One Fantastic Alum Login to comment

Tuesday, September 07 2010 01:31:37 PM

I think Brian Sipe is really smart. Forget that he won the Little League World Series and was an NFL MVP. That simply substantiates his jock credentials. But come to think of it, when you add in his undeniable passion for Aztec success, it adds up to one fantastic alum.

So, last spring Brian came to our alumni office on a quest to rebuild the atmosphere and passion surrounding Aztec Football. He has been a player, a fan, a supporter and committed alum for 40 years. He is also among the many who have witnessed the steady decline. But, since Brady Hoke persuaded him back to coach quarterbacks, Brian has determined that our football program needed him for even more than Lindley's mechanics.

Brian Sipe is all in.

Initially, I was both thrilled and terrified. Brian had plenty of ideas, well articulated and backed with a zealot's belief that an atmospheric makeover could not only reengage the long-dormant Aztec football fan base, but provide our players with a much needed edge. So I listened. Then he listened. Then he tweaked his plans. His eyes were on the prize, which was more Aztec fans, more student enthusiasm, more bolstering of fan love for the team and more fun at the Q. Brian systematically met with administrators, alumni, fans and supporters. None questioned his motives.

And it was time for Aztec Nation to recognize the direness of our straights. It was time for an intervention.

So I concluded: why not jump on the Brian Sipe bandwagon? Not only have we got nothing to lose, but this guy has credentials unparalleled.

So, I observed with great interest, joy and true pure red and black fervor the debut of his vision.

First came the "Warrior Walk." How many people said no one would come to Qualcomm two hours before kickoff? Most of us remember when there were hundreds of tailgate parties wedged in at B1, F4, N2 and everywhere in between. Thousands of red-and-black clad alums and friends would gather three, four, five hours before the game. In recent years this festival has steadily diminished to the point where I could drive or walk around the stadium and count them on my fingers and toes. And then it happened as if Brian and Brady and Bourges had drawn it up with a stick on the dirt. The Union Tribune writer claimed an announced crowd of 150, but he must not have been there. I'd say 400 based upon 100 yards of people five deep. Truly electric. The fans were screaming, the band was playing and the players were smiling. Touchdown Aztecs!

Then Zuma the jaguar was introduced with six minutes until kickoff. Now this was a dicey one in that we all remember the divisive mascot saga of seven years ago. And sure enough there are some paranoids among us who claim that this is the first step towards elimination of our Aztec Warrior. Coach Sipe had a different view about a playful kid-friendly supplemental character. It was, basically, that to enable our human-faced Aztec Warrior to retain his dignity, we needed something extra to be zany and engage kids. Extra point Aztecs!

Then came the Aztec Warrior running the spear onto the field and handing it to our first Honorary Warrior. Marshall thrust that javelin into the turf with authority.

Finally, The Swarm. This was awesome! How 80 guys could sprint as a beehive I don't know but it was totally cool.

Aztecs win 47 - zip.

View photos from the inaugural Warrior Walk!

Tradition Makes a Comeback Login to comment

Wednesday, September 01 2010 11:20:02 AM

From the Hello Walk welcome of new students at Templo Del Sol to the Warrior Walk before football games at Qualcomm Stadium, it’s good to see tradition making a comeback on campus.  It’s something we’ve been missing for too long.   

Whether revived or contrived, the ceremonies and rituals finding their way back or newly introduced into campus life are part of what help make San Diego State special.  They set us apart from other institutions and create a uniqueness at SDSU that helps define what it means to be an Aztec.

Aztec alum and quarterbacks coach Brian Sipe has been working hard for the past year to return some traditions and to implement others for the football program.  He has said he thinks tradition is part of the formula for success with any athletics program.  Our Alumni Association could not agree more.

But beyond football - win or lose - tradition is essential because it regularly reminds us that we’re all a part of something greater than ourselves.  In the case of our university, it connects us to those who came here long before us and those who will pass this way long after we’re gone.  

Tradition helps boost us up in victory and softens the blow of defeat.  In an increasingly disparate culture, it binds us together.

So as we begin another school year, which is also to say another football season, I encourage Aztecs everywhere to observe our rituals and ceremonies and honor our traditions.  For each time we do, we’re honoring our own values, ideals and accomplishments. 

We’re #183! Login to comment

Tuesday, August 17 2010 05:32:31 PM

U.S. News & World Report has come out with its latest “Best Colleges” edition for 2011 and for the first time since it began its college rankings in 1983, the magazine ranks SDSU among its “top tier” national universities.  The publication rates us number 183 on a list that begins with Harvard in the top spot.

SDSU is the only CSU school ranked among the top tier.  At 183, clearly we have room to move up, but the great news is that we’re finally being identified among the best universities in the country.

