack and Tiger share a powerful nexus. Not only of wearing the blue and gray or of speeding to victory in a Georgetown shell; yes, they do share that wonderful experience with all of their teammates. Their unique bond comes instead from the instant understanding that each has of the other when meeting a fellow cox, as well as the proud lineage of coxswains that dates to the beginnings of the Georgetown Crew.
Never Row!
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April 7, 2009
Lights! Camera! Action!
Last Friday, in the inaugural game under the lights at the Hoya Yard, I witnessed one of the more dramatic Georgetown comebacks I have seen. The women's lacrosse team hosted defending Big East champion Syracuse coached by the legendary Gary Gait.By the middle of the second half, the Hoyas found themselves on the short end of a 10-6 score. Since women's lacrosse rules do not provide for stalling or delay of game, it is not uncommon, with as much as ten minutes to play, for a team with the lead to slow the pace or simply play keep-away to protect their margin for victory.
It never got to that point in this matchup however, mostly because the Orange couldn't get the ball back. Instead, the Hoyas poured in four goals in little more than four minutes to tie the game. They then slowed things down a bit for the rest of regulation, which ended with the score knotted at ten. Four 3-minute overtime periods ensued without result. In the fifth overtime, junior star Ashby Kaestner ended the contest on a free position shot.An extended night game victory in the Yard. What a fitting way to break in the new lights!
An aside: 39 years ago, back when the Hoya Yard was still known as Harbin field, the lack of lighting on the field limited its use to a daytime schedule. Motivated to expand practice times for the Hoya teams, a group of students, alumni, and faculty organized an effort to raise funds to put up lights on Harbin field. They asked for others to join them by paying dues of ten dollars (five for students). With the money they raised, a steering committee allocated $5,000 to put up a couple of poles with two floodlights on each and to run electricity to them. This modest first lighting of athletic fields was a small yet defining contribution of an organization that continues to provide vital support to Georgetown athletics to this day: Hoyas Unlimited.Read more...
April 2, 2009
Que Saxa!
In early 1984, my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Osman, did a lesson on Washington DC. Seeing the monuments and learning about American History, I was hooked. Although I had never been outside of Los Angeles, I told her that I wanted to live in Washington someday, to which she quickly quipped, “You should go to Georgetown University for college.” Never hearing of such a place, I said an enthusiastic “OK!” and decided to ask her what Georgetown was later, so as not to hurt her feelings. That Saturday morning, I sat in front of our TV and was flipping through the channels deciding on which cartoons to watch, when a basketball game on CBS caught my eye. I stopped for a moment and realized that their jerseys said Georgetown on them. I started shrieking and my mother came running into the living room. I exclaimed, “Look, it’s Georgetown! That’s my college. That is where I am going to school one day.” My mother was utterly confused by my passion, but humored me nonetheless. That morning, I laid in front of the TV and watched the entire game, forgetting all about my cartoons.After that fateful day, I bounded up each Saturday morning, desperate to find those Georgetown players again. When they appeared, I was in heaven. Living in Los Angeles and in the days before cable and the Internet, my viewing options were limited. I was however, able to watch several games that season. My mother didn’t quite know what to make of my new found interest in men’s college basketball, given that my current ten year old passions were Barbie and Cyndi Lauper.
What happened during that winter, however, was so much more than watching a basketball team. First, they became the embodiment of my very first goal. Connecting with them each Saturday brought the fantasy a little closer to reality. The dream of living near those beautiful monuments and attending a school I had never heard of thousands of miles from home was less scary and more possible with the team in my living room.
Second, I became an admirer of John Thompson. In his interviews, due to fact that he was breaking racial barriers, he would often discuss education and race in addition to game details. He was passionate with a purpose. What he was creating wasn’t just about basketball. After my parents, he became and remained my third mentor throughout my school years (though he never knew it). I remember the championship game. I remember the joy on the screen. I remember the fuss made that he was the first African American coach to win. I didn’t quite understand why it was such a big deal, but it inspired me. As a Mexican American girl from a lower middle class single parent household in Southern California, I was determined to work hard everyday to get to Georgetown. If Coach Thompson could realize his dream, I could realize mine. When I got lazy and didn’t want to study, his voice, his words, and the image of a deflated basketball on his desk, underlying the absence of education, would snap me out of my funk and I would work harder.
