Posted by DEAN SKIP RUTHERFORD – We are not starting a football team. Let me be clear about that. The closest things we have to organized sports are occasional football, frisbee and kickball activities on Tyler Denton Field, located on the east side of the Clinton Presidential Park.
However, because of the diverse locations of our students and staff, as well as the colleges they attended, the NCAA Bowl Championship Series and the post season bowl games are drawing great interest and sparking spirited debate and conversation.
For example, Lindsey Clark, from Columbus, Ohio, said she couldn’t even watch the final moments of the Illinois-Ohio State football game this weekend when the Buckeyes took their first loss of the season. A devoted Buckeye fan, Lindsey is now hoping for a win over Michigan and a Rose Bowl bid. If that happens, Arizona State could be the opponent in Pasadena. Clinton School student Sara Himelfarb is an Arizona State graduate, also a huge football fan, who watched her team edge UCLA (the alma mater of student Ryan Lewis) 24-20. She is rooting for the Sun Devils to beat USC in their march to the Rose Bowl.
Mike Townsend is from Lexington, Ky. He bleeds Kentucky blue. It’s been an exciting football year for the University of Kentucky with the likelihood of a bowl appearance still ahead. Mike particularly enjoyed the win over the University of Arkansas, the alma mater of students, J.D. Lowery, Mollie Merry and Hunter Riley. Tim Giattina, on the other hand, has had a rough year. A Notre Dame graduate, he is enduring the worst Fighting Irish football season in history and much grief from his classmates. Tim’s season saving grace is that he is from Birmingham and is also a big Alabama supporter. He and his classmate Sanford Johnson, an Auburn graduate, are going to have fun in anticipation of that upcoming and highly charged intrastate match up.
Clinton School student and Harvard graduate Geoff Kearney will tell you that the Harvard-Yale football game is every bit as exciting as any rivalry in the country. Former President Bill Clinton, a Yale law school graduate, would likely agree with him. Pennsylvania native and student Jay Thompson lost a five-cent wager with award winning author, sportswriter and Clinton School speaker Mitch Albom when Ohio State beat Penn State earlier in the season. Jay still hasn’t recovered though Penn State is in the Top 25 in some of the polls.
Our international students from Brazil, China, Haiti, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, South Africa and Vietnam are taking all this football fanatisicm in stride and in some cases with sheer amazement. Some saw their very first college football contest when University of Arkansas President Dr. Alan Sugg invited them to a Razorback game earlier this year.
Just wait until they get introduced to March Madness.