Although the magazine admits to changing its methodology this year, which no doubt contributes to SDSU’s climb, almost anyone familiar with San Diego State knows the university holds a rightful place nearer the top of the list.  For four years running, SDSU has been judged the nation’s top small research university.  Many of our programs are ranked among the country’s best. 

As an SDSU degree has become increasingly desirable, more and more students have applied for admission and a smaller percentage are able to get in.  That leads to students with higher test scores being admitted.  They are also likelier to graduate.  These are the kinds of things that figure into the rankings that U.S. News compiles each year and as the trend continues, SDSU is likely to be rated even higher.   

Alumni support is a factor as well.  So keep that in mind as we celebrate the university’s new recognition.  Now we’re on the list, but it’s up to all of us to help SDSU keep moving toward the top.

A Growing Sense of Unity Login to comment

Tuesday, August 03 2010 06:35:35 PM

Last Friday at Riverwalk, a hundred former Aztec football players gathered for a day of fun and golf. While football alums golfing together is certainly nothing new, this event, The Coryell Classic Football Alumni Golf Tournament, had a different feel to it.

Maybe it had something to do with the name – The Coryell Classic – and the fact that a large majority of the participants have signed on to the notion that the late coach’s legacy at San Diego State must be honored with a return to prominence for Aztec football. Underlying the camaraderie and levity of the day was an unmistakable shared sense of purpose.

This show of unity and support is the type of thing we have come to enjoy and appreciate from Coach Hoke. Brady was adamant from day one that the Aztec alumni football players needed to get behind the team and help us get back on the path to glory. That seems to be exactly what is taking place.

Along with the Aztec Athletics administrators and current coaches attending The Classic were Aztec greats Willie Buchanon, Coach Sipe, J.R. Tolver, Steve Duich, Tory Nixon and many, many more. Most had seen each other last month at Coach Coryell's memorial, but were delighted to reconvene at Riverwalk. It was as if the memorial service had generated a momentum that is continuing to build.

A part of that momentum is exemplified by the Aztec Football Legacy Alumni Chapter. It is already the second biggest alumni chapter and the competiveness of these players has the College of Business Alumni Chapter looking over their collective shoulders.

I have always said that when Aztecs come together great things happen. At The Coryell Classic it sure felt like the coach’s memory, if not the man himself, is still bringing us together and helping to guide our way.

- One factoid gleaned from the event was that the 2011 Football away game schedule, in addition to the known trips to Michigan and West Point will likely also include one to Boise State.

The general feeling is that our team will continue to improve this year (regardless of the media's predictions) and that the ascendency of Aztec Football is palatable.

Remembering Coach Coryell Login to comment

Friday, July 02 2010 12:00:00 AM

Amidst the sadness of Don Coryell’s passing are some extraordinary reminiscences of this revered Aztec.

While iconic NFLers and esteemed scribes alike passionately speak to the abundance of Coach Coryell’s innovative expertise and beautiful human qualities, I can’t help but consider Don’s impact on the college-turned-university, San Diego State.

So let’s think back a bit. Don came to Montezuma Mesa in 1961 and left 11 years later with a record of 119, 24 and 2. It has always been difficult for me to fathom the enormity of that record. But what about State? How were we transformed in that era, and what did the football coach have to do with that transformation?

In 1961 enrollment had skyrocketed to 13,000! Freshmen women wore beanies. The homecoming game was played before 4,000 in Aztec Bowl. By 1969 the undefeated Aztecs had moved into San Diego Stadium (now Qualcomm) and drew 48,000 fans at the Pasadena Bowl. When Don left after the 1972 season for the NFL, we were on the verge of becoming a university and no one had played a higher-profile role in setting the stage for that designation than Coach Coryell.

Don Coryell provided us a platform of hope. In 25 years of talking with Aztec alums on a daily basis, I have seen no one come close to generating as many impassioned and reverent soliloquies as our beloved coach. I contend that Don gave us a confidence that transcended football. He gave us the foundation for excellence. He bolstered our self esteem to such enormous heights that State propelled itself into becoming a world-class academic institution.

Our alumni of the era and the subsequent generation, who never missed a Saturday night in San Diego Stadium as youths, had no chips on their shoulders. For example, Tom Helmantoler ('68) writes: “We could always look to Saturday night fun at the stadium and an Aztec win, after we all got off from our weekend jobs. We all knew, without thinking about it, that we had a good, decent, honest and friendly man in charge of the program. It made us proud to say that we were SDSU Aztecs. It still does.” And while many have been frustrated at the relative mediocrity of our football fortunes in the subsequent four decades, who can question that San Diego State University has become an elite institution whose desirability as measured by application rates is annually now in the top 10 in the country?