Through the years, I would listen to Coach Thompson talk about the need to create educational access for those that did not have the financial advantages in youth to position themselves for college. I understood what he was fighting for and why he was relentless in his activism. I wanted to attend Georgetown to continue to learn from him (why he never taught a course is beyond me—I would have enrolled every semester). As a Hoya, it was clear that Georgetown fought for equity as well. I knew that my career had to continue this work. Today, I manage the student experience for Walden University, dedicated to making quality masters and PhD programs accessible to all learners who are willing to work hard and accept support to achieve the prize, an advanced degree.This year, we celebrated a great victory that took place a quarter of a century ago. It means something different for each of us who remember that championship season. For me, I couldn’t tell you about the points scored or the plays made. What I can tell you is that the season and its story changed a ten year old forever.
Que Saxa!
Gina Dyson
CAS 96 GRD 01
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April 1, 2009
Swifter Than The Wind
On a number of occasions in the past, I have posted about the history of rowing at Georgetown as well as the celebration last autumn during Never Row weekend of 50 years of modern crew on the Hilltop. The links to those posts are listed at the end of this entry.
At the gala dinner on that celebration weekend, the first official video on modern rowing at Georgetown debuted. Below, you can view in its entirety on the web the 11-minute retrospective: Swifter Than The Wind.
Never Row? [30 years of women's rowing]
A Good Start [the birth of modern crew at Georgetown]
A Great Second Act [the start of lightweight rowing on the Hilltop]
Ocior Euro [recap of Never Row weekend]
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March 27, 2009
Blue vs. Gray
Bring It On, part 2
My high school son, for the past two months, has been working on a research paper comparing three great battles of the Civil War (Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor), all of which occurred within 100 miles of Washington, DC. So when the Georgetown Hoyas lined up last night in McDonough Memorial Gymnasium to face the Richmond Spiders in the third round of the women's NIT, I couldn't help but think about the historical connection between the two cities represented by the teams on the court, the capital of the North versus the capital of the South. And in the game, just as in those three battles, the side with the stronger defense prevailed in a decisive victory.
With the win, the Hoyas move on to the round of eight to face Boston College at the Conte Forum in Boston next Sunday. Hoya, hoya saxa!
I slipped into the arena last night before the doors opened and found the Hoyas informally warming up and staying loose. Many of the hoop men's team were there, hanging out and chatting with their counterparts. The easy and relaxing environment felt like it did during one night of Madness last October when the men and women roundballers mixed it up in our first glimpse of the respective teams. When I posted an entry about that evening of basketball, I remarked about the day in the future when basketball in McDonough will once again sell out. It didn't happen last night, but the who's who in attendance were treated to a very entertaining game of b-ball. Those attendees included: Jim Walsh, SJ and more than a few Jesuits; Law Center VP Kevin Conry '76; veteran fans of McDonough womens' ball including Joe McGuinness '68, Paul Besozzi '69, and University VP Dan Porterfield '85; multiple former players, including our first WNBA draftee, Katie Smrcka-Duffy '01; lots of current Hoya parents and families; Hoop Club leaders Al Bozzo '85, Mike Karam '72, and Bill Licamele '68; athletic director Bernard Muir along with most of his staff and coaches; emeritus AD Frank Rienzo; several members of the Thompson family; and the men's hoop team as mentioned.It was a homecoming of sorts and the Hoyas couldn't have picked a better time to show their stuff. Now, battle-tested throughout the Big East season and on the threshold of their deepest run ever into post-season play, the Georgetown women are deserving of our esteem. We are proud of their success and delighted to see them wear the Blue AND Gray.
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March 16, 2009
Journey of a Lifetime
I took a journey this past weekend to Geneva, NY. I have fond memories of the town, from visiting relatives there as a boy, to returning there over Christmas break in college with my lacrosse teammate Nick Midey, who resided in the neighboring village of Seneca Falls. I remember visiting Hobart College on that particular journey and stopping in Bristol Gym to pay respects to head coach Jerry Schmidt, the first and only lacrosse player ever to land on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I remember returning again six months later to participate in the 31st annual North-South All-Star Game as a member of the winning South squad. I also remember going back several times to watch the Hoyas earn closely contested victories against the Statesmen. Fond memories indeed.
