AM Musings

There's not much cooler than watching my grandkids napping or sleeping.  They are so serene.  I often pull up a chair or even just sit on the floor next to them while I read a book.  Then, when they wake up, open their eyes, and give me a great big smile....

Speaking of grandkids, Bopper asked me a question on the drive home from practice last night.  He had forgotten his "pack-ack" and couldn't do his homework before practice, so I reminded him he had to get it done as soon as we arrived home.  After a few seconds of digesting my words, he asked me, "Grandpa, when you were in college, what did you do about sports and school?"  "What do you mean?"  "Well, if you had school and games, what did you do?"  Ah, the memories!  I told  him classes and homework always came first.  Now we often, in fact, almost always scheduled our classes in the AM so afternoons would be open for practices and games.  I told him, "I'd go to class for two or three hours each morning and then work in the dining hall (with my buddies!) until 2 or 2:30.  Then we'd head down to practice early.  We'd finish our practices in time to get back up for dinner at the dining hall."  If we had a game, a home game, and it lasted after the dining hall closed, we'd get money to go eat in town.  Away games, we at at restaurants.  (And, I must admit, our coaches always stopped at great restaurants, some of the very best in New England!)  I then told Michael, "And after dinner I'd go to the library from 6:30 or 7:00 usually until it closed at 11:00 or shortly after."  I did admit to him the entire four hours wasn't for studying; I would take extended breaks to yak with people (even the prettiest visiting coeds!) or to read the newspaper.  Now, contrary to popular belief, I had nothing to do with the night the keg of beer was smuggled into the library, even though it appeared on my third floor.  In fact, regrettably, I wasn't there that night for whatever reason; that was an oddity.  I even mentioned to him that after Saturday road games, more than once I'd find a classroom in a classroom building (the library was closed Sat eves) and study for a couple of hours before heading back to the house and the party.  True story.

We had a good, a very good, baseball team my senior year.  We were ranked somewhere near the top in New England, regardless of division--we had played and beaten a number of Div 1 schools.  But, when we received an invitation to the post-season NCAA tournament, the faculty said "no" and that was that.  None of us ever complained or whined.  We knew what Amherst was all about.  If I recall, the basketball team the year before had a similar situation, having defeated a couple of teams that later went far into the Div 3 tournament, but wasn't allowed to play.  True stories.

The football team was playing a game in Rochester, NY, flying out on Fri afternoon--after classes, of course.  The problem was Doug Swift had a Sat AM class--no "cuts" were allowed in Prof. Ziegler's classes.  Oh, Doug was a starting linebacker and a good one.  How good?  He later started on the two Miami Dolphin teams that won Super Bowls (one team going undefeated!) in the early '70s.  A buddy met Doug outside Williston Hall after class and drove him to Bradley Field, where he caught a flight to Rochester.  An alum picked him up at the airport and drove him to UR.  He played and flew home with the team.  Another true story.

Last night the AC basketball team, ranked #2 in the nation in Div 3, defeated #3 ranked Middlebury in a triple overtime game.  How exciting!  2 v 3!  triple overtime!  and, of course, a win!  But I found myself, when reading the recap, wondering and hoping that "They still have to go to class don't they?"  I'll bet they do--and do the mountain-load of work that's required.

Student-athlete......