But what about the retired Coach Don Coryell? How did he continue to forge a legacy of excellence for SDSU? How did he convert a singularly driven compulsion for success on the football field to his life after football? As someone whose job it was to regularly invite Don to campus to attend big events, be the honorary homecoming chair, or simply to attend games and visit our coaches and teams, I was always struck by his humility. He was kind to everyone and completely unpretentious. He remembered your name. He was always genuinely interested in people. There was zero phoniness.

I came to really enjoy my phone calls with Coach Coryell. I would ask him about what his retired life was like while he was in Friday Harbor. He’d tell me this: “Well, today I am going to ride my bike downtown like I do most days and then my big decision is going to be whether to buy clams or fish for dinner.”

Then, on those delightfully special days when I would get to escort Don and Aliisa around the campus or the stadium, I began to realize that his driving passion for our university never faded. He loved San Diego State. He loved our alumni and he wanted nothing more than to optimistically and enthusiastically speak with any and all about how we were always getting better.

Speaking of Coach Don as the obsessively driven coach whose mental focus rarely strayed from strategies to get into the end zone, Vickie Idhe, 25-year Aztec ticket manager, shares this gem: “I was coming out of our offices at the stadium when Don was coaching the Chargers and I saw him exit onto the sidewalk. He stopped, put down his briefcase and fished for his car keys. Then he left without grabbing his briefcase. I ran to catch him but he got away so I took his briefcase back into my office. Not being able to resist the temptation to see what top secret game plan was in store that week, I peeked. It was empty!”

Thank Don’s family, including his daughter, Mindy Lewis, and her husband, Mike, and Don’s granddaughter, Loni, for understanding and facilitating Don’s many interactions with us on campus. And thanks also to the scores of players including the household names like Sipe and Buchanon and Dryer, whose imitation of the Coach surely brought down the house at Bully’s a hundred times. All of these former Aztec football players universally loved their coach and their collective passion is a real part of our school’s excellence.

So thanks, Coach Coryell, for inspiring us and for inspiring San Diego State University to greatness. May your inspiration remain in the hearts of all Aztecs for all time.

Aztec Icons Remembered Login to comment

Tuesday, June 08 2010 12:00:00 AM

Recently our family of Aztec titans lost two of its charter members: Bob Breitbard and Art Linkletter.

While sad days no doubt, given the fullness and longevity of these lives, their passing provides reasons to celebrate and remember.

These two gentlemen each possessed an extreme abundance of personal charisma. Whether it was genetic or learned is debatable, but what isn’t open to debate is that their futures were forged and nurtured at San Diego State College.

I consider it a phenomenal career perk to have been in a position to know these men, so here are some personal observations of each:

Like most 40-to-90 somethings, my 1960s suburban Massachusetts upbringing included Art Linkletter as a fixture. I fondly remember using the pliers to select the proper channel and fiddling with the hangar-supplemented rabbit ears to partake in Art’s charming interactions. As a lad, I marveled at how Art Linkletter could so live in the moment on live TV and react so entertainingly to the random utterances of children. He exuded warmth, empathy and humor. His show was fun and funny.

So, fast forward 30 years and I am in the car with now-Vice-President-but-then-development-officer, Mary Ruth Carleton, going to visit Art in his Los Angeles offices. Our intent was to get to know him better so that we could ask him for a million or so for athletics and our gerontology center. Art took us to lunch and regaled us with bawdy stories about John Wayne and the Rat Pack. He told us how his good friend, Walt Disney, asked him to emcee the grand opening of his modest amusement park in 1955. Art said that Walt asked him to do it for free because he was uncertain of the park’s financial survival. Art told Walt okay, but managed to extract the concession rights to camera film in perpetuity.

Art also shared with us his infatuation with theater and then radio while he attended SDSC. He was so determined and thrilled to get started here in San Diego. He left little doubt that the nurturing and encouragement he got at State propelled him into one of the longest-running careers in television history.

One smart Aztec.

So, now another:

As a rookie executive director of the Aztec Athletic Foundation in the late ’80s, I was well aware of the status and standing of Bob Breitbard. His resume of giving, support and involvement with San Diego State stretched all the way back to the ’40s when he had even coached the football team one year. The problem was that I didn’t know him. That problem was alleviated when he phoned me one day and most diplomatically suggested that we had under acknowledged his gift to the AAF. With false bravado I blurted out that our record keeping was consistently stellar but if that were not correct I would personally come downtown and mop the floors in his Hall of Champions. That began a long string of marvelous interactions with a most gracious, giving, elegant and engaging Aztec. I was honored to be in that large club of friends with whom Bob shared temporary custody of his Babe Ruth locker tag, his Ted Williams .406 bat and countless other treasures. Between various subsequent stints washing the Hall’s windows and detailing Bob’s car (it turns out our record-keeping was occasionally suspect), I visited with Bob countless times. I always marveled at his perpetually engaging manner as he “pinned,” and kissed all the ladies and regaled everyone with his heart-felt and driven quest to honor our community’s sports history.