The reason I went back once more to Geneva last weekend was to serve as scorekeeper for the Georgetown - Hobart lacrosse game. There once was a time, a generation ago, when Georgetown did not belong on the same field as upstate lacrosse powerhouse Hobart. Fortunately, they never met on the field in those days. Now, the two schools compete in the same conference, the ECAC. However, a conference affiliation is not all that Georgetown and Hobart share: GU Law graduate Mark Gearan '90 is the current president of Hobart College; the site of the game, McCooey Field, is named for the family that has sent offspring to both schools, including Dick McCooey '52, founder and once proprietor of the Tombs and 1789 restaurant; and one-time Georgetown coach, Tom Oberdorfer, played his college lacrosse at Hobart. The most significant connection that has bound together Georgetown and Hobart over the past 20 years though is a man named David Urick.
I won't recite Coach Urick's accolades in this space. You can read them here and here. How well is he still remembered at the school that gave him his first coaching job? Within the first hour he arrived on campus with the Hoyas, a lineup of old friends greeted him, including the Hobart trainer, the assistant to the president, the athletic director, assistant coaches, and even a former referee.The Hoyas will leave the ECAC next year with the addition of men's lacrosse to Big East competition. Sadly, the Hobart rivalry may very well end.
Happily, the fond memories and connections between the schools will not.
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March 11, 2009
The Season of Job
Another Big East Tournament has ended for the Hoyas. I am about to board a train to head back to DC. We'll wait to hear from the NIT, but the post-mortems have already begun.
All right, we lost in New York. It follows a difficult season of multiple unexpected losses for our men's basketball team. We started the season so well, then . . . ?
Is there a moral to the story? No, throw out the instant analysis and daily judgments. I, for one, will not conclude from successive painful losses that our team is somehow bad and unworthy.
True wisdom to understand fully this season may be beyond us. One thing is clear though: the team has faced one challenge after another in a very trying season. Never did they lose their composure or integrity. And surely, it is a noble achievement to hold your head high under the glare of the spotlight and in the face of great adversity.One other thing is clear as well: through faith and perseverance, the Hoyas will be back.
For now, the season of Job is upon us.
Hoya, Hoya Saxa!
Hoya, Hoya Georgetown!
Hoya, Team! Team! Team!
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February 2, 2009
Raising Our Game
For most of the 139-year history of intercollegiate athletics at Georgetown, fund raising was an iffy proposition – sporadically undertaken and underwhelming at that. After 100 years of this on-again, off-again model, a group of alumni, students, parents, faculty and staff sought to change this paradigm in 1970 by establishing an annual appeal for Hoya sports -- through a booster organization called Hoyas Unlimited. I was a student-athlete at the time and I remember well the positive feelings that this external support engendered, despite its meager beginnings.Six years later, I had the opportunity to serve as president of Hoyas Unlimited. In spite of earnest attempts to raise the giving bar, the institutional and resource constraints placed upon our efforts were considerable, and frustrating. At the end of the decade, I led an exercise to reshape Hoyas Unlimited into the organizational model that exists today.
By the early 1980’s, fund raising began to rise steadily. At the time, I was fortunate to serve in the lead staff role with Hoyas Unlimited. Before this decade ended however, the need for more was urgent and the lack of major gift development in athletics was glaring. Again, a new model was called for. I soon found myself working closely with then athletic director, Frank Rienzo, to solicit major gifts for coaching and scholarships.Under this model, annual giving and major giving to athletics has continued to grow substantially for the past 20 years. Still, relative to our intercollegiate competition, we have been treading water at best. Still more is needed today.
For the past three and one-half years, I have written and posted to this space - entitled View From The Hilltop - on Georgetown’s official athletic website. VFTH is a blog; a link-filter; a sports column; part commentary, part journal, part photo album; a portal; it is colloquial analysis; and it is home-grown. My goal was to make this corner of the website fun and interesting, and in the process, build a community of greater interest.
One year ago last June, I posted a blog entry entitled “A Call to Arms.” It provided some context for the current state of resources available to Georgetown athletics. It also put forth a call to action to elevate the fund raising bar for Hoya sports and suggested that a new paradigm is needed to move forward.
With this post, I am happy to report that a new organizational model is underway. This parallel website, www.raiseourgame.com, is one valuable part of this revised effort to rally support for athletics. View From The Hilltop will henceforth reside in these pages with appropriate cross-links to www.guhoyas.com. Georgetown’s future athletic success is in our hands and will depend upon our ability today to “raise our game.”And I, for one, am happy to support it.
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