Bob Breitbard loved this town, this community, and our university and he proved it every day.

One internationally-famed personality. One enormous community presence.

BCS Rant Login to comment

Tuesday, May 11 2010 12:00:00 AM

Saturday’s UT had a thorough treatise on the criteria the BCS uses to consider adding another conference to its cartel.

www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/08/can-mwc-trust-in-the-bcs-system

Previously I have noted the financial discrepancy between the haves and have not’s which would make any mathematically-oriented observer wonder if college football can survive with half of the teams being unable to compete financially.

So, here are the three criteria the Mountain West needs to conquer:

Average rank of highest ranked team
Average ranking of all teams in conference
Number and ranking of teams in top 25

For the first two, the MWC must be in the top 6, for the third in the top 50%. (There are 11 conferences, 6 are currently in)

Lets look at this a couple of ways:

First, and most blatantly, to have those standards be accompanied by qualifiers is like saying that in order to win the MVP, Adrian Gonzales has to be in the top 6 in batting average, RBIs and home runs. Obviously, his rank in those categories need only be measured against all the other sluggers in that particular year. Unless, of course, Major League Baseball only wanted to have an MVP on rare occasions. Hmmmmm.

When you compare the Mountain West to the other conferences in the cartel, over the first two years of this 4-year evaluation process, you get The SEC way ahead with the Big-12 solidly in second and then the MWC, Pac-10 and Big East tied for third, then the Big 10 and ACC.

The other thing is that all three of these criteria are based upon rankings. And while the science that goes into these is reasonably sophisticated, the BCS bias permeates by virtue of the fact that the richer teams begin the season with higher rankings and then they get more home games and thus a greater inherent advantage. When you factor in the actual head-to-head contests (see Utah’s bowl record the past 9 years) you get a truer result.

The cartel, however, knows how to keep its edge. That would explain why undefeated TCU played undefeated Boise State this past year in the Fiesta Bowl. The cartel cannot have the WAC or MWC conference knocking off any of its big boys!

But there really is one more kicker. And that relates to what might happen if they let us in. Is it really good enough for SDSU to cross over into the land of milk and honey because the Horned Frogs, Utes, Cougars and Falcons have great programs? Does the cartel become okay should we happen to be in it? Or is the inherent dysfunction associated with the fact that 40 to 50 of the 119 Division 1-A schools will still be attempting to compete with a twenty-million-dollar annual handicap mitigated if we aren’t one of them?

Maybe.

Stay tuned.

Generous Alumni Leave Lasting Legacies Login to comment

Wednesday, May 05 2010 12:00:00 AM

In this month’s newsletter there is a story about some extraordinary million-dollar donors to San Diego State and the increasing importance of private support for the university. Having known all of the individuals mentioned in the article for quite some time, what their recent donations illustrate for me is how persons with red and black loyalty actually comprise a much broader spectrum of commitment that can make a tremendous impact on the quality of education in this region in myriad ways.

Bob Payne has made hundreds of gifts to SDSU over 40 years. Twice they were over a million dollars and once almost a million. He has chaired the Campanile Foundation, advocated for athletics, and provided sage council to our SDSU presidents going back to Malcolm Love. He has had a profound influence in our community as a businessman, chair of the Super Bowl, owner of the Padres and perpetual community advocate and cheerleader. He is well known to our city’s cognoscenti. Despite his honors and achievements, Bob possesses disarming humility and projects genuine warmth which makes him beloved.

Our University is so lucky to claim Bob Payne as one of our alums. He is the kind of titan who, when he donates yet another $2.4 million, it doesn’t even surprise anyone. His recent gift will positively impact not only SDSU’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, but the hospitality and tourism industry in San Diego and beyond as well.

Then there are Robin and Chuck Luby. Like Bob, they have been intimately involved with the university for more than four decades. Their public personas, however, have been more typical of the vast majority of our graduates. Education, science, business, volunteerism, leadership and pure love for the university have occupied their time since graduation. The Lubys are way low-key. They love books and theater and Shakespeare and the Aztecs. They participate in dozens of various university alumni committees and have attended thousands of events. Yes, thousands. Their financial donations over those four decades have garnered far less attention than their giving of time and talent.

Until now.

The Lubys gave our library $4 million last month by committing presumably their entire estate. This gift will profoundly affect the quality of offerings of our library and thus the quality of an SDSU education forever.

Bob Payne. Chuck Luby. Robin Luby: Truly Aztecs for Life.